The Express.
London, England, 1851-06-04 00:00:00

'llse eels of parliament
If there be, however,
lative action could i..
isnaffodirdoi rniE them
eom a leg&
meets, Inborn as
occupiers of bed holding a
neverthsimai_seinverted their e.
if they Aida suddenly receive notice to quit, much
of their greperty would be left behind them, to the
rin of ibis landlords—a gain to which they have
**jot title. To remedy this injustice Mr. PUSET,
the member for Berkshire, some years ago intro-
duced a bill whereby he proposed to give the occu-
=land en absolute right to be paid for noes-
improvements by the award of valuers, and
esesedingto certain defined principles. That bill was
at ems rejected by our landlord legislators. He then
proposed several bills to enable the ownersof entailed
Naito to enter into voluntary contracts with this
tenants for similar purposes, whisk aheeld be WA.
lug on the nett takers of theologian MY eles
was rejected. It was feared dole lima hello
territorial system would be noiq eel blase Ike
power even to make voluntary agessowits
tenant right was refused. To the brawn now
compyin land which they have improved on the
C=tenure of a tenancy from year to port
Mit of a tenant-right would have vended
meet &loveably ; it would have gone far to emano-
pia don from the thraldom they now endure, for it
is do hot at this lose of capital from a notice to quit
whisk keeps them in servile dependence on their
harlisrda. On this and on other grounds Mr. Pi SET
boo poly earned the title of a rational and sincere
triad of the tenant farmers of England. Yet it
seems the protectionist clique of which Mr. G. F.
YOUNO is the mouthpiece, have set up a candidate in
opposition to Mr. Pesev for Berkshireat the next eke-
two. We hope and believe that the electors tor that
county will too readily distinguish true friends from
false ones, to be misled by any of Mr. You NC el poli-
tical quad. But the attempted dictation has drawn
from Mr. l'esev a spirited and practical letter, which
will go far to expose to the formers at large the
utter hollowness of the political pretenders who arc
trying to mislead them.
He tells the farmers that the utmost Lord STAN.,
LILT,

should he get into power, professes to intend in
the way of protection, is the imposition of a duty on
foreign wheat of as. per quarter. " Practical men,"
says Mr. PVSEY, "believe that a Ss. tax would raise
the price of wheat not 3e. but 3e. only in our market.
. . . . If this be so, you (the farmers) would not
gain even 3e., fur there iv a duty of is. already upon
imported wheat. Two shillings per quarter, there-
fore, would be the amount of your gain." For this
magnificent gain of 2s. on the quarter of wheat,
farmers are asked to overturn a government,
dissolve a parliament, and piece themselves
in hostile collision with three-fourths of the com-
munity, to engage in a conflict in which defeat is
inevitable. Had Lord &ARLEY and Mr. Disitar.o
formed a government in March last and their protec-
tion scheme worked to the utmost of their expecta-
tion in advancing prices, the present average price
of wheat would now have been "at no higher amount
than forty shillings and twopence." Well does Mr.
PUSET say, " I can follow no such " will-of-the-
wisp." And we know that a large and an increas-
ing number of fat men are of the same opinion. They
are disposed to think with Mr. PusEe that such a
duty might serve the landlords' purpose better than
the tenants ; that "the name of protection without
the substance might save the rent but not save
the farmer ;" and that the whole scheme is •
delusion and a mockery. Despite the grumbling
of farmers, notwithstanding their complaints of low
prices, there is a growing conviction in the agricul-
tural mind that the farmers are being used as the
tools of an insincere and reckless political party.
There are other ways, as Mr. PUSEY tells the
farmers, by which these two shillings—and he might
have said the whole promised five—" might be not
gained, but sand, which is, after all, the same
thing." And he tells them " that many improved
threshing machines will reduce the cost of getting
wheat from the rick into the sack br two shillings a
quarter," and for that fact he vouches from his own
experience. And there are " other means too, by
which production may be increased or its coot
diminished, and so other and other two shillings be
gained or be saved." This is a much more tensible
plan of protection than any government can offer to
the British farmer.
Mr. PusEv next adverts to Mr. DISRAELI'S relief-

