The Express.
London, England, 1847-03-06 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, SATURDAY EVENING, MARCH 6, 1847.

disgust, and the assignment system was declared to
be at an end, to the acclamation of all at home and
abroad. Since then, other ways have been tried, and
Lord STANLEY himself officially provided for them.
He tried Norfolk Island, and TASMAN'S peninsula,
and persevered in his experiment, strangely regard-
less of the complaints of the colonists of Van Diemen 's
Land. Despairing of procuring work for the liber-
ated convicts, Lord STANLEY planned his celebrated
colony of North Australia, not for the dispersion of
convicts amongst a more moral population, but for
their concentration in the idleness and abundance
and temptation of a tropical clime.
Lord GREY recapitulated most fully all the recog-
nised evils of the old system, its inequality as a pun-
ishment, its failure as an intimidation, its cost, its
abandonment of all attempts to reform the criminal.
The efforts that have been since made to collect the
convicts on one island, or one establishment, have ter-
minated in failure, too recent and well known to need
repetition. Lord STANLEY, however, stood out last
night fur the necessity of resuming the old exploded
system, and of not only continuing to transport, but of
reviving the custom of assignment His Lordship's
panacea was, that we should go back precisely to the
point where we had stuck ten or twelve years ago.
The principal provisions of Earl GREY'S measure
are known. A sentence of transportation is com-
muted for each criminal into, first, &confinement after
the separate system of Pentonville, for a term varying
from six to eighteen months. The rest of half his
time is employed in labour on public works, at
Gibraltar, the Bermudas, Portland Island, or such
public works as can be carried on by convicts, con-
sistently with their being well guarded and secluded.
The works are to be executed by task work, the
labour of the convict being from the first competed.
Hie rapid execution of the task, with his good be-
haviour in other respects, all tell in the shortening of
his confinement, at the termination of which he is
bbliged to proceed to the colonies.
Lord BROUGHAM made very merry with the latter
part of the scheme, and Lord STANLEY assailed it
with more serious objections. Both asked, whether
the expatriation of the convict was free or forced,
and whether the colonies would like such visitors?
But be these objections of what force they may, they
apply to all other possible plans, save to that exploded
one of Lord STANLEY'S, an exclusively convict colony,
which his lordship dared not even hint at for
I the present. In the system of transportation or
emigration, the convicts must be disposed of some-
how. Earl GREY proposes that the mother country
shall take the risk and trouble of superintending
convict labour, discipline, and reform durin,g the years
of their sentence. Their sentence expired at present,
they return home unreformed. Can the colonies object
to receive better men than those whom England her-
self, at present, is willing to receive?
Lord GREY himself, however, declared, that the
present was an experiment An essential part of
that experiment is, the complete seclusion of the con-
' victs from all communication with their friends, and

from all possibilities of escape.
If this perfection is not obtained, the scheme, we
admit, most fail. If it be obtained—and we have no
doubt that it can be obtained—then all the objections
of Lord DENMAN fall to the ground. His lordship
gave his weighty testimony to the fact, that transporta-
tion was a strong and effective source of terror to
thieves. It may appear so in a court of jus-
tice, and at the moment of sentence' .
but a
great many facts and testimonies bear witness
to the direct contrary. Lord DENMAN thinks that
separate confinement and labour on public works,
with subsequent expatriation, will be less terrifying
than expatriation at once, with lighter labour and
good nourishment—for such was transportation. We
see no sufficient reason for this.

