The Express.
London, England, 1848-02-29 00:00:00

government, and they already show unmistakeable
sign of this. But:whom to choose? Each family
has rendered itself unpopular and impossible. The
mention of the elder BounitoNs with any
hope were frenzy. Louts KieotEou is, as the
French say, an ecerittV, a brainless person. The bt et
liberals still cliug to the Count of PARIS, as
the combination that would soonest restore peace and
order, and best ensure liberty. Yet not only
does this seem for the present impossible, but its im-
possibility excludes also from power and influence
such men as BARROT and THIER., and LtMORICIEIte
himself, who have shown want of faith in a republic.
ladted, the want of faith in a republic, which
seems to animate almost all but the obscure and igno-
rant in France, is alone suCient to render that form
of government vain. A republic is like a religion.
Mere uniformity will not uphold it. Enthusiasm,
even fanaticism, is required. And these, it would
appear, are wanting. If a breath of loyalty be
wanting to fill the sails of monarchy, republicanism
seems able to get up no more than a popular breeze,
and that not a violent one. Even the speakers in the
chamber who were for a republic, and the very men
who undertook to issue proclamations in its name,
use language of :al ambiguous kind, and aini evidently
more at calming republiem ef.'crvescence than at ex-
citing or profiting by it. Every act and word of the
leading men gives proofs of moderation and disinter-
estedni as. . _

-----
Should extraordinary events, thtrefore, not occur,
the tendency is back to constitutional monarchy. But
extraordinary events may derange this impulse. War
may be prsvaked, or war may arise; and once tacos and
efforts in France take that direction, evety thing else
will be subservient to it, even civil government itself.
And should that government be couwelltd to dtf.nd
itself and the state at once from foreign t nemies and
from domestic foes rising in civil war, a dictatorship
is isevitable. For the fanaticism is wonting which
rendered the convention so long an executive council.
One of the events to which we allude, and which
perhaps need net be caled extraordinary, is a revolu-
tion in Brussels. All must feel how likely the rumours
which have already an rived of such au evtut.ultimtvely
to prove true. Ki•.g Leortn.n has govern. d indeed like
a constitutional king, tied, wiser than his father in-
law, has always bowed b, fore pith: opinion. But in
this plan of government, King LEOPOLD has unfortu-
nately satisfied u ither the ultra-liberals nor the ultra-
eatholies; and the two p trties, which ejected WILLIAM
OP MANGE, may, with a greater want or v. isdom and
justice, unite a,-.,-ainet Leorot.n. Should such as
insurrection take plot*, the French of 1848 cannot do
less than the French of 1831, a r rerrai.i from fling-
ing their powerful shield oar the popular party in
Brussels, eh uld any of the great continental mo-
narchies threaten to inter( re. In the event of a re-
volution at Brussels, we have no doubt that ministers
would act upon the sound principle avowed bv Lord
Joule Itessett. in the House of Commons last night
with respect to France. And even in the event of a
war, it is obvious that we have no lon( r any call to
interfere. We have had enough of gn ,rantecing
thrones, and must herezeforth leave them to take care
of themselves.

petuation of these the land-owning class, as for so
many centuries the law-making class, have no one to
thank but themselves.

We throw out these suWstions with no idea of
abetting the proposed increase in the national expen-
diture on armaments. On the contrary, we witted
impress upon parliament and the public the necessity
of diminishing the actual expenditure. We are willing
to pay for a defensive force on that scale which cart be
shown to be realiy necessary fur national defence. lint
Vie distribution of our regiments alone is sufficient to
show that a large number of them are raised and.
maintained for purposes very different from defence.
The far greater part of the regiments in Ireland and the
' manufacturing districts are- not intended fur defence,
but as an adjunct to the police force. In most dis-
tricts of the country the local residents pay for their
own police. In those parts of the country where
this anomalous, this military police is preferred, let
those who wont it pay for it, as others do, by local
rates. By distinguishing the police army from the
• defence army it would be seen that the Irish armed
police is not the only police force of which the expense
is unfairly transferred from the shoulders of those who
use it to the nation at large. The use we would
have made of the new source .of revenue we point to
is, the abolition of imposts which fetter and paralyse
industry.

