The Express.
London, England, 1853-05-20 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING. MAY 20, 1853.

educates, in a languishing manner, 160 }early.
Perhaps it is even worse than this, iat, if rtch nu- I
tires send their sons to England for education, they
larc discountenanced by Government on their return.
However high their merits and attainments, they
ate put mile, and elm refused the most
modest offices, to make way for less quali-
fied candidates of the conquering race. The
employment of natives has been perpetually decreas-
ing since the influx of English candidates began. In
1833 this was admitted, and attempted to be reme-
died, but, as usual, the provision did rot work ; and
its practical consequence has been to open to English
candidates the offices originally proposed for natives.
This is enough; though the exposure is only just
begun by a statement like this. What will happen ?
If we go on thus afflicting, impoverishing, alienating,
nod exasperating the natives of India, it is certain
that we are fast travelling towards some tremendous
issue. If we use the present occasion for altering
our course, the question is only whether or not a
total reorganisation of our Indian rule is necessary.
Our opinion is, that it is absolutely indispensable,
and should be insisted on as such with the whole
energy of the national opinion and will. At this
period of the session—when the Committee of
Inquiry has only half fulfilled its labours, and,
when Parliament has no satisletory evidence on
which to base anything like permanent legislation,—
the only fair thing that can be done is to pass a
Continuance Bill, by which the power of the existing
authorities may be held fur one, or at most two,
years longer, during which time we may obtain
materials for such a settlement of the Government of
India as will be alike honourable to Great Britain,
and beneficial to her greatest colonial dependence.

FRANCE.

PARIS, THURSDAY EVENING.

It is asserted here that an electric despatch had
been received from Vienna, announcing that the Porte
had accepted the Russian ultimatum.
The widow of Marshal Ney has signed the follow-
ing letter addressed to the Emperor :
Sire,—When I had the honour of appealing to your
Majesty to claim from your justice an alleviation of my posi-
tion, you conceived the generous idea of proposing a bill,
having for its object to restore to me the arrears of a pension
which I ought to have received from 1816 to 1830, as widow
of a Marshal of France, if Marshal Ney had nut perished
the victim of an odious reaction. Brofoundly touched by
the bewvolent initiative of your Majesty, I wu led to hope
that it would be unanimouly accepted by the political bodies
which co-operate iu the action of your government; but such
has not beet. the case. That which I should have accepted with
gratitude, es a feeble, but just reparation of the material
wrongs done to me and to my children ; that which I
might have claimed, as a matter of equity, it was thought
lit to propose with the solemn forms of a national recom-
pense, and it is not for me to complain of such an honour.
But now that in the Leeislative Body it is in contemplation
respecting the application of a poor woman, to open up
painful discussions concerning my husband's memory, I
cannot permit, that for a question of money, the name of
the illustrious victim shall again serve as an aliment to the
discussions of parties; and, in consequence, I have to sup-
plicate your Majesty to withdraw the bill which concerns
me. 1 have the honour to be, with the most lively grati-
tude, your Majesty's very humble and very respectful
servant,
Markin's Nay, Princess DE LA Moneowo.
Faris, May 16, 1853.
The Moniteur, in which the above letter first sees
the light, does not say that the Emperor has, in com-
pliance with the illustrious lady's request, withdrawn
the bill, and people are at a loss to know whether
the publication of the letter is intended to cover a
retreat, or to stimulate the reluctant deputies to vote
the 300,000 fr. demanded. In any point of view, it
is hard that the Corps Legislatif should be held up
to the public as standing in the way of the just
claims of a "pour woman. It should be recollected
that owing to the magnanimity of Louis Phillippe's
government, Madame Ney has received her pension
as a marshal's widow since 1830, and it is melan-
choly to see her represented at this time of day as
an ill-used creditor of the state. The Corps Legislatif
knows that the government is perseveringly seeking
occasion to burden the treasury with a countless host
of claimants of 1815, and that to accomplish that ob-
ject it is desirous to accumulate as many isolated
precedents as possible. It does right, therefore, to
resist demands, however plausible in any particular
instance, which have their foundation in the absurd
principle that the legislation of the last forty years
can be treated u null and void. It is too late to ar-
ras the question of the justice or legality of Marshal
Ney's attainder except in a volume of history, or a
debating society. It is curious to observe in this
lady's letter (which, being with such questionable
judrnent made a state document, is fairly open to
criticism) a reproach to the Corps Legislatif wholly
inconsistent with all that is daily dinned
into the ears of the public by the govern-
ment journalists. Only yesterday the Pays spoke
quite exultingly about the triage minority against the
government on the Civil Pensions Bill, and drew a
triumphant distinction between the hostile votes
formerly given under " parliamentary government,"
and the conscientious difference of opinion mani-
fested by an independent but devoted Cham •er under
the beneficent reign of Napoleon 111. Now that it
is thought necessary to contrast the parsimony of
the guardians of the public purse with the Emperor's
liberality, and to. throw upon the Chamber the
odium of rejecting the just claims of the Winner's
and the widow, Madame Ney is made to say that
they are actuated by the spirit of "party."
M. Emile de Girardin, with admirable apropos, op-
serves, in reference to an expression in Madame Ney's
letter :

