The Express.
London, England, 1851-12-19 00:00:00

AMERICA.

The following is from our correspondent :
NEW YORK, Der. G.
To-day, or on Monday, Kossuth is to become the
guest of this city. Triamplial arches have been
erected in his honour iu vur:ous parts of the city,
and there will be an immense turn-out of the uniform
militia, and the various corporations of the city
trades. It is a singular fact, however, that the
foreigners here, who affiliate as socialists and red
republicans, have been unable to agree as to the pro-
priety of welcoming him. lie is too conservative
for dieir purposes. On the other hand, the extreme
catholics arc resolved to avoid him. If it is to be
right to be between two extremes, Kossuth could
not be more right than he is. As the mail closes to-
day, before the reception can possibly begin, I must
reserve myself for the next steamer to give you the
details. I can only say that the liveliest enthusiasm i
exists at present n his favour.
In Congress, the resolution offered by Senator
Foote, in honour of Kossuth, was withdrawn by the
mover, because of an invidious attempt of an aboli-
tion senator, Mr. flak, of New Hampshire, to en-
graft upon it an amendment which concealed a de-
nunciutiou of slavery in the United States. As soon,
' however, as the resolution was withdrawn, another
was offered by M. Seward, the senator from this state,
which was simple, direct, and unexceptionable, and
which will, probably, pass.
The passengers in the Humboldt say that Kossuth
was quite an invalid on the passage and very re-
served.
The general impression is that the message is a
very tame and poor one. It has no positive power.
It is a collection of newspaper truisms. It apologises
too much for the Cuban invasion, and the rash ad-
venture of four hundred and fifty madcaps, who
could have left the port of Liverpool just as well as
they could have left that of New Orleans. It is silent
with regard to the most important questions of the
day, those of Central America, and the new state of
things in the Banda Oriental where our commercial
interests appear to be most at stake.
Our difficulties with Spain are adjusted, and I
think that a few good dinners have appeased the
wrath of ])on Quixote, and quieted the bilious pains
of Brother Jonathan. There is, however, one rather
serious matter on hand, the firing into our steamer,
the Prometheus, by one of your vessels of war, at
San Juan. The President has demanded an explana-
tion from your minister, and ordered a squadron to
repair to the scene of the affront. Trouble will
grow out of this, unless your government make an
explanation forthwith. I have warned you, and
again warn you, that the spirit of this country is
warlike, and if we could stop emigration, retain our
gold, said build up our own manufactures, a war
would be esteemed by a large proportion of the
American people as a positive godsend.

LATEST FOREIGN EXCHANGES.

PARIS, Mc. U.

For Amount.

THE 11ENV REFORM BILL.

(Tmot the Dell, Nets.)

TO LORD .101 IN RUSSELL.

MY LORD,

Luna V.

