The Express.
London, England, 1851-12-02 00:00:00

Elte ervrefSg.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.
Oewwd Eoetios•t" 104 T.sorwo." ea. ULLS;•tte isms enifirr's
" Gut p.tdwitei testy tomoto ow 1 Friday .1,04 in VIA*
tar mt.
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dol of potOlootion.

NIGH WATER AT LONDON MUDGE
Isl. Iv .v—Vorpleg. 111. 37fs. A tiers.... OIL JUL
u.sossor —Monis& Lem. Aftersbea, 101. Hne.

LOYDOY, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2.

BAIT. we a ministry, or have we not? Rumour,
and more than rumour, says that grave dissentiment
has sprung up between different persons and frac- ,
tions of the cabinet, and that an old wound, which
had been considered for a long time healed, has
opened afresh. What can be the cause of this sore-
ness and schism? Is it that our rulers disagree on
the grave subject of electoral reform? We -believe
that they are not by any means too unanimous.
But reform is too trifling a matter to break up a
cabinet. Is there any difference about peace or war ?
Such things arc not within the remotest probability.
Have any of Earl GRES'S colleagues become restive
and discontented, at the prospect of bearing the
odium of his lordship's policy at the Cape, and of
the campaign of his nominee commander in that
colony ? We believe not : his colleagues were pre-
pared to take their share of Lord GREY'S blunders
and unpopularity. have the remote consequences
of Lord JOHN'S Durham letter stirred any of his
colleagues to rebel at the eleventh hour, and induced
them to sacrifice him to tho POPE and Dr.
CrLIEN ? Not even that. Is ono fraction of the
cabinet fur offering a share of office to the
politicians of Lancashire, and cloth the other fraction
prefer the 'pond im colleagues of Sir Itonear PEEL?
Neither is this the mountain of difference that has
arisen. That difference is a mere stumbling block ;
a precipitate and imprudent word which Lord Pet.-
steams is accused of having employed in answering
an address from Blanc parochial deputation. The
suburban liberals came to congratulate the Foreign
Secretary for having aided in the liberation of
Rosser'', and they mingled with their con-
gratulations some disoblicpwr expressions for
the potentates, who showed such a fierce anxiety
to hang KOn rTit, and who did hang and ~hoot his
companions. Lord Peimensrox received the ad-
dress politely; perhaps somewhat jocularly, objected
to some of its expres.ions ; but, on the whole, showed
his own breast, however ministerial, as participating in
that universal sentiment of sympathy for the constitu-
tional and liberal cause in I lutmary, which has stirred,
and which still stirs, nine-tenths of Englishinew
Lord PALMER...TO:S.4 sentiments were pretty well
know,, before; but his expreadon of them is, it
seems, a high offence. The Carlton Club have made
it the foundation of an impeachment ; of which, for
the last ten days, they have been framing the
articles. Those piod tones have found a very fit
attorucy-genend to plead their cause in Baron Burs-
Now, the Russian ambassador. And he has addressed
his formal 3CCUsiltioll to her NIAJI:SIY, both in court
anti in council. _ _

Had Baran lIRCNNOW, the Carlton, and the Mites,
stood the unsupported trio of accusers in this matter,
then should we have little doubt of the decision,
and, after all, see little gravity in the accusa-
tion. But the absolutist trio have, by good luck,
found an efficient support in Earl GREY. His
hereditary and long-seated jealousy of Lord PM:
Nvit rug has been aruuscd to a thine; so, at
least, it is pretended. by the fact of his colleague
laving paid an impnident compliment to the
llungariati. And his lordship, to tell a plain story,
refuses to sit any longer in the same cabinet with
the Foreign Secretary.
Once more, therefore, is the Prime Minister put
in the painful alternative of siding with one of his
colleagues against the other. Earl finis, a member
of the cabinet and of the liberal party. is en-
titlA to the higlutst consideration. Ile has
dune good 'service, and has been often stanch
on vital p..ints when his opponents failed.
it is ps.sible. too, that on certain questions of conduct
iu foreign policy, Earl Onv.v may have taken the
right view, and Lord PAIMER•ToN the wrong. But
at the present juncture to break up a cabinet, and a
reform cabinet, on account of ca imprudent word;
and u Cabinet, ton, of which the members have had
to pardon earl] other many imprudences, Lord Or.t.T's
own letter,. to his colonial subordinates being amongst
the number; —will be cousidered as an act uf unnmnutt-