THE House of Commons will, this evening, bo
called upon to sanction the Chancellor's lists of mem-
bers proposel to act on the c•ommitte, s appointed to
investigate the navy, army, and ordnance expendi-
ture, and the miscellaneous expenditure. To the
names proposed we feel no call to object. But we
embrace the opportunity to protest against the as-
sumption that nnmittses, with ranges of inquiry so
limited, can possibly arrive at any satisfactory results.

In 1846 the total expenditure of the year was
50,943,830/. This is what the people of Great Britain
had to pay for Revetment in diet year. But of this
sum ouly 20,129,026/. was included under the heads
army, navy, ordeauce, and miecellaneous expendi-
ture. The interest and management of the debt,
funded and unfunded, took up 28,077,9861. And the
civil list, the annuities and peneients charged by acts
of parliament, salaries and allow-emcee, diplomatic
salaries and pensions, courts of justice, and miecella-
neon, charges on the consolidated fund, amounted to
2,736,84161. The investigations of the committees are
restricted to somewhat lees than two-thirds of that
portion ef our annual expenditure which is brought
under the cognisance of pat liament in any way. And
it must also he kept in mind that there is a great
mass of taxation which altogether escapes the scru-
tiny of perliment. Our local rates are taxation to
support departments—and very important depart-
ments—of government. The fees of courts charged
upon law proceedings, which go to form funds
fur supporting our judicial eetobliehments.
are taxation for government purpuees. To
know how much of the taxes annually paid hy
each member of the community is really required
to support ten effieient goverment, and oleo to ascer-
tain what proportion the aggregate of these exactions
from the people bears to their means of payment,
the whole taxes levied and expended in the course of
a year for the support of government must be
taken into ace tune But the committees will only be
allowed to inquire iutu those items of expenditure
which relate to tie army, navy, and ordeunce, and
into a few supplementary items of eisil exeenditure.
For example., in the miecellancous estimates, the
committee will find a clews of grants designated
" Law and Justice," for which the re was
voted in 1847, 1,021,33e1/. But these grants only go
' to defray the exist nditure in prosecutions by several
departments of state, certain expenses of the. Court of
Exchequer, the expenses of the Insolvent Debtors'
Court, the expenses of canned prosecutions in Scot-
land and Ireland, the exp. 118C8 of our rn. del prisons,
and the expense Bof our convict establishments. The
sums paid under parliamentary authority for the
support of our courts of justice, nue untirg to
870,4091., in 1846, are left out of account altogether,
and so is the amount of fees paid by suitors to the
ofikers of court. Parliament is mot presented with a
complete and detailed statement of what is paid
every year to support these institutions by which
law is administered between man and man,
or between any individual and the general
community. Yet it is obvious that without
such a statement it is impossible for patliament
to know whether the ieoleted items it is called upon I
to vote are really required. whether what is pro-
posed to be laid out upon them bears a due propor-
tion
to the rest of our jedieial expenditure, and in
how far the national expenciture upon legal institn-
•ions is in due proportion to the service received and
the means of payment.
But the claeses of expenditure to be submitted to
the scrutiny of the Cn eNCELLOR OF THEEXeItEQUER'S
committees embrace not merely a fragmentary
and incomplete view of the national expenditure.
They are in themselves perplexed and confused.
The fourth class of grants in the miscellaneous mi-
mics relates to " Education, Science, and Art." In
