The Express.
London, England, 1851-10-14 00:00:00

TIIE EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 14, 1851
...

of n thiy* would give up their farms ;
and ring all such cases anything like ener-
getic improvement was out of the question
and in rune eases out of ten the farms went
back in condition, while in numerous instances the
deterioration arising from such a provisional state
was very considerable. A yearly tenancy, even
when the farmer has no intention of quitting his
farm, is bad enough: but when, in addition to a
yearly tenure, the farmer is carrying on his business
under the state of uncertainty we have described, the
effect both on his own circumstances and the condi-
tion of his farm is truly lamentable. And this was
for the most part the state of things in nearly all our
agricultural districts from 181.5 to 1830-7. And it
speaks volumes for the elasticity of British agricul-
ture that, under such circumstances, there
was a slow and gradual, but certainly some
progress. But the general effect was to
render the farmers waiters upon providence ; they
were constantly watching for "something to turn
up." Now it was a new corn law or an alteration in
the eliding scale ; then it was a drawback from the
landlord; then again it was an abundant issue of
paper money—for nt one time farmers were much
bitten with " the little shilling" currency doctrines
—or the repeal of the malt tax and so forth, always
some trusting to legislative and landlord aid, and
never altogether relying on their own exertions.
Yet in spite of themselves, as it were, farmers have
improved their cultivation, especially since the
Agricultural Distress Committee of 1836, with-
out in any respect improving their terms of
holding, or obtaining from their landlords
any of those permanent improvements it is
the province of a rational landou nee to execute.
The consequence has been to render the tenants in-
vestments of capital iu the land greater than consists
with the prudent management of land held on such
precarious terms as yearly tenancies; and in the re-
sult tenant farmers have been at their landlords'
mercy. Until the last two years the competition for
farms was such that any expression of dissatisfaction
on the part of the tenant was met on the landlord's
Net with an offer to take the farm off his tenant's
hands, an alternative commonly implying a serious
logs to any man who had farmed pretty well.
More recently there has been more caution exer-
cised in taking farms : farmers going into a new oc-
cupation have required terms, and demanded perma-
nent outlays by the landlord previously unheard of,
and the consequence is, most landowners arc just
now rather chary of losing a good tenant. This is
a material point in the farmers favour at present.
Now is a good time to take a farm by a man who
understands his business and has firmness to insist
upon the landlord making a fair bargain, which, as
a rule, landlords are very unwilling to do. Taking
the present range of prices as data for calculating
the terms of a lease for twenty-one years, a farmer
of capital and intelligence about to enter upon a
farm cannot go far wrong as regards rent, and it is
his own fault if he enters upon a farm without
having all necessary and permanent improvements
effected and without having complete dominion
over it during the term of his lease.
But the great difficulties of the present period—
the period of transition—lie with farmers now holding,
not those entering on, farms; and the former are as
one hundred to one of the latter. The provisional
arrangements of former periods of depression won't
do now. It is of no use fur landlords to attempt to
tide over the difficulties of the moment with
a ten or fifteen per cent. abatement of rent,
fbr there is no corn law now to delude the
farmer into the expectation that prices will soon
rise again : profit from a natural or artificial
scarcity can no more form a part of the expec-
tations on which rents arc calculated. Fanners have
made up their minds that prices of agricultural
produce will be permanently low—perhaps they
rather under than over estimate the probable
range of future prices. They see, however, that the
prices on which they used to calculate will not be
realised, and they know that, with low prices, they
must grow considerably more per acre than they'
have been accustomed to grow. And this again, the
necessity which every farmer is under to increase
his produce to keep up his income, will tend to keep
down prices. The great obstacle to increasing pro-
duce now consists in the want of permanent im-
provements, which landlords arc unable or unwilling
to make; and thus the farmer, though he begins
to ice what he must do in the actual
position of affairs, finds himself hampered
and impeded, first by insecure tenure of
his farm ; and secondly, by the want of
such outlays of fixed capital as are required to make
the farm an instrument of production suited to the
exigencies of modern agriculture. Therefore it is,
we saT, that the difficulties of the farniers in sur-
mounting their transition from a.protected to an open
trade is greater than that experienced by any other
class of traders under similar circumstances. They
cannot go ahead without the co-operation of their
landlords, and it will be only after considerable
struggle on the part of tenants that landowners will
really co-operate with them. This is the real source
of difficulty, nay of danger to the tenant-farmers of
this country, which they must surmount, not merely
by improvements in cultivation, but Ly the determi-
nation necessary to effect an improvement in their
contracts with their landlords. And it is curious to
remark how shy the landowners are of referring to
this topic, though they are ready enough to urge
their tenants to all kinds of improved practices in
farm management and cultivation.

