The Express.
London, England, 1847-12-07 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY, DEC. 7.

IT is not merely because we are one of the pram
that we say it, but from a far deeper and more diniz.
terested conviction, we insist, that all the onward
movements and all the reforms which have beat
made, and fought for, won and developed, during Ma
last twenty years, are utterly incomplete, natil •
crowned by the establishment and success of a cheap
and a popular prem. What, in fact, is the opacities'
of the franchise—what the truth of fermentative

government—without the full knowledge that sow
nals alone can give, or can excite, strike ed.
or prove? And- what is this great source d
information bat a closed and sealed up fountain
to the elector, who must pay one-fifth or one-sixth of
his daily earnings to possess or peruse it in quiet?
The journal is not only the sole source of political is.
formation and current knowledge, but it is the great
promulgator of the law—of its reason, justice, slope,
and interpretation; it records the words and Acta at
the legislature, the sentences of the courts, the con-
struction of the judge. It is a manual of every one's
rights and duties; it warns every man against ante
and mispatriotism ; it is the great placard which the
stale should allow no one to be ignorant of, and which,
could each a thing be done, it should erect in every
hamlet, and offer, in large and gratuitous letters, to
every eye.
But a journal, that great herald of modern life,
government cannot even touch, much lets under-
take, without at once destroying its influence
and neutralising its powers. The duties of the
press and of the government are so distinct, that
the public would at once repudiate the thought of
taking advice and information from the same hand
which conducts the administration. Like so maw
other of our institutions, therefore, and like so mach
of the great machinery of oar social and political
frame, the press has been left to the usual incitements
and energies of private enterprise.
In thus abandoning it, however, the government
no doubt has been destined to find in the prat a
troublesome critic and an inconvenient questions;
and, though the press has is general supported tins
interests of the public against those of an administro-
tion, still the public has long left it to the mercy d
the executive. First, it was cried down es dangerous
and seditious, and trammels placed upon it. The
public voice ordained the removal of these, and pre-
vents their being again forged. But the heavy fetters
of a censorship have always been replaced by timed
fiscality, which wore represented as not only useful to
the revenue, and just, as levying contributions from a
prosperous undertaking, but salutary, as hanging a
weight upon a force too elastic and powerful, and as
confining the use of this power to people of capital,
and consequently of respectability and education.

