The Express.
London, England, 1853-03-31 00:00:00

LONDON. THURSDAY. MARCH 31.

move for Cr .missions to inquire further into corrupt
practices in these boroughs respectively, and thin
the writs be in each case suspended until a given
di • • ue may be afforded for the completion of
sue.. ioquisitions. Supposing the House of Com-
mons to agree to such motions, and the House of
Lords to interpose no veto, a certain amount of useful
exposure will be doubtless obtained, and possibly a 1
considerable number of delinquents may be struck
off the reter of voters. In times of general impu-
nity for politicalg crimes, like those we have the for-1
tune to live in, the smallest contribution to justice
may be thankfully received ; but that such a contri- 1
button as that we hare alluded to is of the smallest
and most insignificant sort, compared with the mag-
nitude of the evil requiring to be dealt with, few will
venture to deny.
Petitions &fleeting the title of more than a fourth
of the whole House of Commons were presented
last November. Of these not a few were cushioned
in limine by the capricious and illegal decisions of the
examiner of recognisances. Into any of the facts set
forth in these, therefore, no inquiry whatever has
been made. The bribed remain unexposed,
the bribers sit and vote unpunished, and the House
of Commons care for none of these things. Next
come whole batches of cases that have been compro-
mised. There is as little mistake about these as
about the former. With equal disregard to right or
justice, the latter have been struck out of the list by
agreement between the two subterranean Com-
mittees, presided over by BROWN, COPPOCK, and Co.
Nothing more is heard of them. Honest electors
overborne by the corrupt—rightful claimants of seats
refused a hearing: such is the luck of the lottery held
in Pall-mall, and if anybody expostulates, or seeks a
reason, he is asked with a sneer, "Why did .you
play, if you care so much to lose ?" As for the
public interests involved in the matter, they ere not
so much as thought of; or if alluded to by
some one as yet uninitiated in the plundering
arts of the Whig and Tory hazard table, the
- :attention oily provokes a stare rand a laugh. The
crimps for this game, which the oligarchs play for
their own amusement and benefit, know well that all
threats of denunciation like those of Mr. DeNeosene,
or of exposure like those of Mr. LOCKE KING, arc
practically vain. The privileged gamblers are the
privileged judges in all cases involving the guilt of
gambling. The esprit de corps is strong amongst
them, and if there is one point on which they are
uniformly unanimous, it is the expediency of getting
rid of every case that is possible without the We-
agreinens of a public investigation. Hence the futi-
lity of the recent inquiry into the first batch of com-
promises before the 'Norwich Committee, and hence
the effrontery with which a second batch has sqbse-
quently been announced. Twenty seats impugned
in last November for having been obtained by corrupt
practices, have thus with barefaced impudence been
already bartered away, and how many more will be
so before Whitsuntide Messrs. COPPOCK and Belows
only know. Verily the constituency must be fit only
for disfranchisement which will hereafter, put itself
in the hands of such worthies.

