The Express.
London, England, 1848-04-07 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING, APRIL 7, 1848.

Vie Orprogi.

The overhand clewed malls, i773liimeillse, to the Mediterranean,
Egypt, Aden, Ceylon, India, Ilona-Kong, ha, will be made up on the
evening of the 7th Aped.
The malls for Biitish North America, end the United States,
will be roe up on the evening of the 7th ApriL
The m.it,,,,,cluding Bermuda, Nassau, Havana,
Ilooduras, New Orleans, Vera Cruz, Tampico, and Porto Rico, WWI
Including these for bladeira, JacineL Carthagena, Santa Martha,
Charm, Paoame, Wert Covet of South America, and St. luan.4e-
Nicarague, will he made up on the evening of the tlth
The mails for Vim,, Oporto, Li%bon, Madeira, Cecil; and Gibreltar
wit he made up on the 112011110 g of the 17th ApriL
The overland mails for Gibraltar, Mahn, Greece, the lonian Islanda
Egypt, Aden, Ce inn, India, (long-Kong, and China, Ma Southamp-
ton, will be made op on the morning of the Roth April.
The mails for New South Wales, Vim Dieman's Land, and New
Zealand will he made up Olk the evening of On 30th April.
The moils (or the West Coast of Africa and Madeira will be made
op oa the evening of the 3011, April.
The mail% her the Brasile, the River Plate, Monte Video, Pernam.
bum, Bahia, Madeira, and Buenos Apra, will be made op on the
evening of the 4th May.

NOTICE TO ADVERTISERS.
The number of STAMPS issued by the authorities of the
Stanlp•olliee, during 1847, to the
DAILY NEWS was 3,447,009
This, we believe, is within eight per cent. of the number
hatted to the Morning Herald, Morning Chronicle, and
Morning Post, ALL PUT TOOPTHER.
In addition to the above, issued to the DAILY NEWS,
Morning Paper, there were issued for the Evening Edition,
TILE EXPRESS 778,714
Which was more, we believe, than were issued either to
the Ufobe or Standard, Evening Papers.

TO OORREAPON DENT&
Ma.Totbee'r Co.. —Mr. E. C. Riley. clerk of the Whlteehapel C Only Court,
01.1.orglr rent or a Ihstory of Wee tatter upon whirl. Mr. Po let I. ae cam
nutted to tbe House. f C.ereeiloo. We ...at not pubbsb hos letter—Ont. be.
ruse It appear. by our Thames pollee wthwt of yra.e day that the debt haa
hero basil out semo..llv. herabee we did not loolotn.. the e..duot of the fledge
of the meet,' roan, Thr u rung p uted ort was
lhat of the I..—..lnter.
peeled tkr eurernor ot the Hour of Correct CIOO n the nor cu, end by the
otwit..., of Inaoheht, on the et ber—whoelt allow* of a &boor to humble
afeu to be treated as • felon ud en Ineoluitt of h wanton^ to menu all
roolebtornt.
••• Actrerneentente lotethled for "The repress." Leaden newton pane, lust
he at the frac, boareete.etree, by Two tf club 0., tire dnr rebirrelle•

8100 IV ATER AT LONDON Dawns.
7444 Dm.—Nlornoet. ii u. past 4; Ahnow.n. 39 mi. 44.1 4.
7.pagoaaow—Matatag, 59 ml. past e; Afternoon, LI nil. past i.

LONDON. FRIDAY, APRIL 7.
Tit subjoined remarks were prepared before
we learnt the announcement made lest night in
the House of Commons by Sir O. GREY. We see no-
thing in that announcement, or the remarks which
accompanied it, to induce us to alter the opinions we
have expressed or to withhold them from the public.
We leave them therefore in their original form, but

