The Express.
London, England, 1849-08-22 00:00:00

SPAIN.

The crisis is said to be over. Mons hu been in-
duced to accept an embassy, and Fidel retains the
portfolio of foreign affairs.
Manikin, Avo. 16.—Three pee Ceara, 25 9.113; Five per Cente.,
11 Coupons, 7. Bank of St. Ferdinand, 60 paper. Exchange on
Leunee,so.u.

VENTILATION OF STABLES.—At a recent meeting
of the Highland Society, Mr. Neil BellingaU, of Kinross•
shire, farmer, read a paper on this subject, containing the
following remark': Every one acquainted with the subject
knows that from imperfect ventilation, the plastering and
lathing of roofs fall away in flakes, and are reduced to rot-
tenness by the constant action of the condensed steam.
Now, this action indicates a want of power to carry off
the impure air yielding the condensed steam, that must
prove deleterious, m the highest degree, to the cattle ; and
we need not wonder, in these circumstances, that pulmonary
complaints among cattle are alarmingly on the lacrosse. In the
case of a slate roof, I propos. as the most eoonominal plan,
to raise the lower edge of the slating by means of a board
laid on blocks en the outer edge of the wall, leaving aper-
tures of about an inch high between the board and the wall,
which will admit a free current of air. The air will pass
under the outer board and lower edge of the sacking, in
which a horizontal slit is to be cut of about one inch wide so
as to admit its free ingress. To the whole scheme double
apertures are necessary. The second or upper aperture, in
the Pee of slate roofs, is thus: provided under-
neath the second row of slat, s. Oa both sides
let the sacking be removed fa. the space of
about four inches from end to end. This leaves
board enough to which to nail thouates; and the measu
rertre
allows the heated air to comps gy through the
the slates. In cases wh-re cattle are tied with their heads
to the gable ends, slit openings up the gable. leaving suffi-
cient strength of larking to stiffen the roof, will answer the
same end. In the case of a the roof. In the lowest row of
tiles take off the under slip of plaster lath. This will admit
a sufficiency of the external and wholesome air through the
carved vacancies of the tiles. Then for the sec-lid aperture
—under the ridge or topmost row of tiles on each aide, leave
that row free from lath and plaster, from end to end of the
byre; there is thus provided a 'efficient aperture for the
emisjse of the heated air.
TUE DEFAULTING SECRETARY OF TUE LEEDS IN-
natal/Y.—William Beckwith, the secretary of the Leeds
General Infirsaaryj whose cue was reported in the Ex-
press, was again brought up befogs the mayor yesterday.
Mr. Ferns, the prismar's solicitor, said he would not take
up the time of the bench, as the only question of law which
could arise, that of the point between master and servant,
would not be decided by the mayor, but be referred to
another tribunal. The prima., who said nothing in his
&ham, was then nom m lee trial at the borough sessions.

WEST INDIA MA IL.

The royal West India mail-packet Avon, Capt.
Heat, from the West Indies, &c., arrived at South-
ampton this morning, and landed her mails under the
charge of Lieut. W. W. South, R.N., Admiralty
agent. Her _dates are—Vera Cruz, July 16 ; Tam-
pico, 12 ; Havana, 28; Honduras, 11; Jamaica, 23 ;
St. Jago de Cuba, 19; Demerara, 19; Trinidad, 21;
Barbadoes, 28; Antigua, 30; Martinique, 29 ; Grenada,
24 ; Porto Rico, 28 ; and St. Thomas, Augutt 1. The
Avon brings about 48 or 50 passengers.

