The Express.
London, England, 1851-11-19 00:00:00

(evils in the administration
are necessarilyp hampered in ti,
tutee by the language in which
Remedial statutes, it is said, r
much beyond their lett, r,
a liberal interpretation in*
common law, on the contrary,
application, and out of the
catching. It is the unwritten
phrase consists all the difference.
The mischief, however, does not stop here. A.
not only that the legislation is faulty or imperfect,
but it is that the common law, if not expressly abro-
gated, retires into desuetude. The statutory proce-
dure takes the place of that provided by the common
law, even where, theoretically, the latter still con-
tinues to exist. A few years of desuetude are quite
sufficient to cause it to be for ever laid upon the shelf,
and the endeavour of the "black-letter man" to
rescue it from oblivion rarely succeeds. Men do not
like to r out of the beaten path, when once they are
I used to it. From the moment that the Boardl of
Works was invested with the mismanagement of the
• inland waters and fisheries of Ireland, the common law
safeguards of popular right ceased to be familiar, and
monopolies of every kind became rapidly ascendant.
The common law process against " false swearing,"
which admitted of none of the evasions by which "the
statute of perjury" is too often defrauded of its opera-
tions, has been, nevertheless, obsolete from the day
i when Queen FLIZAISETII gave her assent to that
enactment. We might adduce a multitude of such
instances.
But the superfluity of our legislation is neither its
only blemish nor its greatest. Whatever excuses
may be offered for legislating overmuch, there can
be none at all for the disgraceful manner in which
even our best legislation is conducted. So that the
"bill" was drawn up with some pretension to artistic
orthodoxy, the shape it has assumed by the time
that it ripens into an " Act of Parliament, appears to
be quite immaterial fur parliamentary consideration.
Every crotchety person in either house may have
"tried his 'prentice ban' " on amending the bill in
his own sense, and all the amendments, one by one,
may have been engrafted on the bill, with all their
incoherencies of regimen, and varieties of phrase,
and inaccuracies in Jurisprudence and in law. No
matter; it becomes a new act of parliament,
and a fresh puzzle for the jurists. We remember,
for instance, that upon the third reading of
an enactment for the better security of parish
registers, it was suddenly proposed to alter the
" penalties" from pecuniary fines to imprisonment
and hard labour. The amendment was simply I
adopted, without revision of the other clauses, and
the bill passed into a law. Then, and not till then,
it was discovered that, by the express direction of
the legislature, the said " penalties " were to be
equally divided between the informer and the parson
of the parish! Perhaps all the instances of the mis-
chief to which we arc adverting have not been
quite so glaring, nor yet so harmless, us this ludi-
crous blunder wits. But it is by no means an
exaggeration to say that it is a fair sample
of what is always to be apprehended whilst
our present method lasts. Until it bo abo-
lished, we must continue to look for the yearly crop
of " acts for the explanation of acts passed
perchance in the same session of parliament; and
even then, with all those clumsy means and ap-
pliances to boot, we shall have too frequent occasion
afforded us, in the inercluieof litigation - stimulated by
the uncertainty of the law—to borrow an emphatic
passage from the report lately presented by Mr.
tool& to the Poor Law Board, and to deplore with
him " the flagrant faults of construction, the false
concortLince, the involvements, the tautologies, and
above all the haste and little care with which the
whole are pitched together."
A reforming parliament should reform itself and
its own abuses in the first instance. Here, however,
the necessary work of self-reform appears to be not
only postponed to every other reform, but to have
been not as yet thought of by those whose duty it was
to see to it. We shall take an curly occasion to
point out in what way they may do it most effec-
tually, and get rid for ever of the present anomaly,
and yet be in perfect accordance with the law and
custom and the privileges of parliament.

FRANCE.

oe easily
conceived to be the aim_ of such red repUblicans as
Mare Dufraisse; but the alliance of the party of the
Sick with the royalists, on this division, passes all
explanation; for the result of the bill passing must
have been to extinguish the moderate republicans
altogether. To measure the result of this vote by
its relation to Louis Napoleon, would be to take a
very narrow view of it. Properly speata
it is a great democratic victory, and the
blow to the hopes of the royalists. The answer
of General St. Arnaud to the question of Gene-
ral
Bedcau relative to the removal of the de-
cree
of the Constituent from the walls of the barracks,
produced such a shock in the Assembly that the
whole house rose together. Murmurs circulated that
it was a fair ground for impeachment. It was even
said that a motion for the mist en accusation of the
President would be brought forward by the Berryer
legitimists.
On the meeting. of the Assembly to-day an hour
passed in very animated conversations. The debate
on the electoral communal law was at length
opened. M. Jolt' declared that in presence of
the pretension of the majority to erect the
communal electoral law into a political one,
he and his friends would abstain from the debate.
The president reminded the speaker that the rules
of the house provided disciplinary penalties against
collective abstentions. A discussion then took
place on the question whether the debate
on the communal electoral law could proceed
without the Left falling into a snare, and being con-
sidered as participating thus in the political law, in
which they do not recognise the application of the
principles of domicile, although they admit that con-
dition in the communal elections. This discussion
was sustained by MM. Vatimesnil, Bac, Arago,
Michel de Bourges, and Lainoriciih-e.

