The Express.
London, England, 1847-12-01 00:00:00

gh, rs.oo.

MAILS,

sound state of the trade of the country as regards
corn, and the instable character of the great houses
which subsequently went down. He thinks that the
fall in the price of articles of food, undue confidence in
weak firms, and 'the abstraction of capital for our
extra imports and for railways, mast amply and
entirely dissipate any clouds of mystery which may
surround the problem of the recent and present
dinrens.
We do not for a moment say that these
causes have not had a moat powerful influ-
ence upon the complexion of our commercial
condition since the beginning of the We
are not aware that in any quarter
their importance has been dented. But this again is
not the point. The urgent demand is to settle whe-
ther or not theme natural evils have not been greatly
embittered by a vicious sods of banking jtuispra-
dence. We say they have, and, taking Sir C. WOOD'S
own line of argument, the facts in support of our
assertion are as conclusive as they well can be. Has
the range of failure been confined to the rotten
and ricketty members of the system? Have
none been swept away but those whose tenure
of existence was obviously only a question
of time ? By no means. The Times newspaper,
which, among the rest of its recent mischievous prac-
tices, has taken great pains to make the most of every
instance of default, wee at the pains on the 10th inst.
of collating a tabular statement of 20 of the most im-
portant cases of insolvency ; and oat of these 20 how
many were there upon which the estimated dividend
was the contemptible fraction left by a long career of
secret bankruptcy? Let the facts speakfor themselves.
Out of these 20 firms, 10 were put down as paying
20e. in the pound, 2 as paying 155., and only two of
them as likely to pay less than 10s. ; and upon the
aggregate liability of 4,598,0001. the average dividend
was 133.6 d. The truth of the case really is that there
have been few periods of discredit when the number of
really solvent firms sweptaway has been greater. And
this has been precisely one of its greatest aggrava-
tions. That the ruin of the great should affect the
small is natural, but it is not natural that an artifi-
cial state of things-should be induced, in which a man
with abandance of mound, valuable property should
be reduced to the same ruin with the man who, to all
intents and purposes, is a beggar.
At present we refrain from any detailed criticism
on Sir CHAS. WOOD's account of the reasons which
induced the government to hold back the iaterfe-
rence of October until, according to his own admis-
sion, the real crisis of the fever, and therefore the real
utility of interference, bad been surmounted ; nor upon
his defence of, or his apology for, the imposition of a rate
of interest so high ea eight per cent. These are points
which will be better discussed at leisure ; and to the
same period in advance we will postpone whatever is
to be said on the argument, on which he laid so great
a stress, that if the law of 1844 was not a cure, it was
at least a prevention—that if it did not carry us over
one danger, it saved us from many. But in the mean-
time we will not permit any delay to take place
in the reiteration of our regret that the government
should have resolved to encounter all the risks and all
the unpopularity which will inevitably attend a fall
and rigid revival of the exploded statute. This is a
course for which there is no possible necessity, and
we entirely agree with Lord ASHBURTON, that before
it is finally resolved upon the sense of parliament
upon the subject ought to be decidedly expressed.

The Went India Ildb. Whew Remade, Nam%
Hombuss, New Weems, Tem Ceme, Tampico, and Perth rer
=Wing Mom for bistherie I SIMS !font!..
Charm ransom, Wnal Gosit Or=linal SS. isinde-
meseregue, will ,e meth wawa@ ennthigof the Intl Dementer.
71te omerhopt master Mina' Natn.Oweets. an Isles bismin
Ilpppq Aden, Ceylon. bills.B.M.4sater Man. sin thentlimpeon
eal mmle up on the nthenlesettbe Desember.
TM mails for Mlle Mirth Amiska aid tlie 17..160
Ingana will be ,uedsuramtharmsen sift adDl.
The mile for the Bealla, as am riata,lllale Woo, Pntane.
Woo,
ofteni.
DN.nth MA MOM Ayr», win be ma• up on &a
evening the eth embr.
&The mails for Vigo, Omni. IMO" Madsdri., Cadiz, and Oibrabst
vfli b. made up on lie iesenleer of IM 7th December.
The OVerillfri Mona via Mernithis, to ties Meditemenann
=Wen, erne Wile Wm& Ike., will be made up on to
at the 7 Demeter.
______

