The Express.
London, England, 1848-07-20 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, THURSDAY ETTENING, JULY 2,0, 1848.

hitherto despised the danger of the club system, Or sion. He has stirred up more tart debates and angry
snood no
in the conflict of opinion out of which recriatinations than all tbe other members pat tine-
it arose. then g. and in addition to the obstructions he thus
Already the catholic clergy have become alarmed threw in the way of the progress of business, he has
for the safety oftheir flocks, and are in many places made long speeches about anything or nothing—on
actively engaged in the good Work of peace. We one occasion filling op so muchof a sitting that only two
have reason to know that the reverend delinquent other members could be heard, and even they got bat
whose oratory at Slieveuenion had so nearly led to very short speeches squeezed in. His crowning exploit,
sanguinary results has long been regarded with die- however, in the obieructing line, was his having the
favour by his diocesan and brethren in orders ; and house counted' out at four o'cicck on Tuesday last,
we believe that, not many months ago, he when there was an enormous list of mo'ions on the
was actually removed from a more important parish vote paper, the very night after Lord J. RUE SELL had
to the scene of his recent ill-performed duties. lie made the humiliating confession that they could not
must, therefore, be regarded as a mere exception to find time in a session of eight months to pass two
the rule. On the other hand, we have seen a letter bills. Last night, as if weary with playing the fool
written the day after the tumult referred to, in which alone, he had recourse to a new mode of teasing, con-
it is stated that the Rev. Dr. Bustee, parish priest of trived to stumble upon en awkward blunder of the
Clonmel, had publicly. denounced the clubs and CHANCELLOR OF TIIE Exeneciuen, and put the pnwe
warned the people against enrolling themselves as comitatus of the Roues of Commons men of business
members of them, or taking any part in assemblages to the blush.
-"cued by their chiefs. The oblect of government in submitting the Sugar
duty_resolutionsto the House of Commons was to allow
the Wen India colonies to im porttheir muscovado sugar
at a duty of 13e. per cwt. in the year 1848-9. Bat
unluckily feet their kindly intentions to the West Indians,'
the first resolution bears that the schedule of duties
of which 13s, forms a part, shall be leviedsugar
and molessee, the growth and produce of any British
possession into which the importation of fix eign sugar
is prohibited." Now, it so happens that the importa-
tion of foreign sugar is not prohibited in any of the
West India colonies, and, consequently, this resolu-
tion cannot apply to them. They must accordingly
be considered as falling cyder the category of "other
British possession," the Muscovado sugar of which is
liable to a duty of 15s. 9d. As the resolutions of
the committee have received the final sanction
of the house, there is nothing for it but
to go into committee again and pass nothing
resolutions.
Should Lord GEORGE and his party avail
of the opportunity to fight their battle over once more,
we shall indeed have a long session, if not a long par-
liament, to render 1848 memorable to future ages.
The CHANCELLOR OF TILE EXCHEQUER had not a
word to say for himself. And the assembled sages of '
the legislature looked as foolish as he. Even Lord
GEORGE, the detector, cannot deny that he has been
a party to this piece of slipshod legislation. Really
a house which takes eight months to complete two or
three bills and:pass one set of resolutions, might be
expected to avoid clerical errors for which the copy-
ing clerk of any attorney would be sure of dismissal.
Bat it appears that our precious House of Commons
not onl does little work, but sleeps over the little
that it does.
------rf----._ -

OUR opinion of the conduct of parliament and of
its leader towards Ireland we axe not sorry to have
written before the arrival of the alarming news which
forms the subject of the above article. fhe following
is that opinion, which everything that has since
occurred too painfully confirms.
We can readily. imagine with what opposite feel-
ings the ministerial announeiment of Monday night
will be received in Ireland. Every good and wise
man will be filled with sorrow ; every leekless and
desperate man with triumph. The friends of
im-
perial security and peaceful progress wth
selves abashed and abandoned; the enemies of order
and tranquillity will repeat with exultation the dis.
reputable and dishonouring confession of the imperial
parliament uttered by the first minister of the crown,
that for the great necessities of Ireland it has, during
an eight months' session, made not a single provision,
and for her manifold evils it has not seriously or
sincerely attempted to provide one effective remedy.