ablo petulance.
Besides§ it will infallibly be said that his lordship
was actuated in no small degree by thew motives
which drove Mr. Itewrot from office. A lowering
parliamentary storm hangs over the government on
account of the policy and consequent expenditure at
the Cape. And it will he said, that whilst Mr.
Ft:int.:ark has shwa a courage dispropor-
tionate unit his yaars in undertaking to do Wade for
Earl tint.Y. the Earl himself has considered discre-
tion to be the better part of valour, and retreats as
the only way " to live to light another day."
As inoy be well supposed, we take no very great
interest as this personal quarrel, nor in the main-
tenance of this statesmene or that, in office. We
feel pretty well natured that no one, in the cabinet
or out of it, meditates a war with Russia or with
Austria. But a atatesman or even a minister telling
these potentates indirectly a bit of English mind, we
really see nu harm in If we du not want to
attach, neither do we want to curry favour with
these potentates. And if England should not play
the bull), neither should it, after the fashion and
the n commendation of the Times, enact the sneak.
What we want is peace'; but peace won by up-
rightness and not meanness. With peace we want
economy and reform. All ministers will give us
peace; they WV all bound over to keep it. But
what ministry will give us most economy and
most reform? These are the points on which we
should like to hear how statesmen think, and
how they differ. If Lord GREY finds Lord
Pstuntsrox not liberal enough or too liberal
on this puint, we should like to hear it. We could
understand a liberal statesman breaking up a cabinet
is such a cause. But to get up a quarrel because a
colleague has made use of an imprudently liberal
word; or, made a speech which does not harmonise
with the ctitpu ttc of a court.—this is child's play,
lot Man.,' play. Schoolboys would deserve to be
Hugged for falling out about such things. And for
our part, we feel strongly inclined to use the birch.

ALTHOUGH the judgment delivered yesterday
morning in the t'ourt of Exchequer, in the case of
the QUEEN against IlttumuitY and ANOTHER. WAY
given by a majority of three to one in favour of the
oefettlitits ; and although .6 Dickens's flousehold
l'isrrathe of Current Events- has thereby escaped
the sercelwessure of the Stamp-uttice, yet the trout
questions involved, and thus nominally alarmed, na
really left in uncertainty. Of the Your judges d
which the court wascompased two averred that a pro-
per construction of the acts ef parliament relating to
• Mr.

lewspawrs admitted of coisiderable doubt;
Baron Paver declared that the dictum of the Inland
Revenue Board regarding the law was " utterly pre-
posterous:" while Nlr. Baron Psitxt:considerea that
judgment ought to go in their favour. Two of the
judges, therefore—the CIIIEF BARON and Mr. Baron
Motres—necused the statutes of ineertitude while
the other two proved the accusation by the opinion of
the one tiatly contradicting that of the other.
The decision of the three judges, which allows Mr.
DICIER NS to communicate untaxed, in his own
pleasant manner, the news of each current mouth to
his readers at intervals greater than twenty-six days
between each publication, invites no comment from
; because we agree with it. The decision, how-
ever, of the dissantent judge must not be so passed
ever. His main argument in reference to the point
at issue,—natuely, whether a paper issued at greater
intervals than 26 days between each publication, like
the Ilersiel.44l Serratire,i. or is not Hi law a stamp.
able paper—was, firstly that, as the 611th of Gim.
111.. cap. 34, in whie:i such papers are so speci-
fied, was passed to extend the newspaper stamp
duties over a greater surtace than previously, no
limitation of its operation whatever could be con-
templated by the allusion to periodicals published at
intervals exceeding 26 dap. Secondly, that if the
legislature hod intended to exempt such papers, it
would hare excepted them in express and induhita-i
ble terms.