from-taxation dodge, to which we must do the
farmers the justice of saying they pay very little
attention—whereon he says, " when the quarter of
wheat has fallen from 31. to 21., reducing the farmer's
returns from his wheat field by 70s. an acre, a ILICM-
bur of parliament who speaks of relieving the farmer
substantially by taking off a few pence of county
rate, or securing him 2s. a quarter out of the pound
he has lost, seems so ignorant of your (the farmers')
real circumstances and of farming that one can
scarcely keep up one's attention." While protection
was au existing thing, as Mr. Pesky says, he de-
fended it, and he would even now vote for a mode-
rate fixed duty upon the ground that the transition
from protection to free trade was " too sudden;" but
" to agitate for high prices, and to give, if anything,
two or three shillings a quarter, to speak for protec-
j tion and mean free trade, is a movement in which,"
says the member for Berkshire, " I cannot join,
but must leave these misty regions and lofty flights
to orators, while I endeavour to serve you by plod-
ding calmly on the solid ground of steady improve-
ment." Ile will be no party to the " mock restora-
tion to life " of the dead protection. And he eon-
eludes his letter with a frank and manly appeal to
the common son e and fair dealing of his agricultural
constituents. Nor will such an appeal be made in
vain.

There is by no means such unanimity of opinion
amongst farmers in favour of protection us the politi-
cians who would reconstruct their fallen fortunes on
'rural support profess to believe : not a few of the
*inners, the moat intelligent of their class, who de-
fended the corn-laws vigorously, now deprecate all
attempts to revive them, and all admit, that, with
hie a rally of prices, there would be no
WZMiliallS making a successful struggle for a fixed ,
Msnow the severity of agricultural depression is
passing away. Wool has sold well for some time,
and store sheep have recently advanced in price
greatly. We heard a vehement protectionist farmer
admit that the rise of prices on sheep at the recent
=air at Wilton, in Wiltshire. had made a di[
half a year's rent in favour of the farmers
d that district. Cattle, too, have advanced from
fifteen to twenty per cent. within the last three
months, and there is every prospect of a further rise
ie the price of store stock in consequence of the
great demand which has arisen in Ireland. The di-
minution of small farmers, then, has made room for
capitalist occupiers and the present increased demand
for live stock is one of the results. Moreover ,during
the famine years everything in the shape of vendible
stock was sold, and the vacuum thus created has now
to be filled up. There is reason also to believe that
the price of wheat has passed the lowest point,
while barley, oats and pulse, arc now selling for
prices comparatively high. Not that we would en-
courage farmers to expect high prices, for. it is ono al
the great advantages of throwing our markets open
to the whole world, that prices of food will probably
be henceforth steady and moderate, but it is
nearly certain that there will 'ite a substantial
reaction from tho lowest range of prime
they have lately complained 4 Opinion and under-'
!ahoy produced by the change of system, and pre-
muted and fostered for party purposes, have pre-
vented all speculative dealings in grain and other
agricult oral produce, while at the same time an he-
menw consumption has been going on ; so that should
any inclinat. for speculative purchases arise, there,
would quickly be a c rusidemble advance in prices.
Let the rational members for agricultural constituen-
cies meet the RICHMOND and Yoexo stimulated
clamour which may be got up against them by a
lank and fearless reference to facts and figures, as
stir. Fusee has done, and they will soon find that
tbe "reaction" which has taken place is not one
eigain.t free trade, but rather against the blind reli-
ance on protection by which the rural electors were
once influenced.