IT is averred in certain quarters that the Kaffir
war is at an end. Some more cautious persons say,
more guardedly, " virtual'y at an end." It may be
that SANDIII.I. and Niscomo, and Mosnr..su may de-
Mat from lighting fur soinc time to come; but what
is there in the strte of atfairs represented in the
moist recent arrivals from the Car to prove that
South Africa is, or is on the eve of, being permanently
pacified and tranquillised ? What is. there to prove
that the gas eminent of our dependencies there will in
future be less a source of embarrassment and expense
to the mother country than in time past?
The intimation made by the Kaffir chiefs who have
been actually engaged in hostilities against us is
noire enum4h. SANDILLI and Co. send word to
Governor CATHCART that they are dead beat—that
they are tired of fighting, and that they have crossed
the Kei—the preliminary condition upon which
alone he would consent to treat with them. That
their atnraunition is exhausted, that their tribes long
for repose, is highly prehable. The chiefs therefore
wish fur peace at this moment on any terms. But
they wish for peace merely to recruit their finances
and restore the courage of their followers. What
guarantee have we in such dispositions that the
periodical "Kaffir war" will not revisit the cutesy
after the customary lapse of five or six years, as it
has done ever since the first settlement of .Übany ?
With the actually belligerent chiefs there has as
yet been no arrangement : only an offer on their part
to treat. With KitEthr " the eluivocal," on the other
hand—the Lord LOVAT of Kaffirland a solemn
treaty hal been concluded. We do not recollect at
present how many treaties have been concluded with
this chief and his predecessors, and violated, or said
to have bee n violated, by them. What reason is ,1
there to believe that the present will be more
permanently and effectually binding for the pre-
servation of peace and order than all that have,
gone before it? The first article of the
treaty is as mouthing a piece of inanity as can well
be conceived. It is stipulated, " that the said chief
KREILI shall remain in all things true and faithful
to his engagements." This vague abstraction means
nothing, and can bind to nothing. The other articles
are simply the same as those which have again and
again been solemnly ratified in former treaties, and
found unavailing to preserve peace between the
Kaffir and the white man for longer average intervals
than five or six years.
It is not upon the present disposition of the belli-
gerent chiefs to desist from fighting ; it is not upon
treaties and stipulCions with them, or the more in-
sidious and dangerous neutrals, that we can reason-
ably rely for the maintenance of tranquillity in
South Africa. It is to the adoption of a sagacious
policy by Government, and to tho selection of
public servants capable of understanding and car-
rying into effect such a policy, that we can
alone look for so desirable a consummation. A ells-
pusionate review of the measures which Governor
CATHCART proposes to adopt for the maintenance
of future tranquillity on the Kaffir frontier
does not certainly produce an impression favour-
able to their adequacy. Forts are to be established
along the frontier, each surrounded by settlements
of colonists able and willing to use arms for
repeliing aggression, and supported by strong bodies
of regular troops in the background. The terms
offered to the expected settlers of these military fron-
tier colonies are not likely to prove attractive. They
are promised ground for a house and garden each at
a moderate
.quit rent. The ground is not to ex-
ceed the sue of a garden, and is to be held
during " good behaviour." Leases of moderate
allowances of pasture ground are promised, but the
terms not precisely announced. And these churlish
and petty offers are made subject to a condition
that the Imperial Government may upset the whole
arrangement upon compensating the settlers. No
man above beggary or able to work for the
average wages in the colony will accept of such an
offer. By making it Governor CATHCART only shows
his groan ignorance of the principles of colonisation
in general and of the condition and temper of
the South African colonists in particular. The
feudal frontier militia he dreams of creating will
never exist. His forts and regular soldiers can be
all he will have to rely upon, and he admits that
they.—even if assisted and eked out by the militia of
his dreams,—will cost enough to keep our frontier
expenditure in peace nearly on a level with what it
has been during the war. While such visionary
schemes are gravely propounded in Govern-
ment proclamations, and ',chile men capable
of entertaining them hold the reins of government,
the prospects of peace and order being permanently
established on the eastern frontier of the Cape Colony
are extremely faint; the prospects of cackling from
a local expenditure in peace as great as in war still
more indistinct.

Lastly we come to the cases where it is proposed
that Commissions should be issued. They are in
number exactly five, and this is the net result,—the
total gleaning of the wide field of iniquity which
has lain for so many weeks before the public eye.
The House of Lords are to be asked permission
in five cases to have a little more inquiry
made upon the spot. They may refuse or
they may not. It signifies little. In Canterbury
and Cambridge, where the corruption, it is said, was
confined to some two or three hundred: persons, the
inquiries may be completed within a reasonable time,
the rotten branches cut off, and the honest electors
be permitted again to decide upon who shall represent
them, but in cases like Maldon and Clitheroe, the pro-
posed Commissions are no better than a burlesque
upon justice. Every one knows that neither the one
nor the other has any pretension to the peculiar
right of sending members to Parliament. Had Minis-
ters redeemed their hustings pledge by bringing in a
further Reform Bill this session, small and corrupt
boroughs like Clitheroe and Malden would ere this
have figured in Schedule A,—the only constitutional
list in which they deserve to appear. It is little
better than mockery to hold a solemn debate upon
each, first in the Commons, and then in the Lords,
and then in the Painted Chamber, as to whether the ,
Crown should be requested to authorise a judicial in-
quiry to be holden in the aforesaid places touching
and concerning the number of uncorrupt electors
that still may
.be found therein. Be the finding of
such Commission what it may, the public well know
that neither the one nor the other are entitled to
enjoy. for a single day longer the responsible privi-
lege in question; while great sections of the cities and
numerous untainted towns remain wholly and altoge-
ther nnenfranchised. There remains the case of Hull,