We have now before as a letter signed by twenty-
one Neapolitan priests—three of them canons, three
of them doctors of divinity, one of them a doctor of
canon law, two of them Ligorniun missionaries, and
the remainder simple priests, addressed to the
Attorney-General of the criminal court of Naples,
claiming at his hands that merciful treatment
to which every untried prisoner is entitled.
These priests, be it understood, are all political
prisoners—that is to say, they arc men who were,
and are, favourable to that constitution which Fer-
dinand first gave to his people and afterwards
perjuriously revoked. They arc, and have been for
mouths, lodged in the prison of St. Francis, at
Naples, were they IM forgotten—at least, untried.
Fur some time after their incarceration, these
gentlemen (for some of them are gentlemen by
birth, and all by education) were allowed three-
halfpence a day of our money to subsist themselves
upon! But ever since the 2;ith February last they
have, by a decision of the Secretary of State, been
deprived of this miserable pittance, and have been
told they ought to subsist themselves out of the
patrimony of the church. The result is that some
of these gentlemen are now lying on the bare flags
of the prison floor, without covering, and that they
are actually perishing slowly from the pangs of
hunger. Fur months the friends and families of these
priests sent them such succour and assistance in '
money as could be occasionally conveyed into the
prison. But these sums are now exhausted, and they
complain they must perish unless they be allowed by
the government not three halfpence, but three Carlini
a day. "We arc gentlemen and priests," say they,
, in a touching appeal, " and either bring us to trial,
libonte us, or give us wherewith to subsist as pil-
-1 Bernell and men of honour, so that we may not perish
• of hunger."—iforning Ifurahl.

TUE REMAINS OF CutNT REVENTLOW have been
&posited in the Swedish Church in the City, and this
day will leave England on board the Jyllantl, a Danish
government steamer, which happened to be accidentally in
the Thames at the time of the count's melancholy decease.
The bereaved Countess Reventlow, with her tinnily and
suite, will, It is probable, leave London for Copenhagen in
•tho:a a tortuight.

TIIE POST-OFFICE DIRECTORY FOR 1851 ban been
published unusually early this year. The portly volume is
now before us. The propr:eturs thus explain their reasons
fur this earlier issue of their volume. "The Exhibition hay-
tag occasioned a demand greater than usual, the edition for
the current year became exhausted ; to prevent the its
of the work being out of print, every exertion ha•
been made to produce the new edition at the earliest period
compatible with accuracy." That this has nut been sacri-
ficed to speed, a scrutiny will amply show; and in proof
that the corrections have been mode to the latest possible
period they instance the acceleration of papers by the
day mail under the head of " delivery of letters in London,"
at page 17d1. The first day on which the mails snivel, so
as to admit of the complete carrying out the arrangement,
was on Saturday last, the Ilth instant. The insertion too
in the parliamentary directory of the Christian mimes of the
present Lord Stafford, whose father's death w:tA announced
on the 6th instant, is another instance, among uveral which
I might be adduced, to show how closely the corrections have
been made up to the moment of issue.
ESUIBITION TRAINS ON THE 'GREAT WESTERN
Raivic.t v.—One of the but Exhibition trains on this line
consisted of 131 carriages, containing about 5,000 persons.

FRANCE.
PARIS, Kwrokr EvExpro.
There is no further news this afternoon concerning
the ministerial crisis. But it seems highly probable
that the parliamentary majority will attempt some
transaction with Louis Napoleon, bi which revision
may be brought about without sacrificing the law of
May.
The Bourse was much agitated by rumours but
none of these have sufficient authority to deserve
repetition. It appears highly improbable that any.
thing definite will be done to-morrow, which is the
day appointed byy the President for declarii.g his in-
rio aistinctl.
Thens Ord re and L iiinn both darkly threaten the
President with impeachment should he abandon the

