The Express.
London, England, 1859-08-13 00:00:00

LONDON. SATUILDAT. AUGUST 13.

Tin Pemlafeset Committee hem fairly eclipsed
all its comptltoes in the race et judicial incompe-
tency. It was appointed to inquire into a series of
transactions that had no value or meaning foe the
House of Commons save in so far as they involved a
breach of its privileges or an imputation on its
honour ; and the sagacious Committee, after some'
inquiry and a good deal of debate amongst them-
selves, have reported nothing on either of the
punts referred to them ; but instead thereof, a rasa-
lutice which, for absurdity, inanity, and want of
moral pluck, transcends everything of the kind it
has been our unhappiness to peruse.
That Mr. CHILDERS wee doped when he agreed to
forego his legal nghts and to rely upon a vague and
undaned reference to arbitration—(the arbitrator
being the simple-minded Earl of Makcit)—every-
body knows. But he might have been duped
by kis own credulity, no blame attaching to
Misers. BAXTER, BOAZ, and NORTON, Or to their
hassarable and learned client; and if so, the Com-
mittee ought to have had the manliness to say 110.
No law or system of law can undertake
to protect fools against the effects of their
own folly and if Mr. CHILDERS, having a good
cars to prove of bribery anti treating spinet
his antagonie at the teat election, weakly and
wantonly abandoned his vantage ground, and
slunk away from public investigatioo, hoping to
receive eubstantial consolation—then it wee the
bounden duty of Mr. WALPOLE and his sax
colleagues to report the fact u they found it.
He would hive been entitled to no redress,
and they ought to have told him so plainly.
They have done nothing, however, of the
kind. On the contrary, their verdict, if it
have any coherence in it at all, implies that the pett-
tiocer is a much injured man, or at least that he
would be so if he were not to be allowed to proceed
with his case against Mr. Ovelexr, which, by the
law as it stands, they well know he cannot be.
And if, on the other hand, the Committee had
found that Mr. CHILDEIti had been jockeyed
out of his right of adios, and out of
his seat, they were, as honest men, called
upon to brand the delinquents who had
abused their professions) position to tamper
thus with the constitution of the House. But we
seed hardly say nothing of this kind appears in
their report. They neither denounce the framers of
the illusory arrangement into whose meshes the
unwary and ill-advised Mr. CHILDERS fell, nor
do they venture to clear the parties in yes-
two from inculpation. As the facts were stated
by Mr. () r in the Hare of Commons
so they leave them Mr. Cunene sear meant to
sell his claim to the seat, and serer got anything
for his legal waiver of it. This they emirs, sad
solemnly declare that they hope he may get it—
well knowing that his claim is lapsed and gone.
They fancy, se it would seem, that they can '
eLirk the oily duty they had to perform. by
Warmth' the Hems that they are of opisios
the parties to this agreseseut did not mean the same
thing; sad that thenfare the best way et ding
justice to both. would be to replace them in the psi-'
lien they relatively stood in towards each other
before it was thought of. They might with just
es mush sense and utility have voted that
the fourteen sheep killed by lightning in
Hyde-Perk some few weeks ago, being favourite
sheep of their owners, ought to he restored to lite
forthwith and re-placed nester the trees beneath
whose shads they died. The statute, as Mr.
W strati sad his fellow-committeemen well

know, proseribes a certain number of days
within which election petitions may be pre-
Naiad, and diaablea any one from prosecuting any
claim to • mat after the expiration of that time. It is
net in the power of the House of Comatose, ►ad it
the will, to alter the law is this matter exposited*.
It does not, therefore, signify • rash w►at a
Committee may stultify itaelf by reporting
eight to be dorm. The only meaning which
the public will attach to such a report
will be that of a manifest ss•sios of the
disagresab:e duty which they ought to have'
ruefully pertained. If Mr. Cimino ought to be
put hack in hie original pimitios before his petition
was withdeswa, be ie an injured Ma, and even to
hare redeem. The only rodeos he am have sew
would Is that which kis @Maligning Right be morally
compalled to Wiwi his. by being tall that he wee
bound is hewer to take the Chiltern Hundreds, mad
go to • new triodes. Bet this the Cossittas do
not say. They leave Mr. 0112 IND to do aa to his,
or rather to Mews. BAXTER, Bout, and NosToX
(for the sharp practice wee alter all an affair of
agents, not of the principals), may mem meet. And
tt.o a parliamentary jostles as regards elections.

