The Express.
London, England, 1847-01-06 00:00:00

MAILS._

manufacture. And Great Britain, while wrestling
with this double difficulty, 1123 pauperised Ireland to
maintain. The surplus of revenue, after providing
for the charges of the consolidated fund, and for the
payments of supply services in the quarter ended sth
January, 1847, is 1,365,455 L but, when the Irish
accounts are called in, this will soon be absorbed.
We write in no spirit of despondency. The hale
and vigorous constitution of Great Britain has tri-
umphed over yet ruder shocks than those which
await it in the year 1817. But it would be bad
policy to shut our eyes to the difficulties before us.
They will severely test the statesmans"ip of our
rulers, and will at the same time entitle them to
lenient judgment from the equitable.

WE have already alluded to the enormous expenses
entailed upon the promoters and opposers of private
bills by the present system of legislation. An attempt
was made by Mr. Hume's committee of last session
to arrest this growing evil, and obtain an impartial
inquiry as to the merits of the proposed measures,
before they were submitted to parliament. But the
act embodying the recommendations of this com-
mittee was passed in too great haste, at a period
of the session when important measures rarely
meet with lengthened consideration ; and hence we
find the act deficient in provi-ions the absence of
which will probably be found materially to cramp its
operation, and restrict the good which might have
been anticipated from its due execution.
When the railway mania was at its heig,lit, go-
vernment experienced the same difficulties which it
now does with regard to improvement bills, and, in
exactly the same manner, endeavoured to check the
indiscriminate demand for legislation by a preliminary
inquiry and report of the Board of Trade. The fate
of that report is well known; private interests
were too powerful .for a body not possessing any
legislative authority or statutory powers, and the
contests went on in committee as if no preliminary
inquiries or report on the schemes had ever been
made. This is the rock upon which we apprehend
the wreck of the Private Bills Act. Inspectors are to
be sent down to the localities specified in the bills, for
the purdose of examining in situ its merits or de-
merits. But the act does not provide that their report
shall be final, nor can it have more than a moral force
upon the future progress of the bill. The inspectors
stand in the position of a grand jury, to examine and
report whether there is a proper case to go before the
great parliamentary jury of the nation, and yet, unlike
a grand jury, they have no power to ignore a bill.
They constitute therefore simply a commission of
inquiry, not of execution.
Those who are conversant with private bill legisla-
tion will not for a moment suppose that an unfavour-
able report by these commissioners of inquiry could at
all arrest the progress of the bill, unless, indeed,
government adopted the reports of its own officers,
which, in the case of the Board of Trade, they did not
do. One curious feature of this act is that it does
not in any way interfere with or become a part of
Standing Orders. Hence the grave expense of pass-
ing these must be incurred long before the report
of the visiting inspectors is made, and however
unfavourable that may be, the promoters of the
bill, after having incurred the preliminary
expense, would not feel disposed to lose all
chance of realis'ng the money already expended
in its promotion, and therefore would hazard a second
battle in committee. We state this advisedly, be-
cause, in this point of view, the expenses will be in-
creased, instead of being diminished, by the operation
of the Private Bills Aet. The visiting inspectors are to
hold their court in the locality specified in the bill, and
are there to hear arguments for and against the mea-
sure. The opponents to the bill will naturally muster
a strong opposition, in order to discover the tactics of
its promoters, and thus enable them to prepare their
opposing ease when it comes before parliament. Here
the act also fails in its provisions ; for, although the
inspectors have power to summon the promoters at
the bill to give evidence, tney have no such power
with its opponents. The tactics of the former are there-
fore laid open, whilst those of the latter are concealed,
and every one knows how injurious such an exposure
becomes in the hands of opposing barristers. Legal
men must therefore be employed to watch the interests
of the two parties, and thus two expensive struggles may
arise instead of one. These are grave features in the
act under discussion, and render its favourable execu-
tion difficult. Its success depends mainly upon the in-
terpretation put upon the act by the department of
government entrusted with its administration. It is
understood that the inspectors to be sent down to each
district consist of a barrister and engineer, who are to
act in concert, and under defined instructions. The
act, with all its deficiencies, will still be found emi-
nently useful in eliciting truth, if carried into opera-
tion with a knowledge of the evils we have indicated.
Truth may be elicited without men h arned in the
law being arrayed in battle one against the other.
The arena for the final straggle most still be the com-
mittee-room of the House of Commons, and, therefore,
it is highly essential that there should not be two
distinct conflicts with their attendant expenditure.
The object of the act is to save expense, and it must not
be allowed to increase it. We think that many of
the apprehended evils might be avoided, if the visit-
ing commissioners were allowed to receive written
evidence on particular points, instead of mere oral
testimony. By these means, much necessary infor-
mation could be obtained, without giving the oppo-
nents an unfair advantage over the promoters of the
measure ; for it must be distinctly borne in mind
that the latter, only, are before this preliminary court
of inquiry, while the rounds of opposition cannot be
fairly sifted and weighed. We augur well of the
operation of this act, as far as its defective state per-
mits, from the circumstance that those persons most
interested in its administration are satisfied with the
spirit in which it is being carried into execution.
But this should not deter us from pointing out its
defects, in the hope that they may be remedied in the
approaching session of parliament. Before the act
can be extensively useful, the department of
Woods, upon the report of their visiting inspectors,
must have some final power in the matter, or we
shall find it in the position of the Board of Trade
when reporting on railways. It cannot be doubted
that a court constituted of an impartial barrister and
engineer, is one better adapted to understand the
merits of an improvement bill, than a committee of
the house, the members of which are apt to be in-
fluenced by local prejudices and interests, and are
ignorant of the scientific principles upon which the
bill is founded. Power, therefore, should be given
to ignore bills when there is no prinid facie case for
legislation, and only allow those to come up to par-
liament which are likely to be for the public good,
backed by the surveys and examinations of competent
and impartial commissioners. This is no new power,
as it has already been carried into operation in former
times. The practice commenced as early as the reign
of HENRY 111., and continued in full force till the
sixth year of the reign of HENRY VI.
Very considerable expense in obtaining private
bills is incurred during their passage through stand-
ing orders. At this early period of the session, wit-
nesses are summoned from the country, and are again
recalled when the bill passes into committee. The
large expense incident to this passage through stand-
ing orders, might easily be saved by allowing the
proofs of compliance to be given on the spot before
the commissioners of inquiry, and, in this single
point, such a commission would cause great economy
of public money, as in every case the costs of private
bills are indirectly charged on the public. The ob-
jects contemplated by Mr. HUME'S committee in the
preparation of this act were large and comprehen-
sive, and we trust that the approaching session of
parliament will not pass without rendering it more
effective than it is at present.:

