The Express.
London, England, 1848-01-13 00:00:00

%ht Oporto.

MAILS
The mails for Britidi North firsenea, Bermuda, and the Culled
States, will be made op on the eveting of the 14th January.
The West India Mails, excluding Bennwia, Nasvm, Ha
llonduns, New Orleans, Vera Cr., Tampisa, cal forte lUao, and
including three for Madeira, Jacmel, Cartharena `ante Martha.
Chagres, Panama, West Coast of South Amelia, and Kt. Juareda.
Nicaragua, will be made up on the morning of the 17th January.
The mails for Vigo, Oporto. Lunlno, Madmen, C.1i17, and tabraltar
will be made up on the morning of the 17th January.
lbe overland nulls for Gibrult.u, Malta, tin ewe, tine loonm Wanda.
Flrt, Aden, Ceylon, India, Ling-Kong, and China, eta houteamptan,
trill be made up on the morning of the 20th January.
The overland closed MAIN ran Marseilles, to the Mediterranean.
Crypt, Aden, Ceylon, India, licog Kong, he., will be made up on the
awning of the 24th January.
The marls for New South Walea, Van Diemen's Land, and New
Zealand will be made up on the eeemug of the Sist January.
The main for the Brazils, the Mem Eahr, Monte %Mau, Pemaale
sa=iltahia, Madeira, and Buenos Ayres, will be made up on th
tithe ath February.

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LONDON,THU.RSDAY,JAN. 13.

THE question of the sugar duties grows serious.
There is obviously a combined movement in progress
to bully ministers into rescinding the act of 1846.
Mr. Gouneeate moves for returns of all kinds, select-
ing with wary caution facts and seasons that may seem
to tell in favour of protection; the directors of the Co-
lonial Bank embrace the opportunity of an annual
meeting to lecture their shareholders on the dangerous
consequences which must ensue, from the admission of
slave-grown sugars, to public morality and their own
pockets; and lastly, the Times undertakes to demon-
strate "that the expedient of protection might be ap-
plied to West India sugar without any dereliction of
the principles of free trade." Sir it. PEEL'S lieute-
nant, and the leading spirits among the merchants and
planters resident in this country, who arrogate to
themselves exclusively the title of West India
interest, are combined to raise a clamour
against the existing Sugar Duties Act, because
it is a transition to free trade ; Exeter Hall
will soon raise its sonorous bray in concert; and the
Times (skilled in such arts from long experience) is
showing ministers, naturally anxious at 'seeing the
formidable combination about to assail their great
principle. how, by putting a bold face upon matters
endplaying upon words, they maychange sides without
changing opnions, and endure with a jaunty air of
external complacency the taunts and reproaches
which cut them to the quick. The Times is tempting
ministers to become the l'Esas of protection, and
wheel back to the obsolete faith as he came over to
the new lights. It may reasonably be doubted whe-
ther ministers could gain as much by recurring to the
opinions of the last generation as their rival has
gained by coming in to those of his own.
The manifestoes of the allied forces are marked by
an amount of exaggeration that ought to be sufficient
to inspire third parties with distrust of their conclu-
sions. "The comparative prices "it is observed in
the report of the directors of the 'Colonial Bank, " of
British plantation sugars (of the same qualities) at
the commencement and termination of the year 1847,
as stated below, will show the ruinous depreciation
which has occurred in the value of this principal pro-
duct of the West Indies, mainly ifs not entirely caused
by the admission to home consumption of slave-grown
sugar." The report goes on to state that " unless
the net of 1846 shall be amended in such a manner
as will admit of the cultivation being carried on to a
profit, the West Indian colonies must be ruined." But
when a proprietor suggested that if the colonies were
about to be ruined it was high time that the concert
should be gradually wound up and the capital
divided, the chairman demurred : " It would be pre-
mature to say what the bank should do. At the next
meeting they would be in a better position to say
what the course of their proceedings ought to be."
