The Express.
London, England, 1846-09-19 00:00:00

THE 'EXPRESS, SATURDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 19, 1846.

spirators,- Preach agents, French money. To this the
ministerial reply was, that LOUIS-PHILIPPE was im-
maculate; that the anti-Liberal revolution was not of
his doing, or to serve his purposes ; that the Liberals
sad the Constitution might go to the bottom of the
sea ; and that even if the King of the French did lord
it at Madrid, and did monopolise the government
there, he could make no use of it. We were bidden
to be patient, to be indifferent, to look on. Our
envoys were accredited to the usurping, the military,
the Afrancesado government, with the same humility
as to the Constitutional one; and they were bidden to
profess just as much attachment, and show just as
much deference, to the military as to the constitu-
tional party.
The result of this has been what every rational
person must have foreseen, that the French King has
made the most of his permitted supremacy at Madrid,
to marry the Queen to a barber's block, and to give
her presumptive heir and sister to his own son. In
other words, Louts PHILIPPE has put the crown of
Spain in his packet. And we are now unable to pre-
vent him? Of course we are, unless we rush to the
foolish extremity of war. But all this ought to have
been foreseen years ago. It ought to have been looked
to when ESPARTERO wielded the legal, the liberal,
the constitutional influence, which was his right as
the victorious general of the revolution. The foreign
policy of the Tories for their five years has
ended in giving Texas and the Oregon to the
Americans ; Spain, Greece, and, we fear, the Me-
diterranean, to France. They represented the quiet
sufferance of all this as the security for peace;
whilst, in fact, their (aches is now the very cause
which troubles the future aspect of peace. In-
stead of laying the foundation of a permanently
good understanding between France and England,
they have allowed and incited the French King to take
such a position as necessitates eternal and insur-
mountable jealousies between the countries and the
courts.

Even now the object is, to take no blame to our-
selves, but to magnify our sleeping statesmen as
specimens of inscrutable wisdom. The King of
the FRENCII is declared to be no better than he
should be; his envoy at Madrid is depicted as a
chevalier d'industrie and a midnight burglar.
The Spaniards are an ungrateful and unmanageable
people ; and they have lost their political and commer-
cial independence. Louis PniurrE, by means of a
few bonbons put into Lord ABERDEEN'S mouth at Eu,
has done what LOUIS THE FOURTEENTH could not
cram down the throat even of his friend BOLING-
BROKE. And every aim for which our soldiers bled,
and for which our wealth bled as copiously, in the
peninsular war, is thrown away ; for JOSEPH BUONA-
PARTE at Madrid would not be so much our foe us
King 111ONTPENSIER.
There was a time when JOHN BULL would be told
to feel indignant at such treatment. But he is now
an old gentleman of too sanguine a habit, to whom
fits of choler arc to be spared. He is told, therefore,
that in Spain, as in America, all wrong and unplea-
sant things will mend themselves without either his
intervention or resentment. Spain may be subject to
France, but the Spaniards have some stubbornness in
them, and may rebel. If they do not, they are
a pusillanimous people, and deserve their fate.
Wherefore, JOHN BULL is advised to put his hands in
his pockets, and whistle himself to that degree of in-
difference which becomes his age, and will give the
least trouble to the political doctors who have the care
of his constitution.

For our part, we cannot but regard it all with
the most profound humiliation and with the bitterest
disgust. Far from taking a Tory or semi-Tory view
of the question, we commiserate the fate of the
Spaniards and of their royal family, reduced to a state
of tutelage, and to the show of freedom, pride, and
independence. Nor are we consoled by thinking
that they may rebel against it. It is no consolation
for the ruined prospects of a free and noble country,
that it is again to be forced to vindicate its rights by
war, and by civil war too, and by a renewal of
those struggles in which the executioner plays a more
prominent part than the soldier. It is no consolation
to learn, as we do to-day, that one of the results of
these marriages has been the summoning back of Don
CARLOS to Spain, to hoist his standard of bigotry
and blood. Nor is it any consolation to be assured
that France, instead of deriving any real benefit from
planting one of its princes on the Spanish throne,
may, on the contrary, reap a future war, and the
renewal of that barren and bloody struggle in which
Spain was devastated, Fiance exhausted, and the
great NAPOLEON succumbed. These are no conso-
lations : no anodyne for the afflicting thought, that
more vigilance, more firmness, more common sense
in our statesmen, might and must have prevented it
all. It may indeed be too late to play the braggadocio.
It may be undignified to make idle threats of war,
when it would be imprudent to proclaim it. But
at least, if we arc humiliated and outraged, and if
those guarantees and principles for which our ances-
tors shed their best blood and spent more than their
last farthing to protect, are torn from us, let us not
glory in our shame. Let us not assume the proud
apathy of the philosopher, or the dignified part of the
hero, whilst in reality we are playing, aye, and feeling
the emotions, of a wronged and angry but helpless
and superannuated old dowager.