4MR EXPRESS,

INESDAY

itirmiey •
change
dodges; ' pip eclay in free cotntriee,Tirei else the
work of • day. To legislate, therefore, we must
take England and Ireland as they are. They are
difficult to legislate for together, dangerous to legis-
late for apart ; but these are not sufficient reasons
that we should not legislate for them at all.
The bill before parliament 'wens the Queer's
supremacy in the conferring if dignities and the
sanctioning. of authority. The Pore denies the
QUEEN'S right; the Roman eatholim deny it; the
son of the premier peer of England declare' that
drawn hos a right to appoint is England a prelate
who doill walk before all peers in despite of the
. And parliament is asked to interfere, and
fay not so. Then come the penalties, or the mode
of enforcement. In catholic auntries the ta
Medd be simple. The public prosecutor
then alone complain to the judge, and the judge wadi
uncontrolled give sentence according to law. But in
countries free, like Great Britain and Ireland, men
are tried by jury. To appeal to a jury, and have
a prosecution and trial at all, are political acts.
They affect the peace and the administration
of the country. How can such things be left
open in Ireland? To do so would be to let loose at
each other the two parties which it has been the
constant policy of the government to hold in observ-
ance of mutual respect, and at the same time to make
the law and the government a party to their
squabbles. Thus what would be but the simple
operation of law in England, would be commotion
and strife in Ireland.
But notwithstanding the sreat difference in the
condition of Ireland and of England, notwithstand-
ing the wanton insult of assuming titles in England
kr vanity or bravado sake, whilst the assumption of
web titles in Ireland has at least the foundation
of a numerous flock and a real church,
and notwithstanding the indulgence of the
government in Ireland, which has admitted Roman
catholic prelates in Ireland to the enjoyment of that
rank which has been rudely snatched in England—
notwithstanding all this, it is necessary to maintain
in Ireland, as in England, the principle that dignity
and eminence which, however spiritual, necessarily
extend to temporal influence in the management of
property as in the assumption of rank, cannot
be won and maintained without the sanction of the
state or of the sovereign, against whose supremacy
in this respect no rescript of a foreign power, nor
election of any number of British subjects can stand,
or should be allowed to stand.
It may be just, and it may be proper, that the
Roman catholic prelates be allowed in Ireland the
full dignity and pre-eminence that they enjoy in
catholic countries abroad. But this is for parliament
to debate and to sanction, and for the sovereign to
grant, not for the Port: to ordain, or for princes
and prelates to arrogate to themselves.
We cannot agree with Mr. Hortense, who, so
merciless to protestant bishops, would have the
country prostrate itself before the Roman catholic ones,
sad acknowledge all that they have assumed or can
awns by right of impudence. We stickle for the
supremacy of the state and the superiority of par-
liament over protestant hierarchies and bishops,
and we are not prepared to do that, as Mr. Hoes-
Mae seems to be, in order to deny to CRANMER what
we are ready to give to FISIIER Or to LAUD.
There is no form of human society of which we en-
tertain so great a horror, as that in which priests
germ a caste apart, permanent in their narrowness,