The malls for Tign, Oporto, Ligon, Madeira, Cadiz, and Gibraltar,
will be nude up on the morning of the 7th January.
The overland cloned mails, rin Marseilles, to the Mediterranean,
Egypt, Aden, Candon, India, lion Kong, Sm., will be made up on the
evening of the 7th January.
The West t excluding thaw for Mexico, and
the ilavaniuh, will be mule op on the morning of the 17th January.
Tb, overland Our Gibraltar, Malta, Greece, the lonian Island.,
Ervin, Aden, Ceylon, India, llong-Kong, and China, rio Southampton,
will be mode up on the evening of the morning of the 20th January.
The mail. for New South Wale', Van Diconen'a Land, and New
Zealand will he made up on the evening of the Slat January.
The mails for Britt ill North America, BeTISIYIIII, and the United
States, will be made up on the evening of the 3rd February.
The mail. for the Bruits, the River Plate, Monte Video, Ferment-
hum, Bahia, Madeira. and Buenos Ayres, will be dispatched on the
evening of the .Ith lehrua. 7.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.
• Adrcrtiennenn intmtdect for The Erpress, London evening paper,
most be at the Office by Two o'clock on the day of public-aim

HIGH WATER AT LONDON-BRIDGE.
Tnis DAT. —Mortung, S 1 min. poet 4; Afternoon, 9 min. part 5.
To-lloanow —Morning, 29 min. post 5; Afternoon, 43 min. port 5.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JAN. 6.

