The Express.
London, England, 1858-05-05 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MAY 6.

MR. VERNON SMITH is of opinion that what has
occurred in the Committee of the whole House proves
the inconvenience of proceeding by Resolution in

framing a new Home Government for India. It is
very natural that Mr. VERNON Slim should think
so. Had there been but one grand field day on the
second reading of Lord PALMERSTON'S Bill, and then
a series of desultory struggles on the wording of the
different clauses, the measure might have been forced
through the House of Commons with little difficulty
or delay. Its weak and mischievous points might
have been kept in obscurity. No opportunities
would have been given of exposing the dangerous
conaequenoes of adopting it both with regard to India
and England. It is, no doubt, very inconvenient
for Mr. Sums and his late. colleagues that
the general principles of Indian Government should
be discussed as a preliminary to the introduction of
a Bill. Such a mode of proceeding is not likely to
result in the implicit adoption of their Bill. A
better chance is afforded of obtaining a Bill which
may neither derange the balance of the English con-
stitution, nor hand over the natives of India, bound
hand and foot, to the tender mercies of a despotic
Minister. Mr. VERNON Smrrn's inoonvemence may
be the country's pin.
The advantage of proceeding in this all-important
matter by way of Resolution in Committee is, that
not a step can be taken in the discussion without the
attention of the Legislature being drawn to conse-
quences of the attempt to remodel our form
of Indian Government which might otherwise have
escaped notice. Take as an example of what we
mean, the consideration submitted by Mr. GLAD-
STONE apropos of the discussion whether the Home
Government of India should be administered by a
Secretary of State or by a Minister in Council.
" The hon. Member for Northampton," said Mr.
GLADSTONE, " objected to the Minister for India
" being a Secretary of State ; and he (Mr. GLAD-
" STONE) agreed with him, for the office of Secretary
" of State was one which ought not to be lightly
" dealt with, and you ought to retain the dividing
" lines which distinguished the position of these
" ancient officers of the Crown. He did not
" know that we had done wisely when we
" made the Secretary for War a great
" spending officer. It was intended that the
" Treasury should have a control over the
" officers of State who had the spending of
" money ; and it might make a very material dif-
" ference if you had to deal with a Secretary at War
" instead of an officer with the rank of Secretary of
" War." We are not prepared to acquiesce in Mr,
GLADSTONE'S doctrine that the Treasury ought to
have the control of all the other departments of the
State. It appears to us that the Treasury has of
late arrogated more authority in this respect than is
altogether consistent with the due balance of power
in the Administration. To us it appears that the
controlling authority ought to be vested in a Mi-
nister who is free from departmental trammels. Bet
of the fact announced by Mr. GLADSTONE there
can be no doubt. The creation of a new
Secretary of State will of necessity disturb the
existing balance of power in our Cabinet arrange-
ments. The working of our whole system of Impe-
rial administration will be both directly and indi-
rectly affected by the change. The patching of this
new cloth of an Indian Secretary on the old cloth of
our English Cabinet can scarcely fail to lead to an
unseemly rent in the time-honoured garment. It
is impossible to revolutionise the Home Government
for India without giving a sympathetic shake to the
Imperial Government. This is a consideration
which bad not presented itself to the minds of
our Representatives in the House of Commons
when they rashly and inconsiderately pledged
themselves to fabricate a new Home Govern-
ment for India during the present session, and
it ought to induce them to pause in their headlong
Career.

Another important consideration was placed in a
clear light in the course of the diactuision which led
to Mr.Vitimon SMITH'S plaintive remonstrance, and
Mr. GLADSTONE'S pregnant suggestion. Mr. Roe-
BUM administered a shock to the drowsy HMSO by
one of his most startling paradoxes. " The real " Go-
vernment of England,"exclaimed the Honourable and
Learned Member for Sheffield, "is in this House."
No one can appreciate more highly the important
functions of the House of Commons than we do,
but we must demur to the assertion that the House
is the Government of England. It is merely a
branch of the Legislature; it is neither the Judicial
nor the Executive Department of the State. It is
from its very constitution utterly incapable of
efficiently discharging Executive or Judicial
functions. It is too numerous for an Executive
body. It is, and it ought to be, composed of members
who represent the feelings and opinions of every
grade and section of society ; many of whom are
admirably qualified for the office of Representatives
by the very qualities which render them incompe-
tent for the discharge of Executive functions. If the
House of Commons takes upon it to act as the Exe-
cutive—as the Government of England—it will be
guilty of a gross usurpation, of a usurpation pref.
nant with the most ruinous results. But how doss
Mr. ROEBUCK propose that his new-fangled Govern
meat of England shall act with regard to India
It ought, according to him, to nominate an Indian
Minister; to abstain from all inquiry, from all inter-
faience, until that Minister has acted; and then to
punish him if he has done wrong. No precautions
are to be taken to ensure the right action of this
Minister; no constitutional forms of procedure are
to be traced out for him; no advisers with sub-
ordinate or co-ordinate authority Sr. to be amooiatod

