The Express.
London, England, 1853-12-03 00:00:00

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LONDON. SATURDA T. DECEMBER 3.

THE Board of Trade Tables for the month of
October, published yesterday, contain the Excise
accounts for the nine months ending October 10, and

they arc—like all the other returns--confirmatory of
our increased prosperity. There were consumed
in the nine months of
1831, 1852. 1853.
23.99 J. M 2 26,372,266 27.314,863
rapt r. I b........ 109,801,887 111,033.240 126,851,4211
bpirita .. gallons.. 17,314,939 17,803,956 18,821,618
We here see a greatly increased consumption of
these three articles—the principal taxed-articles now
remaining—in 18.53 over 1832, and a still greater
increase over 1831. In paper, the increase is much
greater than in either malt or spirits—a circumstance
which will be very gratifying to the friends of intel-
lectual improvement and of manufacturing activity.
It is probable that the last quarter of the year, which
will feel even more than the present the influence of
the Strikes and of our checked trade, may not be so
good as the first three quarters, but on the whole,
with all these and other drawbacks, 1833 will show a
much greater prosperity than 1832.
The exports for the month, notwithstanding some
embarrassing circumstances, are greater than were
expected. The increase is 1,312,3600 above the
corresponding month of 1832, and 1,536,948/. above
that of 18.51. The figures are as follow :
Declared value of the exports in the tenth
month of

_
1311. 1852. 18,33.
L. L.
4.621,078 .... 4,855,666 .... 6,168,026

The increase is pretty equally diffused, but is
large in beer and ale, in coals and culm, in cot.
ton stockings and cotton yarn, in haberdashery,
millinery, and cutlery', in all linen manufactures, in
most of the metals, though there is ■ decline in cop-
per and in tin plates, in most branches
of the silk manufacture, and in refined sugar,
and also in all branches of the woollen ma-
nufacture. In cotton manufactures the increase is
not so conspicuous, though it is large in cotton yarn ;
and iu wool there is a considerable decline. With
the exception of cottons, we may say that every one
of the great branches of our industry shows great
and increasing prosperity. But we need not wonder
at tho slow progress of the cotton manufactures,
when we know that in consequence of the Strike the
make has fallen off 357,000 pieces.
By far the mast interesting portion of these re-
turns, however, is that which relates to our imports
of food, and in one respect they are not satisfactory
—but a little explanation will remove any uneasiness
on the subject. The importation of wheat for the
month is not 6,000 quarters more than in
the corresponding month of last year; and
the increase in the importation of flour is
barely 17,300 cwts. more. At first this looks omi-
nous for our future supply. But the fact is, that our
market has hitherto been so well supplied, and the
apprehensions here of future supplies have been so
much less than on the Continent, that prices have not
jumped up here as they have jumped up elsewhere.
At present, and for some time past, the price of cora
here has been lower than in several parts of the
Continent, as may be known by the fact that cargoes
of wheat and grain of various kinds have been con-
tinually purchased here for different parts of the
Continent. Ours, therefore, is not now, and
has not been for some time, the best market;
and the consequence is, that the breadstuff@ which,
in the absence of any foreign competitors, would
have come hither, have gone from Odessa and New
York to Marseilles, Leghorn, and Havre. The great
demand of France and Italy has helped to keep up
freights, and we shall get our supplies at a later
period on better terms when freights are lower,
The terror of our neighbours has for the moment
operated to divert supplies from us to them, but as
those supplies are to be had—as the excellent harvests
of the Crimea and the United States of 1833 are not
yet threshed out, and will come forward at a later
period, we shall then get larger supplies than our
competitors, and on easier terms.
Of provisions, which are now also of especial im-
portance, the imports, with the exception of bun,
have increased in the month. We are now getting
the butter and cheese we require, and by and by we
shall get the breadstuff*. The raw material of our
manufactures, by which we shall be able to purchase
what we need—flax, hemp, cotton, wool—have all
largely increased. They compared in the tenth
month of 1852 and 1053 as follows :

