The Express.
London, England, 1851-07-04 00:00:00

their design of what was called " getting rid of
him," so soon as his work as a sapper and miner was I
done. In the momentary intoxication of being
called to power in February, they actually forgot the
decencies of discretion ; and even in the dissolution
of that transient dream, the insolence of oligarchy
found vent in the memorable declaration of Lord
STARLET, that except the veteran HERMES, there
was no one of official standing among his party in
the Houseof Commons.
What wonder if, in the bitterness of his spirit,
the one and only man of genius amongst them
silently resolved to show his worthless followers
that the days of his humiliation were numbered,
and that without obedience to his sagacious (though,
it must be owned, somewhat sinuous) course, the
days of their renewed humiliation must begin. On
more than one recent occasion we have had cause
to remark how lifeless and ill-sustained were the
movements of the party. Mr. 1 itsaseit has too
much of the partisan chief about him to sever al-
together from his unmanageable bands. He seldom
quits his post, but he seems to have a method of his
own for infusing reproof into his devotion, and the
tone in which he gives the word to march on some
ill-advised expedition seems to convey the warning
and rebuke—" you will soon sec whither this route
will lead you."
It is allowable to imagine, however, that in the
reflux of his ebbing influence the envied and hated
leader is able to save his madmen occasionally from
supererogatory feats of self-prostration. May it not
have been owing to advantage taken thus of a lucid
interval, that we owe the abandonmen t of all activeop-
position to the Jew Bill on going through committee,
and on the third Wading? On this tender subject, it is
true that he has never been personally allowed to
interfere; and Lord GEORGE HENTISCK was actu-
ally visited with the high displeasure of the intolerant
and insane faction fur his stedfast adherence to
the principle of civil and religious liberty
contained in the measure referred to. But
without individual interposition we can easily see
how a wily politician like the member for Bucking-
hamshire could have compassed so laudable a pur-
e as that of preventing his party playing the
fanatic and fool by needless reiteration of their bad
votes on the Disabilities Removal 11111. There are
always the means to bo found, where the resolute
and ascendant spirit exists, and the materials to be
worked upon arc dulness and disunion. How the
facts may stand we do not affect to know; but if
the no-vote of last night be indeed attributable to
Mr..III,ItAELI, it is only another proof how little
unity of thought or aim there is between his party
and him.

whilst, concurrently, its special and exceptional
legal and legislative restrictions and privileges have
practically the effect of denying to their employers
the pecuniary advantages of the supply being greater
than the demand. Full employment would give the
10300 or 2,000 members of this Union wages of not
bee lien 30s. a week ; but their number being nearly
essitall greater than there is full work for, their
weekly average only 16s. ; and yet it is a fact
wlieh will not bear contradiction that coals can be
got delivered by men not members of it at 6d. a ton,
whilst the Tulin tonal effect of this legalised combi-
bto rake the price of labour beyond that to
Ida& the peepetion of demand and supply would
brim; it; and to that extent a burden is laid on the
pubha
But if colliers can be whipped at lower rates by
men not belonging to this Trades Union, why do
shipmasters employ whippers enrolled in it ? Be-
cause of the restrictions and impediments of the
statute which it is now proposed to re-enact and
extend. The enrolled whippers have a priority of
employment ; it must be ottered to them ; they have
an hour within which to refuse or accept it;
the shipmaster or owner cannot employ his own men
unless they have been fourteen days previously in
his service; and the regular coal-whippers are sup-
plied with superior tackle. The consequence of
which regulations ie that the trade of coal-whipping
is now hedged in and surrounded by so many statu-
table difficulties that practically all competition is
destroyed, and that the Trades Union has been
able to keep up its cost.
And these restrictions and impediments to the
free use of labour in this trade, -Mr. LABOUCLIEHE
purposes to extend. At present the purchaser of
coals on board can employ his own men ; and ,the
practice of doing so is beginning to spring up. This
power the President of the Board of Trade asks par-
liament to deny him. At present shipmasters can hire
their own tackle wherever they can get it cheapest.
