The Express.
London, England, 1850-06-10 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, MONDAY EVENING, JUNE 10, 1850.

Commie Users, which it is expressed in one act that
"it shall aid may be lawful for them to perform:l
and whisk, ue ick;kasother, "he and they are beretty
c
severally to "‘
the gap. caTin
vees
v.:44' jaw the gm clause
rs it) NtygAZlllt ' fit." InTeihnoe tint
*ea Yeagat4 ill. e'lgerefentellt ,by the t'deposito°re LI
savings banks is urged, at the pr.aetht thee, ezereedy
on the ground that the Commis he the 'team.
tioti of the National Debt have net %Med the re-
quirements of the statute. The intredastion of the
words " Wavy slonsid so thinkYlt," 'will gite them fbr
the future entire immunity from all empsadbility for
any evitoossuesnee uniting Rom the mnifuldfmut
of their legal obligations! They may do what they
please, at nothing, "if they oo thmkjlf."
This is the last disoovery connected with this mea-
sure. We should say more reausting it if we did
not regard it u virtually &knot.- Am the cam
stands, all we are anxious for is to retain such par-
tials of the bill as can really be considered useful. i
The CHANCELLOR OP THE EXCHIQUIE would do a
popular act by following the precedent set in the
stamp ease : withdrawing his present bill and intro-
ducing a Savings Baths Bill " No. 2," based on some
such plan as we venture to suggest to him. And we
have only, in oonclueion, to trust that " As will &a
Wilk fit:

Weir the Leureateship was offered to Ikon, ho
cannily declined the St. James's laurel; he was un-
worthy of its greennesa. " An individual selected from
the literary characters of Great liritain," writes the
Wizard to the Most Noble the Marquis of HERT-
FORD, " ought not to accept of the offioe mica be were
conscious of the power of filling it respectably, and
attaining to excellence in the execution of the task it
Imposes." Thus the poet, with a moat poetic blush
et diffidence, waives aside the wreath. Eight days
elapse, and ScoTT, the self-denying bard, makes a
dna breast of it, writing on the laureateship to
Jwrtsta BAILLIE :—" If the Regent means to make
It respectable, he will abolish the foolish custom of
I. annual odes, which is a drudgery no person of
talent could ever willingly encounter, or come clear
of from, if he was so rash." Thus, in the better
judgment of Scott', the Court Poet is not to sing—
but receiving the salary, is to consider himself bound
over to keep the peace. The pension is only desirable
when taken as hush-money.
" Mr. SOCTLIZT has written some good things in
favour of the Spaniards," says the logical Prince
Regent; "and therefore the office shall be given to
him." Had SotrritaT, in his devotion to the condition
of royalty, written praieeful odes to the memory of
HENRY TUE EIOIITH, the sympathies of the later
GEORGE would have shown to posterity far lens
perplexing. However, SOUTHEY kisses the book at
the Chamberlain's Office, and returns to Keswick a
richer and a smaller man by a net income of " little
more or lees than SOL" He is to sing, if it so pleas
him, upon great public events, bat is not to chirp on
birth-days. He is to remain dumb, in order that, as
Scorn propounds, he may remain respectable. The
eagle of the laureate, like the birds of the hereditary
falconer, is a sinecurist in feathers: to ba duly fed, but
never to be required to soar.
WORDSWORTII next assumes the laurel upon the
expressed and guarded stipulation that he shall not
be called upon for a song. " Silence is pleased." Time,
however, makes the WARN'S husband Clancellor
of Cambridge, and—the occasion is so great—Mr.
WORDSWORTII cannot, as a poet and a patriot, con-
tinue dumb. A gush of me!ody is expected ; where-
upon the half-pint of Helicon is duly bottled and la-
belled " Ode." The draught is not of the brightest,
bat tolerably clear, con.idering the state of the waters,
ever troubled when drawn from on vet occasions.

WORDSWORTH, havitg dime the Ode, washes his
hands of court ink. Subsequently, engraved por-
traits of royal babes are most graciously forwarded to
bim ; but the ink remains in his inkhorn ; he never
nibs another quill.
WHITEHEAD and PEE did their utmost to make
the office of laureate coetemptible, and succeded. We
are, of coarse, referred to the names of Bate JONSON
and DaT DEN as names that made the office illustrious.