the Ordnance estimates we find the eighth general
head designated " Scientific branch." In this is in-
cluded the Royal Military Academy, certainly as
much an edneetional establishment as the theolo-
gical seminaries of Oxford, or the Scotch univer.
cities. And we also find the " Ordnance survey of
the United Kingdom," certainly an undertaking com-
menced andeerried en for civil purposes quite 118 much
as the Irish townland survey, which we fled included
in the miscellaneous estimates. In like manner we
find in the army estimates a " royal military eel-
lege," and in the navy estimates another " scien-
tific branch," on the banks of which are
borne the astronomer royal and his staff,
the astronomical staff at the Cape of Good
Hope, &r. Wlele the various grants by parlia-
ment in furtherance of science and education are thus
atettered, instead of being brought into one focus, it
is imp essible to ascertain how much is annually ex-
pended by goy* rnment to promote these objects,
what proportion the outlay upon professional and
~cientific education bears to popular or elementary
lucation, and whether the national means are over-
texed or under-taxed for this important object. And as
with courts of justice, so with educational institutione,
a large proportion of what is really state expenditure
for educational purposes is withdrawn both from the
control and cognisance of parliament, which is thus
disenabled to decide on the adequacy of what is voted
in this way, or the efficiency of its application.
These hints will serve to show how much remains
to be done before our national accounts can be brought
into a compl.te and eatisfactory form—a necessary
preliminary to effective retrenchment and due apph-
eatioe of the national income. Still there are some
abuses so legibly and glaringly inscribed in the esti-
mates the committees are called upon to overhaul,
that their labours cannot be altogether in vain. We
see that the vote taken in 1847 for salaries and other
expenses in the department of the Secretary of State
for the Colonies was 18,0001., but that the estimated
expenditure in that department was actually 23,112/.
Of this 11,500/. was defrayed out of a "fee fund,"
arising from pateeports and appointments of vari-
ous descriptions. Payments received by depart-
ments, and nut allowed to find their way into the
Exchequer, are, from their clandestine character, al-
waysliable to abuse. 01 27,979/., the estimated ex-
penditure in the Home-office for the alma year,
11,5001., was expected to be defrayed from a fee-fund,
arising from appointments and "instruments." The
committee on the miscellaneous estiMetes will, of
course, inquire whether the Hallway Beard, instead of
being worth 17,0001. a year, be not a nuisance that it'
might be worth while paying a trifle to get rid of.
They will also require explanations as to the
11,5781. which is annually paid out of the means
of this country to suppott " clergy. in North
America." The estimates will be seat-riled in vain for
ant account of the expenses of the African squadron, ,
brit the commissioners for the euppreseiou of the
slave trade will be found set down for about
23,0001.; the rewards fur services in suppressing
the slave trade at about 7,730/., and so forth.
The committee on the expenditure on armaments
will do well to inquire Low many officers of
the engineers enjoy lucrative civil appointments in
addition to their pay, anal never do a turn of duty or
pot on a uniform ; and how many engaged on the
ordnance survey make comfortable pickings by exe-
cuting plans of gentlemen's properties. The proposed
vote for the arctic expedition may also suggest in-
quiries into the relations between certain govern-
ment offices and certain scientific societies—a most
fertile source of jobbing, small in its details, but
tolerably expensive is the aggregate, and most
demoralising in its political influence.

