The Express.
London, England, 1866-02-01 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, THURSDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 1, 1866.

"—England and Wales—that there is an entire
" absence of information," In. Doss not this read
as though these facts had come in the light of
sudden snd astounding revelation to "my Lords"?
They had been patent to everybody aka for
some years, but the sensorium of "Boards" is pro-
verbially dull. The idea once grasped, however,
energy is to take the place of repose, and " my
" Lords will take immediate steps to invite the co-
" operation of English agriculturists in a work of
" such manifest interest and importance."
Accordingly, on the 6th of December, by which
date some 47,000 cattle had been attacked by the
plague, " my Lords" write to the Home-office "to
" move Secretary Sir Ozone& GREY to cause the
" county magistrates of England and Wales, and
" the corresponding authorities in Scotland, to be
" informed of ',the steps about to be taken by the
" Board of Trade, for the purpose of ascertaining,"
arc. fte. Sir GEozox GREY'S notion of prompt-
ness differs somewhat from that of "my Lords ;"
for on the Bth of December a circular letter was
sent from the Home-office, "moving " the Lords-
Lieutenant to render any assistance which might
be necessary.
We have thus traced the progress which has
been made since the money was voted in June
last, in order ti place clearly before the public the
amount of delay which has been allowed to retard
the progress of a business that demanded the utmost
despatch. " My Lords " have acted on SHEEIDAN'S
principle of not doing to-day what could by any
possibility be put off till to-morrow ; they have
gone on in a careless, happy-go-lucky sort of
fashion, and the crash has come, finding them,
like the foolish virgins, sleeping. And even now
that they have been roused into action,
who can say how soon we shall get
the particulars which everybody is look-
ing for so anxiously ! We have just been
informed that the return is to be made on the sth
of March ; but, judging from past experience of the
promptitude of "my Lords," it is too much to
hope that the results will be known before the
middle of this year, if so soon.
But by the middle of this year half of our
stock owners may be ruined, and our people, ban
gri, mat gre reduced to the condition of vegetarians.
We shall be told, no doubt, of the difficulty
of organizing a plan involving the sending out
"the very large number of schedules required."
But in this country such an operation is by no
means novel ; and we are much mistaken if the
Census Commissioners required more than six
months for the printing and distribution of a very
much larger number of schedules than are requisite
for the supply et all the owners of cattle in
Great Britain.

The delay which has already taken place is
indeed the more inexcusable, insomuch that ample
means were in the hands of the Government,
through the elaborate and highly efficient organi-
zation of the registration officers of the kingdom,
for the collection of such information as was needed.
The operation of taking the census of the people
of all England was much more difficult and trouble-
some than a census of cattle can be ; for in the
one case every nook and corner of the country had
to be searched on the chance of finding a stray
unit of population, whereas cattle are usually
located in herds, and the number of owners
is in most cases pretty generally known. And
yet in less time than has been trifled away in cor-
respondence in this instance, the names, ages, and
other particulars of every man, woman, and ch"d
in England were enumerated, and their numbers
approximately known. Why so excellent and so
ably managed ar organization has been now
dispensed with we lave not been informed ; but
such is the case, and the officers of Inland
Revenue are to undertake duties for which, as far
as we know, they have no special qualification
superior to the registrars. On the contrary, they
do labour under this very decided disqualification,
that whereas in nine cases out of ten the registrar
is indigenous to his district, the exciseman is a
bird of passage, who may be moved from place to
place at the discretion of his superiors.
However, it is now too late to alter what has
been done. It is plain that the whole sub-
ject of agricultural statistics must of necessity
be dealt with broadly and in a serious manner by
the Government very soon, and then the most
fitting organization for their collection must be
adopted, as the public interests require, and not as
the individual fancies of any department may suggest.
But with regard to this census of cattle, it is also
plain that if it is to be of the slightest earthly use
so far as the present cattle plague is concerned,
another three months ought not to elapse before
the enumeration is completed and the result pub-
lished. If the Board of Trade arrangements are
not sufficiently in a forward state to admit of the
possibil; ty of this despatch there must be heavy
blame somewhere, and we trust that in such case
the new Parliament will have a word or two to say
on the subject not very agreeable to official
supineness.