- -
majority.
General St. Arnaud is spoken of as the successor of
General ltaudon in the ministry of War. If Curlier's
resignation should he accepted—which is inipmbable
.—M. Delnies or M. St. Gerige is said to be likely

to succeed him.
As M. earlier was the first functionary of minis-
terial rank to offer his resignation in the present
crisis, unless the law of May wen, maintained, so he
must be regarded as playing on the stage of power
a part ceding in importance to that of none of the
ministers. In fact perhaps more weight would be
attached to the opinion of the prefect of police on
such a matter than to that of M. Baroche or Lion
Faurher, as he passes for seeing into a world shut to
the eye of common observers, and only dimly
sketched to the public imagination in fragments of
police reports coloured by the fertile fancy of spies,
and fellows who trade in melodramatic disclosures of
seditious machinations, Well, it seems that the
char eye of the prefect has at last. become troubled
with these glimpses into the seething forge of con-
spiracy, that he is, in a word, frightened ut the clan-
destine preparation of the " red" for war, and thinks
that nothing will save France but scourging, crush-
ing, and curbing the democratic party. I mentioned
yesterday the memorial which the prefect of police
had handed in to the President upon the difficulties
of maintaining order and the danger of repealing
the law of May. It appears that this letter, at pre-
sent the object of much conversation, consists of not
less than twelve closely-written pages. Not only is
the idea of returning to universal suffrage scouted as
the most perilous of all concessions to " fee mauvaises
passions, but the adoption of a series of repressive
measures is suggested us essential to the complete
triumph of the party of order in the approaching
crisis. The liberty of the press is to be entirely
suppressed. Fifteen departments are to be placed
in a state of siege, which would increase to twenty-
two the number of departments subjected to
martial law. Such are the conditions, with-
out which M. earlier cannot undertake to con-
trol the democratic tempest which will be let
loose at the approaching elections. While he was
about devising such a compressive prescription, M.
earlier might as well have gone a step further, and
proposed the much simpler and more expeditious
plan of abolishing suffrage altogether. The fears of
M. earlier are either insecure or idle. It is prepos-
terous to think that France will be less conservative
in 1852 than she was in 1810 and '4J; and that the
new elections, conducted according to the same lists,
will add to the parliamentary force of the socialist
party. But the policy of M. (Jarlier is to provoke a
struggle, in which he is assured that the army will
be victorious. As to the sincerity of the prefect's
suggestions, it is well known and affirmed to-day by
Girardin as notorious that, a few weeks ago,
no man about the President was louder in
favour of repealing the law of May than
earlier. Whence, therefore, this sudden change?
Is it that M. earlier believes that the star of Gene-
ral Changnrnicr is once more in the ascendant? or
is the prefect disposed to relapse, from despair of the
Bonapartist cause, into his old creed of Orleanism,
and preparing to salute the rising sun of Joinvite ?
A motive is assigned to Carlier's conditional resigna-
tion, which seems hardly adequate to account for so
serious a step. You aro aware that the press has
boon latterly teeming with the scandals of the
Lottery of the Lingots d'Or. The position of M.
Clement lteyre, private secretary of the prefect of
police, as commissioner of the government to super-
intend the operations of this concern, and the hints
thrown out in the letters of M. Lunglois, the dis-
charged head of the lottery administration, prompted
a belief that M. Cartier luld dabbled in the specula-
lima connected with the buying up of tickets, with a
view to re-selling them at a premium. Whatever
be the amount of the prefect's participation in these ,
questionable transactions, Girardin does not scruple
publicly to cast it in his teeth, and to attribute his
wish to retire at the present moment to apprehen-
sion lest he should be turned out by a motived order
of the day, to be passed in the Assembly after a de-
bate on the question of the Lingots d'Oe. If the
prefect of police has injured his popularity some-
what by the persecution of the opposition press,
whose newspapers he swept from the Boulevards,
while ho allowed free circulation to the royalist and
government prints, he is not likely to ingratiate him-
self with any portion of the community by an ordi-
nance, which is published to-day, concerning the
itinerant vendors of vegetables, poultry, rabbits,l
porcelain, slippers, and every other sort of article.
From the Ist of February next all such vendors are
to be prohibited from street sale of the wares they
cry, without a permit or license from the prefecture.
The condition of nationality and residence
is likewise introduced into this edict, which
is highly important. Every itinerant ven-
dor is required to be a Frenchman, domiciled
at least for one year in Paris. lie must
wear, after being licensed, a medal, inscribed
with his name and- the number of his permission.
It would be difficult to describe the sensation pro-
duced by this despotic ordinance. There are, of
course, an immense number of these poor people who
are not French; and still more who have not resided
for a year in Paris. For naturally the first resource
of an impoverished stranger would be to drive some
hou.seless trade, by which ho could supply, at
least, the want of food although shelterless. But
the badge will be loathed by all, as a stigma which
will brand their class. It is very natural that porters
should wear some tokcu of their identity, from
their being habitually entrusted with commissions,
of which they could otherwise be called to no ac-
count.
The persons arrested at the office of the Voir du
Piwerd, on suspicion of being connected with the
French-German plot, together with Lecat, the ge,eant
of that journal, were set at liberty yesterday.
A seditious plot has been detected at Rouen, by
the police, who have arrested two obscure individuals.
In the apartments of these were found bottles of
powder and balls like those of the insurgents of June.
Count Bathyany has hired apartments in the
Champs Lyle:vs, where he purposes to lead a life of
retirement.
The vacancy in the Assembly caused by M.
Durand Valentin's resignation of his seat for Senegal,
so long ago as November last, has been filled up.
M. Sloth, the governmenfeandidate, was elected, by
1,150 votes, against M. Lefort Goussolin, who
polled 990.
Negotiations may be expected to be set on foot
shortly for the renewal of the commercial treaty of
1845 between France and Belgium, which expires
in August, 1832. fly the first treaty (1842), which
Was afterwards renewed, Franco established a privi-
leged tariff in favour of pit coal and flax from Bel-
gium, the latter country making concessions in re-
turn, with respect to French Wines and silks. Com-
plaints have been made by French merchants of the
way in which this treaty has been interpreted and
acted upon by the )lei fans. They say that, inas•
much as the rrench tariff was relaxed in favour of
Belgium only, and not of any other nation, it was
necessarily to be understood • that the reciprocal
concessions to France were to be exclusive like-
wise. There was, however, no express clause to that
effect. On the 28th of August, 1842, two months
only after the exchange of ratifications, the Belgian
government, by way of experiment, gratuitously ex•
tended the benefit of the reduced tariff on French
wines and silks to similar produce of the Zollvercin.
The effect of this assimilation upon French silks was
Ismall, but the importations of French wines speedily
fell from four millions and a half of francs to three
millions and a half. Franco made no reprisals, but,
on the contrary, submitted on the Ilth of July, 1843,
to an increased duty upon her threads and 'woollen
tissues. It is alleged by the French merchants that
when, in the face of' these things, France consented in
1815 to nn unconditional renewal of the treaty, she
allowed herself to be the dupe of Belgium. In this
state of feeling efients will doubtless bo made to ob-