makers can scarcely be regarded as fortunate for
Reform. The plea for a Reform Bill is
that the people have, during the last 20
years' made such progress in general enlighten-
ment and prosperity that a larger number may be
admitted to the suffrage. Yet the Ministerial jour-
nals say that the only extension of the suffrage will
be in the counties, or—in other words--that the
towns who carried the free trade measures, and
whose good sense and energy upset the Protectionist
folly, are to be left out of the bill altogether—because
they hale not progressed as the counties have ! Is
this Lord PALNIZRSTON'S view? Certain members
of the Cabinet are pledged to on extension of the
suffrage, which means an extension to all
elegises, not simply to one class ; and unless
the Cabinet are wise enough to see this,
and to ant upon the fair straightforward view of the
matter, they will incur just such I character for
shuffling as that which was won by the Derby-
Disraelites. They may be sure that the intelligent
and active men allover the country will insistent fair
redemption of Ministerial promises or—resignation.
Scats taken from towns must he given to other town
constituencies, and any extension of the suffrage must
be fairly made to all classes of the population alike.
To reduce the standard in Tory counties, and keep
it fixed in intelligent towns, is more than any Minis-
try can do. This the Coalition may rely upon.
The newest trick for turning the desire for Par-
liamentary Reform into every channel but the right,
is that which advocates the propriety of representing
the minority. Under the present system, say the
advocates of this plan, the minority is not only beaten,
but extinguished. If there are 2,001 voters in a
town, and there are 1,001 who record their votes in
favour of one candidate, and 1,000 in favour
of another, the minority, although equal
within an insignificant fraction to the majority, is
unrepresented in the Legislature. Instead of having
an inferior share in the imposition of taxes they have
none at all, which is a robbery. This apparent
anomaly it is proposed to remedy by various devices,
by which the miuority may bo able to acquire their
just rights. One party suggests that it would be
advisable, whenever it is possible, to have three re-
presentatives instead of two for an electoral district,
by which means a minority might often have the
power of stipulating for a member for itself.
Another mode of securing what are termed the
rights of a minority is to give the voters one vote
less than the number of representatives, by which
method the minority concentrating their efforts in
favour of one candidate might attain their ends. It
would take little trouble to show that, even in a ge-
neral election, the minority would not always be
able to employ this weapon successfully, and in the
case of single elections it would necessarily fail. The
only tolerably effective method that has been proposed
is that which would allow each voter the same
number of votes as there are representatives, but
would at the same time give him permission
to record them all in favour of one candidate. Thus
if there were three candidates the voter would have
three votes, all of which he might bestow upon his
favourite.