hereditary in their influence and ideas, anti-social in
their lives, anti-liberal in their oninions, the ten-
dency of law and legislation in suc'h countries being,
inevitably to transfer all powers to the priesthood.
Such was ancient Egypt ; such, hut for the refor-
mation, would have been modern Rome. But
such is still her principle of the predominance
of sacerdotalism. The spiritual belief and
fallacy of such doctrines we cannot forbid—as opi-
nion must be free—but we certainly would not
cherish, encourage, or patronise it; and we would
not acknowledge either the dignity of hierarchy, nor
any right to transmission of property for ecclesias-
tical uses, without guarantees and defences in return,
that this religion or its dignitaries would not act
hostilely to our institutions.
At present there rages a war in Ireland, our
state and government being on one side, and the
lore and Roman catholic prelates on the other.
Tho Poer. has just proscribed the colleges for the
education of the Irish people which he formerly sanc-
tioned. His Holiness does this in revenge because
we deny his right to divide England into dioceses,
and to appoint archbishops of our metropolis. In this
war one or other party must conquer. Either the
POPE or Queen VICTORIA mod remain sovereign. of
Ireland. We hold for Queen Vieroai A ; but in enforcing
Queen Vicroets'e rights in Ireland, one of which is
to have her people educated, we would not have Roman
catholic prelates dragged up each day, like brawlers in
the streets, for the wearing this name or that. But
we would be the more rigid with regard to the
holding and transmission of property, and declare
every thing henceforth illegal which the Roinan
eatholics persevered in on account of its illegality.
We fear that all parties will be disappoptecl of
their hope. The ministry expect that the POPE and
the Roman catholic' will be so abashed by the passing
of the present bill, that they will desist from their titles
and from the fresh powers to be assumed by their
ihierarchy. Mr. WALI'OLE talks of legislating defirei-
tirely on this struggle between the state and the
Roman catholic'. ‘1 e envy the gentleman's confi-
dence ; but if there was a hope of finality, that was
misplaced, as it is in such religious struggles. Sir
JAMES GRAHAM thinks that by ceding all the eatho-
tics ask, he would calm and quiet them. This
is the greatest mistake of any; and to
be convinced of it, we would recommend him
to consult the Duke of WELLINGTON. States.
men more comprehensive than Sir JAMES GRARAM
would not only leave catholicism its full sway,
but set every sect free to lord it, and develop and
assume what it pleased. Such a scheme might be
entertained as a whole, but we do not see how it can
be acted on in. parts.
The true principle, in our opinion, is to maintain
the state supremacy over all sacerdotal dignities or
assumptions. In England this should be done by
enforcing the law against the assumption of dignities,
in Irelaud by rendering illegal all tenure of pro-
perty or office, except by submission to the terms of
the law. Ministers have committed the fault of
abandoning in a great measure this hold on Irish
prelatic frowardness. Mr. WALPOI.E has somewhat
restored it. But, such as it is, it should be kept and
enforced, until such time as it may please the Poet.
and his generals to refrain from war, after which,
but not until which, it will be time to take into con-
sideration the anomalies of the Irish churches.

