The Express.
London, England, 1858-06-28 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, MONDAY EVENING, JUNE 28, 1858.

way from New Orleans to St. Louis, when M Ship
island, shoat 76 miles below Memphis, exploded bar
boilers, caught ere, and burned to the water's edge.
Of three handred and fifty persons on board, it is
believed at least one hundred perished, while of
those saved nearly all were more or less Wowed.
A telegram of the 16th June states, that a pitmen-
ger estimates the number on board at 460 and thinks
that 260 were lost.

The floods in the Western rivers were giving
muse for great uneasiness, and the reports from
Cairo, ILlinois, ware of the most alarming character.
The water was still rising and was running over the
Ohio level in several places. Mr. Ashley, chief
engineer of the Illinois, gives the opinion that one
foot more rise will sweep Cairo enitrely away.
Mound City is under water. The depot grounds in
the highest part of the town were covered to the
depth of four or five inches. Passengers were eon-
' veyed a quarter of a mile from Mound City in boats
to the railway. The Il moss Central Railway at
Cairo was washed away on the south wine. Nearly
all the houses were tumbling down, drifting away,
or sinking. Scarcely a building in the city wee ex-
pected to withstand the flood.
We t•ave news from Havannah to the 9th instant.

The British war ship Devastation had called at
Havana with despatches from Admiral Stewart on
the subject of the naval outrages. The exact pur-
port of the papers did not transpire, but it was
thought that orders for the cessation of action of
the gunboat officers had been sent to the Gulf of
Mexico. Commander Rodgers, of the United
States steamer Water Witch, had had an interview
with General Concha, who assured him that he ap-
proved of the attitude assumed by Mr. Buchanan
towards the English cruisers. It was re-
I ported that Commander Rodgers, after consultation
with Lieutenant Pym, of the gunboat Jasper and
the British Consul-General and Captain Walker, of
the Devastation, thought that many of the American
captains were to blame in not showing their calcium
quietly, and that the affair was not so bad after aIL
Lieutenant Almy, of the United States steamship
!Nihon, had landed with a batch of books containing,
it was thought, the laws of the " right of search.
Twenty cargoes of negroes had been landed in
Harannah since March last, and in no instance had
the English war Teasels intercepted them. It is
again asserted that the squadron acts under orders
issued to the ships on the African coast in 1849.
The Grand Duke of Mecklenburg, cousin to Queen
Victoria, had arrived in Havannah on his way to
New York. Colonel Kinney, the filibuster, had left
&r New Orleans.

THE LATEST BY THE AMERICA.
(sr TILIOILAPII, VIA RALIPAX.)
HALIFAX, JON[ 17.—The stemmehip Vanderbilt,
from Southampton for New York, was intercepted
to-day off Caps Race, Newfoundland, and her news
was forthwith telegraphed to New York, thus
securing European advice. only eight days old.
NIIW YORK, Jlllll 17, 8 simu o.—The sake at oottaa to
talk market for the put two days have bees 7,000 =rad
**dosing quotation is 111 to 12c. tar liphreds
Flew le quiet et previous Moe. Wheat le dell end he. •
deolintag tendency. Pekes ars alightly brae. Wien
own in buoyaat, and priers are rattier higher. The Week
market is inactive, and the leading wearlthe have gear
rally undergone a alight dealine.
Now OIL SANS,Jottalo,Evaxcco.—OneeaYsaoarkst
ersseetim to-day, the ealeoreachiag 12,000boks, at as wham
et mat per lb. The market dosed vibe bm. Middlteg
weed at 1 le. to 1 I fa,

The Hammonia arrived at Cowes yesterday morn-
ing, on her way to Hamburg. She left New York
on the 13th inst., and brings three days later news
than that brought by the Northern Light. Her in-
telligence, however, is not so recent es that by the
America, published above.

THE PAPER DUTIES.