THE nineteenth century will be marked, in history.
by the discussion of three great questions. " Shall
CaomwELL have a statue?" " Shall the Duke stand
on the arch ?" and " Shall Mr. It. L. JONES have a
bust ?"

Two of these questions are still unde:•ided. The
third was, on Thursday, answered in the affirmative
by the Common Council of London. Mr. JONES will
take his place, in the Council-chamber, between the
hero of Trafalgar and the great advocate of the aboli-
tion of the Slave-trade.

Mr. JONES is well known in the city as one of
those active and energetic men, who begin by making
themselves useful, and end by making themselves
indispensable. He was " chairman of the committee
for rebuilding London-bridge, and making suitable
approaches thereto; for rebuilding the Royal Ex-
change ; and for effecting public improvements within
the City." Fired with gratitude for his important
services, a Jones Testimonial Committee was formed,
a Jones Testimonial Fund collected, a Jones Testi-
monial Bust executed, and, lastly, a Jones Testimo-
nial debate carried to a triumphant conclusion by a
majority of 63 to 34.
The motion for the erection of the bust in the
Council-chamber was opposed by Mr. PRENDERGAST,
on the ground that posterity would be puzzled to find
Mr. JONES in such company as NELSON and WILBER-
FORCE. Mr. JONES, however, will share the credit
of perplexing posterity, with many who cannot boast
even such homely services as his. Mr. PRENDERGAST
would have the Council-chamber a Valhalla of national
benefactors.

Mr. JONES'S services have not extended west of
Temple Bar. Mr. LAWRENCE ridiculed the notion of
" making the court a place of exhibition for the
busts of heroes and men of rank and con-
nexion, and excluding their fellow-citizens." He
pointed to the portraits of Mr. Deputy PINDAR
and the City Chamberlain ; and asked why the
bust of Mr. JONES was not fit company for their
pictures ? The question was, rather, are they fit com-
pany for NELSON and WILBERFORCE ?
There can be no reason why the city should not
have its hall of heroes. There are many worthies
from WnrrriNnrox downwards, who would do honour
to the collection. But some principle of selection
must be employed. The rationak of testimonials
wants overhauling. There is an itch for this sort of
recognition now a days. From the silk cassock and
teapot of the popular preacher, up to the 20,0001. of
a HVD,ON testimonial,every kind of service is acknow-
ledged in the eleemosynary way. Virtue used to be
its own reward. Now-a-days, it is not only praised,

bat paid. Honesty is proverbially the best policy.
When Mr. JONES receives the honor of a bust because
he allowed 2,000,000/. of public money to pass
through his hands without any of it sticking to
his fingers, the proverb is substantially realised.
We are becoming marvellously liberal, both of
enthusiasm and money. There seems, however,
to be one condition to these trifling acknowledgments:
the recipient must have made his fortune. There is
a delight in contributing to the comforts of a mil-
lionnaire. It is pleasant to give to those who don't
want it. The best trade going is that of a benefactor
of the species in all that helps to money-making.
But you must be rich before you take it up, or acquire
riches in the course of your calling. We have no
doubt that Mr. JONES is an active chairman, strict in
his accounts, bland to subscribers, peremptory with
architects, discriminating in his patronage, pleasant in
Guildhall, solemn at the laying of a foundation stone,
by turns awful and condescending at a public dinner,
—in short, a model of the more pompous virtues.
He has contributed to the comforts of his
fellow-citizens. Probably he has received his
equivalent in more ways than one. If public
monuments be records of historic services and remark-
able virtues, we do not hear of any great conception
Mr. JONES has originated; of any mighty sacrifices
he has made; of any large charities he has fostered ; of
any principle he has suffered to confirm, or of any ini-
quity he has martyred himself to destroy. But all he
has done has been in the right direction for the City.
He has smoothed the avenues to business, and made
the paths of stockbrokers pleasant.
Such are the activities the City delighteth to honour.
Father MATnEW guided a nation to temperance, and
public sympathy had a hard struggle to raise where-
withal to release him from a paltry debt contracted
in his noble work. WILDERSPIN, the founder of
infant education, might have starved but for a timely
pension. THOMAS CLARK, the conceiver and first
exponent of the railway system, is at this moment in
indigence at Exeter. But Mr. JONES has his bust,
and HUDSON his testimonial twenty thousand.
Mr. LAWRENCE ridicules the notion of filling the
council chamber with the heroes of warlike or poli-
tical strife. He thinks " they cut but sorry figures
by the side of the great promoters of national
and commercial improvements." We entirely agree
with him. The only question is, what are great
national and commercial improvements? We appre-
hend that Mr. JONES is too modest not to feel that be
has been tolerably rewarded already. Some carping
persons may maintain that such situations as he has
filled so creditably, bring with them advantages so
solid, that they never rise to the surface. There are
such things as dispensing contracts, deciding on plans,
and distributing employment, which make the
burden ofchairmanship tolerable, even without the
honours of a bust in the council chamber.