FATAL OCCURRENCE. AT HEAVITIEIE.—An inquest
was held on Wednesday, at the Ship Inn, lleavitree, on
a lad, named William 7ob Evekich, who had been shot
through the head by his companion, George Henry Chan-
non, on Monday afternoon. They went out together on
Monday afternoon to pick rabbits' meat in a field occupied
by Mr. Dennis, near the path fields, !carting from the Bar-
rack-lane, in the direction of Wonford. Shortly after
they had left the village, Chaunon ran bock and told
Golswurthy that his companion was dead. To Mr. Mad•
den, surgeon, of Heavitree, who examined the body, and
found that the charge from a gun had entered his head
by the side of the right ear, taking an oblique direction,
tarrying away the top of the skull, and scattering the
brains in every direction, he said that he saw the
deceased in a hedge, and when he went up to
him he was dead—that he beard a shot, and saw
two men, one of them with a pistol in his hand.
Ile tokl a similar story on being taken into custody,
and pointed out to the constable a gun in a linhay, on the
top of some planks, when a bag containing a iaok with
powder and shot was found. This bag and the gun had
been left there by who was in the habit of shooting
. .
rooks. -

•
••• 1.• •

public officer who may be found corrupt or conniving
at corruption. The following is a translation of it:
It being proper that all Portuguese should be effectually
system
fulfilling of the laws, of domination and
convinced of the principles which direct the government of
M.M. the Queen; and it being therefore clear that the ail.
minixtratim authorities should show themselves to the peo-
ple, not
corruption,as the t nue guaranteesn:sofahars
forh
the
for the preservation of the public tranquillity, and for the
maintenance of constitutional liberty ; and, in tine, as pro-
tectors of the citizens, and respecter; of the rights of
sons and of property, which end can only be obtained by
the proper choice of administrative enon.or's—the said
august lady is pleased to order the following:
1. That the civil governors of the kingdom and adjacent
islands proceed, in respect to the administrators of lam_
drills of the districts under their charge to the most scru-
pulous investigations, by which their probity may be known,
and their behaviour towards the people, and if they prove by
their character that they fulfil their respective duties as the
delegates of the government.
2. That any facts of corrupti in or malversation practised
by any administrators of hundreds becoming known to the
civil governors, theywill
circumstantially report the facts to the government—the
more scandalous when practised by the agents"( authority—
in order that immediate proceedings may take place against
them, in vindication of public morals.
3. Tnat in case of any administrator having charges
against him, either as a corrupt character and oppressor of
the people, or as an intolerant and exculsive agent of any of
the political parties which unhappily have divided the
country, the civil governors shall also munediately suspend
him, reporting it to the government, and indicating the
person who may appear to them most proper to appoint to
the administration of the hundred.
4. That considering the animosity with which parties in-
vent or disfigure facts, the civil governors shall be mat
scrupulus;in appreciatint the informations they assy obtain ;
proceeding, as far as it shall be necessary, to a persmial
amination in the proper localities, in order to cousins., them-
selves of the accuracy of the facts, should they wit be al-
ready evident.
S. That in proposing the substitution of any administra-
tor, they shall indicate the person that, to the legal qualifi-
cation and the greatest sympathy among their administra-
tors, is united good, civil, and political comportment ; and,
above all, a tolerant character, but of austere probity and
honour, and whose morality may influence the morality of
the people.
6. That the civil governors make all the administrative
employes of the respective hundreds responsible to the
administrators, to whom shall apply, in proportion to the
functions they exercise, what is determined in the antece-
dent articles relative to the administrators of hundreds.
7. That the civil jmvernons remain from this moment re-
sponsible to her Majesty's got ernmeut fur tote exact fulfil-
ment of these pri cepts, and give an opportune account of
the result of their investigations, and of the measures
which, in consequence of them, they shall have adopted,
which is made known by the Secretary of State ifor the
Interior to the Civil Governor of --, for his in.
formation. DUKE tog SALDANHA.
Palace of the Necessidatles, May 20, 1851.
The Cabralista Commandant of the militia battalion,
called the Volunteers of the Charter, his been removed,
and the Count de Main, a relative of Saldanha's, appointed
to its command. This is only a provisional measure, as the
whole of that description of force it is intended to re-
organise; or, as some say, to disband, and f,non a National
Guard upon such a limited, and, at the same time, effective
scale, as will be a future guarantee for the liberties of oho
country.
- - - - -

I told you I thought some provisional measures would he
adopted relative to that law of the press which has been so
stigmatised; I was right; a decree has been published
abrogating the law o f the 3d of August, 1850, generally
termed " the law of gagging." The decree says, in sub-
stance, that considering it excited the greatest public
animadversion, that enlightened opinion was against it,
that it is a flagrant violation of the 3d sectims of the 145th
article of the charter, besides which the excessive deposits
almost stifled the free manifestation of thought, and that
the charter desired the press should be independent of a
vexatious censorship—placing it only within the just limits
of responsibility for its abuses; that the law vitiated the
institution of juries, depriving the accused of many of the
rights of defence, and establishing oppressive innovations
in the cognizance and organisation of courts, and form of
pricess, " which rigours were cruel ;" considering, also,
that the law implied a denial of the principles of constitu-
tional right and the liberty of thought, using the extraordi-
nary power which actual circumstances respire; it is de-
clared-1. That the law of the 34 of August, 18.;0, is revolted,
and that the anterior legislation upon thie publication and
responsibility of political journals continues in force until the
Cortes shall determine. 2. Those responsible for political
journals shall receive within a month the amount of depo-
sits made under the law. 3. Articles in political journals
shall be signed by the initial of the principal editor, whose
name in full shall be printed immediately alter the title of
the journal. The principal editor is responsible, and
must qualify as required by the laws fir the qualification of
editors."—This is signed by the Queen and all the Ministers.
This, I believe, is the first act of the new ministry, and it
has not given that satisfaction to the press which the cir-
cumstances of the time and the popularity of the recent
movement seem to have required. The articles in the de-
cree do not bear out the preamble. The deposit under the
odious law was two cantos ; the decree would appear to

