The Express.
London, England, 1850-09-12 00:00:00

Eke envoi's.

OUTGOING AWLS.
maile fen WM& North ASIA' Ilermeds, wed tbe
UMW Sown will be Made op to morrow meeles lYtr tbe
BM It Nell Peskin.. lliepro."
Tea magi Oott UM" *pato, eibeelOw will be mmle
men feet IT.
Tbo mails kr 11 ,reamb, HOSJIBPOS, Neese. Jets i.
CUR, ma ?emeriti be aide up oaths moraine( Sept 17.
The 'Worn WM flails, exelodielt noodles*, New., St-
emwsb, Gad ham% (St. Dowisee), end tarladiag Viso •
seek, New Gnaw* sad Orep Tows (St J sea de Mousses)
wW be mde ipso tbs sereieg, September 17.
The mile Si Othrolow, Balm, Greece, tee Imam Islowk,
211=0•71•11. WM, end Chios. via Boothastptoe. will
be ep es the mesiae of Sept 20.
The mills Me lieemilles, to die Mettitermamo, Au"
Ce)laa, ladle. lieseLeat, Ike., MU be made up ea W
mates all* 21.
TM mils kir Beale will be male up ea OeSsber 1.
TM mai Ilee
of Om sad Seems Ayres, will
Se made ef ea Me mewls' Breaoe,
4.

Well MATES AT WINDOM v.ll/Dall.
Tin On—limisa. I.
Vo.oseasm—liftreas. 0%. taw Aillirassa./V 4m.

..LONDON, THURSDAY. SEPTEMBER 12.

It is impossible to observe the course which things
ere taking in Ireland with reference to the all absorb.
lug question of land tenure, without deep solicitude
and concern. fix month■ ago the fatal controversy
that so long has rout society in twain, and arrayed the
owners of property against the great bulk of the com-
munity, might have been settled as easy aid equitable
terms. The demands of the many were far from
being exorbitant. In substance they amounted to
mothing more than a legal security against extortion
and fraud, and the teversal of that barbarous remnant
of feudalism, which escheats to tare lord of the soil all
agriculteral improvements made by the tenant during
his occupancy. No worthless or rapacious proprietor
would have been compellable to do more than many
just and prudent landlords already do, of their own
free will No injury to the true and permanent in-
terests of the 'stilled class would thereby have been
inflicted; new guarantees for peace, new stimulants
to improvement would have been given; the general
value of land would slowly but certainly have been
enhanced ; the few would really have lost nothing,
Irbile the many would have gained all that they de-