Out-worn agitation, whose final extinction ordinary
good sense, and we must add good faith, on the part
of the legislature, might have rapidly hastened, may
well awake from its moribund state, and hope for a
new career of turbulence and intrigue. And beard-
less sedition may well look forward to a long life
of mischief and distraction, when one great
party in this country avow with official sang froid
that parliament has really no time to do what they
frankly admit to be indispensable to content or peace is-
,
and their hereditary antagonists acquiesce in the d
astrous avowal with a smile of malicious satisfaction,
and a mutter of—" We always told you so."
Parliament met early in November, and will hardly
I separate before the termination of August; and what
as regards Ireland has been the sum total of their
interminable talk? The condition of the community
in that country with regard to ecclesiastical arrange-
ments has long ben the scandal of Chriilendom. Arct
n
extravagant pecuniary charge is imposed on one fpoorest countries in the world, to support the spiritual
pastors, not of the community at large, but of a mi-
nority amounting to about one-fifth, and that the
wealthiest of the entire. The religious teachers of the
presbyterians receive a miserable dole from the state
to requital for their laborious ministry.
The parochial clergy of the southern and western
eatholics have during the last two years of popular
privation suffered oftentimes the pressure of absolute
want. But the prelates and dignitaries of the aristo-
cratic creed have continued to be well supplied with
all that an established hierarchy could desire, with
the exception of congregations. Those who labour much
get little; those who labour more get less; and those
who seldom have any labour to do, get the most part
of what is going. And this system which nine-tenths
of those who sit in parliament thoroughly under-
stand, and in private do not attempt to defend, is per-
mitted to continue year atter year in a country whose
discontent is too near at hand not to be formidable,
and too formidable not to be viewed with continual
apprehension and a certain inarticulate sense of
shame.
The condition of property. in Ireland has loudly
called for remedial legislation. The tenantry com-
plained that they could not improve, because the
worth of their labour was not by law secured to
them. The subject had been again and again dis-
cussed; yet nothing in the shape of just amendment
, in the statutes of landlord and tenant had ever been
attempted. At last, a bill was about three ore r
lan four
months ago introduced by the Secretary for Id, I,
and after some inefficacious commentary, referred to
a select committee. Within the last few days 1
it has made its re-appearance on the table
of the House of Commons; and an incredulous 1,
auditory heard Lord JOHN declare on Monday, that he
had not made up his mind to send it with its brethren ,
I down into the pit of oblivion. But what chance there
may be of its passing between this and the 20th
August, we leave our readers to judge for themselves, 1,
considering the time that has been squandered already
in bringing it thus far.
But t fen there is the Incumbered Estates Bill,—
Sir .1. Itustmtv's guess off-hand at what sort of a
thing an Irish Estates Bill should be :—and a
guess he has made of it, not near the mnrk
nor within long range of it. What needs doing,
it in no wise enables honest or strsight-forward
persons to do; and what everybody knows and feels
ought not to be allowed, its random, loose, and abor-
tive provisions would seem to facilitate. We say
seem, because our firm conviction is, that the bill as it
now stands is utterly unworkable • and that should
it receive the sanction of the. Lords, next session will
witness the old struggle renewed, or rather more
earnestly beAun, in favour of free trade in land.
By way of showing vigour, however, the CHANCEL-
Lon of the Es:mew:Ea has in good time come to the
rescue. The silent despair, which seems of late to
have fallen on the Irish members, struck
Sir CHARLES Wool.) as ominous. The cloud still
lowered on his right, charged with the same
element of discontent that had so frtquently emanated
therefrom in other days. Better draw it out than let
it lie dormant there, thought the sagacious baronet.
So, like the philosopher, he resolved to fly a kite at it
as if in sport, but in reality to see if any mischief
would thus be attracted from it. lie forgot, like his
nrototype, that though he might not thus blow up the
house, he might seriously burn his fingers; and we
shrewdly suspect, if the truth were known, that Sir
CHARLES WOOD'S experimentalising on the temper
and patience of the members from Ireland is one that I
he now most sincerely repents of having ever com-
menced.
