The Express.
London, England, 1849-10-17 00:00:00

Vie erpregio.

OUTGOING MAILS.
The mails for British North America and the United
States will be mode up on the evening of Oct. 19.
The mails far Gibraltar, Melte, Greece, the lonian Islands,
89110, Ceylon, India, mad China, 014 Southampton, will
be made up on the morning of Oct. 20.
Tee mails via Marseilles, to the Mediterranean, Egypt,
Ceylon, India, Hong-Kong, &c., will be made up on the
evening of October 24.
The next mail r Lisboa, Spain, and Gibraltar will be
made up on Oct. 27.
The West India Mails, including Bermuda, Havanna,
Nascau, Honduras, New Oilcan., and Mexico, and excluding
those ter Madeira, St. Jean-de-Nicaragua, New Granada,
Chili, and Peru, will be made up on Nov. 2.
The mails for Madeira, the Brazils, and 811114011 Ayres,
will be made up on Nov. 5.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON DEMOB.
T. Da, —Mornlige, t b Ske AfterrAm. Ib.JO EL
Tf-buta.m—llefilAt. lb. I. Affirm." g►. figg.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 17.

Chia tory contemporaries are coming round to
mildness and repentance. For this twelvemonth and
upwards they have been acting poets laureate to
despotism and trumpeters to RADETSKI, to FILAN-
CHERI and to HAYNAU. Their desires have bsen
aecompliehed, the heroes whom they supported Lave
been vic'oriou4, the cause which they extolled
and held up for admiration and sympathy to the
British 'people is triumphant. Seditim, dis-
order, anarchy, republicanism, with every vestige
of popular liberty and popular license, have
all been quenched and quelled. And that Sa-
turnian reign of kings, by right divine, and of
generals by sight brutal, is at this moment inaugt-
, rating with the usual pomp., usual decrees, and
usual sacrifices. How is it that oar contemporaries,
who sighed, and argued, and falsified, and bilk n gsgated,
all to brirg about the very state of things just accom-
plished, should now turn away in disgust and horror ?
The deeds which we are now contemplating, the
hangings of nobles without trial, the massacre of
general officers by the score, the floggings of ladies, the
arrest or proscription of all that is enlightened, mo-
derate, or respectable in every land—these are the
results of that triumph, which these English journalists
invoked. How is it that they excite tt e preveste, or
command the silence of our learned contemporaries P
The Morning Chronicle, which has been so long the
unblushing chime ion of every infamy of the Austrian
government, is forced to turn upon its patrons. The
Times, that pursued with bloodhound inveteracy every
man and every principle that stood in opposition to the
tyrants of Naples, of Milan, and of Rome—the Times,
which has been hallooing on the military butchers in
Hungary, pluses in its leading columns, although its
correspondents continue to distil their usual pois-n.
It gently reproves its ally, the King of NAPLES,
mistrusts the wisdom of the new Cardinal Inquisition,
and contemplates in dubious silence that inhuman
torture and aserifice of LOCH BATIITANY--Sllexecu-
tion, which from the firm nobleness and the innocence
of the victim, the refinement and ferocity of the torture,
the mockery of a trial, has never been surpassed in the
dungeons of the inquisition. The Times correspon-
dent, indeed, dares to insinuate that Loris BATTIIANY
was privy to the murder of LATOUR. We want words
to express our opinion of the man who penned these
Ikea at such a moment, or of the journal which prints
them. Louis BATIITANY was as humane and noble
as he was liberal. Yet this is the man whom HAYNAU
without form of trial doomed to the winos; m And so
furious was he, when the lacerated neck of the victim
forbade the officer to earry this sentence into execution,
and when death by soldiers' fire was substituted, that
he actually put the officer under arrest, and has sent
him befo:e a court martial.

Blame not Austria, wrote the Times, some weeks
back ; its government, we may depend upon it, will
not be more aangninory or vindictive than England was
in 1798, after she put down the Irish rebellion. Why
Lot have added, that the Russian envoys to Con-
stantinople ware not more vindictive and death.dci.l-
- to tugitive liberals than MORE ()TIMBAL', of cruel
and on-Engl;sh memory, or than Mr. WARD, who
strings up malefactors without trial, and puts a price
on the head of fugitives,equally untried, to be brought
to him dead or alive.

