The Express.
London, England, 1847-02-13 00:00:00

tie majority and mole sensible of them, as is duo to
Lord lone RUSSELL and his colleagues, as well as to
the true interests of their country. But some gentle-
men from the sister country are very queer fish; they
greedily snap at and swallow any bait, that the idle
or insictous political angler may cast within their
tenet One declares, he is bound to Lord GEORGE
BENTINCN, whose one offer of sixteen millions out-
balances all the boons and all the policy of the
Whigs to Ireland. Another excuses himself
6r voting against ministers by alleging that the po-
pular feeling in Ireland demands it. Are these Use
principles of Irish politicians P These the measures of
their gratitude and constancy? May the first Tory
invent who displays the cockade, and beats his drum
with promise of bounty, be sure of enlisting the poli-
ticians of the Irish party ? Are they at the service
of the highest bidder, without any care for an
examination of what is just, expedient, or fea-
rible ? Or are the Irish members so bound down,
not merely by the prejudices of their constituents,
—for these, though often abused, are at times disin-
terested—but by their avidity for English grants? This
would be viler still. English and Scotch members
upon Irish questions have always had the courage
and manliness to brave the prejudices of their con-
stituents. Sir ROBERT PEEL'S vote for emancipation,
despite of Oxford; Mr. MACAULAY'S far the May-
math grant, despite of Edinburgh, are not solitary
instances, but bright examples of the fold generosity
of liberal convictions. Is the Celt incapable of these
Saxon virtues?
We are no enemies of railways, and think that
something might be done for Irish railways. Nay,
the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER was perhaps too
sweeping in his denunciations, when we reflect that the
first English railroads in this populoua and wealthy
country had the advantage of loans, and made good
Hie of, and return for, them. But as a relief mea-
sure, and, above all, as concocted and presented by the
Protectionist chief, the minister is perfectly justified,
not merely in opposing, but scouting the present one.
The defect of Lord GEORGE BENTINCK'S biU is,
that it is a measure of neither temporary nor perma-
nent relief. Permanent good to the country it would
be, but not of the kind calculated to lighten the
labour market. On the contrary, whatever hands it
took from agriculture, it would one day suddenly fling
back. These hands, too, would be in small proportion
to the capital advanced, and would not be those which
it is the present object to employ. This is not all.
Were Lord GEORGE BENTINCK'S bill to become law,
and be immediately carried into operation, it would
limit the power of government to afford immediate
relief to Ireland. The lowest estimate that has
been made of what it will cost first and last to supply
the destitute Irish with employment, and to throw the
requisite supplies of food into the country is ten or
twelve millions. We do not believe there are half-a-
dmen individuals who believe that the expenditure
will be ultimately expressed by anything like so low
a figure. Now the prevailing scarcity throughout
Europe has partially embarrassed our trade. The
necessity of throwing large supplies of food into Ire-
land has further disarranged it by giving an artificial
bias to its operations. The national income and ex-
penditure are so closely balanced that the millions
wanting must of necessity be mined by lean : here
is another element of disturbance, for government
never enters the money market as a borrower
without unsettling it. If in addition to all
these government is to be compelled to raise imme-
diately a part or the whole of sixteen millions for the
construction of railways in Ireland, a monetary crisis,
with all its disastrous consequences, will be inevitable.
When the credit of merchants and manufacturers is
giving way on every side, where will the funds be
&and upon the raising of which the power of this
country to relieve Ireland depends? It is the wealth
and credit of Great Britain alone that can procure
the means of that relief; and both will be tried suffi-
ciently without such an additional strain as Lord
GEORGE BENTINCK would place upon them.
We regret exceedingly this protracted and idle de-
bate upon railways. The statement of the CHANCEL-
LOR of the EXCHEQUER should first come, in order to
supply the light in which the legislature should view
it. We regret that the temporary measures were not
first voted, and then the Irish Poor Law brought on.
The other measures are all supplementary to that.