There is no use in now discussing the wisdom or
justice of such a precaution, since there cannot be a
doubt that it has long since been carriedtoo far,and that
the press, in lieu of needing to have difficulties thrown
in its way, in order to limit the wielding of, and the
speculation in, it to large and respectable capitalists,
suffers under a quite contrary evil, that of too naturally
constituting monopoly, of deterring and precluding
anything like competition. The nature of the prem,
and the mode of establishing and supporting it, effect
this more poliadity than any laws, fiscal or prohi-
bitive. And se is the tendency, that the pros
dische parepeise the sole remnants of that
d abused peivilage which perpetuates power in
Millignisubjecte the people at large to undergo
dis legislation or dictation of a crotchety,
and arrogant family.
- The es.ty of the government, or rather of par-
liament, ay therefore, if it will not have itself,
as well as the country, the slave of entailed
journalism, in order to prevent such a state of
things, to facilitate by every. fair means the extension
of the press, and the bringing it down to the means
of the lees wealthy clams. This was fully felt in
1836, and was sought to be acted apnea. Bat un-
fortunately, the CHANCELLOR 01, TILE EXCHEQUER of
that day, on lowering the tax on newspapers, was
induced by tho clamour of the lbws, and the repre-
sentations of its opponents, so to lower it as to
offer that journal a very great and psoaliarly exclu-
sive advantage. In fact, parliament for the
Times and for monopoly on that anemias, and this
can be proved in a dozen sentences.
The following are the stamp duties impaled upon
newspapers by the Act of 1836 :
d.
For every sheet or other piece of paper whereon
any newspaper shall be printed
And where such sheet or piece of paper shall con•
fain on one side thereof a stiper&ies exclusive
of the margin of the letter press, exceeding one
thousand five hundred and thirty inches, and
not exceeding two thousand one hundred and
ninety-five inches, the additional duty of
And where the same shall contain on one side
thereof a superficies, exclusive of the margin of
the letter press, exceeding two thousand two
hundred and ninety-five inches, the additional
duty ef
Provided
.always that say sheet or piece of paper
containing on one side thereof a superteies, ex-
clusive of the margin of the letter press, not
excerliog seven hundred and sixty-five inches,
which shall be published with, and MI a supple-
ment to, any r, chargeable with say of
the duties afoessaia. shall be chargeable only
with the duty et
It will be observed that the maximum of the sheet
on which one posy is charged is exactly double the
size of the sheet on which one. half-
is Amer of this maximum size there-
onnz.. rpm" ef obieremirriey seppiseratal
sheet liedig 766 indesesef basrdpisszieueadi Ada
Bat ewe is the levee "dm. e>t mip Myr
piper et ides esesionlitdr,
paper rdadad ea kohl &• will be
charged all pall ta 766
of letter-pm* ea ea& Wirsd=fpente •
sheet containing I ,11616behes. • •
Now, daring threw/Mho devery year, nineteen&
twentislis al the newapepere published in this
construed& find a sheet with 760
inches of letter-
press ea sail Ades roomy enough
news hold all their
news at ald their advertissemsts; and would 114
on maiermeise ef eidessediersy• primes. II
suppiemiallal sheet ef the sails Aso emir • MS.
dent. • 710 inimmes adverlisinp unarm edna Illr
Times, however, compels
.it to publish:a:
daily, the compulsion coining in the iris
of some hundred thousand a year paid <
menu. The limes cannot publish on a mast elisst
than one which contains 1,530 inches of type Road
side ; and when labouring under a plethora dab,*
tisernents, the Times is allowed to issue a eilt,
ment of half the size for half the duty. The
pays literally one halfpenny for every sheet ociatsisp
mg 760 inches of type on each side. If wa 1/01/S•
ever, ask to pay at the same rate—" No," says e•
law, " You are a young paper ; you do not want
and cannot hope to till a large sheet with
advertisements for many years. You are a cheap
paper and can only exist by a very extensive sale.
Take, then, your choice: either pint on piper the
same size as the nines—paying flit the matter with
which yaw year des, ted of behailiiii.for
patting it ha es the Minis; at pint on maaßar_pypor,
awl tiaaribrlisolevasr d
11111 te duty.' Wild
;h mention the Awes
itiCastapolllisa am Orals, oak atom akin
• Wilt at the tamalliepdat 0(
view.. pigpen tbolooldliwatpelhampdaty ea
newsmen, 'with thefir ilititaW Is the
stamp my on a receipt for tad AM SOW in
amount as the stamp duty on a relit*: be hun-
dred pounds ? Why then should there ow Warn
stamp for newspapers? Can any valid mama be

vied against a graduated taz upon newspapers—of
oos halfpenny on the paper osld for 20. or ad.. and
one penny on the paper sold for Sd. or 6d. ?
We do not uk for this : but we do ask fo
i tome
awn equitable adjustment of this tax. Or, f that
may not be, then abolish it altogether, and let us
ham a stamped post cover.

