The Express.
London, England, 1847-03-25 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, THURSDAY EVENING, MARCH 25, 1847.

trary and tyrannical one of the judgment of • govern-
ment functiOnary.
We think that every effort should be made to
improve the selection of juries; and until we can
educate better the very humble classes, which we
now please to call to thesjury-box' we should look a
little more to their acquirements and capabilities ere
we trust them.

This, we are confident, would be the best measure
of reform. All otters are open to serious objections.
Doing away with the jury altogether is a favourite
recommendation of men who see bat a very small part
of our social and political system.
The E.ruminer recommends a court of appeal in
criminal cases. The court of appeal then would
only tell on the side of mercy. But unless it was
an appeal court, like that of Cessation in France,
which takes but a day or two to consider the case, and
never sets aside the judgment except for informality, it
would deprive our criminal justice of its chief terror,
and, consequently, of its chief use, viz., that of an
irrevocable sentence. if it was in the power of every
prisoner, or his counsel, to obtain his being twice
tried, the more guilty the individual, tee more power-
ful and wealthy the criminal, the more diflicalt would
be his condemnation, the greater the prospect of safety
and hopes of escape.
This would be no desirable result, and, ere we risk
producing it, we should first employ every feasible
means of composing English petty juries of fairly-
educated and intelligent men.

We have bestowed some attention on the return
of the circulation, and of the coin and bullion held in
reserve by the Bank of England in 1846. It seem.
to convey much curious instruction.
The year 1846 began with a note circulation of
27,201,0721., and a reserve in coin and bullion of
13,281,4731. It was a season of apprehension and
caution ; and, although in March the circulation had
slightly diminished, the precious metals had in-
creased to 13,987,383/. By the month of August
we find the notes issued amounting to 26,961,7331.,
and the bullion in the vaults 16,366,0681. What
can this change indicate, if not a suspension of
trade—a caution that threatens to produce some of
the evils from which it shrinks ? The state of the
potato crop was then known, and an apprehension was
abroad that we should have to import grain on a large
scale. Corn prices rose, and cotton prices simulta-
neously advanced. Were trade unfettered, and
simple calculations on the merchants' and manufac-
turers' part admissible, it would have been easy to
predict that in those parts whence we should have to
draw our supplies, a good market might be expected
for manufactured goods. Even if exported articles
were superabundant in eastern Europe or in America,
and low prices had to be taken in order to effect sales,
still, the workman at home and the sailor had their
labour paid at the lowest price, and this would have
been more economical than large remittances in bullion,
which could only affect our manufactures indirectly,
and after they had gone out. Here is one great ground
of quarrel with the Bank restriction system. The mind
is diverted by its operation from making estimates of
the probable result of ingenuity and enterprise, and is
forced into calculations of possible contingencies affect-
ing our stock of bullion, which make it not unsafe, but
illegal, for the Bank to be caught with a large issue of
notes. The practical effect of our eystem was, there-
fore, a paralysation of foresight, and an abstinence
from exertion, which would only entail the very evil
sought to be avoided at a later date—the export of
bullion. Accordingly, in February, we find the stock
of bullion and tom reduced to 12,044,934/. The
whole of the difference was, perhaps, not
directly exported from the Bank, for a large
portion went to Ireland, where, for the first time
in the history of that country, wages were
paying in money. The coin held by the banks in
Ireland, in January, 1847, was 2,383,2361. The banks
of Scotland held 1,346,314/. By the end of February,
224,755/. of this money had been circulated; and, as
the banks both of Ireland and Scotland had over-
issued, it became necessary to withdraw notes, which
was done to the extent of 326,8041. In the last week
in February the Irish note circulation amounted to
7,030,000!. In Scotland the issues were 3,103,0001.
The loss of the crop in Ireland has been variously esti-
mated. One of the lowest valuations gives 10,000,000/.
alone for potatoes. Other grains, and domestic
animals, may make half as much more. This loss had
been compensated, perhaps, to the extent of 6,000,0001.
by sums remitted from England up to the Ist of
March, 1847. A great difference was thus occasioned
in the circulation, owing to the introduction of money
payments, both for labour and produce, to this amount.
If, therefore, in ordinary years, the currency of Ire-
land absorbs 6,334,441/., we have, in February 1847,
an addition of only 675,539!. above the legal issues
which, as is well known, are founded upon three
years of actual experience. We have, therefore,
every reason to suppose, that a large portion of the
bullion that disappeared from the coffers of the Bank
of England found its wsy to Ireland, not to be hoarded,
as many think, but to supply the new and unusual
demand for money arising from the change in the
mode of paying wageft.
But, in fact, the demand was far greater than the
English remittances show ; for the presentments
sanctioned by the landed gentry, and to raise which
they gave powers to distress themselves, should also
have been paid in money. The people were fed with
maize, rye, and oatmeal, to a large extent imported.
The landlords speculated on high prices after winter.
It will consequently excite little wonder that the
landowners were able to do but little until the Eng-
lish markets became available for their produce. They
had no means of getting advances on produce. All
the bullion was circulating on government account.
No banker dared come with notes to their assistance.