The Paris journals of the 17th arc still occupied
with the Madrid marriages; and the Presse espe-
cially denies, from, it declares, good information,
that and• note orremonstrance against these marriages
has been addressed by the English to the French
government.
The Duke de lontpensier was to leave Paris on the
25th or 26th; and his marriage was expected to take
place on the 10th of next month.
The King and Royal Family have left Paris for
La Ferte. The Minister of the Interior has also
quitted Paris. It is inferred from these departures,
that there is no immediate complication or difference
between the Cabinets of London and Paris.

Our Madrid intelligence is of the 12th. Notwith-
standing the definitive step of the demand of marriage
of the Infanta, the signing of the contract, the
certainty of its being announced to the Cortes, and
receive& by that body without any effective opposi-
tion, still the journals display considerable anxiety as
to the mode in which the precipitate act may be re-
ceived by Europe. Every word is quoted end
scanned from the English and continental press, evinc-
ing that if England and Europe should show marked
reprobation, and if the former should formally with-
draw her countenance from the settlement of the
Spanish throne, as now to be arranged, still the
French and Spanish courts will have no reason to
consider this hurried marriage as a triumph.
It, in fact, opens a new drama, of which the escape
of 1/on Carlos is the first scene. The hands of that
Prince are up in Catalonia, as appears by papers of
the 11th, from that province. Tristani has appeared
at Palos, and the Queen's marriage is likely to be lit
up by civil war.
The future husband of the Queen was to be de-
clared Generalissimo, whilst General Pezuela, as his
aide-dc-camp, wanted the seal of the War Minister.
. .

The Miguelites on the Spanish frontier seem to
have been dispersed.

PARTS, SErr. 16.

M. Guizot had left Paris but fora dai; the busi-
ness of his department prevents his leaving entirely. The
affairs of Spain cannot but give the ministry a certain anxiety,
as the marriage of the Duke de Moutpensier is one of those
bold strokes which success alone can justify. The question
abroad is, whether the relations between France and England
will be cooled by the marriage, or whether the policy of
Louis Philippe will purchase it at the price of some too sub-
stantial concession, made at the expense of foreign interests.
At home anxiety is excited by doubts as to whether the con-
sequences of this union will not be, to engage France deeper
than it wishes or ought to be engaged, in Spanish affairs.
The ministry meant to excite great enthusiasm by the marriage
of the Duke, but it has been deceived in its expectations ; its
own partisans look !upon the news with mistrust, and it
has caused a fall in the funds. The panic of the speculators
has, however, subsided; but parties arc narrowly observing
each other's motions, and public opinion is on the alert. The
moderate party of the opposition has taken up a good posi-
tion. It does nut blame the policy by which the match has
been brought about, but it reduces to their full value the
consequences of alliances between dynasties. It has done,
like the cock in the fable, who found a diamond, but imme-
diately dropped it saying, "a grain of corn would be of much
more service to me.' Would not a commercial treaty be, in
fact, a much better thing for both countries than a
marriage between the two princely families ? Is not that
what common sense requires? The chiefs of the
opposition, however, remain in a state of prudent
reserve on the subject; they are neither insensible to the
danger of a coolness which would be fatal not only to both
nation..., hut to all nations ; nor indifferent to the idea of an
alliance between France and Spain, in whatever manner
that may be brought about, though always in the condition
of honour and security to France. They wait till events
show in their real light the combinations to which M. Guizot
attaches so great importance. If the marriage of the Duke
de Montpensicr has a lucky issue for France, the opposition
will not seek to deprive M. Guizot of the merit of success;
in the contrary case, 111 opposition reserves to itself the
entire liberty of its opinion to defend the real interests of
the country. The project of law on th^ customs, of which
I have already spoken, seems to be wider in its scope than
was at first anticipated. The duty on coal is to be reduced
as well us that on cast and sheet iron; some prohibitions will
also be taken away, but only to give place to high duties. It
may be in your recollection, that in the treaty of id, Gee-
term and M. PortZs, in 1840, the prohibition upon woollen
stuffs was taken away; it appears that the project of law
proposed by the mintsters will keep it up. The reason,
however, is apparent. Is not M. Cunin Gridainc a cloth
manufacturer ? However it may be, this insufficient pro-
ject will be attacked by the protectionists in the Chamber.
But the partisans of liberty of commerce will be active in
its defence. 0.