NEVER cry halt in the moment of victory."
Ministers have wisely and timcously yielded to the
national protect against increased taxation. They
have at the stme time hinted that at some indefinite
peeled they may be disposed to go further. They
ought to be pre-::eel to do so immediately. A few days
ago they were courive: d that they could not go en
without an addition to the income tax; they had
made up their ntieds en the subject. The unanimous
and earnest expreesice. of public opinion out of deems
has refreshed their memories. As the pertinacity of
the Sluggish Knight in " Ivanhoe" recalled to Filar
Tuck's rceollectioit the venison pasty and runlet of
canary ws.ieh had been lett with him by
the keeper, so the pertinacity of the towns has
recalled to ministers' reeollee ion the balances in
Exchequer which will enable them to dispt use with the
addition to the income tax. A little I, ore pertiniuity
may sharpen their wits as well as strengthen their
memories, and enable them before Friday to devise
means for dispcneingwith their additional armraments,
and find out some mode of alleviating the pressure of
the income tax, it not of dispensing with it altogether.
The total yearly collection of the property and
income tax averaged during the four yeah 1813 to
1846 (inclusive) about five millions and a half. Of
the 5,603,413/. collected in 1816, 2,528.721/. was paid
out of income from property; 324,3191. cut of
farmers' incomes; 741,019/. out of annuities;
1,678,693/. out of prefeasional incomes; and
327,76 W. out of emoluments from puLlle offices. The
lastenenthated we leave oat of account, as being
merely tantamount to reductions of official salaries.
It is remarked with justice that 324, 391. is a ridi-
culously low return from the aggregate of incomes
derived from the incebow et of capital in agricultural
enterprise. Either the duty on this class of incomes
has been rated too low, as compared with other classes,
or there has b- en juaaliug in the assessment. In
either way injustice has been done to other clesees of
the community, in order to ecaleihate the landlords
and tb, it dependents ; and if the tax is to be couti-
nued, an increased return may, under proper
management, fairly bo looked for from this
source. Again, it is remarked tlutt 1,678,595/. is
much less than could have been looked for front the
per-tentage imposed on the aggregate professional in-
comes of the kingdom within tile range of the tax.
There can be no doubt that it is, and the reason is
obvious. An authority friendly to the- continuance of
the tax admits that an annuity of 5001. per annum,
at the age of 30, is, at 5 per cent., worth 6,5361., the
annual interest on which sum, at the game rate, would
be 3261. A perpetual income of 3001. a year
from property is, on the other hand, just 5001. a
year. On this showing, the professional income of
500/. a year would be highly rated to ttle tax as 32W.,
when the income from real iced propertywaa rated a s 500/.
Every professional men, therefore, with 500/. per
annum, feels that in being made to pay the same
amount es the prom ietor receiving the same nominal
income, he is surcharged to the extent of at least 1401.
He therefore makes no scruple of understating his in-
come. Grave lamentations are made over the want
of kigh-spirited integrity evinced by such aulael tuees ;
but the fault is in the law, which tempts and drives
men to them in self-defence. As sure as excessive
duties of customs or excise create smuggling or illicit
distillation, so sure will an unjustly assessed income
tax continue to produce evasion. And the evasion
will increase in ext. nt with every year that the ine-
quality is allowed to continue. If parliament in-
tend to renew the property and income tax, now that
Lord JOHN has ate-tudoucd his proposal to raise the
per centage, for other three years, a distinctie n ought
to be made between professional iueomas and iecomes
from prop, rty, as well with a view to the yielding of
the tax, as to the morality of the commurity.
We believe that a mere equitable rating of farmers
and profeemional incomes would, at a loiter per cent-
age on the latter, yields' greater annual return. But
should parliament lack faith to make the ex-
periment there is a tax which lies jhst at their
hand that will far more than make np for
any possible falling off in the revenue. They can I
subject teal piolarty to a tax corresponding to
that now levied wider the name of legacy duties, or
dudes no probates and letters of administration on all
ether kinds of propertv. The average annnal return
erom legacy tiattes arei datite eu probates and admi-
nistratious is about 2.200,0u0/. As far as we can
judge from various sources of inforruatiou, the aggre-
gate of real propeity in this country west be about
equal in value to the aggregate of
inheritances to real pro-
perty would give, one year with another, an addi-
tional revenue of 2,200,0001.
'there can be no more just tax, no tax less felt, than
one upon inheritauces. It is the existence of aa effi-
ciant government that ~iv, s security to inheritance.
The per tentage deducted from an inheritance is no
deduction !rout the doe Tendril of industry, either of
brad or howl. It is in every case a deduction from
what is acquired without labour, and the acquisition
pt which in moat ca-es cold not be counted on with
CPI taioty bef.,re-h.enel. Debi lea, being already paid
by oae class of the community, the exemption of
another is an unjust and invidious distinction.
The only shadow of a plea advanced by the ex-
empted portit a in palliation of their exemption is
the asset tion ti-at there are heavy burdens pressing
„upon them from which other property is exempt. Tne
stamp duty upon Wortgages and transfers of land is
ci'ed as an example of those burdens. The truth
is that this duty does not exceed, one year with ano-
ther, 9d. in every 100/. worth of laud in the king-
dom. The excessive burdens, if they exist at all,
exist in the shape of die cumbrous and cretly furma-
Utica by which land is transferred.; and for the per-