It was the pension, surely, not the love of the work,
that made the poets court sorg-birds. " The per-
quisite softened them into consent. loNsoto, in his
greatest strew, Bung it is the teeth of oatmeal JAMES
that " his soul lived in an alley." DRYDEN toak to
flattery as a thing df graceful fashion ; sporting adula-
tion, as he wore a periwig. But his day was the
hard, Egyptian day of patronage; when poets crawled
through dedications to dinners; That des is past.
" His Grace the Duke," and " the Most Noble the
Marquis," have given place to JOHN MURRAY and
Messrs. Lonnustf. Nut nobility but the people
now " keep a poet." As for hired inspiration, the
mantle worn by PYE, done into a paletot, is the only
wear of the hard of MOSES. Now, we do not sing
virtues for hire, but waistcoats—not crowns, but hate.

A dog, of any ranee of self-respect, with a tin
kettle tied to his till, acutely feels the misery and
degradation of the music he is compelled to make.
What the tin kettle is to the dog, the yearly Ode is
to the muse. The board, tf you please, bat not the
annoyance and irritation of the jangle. In one sense,
assuredly, the poets imitate the born aristocracy.
They do not denounce, refuse, the salary : their only
Biwa and conscientious objection is to the work.

Now, we object to mere sinecures, of all and every
kind. We would no more tolerate a voiceless Court
Post than we would allowance give to a Court Fal-
coner without falcons. Either the poet's yearly tong
is a necessary tribute, a part and parcel of court
ceremony, with Gold Stick, or Silver Stick; or
Ithe thing has died out. The old idea of the 'surest
has made " a swan's end, failing in music." Let the
place determine with the singing. If not, as well re-
vive the office of the court tool, bestowing the motley
with a gracious assurance that, the grave and re-
putable person accepting the livery
j is never ex-
pected to don it. As well have the ester without the
jest, as the poet without the ode.
Or shall we return to the good old times P Shall
we have, as usual, "quit rent of ode and peppercorn
of praise ?" If so, the bard of the Minories --or some
congenial spirit—is the only likely person to accept
the bays; the men who can sing, refusing to chant;
though, with lips doted to music, they have hands
open to the pay. Shall we have a renewal of the
soap-and-watery strains of WiliTe.astip ? Hear him
—a bit of him—in 1769; his swelling theme, the
Second GEORGE :
Say, shell we trees the here's flame
From the first feet'ring gale of fame,
Which bade the expanding bosom pant for praise?
Or hail the star, whims orient beam
Shed influence oa his natal hour,
What time the nymphs of Lama's stream,
Emerging from their weer, bower,
Sung their soft carols through each osier shade,
And for the pregnant fair invok'd Lucius'. aid ?
Truly this is precious stuff—virgin gold in every
line—to carry the court mark upon it! Further on,
WILITEIMAD snares us that :
To British °somas, the Kies of idts,
The tribes that rove th' Areadius snows;
Eedeem'd from Gallia's polishl
Shall breathe their voluntary vows.
In 1761, the same audacious WHITEHEAD puts the
lion akin of HERCULES on the broad shoulders of
young GEORGE the THIRD.
0 Neared truth in emblem dna !
Again the muses sing,
Again in Britain', blooming King,
Akides stands contest I

APOLLO, as interpreted by his bard in livery, thus
"strikes th' Warming lyre," and Wogs, uniting
GEORGE, alias HERCULES, and Hass, otherwise
known as Claimants :
What boon divine would heaven bestow ?
Ye rub, unbend the etuaioue brow,
The fruitless search Rive o'er,
Whilst we the jest reward assign,
Let Hercules with Helm join
And Youth unite with Power !
In 1763, Mr.WHITHIRAD,with his Muse intent upon
the baby Prince of WALES, afterwards known to the
Exchequer of England as GZOICIA the FOURTH, pro-
nounced him to be

That lovely, that unfolding row !

And, warming with the figure, Gills for musk and
wine :
Then !et hammy rt
Then let pleasure abound
While in apazkling &anima*
Them wishes so toned
Are we to have this •' strain an," for it seems
that no man, with real music in his soul, will take the
laureateship, if the lyre is to aooompany it. The
solid pudding may be digested, but no em $y praise
returned. It is stated that Mr. Room, on the easy
plea of years, has declined the honour of the post, the