WPO
L.
AaveltllMtst• 1.•11° WI Th. IDZ
Lead= se we,
le el the end*, Deuerie Amt. ly sidiadt CO the des Of puleee,re"

HIGH WAY'S £T LONDON BRIDGE.
T.T. D." —Honing. 10 W. pa* I, Lltuattau H We. put 9.
To.ll os sow —llandap.,4l past 1; Pnae.a,7o nu. put 10.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, DEC. 1.

WE friends of Ireland have fallen, from long
habit, into a mode of dealing with the rights and in-
I termite of that country, which, however expedient at
one time, is, we think, altogether misplaced at pre-
sent. This is to make a kind of bargain with the
ministry of the day, and consent to any curtailment
of the people's privileges, on condition that this be
accompanied and counterbalanced by a future conces-
sion to popular rights.
This may have been a useful mode of wringing
just conceseions from reluctant and weak govern-
ments. But surely there is no need of such pacts
with Lord loots RUSSELL. Let what is necessary
in the way of coercion be proposed and discussed
upon its own merits and its own necessities; and let
what is just in the way of concession stand also upon
its own justice and its own expediency. We have
no right to suspend the constitution in Tipperary,
in order to extend and perfect it throughout the rest
of Ireland.
This disjunction of subjects and considerations is
the more feasible from the generous part taken by
Sir ROBERT PEEL in the debate of Itlonday night. I
He waived all vindictiveness, and even self-defence,
for the past. He refrained from taking any ad-
vantage of the certainly weak position of
the whige, coming to demand measures of ever
so slight coercion for Ireland, and stepped forth
as the member most independent, and most untram-
melled by political precedent might have done, to give
his frank support to that mixed policy towards Ireland,
from which in the main there is now not a dissentient
voice.
„„ I
From the high reputation of Sir ROBERT rERL,
his influence, however, is even greater as a friend
than as an antagonist. And it is necessary to beware of, 1
as well as to respect him in the former, as in the latter
capacity. From his conduct lastyear,and his speech on
Monday night, Sir R. Pm appears to place far too
much reliance on the efficacy of coercion. Although
he supported the present bill, he evidently thought it
milk and water. He would have much preferred a
law for registering and branding arms, nay, more, for
registering and branding persons. The expression is
not exaggerated. He proposed, according to some
reports, registering all persons; to another report,
" registering all dangerous and suspected per-
sons." • Not only in Sir ROBERT'S opinion should
the 'regime of coercion in these districts be perma-
nent, but it should be worked by a detective as wall
as a protective police. Now, a detective police is
neither more nor less than a system of spies—a sys-
tem of inducing members of that vast peasant conspi-
racy to betray it—perhaps to enter it for the purpose
of betrayal, and thus re-establish that class, so well
known and notorious in the history of Ireland by the
name of informers.
Now, with all deference to Sir ROBERT Pm we
do not know that any system could have been devised
or sketched in a few brief words so aptly calculated
to augment and perpetuate the frequency of murder,
the habits of aasasemation, the corruption of justice.
the rancour of the population towards the govern-
ment and all omneMed with it—nothing in short fitter
to Sag back Ireland, its undisturbed as well se its
&tonal districts, into that charnel-house state which
VIM in.that country during the last year' of the
Aocording to Sir ROBERT PEEL, coercion is of
very little value, unless carried to this pitch and to
this perfection. The assertion is certainly one of the
=egtarguments against coercion that we ever 1
If, in its mildest state, as proposed by Lord
CLARENDON and Sir Oaoaoa GREY, it is not to be
successful ; but to recjaire,fas we are told, all the strin-
gency, all the arbitrary powers of a general re-
gistry and passport system, with all the tactics of
a detective police—which, taken together, may be
called the French system—then we can only ex- 1
claim against any, even the slightest, introduction of
coercion into the statute book. Let us have mar-
tial law, when it is required, and let its applica-
tion be severe, sweeping, but brief. But let us have
no permanent nor regular regime of the police.
Better send a NARVAEZ at once to decimate the popu-
lation, than establish a loi des suspects, and a tribunal
of which the witness box is to be occupied by the
detective police; and a judgmentseat, whose sen-
tences, because procured by such means, will appear
the award of vengeance, not of j
ustice, to the flighted,
perhaps, but ever irreoonciled and unsubdned po-
pulation.
We will do Sir ROBERT PEEL the justice to as ,
that we do not think he clearly sees thus inevitable
tendencies of his proposed system of extended
coercion. The most dangerous and unjust use might
be made of it, and under many lord-lieutenants
of his own party such a coercion bill would soon
be applied to the purpose of clearing estates by the I
aid of the police, and relieving landlords of both
poor and poor rates, by a rale of terror, which
might indeed root out bravo and assassin from certain
spots, but which also would have the effect of scatter-
ing such ruffians and their principles over the whole
surface of the island.