We are glad to see that Mr. C. PEARSON is exert-
ing himself to discharge a portion of the debt which
he owes to his eonstituents and to the public, kee de-
riving them of the services of so able and useful a
representative as the formes member for Lambeth,
whom he supplanted. Mr. PEARSON has given no-
tice of the introduction of two bills, for the amend-
meet of criminal practice, which appear to us to be
remarkable judicious and practical measures. By one
of these bills he proposes to extend the power which
the officers of the Crown Courts exercise, of taxing the
cats of prosecutions, to those of defences—a proposal
to which it seems impossible that any objection can
be raised on principle, although some skill and judg-
ment will be required make the measure act, as it
is intended, for the protection of prisoners. Few of
our readers, except those who are conversant with
criminal courts, are aware of the grievous ex-
tortion practised on persons committed for
trial, and still more on their Mends and n-
Wives, by the sham attornies and low pees&
firmer* who haunt the purlieu of the prisons. The
respectable attornies who combine criminal towlines
with their other practice, would welcome the intral
duction of any system which should secure their pro.
fusion against the discredit unjustly brought upon it
by the cleat of prisoner-defenders to whom we refer.
The legitimate remuneration for their professional
trouble would be in no degree interfered with, by an
efficient taxation which would put an end to the ex-
tortionate bargains now made with the fears and the
ignorance of the accused.
In nineteen criminal trials out of twenty, the rea-
sonable expenses of a prisoner's defeaoe consist of the
trifling fee paid for a copy of the depolitions, of the
attorney's fee, and of the counsel's fee. Witnesses to
character generally come, and always ought to come,
at their own expense ; and it is not in more than one
trial out of twenty, that witnesses to the facts are, or can
be, called on the pert of the defence. In an ordinary
case of larceny, the attorney for the prisoner has',
nothing to do but to hand a copy of the depositions in
the form of a brief to his counsel, and to be ready in
court in cue his presence should be required. He is
fairly entitled to a fee for his attendance; but his
labour is much less than that of the attorney for the
prosecution. The counsel's fee is regulated by custom.
His talents and energies are much more heavily taxed
than those of the counsel for the prosecution, and the
payment which he receives is about the same. There
seems no reason for any change in this respect; but it
would be better that the taxing officer should have
the opportunity of knowing in every case what fee hu
been actually paid.
We believe that in a very. large proportion of the
defences entrusted to low or irregular practitioners, it
would be found that the prisoner has paid a much
larger sum than it would be possible to expend in
legitimate fees. We have beard of a case where •
prisoner bad paid 401. to his attorneys, of which four
guineas only, an unusually high fee 131 criminal cases,
came into the hands of the counsel who performed the
only material service rendered to the cheat. Similar
instances of extortion, though seldom on so large a
scale, are well known to be practised at every cri-
minal court. It I. superfluous to point out the bad
effect of such practices in producing dissatisfaction
with the administration of justice, in the minds of the
elan front which criminals are taken. The poor and
*potent cannot distinguish a regular from a fraudu-
lent demand, nor a respectable lawyer from a petti-
fewer. They only know that it costs 101. or 121. to
oblate the advantage of a defence, and they probably
think that lawyers in general are engaged in a confe-
deracy to keep up the price of justice.
The most important part of a scheme for submit-
ting the costs of &Ewes to taxation must be the
means of informing prisoners that they have a right
to this security against extortion. The governor of
the gaol should be directed to inesrtain as far as per
what sum the prisoner ee his friends have paid
to the attorney for the defence; and the clerk of
mire, or clerk of the peace, ae the case may be,
should require the attorney to account for the sant so
ascertained to have been received, by fife and legal
charges. It would probably be necessary to give the
court a summary power of ordering the attorney to
refund any sum received, which had been diaalloweel
by the officer. In the case of wealthy or educated
defendants who chose to make a special bargain for a
higher payment, it would be easy for the attorney
to secure his extra costs, though disallowed by the
court. Ordinary prisoners ought not to be bound by
agreements to pay more than the regular legal fees.
The second measure which Mr. .asox
to introduce, is likely, if it is adopted, to IC7:hese
step to an improvement in criminal pretending.,
which we have repeatedly advocated, the abolition of
grand juries. The measure itself, however, falls far
short of so sweeping a change, and may be regarded
either as experiment towards a suppression of
the existing system, or u a permanent departure
from it in a certain class of cases only. It is pro- I
posed, in certain classes of committals within the
district of the Central Criminal Court, to give the
police magistrate power to indorse on the deposidu%
or warrant of commitment, a certificate that it is ast
necessary to submit the evidence to the grand jury.
The magistrate's certificate would then form the
basis of an information against the prisoner, and the
expense, delay, and uncertainty of taking the evidence
before the grand jury and of drawing the indictment,
would be at once dispensed with. It would be nooces-
eery carefully to guard against the danger of making
the information as technical as the indictmeat, by
giving an unlimited power of amendment to the court,
if objections were taken to the form. We do not,
indeed, eve the necessity of any information. If a
copy of the depositions was in every case given to the
prisoner, and in cases when be was unable to read,
read over to him by some officer of the gaol, before
he was put into the dock, he would know all that
could be known of the nature of the charge.
If the case set up by the prosecution on
the trial was, by some strange accident, different
from that contained in the depositions, the court
would, of course. give the prisoner the benefit of the
variance, by directing an acquittal. In no other way
does it seem possible for the prisoner to be taken by
surprise, from the want of indictment or informatics.
Indeed we are almost afraid of wearying our rename
by repeating what we have so often explained, that
the indictment seldom conveys, and was not originally I
intended to convey, any notice or knowledge to the
prisoner. The indictment is the verdict of the grand
jury, which verdict, and no other, must be farther
affirmed by the petty jury, before an accused penmen
be found guilty. The whole law of indictments and
of criminal pleading is wholly deduced from tie
principle that two juries must concur in the same
verdict, and that the verdict of the flee or grand jury
must be drawn up in a legal and technical form, that
the second or petty jury may know precisely what it
is that it must affirm or deny.
In the limited clam of cases which it is proposed to
include in the provisions of Mr. PEARSON'S bill, there
would be no longer an criminal pleading; and
beyond the objection which may be nutted to any in-
terference with that peculiar and ingenious branch of
scholastic logic, as a useful exercise for the minds of
lawyers, we really cannot see who will have a right
to complain of the loss. The guilty, indeed, may be
deprived of one chance of escape ; but the innocent
are protected against the risk of being exposed to trial
without reasonable grounds, by the practice, which in
simple felonies is almost universal, of examination
before a magistrate, who is bound to return all the
evidence, in writing, to the court which will try the
sensed. Prosecutors will not complain of having
one tribunal the less to attend with their witnesses,
and of securing. a just decision without the risk of
failing from a technical flaw, or a variance between
the e‘idence and the indictment. Judges will be
armany tiresome arguments, and enabled to give
r' whole attention to the real merits of the case.
Least of all will grand jurymen be dissatisfied, at
least in the metropolitan districts; for whatever may
be the pleasure of country gentlemen in driving into
the county towns twice a year, to be complimented
by the judge in the morning, and to dine :with
him at night, men of business in London have
no inclination to leave their offices to attend courts
where they feel that they are doing more harm than
good, and where their presence does not even create a
sensation. The grand juries of Middlesex, and we
believe of London, have repeatedly expressed an opi-
nion that they were an obstruction to justice in the