Of the false position thus created we have evidence
enough in the objurgations of which the Irish land-
lords have been the victims from parish priests and
members of Parliament, to say nothing of the deep-
mouthed baying of the nnes. We need no stronger
proof of the moral, social, and economical difficulties
opposed by the Bank Restriction Act to the relief
and reconstruction of society in Ireland. 'While this
was going on, inadequate as our remittances in gold
and grain have been to soothe the pangs of famine,
and so check the progress of disease, the panic
created by the abstraction of so much bullion from
the Bank coffers in London operated in England as
a complete check to trade. The real exportation
direct from the Bank, in the present year, is perhaps
under a million. It had coat our traders a rise to
discount of 1 f per cent. The raw material and
freights, happening to rise at the same moment,
created a greater demand than usual for floating
capita/. This demand is met by a diminished note cir-
culation of the Bank of England of 1,622,2431., se
compared with January, 1846. Of the effect of this-
state of things in the manufacturing districts, the
operatives can give the best account. The ingenuity
of those of their advisers, who imagine that restrict-
ing the powers and the profits of mill-owners is the
way to raise wages, is placed by it in strong relief.
But will any one deny that we are indebted to the
wisdom of the originators of the Bank Restriction
Act for a complication of no ordinary magnitude,
amounting to nothing less than the loosening of
nearly every social tie—to the infliction of demo-
ralisation and actual starvation on millions of our
fellow-countrymen ?

Trrs distinctions of physician, surgeon, and general'
practitioner, have arisen out of circumstances ; and we
are no advocates for abolishing them. There is un-
doubtedly much advantage attending upon this divi-
sion of labour in the practice of medicine. Not only
do we find that the duties of the physician and
surgeon may be efficiently separated, but each of
these provinces may be divided into others ; and thus
it is that we see medical men applying themselves to
particular departments of their profession with the
greatest success. At the same time, such a division
of labour can only take place in large communities ;
and in the country generally there must be men, who
are competent to perform the duties of every depart-
ment of their profession. But that these should be
regarded as an inferior body, that their education
should be considered of loss importance, and that they
should ec,riafitr-te dsgra:ted cans in the prefeagon,
is what we pretest against. It has evi-
dently been the policy of the governing
members of the Colleges of Surgeons and Physicians
to endeavour to draw a line of distinction between
those who practised medicine and surgery alone, and
those who practised both together. The College of
Physicians had never allowed themselves to be tainted
with a community of membership with apothecaries,
but the College of Surgeons had given its diploma to
all who applied for it, and, up to 1843, nearly every
general practitioner in this country was a member of