The late debates on the Paper Duties seem likely to
ensure their extinction, but they have not quite ex-
hausted the subject. A new light has of late been
thrown on the early history of these Duties by the
publication, for the first time, in the first Report of
the Commissioners of Inland Revenue, of the quan-
tity of paper then used. Till now, so little was
known of the incidence of the tax soon after it was
imposed, that Mr. M'Culloch (Commercial Dic-
tionary, voce Paper), mays, " in 1721 it is supposed
there were about 300,000 reams annually produced
in Great Britain." According to the Commissioners,
however, the quantity subjected to duty in 1721 in
England—the chief seat of the manufacture—was
92,732 reams and 42,380 bundles, not half the quan-
tity supposed. But the most curious and most in-
structive part of the Report is the Table it gives of
the quantity of paper subject to duty, which shows
a decline year by year after the tax was imposed.
We have in SUM Macaulay's " History of Eng-
land," voL 4, a graphic account of the increase of
newspapers a few years before the imposition of the
duty. " While the Licensing Act was in fora,"
says, "there was no newspaper in England except
the London " On the 3rd of May, 1696,
the law which had subjected the press to a censor-
ship expired. Within a fortnight a staunch old
whig, named Harris, announced that the Intelli-
gence, Domestic and Foreign, suppressed 14 years
before by tyranny, would again appear. Ten days
after the first number of the Intelligence, Do-
mestic and Foreign, was printed the first num-
ber of the linglisk Courant. Then came the
Packet Boat
,from Holland and Flanders, the
London News-Letter, the London Post, the
Flying Post, the Old Postmaster, the Postboy, and
the Postman." On the expiration of the Licensing
Aot there was a great increase of newspapers, pre-
cisely similar to that which in our own tunes ensued
from repealing the Advertisement and Stamp Duties.
The eloquent historian has not yet favoured the
public with the history of newspapers, which from
that time " became," as he says, " a most hamming
and instructive part of the history of the country
but be states that two years after this issue of " a
crowd of newspapers," the House of Commons re-
jected a bill by a very large mejorite to re-establish
the licensing system ; and he remarks " there was
scarcely one of the members whose residence
in the country bad not during the preceding
summer been made more agreeable by the Logsdon
journals." From other sources we know that peri-
odicals of all kinds, including Tatters and Spectators
then multiplied. "The English," as was remarked
in the Spectator, " had acquired a strong appetite
for newspapers," which has never left them. At
once, therefore, on the Licensing Act expiring, the
numerous papers which started into existence were
extensively circulated, and gave a corresponding
impulse to the consumption of paper. We may be
quite sure that it increased very fast.
"At the same time,or within a few years of 1690,"
according to Mr. M'Culloch, " the paper manage-
" ten was much improved," marching pari passe
with the increased consumption. Till the Duty was
imposed no account wu kept of the quantity pro-
duced, and we have no means of ascertaining bow
latch it increased between 1695 arid 1712. The
duty impend at the latter period varied, according to
the quality of the paper, from Is. 6d. to 4d. per
ream. In 1714 the duties were raised to 2s. 3d.
per ream, and so continued ti 111778. The Stamp
Duty, which, according to Swift, " ruined all Grub-
street," by suppressing newspapers, accompanied
the Paper Duties, and the two together had a re-
markable effect in reducing the quantity of paper
produced. In 1713, the first year the Daty was col-
lected, the quantity charged in England only was
136,967 reams and 33,221 bundles. In the follow-
ing year it fell to 121,096 reams and 32,202 bundles.
It continued to fall from that time with slight sees-
'ionsl checks year by year till 1747, when it reached
the minimum, 43,564 reams. The bundles, or coarse
paper, rather increased, and amounted in the same
year to 41,539. Thus by the paper and stamp
duties the progress of a most useful and estimable
manufacture, and especially the finer parts of it,
was delayed, and the quantityof paper made reduced
apparently to one-third of what it was when the
duty was imposed.
Subsequently to 1747, the increase of population
with a corresponding increase of wants and of trade,
which had gone on increasing also between 1712 and
1747, was so great both at home and in the colonies
that the production of paper in spite of the Duties
eontinually increased. Though exposed, alter 1778,
to frequent chimes in the Duties, the quantity of
paper charged in 1793 was 605,414 reams and
344,790 bundles. In 1795 the quantity charged was
fret expressed in pounds, and then amounted to
24,822,1561 be. in England alone. From that time
the increase was great and continuous, and the
quantity brought to charge last year in England
was 146,072,2821 be., an increase in sixty-two years
ofsix-fold. In that time the population has rather
more than doubled, and this ninth greater increase
in the quantity of paper produced than in the
population is one of many proofs that the wants
of mankind and the power of gratifying them in-
crease faster than their numbers.