in which a Commission may do some good,
and in which, therefore, we hope it may be
issued. But, if it be true, as there is reason to sup-
pose, that little short of one thousand electors were
there tampered with, either in the form of treating
or bribery, we should like to knew how it is pos-
sible to conceive any system much more unsatisfac-
tory than one whose only result will be to reduce the
constituency of a great commercial entreptit at one
stroke some twenty or five-and-twenty per cent.
Barely, if so great a proportion of the constituency of
Hull deserve disfranchisement, at least an equal
number of pure and upright voters ought simulta-
neously to be added to the body. Mere amputation
will not do. The electoral numbers are already
in most instances too small, and the selfish interests
of our Parliamentary oligarchy too obviously lie in
their diminution and contraction to render it safe or
decent for them to pursue the work of excision, un-
accompanied by that of more than corresponding
addition. We would not retain upon the register •
single individual convicted of having been bribed,
but we must contend for it, that the duty of prose-
cuting, convicting, and punishing such an individual
does not properly or fitly belong to the Lejsislature.
Bribery is either an offence against the public or it is
nothing. If it be, why not deal with it as all other
offences are dealt with, by the public tribunals of the
land? Why not confer jurisdiction in this, as in scores
of less harmful ours, upon the subordinate tribunals
—as we have often urged there should be, and as we
perceive Mr. Pamir intends to suggest, by renewing
• Bill for the purpose which was rejected list session ?
Let the County Courts be enabled to try actions for
penalties for bribery to the extent of the pecuniary
jurisdiction, that is to say, to the amount of fifty
pounds for each offence—such penalty not to go to
the informer, but opening the way for honest politi-
cians to do, without discredit or imputation, the work
of cleansing& constituency from its impure voters. Or, if
the concession of this power to such tribunals be ob-
jected to, why not pass a short act constituting the
gift or the receipt of a bribe a common misdemeanor,
and rendering it punishable u such? To set the
ATTORNEY-GENERAL to prosecute in cases of the kind
is not merely absurd—it is abortive. The object
ought to be to stigmatise and degrade, not to dignify
such offences.

But suppose the present Kaffir war--since these
border forays of rival cattle stealers are to be called
wars—at an end ; are we therefore nearer the pacifica-
tion of South Africa, and establishment of order there ?
Can the troubles with Mosur-sit and other chiefs
is the Orange River Sovereignty be regarded
se finally terminated? What is to be done
in the matter of the insurgent Hottentots? How
are the *Amids to be pacified for the tante-
being process to which they are still subjected, of
having a " constitution" held up before their eyes
which still slips through their fingers when they
attempt to clutch it ? What will be the effect upon
men thus kept in a state of permanent excitement
and irritation in sight of the concession of inde-
pendence to the emigrant Boers
The truth is that the whole society of South
Africa, from the most western point of the Cape
Colony to the most eastern of Natal, and from
the most southern point of the African con-
tinent to the most northerly station of missionaries
or emigrant Boers, is replete with germs of tria-
ble. and dissensions, which the heated atmosphere
engendered by mother-country mismanagement, sti-
mulates to a precocious and gigantic development.
The Kaffir war, as it is called, is but an insignificant
drop in this black and seething ocean. The reckless
and unchecked intrigues of local officials defraud the
colonists of their constitutional rights, obstruct
the legitimate working of Governments, and engender
and diffuse disaffection to the mother-country.
The concession of independence to the emi-
rant Boers was palpably made under the
influence of panic. The claim of sovereignty
ought never to have been expressly made or ex-
pressly relinquished. The Boers were de facto inde-
pendent as soon as they crossed our frontier ; but as
settlement extended their stations would have been
surrounded by those of the colonists, and had the
colony been well governed, the Boers would gradu-
ally have re-entered the society from which they
broke loom. A braggadocio asserticn of a right of
sovereignty over them, which could not be enforced
at a time when the British authorities thought them-
selves strong, followed by the surrender of the
claim in a moment of panic, has spread through
the whole of South Africa a persuasion of the weak-
ness of the British Government as against its inha-
bitants that may encourage the colonists to assert for
themselves the independence conceded to the emi-
grant Boers. Lastly, the Hottentot insurrection is
the commencement of a war of races, for the renewal
and perpetuation of which ample materials will long
exist throughout the whole of that wide region of
South Africa within which European settlement has
already struck root. They who imagine they see in
the present state of affairs on the eastern frontier of
the Cape Colony a termination of the embarrassing
and costly South African question are of the short-
sighted race who "cry peace, peace, when there is no
peace."