the College of Surgeons. It was in this year that
the college obtained a new charter, by which a body
of fellows were elected from among the members,
who were to constitute an elective body from among
whom the executive council were to be chosen. By
thus elevating a few of the members of the college at
the expense of the rest, we think the college has at-
tempted to make a distinction between the fellows
and members, which cannot but be injurious to the
latter, and, in the end, will tell against the college
itself.
But whilst the College of Surgeons has been en-
deavouring to draw the cord tighter, and to create
distinctions which had hitherto not existed, the Col-
lege of Physicians has felt uneasy at its present posi-
tion, and we have now before us a memorial from the
fellows to Sir GEORGE GREY on the subject of a new
charter. With diminishing numbers, and its conse-
quence, a straitened income, with the increased in-
telligence of general practitioners, and the entire
annihilation of all legal power by granting the
charter* of the College of Surgeons and of the Apo-
thecaries Societe, the fellows of the College of Phy-
sicians feel that, as their utility as a medical body at
all may be questioned, their very existence is pt rifled.
The College of Physicians owes its existence to
an act passed in the reign of HENRY
by which power was given it to license all
competent persons to practise physic in the United
Kingdom. These licences were granted by a body of
eight fellows, called Elects, out of whom the presi-
dent is chosen, for persons practising out of London,
and by the Censors, a body consisting of the president
and four fellows, for those who practised in London.
From the moment the fellows, who were originally
forty in number, but may now be increased to eighty,
obtained this power, down to the present time, their
object seems to have been to obtain the London prac-
tice for themselves, and to confine their body as much
as possible to graduates of the Universities of Oxford
and. Cambridge. From this cause has arisen
the neglect of the college in earlier periods
to avert its right to license country phy-
sicians, and its present contemptuous treatment
of them ; its quarrels successively with the apothe-
caries and surgeons, which have ended in the tomer
becoming its successful rivals in practice, and the
latter possessing a corporation with privileges as
great as its own. Had nut the fellows so pertina-
ciously maintained that no man ought to be allowed
to practise physic who was not educated either at, or
upon the plan of, the universities of Oxford and Cam-
bridge, they might at this day have been where the
act of HENRY VIIL placed them, at the head of the
, medical profession, with all necessary power to ex-
' amine every rank and class of medical practitioner.
They, however, fatally mistook the nature of their
profession, confounded an Oxford and Cambridge
education with a knowledge of the practice of medicine,
and have, consequently, been obliged to succumb
to the common sense of the public, who have given
their confidence to men educated where alone they
could learn their profession, and have placed the
College of Physicians in its present unenviable posi-
tion. The two great changes in the constitution of
the college which the fellows pray for in their me-
morial for a new charter, are the abolition of the power
of the elect to examine for country licences, and the
power of bestowing their fellowship not, as has
hitherto been done, by favour, but upon those licen-
tiates who shall submit to an examination of a more
severe character than they have hitherto instituted.
To these alterations there can be no objection, pro.
aided the college has no legal power to compel
persona to submit to its examinations. If there be
any value in the examinations of the college, the public
should be left to discover it for themselves. The want
of legal power on the part of the College of Surgeons
has been, we believe, an element in its popularity as
compared with the College of Physicians; but the
former body has already set the fatal step towards
diminishing its popularity ; and in the memorial of
the College of Physicians we see little indication of
any desire to avoid the errors into which it had
previously fallen. Instead of wishing to perpetuate
the unjust and disgraceful distinctions between fellows
and licentiates, one would have thought that the col-
lege would have been anxious to have got rid of them,
or at least tohavemade the executive power responsible
to the voice of its members. Surely, if anybody in the
world could be trusted with their own governance, it
would be the few hundred members who constitute
the College of Physicians. So flagrantly unjust is the
constitution of the college in this respect, that the
fellowship has been indignantly refused by some of the
licentiates ; and it is to be hoped that the government
will not, in this instance at least, agree to the perpe-
tuation of the evil. The College of Physicians still
talks of its legal " powers : but it is nonsense to
talk of legal powers which are not, and cannot be
exerted. The right of every well-educated and
legally qualified medical man to practise his profession
how, when, and where he will, is so fully recognised
by the people of England, as well as by the laws of
England, that it can only produce a smile to hear the
College of Physicians seriously assuming the poqies-
sion of legal power.
But, although the College of Physicians has lost all
authority, except through the individual merit of its
members, which we freely allow to be great in the
profession, it may still do important service to medi-
cal science. Let it abolish at once all distinctions of
fellow, licentiate, and extra-licentiate, and give to
all its members a common right in the property and
privileges of the College. Let its president be elected
annually, and its council (fellows if you please)
be responsible to its members. Let its library be
accessible to members and its halls open to the
teaching the medical profession; let those brethren
who cultivate other departments of medicine sec, that
the physicians are anxious for the advancement of
the science of medicine, that they have a feeling of the
dignity and the importance of medicine, and we
promise them yet, if not the first, at least a useful
position amongst the medical institutions of their
country.