THE abstract of the revenue accounts for the year 1.
and quarter ending yesterday evening will be found
in another part of this day's publication.
They show en increase of 13,0321. in the income of
the year 1846 upon that of 1845 ; and an increase of
19,8731. in the income of the last quarter of 1846 upon
that of the corresponding quarter of 1845. The dif-
ference is so trifling that the aggregate incomes of
the two years may be said to be equal in amount. On
looking to the detail 4, however, a material difference
in their composition is perceptible.
On the ordinary revenue the increase for the year
is 1,248,957/., the counterbalancing decrease only
220,7001. And this decrease is entirely on the stamps,
the branch of revenue which was augmented to
such an unnatural and unhealthy extent by the wild
railway speculations of 1845. The other items of
revenue on which the decrease is sufficiently large to
bring down the increase on the ordinary revenue to
the trifling sum of 13,0321., are—the China money,
imprests, and repayment of advances. Of the
1,235,9231. decrease under the heads of revenue
named, nearly 1,103,0001. come under stamps, China
money, and repayments. "rine ordinary revenue,
therefore—the revenue which indicates by its amount
the healthy or unhealthy economical condition of the
country-.—is sound and improving.
The increase for the year on the Customs is
203,6.591. Of this increase part, no doubt, is attri-
butable to the large importations of grain. But
we learn from a sure source that the sugar duties
have largely contributed to it, that the increase on
that item alone is advancing at the rate of a million
and a halt' per annum. The returns from timber-
duties have also experienced a marked improvement,
and, what is worthy of note, chiefly on the Canadian
timbers, notwithstanding the total ruin of that
colony's timber-trade, under the new tariff, so solemnly
predicted by protectionist sages. Of the returns from
duties on tea, coffee, and cocoa, we cannot speak with
such certainty ; but the commercial returns of the
statistical department of the Board of Trade show
that, up to the 3th of November, the quantities of these
articles entered for home consumption were as decid-
edly in advance of those so entered in 1845 as the home
consumption entries of 1845 were of those of 1814.
The year's increase in the Excise is 344,1381.; on
the Post-office 8.5,0001.
The increase in the returns from excise and cus-
toms duties, inconsiderable though it may appear,
is remarkable in the face of the large and recent
reductions of rates, and entire exemptions of many
articles from any duty under those heads of income.
Our more liberal system of commercial policy —our
extensive reductions of duties in expectation that
increasing trade will more than compensate for
diminished rates—has been tested by a difficult and
embarrassing season. We have pushed out into the
sea of free-trade in the midst of a squall. The
deficiency of the harvest throughout the country
—the miserable condition of Ireland—the pres-
sure felt in the cotton manufacturing districts
(before the commencement of the present panic), by
the steady rise in the price of cotton, unaccompanied
by any corresponding rise in the price of goods, and
in other manufacturing districts from the surcease of
orders from America, till the new tariff should come
into operation—might have severely tried the longest
established financial system. All these disturbing
influences have burst upon ours at the moment that
it first came into operation, and it has borne the
runt of them bravely.
This is encouragement for the year that is openiv

upon us, and, in truth, with present prospects, such en-
couragement is needed. In Jane last the price of Indian
corn ranged from 255. to 30s. for 4801bs. • in December
it had risen to 728. In June the imperial quarter of
wheat averaged 535. Bd.; in December it was 60s.
Are quote tho six weeks' average of prices which re-
1/4/ates duty ; for the present price of wheat per guar-
loin Hull and Liverpool is 725. Combined with this
normous rise in the price of food, is a certain defi-
ciency in the supply of the raw material for our staple