It appears then that "odious reactions" may make use of
the penalty of death against illustrious victims. What a
supreme condemnation of the penalty of death for political
offences!
We read in the Morteteur:
The Egyptian government lately made certain modifica-
tions in the tariff for the tunic of panengers and merchan-
dise by the Isthmus of Son, which, by favouring the Pe-
ninsular and Oriental Company, mused a prejudice to the
j
apgana other companies, obliged to y coasiderably more. On the
other hand, the esaveyosese She Nile between Alexandria
and Sues had bee. vs Oa the pressing representa-
tions of the agent erneabgenend of Franca at Alexan-
dria, the advantages soseraed to the Peninsular and
Oriental Company, so far as relates to the transit of passen-
gers and goods, have been extended to the other companies,
and the commence by the Nile has been re established
between Alezaadria and Cairo. The service is, however,
reduced, on account of the want of water, to three voyages
per month, in place of Ave, until the period at which the
inundation consumer.
Yesterday M. Dronyn de Lhuys, Minister of Fo-
reign Affairs, exchanged with the Marquis de Villa-
marina, Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
of the King of Sardinia at Paris, the ratifications of
the sanatory convention concluded on Feb. 3, 18.52,
between France and Sardinia.
There was again a panic at the Bourse to-day.
The Three per Cents., which opened at 81.60, fell
i per cent., and closed within a few centimes of the
lowest price of the day. All other securities were
proportionably depressed. The only reason for the
flenerally assigned was a vague uneasiness
regarding
the affairs of Turkey and the ultimatum to
which Prince Menachikoff was to have received an
answer on the 10th. Since the close of the Bourse I
have heard it asserted that the English Sect boa left
Malta for the Archipelago, and that this news occa-
sioned the heavy sales which produced the fall.
The Pattie contains the following semi-official
contradictions of two current reports:
The Antericanjournals farm that a division of French
easels of war was on its way to the Sandwich Islands, to
act against that country. This news is false. The last
despatches from Honolulu, on the contrary, state that the
French coeval had arrived in that town, and that he was in
the best relations with the government.
' The Tames, in its number of the kith, announces that the
commander of the frigate Jeanne drAre, who is visiting the
Red Sea in company' with the seam-corvette the Caiman,
purchased a train of land oa the moot of Africa, to the south
of Masseurs, for the psepaee of /sanding an establishment
but that not having fird the sile wearable, he attempted
to seise a small island situated user !Weida, belonging to
Turkey. This statement is devoid of foundation. The
frigate Jeanne d'Are and the steam-corvette the Cabman, in
visiting the Red Sea, had no other object than to protect, as
all our vassals of war do, di. interests of our commerce, and
to guarantee the safety of our diplomatic agents.