A N 1.1111,1 of notices of =oleo, regarding elee-
tions, a! taut on the becks of tl.e 116 usu nl Common...,
for di3-..ursi,m after the holidays. 1 he
the various Committees, who the melabers for
Canterbury, Clitheroc, M by don, Cambridge, and Hull,
have already been unser.cd, have undettaktn to

LARG e ROBBERY.—A robbery which shows how far
is age from always bringing discretion was effected on Mon-
day last in the City. A Mr. Gale, of Somers-town, for-
merly captain of a merchant ship, and now a shipowner,
was in the City about the middle of the day, with 2161. in
his possession, principally in Bank of England notes,
which he had just received. He was accosted by a well-
dressed plausible man, who made himself so agreeable that
a visit to a tavern was proposed and accepted. Wine was
called for, and after shipping, emigration, and other sub-
jects had been introduced, another fellow, a confederate
of the first comer, made his appearance, and joined their
company. Captain Gale made known to his companions
that he was possessed of plenty of money, of which no doubt
they were well acquainted before, and the time passed very
agreeably until another of the gang came in, and had re-
course to the well-worn expedient of boasting that he had
lately become possessed of a good deal of money by the
death of a very wealthy relative, to which he added that he
intended to give 1001. to the poor of any parish in England
and would entrust Captain Gale with the distribution of
the charitable gift, if he could produce sufficient money to
convinellbini he was a respectable man. The bait took, and
Captain Gale displayed his cash, upon which one of the
sharpers advised him to be very cautious, and said them
were a gnat many rogues in London, and that it was very
dangerous to display money: a truism of which the Cap-
tain was afterwards fully made sensible. One of the fellows,
under the pretence of wrapping up the money and stowing it
safely away in the Oiptain's pocket, substituted flash notes.
Soon afterwards the foolish man found himself alone, his
agreeable companions haying disappeared one by one. The
police of the II division have been in search of the sharpers,
of whom they have not yet discovered any trace, and there
is no doubt Captain Gale's money is irrecoverably lost.
ELECT:ON FOR VESTRY CLERK, CLERKLNWELL.—
Yesterday this ticction was carried on with great ,picit,
and the following were the numbers at the close of the poll
—Wakeling, 498 ; March, 43.5 ; majority for Wakeling, 63.
The poll will not open to-day, but will be resumed on
Friday and Saturday.

THE EXPRESS, THURSDAY EVENING, MARCH 31, 1853.

FRANCE.