The Paris journals and correspondence of Tuesday
are without interest. The defeat of the cabinet in
the Chamber of Deputies, where the ministerial can-
didate for the vice-presidency was beaten on Monday
by the candidate of the opposition, was the subject of
general conversation. The Debats has an article on
this in a pouting tone. M. Leon Faucher has given
notice of an amendment on the project of law for the
bank, to the effect of permitting the issue of notes
for 100 f.

The King and royal family left the Tuileries on
Monday, on a visit to Fontainbleau.
Accounts of grain riots continue to be received. In
some departments, grain can only be transported under
military escort.
M. Delangle has been appointed Procureur du Rois
in place of M. Hebert, raised to the caliinet.
No Madrid mails were received in Paris on
Tuesday.

FRANCE.—Coax Rtara.—ln consequence of the
corn disturbances in the department of the Loiret, all the
convoys of grain and flour will henceforth be escorted by sol-
diers. A detachment will be placed in each boat, and an-
other detachment will accompany it. Poeta of infantry,
cavalry, and gendarmerie have been established in a great
many places. The flour which was pillaged at Sury belonged
to the bakers of Briar', the inhabitants of which town were
in consequence deprived of their food. The bakers of Brume
intend to bring an action against the communes in which the
pillage took place, they being by law responsible. The pro-
prietor of the boat which wan pillaged at Chailly has
already commenced an action against that place
On Thursday the people of Pont-au=-Moines threat-
ened to pillage a boat laden with grain ; but the pre-
fect and the general of the district having hastened to
the spot, with • detachment of troops, the mita was put
to flight, and several of the ringleaders were arrested. The
greater part of the men taken into custody are in easy cir-
cumstances. It is proper to state that the government has
devoted not less than 10,265,6980. for relief of the poor of
the department during the year 1847, 9,176,532 fr. being
destined to public works, and 1,089,1680. to charitri On
Thursday • placard was stuck up at St. Ay, tel • the
people that the " day of vengeance had come, end ex oil-
ing them to " burn the houses of the rich," and to " murder
their wives," it being better to " die for murder than to die
from hunger," and winding up with the words " Courage
forward ! 'hurrah for pillage, for blood, for death !" This
placard was well written, and, different to most documents
of the kind, contained no faults of spelling. From this it is
assumed that it emanated from en educated person, and it
has been remarked (says the Messages. den Loiret) that in
riu,re of the disturbances that bare taken Ont, t.sneons cf
some substance have been the moat active ringleader., and
that the very poor have taken little or no part.
ITALY.—Rowe.—Prince Oscar of Sweden arrived
at Rome on the 10th, under the name of Count de Tullgarn,
and was to remain eight days at the Imperial City, and then
join his ship at Wiors. On the evening of the 17th, the
Pope, accompanied by Monsig. Piccollominl, dressed in a
priest's robes, proceeded to the Rione de Monti, and distri-
buted medals amongst the superiors and teachers of that
institution. He particularly recommended to their care the
education of youth, es a matter of such high importance for the
future destinies of the state. He was recognised by the people