with him ; he is to be despotic until he may have
done all the mischief that unbridled passion or un-
measured ignorance may prompt—and then he can
only be punished. What consolation or redress can
the punishment of an erring individual afford for (it
may be) a people ruined and a realm undone?
Besides, are we certain that an English House of
Commons would visit with any real penalty the most
flagrant misgovernment of India ? The Indian Minis-
ter would be only one of a Ministry. His col-
leagues would make common cause with him. Any
condemnation of him would be declared to be a vote
of censure on the whole Administration. And the

majority of the House would shrink from thus
weakening a Ministry of whose general policy it
approved for such a trifle u the ruin of Hindostan.
Mr. ROEBUCK'S supreme House of Commons and
single Indian Minister mean neither more nor less
than irresponsible and unmitigated despotism for
India. We cordially thank him for thus obtruding
on the ►ight of day the single, unhampered Minister
for India in his true lineaments. The Minister for
India with only a nominal Council—as recom-
mended by Lords ELLENBOZOUGB, PALMERSTON.
and lons Russeu,—woold be the male as

the Minister without any Council recommended by
Mr. ROZBUCE, with this sole difference, that their
nominal Council would serve as a screen behind
which the Minister could half hide himself. The
harsh lineaments of despotism would be veiled, and
its perpetuation facilitated. Let the Committee
bear this in mind, when Mr. EDWARD ELLICE'S
proposal to substitute a President in Council for a
Secretary of State is submitted to them. If they
will incontinently revolutionise the Government of
India, let them at least subject their Indian Minister
to the necessity of working in conformity with
some constitutional forms, through the agency
of some constitutional coadjutors. Is it pos-
sible that any one man can despatch all
the business which will devolve upon a Mi-
nister for India ? Our already existing Secre-
taries of State, Chancellor of the Exchequer,
Lords of the Admiralty, &c., have quite as
much business as they can well get through. But
the Minister for India, unless he is aided by a co-
ordinate Council, must, for the immense Empire
of India, be all these functionaries in one.

CPRON OUR OWN 0011INIFOND1NT.)
PARIS, TUNISDLY EYNNINO.
M. Jacques Valserres, a great French authority
upon all matters ovine, bovine, and porcine, emu.
plains in the Presse of the dearness of meat in
Pads, notwithstanding, or rather because of, the
abolition of the butchers' monopoly. A considera-
ble fall in cattle has, it appears, occurred in all the
markets of France, and yet •the butchers in Paris
raise their prices. The conclusion drawn from this
phenomenon by the economical writer of the Presss
is that the liberty of the butchers' trade requires to
be "regulated." He asserts that the consumer, un-
protected by a tax, is utterly helpless against the
exigencies of the butcher. In a former article, to
which he now refers, he reasons in this way :—The
price of merchandise is regulated by the demand;
the opening of the trade will augment the number
of butchers in Paris, ergo, there will be a greater
demand for butchers' meat, and consequently the
price must be dearer to the consumer. Further
this gentleman, whose name is known in every
agricultural district in France u the principal
metropolitan writer on rural affairs, says that when
you augment the number of butchers they must
necessarily cheat their customers to a greater extent
than was done under the reyitne of monopoly, be-
cause the aggregate profit. of fraud have to be
divided among a greater number of families, who
most, above all things, provide for their own neces-
sities. This reasoning reminds me of a famous
bull, to the effect that the immutable laws of na-
ture prevail all over the world except in Ireland.
So we are now tempted to say that the laws of
political economy rule everywhere except in France.
It does not occur to M. Valserres, who must have a
much greater knowledge of his countrymen than
I can pretend to have, that if cattle is cheap
in the provinces, and if the existing butchers
in Paris sell meat at a price far exceeding a
reasonable profit, immense fortunes are to
be made by butchers, not now hampered by
'restrictive laws, who will court custom by selling
cheaper. He represents the consumer as being
relegated to a state of hopeless ignorance, forced to
buy an inferior part of the beast for the best, and
having no means whatever of knowing what would
be a fair price for his joint. He reiterates the old
argument which so long propped up the obligatory
markets of Sceaux and Poissy, and the butchers'
bank at the latter place—viz., that unless graziers
were assured of a market of state regulations they
would never run the risk of bringing their beasts to
Paris. The remedies which he suggests are, Ist,
the establishment of government butchers' shops,
which should sell at (what he calls) " the real
price," in order to show the consumer what meat is
worth, and 2nd, the establishment of a single and
obligatory market outside the barriers of Paris.
There can be no doubt that a cattle market nearer
to Paris than Sceaux or Poissy would be • great
improvement ; but the notion of its being " obli-
gatory" is repugnant to the spirit of the new free-
trade law, which I have no doubt the government
will maintain, and which the public will find the
benefit of when they become a little more accus-
tomed to the removal of their swaddling clothes.
The only interest of the Bourse was concentrated
in the Credit Mobilier, which, owing to the oversold
" bear " account, again rose considerably. The
shares were at one time quoted at 750 fr., but they
receded to 737 fr. 50c., closing with a rise of 17fr. 50e.
The Bents fell lbo. for cash, and sc. for account,
closing at 69fr. 30c. and 69fr. 55c. The Orleans and
Northern railways rose 2fr. 50c. each. Eastern fell
15fr. The other lines were about 2fr. 50c. lower.
The market was generally heavy at the close.
The secretary of the Credit Mobilier Company,
M. Lemonnier, writes to the Debuts to give an em-
phatic denial to a statement that the " firmness " of
the Finance Minister, upon which he was recently
complimented by the Emperor in the Monaeur, has
had occasion to show itself apropos of the Credit
Mobilier. The rumour to which this contradiction
applies was to the effect that the non-declaration of
• dividend by the Credit Mobilier was owing to the
initiative of M. Magne, who had said that he could
not sec where they were to find funds for a dividend
unless by trenching upon their capital.
The Press, says, in its weekly commercial review:
. .