As Englishmen, however, we must continue to
brand wilful despotism and wanton atrocity, without
reference to that immoral standard, the consciences of
men in power. If Lord JOHN RUSSELL, by his Bat-
moral letter, Lord GREY, by his approval of MORE
O'Fisatt.sen and drc3ration of Mr. WARD, choose to
place theme lets in the same rank with the If ATNAUS
and the FILANGIERIS, we can only call on public opi-
nion ani on parliament to recall them to a sense of
what is due to humanity, as well as to the character
of the country, disgraced and stained by such acts.
The greet duty of the public in such CASES is not
to be oblivious. For it is upon oblivion that these
personages count. Ministers often core little what
error they ctAnmit, or what extravagant judgment
they utter in recess, expecting that the tide of
affairs wi.l sweep away all trams of it long
before parliament opens. The press indeed ought to do
its duty in the meantime; but the press in general
which is patronised by the British public, is a press
which abhors freedom, which mocks humanity, and
which has not one word of support or one smile of
approbation, except for those despots who crush cot-
mutations, who send liberals in the mass, whether
moderate or immoderate, to the dungeon or the scaf-
fold, and whom chosen pastime is the flagellation of
women and the embowelling of men.
It is probable, however, that these champions of des-
potism amongst us, these tory writers, will now gloat
less on blood. The deels are done, the great work
has been accomplished. Military despotism reigns from
the Baltic to the Mediterranean. Tho iron rule meets ,
with no opponent, no obstacle, no murmur, except
as rise here and there from a population prostrate on
the earth.

Those amongst us who strove and who wrote to
bring about and to land such a state of things must,
however, now pretend not to be quite satisfied. They
must affect that language of moderation, which they
carefully avoided when it might have done some good.
Now, indeed, they will talk of moderation,when mode-
rates there are none, and recommend constitutional
government when the only men who could realise a
constitutional government are no more. Above all,
they cannot openly revel in blood, nor
clap hands at the sight of those scaffolds
which they have striven to raise. The Austrians
scorn the ceremony of judicial proceedings. They
have installed no judge, formed no court, save that of
the drum-head, and had no Attorney-General to
prepare iedictinents. Our Times and Chronicle alone
have aced the part of Attorneys-General to 'Lateen
and to OUDINOT. They have drawn up the charges,
collected the calumnies, and• preferred the indict-
ments against every patriot, no matter of what race
or colour—ltalian or Hungarian—MAZZlNl or Kos-
sum. Would you become acquainted with any of
the supposed crimes that their enemies laid to their
charge, or that the agents of despotism have in-
vented, you will find them nowhere, save in the
columns of English journals like the Chronicle and
the Times.
Bat now that the executioner's work is done, he
puts on otaer clothes and returns to the garb of
common life. Now that the deeds of blood, and ven-
geance, and despotism have been accomplished, the
journals amongst us that favoured and abetted and
raved in order to further it, retire with a satisfied
000.oience to mingle with their fellows, and re-
assume or affect the language of humanity.
They pretend to be horrified with blood, to be shocked
at scaffilds, to be very sensitive on the score of
mercy and for the interests of liberty. The hypoc-
rites. All we ask is, that they be judged by the ge-
nuine rabidity of their nature, when they acted tigers,
and not by that meek and affected softness, which, like
the feline tribe, they now put on, after their appe-
tites have been gorged from the shambles of the
executioner.