The directors are not quite so much terrified as they
pretend to be. The directors know that with the
extreme variations in the pikes of sugar which have
characterised the business of last year, the admission
of foreign sugar has little or nothing to do. The
Gazette averages, which were 345. per cwt. for mas-
covadoes is bond in January, and 37e. in February,
gradually fell from the latter price to 225. in December.
But the prices in January and February were specu-
lation prices—prices given in the expectation that
sugar would come into demand for the distilleries—
prioes which, in the words of ?deems. LAiso and
BRUISES, " had the double effect of seriously injur-
ling, not only the immediate speculators, but also by
unnaturally raising the prices of low strong sugar,
of encouraging the importation of descriptions
totally unfit for the market, to the ruin of many
of the shippers and their connexions." The low prices
of October, November, and December were panic
prices. Many circumstances conspired to reduce the
average; the immense quantity of rubbishy goods
which had been imported. in consequence of the spe-
culative prices at the beginning of the year ; the ina-
bility of parties who had invested in sugars to hold
in consequence of pressure arising out of the opera-
tions in grain ; the exaggerated anticipations of a
continued rise in the puce of corn and the exportation
of bullion. These circumstances sufficiently account
for the great fall in prices, and they have no connexion
either with the peculiar situation of the West India
colonies or the diminished duty on foreign sugars. As
little have some circumstances which have doubtless
contributed to diminish—it is to be feared in some

cases entirely to destroy—the profits of shippers
of sugar ; as, for example, the difficulty of
obtaining shipping and the rise in freights con-
sequent upon the demand for vessels to carry corn,
&c. And the evidence that to these causes, and not to
the importation of foreign sugars (free-labour or
slave-labour) is owing the depression is prices, is
found in the fact, that of upwards of two millions
of cwts. of foreign sugar imported during the
first eleven months of 1847, only 936,035 were
entered for home consumption ; and that the quantity
of West Indian sugar entered for home consumption
during these months showed an increase of 144,888
cede. over the quantity so entered during the cor-
responding period of 1846 ; the quantity of Mauritius
sugar an increase of 168,771 cwts.
The wary directors, too, know that more than one
circumstance may contribute to better the condition
of the West Indies during the next few years. It is
true they advert, in express words, only to the
chance of a repeal of the sugar duty act of 1846, bat
they know that this is not their only chance. They
count upon the possibility of increased sup-
plies of free African labourers ; upon the
effects of improved husbandry and manufacture; upou
a reduction in freights consequent on the repeal or
modification of the navigation-laws; upon the prospect
of having. molasses allowed to be used in distillation,
and insinuated cane juice admitted at a reasonable
rate of duty ; upon the fact that, at present prices,
sugar may profitably be substituted for grain to dis-
tillation. They know that West India sugars have
kept their ground under all the trying and disastrous
circumstances of 1847, with the differential duties in
operation during that year, and do not despair of
wrestling through 1848 and its reduced differential
duties with even a better result, though, like prudent
men, they keep their own secret, and try to make out
a case for as high a protective duty as possible.
We have dwelt at this length on the statements of
the directors of the Colonial Bank because they are
entitled to respectful consideration, emanating, as
they do, from men who have a deep interest in the
issue of the experiment now in progress, are responsible
to their proprietors, and, like all traders, are natu-
rally and pardonably distrustful of changes. The
sophistry of the college pedant in the Times, who un-
dertakes to prove that to resort to " the expedient of
protection " does not necessarily imply desertion of
" the principles of free-trade," merits no such respect-
ful treatment. In college exercises of dialectic skill
such trifling may be tolerated ; but where important
mercantile interests—the prosperity of a nation's
commerce—are at stake, it is sheer impertinence. The
ground on which the standing committee of West
India merchants and planters, in a recent memorial
to Lord JOHN ReSnELL, ask for a permanent differen-
tial duty of 10s. per cwt. on slave-grown sugarsis, that
free labour in the West Indies is dear, and slave
labour in Brazil is cheap, and that, therefore, the addi-
tional duty they mention is required to prevent the
Brazilians from underselling the West Indians in the
English sugar market. This is asking for protection,
because they cannot produce so cheaply as their
foreign rival, and to concede it would be to abandon
the
_principle of free trade.