1,
The main point in dispute between the CHANCEL-
LOR of the EXCHEQUER and the Irish and Scotch
members (for their constituents, also, protest against
the same injustice), is this: By the new wale-
housing bill, the home distiller is suffered to bond
the spirits he manufactures, as the coloni 1 distiller is
permitted to do ; neither being required to pay the
duty until the quantity needed for use is taken out
for consumption. But Sir CHARLES WOOD, by way
of a sop tothe West Indians, refuses to have the duty on
home-made spirits' charged on the quaatity left, after
years of evaporation, leakage, and waste, and insiAa
upon charging the duty on every gallon originally ma-
nufactured; while, upon the other band, he exacts on
rum, duty only on the actual quantity taken out of
bond fur consumption. No wonder that many of
those whose constituents in Ireland and Scotland
would be unjuraly. mulcted in this way, struggled long
and manfully against such a proposition on Monday
night last. The General Warehousing Bill is a most
useful mere ure. It was originally introduced by Mr.
Morearr, from whom, in fact, it has been officially
adopted. But Mr. MOFFATT'S bill proposed to treat
foreign and home-made spirits alike as to duty; and
on any other basis the bill can never pass into a law.
Of all the sins, however, of omireion and commis-
sion which lie at the door of ministers, is the need-
less anus capricious abandonment of thelrish Franchise
Bill. In this they are absolutely without excuse.
Toe grievance to be remedied is undenied and un-
deniable—the length of time which it has lain limbs
dressed alike dangerous and disreputable. The
measure as introduced early in May encountered no
opposition, and was received with unmingled satisfac-
y
tion b all sections of the community In Id. Y
it has been deliberately shelved, during the lnast tw co
months, and it is now deliberately adjourned sine die

LORD GEORGE BENTINCE is the Puck, or Plage-
glteist of the House of Commons. His lordship's
ability to accomplish anything useful may be doubted,
but he is unequalled for his powers of impeding
business, keeping the assembly in hot water, and
sometimes successfully exposing to ridicule the grave
blunders of his less wayward and mercurial associates.
Of the two first-mentioned qualifications he has
given ample proof in the course of the present sew

that struggle more arduous, obstinate, and inveterate.
Are ministers acting as friends of the Lords, in thus
enoouraging them to a desperate reeistance against an
inevitable necessity ? The pertinacious, but unavailing
resistance of the Lords to Catholic Emancipation, to
the Reform Bill, and to Corn-law Repeal, has done
much to weaken them. Every repetition of resist-
ance to measures for the general good which are sure
who
to be carried in the end, humiliatingly to those
resist, must weaken them still more. If ministers
seek to teach the people to dislike and despise the
Rouse of Lords, their withdrawal of Mr. Linot:-
CHERE'S bill, in,
deference to the prejudices of the
peers, is intelligible, but not otherwise.
-----------=

FRANCE.

PARIS, Weeesenav, 11.30 A.N.
Ti-e ministerial club of the Pallas Royal and its
" succursale " of the Institute have agreed to support
the candidateship of M. Armand Marrast for the
Presidency of the Assembly to-day. The ide .of pro-
for
peeing M. Gamier Pages, which was entertained
a moment, has been definitively put aide.
The club of the Rue de Poictiers have agreed to
support the candidateship of M. Lacrosse. How the
party of the Mountain will dispose of their 70 or 80
votes has not yet transpired. They cordially hate
both candidates, but will probably vote for M.
Marrast.
The re-organization of the municipality of Paris,
which has just been effected by a decree of Geo.
Cavaignac, terminates the career of M. Armand Mar-
rest as Mayor of Paris. The municipality is restored
to the organisation it had before the revolution of
February. The Prefecture of the Seine, which was I
abolished, is re-established, and M. Trouvet-Chauvel,
late Prefect of Police, as I have already stated, ap- I
pointed to the office. M. Ducoux is named Prefect '
of Police, and M. O'Reilly, formerly a political con-
vict, appointed chief Secretary.