PARIS, WIDNRBDAY EVENING.
A telegraphic despatch from Berlin, dated the 29th
of March, states that forty persona have been ar-
rested, and domiciliary visits made to the houses of
eighty persons suspected of participation in a conspi-
racy. Arms and ammunition were discovered and
secured by the police.
The Emperor of Russia has issued an ukase prohi-
biting Jews from representing Christian houses of
trade. Children of traders of the third chum are also
prohibited from entering schools established for the
children of traders of the first and second classes.
The Emperor yesterday gave an audience at the
Tuileries to a deputation of the English company for
the junction of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The
deputation consisted of the following gentlemen, of
whom the three first have obtained a concession of
the enterprise : Sir C. Fox, Hart., head of the firm
Fox, Henderson, and Co.; Mr. T. Brassey, contractor
for the works; Dr. Cullen, who discovered the
route adopted; Mr. Gisborne, chief engineer of
the company; Mr. Forde, assistant-engineer ;
Mr. Brownell, merchant of Liverpool; Mr. W. Ha-
milton, ex-M.P., and member of the Royal Geogra-
phical Society ; Captain Mackinnon, R.N.; M. de Ri-
vero Charge d'Affaires of l'eru in France; M.Rojas,
Cha;ge d'Affairs of New Grenada in France; Mr. J.
R. Crampton, engineer of the submarine telegraph;
Mr. C. S. Stokes, director of the Western Railway'
in France; Mr. Melville Wilson, merchant of Lon-
don ; and Dr. Black, secretary of the con•pany.—Sir
C. Fox, president of the deputation, adiressed the
Emperor as follows :
Sire,—ln approaching your august throne, my first duty
is to tender to your Imperial Majesty the cordial expression
of the respecttul gratitude of the directors of the Atlantic
and Pacifi.z. Junction Company, for the prompt kindness
with which your Majesty has condescended to grant an
audience to their deputation. The rapid increase of commer-
cial navigation round Cope Horn has now for some years
attracted the practical attention of men of business to that
which bad previously been considered& merely speculative
object of scientific inquiry,-1 mean the stecesefty for a
direct passage for ships between the Atlantic sad Pacific.
Oceans amuse the Isthmus which unites North and South
America. In the year 18.51 my attention was directed by
Dr. Callen, who had himself traversed the Isthmus, to
the route across Darien, between Port Emus and San Mi-
guel, which his experience had led him to consider the best.
On examining the Admiralty charts, which, es your Impe-
rial Majesty is well aware, are very detailed and accurate,
I was able to ascertain that the line proposed to me was the
only one which could enjoy the advantage of a sufficient
natural harbour at each end—that the length of the passage
would not exceed 60 kilometres, and that the only questieu
to be decided was whether the engineering difficulties of
the ground were such as to prevent, within the limits of a
reasonable expenditure the construction a &chancel of suffi-
cient width and depth to satisfy the requirements of all cations.
In conjunction, therefore, with Mr. Brassey and several
friends I commissioned Mr. Gisborne and Mr. Fade, civil
engineers, to examine the Isthmus, and I have had the
satisfaction to ascertain from their report that it is perfectly
possible to cut a channel, 160 feet wide and i 0 feet deep,
without locks, between the two harbours which I have
mentioned, at an expense by no means out of proportion to
tho object to be attained and to the revenue which may rea-
sonably be expected. We have accordingly formed a com-
pany to earry out this object. At the outset of our investi-
gations, and an soon as we had obtained the necessary
concession from the local authority of New Granada, we
deemed it right, as a matter of courtesy, to offer to
the I.lnited States a share in the undertaking. We
have throughout received the cordial approlation of her
Britannic Majesty's government. Our next sfep is, with
the full consent of that government, to solicit the patronage
and support of your Imperial Majesty. France, as one of
the great maritime powers has an evident Interest in this
groat question of a junction between the two Oceans.
France, who owes so much to your Imperial Maje-ty will,
we believe, be grateful to you, Sire, for granting your Im-
perial countenance and support to our undertaking. And
in the name of this deputation and of the company whom
we have the honour to represent, I venture to hope for this
support with perfect confidence, because we know that your
Imperial Majesty, not only as the chief of tl.is great nation,
but also by your personal knowledge of the subject, is pre
eminently qualified to appreciate the object which we have
in view, and the means which we have adopted.
The Emperor replied in English as follows:
Gentlemen—l received with the liveliest interest the in-
telligence of the formation of a great company for the
junction of the two oceans. I have no doubt that you
will succeed in an undertaking which must render so im-
portant a service to the commerce of the whole world,
since such eminent men are placed at the head of your com-
pany. I have long appreciated all the advantages of a
junction between the two seas ; and, when I was in England
I endeavoured to draw the attention of scientific men to
this subject. You may, therefore, rest assured, gentlemen,
that you will meet with all the support from me, which such
noble efforts deserve.

The company's reports, plans, and maps, were then
laid before the Emperor, VLho examined them with
particular attention. Sir Charles Fox presented the
member, of the deputation, and his Majesty addressed
to each of them the most gracious expressions. When
the deputation withdrew, the Emperor said :
I am happy to have seen your honourable deputation the
very day after having received the one which, on the part
of the merchants of Loudon, expressed to mo the most
friendly sentiments in favour of peace—sentimonts with
which my own feelings have always beon in complete
accord.