•
Your lordship will remember that pending the
consideration of the first Reform Bill, a Commission
was appointed to inquire late the Boundaries of
Boroughs. The ostensible object of that Commission
was to see haw far towns had outgrown. as many of
them were known to have outgrowa,the limits or Nino-
daries of the boroughs with which they were con-
nected. The mewls, as
.presented b.y. the Com- :
mis.ioners, were atcompamed by maps exhibiting
the boundaries of the respective towns. The object ,
of obtainime these revisits was obvious: it was to.
enable the framers of the Reform Act to define -
the limits of the town populations. The maps
were before you. You were able to sec at a glance I
where a borough needed extension, and as here it'
did not : where the enfranchised limits included all
the pop ulation, or where a large portion of that popu-
lation were excluded by reason of some erbitcary
and too narrow borough boundary.
Nothing could be better than these reports of the
first Boundary Commissioners' and in framing the
Reform Act, they would doubtless have been
acted on, but fur considerations of no small moment.
In the first place, the limits these reports assigned to
several boroughs were too thin for certain interested
parties, the next place, it became necessary', in
consequence of the enfranchisement of several large
towns, to obtain reports relating to localities which
had not been included in the first inquiry. In the
autumn of 1631, theretbre, a second Boundary Cum-
mission was appointed, and this Commission was re-
quired to examine and report as to the most proper
boundaries foe all the boroughs which the amended
Reform Act proposed to retain or constitute.
Now, in the first series of instructions issued to this
Commission, directions were given which conveyed
the intention of Lor,l Grey's government to fiirm
combinations or groups of boroughs, wherever towns
appeared too small to be alone entrusted with the
right of returning members to the lionise of Commons.
In certain hist a ions which were issued to the Com-
missioners flout tit., I lone-offiee, signed by Lord Mel—
bourne, and dated so late as the 21th of October,'
1831, this intention was perfectly enunciated. The
words of the instruction I refer to were as follow :
Where the number of onalifving hours is manifestly
under:?o, your attention will be directed to (Escort r the
most eligible quarter from which an addition to the defic-
tiro constituency of the borough may be derived. if wry
rtrtijit'ovihy brt:n presents itself cart d.sirahle rtir.rtiate,
you will ascertain the number of 101. householders it would
furnish, and will point out nil the circumstances which ap-
pear to render its union udrisuble.
The government, therefore, obviously meant to
group boroughs together wherever their own extent
and population !'oiled to afford them the necessary
qualification. But, as may be readily supposed, this in-
tention was very unpalatable to many of the largest
boroughmongers. The effect of grouping together
several small towns must necessarily be to destroy
the local inflaence which preponderates in any one
of them. This was diametrically opposed to what
the owners of boroughs wanted or desired. The Duke
of Marlborough would not have eared for the preser-
vation of Woodstock as a borough it' its independ-
erce was secured by grouping it with another town
in which his grace had no influence at all. The
Duke of Buckingham would rather have sacrificed
the representation of the town from which he takes
his title than have seen his influence in it neutralised
by the introduction of' new and independent de.
meaty. What the boroughmongers wanted was, not
freedom of election, bat the perpetuation, in whatever
shape, of the influence of property. They therefore
protested; and, to their shame be it spoken, the
framers of the Refocus Act succumbal to their dic-
tation.

On the 21th November, IS3I, exactly a month
after the date of the first series, a new series of in•
stractions was issued to the Boundary Commissioners,
conveying the submission of the cabinet to the pro-
prietors of rotten boroughs. I reprint the two first
clauses of this new code of instructions, which was
signed by Viscount Nlclbuurne, as the then Home
Secretary.

Nov. 24, 1831.

I. After examining many of the reports of the Commit.
*Weer. it is the direction of the government that where a
borough does not give 300 voters, the whole parish in
which the borough is situate be included within the boun-
dary; provided that the extreme limit of the parish clues
not extend four mil, s from the town. In that case a town-
ship, hamlet, or other subdivisim may be taken in.
if the parish in u Melt the borough is situated is
it may be advisable to take in one or more adjoining
parish, a wit:sin the above mentioned distance ; but a se, t-
rate town, or a part not adjoining, is not to be added to the
borough n about a.continuous boundary.

MELBOURNE.

]his was the shameful concession by which, so far
as concerned the independence of the towns, the be-
nefits originally contemplated by the framers of the
Reform Act were entirely surrendered to the owners
of the boroughs. And this change, be it observed,
was made precisely one month alter the issue of the
original instructions to the nvernment Commissione rs.
My lord, it must not b'e supposed that this sur-
render of a great principle made little difference in
the general result. The boroughs which were core-
, posed of " one or more adjoining parishes" were nu-
merous, and, as I shall take an opportunity of
showing, have exercised no inconsiderable influence
upon the legislature. Nor must it be imagined that
the change made under the instructions was made in
ignorance either of its character or of its probable
effect. The Boundary Commissioners to whom
these instructions were issued, made °lobo-