WE must again draw the attention of our readers
to the pressing necessity that exists for the immediate
removal of the prohibition in the use of sugar and
molasses in breweries. The price of barley is at
present full 30Iper cent, or 10s. a quarter more than the
average price of the preceding five years; this enor-
mous increase, of course, indicates a 'deficient supply ;
a deficiency to the extent of one-third in the supply of
malting barley involves a loss to the revenue of one
million and a quarter sterling; and, worse still, it
must materially restrict the consumption of beer.
Ahead , we are informed, the publicans have in-
, by a penny a quart, the price of that nem,-
sary of life to the working classes. Nor can they be
blamed : for to them generally circulars similar to
the following were issued on the let of January ;
Brewery, —street, Jan. 1.
Sir,—ln consequenee of the recent advance in the value of
malt it is necessary to increase the price of ale and porter,
which will from this date, be u under :—Table beer, 245.
per barrel ; table ale, 325. ditto; porter, 406. ditto. And an

THE EXPRESS, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 6, 1847.

addition of 6.. per barrel to the several prices heretofore
charged, fur all other descriptions of ale and porter.—We
have the honour to be, your obliged and humble servants,

Nor will this increase of price, bad as it is, be the
worst of the matter ; deterioration of quality will in-
evitably follow it ; the working classes will be afflicted
either with a less nutritious, or with a positively un-
wholesome beverage ; in the one case there will
be deficient strength to perform inadequately paid
labour; in the other, there will be disease propagated,
hospitals filled, families suffering, and poor's rates
augmented.
Here, then, we have loss to the state, loss to the
brewer, loss to the publican, loss to the working man,
loss to the country, and gain to none. This is surely
a state of things that will compel the legislature to
look about for a remedy.
Nor need parliament look long : the remedy is at
hand—it obstructs the way—it may be leapt over, it
cannot be avoided. The remedy consists in allowing
the importer of sugar and molasses to do what he
pleases with his commodity on condition that lie pays
per cent. duty for this not very unreasonable pri-
vilege. At present he contributes the 60 per cent,
and is denied the right of applying his property, so
' taxed, to a manufacture in which the demand would be
enormous if freedom of trade were conceded to him. All
that he asks is that a duty equivalent to the taxon malt
should be levied on sugar and molasses when applied
to the like purposes. To grant him this would aug-
ment the revenue, bring down the price of malt,
lower the retail cost and improve the quality of beer,
in short, would reverse the existing state of things.
The law allows the landed interest to grow beet-root
'for the manufacture of sugar on similar terms ; why,
then, should it deny the like opportunities to the
sugar interest? All that the law requires is that
sugar made from beet-root shall pay the same duty
as Colonial sugar. All that the sugar trade ask is
that the wort made from sugar shall be subject to
a duty equal to the duty charged on malt. Can any-
thing be more reasonable?
Hitherto, the only objection urged against the re-
moval of the prohibition has been, the fear that the
revenue will suffer, whereas it turns out the revenue
must suffer because of the prohibition. But, this ob-
jection removed, another equally illusory is started.
fhe introduction of sugar into breweries will, it is
said, inconveniently raise the price of sugar at home.
The answer is obvious: any great rise in the value of
sugar, so caused, would indicate a still more deficient
supply of malt than that the country is now suffer-
ing from, and prove the necessity of the removal of
the prohibition, and would, when it reached a certain
point, suspend the use of sugar in breweries. But
the probability is, that the introduction of sugar into
breweries would lead to its being mixed with malt,
and, from their combined use, the consumption of
both malt and sugar would be largely increased, to
I the benefit of all—to the greater advantage of none
than of the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