THE municipal elections take place throughout
England on the lst of November. There are a few
loge towns in which local differences are likely to
afford occasion far contests. In Liverpool a fierce
battle has long been waging about a project called
" the Pike Scheme," the merits or demerits of which
are utterly unappreciable beyond the locality. The
" Pro-Pike " and " Anti-Pike "parties are to fight it
out upon " the first," and they are preparing for the
struggle with a hot-burning zeal that local politics
and animosities are alone capable of exciting. At
York, the outgoing councillors were, it is alleged,
creatures of the late Lord Mayor, and a dead set
is consequently made against certain of
them by those who took the most active part ,

iu the dethroning of King ID:Insole. In some oto
VAinui, as at Colchester, where parties cannot seer
upon the fittest municipal officers, contests on, also
anticipated; and there are other smeller munieip
in which personal and party feeling will prevoire „1/
position to any candidate who may. be pioposed
eithrr side, let him he whom be may.
But upon the whole, we are gratified to learn from
the provinces that a better feeling is beginning to
pervade municipal constituencies, and that too
Municipal Reform Act is at length likely
to produce better fruits than it has Lithert;
put forth. The passing of that act %as
measure obnoxious to the interests as well as to the
sentiments cf an influential class of persons, it
was a measure strongly opposed in parliament by
party wheel views have authority and power out
doors. of
The consequence was, that it vas received,
when first it was passed into a law, with exultation
by one party, and with acrimonious he:alley by
another. Neither sent ment was calculated to pro,
mote tha well working of the measure. Waste
the tories were able to eh& their pirti•
cans under the act, they siudioasly seme
to impede its sucecesfnl operation. On aye
other hand where the new town councils were
selecte I oy the liberals, it too often happened that
they endeavoured to carry out the pr3vieoris of the
act too eagerly and hastily, and thereby ran their
municipalities into temporary debt and difficulty, la
both casts the t Awns suffered. The liberals, in the
first case, strove ardently at each recurr.ug tleetice
to obtain their due representation in the c
the c zesequen-e was a series of certain' which greyly
embittered local society, and which were tea otter'
conducted upon principles very crongly to be repo,
hended. In th 3 other instances, the tarry patty
triumphed in the injury inflicted on their toe!), sod
having in their turn obtained the asuxdancy, end
shown themselves still le.rs discreet than thi it pi oder s.
sore, efforts were made to dispossess them of their had
upon the local chest, and party fights earned, whirh
were anything but advantageous to the locality,
Thus a base and corrupt system has come to be Ito
gnegn eernaac! yme
meat, end
1 thneddi underth a
has been
then operation of a
i „a
municipal elections were a nuisacee, gsay.
thing but honour or profit upon those engaged
them.

From all that we learn respecting the prospects of
the ensuing elections, a better spirit is likely to per.
vade consti'uenc'es. Experience has taught the
municipalities that it is for their Interest
not to make these tlutions the oxasi,g
of faction struggles, but to elect to the
privileges and honours of the corporation ihe beg
men the town affords, without distinction creed
or party. In the course of the preeent Jew, too,
public attention has been greatly directed to 'old
improvements and measures of sa,.itary reformative.
Tne municipal,ties are not anxious to earMa a to
d funct Commission of Sewers in the metropnlis,
'They see very clearly the hopelessness of prtc:iwl
improvements where gentlemen spend ell the time
in squabbling and fighting. There seems ace aaliagly
to be a general desire to place in the councils men
who c eapalilife=, position, and general fitness mem.
mend them as competent to carry out thoee metaures
which there is now sa favourable an opportusi.e of
advocating. Thus we find the Liverp-el CAresie►., a
strong opponent of " the pike 'chew," regret :Li
that the course taken by many of the merchants is
favour of that project must necessarily deprive the
count ] of some of the best public men in Lireresol,
"In every po'nt of view," it says, "it he d-kir.ba
that our council should fairly re pees-tit the leading
interests of the town. Wilt the intachan?a of Meer.
pool forfeit their claim to the honor of adminiaciiaT
the finest corporate estate in the empi,e f eat a
crotchetty adherence to an unropuler measure 9" In
the same way, we observe at Sheffield, that at a gene•
ral meeting of the burges•ee, which was attei ed
force by the chartists of the town, the rerresentstives
of ever) party present desired to sign c lapin cacti.
dates who should best promo•e the interests of the
municipality. And what said one of the candidates
who was chosen?