AUSTRIA.—VIENNA, SEPT. 4.—His Excellency
Count Stadion, Governor of Trieste and the Coast Lands, is,
it is said, to be appointed Second President of the Aulic
Chamber in Vienna. The excitement at the Vienna Bourse
has not yet subsided, and railway shares are exceedingly low.
PHISSIA.—BERLIN, SEPT. 9.—An article in the
Prussian tiiirersal Gazette, concerning the letter patent of
the King of Denmark, and which emanated, it is said, from
the Ministers for Foreign Affairs and of the Interior, was
received with great joy at Berlin. This article, which
bears an official stamp, alludes expressly to Holstein, and
originated inn note addressed by the Danish government to
the states of the German Confederation, to Prussia in parti-
cular, requesting them not to permit their journals to take
part against Denmark, the king himself being a member of
the Confederation. The King of Prussia replied that the
censorship would prohibit any publication against Denmark,
hut that an opinion was not to be forced upon the press, and
that he himself shared the opinion of the journals on the
question of the duchies.
POLAND.—The three great powers have been
informed that a new insurrection was on the point of break-
ing out in Galicia, at Posen, and at Cracow. litmarea of
precaution have been taken in consequence.
RUSSIA.—ODEssA.—The accQualte of the harvest
in Kherson, Nikolaieff, Tagarzaii, and Eheabetharad are
favourable. The district of Voznesensk is an exception.
The accounts from Ktteff, Poultava, Ekaterinollaff, Po-
dolia, and Betwarnlv- ..a are also favourable. The grain is
generally of
K fabgoe",, quality, with the exception of the middle
di,triet
erson, where it has suffered from the locusta
and dreugk. A comparative table has been published at

Odessa between the commercial movements of the first six
months of 1846 and the corresponding months of 1845.
According to this table, the exports, which from the Ist
of January to the Ist of July 1815, amounted to 4,733,827
silver roubles (about 757,4131. ),amounted in the corresponding
months of 1846 to 7,867,43.5 silver roubles (1,2.58,7890. The
increase is on corn as well as on rye. During the first six
months of 1846, 500 vessels entered, and 529 left the port in
the corresponding period of 1845; 451 entered and 422 sailed.
Nothing can be said as yet of the turn commerce will take in
the second half of the present year. It is, however. conjec-
tured that the Archipelago, Spain, and the South of France
will require provisions from Odessa, and that the exportation
to England will also be on the increase. All which circum-
stances will tend to keep up an increase in the price of export
articles from Odessa.

SWITZERLAND. Zmnar, SEPT. 12. The
Swiss Diet has been dissolved, after a session of ten weeks.
SOUTH AMERICA.—TnE REPUBLIC or NEW
GSENADA.—There was a report that war had broken out
between the republic of New Grenada and that of the
Equator. Private letters from South America state that the
two countries were decided on corning to an amicable ar-
rangement, and that commissaries h►d been named to that
effect. The new general of the Equator, General Rosa, had
made his solemn entry into Quito. He intended convoking
the Congress, so as to obtain the necessary aid to repulse the
inva.ion of his predecessor, General Flores, who was expected
from Europe with considerable forces.

