The Express.
London, England, 1849-10-31 00:00:00

More than all —or perhaps it should be said the
cause of all—is tt e absence of that ra'iotal commercial
principle in contracts between landlords and tenants
which prevails in all other contracts. As vies
well maid by Mr. FowLut, at the Tavistoek Agricul-
tural Meeting, " the farmer ought to enter far more
into the manufacturer's spirit than ke does. The
tenant might to be as perfectly independent of his
landlord as the landlord of his tenant. And be
afterwards added "that there has been less common
sense in the agreements between landlord and tenant
than between any other description of contractors in
the wide world." No one will deny the truth of
these remarks; the evil consequences are implledly
admitted on all hands; yet hitherto there seems
little, if any, disposition to adopt a remedy.
And the reason is obvious. Land grows
votes ae well as ocen, and landlords will
not mate their tenants independent if they can
help it. That is one cause of the comparative back-
wardness of English husbandry. But there is an-
other most potent arse in the tendency of the landed
classes—tenants as well as landlords—to grasp at too
much la-d. Hear what one of them, Mr. Locin
KING, M. P., said at Chertaey, on this subject :
" Landlords without capital to improve thole estates
which require improving must sink in the same boat
with those tenant-farmer, who occupy more land than
they have capital to manage. The one would do well
to sell a portion to improve the rest, while the other
would do well to farm a few acres well
instead of a large number of acres badly.
The days of territorial aggrandisement, when
landowners and land occupiers grasped at all the land
they could, are now passing away, and the progress of
civilisation and science has shown the advantages of •
small estate, well cultivated and well managed, over
the large estate, which is wild in proportion to its
extent, and overloaded with debt and with settlements
in koroportion to its hereditary antiquity."
buck truths should blok into the minds of landlords
and tenants, for upon their attention to them their
future prosperity mainly depends. From the " far.
niers' friends" who preach improvement we hear
nothing of this sort. They ignore everything which
goes to disclose the real condition of agriculture, and
take refuge in vague generalities. The second
clam of " farmers' friend.," the protecionists, are
like Jon's comforters; they seem to fear that the
farmers do not despond enough, that the monopolist
cry of foreign competition is likely to lose its effect;
and even at the risk of encouraging demands for re-
dactions of rent, they cry out lustily, " All, all is log."
It is true these gentlemen are generally either not at
resent possessors et: land, such as the Marquis of
GRAN nv,or men never likely to possess it, such as Major
BRIE/WORD, and whose immediate purpose is politi-
cal. From neither class, however, is Ike agricultural
community likely to derive much benefit. Farmers
must look to themselves, they must rely on
their own class alone for any effective
improvement of their own condition. There is in
this country, as in Ireland, too much of a monopoly
of land in the hands of men quite incapable of using
it to advantage; and to correct this evil, in the cor-
rection of which farmers are very directly interested,
they ought to throw themselves heartily into the
movement ncfw making by the rest of the middle
classes against class legislation ani extravagant
public expenditure.

UNITED STATES.

NSW YORK, Om. 17.

By the Ohio which arrived on Saturday from New
Orleans, we have the California mails to the first of
September. The news is no later than what we re-
ceived by the Empire City. A friend of mine in San
Francisco writes me, that he thinks the losses in ship-
ments made to that port will be so enormous as to
ruin a large number of merchants in the United
States. Provisions, lumber, and land will for some
time, however, =intern a steady value. Gold con-
tinues to be obtained in very large quantities, and
new placers are continually discovered. We are be-
ginning to receive ten and five dollar pieces coined at
private mints in California, which readily pass at the
current quotations. Such is the index of gold into
the United States that the national mint at Philadel-
phia has been greatly enlarged, and its machinery is
now operating on a very extensive scale
With respect to California, two facts, however, are
worthy of particolar attention. One is, that persons
are actually employed in San Francisco in obtaining
gold from the dust of the streets, And they can make
five dollar's day by their work. Whether this gold
is in the soil itself, or is dropped there by accident,
no one can tell as yet. The other is, that all the
persons who have recently come home with gold are
going back spin. This does not look like their
being much disheartened.
Thanks to the resolution adopted by the President
and his cabinet with regard to the navigation laws,
we are about to enter upon • new and important
commercial career, and England and the United States
have placed themselves In &charm of all the nations
of the mill. It would seem se if their new relations
might to ally them in the closest bonds of friendship,
and it is fervently to be hoped that neither may
regret the new arrangement.
Wren we reflect upon the restraints that have so
long been placed by government' on commercial
enterprise—on the difficulties that have so long
retarded human advancement—when, in particular,
we have seen what the people of England have had
to suffer in their progress to their present condition,
we cannot but admire the noble spirit of those of her
statesmen who have dared to remove the shackles
of antiquity, and trust to common sense, and en-
lightened self interest for future prosperity. I con-
fess I cannot but admire the conduct of those eminent
men who have smeensfully advocated the repeal of
your Navigation Act, and I sincerely wish that the
experiment we are &bald to make may not prove ad-
verse to the hopes that its friends have cherished. It
is certainly very evident that if the two maims be-
come nearly equal in commerce and manufacture.,
their relations will be less liable to fluctuations said

derangements than they have been.
The Nicaragua business is beginning to attract at-
tention. Mr. White has carried to Washington
official copies of the contract of the American Coon-
pany, and the treaty negotiated by our minister, Mr.
Squiers. In my last, I informed you that be bad
been received with extraordinary. honours. The
Nicaraguans are in ecstasies at their prospects. The
rebellion having been put down, the rebel chief exe-
cuted, the route to the Pacific about to be established,
and large commercial advantages being secured, they
believe they are about to become an important state.
Nor is this all. Mr. Squiers not only made a very
good treaty himself, but he helped the French consul
general to make one for his own country. Thus,
while France and England have been jointly med-
dling in the River Plate, France and the United
States are about to help each other on the:San Jun !
The principal parties in the American Company
have already determined on their course. A small
but powerful steamer, called the Sylph, now Riving
in the Bay of New York, is to be despatched without
delay to Lake Nicaragua, where she is to remain.
Arrangements are making to " lighter" her up the
San Juan. A small boat of light draught of water
is to be built for the river. A plark road is to be
made between Lake Leon and the Pacific, and a tran-
sit is to be established across as soon as possible. In
the meantime the capital of a company, to remove
the obstructions in the river, and construct a ship
canal, is to be raised as soon as it can be.
I must not 'beget to my, in connexion with this
subject, that Mr. 84:1140211 is believed to have very far
exceeded his instructions in the promises of his
speech. made to the Nicaraguans ; and what is still
more important is the well authenticated rumour
that Mr. Clayton has announced as his opinion, that
the celebrated declaration of President Munroe, that
we cannot cement to the establishment of any foreign
interests in North America, in the shape of ter-
ritorial power, is untenable and without pro-
priety. This declaration of Mr. Meares, with
some qualifications would always be proper, but
the ides that we should find a cants belli in the set-
tlement of territories far beyond our borders by a
foreign nation, is out of vogue. The truth is, that
I British settlements in our own vicinity have more
to fear from us than we from them. This might not
have been so in Mr. Munroe's time, but it is so
now. It is therefore quits probable that Mr. Clayton
expresses the views of his associates when he, in fact,
pays Mr. Msnroe's ideas on this head are obsolete.
C. rtainly the propinquity of Canada to the United
States has been worse for England than the United
' States. And so far from baler( reuse of any anxiety
to as, the provinces have furnished a striking contrast
to our own country, all in our favour, and much to
the detriment of colonial reputation.