rato representations, both public and private,
on the subject. Their reports, as pub!ished by
Parliament, team with references to the difficultijs
the new instructions imposed on them, and to the
disastrous anomalies for which compliance with
those instructions must render them responsible.
I will cite a fi•w instances, taking fur my first illus-
tration a case which cannot fail to be familiar to you,
the case of the borough you yourself represented iu
the parliaments of 18:10 and 1831.
TAVLSTOCK, at that time, hada population of .5,709,
a large part of whom were verb independent-minded
people. In a petition, which your lordship pre-
sented from that borough, it was declared by a por-
tion of the electorate that they "me quite satisfied
that it is injurious to the public interest that two
members of parliament should be chosen by so small
a body of electors as this borough necessarily con-
tains:* They prayed the house for a large measure
of reform, including vote by ballot. Now nothing
could have been more proper than either to have put
Tavistock into Schedule B, or to have attached it
to some adjacent borough; and it would seem as if
one or other of these measures was contemplated, for
the Boundary Commissioners reported that, with all
their efforts, they could find no more than 262 ten-
pound houses in the town. But when the new in-
structions came down, and when they found that
Tavistock, contrary to the expressed opinion and
wish of its inhabitants, was to retain two members,
what were they obliged to do? Why, to extend the
borough boundary out of the town of Tavistock to
the population of the whole parish, thereby carrying
it over an agricultural district entirely ownel by
the fluke of Bedford, and extending four long
miles from the town to the borders of Cornwall.
But what did the Commissioners report ? Why, that
this arrangement was necessary, under the new in-
structions, in order to get a sufficient electorate;
but, at the same time, they felt bound to state
that. " the parish beyond the town consisted almost
exclusively of land applied to agricultural purposes,"
and that they only extended the boundary to this
land, because, under the new instructions, " no
other means were afforded of supplying the defi-
ciency." My lord, this arrangement, by adding the
dukes farm tenantry to the borough electors, con-
tributes very materially to maintain the ascendancy
of your family in the town of Tavistock.
If your lordship, as a whig, sinned in assisting to
make a boundary borough, I must candidly acknow-
ledge that you were not the only sinner among
your party. What a delightful ➢lace is Bowood:
rYes, and how comfortable to think, as Lord Lans-
downe looks out of his library window, that the
boundary of C.tLYE comes up so close to it. Bowood
itself is not iucluded in the borough. Certainly not—
such an impropriety could not I eve been contemplated.
But a very material part of the estate is within the
borough; and was extended to it "agreeably to the
tenor of your lordship's instructions of Nov. 21."
Your noble colleague, wo all know, never interferes
with the representation of Calno—he only permits

Illibesv Lowest' enable.
—1 —I
II pre Ceuta 163 90 I 61 30 64 63 64 0 I 64 0
3 per rents
S per Cents. New Lcea, . ...
i per rents. i 711* I I ...
::: :::
41 per Cents ...
Ezebaaga to LWOW Magid, 25 174 ; 90 gays, 23 it.
Deem, 5, IWO lOO3 Meng I
Lan, 1121 34 Naples E•W .. .. . Mossy.
Do. 3, nil — ... Itiunaa „.
Dn. IMO
Do. 2i .....•• .... .. Traseury Ramie
Piedmont 3 p. 34. ... . Si 4$ ... 1 Dank Shares
Etats, Die. 18.—Venailles ((right bank), 280 ; ditto
(left tank!, 024 50 ; Paris sad °Dime, 1,020; Paris aad Roan, 040 ;
gonna and Dane, 240; Maratha., and Marva. 917 30; Stns.
bourn and Bale, 173; Csatre, 420 ; Bendogas aad Amiens. 27430
Orleans and Nadeau:, 1193 75; Northern. 506 23; Parts and Sera&
burg, 416 2t; Toars sad Mate& 275; Montanan anl Troyes; 113;
and recoup. mu
; St. German, 4,3.
1:141: p.
11.1.1 N, DEC. 111—Voluntary Loan, 1021. New
'Loan Four-and-a-Half per Cents., 1021. National
Debt, 891. Commercial Marine Society's Premium,
aOl. Bank Shares, 99.
VIENNA, DEc. 16.—Five per Cents. 3lZtalliques,
981. Foupand-a-lialf per Cants. Metalliques, 829.
Bank Shares, 12.16. Exchange on London, 12.10.

Foe
Iloan. Ownitit ,

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 19, 1851