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.
(THIS DAT.)

THE OPENING OF PARLIAMENT.

The Times dwells upon the uncertainty and the
difficulties pat is the way of the new House of Commons
by the doubt on the subject of the Reform Bill ;—what it is to
be ; what will be done if it is passed, and when it is to be
brought in—the anoouncemeat that nothing is to be done
in the matter till after Easter reminding one of not a few
instances in which a brief respite has been followed by an
absolute reprieve. In that world of thought, which is the
common property of all of us, every H.P. must feel as if
he carried about him a terrible disease, the crisis of which
must come be'ons next August, bringing perhaps death,
perhaps health, perhaps a lingerie. existence belonging
rather to the former than the latter. The best thing parlia-
ment can do is to set to work on the ordinary and heavy
business of legislation as seriously ant steadily as if no
such sentence were hanging over its heed. It has to wipe
off long arrears. It has to provide, if possible, that the
country shall one day look back with food regret to the
self-denying, patriotic, business•litre habits of the het
House of Commas that could be sent to represent, io a
special sense, the gentry of England. By doing is usual
and proper work, sad so keeping the public attention fixed
on public business, it may even reverse its sentence, and
find itself living on as if by the law of continuity. Indeed.
that is the best answer that could be given to the demand
for reform, and by far the most likely to be successful.

The Daily News observes that for • whole generation
there has been no meeting of parliament so portentous or
so interstirtg as that of to-day, when • new period of
political activity sets in, and • policy of principle is to be
entered upon. The great interests of our foreign relations,
important as they are, pale before the vividness of our
eamarn about several domestic questions, say one of which
would give importance to the opening of au ordinary
cation of an existing parliament. The Fenian conspiracy.
thv Jamaica scandal, the cattle plague, the Irish land and
eltureh questions ; the renovation aid improvement of oar
river basins, and espeally that of the Thames ; the puri-
flattioa of our Malawi end the disposal of the 'image of
oar towns; the oontrol and amendment of parts of our
railway system; a thorough review of our poor-!aw ad-
minharation—these are questions which eau hardly wait
the pleurae of the opponeuts of • reform bill ; and we
most hope that they will be brought forward st moo, if the
Worm bill is not to be promoted till clan epos Faster, or
after it. The element of novelty, too, in a fresh parliament
is always large, and the excitement otouriosity, stimulated
tostbior by the changes in the cabinet—is pest accordingly.

One more incident there is which the national heart feels
too deeply to need er to endure many wards about. When
the Cleansing have amen their Speaker, and swore their
oath, end are ready for business, the Queen will meet her
parliament once more, and there is not a members( either
hones. nor a citizen who will be in the streets mat Tues-
day, nor the humblest listener for the news down in the
country, who will not be animated and sheered by the long-
desired interview between the Sovereign and the represen-
tatives of the nation.

The Herald says that the ministry not only meets perils-
meet inoomplete, but also without a policy ; for the charac-
ter of the reform bill, in which lies its whole importance,
has still to be decided, and on Ithe Jamaica, Irish, sod
chart* questions nothing has yet been determined. The
government, moreover, is not only weak in its want of
principle or decision but in its want of debating power and
political prestige. Mr. Gladstone will assume the leadersi
ship of the House of Commons—a position of which his
antecedents seem to show that he is absolutely incapable,
and which, unless the Ethiopian has changed his skin, wi"
soon put the House of Commons into confusion. And prac-
tically he stands alone in the duty of defending the govern-
ment against the assaults which threaten it from so many
different quarter; for his colleagues are hardly straw
enough to defend their own departments.
The Telegraph anticipates the event( al session which
nominally opens to-day will renew to the people of Eng-
land stormier debates and angrier discusioss than any that
ruffled the tranquil surface of the " long parliament" now
historically identified with the name and memory of Pal-
merston. If anyone in the cabinet still cherishes doubts as
to the wisdom of reform—which will be the chief topic of
the session—if anyone holding office is not ready to
work with his whole vigour of body and brain to carry .
the bill through the house—the sooner such a waverer
quits his place the better. The ministry moat know by
this time that any hesitation or timidity, any paltering I
with the question, will be sternly and swiftly resented.
The bolder the measure, within certain well-understood
limits, the greater is the probability that it will pass ; and
that probability will be strengthened if the trimmers in
the house—who are chiefly anxious to avoid the trouble and
expense of another electoral contest—receive a distinct in-
timation that, defeated, the government will appeal to the
country.
The Star sketches the probable corm of the mourn-
tive leaders on the Jamaict question and with regatl to
reform, and instances the demonstration at Manchester,
cn Tuesday, as indicative of the fate of a 61. rate-paying
bill. The reformers of Lancashire, as well as in other
parts of the country, hays offered the government a fair
compromise—a reasonable ultimatum ; and the Star
hopes that ministers will not commit the grievous error
wbich won'd be involved ht its rejection.