Tlus Inferential mode of construing acts of parlia-
ment can seldom be relied on; and wag never so

much at fault as when employed by the learned Mr.
Baron PARKE. The, history of the clause he referred •
to, and of the ezhedole to the latest newspaper
stamp act, pfsem at once that learned judge's
misapprebente.on. It happened in the year
11+19, wlem the former act was'
that a well-known weekly, publicaticii,
valrarl'i as the " Gridiron, but, really enti-
tled (!obbetts Ileyister, was in the height of its bold
and abusive career. At that time the legaldefinitioni
of a newspaper was simply a paper containing "rosl
ports of public news, intelligence, and occurrences
to be dispersed or made public ;" and manifestly
a paper like CA/BBEIT'S, which merely com-
mented upon passing events' could not be
brought within the Stamp Act. Hence the 60th of
GEO. 111. cap. 34, was passed to include prints
putting forth "remarks and observations" on public
news, intelligence, and occurrences in the number
of the taxed. Had no restriction been provided,
many respectable and harmless monthly publi-
cations then existing,—such as the Gent/cilium's
-Vaya:ine, Hansard's Debates, and several others
—which printed either news or observations on news,
or both, would have been, against the wish of
the t hen government, saddled with the stamp. In order
therefore to exempt them, a clause was inserted
excusing such periodicals (then being issued at in-
tervals exceeding 26 days) from the payment of
stamp duty. Therefore, for once, and contrary to
Mr. Baron PARK F.'S opinion, the legislature actually
said what it meant. By this clause it also took
the Amoral Reyister, the Quarterly Berle's., and
other such works out of the statute, by defining •
limit (26 days) within which a journal containing
news must he published to be taxed as a newspaper.
As the Clime BARON aptly remarked, that statute
pointed out what was to be considered as a Chronicle
or History, and what a Newspaper. Nothing, there-
fore, can be clearer than that, although the govern-
ment wished to extend the operation of the Stamp
Act over certain obnoxious weekly periodicals; it
purposely exempted the innocuous monthly publi-
cations.
Mr. Baron PARKE. 4 second point assumed that all
acts of parliament are framed with a rigid regard
to grammatical accuracy and distinct meaning. If
the legislature, he in effect argued. had intenied to
exempt such publications as the 11010.(14061 Nelerll-
- it would have stated so much without ambi-
guity. Such is the learned Baron's faith in the lucidity
of the wording of the statutes! This faith would,
however, have been considerably shaken, if he had
traced to its origin the schedule of the 6th and
7th WILLIAM IV., c. 76, upon which the whole dis-
pute arises; professing, as it does, to define a news-
paper liable to stamp duty. A comparison of it with
the schedules of the other acts will show that it is
a mere collection of each of the latter transplanted
bodily, reds:tins ct literalitn, without any at-
tempt at harmony or assimilation. limier, to
construe it literally and to make sense of it
is impossible. It first declares that all newspapers
having certain characteristics are liable to be
shunted; and, in a succeeding clause, sets forth that
not only all, but some more than ail, are so liable :
that is to any, those which arc published at less
intervals than twenty-six days. Yet Mr. Baron
Pause affirms that the law is quite clear upon the
whole matter,fur the euriousreason that thelaw inmost
ambiguously expressed ; for if the legislature had
meant so-and-so, it would have expressed itself that
" clearly". This application of the r( da, ti" ad ab-
surdum is uncommonly original. If the framers of
Acts of Parliament referred to, had expressed them-
selves clearly," the dispute his lordship was called
upon to judge in would not hive arisen.
If any faith could be placed in the consistent
practice of the omnipotent Board of Inland Revenue.
the proprietors of such publications as that under
,discussion need no longer dread the terrors of
the Stamp-office; hut those who have felt them
will be a little disgusted to find that they. have
been victimised in error, and that there is no
hope of redress. The consolation of having suf-
ered, martyrwise, for being in the right is no
greater to editors than to other people. It will
not rehabilitate them; it will nut Iniug to life their
strangled olfawitig, nor restore to them their beloved
subscribers. Why, they will risk, were ere selected
as the victims of your wrath? We, who not having
the means to contend with you, were obliged to stlif.
Mit to your arbitary fiat? Why have you for years
allowed unstainped monthly publications to flourish
in nirmy parts of Scotland unmolested? What com-
pensation will you give us far the hoses you have
inflicted oil us by your erroneous proceedings?
The answer when the crown is appealed to in this
fashion is—" None."