- -
She brings 1,300,000 dollars on merchants' account.
Great excitement prevailed at Jamaica respecting
the elections. _ Two retrenchment members have
_ _

been elected for Metcalf; Finley and Carr for St.
David's; Lyon and Maccook for St. Dorothy.
The labourers of St. David's have met to petition
the government to enforce the slave treaties with
Spam and Brazils.
At Mosquito the cholera is raging, and great com-
plaint is made on account cf the absence of our consul
from that place.
The Combined Court met at Demerara on the 13th.
The Governor' in a conciliatory speech, withdrew his
veto on Mr. Croal'e rescuutions and Mr. Quid, in
consequence, withdrew the resolutions. The answer
to the governor's address was as follows :
16th Ju1y,1849.
We thank your excellency for your address to tom court,
on its reassembling, on the 13th inst., for the "copy of the
report of the select committee appointed by the House of
Commons, to inquiry into the condition of this colony," and
for the despatch of Earl Grey, No. 62, of lot June, 1319,
which accompanies the report
Your excellency refers to the concluding paragraph of the
despatch, in which Earl Or: y expresses a hoe " that tho
decision may be received as determining the ri,7hts of the
mown, under the Civil List Ordinance." Whatever maybe
the ultimate decision of parliament as to the rights 01 the
crown under that ordinance, it is totally inconclusive as to
the question at issue. It prop aundsno fixed determination, but
leaves the matter to be determined with exclusive reference

to two considerations, " the upright and efficient perform-
ance of public duties at the smallest pecuniary charges, and
the general welfare of her Majesty's subjects resident
within the colony."
On this question it is unnecessary for us to do more than
to reaffirm what has been repeatedly urged in this court.
We consider that the passing of the Civil List Ordinance
by the Court of Policy in 1844 was an assumption of uncon-
stitutional power on the part of that court, and was a viola-
tion of the rights and functions of the Combined Court ; thst
being passed previous to the admission of slave sugars to the
English markets, and to the fatal elfwe induced by the im-
perial legislation of 1816, it is now utt'rly disproportionate
to the means and recourses of the ct loop ; and that no con-
siderations either of " gond faith or public policy" require
that the civil list of 1811—which was txtended in 1841—
_

should be continued after its legal termination of the 31st of
Dteemb;r, 1847.