CANDOUR compels us to say, that the object of Sir
CHARLES WOOD'S speech of lest night is quite as
likely to be unsatisfactory to the country, as the force
and coherence of its arguments are likely to disappoint
that happily expanding class of persons, who think
that between the exposition and the adoption of a most
Important line of conduct, there ought to be some
close and convincing relation. We have nothing to
allege against the temper or the completeness of the
right honourable gentleman's explanations. Hs
was very courteous and very diffuse. But a
certain thing was to be done, and he must permit us
to say, that it still wants consummation. The country
expected a full and direct reply to that mistrust
of the act of 1844, which has been forced upon
it through the medium of a most distasteful ex-
perience. There is a belief very current, and resting
upon a broad basis of personal experience, that
the effect of that act has been very greatly to aggra-
vate the pressure perhaps inseparable from a state of
things so extraordinary as that which has prevailed
since October, 1846, by bringing the Bank of England
as an irresistible competitor into the money
market on all occasions—by leading through
I that competition to frequent and violent actions
of the Bank upon the state of confidence and
eredit—and by multiplying. the points and the
chances of collision almost indefinitely through the
utterly unequal division, which it prescribes, of the
total stock of bullion between the department of brae
and that of banking. There is also a most reasonable
complaint that by its gratuitous restraint on the coun-
try circulation, it has subjected the Bank of England
and the general commerce of the country to a purely
factitious aggravation of its difficulties by raising up
an internal call for specie at a moment, when the
central fund stood in need of the speediest and the
amplest replenishment. And finally, there is a most
resolute conviction, formed upon no narrow or hasty
that by its utterly inflexible machinery,
hounds,
a season of greet emergency and peril, it
obliterated the healing functions of the Bank, and
left the 'commerce of the empire at the mercy of a
dark ana devastating hurricane, without" hope or
alleviation ; and that it did this at a moment when,
except for the obstruction of the act which binds it,
the Break was in a position to render, with the greatest
safety to itself, a broad and effectual shelter.
These were the opinions and the facts with which
Sir CHARLES WOOD RAH to contend, and we cannot,
under any gums of impartiality, flatter him with the
assurance that his last night's exposition is likely to
be accepted, even as a respectable answer.
His argument was very ample, and exceedingly
transparent. He professed to prove that to the end
of September there could be no inconvenience fairly
traceable to a banking source, because the circulation
of notes in the hands of the public did net undergo
any serious contraction. Thus he pat his finger
the difficult periods of July and August, and
with great oomplaoenoy, what was meant by fin=
preen= with a circulation of twenty millions. Is it
possible that the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER
could seriously. persuade himself for a moment
that the question in debate could be settled in any
each manner, or by any each weapons of argument ?
It is about as much out of date to talk about the
Vinlttyyoifnetreuritnoeny larthaetittheerporoef esfieripe prosperity
of the country is measured by the quantity of gold
and silver procured through a favourable balance of
trade. Sir CHARLES WOOD spoke of the circulation
with the same sort of confidence, that a philosopher of
the sixteenth century suddenly restored to the society of
the present day might speak of alchemy or the Ptole-
maic astronomy, utterly ignorant of all that has taken
place in the meantime, to consign the former notions of
mankind on these subjects to the category of ancient
errors. The circulation—in the same way es the phi-
losopher's stone—may, possibly, be the prodigious
agent which Sir CHARLES WOOD represents ; but.
previous to settling a great and vital question ander
the rale of so obsolete a formula, it would, at least,
have been a wise precaution to have attempted some '
justification of its character from the very preva-
lmt disrepute which his befallen it.
Under the guidance of a similar illusion Sir C.
WOOD conceived himself authorised to use a trim-
pliant tone, when he pointed out that the accommoda-
tion rendered by the Bank in August and Sep.
timber was something beyond the average of years.
The fact never has been disputed. But the question
does not turn upon that fact. The difficulty lies in this,—
that one day the Bank directors were very liberal, and
the day following they were almost inaccessible to in-
tercession. This was a state of things totally new,
and this is a state of things which the public desire to
1186 explained. Will Sir C. WOOD undertake to say
▪ yes or "no "to the matter-of-fact isqdry, whe-
ther the act of 1844 has or has not placedthe Bank
of England under strong inducements and obligations
to adopt a policy which involves so many sudden and
violent oscillations P Throughout the whole of his
three hours' oration there is not one line of allusion to
this paramount topic.
But, after the satisfactory test of the circulation,
Sir CHARLES WOOD is of opinion that the re-
cent pressure is fully accounted for by the un-1