prefaced by a few observations i.n the position which
ministers have taken up with respect to the Chartist
demonstration advertised for Monday next.
Sir GEottor, GREY gave notice that he would this
day move for leave to bring in a bill " for the better
security of the crown and government of the united
kingdom;" and he intimated that in half an hour a
notice prohibiting the Chartist demonstration of
Monday next would be published.
With regard to the bill, we reserve our
opinion till it is before us. If it is strictly
limited to the protection of government and
the legislature from force or intimidation, we can see
no objection to it. The law already forbids, and pro-
perly forbids, meetings to be held within a certain
distanco of Westminster during the sitting of parlia-
ment. The aim of this law is to prevent the repre-
sentatives of the whole people being overawed or
borne down by a local mob. It is palpably absurd
to forbid the convocation of meetings that may
inti-
midate near the houses of parliament, and allow them
to assemble at a little distance, and when as-
sembled march thither. But if it is intended
by the bill about to be introduced to prevent the
holding in places remote from the Houses of Parlia-
ment large out-of-door meetings, with a vies, to show
the numbers who embrace a particular view of a
question— as was done throughout the whole of the
Reform Bill agitation—we protest against the mea-

sure in limihr:
With regard to the notice forbidding the demon-
stration of Monday, there is no necessity for such
postponement of judgment. It is, is every way, an
injudicious step, set about in an undignified manner.
By Sir GEORGE'S own account, ministers were in-
formed of the intended demonstration for the first
time on Wednesday. What might be the first official
intimation they received; but if they did not know
before Wednesday that such a demonstration was to
be made, we will be bold to say that they wets
the only parties in the metropolis who re-
mained so long in ignorance. Do minis-
ters hold it contrary to etiquette to pro-
hibit what they believe to be an unlawful
assembly until the parties intending to hold it give
them official notice of their intention ? But, assuming
that ministers were in utter ignorance of the contem-
plated demonstration till Wednesday, why not forbid
it on Wednesday? Why withhold their notice till a
late hour of Thursday ? There is an inconceivable
display of moral cowardice and want of proper self-
respect in shrinking from the responsibility of such
an act, and not daring to take it until they had indi-
rectly felt the public pulse by an nnavowed article
in a morning paper. There is a graver delinquency
in the c mscquent loss of time, inasmuch as it increases
the risk of irritation and collision.
So much for the hesitation and shuffling with which
the prohibition of the Chartist meeting and procession
has been set about. As for the notice (a copy of
which lies on our table while we write), it is such as
must make the cheek of every true lover of the con-
stitution burn with blushes. To find a cabinet at
the head of which is placed a descendant of Lord
WILLIAM Russeu. in the nineteenth century acting
upon a statute passed in the reign of CHARLES 11. to
repress expressions of public opinion, is of it-
self lamentable enough. But it is impossible
to suppress an emotion of indignant disgust when we
turn to examine the statute which our Whig ministers
have invoked from its slumber of more than a century
to aid them. As they state, it prohibits carrying
addresses to the King or parliament attended by more
than ten persons; but this is only one provision of the
act. In the same clause it is declared unlawful to
'" solicit, labour or procure the getting of hands, or
other consent, of any persons above the number
of twenty or more to any petition, com-
plaint, remonstrance, declaration or other ad-
cress, to the King, or both or either houses
of parliament, for alteration of matters esta-
blished by law in church or state, unless the matter
thereof have been first consented unto and ordered
by the major part of the grand jury of the county,
&c., or if in London by the Lord Mayor," &c. It
is disgraceful to a whig ministry, sixteen years
after the passing of the Reform Act, to revive such a
forgotten and tyrannous enactment. This is not all.
The act is insufficient to effect their purpose. It
only forbids canvassing for signatures to petitions,
and carrying petitions to the sovereign or parliament,
by more than ten persons. The aim of the Chartists
is to make a public demonstration, and this they
can do without going to the Queen or either of
the houses of parliament. They can meet on Ken-
nington-common and march to Mr. O'CONNOR'S
place of residence to ask him to present the petition.
They can meet on Kennington-common and
march to Downing-street to ask the same
favour of Lord JOHN RUSSELL or Sir GEORGE
GREY. Nay, it may be doubted whether they may
not carry the petition to deposit it at Buckingham
Palace, on the plea that the act 1 WILLIAM and
MARY, session 2, c. 2, declares, " That it is the right
of the subjects to petition the king, and all commit-
ments and prosecutions for such petitioning are ille-
gal." Ministers may find that they have done no
more than revived the memory of a statute alike
odious and inefficient.
And apart from these considerations we
may fairly question the wisdom of prevent-
log the meeting at all. From anything we
have seen in the metropolis, from all we learn
from the provinces, we feel convinced that the
blusterers among 'the leaders of the demonstration
are not backed by such numbers as to render them
dangerous. Their demonstration would have shown
them in their real force, whereas now they will thank
government for not having exposed them to that trial,
and go back to'the provinces to-tell incredible lies of
their strength and the terrors of the powers
that be. In this we. do indeed see danger—
not of a revolution, but of calamitous dis-
turbances. We hare bad occasion to know pretty
intimately the state of affairs in the manufacturing
districts in 18.19. We know that in every case where
there was collision with the military it eras owing
the false and exaggerated reports' of the
strength in other districts, brought beck by delegates
sent to inquire into their state of preparation. What
the exaggerations of private knaves or blockheads
did then, the exaggeration of a panic-stricken execu-
tive will most probably do now. In the records of