Even if the act of the Court of Policy had been legal
and constitutional, we maintain that the compact on
which the Civil List was band has been repeatedly
violated by the home government. Slave sugars have
been admitted to the home markets, and the facilities
necessary for extensive immigration have been cudi.
ously and perseveringly withheld; monies voted by par-
liament for the use of the colony have been misappropri-
ated by the Colonial-office' to the payment of pensions
in excess of the sums placed on the civil list, and for other
purposes; and offices, separate and distinct in their functions,
have been conjoined oy the crown without the sancion, and
in oppcsition to the protests cf, the elective members of the
legislature. Without reference, therefore, teethe validity or
nullity of the ordinance passed by the Court of Policy, we
affirm that the civil list compact has been violated by the
home government, and that, on the common principles of
equity which regulate the intercourse of society, it cannot
be held, in the slightest degree, as biiiding upon the colony.
We consider that "in strict justice to the public," as
urged by Lard Grey, a new civil list should be framed, com-
mensurate with the altered circumstances of the country
and we are prepared, with " prucent liberality," to make
ample provision for the establishments on which socieiy
depend.
Earl Grey misapprehends the understanding on which
the combined court bad proceeded to business, viz , " that the
question concerning the civil list should bd left in static quo,
pending the inquiry before a committee of the Ilona, of Com-
mons." The understanding was,that the imperial parliament,
as the court of ultimata appeal, should decide the question
at issue, and that until such decision could be obtained,
the salaries and other items on the civil list should be paid at
the reduced rate, as fired by the vote of the Combined Court
on the 20th July, 1848. We do not consider the report of
the committee as the decision of parliament, and must persist
in the course we have adopted, until the matter shall be
finally disposed of by imperial authority.
We are at a low to reconcile the " cordial desire" ex-
pressed by Lord Grey, " that all difference■ arising out of the
civil list ordinance should be forgotten," with the stigma con-
veyed in the previous part of his despatch, that " the pro-
gress of business in the Combined Court had been marked by
votes, of which the effect was to inflict great injustice and
injury on persons who were laboriously engaged in promot-
ing the best interests of the colony."
We repel this injurious and unfounded assertion. It is
true that, in the endeavour to regulate the public expendi-
ture according to the resource, of the colony, we found it
absolutely necessary to reduce many of its large and expen-
sive establishments ;but it is also true that we are prepared
I. make ample provision for all that is necessary to the well-
being of society. The " obliteration of personal feeling.,
which may have been excited in the course of these unfortu-
nate discussions," we fear is not likely to be promoted by
inch unbounded charges of " injury and injustice."
We would remind his lordship that our present difficulties
and dist:ers are caused solely and entirely by the partial
and unjust legislation of the mother country. The inter-
vention of parliament may arrest the ruin which impends
ever the colony; but the remedy must be prompt and effi-
cient in erder to rescue this once "magnificent province"
from becoming as unproductive settlement without either
value or civilisation.
Your excellency is pleased to withdraw the veto, on the
ground that "the decision of parliament" is now before
the court. To us it appears evident that the report of the
committee is not the decision of parliament, and the reason
assigned by your excellency must therefore fell to the
ground.
Upon this point, however, we dorm it our duty solemnly
and distinctly to affirm our opinion, " that the crown does
not poems the sight to exercise the veto in this court on
any resolution or matter whatsoever connected with the
finances of the colony ; and that the exercise of the veto by
your excellency on the 19th April was an illegal an uncon-
etitational act.'
Throughout the unfortunate discussions which have now
se long prevailed on the question of the civil list, this court
has always evinced its desire to raise the necessary supplies,
but that desire has been frustrated by the execuive here,
and by the imperious mandates of the Colonial-effica.
It is to be regretted that so long a period as five menthe
should have elapsed since your excellency's arrival in the
colony, during which so little of a bei.eficial or practical
character has been carried out, either hers or at home. Laws,
especially with reference to vagrancy and trespass, are still
required to complete the cote nectuary to our present
civilisation. Immigration from Africa—which is so essential
to the welfare of the colony—has been interdicted by Lord
Grey, in terms more characteristic of an angry partisan
than of the impartial administrator of a vast colonial empire.
We are compelled to dissent from the opinion expressed
by your exoslieney, that " the present prospects of the colony
are unquestionably brighter than they were as this time last
year." We search in vain for a single tact to corroborate
this opinion, but we ;find, on the contrary, that the exports
of the colony for the first six months of the present year,
as compared with the corresponding period of last year,
show an alarming decrease of 6,149 hhds. sugar, the crop
of the present year to the 30m of June, being less than
two-thirds of the crop of 1948, or an aggregate export
of only 11,706 hhde. againA 16,855 hhds. of the pre-
ceding year. It is within oar knowledge that the cul-
tivation of the staples is daily decreasing, and that estates
once flourishing and prosperous, are cow unproductive and
valueless, and are rapidly reverting to a &tate of total aban-
donment'. With such facts before us, we cannot disguise
from ourselves the truth of our position, and we are compelled
to consider your excellency's (pinion as only a vain and de-
lusive hope. But while this colony is so depressed and pros-
trate from the effects of the imperial legislation of 1846, we
find that other countries in which slavery exists, and in
which the slave trade is carried on with increasing energy,
command capital and confidence, and enjoy a large share of
internal prosperity.
That prosperity is founded upon the ruin of this and other
colonies which once flourished under the protection of the
British flag ; and the policy which has proved a death blow to
us has to them been the source of prosperity end wealth.
We do not attribute any selfish motive to your ex-
cellency in the course which you have thought proper
to adopt regarding the Civil List, but we must express
our regret that your excellency had not been more ex-
plicito r excellency assumed
iie reins of government." Much misconception and the
expression of irritated feelings might thereby have been
avoided. We ere compelled to add, that the " scanty
means" at your excellency's disposal would have been better
applied to carry on, as far as practicable, the various institu-
tions of the country, instead of being monopolised by the
payments on the civil list. Your excellency, however, with
prudent foresight, would appear to have preferred grasping
the " substance," and you have left little else than the
" shadow" for the support of those institutions which are
intended to check crime, to alleviate suffering, to give se-
curity to life and property, and on which society and civi-
lisation essentially depend. We observe with regret the
omission from your excellency's speech, as well as hzia