"I don't care," said he, "for any party name. I Wok
Dam's a nur • bugbear. (Hear.) We have been too loop
divided. And for what purpnse ? (lieu.) Not for say
good that we ourselves cb'ained, hut to (red: thole a!r,ra
us to get into power, to flit places with their owes rchrium
and dependents, to burden the country with a Ivo cis
list, to put the aristocracy into all the branches of the ram,
and into every public office. That is the object for which
party names have been given to u': that is the o`j,ct fur
which they would • ivide the boroughs, swing chartist
against whig, and whig aptiret radical, and talcs! &phut
tory. But I will not vote 14 any name. I will not aye for
any man becanse he is eallrd either a tory, a chartist a
whig, or a radical. I mill tote for conscientious, indepos
dent neon, who have the good of the town to heart." (Ap-
plause. A voice, " Tod 's better than any name.")

"That's better than any name!" We re-echo that
remark a hundred times. The gentleman who mode
the speech—his name was Hoote—deserves all the
honours his fellow-townemen cat beat upon him.
We know not of what party he is a member. The
report gives no clue to his political opinion. Bat let
him be who or what he may, he is a man who evi-
dently holds the interest of bis native town far &bon
personal or party considerations. And these are the
men we want in eve.y council, whether it be the
council of the town or the council of the state.

There have been many municipal constituencies
amongst which corruption has shown itself in various
disgraceful forms. Rochester and Lichfield we took
an opportunity some months ago of •x, ibiting to
public view as specimens of the wore clips of muni-
cipal electorates. We sincerely hope that there will
be an abatement of these disreputable practicer. In
Colchester the tory party have, on former occasion!,
been in the habit of treating to some extent at mum-
cipal elections, and of throwing the ex-enas upon the
parliamentary representative of the borough who could
best afford to pay. That gentleman is now unseated, snd
the Colchester tones no longer possessing a hold upon
his purse, have fallen in with a proposition to aban-
don the public•house system and permit the eontist
to be conducted fairly. Whatever the motives or the
eircamstances under which these degrading practices
are abandoned, the abandonment is of itself a point
gained to the cause of purity. And we are glad to
I observe that the feeling of the country upon th.s sub-
ject is generally improving. " Bribery," says a con-
temporary, "bribery, to our sorrow and shame, has
not been unknown at our former municipal elections.
But it would be insulting to hint that any of the
gentlemen we have named would stoop now to so de-
grading a means of ensuring success." Wherever there
is corruption practised at the ensuing contest', we
trust it will be thoroughly exposed ; and certainly
we shall not fail in our duty if we should chance to
hear of it.

BALLINASLOE fair has long been regarded ai the
greatest event in the Irish industrial year. In pros-
perous times it was the annual opportunity for rea-
lising profits; and amongst the riche- farming class
for outlay on certain kinds of luxuries. The stock-
feeder was content to lie out of his money for six
months previously, in the hope of turning all into
cash during the first week of October; and the specu-
lative breeder of "top lots " was content to see prices
go up, and other periodical opportunities of selling to
advantage go by, in the confidence that however well
his precipitate neighbcur might do, he would do
better at Ballinasloe.

There was a certain Eclat in being among the fore-
most there. Other fairs were at best but provincial
or county sales of sgricultural produce : this w.s na-
tional, in the truest sense of the term, for buyers and
sellers came from every quarter of the kingdom, and,
what was of more consequence, cattle, sheep, and
horses were brought thither from greater distances
than in any other case to compete for a long price
on Garbally-green. And thus there was always a
greater quantity to be found and a greater diversity
wherefrom to choose thancould anywhere else be met
with. Farmers from this side of the Channel, and
horse-dealers of both high and low degree added to
the throng. Thither likewise flocked numbers of
that ambulatory class whom our ancestors would
have been much more disposed to honour with the
name of merchants than with the somewhat superci-
lious epithet which those who vend fancy articles of
use oe ornament in the City or West-end, are
wont to apply to such of their brethren as
" frequent fairs. For when the Gslway squire
had sold his thorough-bred colt at a " raffling
price," or the Mayo grazier had pocketed msny
hundred pounds clear profit on his smallest drove,
the man of " fashionable jewellers and French sh►wls"
was tolerably auto to mske his expenses and a trifle,
more for his pains.
But these were the good old times of
throughout which it is an undoubted fact, according
to all contemporary chronicle. thereof, that everybody