TILE INDIAN MAIL ria VENlCE.—(Communicated.)
—The approaching change in the commercial route from
India to Europe, which became apparent when the first
steam ship from Bombay arrived at Suez in February, 1842,
has been accelerated by Waghom's experiment of bringing
the Indian Mail to London by the Adriatic, the Rhine, and
the German and Belgian railways. Venice, which appeared
to be cancelled from the list of commercial emporiums, as
well as that of independent states, is again attracting atten-
tion with reference to this change. For the last ten years a
gradual improvement has taken place in the activity and
general condition of this iuteresting city. Its population
has been increasing, its pauperism diminishing, new build-
ings and embellishments have succeeded each other, its
revenue has doubled. During the last five years the num-
ber of ships of the long voyage that entered Venice has in-
creased nearly 70 percent. • the coasting trade has steadily
augmented; the principal harbour, still affording great
natural accommodation, is about to be improved by a mar-

nificent new pier. But it is to the facilities ;Worded in Venice
to travellers, and the transit of goods, we would'at present direct
attention. The steam navigation of the Po connects Venice
with Milan end various fertile provinces of Central Italy.
The great railway bridge across the Laguna, one of the most
wonderful works of our day, is finished, and locomotives now
run from Venice to Vicenza in two hours. Next year the
railway will reach Verona, and thence Milan. These cir-
cumstances indicate Venice as an eligible pivot of the com-
munication between the Adriatic and the North Sea—be-
ts eon Alexandria and London. As a harbour, Venice offers
great security ; as a place of transit or depot, great accom-
modation ; as the centre of a rich and fertile region in itself,
a valuable customer for our varied produce. The communi-
cation between London and Alexandria would be both more
expeditious and more convenient by Venice than by Trieste.
Mr. Waghorn's route via Trieste is by no means the shortest,
as will appear from consulting any good map. From Druino
to Mittenwald, the route pursued by Mr. Wughorn is 221
posts; from Venice to Mittenwald by Treviso and Cenetla, is
only 181 posts. 'i he voyage from Alexandria to Venice is a
few hours shorter than to Trieste. From Venice there is •
railroad as far as Mestre ; as yet there is no such accom-
modation on the Trieste line. Still more time would be
saved by taking the Innspruck route; and travelling by
railroad nt present as far as Vicenza, next year as far as
Verona, and thence to Innspruck. The advantage of se-
lecting Venice in preference to Trieste as the point of debar-
kation for Adriatic steam navigation, will be yet more ap-
parent, if the lines of railway projected and in actual pro-
gress in the intervening states are taken into consideration.
A continuation of the line to Verona to the Lake of Cnustanz
is projected. It is in contemplation to connect Chur
railway with the Zurich line to Basle. The Indian mail
disembarked at Venice, might, by the links of this system,
reach the termini either of the French or Baden railways
which run along the opposite banks of the Rhine, having
thus a choice of routes—the advantage of competiton. It
may proceed from Basle In Strasbourg, Paris, and Boulogne,
to London, • distance of 710 miles ; or from Basle to Stras-
bourg and Metz, along the great Luxembourg line, to Brus-
sels and Ostend, a distance of 610 miles. Or it may proceed
from Wiell along the Baden state line to the Trhe terminus
of the Great Luseinbourg, and thence to Brussels, Ike., a
distance of 63:i miles. The third route, though longer than
the second in number of miles, would, probably, from the
immunities of the Zollverein, be found the shorter in point
of time. The railroad communication from Venice to the
coast opposite England will be more direct than that from
Trieste, and will pass through countries of more highly de-
veloped industry and resources—in which there are greater
sources of sunport for railroads, greater inducements and
ability to make them efficient. It has been already oh-
served, that the navigation from Alexandria to Venice is
some hours shorter than that to Trieste. It has also to be
remarked, that the steamers between Alexandria and Venice
might touch regularly at other Italian sea-ports :—Brindisi,
for example, and Manfredonia, and more particularly Bar-
letta, now that the Neapolitan Government has permitted
the construction of a railway between that city and Naples.
These would be feeders of the passenger and goods traffic of
the Alexandro-Venetian steam navigation, such as would be
looked for in vain on the line from Alexandria to Trieste.
There are reasons for hoping that the superiority of Venice
to Trieste, as a pivot of overland communication, may be re-
cognised before any useless east is expended upon its rival.
Thus may Alexandria and Venice, the commercial centres
of two thousand years ; and London, the great centre and
metropolis of modern traffic,".become the three main stations
on the highway from West to East.