• Xcadat Clucekie.

The Paris express of Monday has arrived, but con-
tains no French news of general interest.

The Madrid mails of the 24th have arrived. The
journals and despatches bring no striking intelli-
gence.

THE EXPRESS, WEDNESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 1, 1847.

The journals said dope received from Switzer-
land to-day bear the dale et Bile, the evening of the
27th. The diet ha a maim ea the Silk at which
three commiaskeent, Kern, Battier, end Latour,
were appointed to gnus& to Lucerne with instruc-
tions similar to thous given to the oommiesioners sent
to the other cantons Or the Leave which have sub-
mitted only with the beast ameba that the funds
and military stores belonging to the Confederation,
which were seized by Immerne, should be restored in
substance or in value. Immediately after the surrender
of Lucerne, General Dakar summoned the cantons of
Uri, Schwytz, and Unterwald to submit. The cantonal
government of Schwytz had sent • flag of
truce, which, however, was sent back with the
reply, that if the canton did not submit uncondi-
tionally the next morning Si. e., the 2Sth), it would be
attacked on that day. This was officially announced.
A report was afterwards circulated that it had capi-
tulated; but this was not authenticated. The sub-
mission, however, of the three cantons was generally
looked for on the 26th.

The Zurich Gazette of the 26th says that after the
affair at Gislikon, General Sigh; Saglio returned to
Lucerne, where he found that with the exception of
M. Ruttiraau all the members of the government had
fled. Whereupon the general of the Sonderbund de-
clared openly that he would never have accepted the
command had he believed that he would be connected
with such miserable creatures.

The Vorort had received intelligence from Tadao
of the retreat of the tionderbtind troops from Branca,
Oeonia, and Irania, by Fondi.
Since the above was written, we have received the
Iletritie of the 27th. That journal says that it was
at three in the afternoon of the 24th that the federal
troops entered Lucerne. Three battalions of the
Lucerne troops were made prisoners. The Sonder-
band General, Sonnenberg, was also made prisoner.
The Luoernese lost six pieces of artillery, two dis-
mounted and four captured. The loss of the federal
troops is reported to be 70 men.
The Helatie announces in a postscript that the
federal troops had entered the March of Schwytz, and
that that canton was already occupied.
The following letter has been addressed to the
Constitutionnel by a correspondent writing from Berne
on the 26th :