as he pained, and cries of " flea it Santo Padre ! ;Ira l'io
.'ono!" ercumpanied his steps. Cardinal Duluth, Bishop of
Imola, who was said to have left fur Vienna, was expected
at Rume. Ile is to receive tice cardinal's hat at the next
consistory. Judges have been appointed for the trial of the
persons arrested in the corn riots. At Florence, numerous
arrests have taken place. A deposit of arms has been dis-
covered at Leghorn, clandestinely smuggled in frocuSwitser-
land, by Genoa.
BAADINIA.—ILLNESS OF THE KING.—A letter from
Turin, of the 18th lost , states that the King Carlo Alberti
is seriously. ill. On the 17th it was found necessary to apply
leeches twice during the day. On the 19th he was bled
co,dously. The members of the diplomatic body proceeded
to the palace to inquire after the state of health of the
august invalid.
-

GERMANY.—LITERARY PIRACT.—The Austrian
government has just promulgated a law on literary
property and against literary piracy in the Austrian
dominions. It bears the date of 19th October, 1846,
and consists of thirty-nine articles. The following are
the most important terms of the law :—The author
of a literary composition or work of art, may dispose
of his property so best suits him, sad allow its repro
ductiun to whomsoever he likes. Similar rights of an aut'tor
arc enjoyed by the editor of a literary composition or work
of art, by the editor of an anonymous work, or written under
a fictitious name, and also by persons who undertake the
publication of • work according to their own plan and at
their own expense. The translation of a work from another
language is regarded as the property of the translator, and a
tranalati m of the same work, which should not offer any
marked distinction, is regarded so counterfeit. The trans-
lation of an original work is not regarded as counterfeit, un-
less the author has inserted on the title-page, or in the pre-
face, that he himself intends having a translation of his work
made ; in this latter case, any translation appearing in the
same year that the original work was published, without the
consent of the author, is regarded as counterfeit.
The reproduction of works of art, no matter by
what mechanical process, is regarded as counterfeit.
The same protection is accorded, not only to an original
production, but to any copy made by the author or with his
consent. The reproduction, without the author's consent, of
public lectures for instruction, edification, or amusement, is
regarded as counterfeit, even should the editor have become
the legitimate purchaser of the manuscript. Geographical
and topographtcal maps, architectural designs and others,
come under the category of literary productions and works
of art, as also musical compositions. The quotation of pas-
sages from an author, in an original work, is not regarded as
piracy ; extracts from works of the day, however, in books
for instruction, may not exceed one sheet, and their source
must always be garen. Exceptions to this rule are eerie-
tions, fantasias, or studies on musical compositions. The
representation of a dramatic work, or the production in pub-
lic of a musical composition, is the exclusive right of the
author , and neither the one nor the other can be produced
without the consent of the author, or before they have been
published. The law awards the privilege of enjoyment, not
only for the author's lifetime, but for thirty years altar the
death. This privilege is extended to fifty years after his
author's death, as regards works published by acade-
mies, and scientific and artistica' societies under the
auspices of the government. Works published by
other societies come under the category of thirty years
Works published by the state come under the same category,
miler the state thinks fit to allow their reproduction. The
representation of • dramatic work, or the production of a
musical composition, does not become public property till ten
years after the death of the author. Counterfeit is punished
by the confiscation of all the counterfeit copies, and all the
apparatus employed in printing them, accompanied by a fine
varying from 21. 10s. to 1001., and imprisonment in default
of payment ; the fine of from 21. 10s. to 1001. being equiva-
lent to from right days to one month's imprisonment, tnat of
401. to 100/. to from three to six months. In case of a repe-
tition of counterfeit the right of publishing will be taken
from the offender. Prosecutions for counterfeit can only be
brought by the author or by persons enjoying the author's
righte. The law extends its protection to works of every
species without regard to the nation of the author ; it is ap-
plicable to all the states of the German confederation. As
regards works published in states not forming part of the
German confederation this protection will only be extended
to them in the Austrian states, on the ground of reciprocity.
- -