A full discussion of the poor-law scheme would prove
the necessity of concomitant measures, and the house
would then come to the discussion of those measures,
convinced of the necessity of doing something.
Whereas at present the great danger lies in the conti-
nuance of a kind of cross-fire debate between half-a-dozen
parties and opinions, whose aim is to kill every pro-
ject not its own. And the final result of collective
wisdom may unfortunately be a resolve to do nothing.

It ie quite natural that the great Combined should
feel very sore at present. Their quadruple alliance,
with all the mesas and appliances of the Overland
Mail, as forwarded by the joint efforts of the French
and English_governments, been twice beaten by
Lieutenant WAGHORN and the Daily News. This
was mortifying enough. And, worse than this, the
shabby subterfuge by which they sought to conceal
the fact has proved so transparent as to expose them
to the contempt of the public at large. While
writhing under this twofold disgrace, large allowance
can be made for their explosions of spleen. But this
toleranoc has its limits.
Apart altogether from the minor consideration whe-
ther this, that, or t'other journal has been most suc-
cessful in its efforts to serve the public, there are
two important questions to be decided by the
experiments now in progress to test the com-
parative eligibility of the Trieste or Marseilles
routes from Alexandria:—one of national justice
and one of national policy. With Lieutenant WAG-
Bost, originated the plan of a regular overland con-
veyance of ,the Indian mail rid Alexandria. His
energy and perseverance experimentally established
the practicability of the scheme under every disad-
vantage. His experience and skilful combinations
brought the system to its present grade of compare-
tgiztelierfection. Lieutenant Wsarrotte has sug-
an essential improvement on the line of com-
munication which owes its being to him. Gratitude
for an important benefit received at his hands—sym-
pathising respect for inventive energy and enterprise
—ought to ensure him candour and fair play from
every Englishman. And without appealing to such
graceful and generous sentiments, regard for our
own interests ought to teach us the selfish wisdom
to seek to learn the exact truth respecting the
comparative merits of the Marseilles and Trieste
routes. It is ludicrous, and at the same
time painful, to see the spleen of the Timm and
Herald prompting them to falsify the results of the
experimental trials of these routes, simply to alleviate
the mortification they feel at being detected in their
dishonest attempt to conceal the defeat they have
sustained.
The simple facts are as follow :—the routes diverge
at Alexandria. By order of the government, WAG-
HORN'S despatches are detained till the mails are on
board the Marseilles steamer, in order that both may
have a fair start. Both leave Alexandria together : the
mails for Malta and Marseilles in the Ariel, WAG-
HORN'S for Trieste in the Ardent. Five experimental
tripe have been made. On the first, WAGHORN beat
the Marseilles express. On the second, the Marseilles
express beat WAOHORN by a few hours. On the
third, the Marseilles express beat WAGHORN by four
hours. On the fourth, WAGHORN beat the Marseilles
express by eleven hours. On the fifth, WAGHORN
again best the Marseilles express by more than two
days. The Times and the Herald do not attempt to
deny that these results are in favour of Lieut. WAG-
Roan's route, but they attempt to neutralise their
effect by misrepresentations and cavils.
" The truth is," says the Times of Wednesday,
"that these experiments have been rendered, in a
Feat measure, nugatory by the fact that one party
has been left to struggle against all the difficulties of
which we have just been complaining ; while the
other has been favoured with all the advantages by
which we would fain see them superseded." The
difficulties of which we have just been complain-
ing" are thus summed up :—" The two routes are
compared unfairly. It is assumed that they diverge
from Alexandria under equal advantages, and that
the obstacles encountered are only those respectively
inherent in each, which it is the precise ob-
?ect of the trial to ascertain. The oontrary
is the fact. The voyage to Trieste is performed
by a remarkably good steamer, while that to Malta is
executed by a singularly bad one, and thus an inequa-
lity at a stage of the proceedings whore all things are
mimed equal, neutralises the experiment, and
utterly vitiates the result." To a similar effect the
Herald last week affected to speak of the steamers
icaployed between Alexandria and Marseilles, as
" wretched tubs."