This power Mr.l.suucenime's new bill wouldrestriet,
by compelling them to pay for other people's tackle the
price the Coal Whippers' Office demands far its
tackle. At present the operation of the Coal
Whippers Act is limited to between London-bridge
and Gravesend. Mr. LADOCCIILKE seeks to carry it
up us far as Staines. Hitherto the acts have been
temporary only; now it is proposed to make this
extended legislation permanent.
Aud all this is proposed to be done at a time when
the northern coal is iu a state of unexampled depres-
sion; when the best llettou coals will not bring 16s.
a ton ' • when coal freights are disastrously low ; when
the coal owners of Durham, threatened with railway
competition, have been compelled in their own
defence to become importers into the Thames on
their account, and when every one connected with
them, bat these sturdy trades' unionists, are suffering
severely. 'then it is, that the free-trade President
of the Board of Trade steps in with his socialist
measure and threatens to legislate in a way that will
permanently increase the cost of the delivery of
coal, equally injure its producer and its consumer,
and establish a principle unknown to British statutes
before sentiment kicked political economy out of
the great house in Whitehall, whilst the Right
lion. HENRY LAMA:CHUM sat there nodding up-
proval, to the horror and dismay of unhappy Mr.
PORTER.

A connE.4roNnirc. t has directed our attention to a
bill promoted by the Board of Trude, for the regula-
tion of the coal-whippers of the port of London, of,
as he thinks, an extraordinary and objectionable cha-
racter; and in that opinion an examination of the
measure leaves us no alternative but very heartily to

concur.
The hill appears to us one to continue and perpe-
tuate a Trades Union, after the original pretence for
its formation has ceased; when its continuance is
seriously interfering with the freedom of labour,
and keeping up the cost of work, which would
be cheaper done were there no restrictions on the
employment of labour; at a time, too, when tire
maritime coal trade can ill afford to bear any
artificial burthens, and when, to legalise :such a
combination, must give encouragement to the
dangerous theories afloat amongst those who ought PARIS, Tileasuar EVENING.
to kow better. And, thus thinking of the bill, se
On Tuesday evening the President, on retiring
hold it to be one which ought not to receive the le- from the banquet at Poitiers, repaired with a tiu-
gislative sanction. meows party to the Promenade de Blossac, which
It cannot, however, be matter of much surprise
runs round the top of the old walls. Here a display
to those who of late years have closely watched
of fire-works took place. Iu the meantime the ban-
the policy and proceedings of the Beard of Trade to
qnet-hall having been, with that dexterity peculiar
find it promoting a measure of a socialist tendener ;
to Freuch artists in the decorative branch, converted
more, perhaps, front that habit of tentative legis a-
into a ball-reom, the President opened the dancing
lion which distinguishes whig ministers than from
with the wife of the prefect, and presently after re.
subscription to the abstract principles of the great
toed. Yesterday meriting, at half-past eleven, the
industrial heresy of the age. The practice of the
President reviewed the national guard of Poitiers
Board of Trade is, in the preparation of its mea- and the troops in garrison there; immediately after
sures, to cram into them all the crude, undigested,
which he left by the train for Cliatellerault, where a
and meddlesome notions of all who have access to its
b kakiest had been preisired, and where an important
chiefs ; and to trust to the House of Conunons prim-
incident marked his arrival. This little town contains
lag, and carving, and reducing its bills into a shape
a thick industrial population. The national guard at
consistent with the settled policy of the country and
the railway station, immediately on the President's
squaring them down to the admitted rules of arrival, set up one universal shout of "Vine la Re-
p/Mica' economy. publique !" The inhabitants joined in this demon-
Last year Mr. LABOCCTIERE attempted to procure
stration. From the station to the Hotel-de-Ville, the
power fur the Board of Trade to make rules and re-
utunifestations in favour of the republic assumed a
gulations for the conduct and management of our
character of serious hostility against the person of
commercial marine ; and this year (wholly forgetful
the President, whose carriage was besieged by a
of, or perfectly indifferent to his pledge to revise the
furious mob, shouting " A bus Napoleon!" Fortu-
light dues and the other local burthens on shipping)
nattily the Paris police was very numerous and strong,
be is endeavouring to cocker, and foster, and take
and the sergeaturdo-ville, acting at once with energy
care of, and protect a couple of thousand of great
and decision, arrested some of the national guards
hulking, mulivait, powerful, robust fellows, perfect
who uttered the hostile cry. Thus the riot was
giants in their way, as if they were distressed needle-
curbed until the President reached the place ago
women or overworked factory children. tinted for his reception. Meanwhile the rain fell
No doubt Mr. LABOECIIERE only inherits Mr.