The writer in the Times is witty on the inconsis-
tency of this country in going to great expense to put
p
down the slave trade by naval armaments on the one
hand, and in encoureguig the slave trade by --..._,
ing slave-grown sugar oe the other. The :e;;\
of such conduct may be frankly conceded, b IL,IOII.
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not follow that to add to what the West African coast economy, to which we must come: insteadust of lase-d- tin
tin
blockade costs us by artificially raising the price of ing the numerical force of the army, we m
to
anger will be conduct one iota NV ISt r. The TYmes says rate from police and protective service the thousands me
truly, " Every sixpence spent on the African squadron employed in a task unworthy of, and ungrateful to, the Of
is a differential duty imposed against Cube sugar ; soldier. We must do this in the colonies as well as
but, unhappily, without the effect of making be at home. And then we shall have with an existing M
sugar any dearer." Well, then, before yon impose force an efficient and disposable army, for every put- St
the differential duty which is to make Cuba sugar pose and every contingency that might arise. re
dearer, abolish this one which has not the desired Whilst on tho military subject, we may allude to a w
effect. And, after you have abolished it, pause propotahlikelv to come before parliament, for making at
before you impose the other, and ask whether themilitia staff do the recruiting service for the regular at
any illicit or immoral traffic was ever put down army. From their local experience no persons can re
by heavy duties or prohibitions of any kind ? Have be better fitted for such a task. Whilst the recruiting of
the Chinese been able to keep opium out of the service is to the officers and men of the regular army ni
" Central Flowery"? Was smuggling put down in a cause for relaxing discipline and deteriorating both. at
Scotland by high excifte duties, or by such modifies- The economy of such a measure would be at least ot tc
tions of the excise system as left the legitimate dis- from 150,000/. to 200,0001• a year. tt
tillers free to produce as good an article at as low a -----------,, a
price as the " small still ' men ? The lesson taught SOME of the Ulster landlords seem resolved to test n
by the smuggling suppression in Scotland is Peel!. the truth of the prophecy contained in the report of ii
liarly applicable to our present subject. There is Lord DEVON'S commission, that should they imitate 11
but one way of putting down slavery and the slave their brethren elsewhere in their mode of dealing c
trade, and that is by demonstrating that free labour with their tenantry, " they will soon in the north b
can, in rearing tropical produce, be made cheaper have another Tipperary." On all hands it has been a
and more efficient than slave labour. This, however, confessed that the northern have hitherto differed c
can never be done while free labour sugar requires from tho southern counties mainly. in two things;
protective duties to prevent slave-labour sugar from there were comparatively few evictions, and there
driving it out of the market The maintenance of were still fewer preedial crimes. The ill-disposed 8
any—the least—protective duty on sugar, is a standing had more rarely pretexts for violence. and the well die- i
confeseionthat the slave tradecontinueesto be profitable, posed had more seldom an silent misgiving RB to the 1
and consequently in attempting to suppress it, we are intentions of the lord oft e soil. The hard-toiling 1
only throwing away money and gang ill-will. Werraped down and slept in peace, for his farm was i
have tried in vain te suppress the slave trade by and its lease was safe, and he felt as secure 1
naval armamentsand differential duties ; it has grown of a renewal when it expired, or omupensation for
stronger in despite of both. Let us now try " going out," as he did of reaping the corn he had
what can be done by allowingour West India colonies sown, or pulling the flax he had planted. And if an
an abundant immigration of free labourers, and idler were ou toot o'nights a,
ve and found comp f than per.