GERMANY.—MYSTRIA.—MERCANTILE MARINE.—
The Austrian Lloyds gives the following comparative state-
ment of the Austrian mercantile marine. Her trading vemels
number 556, amounting t0'153,985 tons. At the end of 1843
the number was 538. and the tonnage 145,823, being an in-
crease in 1816 of 18 vessels, and 8,157 tons. Austria has
betides 20 steamer, belonging to the Lloyd's company, mea-
suring together 6,981 tons, and amounting to 2,110-horse
power. There are now on the stocks, at Trieste, five new
steamers, amounting to 3,000 tons, and 1,200-horse power.
DRESDEN.—NIURDER.—On the Bth inst. a journcy-
I man bookbinder, named Strekle, who had been for some
time notorious for habits of idleness and debaucher?-, ex-
cited the suspicions of the police by selling his mothers fur-
niture to • Jew. A search was made, and both his mother
and sister were found murdered. At his examination he
coolly confessed that he had murdered them, partly for the
sake of the little property which they had concealed from
him, and partly from a hatred and contempt which he had
felt towards them since childhood. His sister, he said, had
always treated him unkindly, and his mother bad only in-
structed him in the vice of stealing, in which he confessed,
that by long practice, he had become hardened and fearless.
Suspecting that money was kept out of his reach, and having
no other resources, he had committed the murder, for which
he expressed no remorse.
Letters from Cased, in the Bavarian palatinate,
say that an address of devotion is to he sent to the king,
owing to the late disturbances at Munich.
A letter from Stuttgard of the 17th, says that the
Emperor of Russia was expected soon at that capital, on a
visit to the Grand Duchess Olga. The King of Wurtembsrg
was slightly indisposed.
A society has been formed at Frankfort by the
Jewish women, for the education of the poor Jewish girls.
The society counts airerely more than 400 members. The
senate has accorded them the privilege of buying landed
property, which is a great favour, as hitherto this was the
exclusive right of the Christian._

THE FAROE ISLES.—SUPPOSED EaurnoN OF
MOUNT II LCLA.—Accounts from the Faroe Isles state that
on the 14th and 15th of January a fall of fine ashes took
plane there. It was first observed on the wool of the sheep
but was very slieht compared with the fall of ashes in 184 i.
Yet, se the wind was blowing south end south-east at the
time, it is supposed that some considerable eruption of Mount
Hecla was the cause of the phenomenon.—Prussian Gazelle.
EGYPT.—ORIENTAL SERVILITY.—The Spectatertr
Egyptien of the 28th ult. states that two days before the
festival of the Dams, in commemoration of the anniversary
of the birth of Alahomet, two hundred persons threw them-
selves under the fret of the born rode by the Sheik, and
which is a descendant of the prophet's famous Aboubcker,
and suffered themselves to be trampled upon by the animal.
AMERICA.—EMIGRANTS TO NEW YORK.—The
Emigrant Pa gingers Bill, which has pawed the Assembly,
provides that every shipmaster, on arraying at this port.
shall report the name, birth-place, and place of last legal
residence, age, and occupation, of every alien passenger
brought on his last voyage in said ship, whether from abroad
or from any other state, who shall not have paid the sum
required, by this act, or been bonded. Penalty 7.5 dollars
for every person not reported, or falsely reported. Every
alien passenger is subject to a tax of 1 dollar, payable by the
captain to the city; and in case of the passenger being
deerepid or infirm," a bond of 300 dollars, with two good
securities, is to be given, that such passenger, and his or her
children, will not he chargeable to any town, city, or county
in this state.—New York Paper.