His lordship seems to agree with Lord BROCCIHAU
in the idea, that transportation ought to be cos-,
tinued for criminals of the wealthy and educated
classes, for the rich receivers of stolen goods, for
forgers, and others, whose command of money and
connexions would render them formidable even in
the cells of Portland Island. It is impossible, how-
ever, to keep up a convict establishment abroad for
the sake of a score of individuals, who, under Lord
GRIT'S measure, can be very well and safely km-
posed of at the Bermudas.
We do, however, agree with Lord DENMAN
on the necessity of such discipline as will deter.
Nor should the aim of reforming criminals be carried
so far as to better their worldly condition. On this
ground we abject altogether to the system of teaching
trades to convicts. The lowest class of our population
lives by unskilled labour. The class above it lives
by skilled or artisan's labour. We would do nothing
to rein the convict from the one to the other.
It would be extending to the criminal an advantage
denied to the industrious population. Lord BaouGusx
insists on gardens and outdoor work in every gaol,
which would be to endow the inmates of a prison
with sources of enjoyment and health purposely denied
to the inmates of the workhouse. Comparisons of
this kind must be avoided. Whatever individuals
may do, government cannot sacrifice justice to
generosity.

Tan Journal des Drbats gives curious prominence
to a version of the complications that followed a re-
cent visit of the King of PRUSSIA to the Academy of
Sciences at Berlin. His Majesty frequently confers
the honour of being present at the sittings of his
Royal Academy; and it will be supposed that the
presence of the monarch has its due effect upon the
tone of the compositions read upon these occasions. At
the sitting in question, the subject chosen by M. VON
}Gomez, was the vindication of the character of FRE-
DERICK THE GREAT, whose works he is employed by
the king to edit, from the aspersions thrown upon it by
orthodox divines. It was not easy to treat the matter
without launching into some praise of the general
claims of that monarch on his subjects for
good management, and other points, which drew
applause,' from his audience. These plaudits, it
seems, the present King, very unnecessarily of
course, interpreted into reflections upon him
self, and quitting the room in a huff, wrote to
the president, declaring that the academy having
grossly insulted him, he should go near them no
more. The president, in excess of loyalty, framed an
epistle disclaiming all fellowship on the part of
the academy with the culprit member, and specially
condemning the obnoxious passages of his memoir.
This loyal effusion, when sent round for the signa-
tures of the members, found, we are told, a protester
in the person of Baron ALEXANDER HUMBOLDT, who
explained that the more judicious proceeding would
be to assure the king that the obnoxious passages
were in no way calculated to elicit any offensive in-
terpretation ; that the writer was not answerable for
the opiuioos of his auditors, and that the academy,
entertaining only the highest respect for the King,
requested him to view the matter in the genie_ 4ht.
ALRIANDER VON HUMBOLDT'S influence, added to
the plain sense manifested in the plan proposed,
was near overcoming the scruples of the timlT:elrfe:
sident, M. ENURE, when another personage interfered
and caused a complication that has led to the denoue-
ment announced by the D4bats. This was no other
than M. EICHHORN, Minister of Public Instruction
(not to be confounded with the lawyer and historian,
C. F. EICHHORN). He-insisted that both the letters
drawn up by the academy should be referred to him.
The unpopular character of the minister, arising from
the influence he has exercised to further religious views
of his own, led many of the German papers to pre-
dict that Baron Hu u noun's address would be set aside.
by the ministerial mandate and the original one
adopted. A semi-official announcement in the Berlin
papers denied, before any step was taken one way or
the other, that there was any truth in the insinuation.
It seems, however, that a decision has at length been
made, and that the German papers were right. M.
EICHHORN has supported his character. The text of
the address adopted by the Academy to pacify the
regal feelings, is given, oddly enough, toy the Journal
des Danis. We fear our contemporary has, on this
occasion, had to play the cat's-paw.

By advice' received in Paris on Thursday the diplo-
make rupture at Athens between the representatives
of the Greek and Turkish governments has been con- I
firmed. M. Coletti, in accordance with the spirit of
constitutional governments, immediately after the
offence had been given by king Otho to M. Museums, I
assumed the responsibility of it. As we stated in
our correspondence of yesterday, the Ottoman minister
left Athens for Constantinople, the apology or re-
paration which he required having been refused by M.
Coletti. It appears, however, that after his departure,
the am ors of foreign powers at Athens had a
conference, at which it was resolved to use their com-
bined efforts to induce the Greek government to

yield, and that they succeeded in obtaining from the
King his consent to address an autograph letter of
apology to the Sultan, while M. Coletti was to send
to the Reis Effendi a similar apologetic letter. It is
said the letter of the King and that of M. Coletti had
been already expedited to Constantinople.
Lord Howden left Paris for London on Thursday.
M. Martin du Nord is convalescent, according to
the Gazette de Prance. _ .