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

(alarm's rimsonsits.)
PORTUGAL.
MOON, JAL 30.
General Prim has arrived here, and is the guest
of the Marquis Nina.
The Cortes have approved the new press law.

SPAIN.
MADRID, JAN. 31, EvrcNa.

In to-day's sitting of the Senate General Concha
proposed that only two Senators should be allowed
to speak on the address to the Queen, namely, one
for and the other against it.

THE SPANISH PASSIVE DEBT.
MADRID, JAN. 3L

The usual monthly auction for the Sinking Fund
of the Passive Debt took place to-day. The prices
fixed by the government were for the Ist elan in-
terior 31.80, and for the 2nd interior 17.75. Private
tenders were made from 31.25 to 32 for the Ist,
and from 17.16 to 18 for the 2ad interior. No
offers were made for the exterior.

OUTWARD CALCUTTA, CHINA, AND
AUSTRALIAN MAILS.
YALTA, J. 31.
The Syria, from Marseilles on the 28th inst.,
arrived here yesterday at 6p.m., and left to-day at
noon for Alexandria.
The Ripon, from Southamptonen the 20th inst.,
arrived to-day at noon, and will leave at 6 p.m.
for Alexandria.

LLW INTELLIGENCE.
(THIS DAY.)

-.--
JUDICIAL COMMITTEE OF THE PRIVY

COUNCIL.

-
(Present, Lord Chelmsford, Sir R. Vaughan Williams, Sir
J. Colville, end Sir Laurence Peel.)
The sittings of the committee were resumed this morning,
when judgment was given in several caws argued before
their lordships some time since.
ZVANS AND OTHZZB v. THZ —PETITION OP SIGHT.
This was a petition of right from Victoria. The pen.
titioeers were large railway contractors and bid been
employed by the government at Melbourne to conetruot
the Geelong Railway sad other works. The essitract
exceeded one million sterling, and the question rebind wee
as to the interest to be deducted by the government :-
10 per cent was to be deducted on the certificates of the
engineer and to be invested in railway debentures when
the sum reached 10,0001., and then a question was started
whether, in addition, 74 per mit. should be deducted.
The difference with interest was about 7,0001., and the
petitioners appealed from the decision of the Supreme
Court of Vittoria.
Lord Chelmsford, in delivering the judgment of their
lordships, recapitulated at considerable length the facts of
theca's, and said the came had been twice argued. The
question of the 7) per cent. had been started in the course
of the case. Their lordships set aside the judgment below
for the crown, and decided in favour of the contractors,
but as the question of the additional interest wee now
raised in the other court no costs would follow.
Judgment for the appellant

COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH.
After Term Nit Prins sittings at Westmisster.(Before
the Lord Chief Janice.)
This was the first day of the after term nisi pries sittings.
The hit oontained 144 causes ; 63 are remands, and 81 new
causes ; 71 are marked for special juries.
In the case of Pike V. Schnsdhorst, a special jury case,
which was an action for an alleged misrepresentation in the
sale of a photographer's business in the Strand, the learned
counsel Mr. Chambwe,Q.C.(with whom was Mr. Philbriok),
and Mr. Huddleston, Q.C. (with whom was Mr. Henry
James), conferred together, which restated in the record
being withdrawn upon terms agreed upon between the
parties.