I r will be seen that the Select Committee on
l'acket and Telegraphic Contracts, upon whose
labours the supporters of the late Government and
independent Liberals of the ROTISCCE eSchool were
looking with a dubious complacency, have been
engaged, daring the abort time which has elapsed
since they were appointed, in an inquiry
Into the relations which were supposed to exist
between the postal packet service at Dover and the
electoral transactions in that spirited borough. The
contract with Messrs. JINXING'S aid CIIIXCIIWARD
for convey log the mails to Calais and Ostend mem
to have undergone a series of abrupt and fitful sub.
stl t utions and extensions, some of which in the opicioo
of the Committee were not made with due ears and
consideration for the public interest. Thus the
original cootrect, dated the let of April, 1864, to
continee until October I, 1868, wee supplanted by
an agreement dated " on or about" Jane 30, 1856,
farseeing the term from October I, 1838, to June
20, 1863 ; and this extension was agreed to by the

Admiralty without previous ormsultation with the
'• Treasury or the Peet Offer." Again, on April 2
:a this present year, " on agreement was
•• mitered into, again sabstituung soother
" cootraer, further extending the term until
April 2C, 1870." And this extension agaia

" appears to hare bees 1111111.011114 by the bereary,
" on the reermaseadatiea et the Admiralty, bet is
_ _

" opposition to the views of the POISIIIASTIR-
" Claersat." It might occur to the profane world,
who are uninitiated into the mysteries of lamina-
nation, that the department which finds the messy,
the department which posts the letters, and the
department which provides the boats, should
have an equal share in the responsibility of
signing, substituting, and extending contrasts,
It is amusing, but not edifying, to find at one time
the Admiralty getting to windward of the Treasury
sad taking the wind oat of the mils of the Post-
ai= ; at another, the Admiralty and the Treasury
nembiniag to lift their anchors while the POST-
xsistra-Os3gza-st is asleep. With regard to Mr.
Ciwamswsan and his alleged operations at
the Dever election, it comes out that "at the
" time when the extension of his contract was under
omendoration" he " volunteered his support," as an
influential elector for Dover, to the Hon. Captain
Cairmota„ then one of the Lords of the Admiralty,
• on the expectation that hie contract was to be ex-
"traded." Bat, es it also Webs Ont that the renewal
of the contract had been recommended by the Ad-
miralty six weeks before this handsome offer
wee volunteered by Mr. CHCILCRWARD, • the
• Ames with whom the decision of the
• question rated " are acquitted by the
Committee of having been "influenced in grant.
• log the renewal of the contract by any corrupt on
• political motive." Yet the Committee deem it
due to the honour and dignity of the House of Com-
mas to recommend that the agreement to extend
Mr. CaracnwAnn's contract from June 20, 1863, to
Ageil 26, 1870, be cancelled. The Committee, we
sham draw a line between the contractor who
la= to exert his influence at elections on the expec-
table of a renewal of his contract, and the officers
with whom the " decision of the closable of re-
newal rests. Probably a comparison of dabs will
afford some insight into the rationale of these appa-
rently capricious " extensions." No one of worm
suspects Departments which do not appear to act
together in the matter of any " corrupt or political
motive," in accommodating Mr. CHUEMIWAID;
yet, without any disposition to come to the resew*
of that gentleman, who we believe Is an
avowed and conscientious Tory, we may be allowed
to accord him the merit of having been uni-
formly ready and consistently willing, "as ea
"influential elector" for Dover, to volunteer his
support to the repeseentativee of the government
for the time being, whether Whig or Tory. The
liberal member for Galway avowed himself a sup-
porter of any government that would subsidise the
Galway line of packets, and Mr. CHURCHWAaLI
appears to have been always anxious to secure
the election of a Lord of the Admiralty, especially
when the extension of a oontract happened to be
under consideration. This may not be very stoical
in principle, but it has the merit of being not unusual
in practice. Dover was Mr. CH L'aCileCAßD'e oyster,
and wh an election was coming on, or a con-
tract was to be extended, he took out his knife as an
influential elector, and opened it.

ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE RUSSIAN AND
INDIAN LOANS.

Late list evening—after the close of the Stock
Exchange—the prospectuses of the Russian and
Indian Loans were issued. The conditions of the Au-
den Three per Cent. Loan of 12,000,0001. accord
exactly with those given in the Itrpress of the
oth inst., save as regards the exception then made,
etiscerning the dates for payment of the instalments
The price fixed is 48 per cent., but as the final in
stalment dose not fall due until the 26th January
nut, whilst a whole half-year's dividend will be re-
ceivable on the Ist of November, the pries to
the subscriber is reduced to about 66j per
sent., independent of the allowance of 3 per
*sat discount on payments in advance. A Rus-
sian Three per Cent. stock at 661 is undoubtedly
cheep, in relation to the French or English Three
per Cents., especially consifiering the advantage pre.
mated through the operation of the large and con-
stantly accumulating sinking fund of 11 per cent, per
annum. As this lg per cent. is calculated upon the
manes, amount of the loan, it follows that a mini of
180,0001 will be invested annually. With the Four-
and-a-Half per Cent. Russian stock, now at par, the
operation of the sinking fund acts as a cheek
whereas with the New Three per Cent. stock it will
net se • strong stimnbas to the price. The prelimi-
nary deposit is fixed at 3 per cent., and the total
; deposit, due the 30th inst., at 13 per sent The eh'.
earnetenee that bonds will be given for every pay-
meat after the first will facilitate the transfer of the
loan into strong hands. The payments are spread
over a total period of five months, but It
is impossible to say what portion of the 8,000,0001.
forming the cash proceeds of the loan will be
drawn from England, since all previous Russian
limns have been largely sheathed on the Continent,
where a score of subscription list are now being
organised for the present oat From St. Petersburg,
Hamburg, Frankfort, Amsterdam, and Paris,
numerous applications are expected. The list will
be kept open until Saturday, the 20th, in order to
allow time to the foreign subscribers. The lows is
announced through Messrs. Thomson, Boner, and
Co., of London and St. Petersburg—one of the oldest
memantile firms in Europe. The manifsstatioes
repeatedly given by the present government of Rumple
of its desire for peace and commercial progress will
go far to promote the success of the pending
gigot iation.
For the terms of the Indian Loan we re-
' far our readers to the official statement in
ear advertising columns. The thriftless and
embarrassing system of issuing debentures'
is apparently abandoned the new 5,000,0001.
loan is to be raised in a 3 per cent. stock, the
dividends on which will be payable at the Bank of
England, wham aka the transfers will be made,
free of stamp duty. It will be noticed with semis
regret that the price, instead of being fixed by the
government, is left to be settled by each indi-
vidunl tendering. For the guidance of these par-
; ties, it may be mentioned that an advantage of
tally If per cent. is estimated to be involved in the
payment of a clear half-year's dividendof 21 per cent.
on the 6th Jan. next, the final instalment on the
loan being fixed for the 22nd Nov., coupled with
the allowance of 3 per cent discount on payments in
advance. The preliminary deposit le limited to 2
per cent., and the whole five millions is to be liqui-
dated in four months, being at the rate of 1,250,0001.
per month. For each instalment after the first, a
proportional amount of stock will be created, so that
a subscriber may easily realise a portion of his
holding. The stock will be redeemable from the
6th July, 1870, upon twelve months' notice from the
government. Tenders are to be sent in by the 23rd,
being two business days after the closing of the
Russian Loan list. The Stock Exchange name men-
tioned in the prospectus is that of Mr. Henry Soon.

Mr. Goalbws has been appointed deputy-
ciairmaa d the Baud el Chiming, ha the room of Mr.
grin Ricer PAPA la earegmeses et ill health. The
sae et the heed wont by the remetees of Yr. Goal-
berm will be Oil b Mt. iiiiplk W Orgy, Y.P.