anions like
emancipation from the surviving restrictions of our himself, more en dnturo mischie
old system of artificially iegulated commerce, with a severing industry, their furtive step was generally
view to enable them to undersell the producer of directed, as that of thieves is wont to be, to the solitary
sugar by slave-labour, not in the English markets house or the unguarded " byre," for the sake of pelf ancl
alone, but in the markets of the world. The results of plunder. Ev,n of such offences there were not a greater
the experiments made in this direction within the last number than might be found in thickly-peopled
yesror two—although'on a most inadequate scale—are English counties ; and of sympathy with the authors
encouraging. And they will not be followed out with of them there was naturally none. Above all, the
the necessary promptitude, energy, and perseverance, taking of human life for any cause was comparatively
unless our colonists and government parliament on the rare. The deadly hate, the ferocious threat, the noon-
alert by the consciousness that p will day sassult, the neutral or favouring presence of
allow no higher differential duty than has been found others, and the ill-suppreesed sympathy in the fate
adequate during the past year., and that this duty rather of the culprit than his victim—from all these
shall be gradually reduced until it disappear. poisonous elements Ulster was happily free ; and the
It is to be wished that, in the struggle which is main cause of such a difference was too palpable to be
beginning, the free traders would avoid a trap laid doubted or disguieed. A single excerpt from the sta-
for them, to allow their adversaries to talk of tistic meals of the two regions will put the matter
themselves as the friends of the We-t Indies, end clearly.
their cause as the West India cause. In recommend- ;We select for comparison two districts, each of
ing continued protective duties as a remedy for West which contains upwards of a million and a half of
Indian embarra-ements, they resemble no friends, ex- cultivated acres, and as nearly as possible the same
cept such good-natured creatures as would encourage number of inhabitants. In the one, consisting of four
the pane dieciple of Father MATHEW to revert to northern coue find 171,314 holdings ;in the
his strong drink immediately on bee ling the first fit of other, consistine of three southern counties, we find
" the h wrors." The chronie feebleness superinduced only 114,895. 'But, instead of a greater number of
upon the West Indies by our pre tective system— defendants in ejectment in the former in twelve
which, as the Times truly remarks, hes "by an months, calculeted on an
leaseaver of five successive
ingenuity of perverseness (pito unparalleled always years, we find it strikingly and when we cast
resulted in the detriment of the interests protected," our eyes at the average number of " homicides with
—can only be got rid of by, perseverance in abandon- felonious intent," the proportion differs in a still more
ing all restriction.. The ' least bit of protection," instructive ratio
now so piteously prayed for, would only pro- SORTIIKRI, 001.1MIP; POPOLITIOX• 1.000,3146
long the paroxysm through which lies the road to —ammo, Tenants. *vied. Murders.
health. And this conviction is entertained not only ----- ------- --
Donegal 43,898 713 3
by cool,disintereeted observers in the mother country, Down
but by a growing inimaity among the West Indians 1380Bude8Y1 14,330 619 It
themselves. As West Indian opinion is in itself but 31'101" 3051 497
a part of British opinion, so a part of West Indian _ tre3l4 2,648 o
opinion is free trede opinion. If ministers have faith scpeernas com; rneta.sTia. 1,003,383.
in their own principles, and, casting themselves on the ls3undes. Tessin& !Jet tad. blur tern
free trade majority in the mother country and the:free cure
28,239 1,304 rte
trade minority in the colonies, resolutely persevere in tweed, .... ..... ...e. eeest 1,143 8
their policy, adopting, at the same time, every mese TlPPsr.Bl
—...---
sure really calculated to invigorate W, et Indian trade 114,•90 5,031 I 38
and industry, the present distress, we have no doubt, -----
will pass away. No words of ours could give additional force to the
conviction which these eloquent figures are calculated
'-- ----L...., sNII abr., unprejudiced mind. As far m

- ---
No words—of ours could give additional force to the
conviction which these eloquent figures are calculated
to produce on every unprejudiced mind. As far as
the question of sanguinary outrages is concerned, they
tend to show that these cannot be ascribed to the
prevalence of smntl holdings, or to greater density of
population. But they serve to point out truly
that the origin of crime is to be traced to social
and moral causes—to the discordant and anomalous
working of the relations between class and class,
and to the exi-tence of mutual distrust and enmity.