The sub-committee of corn neree is occupied with
a proposition to accord protection to companies formed
to encourage exportation. Captain G. Lafind was
called before it, as well as several shipowners, and
they recommended the guarantee of a minimum of
II three per cent. by the state to the funds furnished by
companies as advances for exportation. It is thought
that the committee will declare in favour of the plan.
Oa Su day was arrested at Ivry a man who had
boasted of his having taken part in th:t murder of M.
Mangin, aide-de-camp of General Brea. When seized
he declared with the utmost ,ffrontery that he did not
repent of what he Lad done, and was ready to do the
same thing . gain, and ens quite willing to di. for it.
He was conducted to the prefecture, and committed to
take his trial before the court-martial.
---------
SPAIN.—The;;We front Spain n continues to be;
unfavourable to the Carlist cause. Letters from i
Madrid of the 14th announce that six Carlist officersl
had been shot et Estella, in Navarre. A body of
the
had been completely routed in the untains
1 on the 12th, 10 were killed and five taken prisoners,
1 of whom three were officers.
Letters direct from the frontiers of Navarre say
that the Carnet insurrection has suffered aGenera severe
check in the persons of many of the chiefs. l
IL.arbe and Zubiri, pursued by.the Queen's troops,
have been obliged to take refuge in France, as well as
Colonels Seto, Enneterio, and Sebirino.
General Ilzarbe would have been a dangerous
enemy for the government. He is a very brave sol-
dier, atd has a thorough knowledge of Navarre, in
which he was born. Zubiri served under and received,
his military education front Zumalearregui. Se-
berino, Enneterio, and Soto also powiessed high
qualities. They are all thus a severe and irreparable
loss to the Montemolinist cause.
supine, 3rLY 14.--Three per Ceuta., 2017-16 cash; after 801411, 201
7-16 cash; 201 paper. lire per Cents., 111 paps,; after Bow, n i
Cash. PURAVeS, 41 paper; aver Balsa, 4 rash. ..0 sots, 8 paper.
per of St. Ferdinand, 70 cash; 74 piper ; &routn. of cotes, 4
per cent. Exch.d ge ou London 90 days, 4350,
ITALY.—Adrices have been received from Rover-
I belle, the head quarters of Charles Albert, to the 12th.
A deputation had arrived from Venice on the Ilth,
I announcing officially to Charles Albert the annexation
of the Venetian provinces to the kingdom of northern
Italy.
The Italia del Popolo of the 14th says, that it is
reported that the Austrians intend to attack the line
of the Brenta. If they should obtain possession of
Chioggia, Venice will be cut off from her supply of
water.

Tnar the navigation law can survive much longer
we do not fear. The friends of that precious piece of
legislation may read its fate in tats
fate of the laws
which excluded Boman catholica from our parliament
and foreign corn from our markets. The navigation
law belongs to a class of statutes which have become in-
compatible with the existing state of society. It must
in a short time drop out of the statute-book as surely
as the child's milk teeth, beneath which the second set I
are growing up, must drop out of its mouth.
This reflection does not, however, in the slightest
degree reconcile us to the abandonment of Mr. LABOU-
cileues bill for the present session. The time during
which a bad law is being got rid of is always
most mischievous period of its existence. The navi-
gation law in its present moribund state is as potent
to check legitimate commerce and divert capital into
unnatural channels, as if it had vitality to keep it un-
shaken fora century. And in addition to this, the
uncertainty how long it is to exist paralyses legiti-
mate commercial enterprise. It is always desirab.e
that a law on the eve of abolition should be got rid of
' as quickly as possible, in order that men may feel the
necessity of acquiescing in the new order of things, in-
stead of having their operations palsied by the uncer-
tainty if it is to be the law next year.
Had the measure for altering—for all but abolishing
the navigation law—been passed this year, merchants
would have made their arrangements accordingly. But
as it is, they will he perplexed in the extreme. Certain
though it be that the navigation law must be ulti-
mately abolished, it is now impossible to conjecture
when that consummation will take place. The in-
terests anxious for its continuance have picked up
fresh courage since the postponement of Mr. LABOll-
cliNnes bill was announced, and some of its sup-
porters are already giving symptoms of temporising.