TIIE EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 29 1848.

REVOLUTION IN FRANCE.

Wo yesterday published a portion of the following
intelligence.
The acts of the new government have been very
vigorous.
M. Cloudclaaux, the new Minister of Finance, had
confirmed in their offices all the functi-)melee of that
department.
Property belonging to the crown has been confis-
cited, and not only royalty. but NapelLonistn is abo-
I li,hed, by order of the provisional government. This
last is probably aimed at a party who have been
making demons rations in favour of' Louis Na-
poleon, who, with his secretary, D'Orsi (tot
[ Count Allred D'Orsay, as our Boulog! e corre-
spondent erroneously stated), has, it is sail, arrived
'in the neighbourhood of Paris. Dentonstratiore of
the same kind have been made in favour of the Duke
[of Bourdcaux. Steps have been taken everywhere• to
1 secure the continuation of the republican /o;yinie.
Attention has been ditected to provincial appoint-
menu. Those suspected of monarchical sympathies
are discarded, and men of republican opinions put in
their steed—thus, M. Conic has been appointed
A, turnev-General of the Court of Appeal at Douai;
M. St. Romme at Grenoble.
By a decree, of M. Cremieux, Minister of Justice 1
and member of die provisional government, the fol-
lowing precureure-general at courts of appeal have
been dismissed front their functions : M. 'Mangle, at
the Court of Appeal of Paris ; M. de Peyramont, at I
Augers; M. de Golbery, at Besancon ; M. Pares, at
Colmar; M. Corbin, at Orleans; M. Blanchet, at
Grenoble ; M. Prate, at Douai ;M. Didelot, at Beure,,es i
and M. Lem Ire, at Caen.
Of those likely to get a diplomatic appointment is
the celebrated Abbe Lameunaie, who wiU, it is said,
be sent to Rome. . .

Meanwhile the popular cause is gaining ground in
the precincts, many of them having given in their
adhetion. Amongst these are Dijon and Bordeaux,
where tranquillity prevailed on the 25th, the date of
accounts from both those places. The prefect of the
Lower St Me had announced that the government of
the republic was proclaimed in his dtpartintnt, and
received with the liveliest enthusia,-m. At Tours,
Rouen, and other cities, departmental and district com-
missions It'd been appointed for the e,tablishm.mt of
the republican government. Nowhere had order been
disturbed.

The ambassador of the United States had congratu-
lated the provisional government, as every one ex-
pected he would do. A meeting. of peers had b:it
held, and a resolution to adhere to the ieptbli
adopted. The gauche and centre gauche had met, and
pat.st d a like resolution.
Measures have been adopted for the preservation of
ihe ammunition in the fort at Vincennes; and the de-
tockcd forts round Paris, the surrender of which wehave
announced, were occupied by the rural national guard.
20,000 of the finest young men of Pat-is were en-
rolled on Saturday as national guards mobiles. Re-
giment* of the line were arriving in Paris to replace
those which had been disbmded. . _ .

General Redenu has been aplinted to the com-
mand of the first military divisions, and General
Subervie has been appointed 'Minister of War in his
stead. Geri, ral Durivier has been charged with the
organisation of the moveable national guard, of whom
he is appointed commander-in-eltief.
The provisional government have also decreed that
civil, judicial, and administrative functionaries should
he releast d from their oath. _ . .

Algeria seems to be a source of anxiety to the new
republic, and it is nut likely to be allayed when it in
known that Bun Macs, the celebrated Arab chief, has
escaped.
It appears that orders were sent down by telegraph
to chance the superior (Act r to whom the guard of
Abd-el Kuder had been entrusted. _ . .

The following derision was adopted on Saturday
for abolishing the pain of death for political offences:
The provisional poet rament, convinced that ifTlll,l, ur
of soul is the supreme policy, and that each revolution
effected by the l'•rtnch people owes to the world the con-
secratins of a further philosophic truth—considering tits:.
there is no more sublime principle than the inviolainlity of
human lite—considering that in the memorable dies iu
which we are, the provisional govensmeist has established
with pride, that not a cry of vengeance or of detth escaped
the mouths of the people, declares that the penalty of death
is abolished Ist political maters (en warier/ politicise), and
that it wi4 submit proposition w dila definition and
ratification of the nation .1 assentibly. The provisiortal go-
vernment has so firm a conviction ol the troth, that it i.re
claims, in the name of the Frenc t people, that if the guilty
men who hove just caused the hl ood of France to flow were
in the ban•ls of the peopl it would, their opinion, bt a
more exemplary chastisement to &grade them, than to strike
theta