of tho existing treaty pre-

musty to August next.
By decrees of the President of tho Republic, M.
Arnanit, mayor of Montils, and M. Legendrc, mayor
of Onohamps, provisionally suspended by the prefect
of the Loir-et-Cher, have been definitively dismissed.
General Santa-Cruz, minister plenipotentiary of
Bolivia, returned to Paris last evening, after six
weeks' absence, employed visiting in England and
BuHum.
1110 Cowrier of Dijon announces that M. Jos-
sinet, banker in tea place, has just suspended pay-
' ment. Tho deficit is said to be considerable, and it
fulls chiefly on workmen and small families.
During the visit of M. Chasseloup-Laubat, the
Minister of Marine, to Toulon, he accompanied the
Maritime Prefect, the Prefect of the Var, and other
functionaries, on hoard the Charlemagne, when a
preliminary trial was made of her capabilities. It
has been decided that she shall not form part of the
Mediterranean squadron until further experiments
have been made to test her qualities. The minister
arrived yesterday in Paris from his tour.
A person of the name of Pastor was brought on
Saturday before the Correctional Police, under a
charge of having had a quantity of pistols in his pos-
session without permission from thu authorities. In
his defence he declared that ho was the agent of a
factory of arms established in Belgium, and that the
forty-nine pairs of pistols found in his possession be-
longed to that firm. The court decided that the per-
mission required by law was indispensable, and in
consequence sentenced him to pay a line of 200 fr.
A company of actors have left Paris for Madrid, to
perform there in the Threatre de la Cruz. This will
be the first time of performing French plays in that
capital.
Considerable anxiety prevailed at the Bourse to-
day. The Fives fell 65e. closing at 90.60; and the
Threes fell 35c., and closed at 55.60.
Railways have varied but slightly from Saturday's
quotations.