sanded.
We will do the Prime Minister the justice of
believing that he saw the opportunity and desired to
tarn it to advantage. Whatever his other faul's
may be, duplicity cannot justly be laid to his charge.
Lord JOHN is an ariatecrar, but be is not with-
out ejmpathy for the sufferings of the people;
he is a politician, but he is not capable of
deliberately mocking the misery of the mnititade.
lie may not alwajs field in time; he may not always
as the possibility of rediessiog the evils they vont
plain of. But when he agrees to listen with 'unities,
sad promises to deal with the subject brought before
km, Lord JOHN ha no be.. parries of evasion in his
=lad, no watched trick of ministerial diplomacy in
view. Oa the Irith land question his assorasess
were frank and frequent. He repeatedly said that
something effectual ought to be dune, and that he was
willing to try. How has it happened, thee, then
sothirg effectual has been accomplished or eves
attempted on the part of the government? Who
have thwarted the generous and sagacious intentions
of the Prime Minister P To whose sordid and short-
sighted counsels hes be unhappily deferred?
We know sot; and we pretend not to say. One
thing we know, and that is, that the consequences of
the change or counteraction of purpose adverted to are
likely to realise all that the importunate friends of
tenant-tight prediettd. Popular disappointment and
exasperation are easily sown, end are prolific of bitter
Init. What has happened? When special deputa-
tion from Ulster laid the grimaces of the northern
Mantey before the mini.ter last Whitsuntide, they
were accompanied and sustained by many of the best
men among the English se well ea the Isiah members
of the House of Commons. Differences about details
there may have been in so numerous a section of
the popular party • but to the main they
were thoroughly agreed. Under such guidance the
same might have been conducted to a safe and m-
ineable isles; but government were said to have the
mutter in head, end to interfere further than by or-
seat entreaty and practical suggestion would have
been said to meddle and to mar. Time passed ; the
deputation returned home ; ministers were cot tinually
pressed in parliament to fulfil their promises; but
nothing was done or attempted to be dune to relieve,
to sesasge, or even to conciliate an expectant people;
bat the old brute-force expedient of an agrarian emer-
sion bill was once man resorted to.
Is it strange that a people thus tantalised and in-
salted should in their anger listen toroth advisers and
resentfully raise their demands? Oa the very day
that the Crime and Outrage BM pasted through its
Anal stage at Westminster, a conference of delegates
(is all except the name) from every part of Ireland,
and assembled in Dublin, adopted resolutions em-
bodying the moat extreme opinions, and which no
men of experience and candour can ffect to believe
that parliament will ever recognise or sanction. Yet,
upon the resolutions thus adapted an organisation has
already been formed; and the be little doubt that
amooget en impulsive and sanguine peasantry
its ramifications will rapidly extend. A project
which holds forth the hops of safety against the futil-
ities smolt of the indiscriminate evictor, cannot but
be popular ; and when the assurance is further given
that by joining the Tenant League the farmers of
Ireland are taking the most effective means to abo-
lish rackrent, we cannot wonder if great numbers of
the long defenceless tenantry seek mutual shelter in
its ranks. Nor do we question the power for good
which a wisely founded and wisely conducted agita-
tion might exercise. The legislature has unhappily
refused to give hied to the wants of millions calmly
and forbearingly urged. It cannot, therefore, com-
plain of a louder tone of importunity and remon-
strance.
But for the sake of the cause which, in season and
out of memos, we have zealously striven to advance,
we are bound to tell the leaden of the new confedera-
tion frankly that if they seek deliverance for the
tenant farmers of Ireland from the terrors of rack-rent
and eviction, by constitutional miens, the sooner they
throw aside such delusions as that of settling the
amount of rent by a law of valuation the better for all
concerned. If they are men of busier:ea and sagacity
they moat be perfectly aware that a bill onntaining such
a proposition would be laughed at by all parties in
parliament as a mere absurdity; and that to enlist
the norefiectiog pessantry under such a banner
=poses them to imputations which we need not
name. In this country we ere accustomed to go for I
what we have a reasonable hope of obtaining, sooner I
or later, by peaceful and legal means. We say what 1
we want, and stick to our demand esti' we obtain it.
Sometimes we have to wait a long time before we get
it; bet if in argument we feel ourselves strong, and
if sober-minded, as well as &Meat, moo espouse the
cease, we persevere until ear end is gained. The
Anti-Corn•law League is the latest example of what
may be achieved in this way. But it should be
borne in miad, that flu 'niacin:* of satire
freedom of trade was conceded by half the
Boole of Commons, before the anti-corn-law
confederacy was formed to enforce its practical adep-
tioa I sad eves With all the advantage thus possessed
it toe seven pees of agitation to obtain it. The
new tenant loges, on the contrary, has unfortunately
put forward a principle which not half a dome men
in either home of parliament would vindicate or vote
for, and in resistance to which the best Meads, as
well as the bitterest foes of the people, would be
driven to protest. By sot of parliament &valuation of
rent never can be carried, and yet it is by act of par-
liament that it is said to be sought, through the in-
strumentality of popular organisation. We moot,
we confess, understood what good result a coons like
this can lead to. That it will detach and repel many
men of weight and character seems to besiege. No
men of disinterested sympathy fee the rep* or of
politicalwilderness judgment, will aid in leading then eat into
the

For; nearly ty years, • broadsheet, eomprising
shoot down closely-printed pages of Metter, &key
arithmetical, has rerty mode its appanage twigs
week, or oftener, in London, ander the title of
"The Mercantile Price Current." To the general
reader there was not much that was interesting, or,
indeed, intelligible, is the miscellaneous items and
closely-packed figures, offered to its columns. But
rave merchants and enterprising dealers conned them
devotedly, and mazy were the 'pleaded enterprises
undertaken, and the noble fortunes built, upon the
mystic= they contained. We need not limit our-