hoer, if possible, enhanced by the proposed abeli-
tics of salary. Various propositions have been made
as to the bestowal of the wreath, whether gilt or
sils. 'lt has bees held that the °Bios should he
tinselly renewed, promoting worthier bars Ie al
worthier should arise. Whither, like the yearly
Lan Milton, the court poet elmalfi be sworn •
in at Westminster, countieg the halm of the
tge ermine, to test his powers of widt-
hs§ made no put of the proposaL In default
of the gold coach, possibly he might be allowed to- go
ander his own umbrella— Again, certain_ Wise hive
been puts forward as meet eligible to tune the warily
lyre. the isereteign being a Qum's. Be it so. Ne-
vertheless, thcsameliae of mutest may apply to
other and loftier stations. 14 became of a Cicero,
We are to have, not a poet, but a poetess laureate,
why not a Lady Chamberlain and a Mistress of the
Gold Stick P
That mysterious person Pawn lone—according
to old MANDEVILLE—kept no court poet, had no
yearly presentation of ode, know nothing of strophe
and anti-strophe; nevertheless there was held, in the
court of Joint, a castom that, should the laureateship
• be abolished, might be considered with a view of
affording an easy means of duty to any distinguished
intellect that royalty might be disposed to honour.
" And they carry before him (Pareven Joutm) a
platter of gold full of earth, in token that his noble-
ness, and his might, and lre flesh, shall turn to
earth." The poet might, am a tenure of office, supply
the earth; the court, 01 course, finding the golden
platter. There would be a significant morality in
' this; a wholesomer and deeper meaning than any
conveyed by the dirty adulation of a WHITEHEAD or
the froth of a PTa.

FRANCE.

PARIS. SATURD&T.

_.
The Dotation Bill is to be examined by the bu-
reaux to-day before the public sitting.
A second meeting of the Rue de Rivoli Club took
place yesterday, to delibarite on the Dotation Bill.
No definitive resolution was come to. It was agreed
to leave the question open.
The (Meanie Club of the Rue Richelieu, headed
by M. Placatory and Jules de Lastcyrie, have de-
cided ou supporting the b 11.
The newspapers of the Lower Rhine mention a
singular dodge in the beefier; of the coneervativea far
throwing out Emile de Girardin. It is said that the)
will withdraw their candidate, M. Carideo Mliihr, in
order to support Leichtenberger, the moderate repub-
lican candidate.
By order of the President of the Itepublie a statue
in bronze is to be:erected to M. Gay Lessee. It Hill
be placed in the neighbourhood oft one of the amphi-
theatres where he gave lectures.
The establishment of a discount office for railway
shares is said to have been decided upon. The Mi-
nister of Finance has approved the statutes, and de-
puted M. Lemaitre, an employ% of the finance depart-
'Lent, to preside at the board of the new office.
A third bill for reorganising the government ef •he
French colonies, prepared by the colonial committee
presided be M. de Broglie, has been sent up to the
Conseil d'Etat.
M. E. Lagrange'.(of the Gironde) has submitted to
the Assembly a bill for subjecticg theatres to the
authority of the Minister of the Interior and the pre-
fects of departments until the passing of a special law.
A voluminous report, by M. Lerochejacqta lin, on
the bill for completing the Emperor's tomb, was die.
tribu'el yesterday to the representatives.
A decree of the Prefect of the Seine rels:in; to the
formation of the new electoral hats has then
The
u
The Prep. sse contains a petition to the National As-
sembly prayirg for the reduction of all taxes to one,
e hich is to coning. of an impost upon the capital of
each individual paid by monthly portions.
Several arrests have been lately made at Lyons.

SUNDAT AFTERNOON.