WERE the principle once practically recognised
that, in order to obtain employment in Public Offices,
the candidate should be required to produce some
evidence of his fitness for the service, it would seem
to be no very difficult task for those practically con-
versant with it, to devise regulations for the accom-
plishment of this object in their several departments.
The suggestions of observers who do not belong to
that particular world, must necessarily be of a more
general nature. Those which have occurred to us
are offered with considerable diffidence; rather as
outlines which more direct experience must complete,
than as positive instructions to those who may seek to
reform the existing system. The main purpose on this
occasion, is to awaken the public attention to the ex-
pediency of a better system : the devising of express
remedies must, in a great measure, be left to a more
advanced stage, and a nearer study of the business.
In the meanwhile, as a first step in this direction,
we would propose the establishment, in all main de-
partments of public service, of a system of training
for young candidates; and of an examination, as well
of these, both on their admission and when they claim
to be put on actual duty, as of other applicants who
may be offered as being already capable of the places
they aspire to. These conditions, if insisted upon,
might be made in a great measure compatible with
the existing mode of nominating to office.
Here it may be observed, that plausible objections
may be raised against the entire abolition of patron-
age. The number of desirable State employments in
England, as we have already remarked, is not
large enough to justify the pursuit of place as one of
the ordinary ways to a maintenance. The chance,
amongst a number of competitors, would be too
small to encourage those who had other openings in
life offered to them. It may, therefore, be doubted
whether, unless offices were greatly multiplied
(which Heaven forbid!), the change from patronage
to open election, from all who might be willing to
contend for the few prizes amidst a number of blanks,
would with certainty bring forward an improved de-
scription of applicants. They would in a great
measure be such as, having no other prospect,
could lose nothing by waiting on the chances
of what must be a mere lottery. Perhaps,
as things now stand, our present method, properly
modified may produce on the whole a better choice
of men, from those to whom patronage offers a kind
of certainty in life, than we could obtain were places
thrown open to general competition. Something
better than private nomination, indeed, might be had,
by granting the privilege of recommendation to
inspectors of public schools, had we such in sufficient
number, and of truly popular character. The youths
thus selected might then proceed with confidence, at
an early age, to prepare themselves further for public
service ; and we should in that case have the advantage
of a free choice, without the risk that would now deter
our most hopeful youth from offering themselves to
it. But such an improvement could only be founded
on a previous one in our school system, which, alas!
is yet to be made. Thus it is that a defective plan of
Education meets us as at every step of propos
amendments. On the public schools we now have,
no reliance could be placed in this way to give us a
substitute for patronage. Supposing the latter con-
tinued, therefore, it would be modified by the plan
we are now sketching, in the following respects.

Firstly, by ruling that no patronage- should secure
the admission to nominees who could not abide the
test of a suitable examination on entrance. Secondly,
by the addition of this circumstance, that, in order to
go through it successfully, all persons who had
hopes of obtaining office by patronage would have to
address themselves, while waiting for it, to the
acquisition of such special knowledge as the examiners
must insist on their possessing before they can be
admitted to it. This might be the first step towards
introducing a stricter system hereafter, under which
the service should be gradually more and more ex-
tensively recruited from the ranks of those who have
been entered as probationary candidates; who will',
have been regularly trained in official duties, and
recommended to promotion by the examining body;—
until, at length, the usage of directly nomi-
nating to higher places, men who had not
previously served in lower ones, should in a great
measure have been replaced by the progressive system,
of advancement from the lower ranks; and the pa-
tronage (supposing it maintained on its present basis)
would be chiefly exercised in the nomination of can-
didates for the earliest stage of probation only. This
we see practised with regard to cadetships in the East
India Company.
- • •• • •

The arrangements for the probationary classes, and
for the subjects to which the examination in each
department should extend, must be the care of special
inquirers, instructed to lay down suitable regulations
according to the nature of each office. It does not
appear that in any case either process would present
insurmountable difficulties. In many public offices,
the gradations from the junior to the superior clerk-
ships, already offer something not unlike the scheme
which would be necessary in the foundation of a
class of supernumeraries working on trial. These,
while preparing themselves for the day of examina-
tion, would be employed in the office, without sala-
ries ; having first proved, under a preliminary inquiry,
such general acquirements as all candidates should
be bound to bring with them. The period of working
trial, would be fixed according to circumstances ; but
should in every case be long enough to afford some proof
of the general capacity and steady conduct of the
applicant. An examination once well passed, he
would be eligible for such vacancies as might next
fall out. Failure in the trial would entail on him,
according to its circumstances, either absolute exclu-
sion or the relegation to a further term of proof.
As to the examination, especially in the more im-
portant departments, it might be optional to the can-
didate to present himself for a certhicate of a higher or