selves to the past tease. The " IGtss Cement" is still
to the understanding eye, Inialaose wiith Totes die
adventure and wealth.
Apart, however, hoe peohatiolinf lieferests,
are many facts and conclusion si naivetes! tt:F
to sue be elicited from Were dry
doles. Taming over the annual winnows eif:'
earastaeos that most strikes one down to the one-
Ineacentast of the last donde, is the complicated ask
perpetually-varying relationships between the
menial public and the national exchequer. That
the subject Auld ea joy say one of the bounties of
nature or luxuries of art, altogether " duty hes," is
an idea awaits modern growth. But there is much
more than shit. As we take a6O years' glance over
the of the "Price Current," we are sue-
' to observe bow anomalous and intricate
were the tariffs and modes in which the
tax gatherer laid hie adhesive fingers upon the
profits of commerce. The financiers of thou days,
like their contemporary diplomatists, seemed to
rejoice in mystery. Everything appeared done with
the inteatioe to embarrass and perplex the fair dealer,
with the natural consequences of favouring the
roger. The system of taxation railed for almost
/Jury article. Productions drawn from the bowels of
the earth, grown on its sufaee, or prepared by art,
had each their separate codes of customs and excise
law, and were &gam capriciously distributed into other
categories as they passed through various advanced
stages of manufacture. Raw materials were treated
in one way and finished fabrics in another. The
same commodity had to be iccotified, tar tax-paying
purposes, as to its birth-place, whether British, colo-
nial, or foreign. If imported it was necessary to
prove whether it cons to hand in an English or a
foreign bottom. Tee duty was charged sometimes
according to quantity, sometimes by value, sometimes
by a mixture of both; and varied, like most of the
other condition, every year or two, as new lights
arose among that eccentric series of statesmen, who,
CARLYLI aye, sucoanively " wielded the spigot of
taxation," from the outbreak of the revolutionary war
to the peeing of the Reform Btli. From this canes
it arose that the most elementary commercial pro-
blems then regained a complex analysis for their
solution. All the ordinary power. of arith-
mote, for example, break down in the at-
tempt to dinars:, in the price paid by the
consumer for any of the elebneate articles of commerce
how much weans net value of the commodity, how
much the sum contributed to the Exchequer, and bow
much was the sheer wute and obstruction arising out
of the interference at various stages of the odious