The same journal states that the Duke and Duchess
of Montpensier are to make a formal renunciation of
the Spanish succession.
An attachi of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has
been sent to Tunis, with the answer of the French
government to the application made by the Bey for
its intervention between that regency and the Porte.
The ministry demanded in the Chamber on Wed-
nesday a grant of four millions of francs for the pro-
motion of public work,. This is in addition to an
equal sum already giant d for the same purpose,
and with a view to the relief of the working popula-
tion under the pressure of the existing scarcity.
Wheat rose from two to three francs in the Paris
market on Wednesday, barley, rye, and oats, rising
in proportion. Flour was sold at 110 fr. or Ms. per
sack, with a tendency to rise. The advices from
Marseilles were less unfavourable, showing a slight
fall. No further supplies, however, are expected
at that port from the Black Sea until next month.
The Duke de Polignac died at Paris on Tues-
day last.
A statement of circumstances of the rapprochement
of Lord Normanby and M. Guizot has been drawn
up by Count d'Appoay, and approved by both parties.
This, we are told, has been sent by Count d'Appony
to Prince Metternich, and will probably appear in
the Austrian Obserrer and Allgemeine Zeitung.

The courier from Bordeaux arrived, as usual,
in Paris on Thursday morning, but brought no
Spanish mail.

EGYPT, FEE. 18.—It is understood that the
abolition of the slave trade and also of slavery in this
country, will take place within two months from the present,
and at the same time throughout the Pacha's dominions.
The rich Turks are in a great ferment about it. We under-
stand also, the abolition of the tribute, paid by the Packs to
the Sultan, has been applied for by the former, as the latter
had sent hint orders to send a body of troops to garrison
Mecca, Medina, and other Vicinities, and he expects this
favour in return
• _ . _

TURKEY.—The Bosphorus has brought commer-
cial journals to Marseilles from Constantinople, to the middle
of February. It appears that from the Gth to 13th February
120 vessel. freighted with corn arrived at Constantinople
from the Black Sea; 30 left kr Marseilles, 4 for Genoa, 16
far Leghorn, 12 for England, 4 for Trieste, 3 for Antwerp,
4 for Megrina ; 165 vessels of diff.rent nations left is the
same interval to take in freiglys of corn in the Black Sea.
Of these the greater number were for Marseilles.
ALGERIA.—The Algiers journals to the 26th ult.
arrived yesterday. The Mossite.iv Algerien containsthe
following :—" The movement of General Marey towards
Kaar-Zaccar has produced the result that was expected.
Having marched by the north of the mountains of Zahn on
the 13th, the general canoed it to be believed that he had re-
turned to thel ell. He subsequently took the road to the south,
and on the 15th succeeded in reaching the Ouled-Aiseas (a
fraction of the Ouled-Nouls-* Chkraglui) in the chain of Senellia
towards Djelfa, about 100 leagues from Algiera. He made •
new enema upon them. Part of the cavalry were obliged to
leave their horses in order to dislodge the infantry of the
tribe from the rock's and revises, in which they had hidden
their flocks. The resistance was spirited, and cost us 4 men
killed, 3 wounded, and 20 horses killed or wounded. The
Ouled-Aire lost from 40 to 50 men, 4,000 sheep, 250 oxen,
and a great many camels, horses, die. The next day, the
column continued to march towards Kser-Zsocsr, in the
hope of again falling on the Onled-Anna, or receiving their
submission. General Marty calculated on returning to
Guelt-el-Seltel by the 28th, in order to receive a convoy of
supplies sent from Aumale, which will enable him to regain
Medan."