The next morning atter Lord JOIIN ReB,ELL intima-
ted that the measure was not to be pressed this
session the Morning Post declared that the interests
protected by the navigation law would renew the
struggle to perpetuate it with more confidence of suc-
cess ; and for two successive evenings the Globe
wrought hard to insinuate that more doubts attached
to the policy of repealing the navigation laws than it
bad hitherto been aware of ; and that when Mr. LA-
NorcnENE's motion may again be brought forward
some of its details ought to be modified.
Ministers have, by throwing their measure over-
board for the present session, increased the difficulty
of carrying it within any assignable time. And the
blame of its having got no further than into com-
mittee of the House of Commons in this
eighth month of the session 1847-8 is at-
tributable entirely to their hesitation and procrastina-
tion. The doctrine that the navigation law ought to
be, if not entirely. repealed, materially relaxed, is no
new point in their professed creed of political eco-
nomy. The report of the committee, upon which
their bill has been based, has been nearly a year be-
fore the public. The official documents presented to
that committee, which contain the outlines of the
measure, were.prepared more than a year ago. Their
intention to bring in the bill, and only one '
more was
announced in the Queen's speech of the 23cl of Nov.
last. Yet with all the power which ministers pos-
sess of commanding precedence for measures about
which they are really in earnest, it was not till the
15th of May that they moved for leave to bring in
the bill, and they have trifled and lost time with it
ever since.
And they have thus played fast and loose with a ,
measure. for introducing which they have taken great
credit to themselves, being fully aware all the time I
that it is of vital importance to the prosperity of all '
our manufacturers and ell our colonies. The manu-
facturing districts have again and again urged them
to press it, showing how much they are suffering from
its postponement. The principal Australian colony
has petitioned for such a measure two years in sue-
cession. The British North American colonies have
proved to demonstration that the navigation law is
diverting commerce from their waters into those of
the United States. The West India colonies have
' shown that the perpetuation of the navigation law
must incapacitate them to keep their ground under a
system of free trade in colonial produce. Prolonged
commercial distress at home, increased disaffection in
' the colonies, are the first fruits of the cowardice or in-
Isincerity with which ministers have trifled with their
measure for altering the navigation law.
'De parties who clamour against the repeal of the
navigation law are a fraction of the population of
our ship-building ports. They are the operative ship-
builders,
who under that law earn higher wages than
any corresponding class of skilled artisans for work-
ing on an average half the week ; the employers of
these men, who enjoy under the law a monopoly of
building for the British shipowners ; and the ship-
owners, who enjoy a monopoly of some branches of
the carrying trade. It would not be difficult to show
that the advantages derived from the law even by
these classes are in no small degree illusory. The
operative ship-builder may receive higher wages for
less work under it than he otherwise would, but if he
have sons he cannot breed them to his own
trade without overstocking it and reducing wages ;
and the check given to all other branches of pro-
ductive industry by, the operation of the law renders
it difficult to find other employments for them. The
capitalist ship-builder and the chi; owner experience
similar difficulty in giving their children a fair start
in the world from the effects of the navigation law.
But even if the advantages derived frem the law by
these men were as real and substantial as they be-
lieve, is it to be tolerated that all the other subjects of
the empire are to suffer for their benefit?
An overwhelming majority of the general public,
both at home and in the colonies, are anxious for the
passing of Mr. LABOVCIIERE'9 bill. It is secure of a
majority in the House of Commons. There can be
only one reason assigned for the otherwise inexpli-
cable dawdling with which ministers have wrought
for its failure this season. They fear that the
Lords will reject it. But the renewed cour-
age inspired into the supporters of the naviga-
tion law will give the Lords additional courage
to reject the bill next session. If toe Lords are
decidedly hostile to the bill the struggle must come
some time, and every symptom of fear and hesitation
on the part of the promoters of the bill will render

..____
..--------
We have news from Athens to the Bth of July.
The troubles in Phthistis had ceased. A ministerial
crisis had taken place, which had only been settled
late on the 6th. Messrs. Krestenitis (Interior),
Christacopoulas (Finance), and Droseos Mausolea
(Foreign Affairs) have resigned, and been replaced,
for the Interior, by M. Benizelos Roufos, son-in-law
of the President of the Council ; for Finance by M.