authorise the return of that amount, but it is not so, as the
anterior legislation is declared in force. A deposit of ono
canto two hundred milreis remain, so that in truth the de-
positor receives back only eight hundred milreis. The an-
terior legislation was Cabralista, and the press required a
relief from all the Cabralista laws which shackled it, and a
return to the law of 1837. as less stringent. Tu require a
deposit appears an act of tyranny, and calculated to check
the adventurous and literary mind in the promulgation of
its ideas; to register the names of editors of a journal, and
even to require bondsmen that they shall not infringe the
laws or ..ffend public morals, is all that the charter appears
to require, if it require so much as security. The article
authorises that "every ;one may communicate his thoughts
by written words, and publish them, but will have to
answer for the abuses he may commit, in the way the law
determines." However, the odious law is got rid of, and
perhaps the government did not feel itself warranted in in-
terfering further with the legislation relative to the press,
until the meeting of the Corte*, when perhaps they may
bring under consideration the whole of the ex-minister's
legislation since 1812, it unduubtedlyhaving been a corrupt
and nut a truly representative legislation.
The following is the decree dismissing the Cortes :
Using the power provided by See. 4, Art. 74 of the Char-
ter, it is my will and pleasure to dissolve the Chamber of
Deputies, and to order a new election, according to tho
terms of a decree which will be immediately published;
and to convoke an extraordinary general Cortes to meet on
the 15th of September next.
And, seauming the extraordinary powers which proclaimed
by the nation, and by me, the re•furm of tile fundamental law
of the state, and which it wis my fluty and my right to
assume in order to satisfy the general vote° of the country,
so often and so solelmnly manifested, but until now allegro
miscarried for want of a legitimate and proper direction, I
consider that the supreme law of public salvation highly
imposes upon me the duty to pass by, in accord with tho
national desire, which is required from me. the prescribed
formalities of Articles 140, 111, 142, and 113 of the Char-
ter, the textual observance of which could have nu other
result than to delay indefinitely and sophisticate in reality
the manifest wish of the nation. It is also my will and
pleasure to determine that the Ileputirq elected shell come
furnished with the necessary powers, in order that they
shall reform those articles of the Charter, the reform and
perfection of which experience has shown to be indispen-
sable for the better guarantee of liberty, of the represen-
tative monarchy, and of the unalterable principles which
the said Charter desired to establish and constitute. The
ministers and secretaries of state of the var:uus departments
shall so understand this and cause it to be carried into ex-
ecution.—Palace of the Necessidaden, 25th May, 1851.
Signed by the Queen and all the Ministers.
This decree has met with general approbation, and is
considerably eulogised; besides which, the utmost activity
is manifest in purging the country of Cabralista emp,or's ;
indeed, so corrupt and so infonous has been the general
proceedings of Cabralism, that henceforward it is very pro-
bable the term will form the designation of any bad and
corrupt man.
The government has done another act, which has been for
some time loudly called for ; namely, rest wed to the prero-
gatives and privileges of their tides, all those peers who
were prescribed by Don Pedro, under the plea of being
Miguelites and aiding in usurpation ; this is a true way to
unite all Portuguese, without distinction of patty; and not
as Costa Cabral did—proscribe all Portuguese who were
not base, ignoble, and corrupt. The articles of the decree,
which I translate, will speak for themselves.
1. The decree of the 28th of May, 1834, which inhibits a
certain number of members who are in the situation speci-

• _
_...
V. 14. 4 - ...., , •.. I
mut ever devised fol:end*
have
le,.polgta cc which . .
.v cr, anything in which t leipo.' te• have th imited.,A legislator in ono
(1 help the farm*, it woald b 4 by doe or in exposes himOlif to obloquy sod
legal powcielo regarcr from their apr!tach ;OW fault, tolloover, is. hot in the laws, The clog
risation for Ancxhoustiotimprove- talon tNeingaidies Id( tha -histix and relative po- marked in,
known as " tenant right." Many sition of the two countries. Ibis 'relative position, &ilea iijo
id holding as yearly tenants have, as we have often before asserted,is the result of the had ~,,,,a,
n vested their capital in the soil that, pun- it nay be, and is, desiralds-to modify. and Al-. ,wgardr-W,i,
adt..,is• ',wive notice to ouit. much together change it. But eon modifications 11114_. which hod