But, supposing the end obtained, where is the ne-
cessity, or the justice, or the advantage of this great
scheme ? What are we to get by breaking through
the principle that the ultimate decision of great pub-
lic questions should be settled by a majority ? Once
admit that a minority is to be represented, and you
inevitably fall upon the consequence, that it
ought to be represented in its due proportion to
the majority. If we once begin to patch
up theoretical defects in the constitution, by
remedies sought for, in the field of abstract emula-
tion, where are we to stop? We shall not be -ogle-
ally correct, until the representatives are accurately
divided into portions mathematically proportionate
to the numbers of voters in the parties into which
the whole number of voters is divided. In the case
mentioned above, how are we to settle the propor-
tion of representation to be claimed by the minority
of 1,000? Anything lees than the 1000-2001 th
part of a representative would, if this principle be
true, be unfair to them. Anything more would be
unjust to the majority.
Adopt the principle of representing a minority,
and Parliament would become a noisy debating
club. If the minority wish for due representation
they must make themselves the majority. If they
are in the right they will infallibly succeed in doing
this. When the Corn Law reformers were in a
minority, did they pat out whining supplications
that their weakness might be represented u well
as their adversaries' strength ? Did they stand at
the door of the House of Commons. set sok ix
admission into the great practical legislative work.
"shop on the strength of a few dialectical sub.
tleties ? The House of Commons, they knew, did not
represent accurately every shade of opinion amongst
the national constituency ; it was not parcelled
out in divisions with particular labels affixed to each,
corresponding to the numerous divisions in the world
of political thought. The House, they knew, was
intended to represent the decided practical tendencies
of the nation, and they knew also that, when in the
course of events the national tendencies became un-
mistakeably manifested on their aide, the work would
be done to their hands. Great political averages
cannot be struck with the minute scales and balances
of political theorists. For all practical purposes,
majorities are the only way of arriving at such general
results as are of use in politics.
Minorities in the House of Commons, although
they are of use in eliciting a fair discussion of op-
posing opinions, are so far a nuisance and a hin-
drance, that they always delay the progress of legit-
latiou. Aod when once suck a minority is thoroughly
defeated inside the House and in the nation—when it
is shown that the nation at large has for ever aban-
doned the political grourd on which this minority
stands,—it is then a pest. Witness the Protectionist
minority of the present day. They cannot stop use-
ful legislation, but they can impede its progress.
Are we to increase the evil arising from divisions of
parties in the House, by the addition of members
representing defeated minorities is towns or coun-
ties out of the House
Whence this sudden tenderness for minorities?
Whence this apparent generosity in favour of those
who are too weak to maintain their own position, or
to vindicate their own convictions ? If the position
is good, they will be able to fortify it. If their con-
victions are true, they will be able to spread them.
The foundation of the policy of trusting to ma-
jorities for the establishment of justice and
truth is the honest faith in the old doctrine—
" Truth is great, and will in the end prevail."
Victory in the end must be decided in favour of
truth. Does not the desire to establish the right of
a minority proceed from a lurking fear of the conse-
quences of the progress of what is just and true ?
Why are the old Tories, and the heavy Whigs, and
the stupid Protectionists, all hurriedly thrusting for-
ward various nostrums for evils in the representation,
but that they are all afraid cf the only true remedy
—the extension of the suffrage? Why does the
Times change its coat with such desperate energy
from day to day, but that it is determined
A ( OMMITTEE of the Cabinet have for some time to try all methods to avoid coming to the
beta busy with the details of the coming Iteform Bill. true solution of the difficulty ? Why did it,
This committee includes, it is said, Lord Jolts Rus- for instance, three days ago, on Wednesday,
SELL, Sir iA3tES GRAHAM, the Duke of NEwcAs- advocate the measure of swamping borough constitu-
Tt.t , and Lord PALMERSTON. The presence of the encies by merging them into the county constituen-
latter nobleman in this knot of Ministerial law- cies, and yesterday explain the cause of the relac-

Fla: ewt. 70,858 210,669
Heap , 38,817 192,017
Cotton
Wool , 6,915,082 10,182,23.5

We may say the same of hides, and oil, and
guano, and other articles of great utility—but not of
timber, which has fallen off—the use of which con-
tributes both to our enjoyment and our wealth.
Of manufactured articles, in gloves, in glass, there
is the largest increase. Articles of consumption
and enjoyment, cocoa, coffee, spirits, sugar, tea,
tobacco, have all increased, showing ample payment
for our large exports, and leaving us nothing to
desire but a continuation of so prosperous a state of
things,

We cannot omit to mention that our transit trade
also shows an increase. Thus the quantities of
foreign or colonial coffee exported in the month—of
corn and flour, of which 8,556 cwts. were exported
in the month of 1863, against 6,997 cwts. in the
corresponding month of 1852—0 f guano, of hides,
of most metals and most oils, of silk manu-
facture', of moat spices, of unrefined sugar, of
tea, tobacco, wine, and cotton wool, all show
an increasing trade in these articles of foreign pro-
duction. The tonnage entered inwards in the month
is 16,002 lea than in the corresponding month of
1452 ; but the tonnage cleared outwards is 81,486
more; so that no conclusion can be drawn from any
one month but that our shipping, like our trade, is
on the whole prosperous and increasing.
The coasting trade has declined a little in the
month, showing the immediate effect of that check
given to foreign trade, which will only—in conse-
quence of previous engagements—become visible
in the returns at a later period. The fact we
hate referred to of comparatively small imports of
corn in the last month teaches us to look for greater
imports in future months, and—accompanying them
—an increase in oar coasting trade.