The letters brought from Constantinople by the
Egyptus are not expected to be delivered till late
this evening. The assertion made yesterday that
she has brought no news appear, to be founded only
noon this, that no intelligence of any importance
biaring upon the Turkish question is known to have
been received either by the French government or
the Ottoman embassy.
Ooe of the rumours from the east that have been
circulated to-day, in the absence of any positive news,
is that Persia has broken off diplomatic intercourse
with England, and implored the protection of
Russia.

Closing prices at the Bourse.—For cash :
Three per Cents, 79f. 23c.; Four-and-a-Half per
Cents., 103 t For the account: Three per Cents.,
79f. 30c.• Four-and-a-Half per Cents., 103 f. 10c.
Bank Stock, 2,335.

Latest qUtitions received to-day by telegraph—
' Frankfort : Loan, Austrian Five per Cents, 97 ;
Ditto Four-and-a-Half per Cents, 77/; Ditto Three
per Cents, 521; Bank, 1,544 ; Spanish Three per Cents,
431; Belgian Bank Four-and-a-Half per Cents, 991.
lifienna : New Loan, 941; Loan 1851, 107 ; Lom-
bardo-Venetian, 1001 ; Bank, 1,420. Amsterdam :
Illipanish Three per Cont. Int., 43 15-16 ; Amos
nat, 5 15-16. Berlin: Loan, Five per Cent,
1011; Oblig. Three-and-u Half per Cents, 92/ ;
Bank, 1081; Russian Four-and-a-Half per Cents,
twit.
PARIS, TUESDAY ETZNING.
The government journals continue to glory in the
'face of the budget being presented with a surplits,
the credit of which wonderful achievement they
justly attribute to a strong effort of the Emperor's
will. It will, however, be impossible, until and unless
the Corps Legialatif shall seriously and publicly dis-
ease the composition of the budget, to know how far
it ean be relied upon u a fair index of the financial
situation. A schoolboy, when he wants a fine day
a holiday, often screws up the barometer to " set
fair," but the weather unfortunately remains unaf-
fected by the operation. The Siecle ventures upon
the following mild criticism of the P.rposf des
notsla :
We have already gives proofs that we are not pessimists;
we patriotically rejoice at the undoubted improvements
which have taken place of late years, and we hope that they
will continue. But when we see a budget presented to us
in equilibria we wish to see figure as a surplus a reasonable
amount to meet probable eventualities, and the financial
accidents which may escape the prevision of the most expe-
rienced men. We thought, in oar simplicity, that the
Council of State, not confining itself to present results so
mathematical—we did not say so rigorously mathematical—
would have made known to the country the examinations it
had entered into in order to arrive at a better and more
equitable division of the taxes in order to reduce the charges
which particularly weigh on the poorer classes. Imam& of
a work which, if it had not immediately realised the hopes of
political economists, would at least have indicated for the fu-
ture a better state of things for the taxpayers; instead of those
reports in which the greatest questions of the progress of
civilisation were presented, frequently with extraordinary
talent by the political men of the parliamentary regime, the
dispose ilea motifs of the Council of State is a kind of debtor
and creditor account which may be summed up as follows :
—The variable receipts of 18.52-53 amounted to 821,288,000 f.
To this sum may be added for 1854, without fear of mis-
take, 15 millions for the proportional increase of the indi-
rect taxes. This makes 836,286,0001., which, with the other
receipts, forms a credit of 1,520,639,5721. The expenses are
calculated at 1,519,250,9421. Surplus of receipts, 1,388,630 f.
Now, let than who entertained any fears as to our financial
situation tranquillise themselves; the budget is Ss
In order to be completely just towards the exposé des motifs,
we must mention a diminution of receipts of from 80,000 f.
to 100,0001.0 n the patentee of manufacturers working at their
own houses. The Council of State has devoted a third part
of its document to the justification of this alleviation
granted to a very interesting class of workmen. We think
that it might have been less reirrved on the different
savings, which it announces in a too general manner, atil,
which we should have been Savoy •o have seen pointed or„.
we, however, airolau I a mensere o Lich appears to us per-
fectly cquitabk, since it waists small manufacturers and
workmen vrbo work together as companions. Wo do not
well understand how a reduction of 50,000 men in the
effectivq strength of the army ocly products a laving of 22