The Express.
London, England, 1850-05-15 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MAY 16.

AN eel knocked upon the head is soon quiescent in
that vital part; bat the tail continues to twist and
agitate for a coosiderable time. So is it with pro-
tection. Nothing can be more grave and silenaous
than the attacks of Mr. DtsnAlm ; nothing more
decorous, temperate, and loyal than the language of
Lord STANLEY. He sees no use in making motions
in either house of parliament, nor in addresses to her
MAJESTY. nor in aoy agitation more active, than
will suffice to keep the agriculturist voters staunch to
protectionist candidates at the time of election. Lord
STANLEY'S sole hope lies in the bland countenance
and ambiguous laagone of the whigs. They are
polite, therefore they are wavering. They still call
free trade an experiment, at which Lord STANLEY'S
heart bounds for joy. What PEEL has done, they
may undo.
We have really no reason to complain of this attitude
ur this language on the part of protectionist chiefs.
In their pueition they could not be expected to say
less. It would be too much to ask of them to fling
away their only pilitical capital. How could they
be lees lavish of argument or more chary of either
facts or demonstration?

Au know, however, the clam of men who are ready
to

Rush in 'Amnesia fear to tread.

And, accordingly, General GRANTLEY BERKELET
took the field, with Colonel SIBTIIORP and Mr.
PLUMPTRE for his aides-de-camp. How they marched
and manguvred is well known to all frequenters of
such parliamentary field dais. It was precisely the
same old evolutions, the same assertions, the same
complaints, of which even the little that is truth, has
so lost all novelty as to fall dead upon the ear.
Of course abuse of Manchester made op the greater
part of protectionist elcquence. As if Manchester',
alone was impatient of a small loaf and a dear one.
Or as if Manchester put into its strong box all that
the landlords were no longer allowed to overcharge.
In Janehester, however, large or exorbitant profits
were impossible. Were such found to exist for ever
so short a time, competition of capital would
~on reduce it. And then the cotton spinners would
not hays the resource of a parliamentary majority
or their interests to which they could appeal for
indemnity and protection wiliest the alternations
of trade. A great portion of Manchester is
losing at the present moment in every pound of
cotton that it spins. But it continues to spin
and to lose, awaiting the turn of the tide when it
ccu'd spin and gain. Whereas the corn grower hies
t) pirliament ta be exempt from the fluctuations both
of the seasons and of trade. He demands a
fixed income by virtue of the merits of
his ancestor', when nothing was more un-
fixed in nature or art than the amount or the
price of agricultural produce. An owner or a culti-
vator of land ought Lever to say, " I am worth so
much a year, which I can mortgage cr spend without
thought of to-morrow." He should, on the contrary,
be like the trader, contented to rise or fall with the
goodness of the seasons, the state of the markets, and
the fluctuations of commerce.

There were no doubt advantage. in having a large
spending c'a•s. And it might be proposed that, in
order to keep up this spending clue, a tax should
lericd on the rest of the community. This tax, if
alight, might be little felt by the mass who paid, and
would be the greatest boon to the few who received.'
And the existence of such a functionary aristo-
cracy might, we repeat, be most desirable in
many senses. But who could in justice pro-
pose it ? Or in case that it was found
to exit, and to have spring up under the in-
fluence of circumstance., who could propose ils con-
ticuance, from the moment that the eyes of the people
aho paid the tax were open to it ?
We have no doubt there is some distress at present
in our spending clam. Rents of arable farms have
i been generally reduced some 10 per cent., and far-
mers may this year, as in any past year of protection,
have found even this diminished rent hard to pay.
They may told on in a hope of better times, just as
the cotton spinners do. If better prices do not come,
the landlord mu t lower his rent, whilst the cotton
spinner must stop his mill. In the latter's case Lis
capital would thin be gone. But the land, legislate
for it as we will, can always feed those who till it,
and afford an abundant surplus in one species of food
or value or another to the owner. And in cor.fl-
ence of th's, the a2riculturista cling to what
cannot be a losing trade after all. As to the wages
of the labourer, of which so mach was said, and
which was tte largest item of agricultural expense,
food made the chief portion of it, and the fair share
of that which he himself produced might always be
afforded him, and was independent of rise or fah in
price.
Be this as it may, parties in parliament seem for tae
present not inclined to go into principle., bat are con-
tent to rest their arguments upon prices. A debate some
weeks back would thus have been moat unfavourable
to free traders. The protectionist., however, with-
out their usual felicity, deferred any discussion on the
subject until the very werk, in which it became mani-
fest that prices were rising both in home markets
and foreign ports. Accordingly, Mr. GRANTLEY
BERKELEY merely opened his month in order to have
it stopped at once.

MR. WHISTON has published a fourth edition of his
pamphlet, " Cathedral Trusts and their Ful ilment,"
in which the additional research is so great and the
object in view ea much better defined and enlarged,
as to be suggestive of regret, that, instead of en-
larging an old pamphlet, he had not written a new
work, and separated his personal wrongs from the
general subject. Thon,;h, perhaps, all that he
has done is so novel in investigation and so practical
in its tendencies, as to render any criticism on the
means of communication, a little ungrateful.
Mr. WeifsToe, as our readers know, treats only
of the cathedrals of the new foundation, in num-
ber thirteen ; and of these he shows, by a close
examination of their original scheme, that one of their
objects wu education. In truth, had it not been for
these new ecclesiastical establishments, the reforma-
tion would, by the destruction of monasteries where
not only a certaia amount of tuition wee provided for
the poor, bet whence :youthful merit aas sent to and
maintained at the universities, have been ruinous to
education and learning. It w.:seety much to supply,
in a better form, a retreat fcr learned men and iustrue-
tion to youth, that these cathedral institutions were
founded by HENRY VIII. And in the schemes of
these establishments, education accordingly occupies
a very prominent place.
Very great care and nicety seem to have presided
over the preparation of these schemes. After fixing
on the property to be &feigned the new foundation,
its current yearly value appears to have been accu-
rately ascertained, and its division in certain stated
and definite proportions and amounts so precisely
fixed as to completely exhaust the annual receipts.
The stipends of the dean, the canons, and other
officers of the establishment, the amount to bs ap-
the education and - = of a certain

plied to t. _ maintenance a
number of grammar scholars, and of the pick of those
scholars at the universities, in almost all cases bear
the same rate to each other; as if to indicate the
royal intention as to the proportion in which all
should be benefited by the growth of the value of the
property, in which each was given a rateable interest.
In these schemes and statutes three principles are
apparent: —l. That all members of the foundation
were to have fixed and rateably stipends. 2. That
these stipends, so limited, determined, aid appor-
tioned, exhausted the original revenues. 3. that,
wanting any authority for division amongst particu-
lar members of any ►urplus, after payment of the