Louis Philippe's chateau at Ncuilly was burnt
down, but it is stated that the valuable pietur.s,
plate, and valuables it contained, were carefully re-
moved and sent to the public treasury before the
work of conflagration commenced. The wooden
bridge of Asnieres, from which the Rouen and St.
Gertutin and Versailles trains used to pass, was not
only cut hut burned : and the chateau of one of the
Itoihschilds, at Suresnes' on the banks of the Seine,
h •tween Ncnilly and St. Cloud, was destroyed by in-
cendiaries. A volunteer guard of a thousand men
had been posted at the cnateau of St. Cloud, which
was to remain a monument of Louis Philippe's m,-
tiring love of architectural decoration. The bridge
of Bezons, on the Rouen fine, .vas also burned. At
l'ontoise, on the northern line, where we stated
yesterday that the India mail hod been burnt,
a million of francs worth of merchandise wa,.
consumed. There were burned 12 waggons near
St. Denis as svell as the Debarccdere. All this devas-
tatiou was attributed to the passions of the people
who had suffered by the substitution of railway for
other moths of conveyance. A similar motive led
nearly to the destruction of printing presses in Paris,
but the off Aim of writers and workmen combined stop-
pill the menaced ruin. At Lille, the Sith Regiment, '
under the command of General Negricr, was pelted
with stones on leaving by railway for Paris. Negri. r
was one of Bugeaud's tried men. At Amiens there
was also dreadful commotion, as troops were leaving
for I'aris, ail all the troops had declared for the
republic.
We give elsewhere an account of disturbances at
Rouen which had, we find, nothing to do with the re-
publican movements, but were an ebullition of popular
feeling against English workmen. Is will be seen
that the municipality took most energetic steps to
punish the rioters.
The chalking on the walls " Plus de Bourbons !"
has given place to " Plus de Royante !" The Thiqh
21h,narchique (newspaper) has dropped the sec .nd
word of its title. All "royal arms "or other emblems
of royalty, have been taken down or defaced.
On Sunday morning, the provisional government,
at the head of an immense procession, marched to the
Column of July, to have erased the July slate, and
that of February substituted, by way of inaugurating
the conversion of this monument to its new destina-
tion. The weather was very inclement.
Paris was illuminated on Saturday night in finer
st3le than on the two preceding evenings. Venetian
lamps were abundantly u•ed, and so disposed as to
make the tricolor transparent. The Boulevards were
excessively gay. People at all the windows, and
, under the lamps, were devouring the journals.

_.—
ROVEN.—BURNINO OF THE RAILWAY
at,p,,ars krona tie accounts published in the ..11,Aorial
le ROLCiI that the attack on the railway originated more iu
a jealotsy of the English workmen who forntrd it, than in
eny p,litiexlpurpo,n connected with the rev 'lotion. Ir ap-
r.ra that on Thursday evening groups of operatives pat ailed
straclt armed with clubs and, c banners of ttiaol
or red and blue, on which various mutroes were exhibited. A
nnrnher of red, and red and blue, cockades wire
distributed among them, which th•-v wore in their ceps.
They commenced by attacking an kigllah f'ur'ry, but
were diverted 'tom much mischief by the national guard.
The y then spread in various clirections,exhibiting fresh flags,
with the words "Mori aux A nylrzis !" crying out "rice In
Re'nuhrgue f" and singing ilia "Nlarscillaie.." At niue
e'clock in the evening the mob set fore to th rail tr.y
constructed of word, over the Sr ire. Although it poured
with rain a vast crowd assembled on the quays to witness
the conflagration, which, from much of the bridge being
built of deal, occasion :illy bont forth like a vokano. The
fireintn and the national guard were quickly ;h2 spot,
endeavouring to extinguish it. At halt-oast eleven Runner
bridge, that of Grammont, together with a lodge and the
St. Sever atatio', burst forth iu dunes The vs.t warehouse
and engine-houses attached to the station a ire also entered
and damaged by the mob. boon ate, the station in the Rue
Vette was attacked. At intervals the wards "Down with
the English !" were uttered by some of the rioters, and
there was o manifest disposition to destroy ev, ry portion of
the railway works which English workmen bed any hand in
constructing. In the course uf Friday mog—thanks to
the well-directed, steady, and untiring exertions of the
National Guard and of the pompiera—the tire uses extin-
guished. This event hos canard great indignation am:nre
the more respectaMe part of the community. The following
proclamation from the provisional mayor and municipal
council, beside& indicting a wren and just censure on the