of revenue P
This evil is now much alleviated. The customs
schedules are cleared and lightened. A vast mass of
articles are exempted altogether, or retained at a
merely nominal rate for the purposes of registration.
The tariff generally has been modified; useless die-
tinctione swept away ; and simplicity and order very
generally introduced. Much, no doubt, yet remains
to do. But meantime we are anxious to VIM the ef-
fect of what has been done in relation to that all-im-
portant question, the coat of hying to the mass of our
fellow-subjects.
We must bight by leaving out of consideration for
the moment that loweet class of indusirials wholes
wages sake but for the barest subsistence. Mr.
Poem, in an essay published anonymously SOWS six-
teen years since, gives the housekeeping expenditure
of an old woman whose grope annual revenue was
under 64 10s., sad who contrived to live upon that.
On such a nasals it is evident that alterations in the
tariff of foreign imports can have but little influence.
Rustic economists of equal severity may even now
exist, but the class is exceptional and comparativelyt.z
limited in numbers. Let us turn to the
numerically constitutes the great bulk of the nation,
the workmen, artisans, operatives, and employes
who have been prosperous or prudent enough not to
have families to maintain without being aMe to earn
a decent livelihood. To those classes, in short, in
whose favour we are able to interpret the" necessaries
of life" according to the modern and enlarged scope
of that term.
We begin our comparisons with 1818, after prices
hid settled down from the disturbances arising out of
war or peace, and before they began again to oscillate
under the first pressure of the " Bullion Ac ." And
war quotatiose will be those givers for the first week
of September in every year mentioned. Alphabeti-
cally, thee, for convenience sake.
L Cocoa, which has only lately obtained admis-
sion to the list of the poor mans necessaries, was
sold in 1818 at 31.15 e. to 6'. per cwt.; the duty Whig
for British produce la. 10d., foreign 31. per lb. Is
1828 the price was 11. 12s. to 34 125.: duty fieL
British, le. 3d. foreign. In 1838 the cost had Use
to 40s. to 50s. per cwt., and in 1848, 325. to 431; and
In the last Prices Current, 28s. to 405.-the duty in
these three last instances remaining at, British Id.,
foreign 2d. per lb.
11. Corn! in 1818 was 130.. to 1801. per cwt.,
with a duty of 3.. per lb. 101828 the duty was 841.,
British; 10d., foreign; acd the prices ramped comMI
78c 1838, at the same duty, they were freer 47e. up
to 13.5 e., according to qualities. In 1848, at dudes et
4d. and 81., the price was from the lowest, Bemeel
tr., Us., up to best Jamaica, at 1135.; and in 1830,
tbere were so prices higher than 92a., a good avenge
Ewa Indian article sill,ng at 345. to 48a. per cwt.
111. Coax has too recently come within the range
Mlle importation to afford a fair standard of a
rims Before the advent of free trade the
radii from week to week with the barometer, sad
yet more capriciously. In the particular years and
mouths we have selected, the &setts averages were
79.. 2d., 620.7 d., 71s. ltd., 465. ltd., sod 43e. 7d.
per quarter ; bat the prices were both higher and
lower than these. In a table published by Mr. Pots
ma, in the last number of the Statistical Journal, the
price of the 4-lb. loaf in London is shown to have
varied from 111 to 7d.; the higher rate occurring in
1847, and the lower that which has obtained during
and since the latter months of 1849.
IV. Under Faun are included currents and raisins
which enter every year more ly into the general
consumption of the walking classes, though still
almost considered luxuries. In 1818 the import duty
was 21.45. 4d. per cwt., and the prices in bond from
1755. to 108 a. The duty is now 160, and the prime
are-currants, 24 to 21. 12& ; raisins, 11. 7s. to
11. 17s.
V. The juice of Hors enters bat partially ictotbat
of the Englishman's natio:sal beverage. It has varied
thus : 1838, 31. 10s. per cwt.; 1848, U. 614 ;
1830, 84
VI. MEAT presents lees variation than abnoet any
other article of consumption. In September 1838 the
price of beef was 31. 4d.; santtoe, 3s. 101.; pork,
4s. 46. per stoat. Except that the letter article is
now something cheaper the rates are just the some
as those given in the Liadtakall market report for
lest week. Is Mr. Poem's Tables, already awes
timed, a seven years' return is given of the sembest
price paid for mature and beef supplied to It.
'Chooses's Hospital. It there appears that the amp
of 1848 was the same_as that of 1842, the Weems-
dials years being dearest.
VIL Mari Paerastons, aceneding to the saw
menial designation, the meet important items ere
butter sad cheese. The former seem into poet plias
(tipsily as " CAwk,'' or " In 1818 the daty
paid em foreign better was 16 per cwt., and the prise
in bond 1405.; Cork buttrisellWg at 1325. In 1838
the pries was 90a., while in 1860, ender a free imp.;
it le 70s. to 784 Cheese, protected in 1818 by a
10s. :IL duty, bashed 70s. per cwt., and is 1838, AM
emir peeleedem fall to 405. It is sew imposed
Not
eel See& psi ingligh platy semi= from MS
1114 Owe as horned varkliss gold at t sod
ea
Amoebas diessoreently ialesieed seam sale
egagemption hare has bsea obteledie talk= d
01 these articles Mr. PORT= olion la in thee
" the working claim seldom or newer leg them kg
weight, but apply at the shops for sizpownyweeth or
threepemaywerth, or whatever may be tbe ems to be
laid oat, lite demises or &terms of the article
affersdag the quantity that they receive for their
.° Better and cheese are them still apparently
coerYeed by the workman as treats, and not geoes-
lenge of
VIII. Rice, in 1818, was 60s. to 63e. leer owl., and
ditty. Ia 1850, at an entry duty of Bd. and is.,
it is to he purchased for Bs. and 12s. per cwt. It le
leageoleg adopted, bet more slowly than NO he
wished, amen the poor man's seessamige.
IX. The trade in Bosun wee keggbiliestell:
labiate navies et differential Seim game et
are not yet gadget. Belied sugar in bond sold far
108 a. to 146 e., and gems brown 465. to 701. no
duty was thee 11. 10s. ea Jemmies, and 81. on hedge
sugar. Many alterstime in the tariff and mesh ism.
craggiest in the presses of refining have been
effected, and the tens has regularly declined. The