Yesterday was signalised by three important re-
sults, each of which was a smart check to the party of
reaction. The article which prevented the retrospec-
tive application of the punishment of tran:portation
was maintained in the Assembly, although by a dimi-
nished majority. By far the grea'er part of the com-
mittee chosen on the Dotation Bill are hostile to it,
and the voting in the bureaux, commonly regarded
as a test of how measure, will be disposed of, give a
majority of 79 against the present prop eition.
Thirdly, thanks to the independence of the jury of
the tribunal of the Seine, and to the sp:rited defence
of M. Billault, the Erenement, prosecuted for exciting
to hatred against the government, was acquitted. This
acquittal, coupled with the condemnation of M. Lan-
grand, the editor of the Voix dri People, seems to trace
the limits between which the liberal press may range
without being subjected to the persecution of the go-
vernment on the one hand, or transgressing on the
other the bounus of a reasonable forbearance. In the
debate of the Bth clause of the 'Transportation Bill,
General Fabvier diatingui.hed himself by an able and
generous speech, in which he eulogi-ed the behaviour
of Colonel Guivard, one of the prisoners of Duullene,
when under his command. The Transportation 81.1,
about which 93 much excitement has prevailed, is,
therefore, finally disposed of; and now the prisoners
sentenced by the high courts of Bourges and Ver-
sailles may get up and go to bed without troubling
their heads whether the two square miles of the val-
ley of Nanlahiva are arid slopes of inaccessible moun-
tains, as M. Dupont de Bussao affirms, er a delig.oful
region, shaded by the fig and banana, and fanned by
temperate zephyrs, as is averred by the Minister id
Marine and Admiral Dupetit Thouars, with the Blight
drawback of a contagious malady, which crams the
hospitals with disabled seamen. General Baraguay
d'Hilliere, by the way, signified, by en interjection at
this p usage of the report, that Rime in thie respect
might compete with the Marquesas Isles.
Yesterday there was some private mention in the
Assembly of a visit made by M. Rigel to the Ely see, for
the purpose of demonstrating to the President, by the
help of those statistical documents concerning the
electoral law for which the honourable member
moved some time back, that the six millions of French-
men who had returned Louis Napoleon to the presi-
dent's chair would be, with few exceptions, all dis-
franchised by the new electoral law. The President
answered : " You are mistaken. The law only applies
to the election of the National Assembly. The Pre-
sident will continue to be chosen according to the
law for his election made by the Constituent
Assembly."
Tne debate in the bureaux upon the bill fur in-
creasing the president'. 'salary, and the unfavourable
composition of the committee chosen, already
loudly proclaim the blunder made in bringing
reread this inauspicious law. There prevailed
on Thursday an impression that the repugrance
evinced by various sections of the majority could dis-
appear before the manifest evil and danger of dis-
union at a moment when the democratic par'', are
smarting under repeated provocations, and would in-
fall47 redouble the activity of their secret and open.
oppffiition on the fleet hint of discord among their
adversaries. But eight aad forty hours have sufficed
to dissipate the flattering hopes drawn by the govern-
ment from the tone of subordination and adhesion
which masked for a moment the reluctance of the
bulk of the legitimists and sober conservatives to
sanction so unseasonable and immodest an application.
In the meantime the serene prospect of the moment
trapped ministers into a declaration that they Is onld
reject all modification of the bill, and stake their ex-
istence on its passing unmutilated. This, at le let, is
the interpretation given to the speeches of Bowie,
Itouheri and Fould. On the other hard, the
authorised announcement of the Conqattaimittel
that the President will not hear of a middle course,
and declines any transaction which would merely go
the length of paying his debts by an extraordinary
grant, while Ins allowance remains unaltered, lends a
still more serious aspect to the perplexities of the
situation.
Of the fifteen members chosen on the committee,
five only are friendly to the law; the remain:og ten
havo either declared distinctly their opposition to it,
or have admitted only the principle of a grant once
for all, without introducing any permanent alteration
into the President's salary. If. therefore, the minis-
ters persist in their resolutiou to admit no mo-
difloation at present, there appears, to say the
least, room foe a strong presumption that the
bill will be thrown oat. The mobility and va-
cillation of the Centre of the Assembly has, however.
I latterly been exhibited on so many oevasions, that
little reliance can be placed in the sincerity of its
moods. A month ago there was a minority of 60 in
favour of the nonretroective clause of the Transpmta-
tion Bill. Yesterday it appeared that this minority
had melted down to 16 natters of it had

• Vol Account.
PARIS, )rive S. Yor
Money. Opening Uninest. Lowest. Closing
per Cent 5......... .56 15 40 56 0 36 10 36 10
3 per Conte— —.. 93 25 91 75 94 0 93 30 93 43
S do. Kew Loan.„ „ rr is Fs
41 per Cents..
per Cents .......

5. 007 C 8991 ....... ,
... . so I • I ' •.
f.toliangs on Loakm:n at sight, 15 523; II lay., :5 42(.
Usigi.m, 5, 1411
De. 5, 1642
Do. 41
Do. S
Plefhrennt 5 per Cents. P 6 85 „ Rank Shares
&mass— M. Oermain, —; Versailles (right bank), 160 ; Do.
(left bask), 140; Paris and Orleans, 700; Paris and Bonen,
562 50; Sousa and Heirße. 225; Marseilles and Avignon, 176;
Strasbourg and Bale, PM 75; Orleans and Vierann, 345 ; Orleans and
Bordeaux, 390 ; North, 447 50; Paris and ilersabourg, 335; Tours
and Nantes, 317 30; Mailman and Troyes, 93 50.