ministerial anility there is nothing to equal this last
blunder of ministers, except, perhaps, the Duke of
WELLINGTON'S refusal to let WILLIAM IV. dine with
the Lord Mayor.

Tne Times, like a rampant war-horse, scents battle
from afar—nay, in the most quiet of pastures fancies
collision and strife as its native element. It has beta
of late acting the part of a conservative Mr. MEAGHER,
calling upon the Irish government to coerce, to be
violent, and to pat down disaffection. Alas! if dis-
affection could be put down by edicts or by force, we
should be the first to recommend them. Force
when employed against fume, is merely a sword-
stroke dealt upon a:r—sure to be vain, and possibly
ridiculous. But it would be doing the Times too
much honour to impute to it even the blame of its
yesterday's article, advocating the prevention
of the Chartist demonstration of Monday next.
'lle 7 imes is in general the accredited elapse of the
government; shows frequently that it possesses its
confidence and ern reveal its secrets. It is obvious
that on the present occasion the government, wanting''
courage, has employed the Times to lash up thie
quality in cities and in parliament.
Accordingly at the bidding of government the
7 laws calls on the government here to enact the part
of Louis PHIL! PP E, and forbid at the eleventh hour a
meeting which has been talked of for weeks, and for
which multitudes have been making innocent prepara-
tion. We do not say that the planners of this monster
meeting and procession have not done a most
dangerous, and possibly a moat culpable thing. It
certainly risks life, and exposes the peace of a great
city to be seriously broken by an angry oolbsion, or
chance entanglement. It puts it in the power of a
hair-braised youth, or the emissary of a foreign club,
to provoke by rash or insidious act (the firing of a
pistol or petard) hostile response or repression from
whatever force might be thus menaced or insulted.
But will this danger, slight at present, be removed
or augmented by a proclamation forbidding the meet-
ing ? The prohibition of the Paris banquet brought
certainly a greater crowd than its quietly taking place
could have occasioned, and a far more dangerous
crowd. Persons from different parts of the country
have already made their arrangements for coming to
town. These are probably the more peaceable of the
petitioners. We had not heard of bludgeons, but of
white wands. Anti probably the very first idea of
converting a peaceable procession into a riot prepense
will be caught from the columns of the Times.
Every one was aware that government had deemed
certain precautions necessary, and had wisely and
quietly taken them. We had heard of these prepara-
tions, and thought it best to remain silent on the sub-
ject. Some jealous citizens have even denounced to
us, with mistaken zeal, the, to them, alarming fact
of an increase of soldiers in the several barracks of
the metropolis. Government is quite right in taking
these precautions, and equally right in saying nothing
about them, in not occasioning panic, and in affecting
even more confidence than they feel.
But the blustering tongue of the Times has spoiled
all this, interrupted the decorum, dispersed the calm,
and thrown all parties into distrust and into
hostile attitudes. Government had ample notice of
what is intended on Monday. If it taw any
danger in the plan made public, would it not
have been better to have come down to parliament
for a special law against tumultuous petitioning and
processions, instead of affecting confidence to the last
hour, and then, when the population, confident itself of
keeping the peace, and feel intralsoconfident in the allow-
ance of government, proceeds to the performance of the
ceremony, all of a sudden forbid it? An act at once
so tardy, yet so precipitate, denoting fear and irresolu-
tion, would be the greatest triumph that both the do-
mestic and foreign enemies of our constitution and our
prosperity could imagine.
There can be no place more easy of protection than
the palace of Westminster. A mob which had any
intention of approaching it hostilely, would certainly
not choose their place of rendezvous en the other aide
of the river. The entire plan and programme, tra-
vestied and exaggerated by the Times, evinces the de-
sire, and the sole desire, to make a pacific display of
numbers—numbers formidable in a moral as well as
in a physical sense.
If such demonstration, however well meant, be dan-
gerous, let there be a law stating it; and let English-
men know clearly and legibly what they can
do, and what they cannot do ; in what way
they can manifest their opinions and count their num-
bers legally, and in what way it is forbidden to do
so. But do not let the population be deceived with
the idea that they have a right to form meetings and
processions, and then allow the caprice, or the fears,
or the nerves of a minister to render such meetings
legal or illegal, innocent or treasonable, as it may
happen.
All the revolutions which have lately taken place,
were achieved by populations which had no law,
no guarantee, no protection against arbitrary power,
and no means of making known their grievances or
putting forward their claims, save by the musquet
and the emeute. Had the population of France en-
joyed the freedom and the power to associate, to
discuss their charter, as they might call it, and
march with it in unarmed procession to the cham-
bers, no Frenchman need, or would, have seized a
musquet. And what is true of France, is ten times
more true of the other revolutionised capitals. The
Englishman w ho,enjoy in g the freedom and the rights he
does, would take advantage of the moment of his enjoy-
ing one or those rights, viz. bringing his free and bold
petition to parliament—the Englishman who would
seize that opportunity to insult parliament, or touch
with offensive hand the pollad ium of his country's
liberties, merits to be struck dead, as guilty et an
infamous and sacrilegious crime. But such a crime
is not possible, and whatever the Times may imagine,
we will not believe it so.