Tatzis Maughinas ; and for Foreign Affairs, by M.
Colocotroni. Condouriotti remains President of the
Council and Minister of Marine, and General Rhodius
Minister of War. M. Rhallis is Minister of Justice,
and Mavromichali Minister of Public Instruction.
The Courier d'Athenes, in publishing this list, says :
" If we may judge by the formation of the new mi-
nistry the system will undergo no changes."

GERMANY.

PRUSSIA.—The Berlin papers of the 17th have
come to hand. Our correspondent at CGN ol
E, ogne
LY 18. writes:
COLO JU
It has transpired that the committee appointed by the
Berlin constituent assembly to draw up the new constitution,
has voted, by a majority of 15 to 8, in favour of the two
chamber system, the second chamber to consist of 350 mem-
bers elected by universal suffrage, but in an indirect manner.
The first chamber, according to the decision of the commit-
tee, will forma senate, and the members will he elected by
the united circles or districts. The committee proposes to
double the number of electors in the secondary degree (the
so.called Wahlmenner, who are chosen by the Urwithler,
the elntors in the primary degree), and to declare that candi-
dates are not eligible if they have not been twelvemonths
domiciled in Prussia. The committee has fixed the number
of senators at 175, and has determined that the qualifica-
tions requited shall not differ from those which ore de-
manded from candidates for the other ber, erut tha
a senator must be forty years of agecha. Itm will be rpemem-
t
bered that the first draft of the constitution (the one sub-
mitted to the constituent assembly by the late government)
gave the King the power of nominating number
inco of
e— me
fi-
bers of the upper house. possessed of a certain m
nomination to be herec.itary, provided the determined amount
of income remained in the possession of the eldest son. All
this has been don- away with by the committee, which has
moreover decided that every meather of either chamber
shall not only be paid, but that he must, notens wino, take
the pay, he not being allowed to refuse it. The peoples
chamber (as the second one is called) will be triennial, whilst
the first will be dissolved only every sixth year. No proxies
are to be allowed Such are the main propositions of
committee, and it is not likely that they will be rejectedthe by
the constituent adembly.
The four persons charged with being ringleaders in the
recent attack on the Berlin Arsenal have been sentenced to
terms of imprisonment varying from one to seven years.
Sever_l German journals complain of the delivery to Rus-
sia of Polish fugitives from the kingdom "of Poland.
Conservative clubs are now being formed in many parts of
Prussia, and at two or three recent meetings the Berlin revo-
luticn has been denounced in the most unequivocal terms.
The Berlin Nachrichlen of the 16th, says, the old
ultramontane influence which has so long existed in
Munich is disappearing, and Bavaria now recognises
that an intimate alliance with Prussia will be the
strongest link in the chain which binds Germany to-
ether. By the union of these two states, it will be
impossible for Austria not to join in the general union
of Germany, and the danger will be avoided of Aus-
tria's re-transferring the central point of the empire
to Vienna.
AUSTRIA.—We have the Vienna journals of the
14th. The imperfect organisation of the government
stenographic corps seems to render the immediate
publication of the debates in the Austrian States
Chamber impossible. The Vienna Gazette, of the 14th,
does not even conclude the report of the sitting of the
12th. What there is of it is amusing. Sclavonian,
German, and Patois,are mingled in curious confusion,
and the speeches of some are characterised by the
wends in brackets' broken German."
Regarding the march of the Russians into Molda-
via, a letter from Jassy of the 3rd instant says:
" This afternoon the Russians have marched to
within a league of the city. Their head-quarters are
on the estate of Prince Rosnovan, at Sticks." Later
accounts which appear in the Vienna Gazette state
that up to that time they had not entered Jassy, but
they were expected to enter on the 9th.
Accounts from Pesth (Hungary) of the 11th, state
that the Chamber of Deputies heal Hung
or the
lower house as it is called, had assembled one
10th for the nomination of a president. On the llth
Kossuth made his opening address, which lasted two
hours. He stated what the ministry had been doing
for the last four months, and in the fear that the