exercise of their &militias, which at the same lime
were a serious inconvenience to themselves. A few
weeks ago Mr. Justice Parrneon was obliged to in-
form a grand jury who bed been compelled to attend
him, that there was nothing for them to do, and that
could give no reason for their being summoned, ex-
cept that such was the law. At the last Middlesex
Sessions Serjeant Ansne loudly complained of the
absurdity and vexatiousness of the existing practice,
and insisted on the necessity of parliamentary interfer-
ence to change it. All opinion,experience and resaon
are on one side; on the other is merely an ancient custom.
We are, however, too well aware of the tenacious
vitality of old institutions to expect an entire or im-
mediate abolition of grand juries. It is much better
to try the experiment on a small scale, as in the pro-
posed bill for the Central Criminal district For the
satisfaction of those who object to any departure from
precedents, even in change, we may suggest. that, in
some criminal cases, the law has always dispensed
with the finding of the grand jury. A coroner's in-
quisition supersedes the necessity of an indictment ;
and an information ex officio by the Arrottrixe-Ge-
NEItAL, though now a rare proceeding, is a legal mode
of bringing certain offences at once before the petty jury.
It is true that in the great majority of cases the grand
ry still interposes between justice and its objects.
Within these few days, an instructive instance of its
practical working has occurred. The grand jury
having thrown out a bill, the officer of the court mis-
took the endorsement. and announced that a true bill was
found. The prisoner pleaded guilty, received j udgment,
and had already begun to undergo the sentence, when one
of the grand jurymen casually mentioned to some per-
eonesonneeted with the court that the bill had been
ignored. The guilty convict was of course at once
released, and will no doubt through life entertain
a much more favourable opinion of rand juries than
any which we find it consistent with our duty to
express.

MR. DAVID littconnw warraterday elected Alder-
man for the Ward of Cordwainers. The vacancy
which this election supplies, is the first that has oc-
curred is the Court of Aldermen since the election of
the Baron LIONEL Itornscwitri for the City of Lon-
don. Another Jew has now been selected by a body
of citizens to fill an important official position ; and
occurring, as the second election does, on the very eve
of the intended introduction of the Premier's bill for
the admission of Jews to seats in parliament, we are
entitled to consider the selection of Mr. SALOMONB not
a little significant.
It is both remarkable and gratifying to find so
general a concurrence as was expressed at the ward-
mote yesterday in the propriety of merging all matters
of mere creed in the more general considerations of a
man's integrity and capability for the office to which
he aspires. th......21...ra• by, say the electors of
London, when we a etea as unfit to verve
us, because we differ him on points of religion.
What the collective body express, the citizens in their
several local divisions and different spheres of life,
cordially assent to. Even the LORD MAYOR told
the Cerdweinere Wardmote, yesterday, that there
amebae see foam in the Court of Aldermen with
reCtto Mr. DAVID SALOMON&
oongratulations whisk on this occasion we may
offer to the friends of religious freedom, we may
tender, also, to the citizens of London. Mr. SALO-
MONS will reflect credit on the Court of Aldermen.
He is a merchant of good standing ; the head of one
of the great joint tack banking establishments of our
city ; a man of moat liberal and enlightened
news; no bigot (witness hie foundation of a
scholarship in a church of England school) ; a man
well known for his active benevolence, and not less
distinguished for his business habits. He has served
the office of sheriff twice, once in London and Mid-
dlesex, and once in another county ; he is at the present
time in the commission of the peace for Sussex and
fee Surrey, and his popularity in those counties gives
an* assurance that he will be a useful magistrate
in the metropolis. His own feeling as to his position
was very admirably expressed yesterday, and as we
cannot improve his own words, we give them as he
uttered them : " On matters of religion," said he, " I
feel it accountable to my God ; on matters me-
I am accountable to you who offer me your
1111011.00. I act upon the principle that there can
be se religious liberty without civil freedom, and
that the converse equally holds true that there can
he no civil freedom without !litigious liberty."
We have only to add that we wish Mr. SALOMONS' I
sisetion had been the act of a larger body of the
wienielpal electorate. It will be seen that at the
Wtothe view expressed in the Daily News of I
was made the subject of comment. We
find that there are, se we believed, many
a%omeite shims who are deeply sensible of the
i and like impropriety of the present
m The constituency that pro-
wwWWL Aiinween Bstoitotrs' election con-'
▪ as peeved, of 52. Probably, there
wedi have besseLltw more if the election had been
seateeted. The Option himself believed that if
there bad best >l valves he geoid have
bad 200 of them 115 di net *NM k I and although
it may be thy twee *Nikki Ida to get elected
quietly egailiner. Ws WlNl.ll.llusake of the prin-
ciple he sepeseallel that the Wen 250, or half as
many mem% MI bid sa iVly of expressing
(as we believe waste have if the residents
of this ward had boo free of City) their concur-
rence in, and approval of, Mr. Alderman Sal onoes'
return.