ONE main object with the writer on military eco-
nomics in the last Quarterly, to whose lucubrations we
directed observation on Wednesday, is to claim more at-
tention for the Artillery arm of the service. He illus-
trates in a striking manner the tendency of a due
cultivation of this arm to unite efficiency with eco-
nomy in army combinations. It is probably to the
absurd system we have inherited, of regarding the
Artillery as something apart from, and independent
of, the ordinary army organisation, that it does not
take its proper place in our military arrangements.
NAPOLEON, who was educated for an Artillery officer,
knew its worth better. How many of our generals
know the number of men for whom a gun, well
placed and worked, may serve as a substitute ? How
many of them have sufficient acquaintance with gun-
nery to turn their field artillery to its full account ?
The writer in the Quarterly shows that by
strengthening our artillery corps, considerable reduc-
tions may be effected in the cavalry and infantry
arms of the service. The consideration of his doc-
trines respecting artillery organisation we reserve till
another occasion. With regard to them, we content
ourselves at present with entering a caveat, that
while we believe his general position that the
substitution of au efficient artillery force for part
of our present cavalry and infantry would
be a material gain both in what concerns
the strength and the economy of our army,
we feel convinced that the strength of artillery which
he deems indispensable, is greatly in excess of what
this country requires for its pence establishment. Ile
is entitled to deference on all questions of military
organisation— on the arrangements by which the
of ,iency of the army may be increased and its
expense reduced, we do not pretend to argue with
him. But the questions, what military force this
country can afford to keep on foot, and what military
force it is consistent with this country's true interests
to keep on foot, belong to a wider field of inquiry
than the mere military. Of this hereafter; at pre-
sent we confine ourselves to those reductions in the
cavalry and infantry departments which a soldier by
profession thinks may be safely ventured on as soon
as our artillery is placed on a proper footing.
With regard to the cavalry, our author says :
The cavalry force of Great Britain, exclusive of the I
household brigade, consists of twenty-two regiments, of
which five, being employed in India and put upon an in-
creased establishment, draw their pay and other allowances
from the Company. The remaining seventeen are paid,
clothed, mounted, and equipped at the expense of the mo-
ther country; sad constitute, with the exception of the
horse.brigade, by far the most costly arm which the mother
country wields. For the establishment of each, aa regards
the men and horses available, is absurdly small ; whereas
the list of officers and non-commissioned officers is kept as
full as if there were twice as many private soldiers to obey
them. If we except the Ist Dragoon Guards, which can
show 361 troop horses and 438 men ; and the 7th Dragoon
Guards, which for the use of its 411 men musters 281
horses; the strength n the other regiments is 271 horses
and 328 men. Now the complement of officers and non-
. commissioned officers to each being exactly 59 (27 of the
former, 32 of the latter), ws have oar cavalry soldiers so