Hitherto the northern counties have been compara-
tively free from this fearful bane. Why they were
so it would take long to tell. Sympathy of creed be-
tween the owners and occupiers of the soil bad no
doubt considerable influence in mitigating the dispo-
sition to oppress, and the morbid suspicion
of oppression—itself an almost equal evil.
But other influences, far more potential, worked
together for the tenant's good—the great good
of making him feel secure of his possession. From
the days of the great plantation of Ulster, in the
17th century, property has been much more divided
there than in many other parts of the country.
There were then created, it is true, vast estates,
several of which still remain ; but it was part of the
policy of that memure to foster the creation of deri-
votive interests, with freehold tenure, under the
great proprietors. A resident middle class was
thereby in sonic degree created; and, although
it has in recent times become the fashion
to denounce all who fall under the name of middle-
men, it is certain that no modification of society is
less adapted for the promotion of social and political
progress or peace, than one which is reduced to the
two extremes of absentee lords in fee of vast domains,
and occupying tenants without permanent tenure.
In Ulster the landlord class has for many generations
been more varied in degree, and more numerous as
a whole. A tenant who could not get on well
under one proprietor, had a fair chance of ob-
taining a farm from another. It was long cus-
tomary for the lesser proprietary, who themselves
held by " leases of lives renewable for ever," to grant
the actual tillers of the ground an equivalent tenure.
When the lives in their own leases dropped, it was
frequently found that those in the tenants' were the
same; and the renewals of both are in general contem-
poraneous. As for " tenant right," of which we have
lately heard so much—that was a much more modern
expedient, arising out of circumstances of compara-
tively recent date. Its meaning and importance have
been not a little misstated and mistaken. But the power
to sell the goodwill of a farm, to whatever extent it
may exist, proves the habitual recognition, on the
part of the landlords, of the equitable, if not the
legal, claim of the tenantry to be suffered, if he
wished, to retain possession. The crusade against
population, and the theory of consolidation of farms,
were as yet unknown ; and when industry had accu-
mulated capital in trade or the linen manufacture,
and invested its earnings in the purchase of land, the
number of landlords was only further augmented,
but the standing policy of their order was not
changed. " Live and let thrive" was the common
law of Ulster.
Far different has too long been the unhappy condi-
tion of the south and west. No part of the tenantry
there had even the bonds of sectarian sympathy to
unite thorn with the lords of the soil. Estates in
general were less broken up; there wets at
one time many middlemen, but these per-
sons usually held by profitable but expirable
leases ; their object was to make the most
of their time, and undoubtedly their exactions from
their sub-tenants were as great as might have been
expected. To a considerable extent, however, these
have been swept away. The whole of the rent paid by
the occupiers now gots to the landlord, often an absen-
tee; and he, in return, is at utter war with them. When
the middleman's lease dropped, he refused to renew
their tenure, or offered them such short leases as
would deprive them of the elective franchise, and
stifle within them any design of making permanent
improvements by draining, building, planting, or
otherwise. Hence distrust and crime.
Yet with the bitter fruit of this ruinous warfare
before their eyes, the landlords of Ulster appear in-
clined to imitate the example of their Monster bre-
thren. At the Quarter Sessions of a single district of
the county of Donegal the other, day no fewer than
319 decrees in ejectment were obtained : and from
various other quarters the same tidings of disquiet
came. Verily we may fear that in hitherto peaceful
and improving Ulster there vet may be another
-seary !

WE have received a great number of letters on the
subject of a national guard, strongly recommending
it, and pointing out the economy, f iirness, urgency,
and other recommendations of such an institution.
Our contemporaries have also received their share of
such hints and counsels. Before, however, any such
idea can be acted upon, or any such law brought for-
ward, or even recomm withended a chance of success,
it is necessary to weigh the inconveniences and diffi-
culties, as well as the advantages, likely to accrue.