btu torrents. At breakfast, in answer to the mayor,
GLADSTON es policy, but without its motive. In 1841,
who deplored the tumult, the President declined the
when Mr. GLADSTONE first interfered with the Lon-
flattering terms in which that functionary attributed
don coalu 'tippers, they were in the hands of th •
to him all the good done in the last three years,
Wapping publicans and sinners, who made drunken-
and gave all the credit to the whole party of
mess the condition of providing them with work. So,
order. This admission was loudly cheered. It was
by his act, Mr. GLaDsroxe put them for five years
after the mayor, in a speech somewhat highly
under the tutelage of a board, gave all who acceded
spiced with personal compliments, had proposed the
to its regulations a priority of employment, provided
health of Louis Napoleon, that the latter returued
them with tackle, and plump heavy restrictions on
thanks in the following words
shipmasters employing whomsoever they pleased.
But this was a temporary act ; it expired in 1846,
which
thanking the mayor for the kind words
which he has just addressed to me, I cannot attribute to
and was then renewed fur other five years only. myself alone the happy results which he has pointed out
In those ten years, however, a very great change My conduct during the
lag
three
years may
be
summed
lutilisluopf
has been wrought in the habits and conduct of the in a fewen woanlisr„ zr
olfplatied myself resolutely
received f
coal-whippers ; partly by their emancipation from trom
he men of
progr,,S,
.h an efficacious and it'llisinterested co-operation. If there
the Wapping gin Weirs, partly by that
have been some defections, I am ignorant of them, for I go
which in the same period, owing to general causes, forward without castiug a look behind. There must be an
but chiefly. to cheap food, has been common to all impube and on aim. My impulse is the love of my men-
the operative classes. The coal-whippers are now a try ; !ay eau is to. make religion and reason prevail over
sober, domestic, and improving class ; not quite, Utopias, and to give heart to the good cause, that it tremble
no ein the face of error. This result will be obtained
however, the black angels Mr. GREEN £who thinks
if we follow throughout France the esample of Chatel-
,
they " immortalised themselves for ever on the 10th lerault, and if we forge arms, not for insurrection and for
of April, 1848) pictures them; for knowing their civil war, but to increase the strength, the greatneu, and
power, under the statutes referred to, over colliers the independence of the nation.
and their skiptiers, they very frequently abuse it. The President then spent two hours in visiting the
They have, it is certain, been rescued from drunk- fine manufitetory of arms. At three the train started
mane, and degradation. That being the case, it is again and arrived in Paris at half-ast ten last night.
clear the coal-whippers ought no longer to be the 2,l.'de Toequev:lle is expected top read on Monday
Ojeda of exceptional legislation, induced by their next to the committee his report on the revision of
former depravity and vices. Being, as their ad- the constitution, and to present it in the Assembly
mirera say, now superior in feeling and conduct to on the following Wednesday.