My letter of yesterday has put you in possession of facts
up to the day before the entry of the liberal troops into Lu-
cerne. I now continue my recital. In the evening a depu-
tation from the municipal council of that town reached the
camp, to solicit an armistice. Gen. Dufour replied that it
was too late; that the gates must be opened without delay.
This was eventually agreed to, and the next day a part of
the Ziegler division entered, about one o'clock, the chief
town of the league, the military band of the place, and a
great number of the inhabitants long suffering under the
yoke of the Siegwarts and the Meyers, serving to their es-
cort. Flags with federal colours were displayed from the
windows of a great number of the houses. The municipal
authorities had already taken proper steps to ensure lodg-
ings for the troops. The same day, about four o'clock,
was seen to debouch at Krieuz, a village about half • leagea
to the south of Lucerne, the vanguard of the Ochsenbein di-
vision, and soon after the division Well appeared. After al-
most continual engagements, either with the regular troops
or with the landsturmers, this division had succeeded in
turning the strong positions of Sonnenberg and Gutsch, by
entering intrepidly the defile of Renggioch. They were not
aware of the fact that Lucerse had surrendered, and it is
evident from this bold march, conceived and executed with
the utmost ability by Col. Ochsenbein, that if Lucerne bad
not been already taken, it would have fallen with the greatest
facility six hours later, in consequence of the advantageous
position which this column bad taken up. From verbal
accounts given me by several persons present at the attack of
Gisikon, tt appears that the loss of the federal troops was
considerable. They suffered, in particular, from a body of
riflemen belonging to the primitive cantons, posted en a
little wood. It was at last found necessary to surround the
spot and kill the greatest number of them ; the rest were
made prisoners. As to the troops of the Donets division,
they arrived on the morning of the 24th, without meeting
with any great resistance, at Eschenbach, about two leagues
from Lucerne, on the north-east; those of the Bourckhardt
division, after having bivouacked near the bridge of the
Emma, moved forward, and a part of them entered Lucerne
yesterday afternoon. The inhabitants of this place (Berne)
were agreeably surprised this morning at seeing the mail ar-
rive from Lucerne in a char-it-bane. The post-office admi-
nistration of Lucerne wrote word that they are delighted to
see the former relations resumed between the two place*, and
empress a hope that the intercourse may not be again inter-
rupted. The accounts received from other parts are also
favourable to the liberal cause. An official despatch, which
arrived this morning, states that a linutian column, which
had attempted to march on the 22nd on Bellinsona had been
forced to retreat before a body of Tesinisu troops.

The Italian journals afford some ground for the hope
that, notwithstanding the events which for several
months have excited the indignation of all Europe,
the King of Naples may be led into a course of less
benighted policy. The Piedmonlese Grzetle, and
official journal of the Sardinian government, affirms
that the institution of the customs league between
Rome, Tuscany, and Piedmont, the reforms in these
states, and most especially in the latter, and the re-
signation of M. Pietra Catella, which, as we have
already announced, wu accompanied by a solemn de-
claration of his opinion that nothing but a system of
reform can save the country, have conspired
to work a change in the mind of King
Ferdinand, who 11111 commissioned M. Pietra
Catella to form a plan of general reform. That
minister has consequently held conferences with the
envoys of the three Italian states and the British
minister at Portici. The heir apparent is to be Vice-
roy of Sicily and to reside at Palermo. The adhesion
of Naples to the custom league is positively
announced.

The arming of the national guard of Tuscany is in
rapid progress. Nearly twelve thouaand percussion
muaketa have been already distributed. French sub-
Tcts resident in Tuscany have, with the advice of the
Trench minister at Florence, entered the civic guard.

COLONIAL.
BRITISH NORTH AMERICA.