We have this week some ether more favourable advise
from our principal oomenercial °entree ; even Paris half
seems to be emerging from the almost absolute stated I.
anion which has prevailed since the letter months of 1847.
Foreign wads are beginning to make their appearance is
the measholarbe, sad, although they have as yet
bought but tittle, there is reason to hope that
the accumulation of merchandise in foreign markets
will soon be sufficiently reduced to encourage demand for
our manufactures. We may nodes espeddly, es a man-

swing symptom, the orders from the United Situ received
at Lyons, and the decided movement which has occurred at
the latter plass. Certain special fabrics are eagerly bought
ap as feet se they have the loom, and, at the same time,
awe is a ravine! In the finer kinds of silks. This move-
ment must shortly be felt in St. Etienne and Remus and
will cereal* have a favourable influence upon the silk
awhile of the south. The new silk beak, which has ben
imanimonsly approved of by the Lyons Chamber of Com-
awe, will powerfully oontribute to the development
el our silk trade, by making Lyons the central con-
lbental market. Although Rouen does not yet par-
ticipate in :the revival perceptible in the markets
above-mentioned, there so. certain symptoms which allow
tie to hops that a favourable change will not be keg dr
bayed. Several Algerian merchants have recently arrives'
at Rome, with the intention of making large purchases atei _
It Is certain that the Rouen manufacturers are at this tar
. _

--
meet making great Twenties of those team which Me I
more time say others, sought for in Algeria. la Paris
mho is the tommeseter shops are daily abated by the* ,
too pherio variations. Some order* for Paris subdue bat ,
been received from England for Australia, sad the Await •'
previnom have made some porch....; but the mint le me •
yet felt is very many Parisian homes. Corn h Mew le 4
the markets. The extremely promising apptermos of the .1
mop snakes holders anxious to realise. .4
The Emperor is preparing for the press a work
upon rifles, to form a pendant to his treatise On -
artillery.
There is • talk of • new Senates Consultors
touching the press, bat in what spirit I have no idea.
There is not much room for further restrictions,
and yet the wind does not seem to blow in favour of
liberty.
Mr. Bonaparte, the eldest son of Mental Priam 7
Jerome by hie marriage with Miss Paterson, has
been staying in Paris for some time almost imcog.
He dined almost daily at Hill's English tavern,
the Boulevard dee Capneinos, where he was gene-
rally accompanied by two or three American gentle-
men. He is a plain unpretending-looking
.10114
much younger in appearance than he really In, far
his mother's marriage, which the Pope always re-
ftmed to disavow, was arbitrarily declared iron by
Ike Emperor so long ago as 1805. He mal4
therefore, be between fifty and sixty ram
d age, and yet he is neither bald me
Way. He spooks English with a strong Americas
sassot, and is by no means • perfect master 1
Bkoneb. His likeness to Prince Jerome is mat
strlki?g. This gentleman, who stands just as mar
an heir to Napoleon I. as the present
the throne of France, though he is not cause
ribose is at this moment at Havre, and about t• •
maihark for America in the Fulton. His sea. *
2stata in She Chamenrs, has gone there to see his
. _
The management of the Italian opera is in tress
with Tamberlilt for an engagement of three yeas
seii
a salary of 8,0001. the season.