their fellows, they are of course in a position to pro- In the sitting of the Avignon Railway committee
tea themselves; to defend their own interests ; and to-day M. Duliture was charged to present to the
to rely on their own unaided exertions. Society Assembly them port, which will contain a summary
ought no longer to be taxed for their improvement. of M. Dufoumel s amendment concerning a mixed
This is the natural and legitinutte conclusion of the system of farming. The report will be ready in
premises laid down by Messrs. GREEN and Gsstmosi, tea days.
their leading patrons, assented to by Messrs. Notwithstanding the official documents issued by
GLADSTONE and LABOUCUERE, and not denied I the legation of Montevideo at Paris, the committee
the shipmasters, coalowners, or coal factors. Such on the La Plata has persisted in its first resolution
is not, however, the logic which their friends to recommend to the Assembly the ratification of the
in and out of parliament would give effect to. On treaty. This conclusion is motived, in the report
the contrary, it is proposed that their improvement. presented today by Nl.Larmbare, on the solid reasons
having been concurrent with this temporary Trades of advantage and propriety set forth by the Minister
Union, a permanent Trades' Union be legalised, with of Foreign Affairs.
still greater powers over the employers of labour An ameudment to the budget of 18.52 has been
than those which, it is contended, have worked such presented by M. Versighy, proposing to subject to
wonders; and such is the object of the bill now un- the tax upon property in mortmain, established by
dergoing consideration by a select committee of the the law of February, 1849, all railway and canal
House of Commons. companies, by reason of the soil occupied by such
Though in the hands of Mr. LABOUCIIERE, and railways.
one involving public policy, the bill is really a pri- Alarming reports have prevailed latterly with re-
vete measure. The expense of passing it has to be
sgri.
ctioout isle
gotocc. cholera;
urred
paid fur out of the funds of the Coal-whipping Office, arlmtehecarospoitalf a
the cost of which is, of course, ultimately a tax on the chre-araapctPrnhavcein
of ricetre. A Dr. Emery has, however, just pub-
public as the consumers of coal ; and in order to lished a report dissipating these fears.
make a case out for it, petitions have been got up in
The Assembly, in its sitting of to-day, discussed
its favour. On inquiry, however, it turns out that the bill relative to the farming out to a company of
the office in question has paid for the trouble and
the post service. UrgeneLmnis opposed by MM.
labour of collecting signatures to these documents,
Combarel do Levval and aule, defended by
just as if they were promoting a railway bill; and it MM. Berryer aria Fould, and finally adopted by 375
further appears that Mr. atiistox, one of the print- votes against 268.
pal commissioners, though earnest and active in its . The house then entered upon the general debate
promotion, is himself, as a private coal-rarer-
; on the bill on the Mediterranean packet-service. M.
chant, in the habit of substantially evading Banta yra opposed the bill, and complained that the
the employment of his Modelle in the die- communication of the contract had been refused to a
charge of Ins own coals and of paying his own competing company. M. Fould protested against
men at those public houses near his wharves this statement.
which at Wapping he has so lively a horror of. 8o The Cbmaitulionnel, alluding to the conversation
that, to say the least of it, the measure is not very in the House of Lords about Abd-el-Kader, says :
cleanly promoted; and Mr. LABOECUERE'S advisers
We honour the sentiment which inspired Lord Londone
are not quite the sort of persons who MU t° have deny on this delicate subject. But the English know well'
much authority with a grant minister of state. the sacrifices which policy may impose on the clemency of a
But apart from such minor, though very chime- aeon. The lot of the illustrious warrior of Africa touches
teristic, objections, it is really intolerable to see them ; they comment on his severe and long captivity. But
statesmen gravely promoting • a Trades' union Bi 1. had they nut in their hands a captive mach more illustrious ? '
For this Trades Union of coal-whippers has all the The chateau of Amboise is a less severe prison than the
island of St. Helena. And the captivity of Abd-el-Kader
vi of other similar combinations. It loos_. is far from equal in duration to that which the prisoner of
attracted into that trade a larger of I England underwent. The English government thought
workmen than there is a d for ; proper to silence its humanity in presence of what appeared

FRANCE.