First of all, it must be taken into account that
there is no country in the world in which time is so
precious to most men as in England. To take the
English citizen from his counting•-honse, counter, or
study, tilt merely for juries, grand, small, and special,
and for the other duties of civic life, but for
whole days of drilling and reviewing, would be, after a
time, a very unpopular and irksome privilege. And
if this were carried further, as in France, to the duty
of mounting guard, acting police, patrolling, and
moreover passing the night in a guard-house, the
system of a national guard would soon be decried and
repudiated by a large number of the men, and by a
still larger number of the women of England.
If to obviate this the duty be limited to young men,
sa between the ages of 21 and 28, the peace and
defence of the country would be entrusted to the fittest
hands, perhaps, but not to the fittest heads. And in
this country a national guard, or military assemblages
of any kind, but more especially if confined to youth,
would be productive of an exuberant degree of jollity,
to say the est of it, if the word immorality might
not be applied. The young Prussians can meet by
thousands, drill, and live in tents, without more con-
vivial solace than a pipe and a can of beer. Eng-
lishmen are not so satisfied, and can seldom indulge
in one excitement without superadding to it another:
and too many would imagine they were occoming
good soldiers by practising the parts of thorough
rakes. Those who remember the volunteer system
during the war must also recollect how it estranged
youth from habits of busitess and caused much more
alarm lied anxiety to parents ;Ilan the dreaded French.
Then come considerations of public security, and of
the harmony between different classes, which from
time to time necessarily at variance might be
prompted to vent mutual discontent in blows, if wea-
pons were in their hands, and the science of using them
familiar :—strikes of artisans are no uncommon occur-
rence, assemblages and processions of miners, and
operatives, not to mention the thousands of Odd Fel-
lows. Are arms to be put in every hand, and is every
hand to be taught to use them ? If not, where is
the line to be drawn ? And, if the line be drawn
anywhere, let the amount of envy and annoyance be
calculated, and the danger of the new line of' distinc-
tion between middle and lower classes, which is at the
bottom of chartist discontent. In France the law of the
national guard has been suspended in great manufac-
turing towns. In Lyons it has been found impos-
sible. In Paris itself the artillery of the national
guard was immediately disbanded, and the periodical
reviews of the whole corps discontinued.
In the country parts of France the operation of the
National Guard is such, that the greater number of
muskets are spoiled from rust, whilst the rest are
used in poaching and trespassing. In England, how
would our game-laws harmonise with the arms of the
peasant ? And who is to be his commander ? A
glance at the state and relation of the different classes
of society in the country parts of England will suffice
to convince any one that rustic national guards are
impracticable, and that the yeomanry system must he
had recourse to in order to form a military and unpaid
corps out of the rural population. In towns these
kinds of objections do not apply, though there are
other difficulties. All might he met, and the national
defence provided for, by the establishment of a
scientific corps, a national guard artillery, in every
town.
The Earl of ELLESMERE, we perceive, has published
another letter, excnsatory of his expressions relative
to the Guards. The observation of the former letter I
which gave most offence was that in which he styled
the English army "a police." And yet this is but too
true, not with respect to the character of the army,
but considering the uses to which it is applied. We
have 26,000 men in Ireland—the rest of the home
force almost exclusively in the manufacturing districts,
whilst the south and its arsenals and coasts are left to
take care of themselves. This has enabled the Duke
and Sir lons Bt RGOYNE to frighten us by the asser-
tion that we could not muster 3,000 men to resist an
invader. But let government release the military
from the duties of police, and let this protective ser-
vice be performed in Ireland and is England by the
citizens themselves, and we have instantly that army
of 50,000 men which the Duke declares he needs, in
order to deter or to resist the French.
It may perhaps not be easy to withdraw the
burgherm from Ireland at once, or to replace them by
bu guards. But this is the complexion, this the

WE have been entertained with predictions and
warnings that the people of the recently-reformed
European governments were about to run riot with
exultation, and to convert liberty into license. But
no prophet 'forctold what has really come to pass,
that several Kings should be seised in different parts
of Europe with a corresponding mania of their own,
and that some of the constitutional states of the con-