Our foreign despatches from Paris of Sunday have
arrived, bat contain no intelligence of importance.
Sir Stratford Canning left Pane on Saturday for.
Berne. Austria is to be represented at the confe-
rence by the Count Coloredo, and France by M. Bois
le Comte.

The Madrid mails continue in arrear. That of the
27th has arrived; but those of the 29th and 30th, which
are due, have not been received. The debate on the
address wee continued in the chamber on the 27th.
On the 28th, being Sunday, it was discontinued.
The contents of the journals are without interest or

She A:sbarg Gazette, under the data of Rome,
the 23rd nit.,says that the Ferrara question is on the
pant of being settled. Nothing is known or will be
known of the conditions of the arrangement, as it has
been matailly agreed between Cardinal Ferretti aid
the Austrian ambassador that no disclosure is to be
made toe the convention his been finally signed
and ratified. Cardinal Ferretti still persists in his
detsradnetion to retire. He holds the opinion that
the affidieles at the Werke end of foreign of
now eseihisel met be anpueda.
Iw esweepween d the perdu manifesentions
Naples whisk we
ceE ied yeleaday as havbeinken
*se upon the of the recent modMieNine in
the Waist/7, the *og stew wee paidideed on
the 25th, and several sereebbiele pine. Tem was,
however, no other serious rank of then 1110111.11161:
Parrscerrsa or Pouts.—Theellw ef - Lose Nee He
King," awl the apple's. whisk Stew -
1111111 it
acts goveeseseet ewes to the tbseete et din amide
miskt, wae they to be mewed. ielesser vatic
My. la order te prevent we
ans setele, the Prefect :far=
has herd the fallowieg orders: Applause, vocgarseiris
whatever wren, awl all mamba% whether is the dna,
or in say abor paWls pima, are severely prohialind. esen
when thin seaslisstatioas take Mess in order to applead
certain NY of et.(Ovoriiment. aeshe. toes pemeters
of each ahall be taken lawewe* mai periled to the
utmost rigour of the law as aaid peblie law.—
Mobs, Nov. 25.—Tna Faience or Pout's.

We have received the journals and correspondence
from Bale, the date of the former being the 3rd, but
the intelligence only coming to the 2nd. The Diet
held a session on that day, on the subjectoof the note
of the King of Prussia, when M. Funer proposed an
answer to it which rejects the claim of the King of
Prussia to interfere relating to the performance of a
federal duty by Neufchatel. The answer was adopted.
Federal commissioners to the Valais were nominated,
and the following resolutions proposed by the com-
mittee of seven were agreed to-1 That the cantons
of the flonderbund shall be charged with the ex-
penses of the war. 2. That they shall be jointly
liable to them. 3. That a million of francs Swims be
paid before Dec. 20. 4. That the balance shall also
be paid in cash, or in approved security, at such time
as the Diet shall fix. 6. Military occupation of the
cantons shall be maintained until the whole be paid.
6. The cantons of the Sonderbund shall pay an In-
demnity for the damage committed by their troops.
The Diet reserves its rights as to Neufchatel and
Appenxell, which have not supplied the military
contingent in men. From the 26th Nov. to the
3rd Dec., the expanse of the men have amounted to
3,163,0001 r., Swim (188,0001.), and to the end of the
occupation will amount to 6,011,000 fr. (294,7601.)
Letters from Lucerne say that the Papal Nuncio