Our dataTi;itieCileeinii; are Montreal, Nov. 11 ;
Halifax, Nov. 18 ,• St. John (New Brunswick), Nov. 13 ;
Charlotte Town (Prince Edward's Island), Nov. 9 ; St. John's
(Newfoundland), Nov. 11 ; Bermuda, Nov. 2.
CANADA.—The disgraoefully callous manner in
which poor Irish emigrants have this year been shovelled
out to Canada continues to provoke the indignant comment
of the Canadian prem.
The political news contained in the imils received is
scanty. Rua oun of the approaching dhss of the previa-
dal parliamentcontinoed to eiradate, bat aelltleseertain was I
known. The Constitutional Committee of Balm at Ow I
bee had published an exposé of their ohloole Lithe Cmdises.
These are stated to be electoral reform; tispaulide govern-
ment as recognised in 1841 ; free trade and the free nano-
den of the Bt. Lawrence ; the gradual nsdesaption of the
provincial debt; the concession of wows Ma at lower
ragi,..,4 e.g., conditions. in small lets. to selnel Mem
"To all except the first of these two reforms," we the Chen.
seroadoe Montreal Herald, "we give our cordial sapport."
And the reason maligned for the exceptions is, that the writer
considers them mere speculative questions, the dieteention of
which can lead to no practical improvement.
The news received from England by the Caledonia is said
to hays oast a deep gloom over the mercantile oseentunity,
and the news of • similar character received by the Washing-
ton increased the apprehensive feeling. The Witness
asserts that it never knew " commercial prospects so gloomy
in Montreal or Quebec ;" that " the glut of timber and
staves in Quebec is great," and that " prime are so low that
no one will be warranted in lumbering this winter." It is
admitted however, that though confidence is shaken, and
great difficulty found in realising or obtaining advances on
any species of property, the banks were conducting affairs
with as much liberality as sound discretion would permit,
and that few failures had occurred. The Herald states that
the bank of Montreal had declared a quarterly dividend
of four per cent., and the city bank • dividend
of three per cent., both payable on the Ist of
December. Preen the mum scarce we learn that
at the last meeting of the Meat real Building Society 28
per cent. bonne was Om ter shares of 1001. The Great
Western Railway wee oommatood on the 27th of October at
Toronto; mad goverment having sanded to the construc-
tion of a anal between I& Bt. Lamm mad Lake Champ-
lain, have ordered the and Medea of that important
work to be himadiataly aaatmenaoi
NOVA SCOTIA.—Mace surprise has been ex-
premed that nneenoment cones/ng meeting
of the new beghno e
isture lad emend. v
The Kona' Chro-
nicle meets that the hems will meet bare the middle
of Jemmy:
Mir mown an slobs ltr. Jdorace, abbot* la a Meek
la the esswiler. bays swam* grtanmot bon. It is
amtany Soh weseseer be seriseitswwwwlolllolßage
poets mina le Ike agbloss sal bloods al • tut angarity
4 the adatimai wld Masa sat to Ow vary
I Ist*. Salblabg cars of Mils at tbs mat It sea Wad* be
imossald Oat tho Learstallob Ilia* oil la la sarebil la Ike sr
Isaiatissw• to melba awsbory ki Ilio=
at Ss tom. wit to patalrmM *sib* poll.
—*a Ow Ira all rimas Mr. kiwoloa Ma solblocas
Ss
tbs attbs awl atoryillag ts Yaw Main live
sir Jona al siraia Ike ssl, kabob Ow NE* via lko
sown wLn bp Mod *ea Ms ,and lit gamy *where'
to another Felon
The Chronieleemehrlo *Alf with the relseMen erS *Os
revenue laws ere are perismasat, and tam Me lawenlalld
must in a few maths ease down to the me.. end ask
for supplies." " If it ware atkorwise," praised' the jour-
nalist, " and Mr. Johnston bed his own way, we much doubt
whether we wail We mg ma= at all." Meanwhile
the Inaprsoissora m aldheaded, which is gaining ground,that So John Harvey has made bp hie mind to throw in his
lot with the old tory party is mateeisily altering the feeling
of the colonists towards hie's.
dial end amesrved coalitioner, for the Nova Scotian' knew
his aateeedents. Bat he was received as a man dime, likely