HIGHLY IMPORTANT FROM
FRANCE.

PARIS IN A STATE OF SIEGE.

The following important despatch has been re-
ceived by Submarine Telegraph :

" PARIS, TUFiI/AT MOMING.
"Paris is in a state of siege.
"The President re-establishes universal suffrage,
and appeals to the people."

Another telegraph adds to the foregoing:
"The Assembly is dissolved.

' " Gencnils Cavaignac, Changarnier, Charms, and
Lamoricii•rc, and M. Thiers hive been arrested and
conducted to Vincennes.

" It is said that the President prop-ses a presidency
of ten years, and two clambers.
" Paris is quiet."

From our usual correspondence we extract the
following :

MONDAY EVENING.
M. Devinck, having received 38,6,47 votes in 113
sections, is named representative for Paris.
MM. Pascal Duprat and Cremieux have brought
forward a proposition for repeating the ballot at the
tribune every time that a decision is only carried by
a majority of five Totes and less. Urgency is de-
manded.

The sitting of the Assembly had no sooner opened
to-day, than an incident raised ou the discussion of
the minutks with regard to the vote of Saturday
gave rise to a moot violent dispute. M. Clavier pro-
tested against the omission of his name among the
voters.

M. Chapot explained that the name of Clavier had
been confounded with that of Clare.
M. Mathieu (de la Drdme) called attention to the
reclamation of ltl. Boeher, whose name is in the
.Voniteur as having voted against hlonet's amend-'
ment, although he was among the absent. After a
long dispute, in which MM. de Vatiincsnil and de
Larey took part, the Assembly passed to the order
of the day.
M. Lk° de Laborde raised then another incident.
Ile complained that M. I)upin, who professed himself
formerly the lover of legitimacy, refused to receive
hit pmpusition relative to the revision of the con-
stitution to arrive at the re-establishment of the legi-
timate monarchy. The President of the Assembly had
imagined that his responsibility would hare been en-
gaged by receiving the propsiition ; but this would
not be the ease any more than when he listened in
silence to the speech of Dijon and that of the
Circus, Laughter.)
M. Dupin replied that as President of the Assem-
bly under the Republic ho would not receive a pro-
, position which was the subversion of the existing
state of things. The misfortune was that nobody
would stick to what was real, or at least to what was
fact. (Movement.) The Assembly, on being con-
sulted, passed to the order of the day.
The house then resumed the debate on the Avig-
non Railway Bill. M. Dufaure proposed. on the
part of the committee, to word tile amendment of
..1. Lacrosse, referred to the eeminittee, in the follow-
it:,; manner :—" The reduction 'minis) shall apply to
the proportional part of the expense which the state
is to furnish under the title of subvention. This
!part canna exceed either tin half of tile whole
' expanse nor the sum of tit) 'Phis means
I that the companies which co:ilia:re for the ad-
judication of the line are to understand that
the lease is to be made fur an invariable '
numbers of years, and that cateria puribas that offer