Having established thee* facts as to paper, let us
compare the production of it with the production of
intr. Both are the results exclusively of industry
and skill ; both are used for their own sakes, and
both are the raw materials of other most important
manufactures--iron, of tools and machinery, and
paper, of books and journals. Ironstone, however,
is supplied in unlimited abundance, while the rags
and waste of which paper is made are limited by the
textile fabrics manufactured, the refuse of the cloth-
ing worn and the fibrous matter worked into sail-
cloth, rope, tirc. For both iron and paper there is a
double demand; and the fact that the material of
the latter is limited in quantity is a strong reason
why no restriction should be laid on this very useful
manufacture. Ingenuity might fabricate paper out
of a multitude of substances, but the effect of the
duty is to prevent even attempts at improvement.
In fact, there were very few improvements made
in the manefactore of paper from 1712 till the aloft
of the 18th century. In the present century great
improvements have been made. Iron was not sub-
jected to excise duties, and the improvements in the
manufacture were great and continuous throughout
the eiphteenth century. We have a return of the
quantity made in 1796, 125,000 tons, and in 1858,
5,600,000 tons; so that the production of iron
in 80 years increased twenty-eightfold, while
the production of paper increased only seven-
fold in 82 yeses. Considering the many uses
of paper, there is no reason whatever, exoept
the limitation in quantity of the substances from
which it can now be made, why the production
should not have increased quite as fast as that of
iron. The demand for it is absolutely unlimited.
That it hes not increased equally with iron is,houcver,
chiefly to be accounted for by the ea being subjected
to an excise duty, and the other being manufactured
in perfect freedom.
Although paper is the raw material of a rapidly
increasing manufacture, and is olio consumed foe its
own sake, the increase of amenpftisel within the
last ten years has searcely moseedee the WNW= of
the consumption of tea *dialed with a hem" ear
toms duty, and it has riblike short el the hareem
in the consumption of *ell, silk, and wool. Be-
tween 1847 and 1867 the esanumption of paper in-
creased 61 per cent., and the consumption of cotton
increased 103 per cent.; of silk, 180 per cent. ; and
of wool, 82 per cent. The uses of paper are almost
infinite compared to the uses of these three articles
confined chiefly to clothing; and that the consump-
tion of them, particularly of silk, should have in-
creased faster titan the consumption of paper, is a
test of the isjury done to society by the Excise on
paper. All are equally raw materials of important
tuanufactisis and all, except paper, are expressly
freed frees all intim.
At peso*. Ilmealbee, just as in the 18th century,
when ihallenlee Daty was imposed oa paper, it im-
pedes the of a most beautiful art. Always,
thrash pibay not have been sensible of it, bas the
Duty sprisisi in the sear injurious manner. Always
it hes metalled healthful employment, and lammed
industry, and loosened its rewards. Not a word could
be said in Its defames in the late debate ; and no
other excuse is eves offered for continuing it than
that it yields a large sum, and is easily levied. In
other words, the convenienee of the Government and
the iadolenos of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue

are of great importance, and the public good of
none whatever. The impost, as is now thoroughly
well known, maimed always to have been known by
those who imposed and maintained it, impedes alike
the progress of knowledgeand the progress of wealth.
To the community it is equally baneful morally and
physically, and its only recommendation is that it
gives the government 1,200,0001. a year to waste on
projects that are worthless. To allege that Govern-
ment cannot spare snob an impost is to say that the
government is a public injury. The time for repeal-
ing it may be gone this session, but the next budget
submitted to the House of Commons ought to be
rejected, if it do not abolish this onerous impost on
the raw material of social progress. H.

Yalu Intdlignut.

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HOUSE OF LORDS.--JuNE 26.
VIE ouAnnox PIIIIAGE.

Their lordahlya raetspaeilryCa latuniay, for the pwme
of site ea a catmeittes ter prl=eat the matter of the
claim of 81r Remy Premien to the of
Grattan.. It may be maemberel t, on Wadmaky
their lordsbfp• fail that the eisimant hod made oat the
point that a writ of ammo= eml iapeeOeMtera-
atedadmentlWepamap; ; Milky albbaattatter
swami es to whelker the amealw of the cisimeet bad
actually sat In a midmost at Nada, to whke he was
simmaemekin the yelp of Edward 111.
Mr. Fleming sow appeared for the claimant, and argued
that plat.
TM Atts.orney-Genial and Mr. Charles Clark appeared for

Their lordship, at the coselation el the a:-
prowl Oak opinion that there was snillokint of the
claimant% enorator haring taken his meat in parliancsal, and
that, therefore, the claim to this peerage wee made oat.

COURT OF COMMON PLRAB.--Jmrs 28.

(Sittings In Banco.—Bafono Mg Imam Cockburn, .n.i
Imam Williams, Wilke, and Bytes.)