•
M. 0. BARBOT said there must be some end to these de-
hates, and the decisions of the Assembly must be respected.
The Assembly had decided, after a first reading, that the
municipal law should be the subject of a second deli-
beration. Then after a long debate, in the course
of which all shades of opinion had found expression,
the Assembly had placed • special chapter of that law
on the order of the day. lie dill not deny that it
was the intenti ni to make use of the communal law
as a political one. It would be open to his opponents
at a later stage to state their objections to that mon-
strous anomaly, if they thought it to be one. The question
now was, however, simply that of the municipal law. The
political debate was reserved, although in some measure
prejudged. The Assembly had referred all propositions re-
, toting to the political electoral law to the Municipal Com-
mittee. The Assembly had thought that they should have
the whole electoral law of France under their eyes at the
same time. They had not yet made • report.
There would be a special report and a special discussion
hereafter. In the meantime let the decisiun of the majority
be respected.
M. E. ARAGO would accept the question as M. Barret had
stated it. He had said the question is reserved, but it is
prejudged. It was proposed to make a polit:eal report after
the communal law bad been voted. He thought that would
lead to confusion. The way to remove all scruples of con-
science on his side of the house would be to discuss the
political law first. (Cries of " That is putting the plough
before the oxen.")
M. ne LARIT charged the Left with inconsistency, and
reminded them that when M. Leon Faucher had proposed
the course now advocated by M. Arago the Left had
opposed it.
H. Muslim. (de Bourges) stated his reasons for having
abstained from attending the last sittings of the municipal
committee. He thought the priacipol of domicile de-
sirable in municipal elections. iIo was ready to discuss
that question. But he could not conceal from himself
that while they were now asked in terms to discuss a muni-
cipal law, the real question in the minds of many was poli-
tical. It was unfortunate that a political stamp had been
put upon this law.
The Assembly passed to the order of the day.
Upon this decision, the benches of the Left were, as
stated, immediately deserted. The debate opened
upon the Bth article of the communal
law, which firms the first clause of the
chaper under discussion. This iv ticle provides
that the mayor shall keep in every commune a ma-
tricular register of all the inhabitants. After a de-
bate, in which MM. Leon Faucher, Odilon Barrot,
Heartier, and Vatimcsneil took part, the article was
adopted by 322 votes against 168. The whole Left
abstained. The sitting then broke up.
The Court of Cassation rejected yesterday the
appeal of the condemned conspirators of Lyons.
At the Bourse the Five per Cents. fell 20c., and
closed at 91.60. The Three per Cents. fell 10c., and
closed at 86.40. Tho vote of yesterday occasioned a
rise of 40c. at the opening of the Bourse, but the rea-
lisation of profits produced• fall subsequently.

ITALY.
TUSCANY.

FLORENCE, Nov. 12.
The government has suppressed the legations of
Constantinople, Turin, and Naples. Chargi's
d'affaires are maintained in France, England, Bel-
gium, Austria, and Rome.

GERMANY.

AUSTRIA.

Letters from Trieste of the 7th inst. describe the
premature severity of the winter. The communica-
tion with Vienna was interrupted. Snow had
gathered in large masses between 1 rieste and Laibach.
In Carinthia the rain in the vales and snow on the
mountains had combined to fill the rivers and streams,
so that bridges are everywhere carried off.

PitUSSIA.

The Gazette de Voss of Berlin states, "on authentic
information," that the go‘ernment will, before the
end of the present year, conclude the loan of 21 mil-
lion thalers anthoneed by the Chamber last session.
The Messrs. Rothschild are charged with the fur-
therance of the loan in England.

The late King, whose decease has been daily ex-
pected for the past week, was in his Slat year, and
had reigned 13 years.
The deceased prince's titles were severally: Prince
Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland andTeviotdale,
in Great Britain, and Earl of Armagh in Ireland, and
King of Hanover. His Royal Highness was a Knight
of the Garter, a Knight of St. Pat rick, 6.C.8. and G. C. H.
He was also a Knight of the Prussian orders of the Black
and Red Eagle, a Field-Marshal in the British army,
Chancellor and Visiter of the University of Dublin, a
Commissioner of the Royal Military College and
Asylum, a Fellow of the Boyal Society, and of the
Society of Arts.

LATEST FOREIGN EXCHANGES.

of jdstice. The times tors. Odilon Barrot abstained. Laroehejacquelin i kultivt: ,ilth Dtnmark must needs yield to the will
mr
i the coostiuction of sta- sup the . t. Tip Moto hated' six of lb iga powers, it is thought that this ministerial
hich they are expressed. boo 4s d feed kis 'Vetch. It is crisis will have uo long duration.
al, mast not be exteshdel al n 'ble t y section of the democratic
and to penal Aalatca •party 4).414d have voted In Swear of a bill, DE.tTII O THE KING OF
altogether denied. The whkehowyerding to the avowal iof M. Vi,
F
try, s usetpeusive Mills its 'mporter,- was directed against, the alli- lIANOVER.
the reach of such word- awe of the executive power with. the Lett;
!ten law, and in that ono unless, indeed, the object of such delnocrats was to
recce. bring the guestion between the royalists and the BY SUBMARINE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
toes not stop here. It is revolution to a decision by arms. This may be easily
nis faulty or imperfect, conceived to be the aim of such red republicans as Our Paris correspondent writes as follows
tw, if not expressly abro- Marc Dufraisse; but the alliance of the party of the PARIS, WEDN ESDAY.
Tho Ki
e. The statutory proce- Slick with the royalists, on this division, passes all Kin of Hanover died yesterday morning at
..... r,... 5i,,.,,,5e1t of the bill nassincr must seven o'clock.
_ ...