The Express.
London, England, 1850-06-13 00:00:00

MOM IFATII2I AT LOXDON
.14KILION.

Tat 1:14;:11/.4;;;L1%.6 Aftemooe. 4% 21m.
T.4444a4.—Namilifi. Aftwooes. to. 124 a.

LONDON, TIIIIRSDAY, JUNE 13.

Loin WitaneteLars has undertaken to lecture the
public in general, and tho Mane of CiraMollll in par-
ticular, on the subject of the proposed change in the
constitution of the a entire government of Ireland.
Unable to restrain his exuberant wisdom until the
measure should reach that branch of the legislature
of whic't through the inscrutable will of Providence,
persons Of his intellectual s.rt are members, his 10-d-
-ship rushes into print and, in the space of twenty-five
of Mr. Ittnoxwar's lent crowded pages. proves, we
think moat conclusively, bow very little he knows about
the =titer on which he volunteers his opinion. A duller
or emptier production we have never read. It asserts,
that one Home-office in Lyndon would be better than
two, provided one could do the business as well as
two. It then insinuates what nobody will deny, that
" Sir JAMES GRAMM is twice as clever as any two Sir
WILLIAM SOMERTILLES —ergo" Ireland and England
ought to be given in charge to the same able and expe-
rienced Land, instead of each be•ng left to an inferior
sort of man. But it needs no logic to expose the silly
and stupid inc3nclusivenese of psendo.resslning like
this. Departments ought to be organised without
respect of persons. The Home-office, even in the
days when the Knight of Netherby reigned and
ruled there, had quite enough to do. The
Irish office,_ in like manner, whether in the
days of NoiniaNßT and DRUMMOND, or in
those of CLARENDON and REDINGTON, has never
lacked occupation. To tumble the mountain of papers
of the one into the already crammed chambers of the
other might aid in creating embarrassment and con-
fusion. To burn all Irish letters and document', and
treat Irish wants as oely entitled to regard in the
few instances where they are indistinguishable from
English wants, would only swell the too full tide of
just and bitter discontent, to organise an adminiates-
.ive falsehood, and to set at nought the bread and
perilous fact that the circumstances, feelings, interests,
and wish., of the two nations are not alike or the
same. Under a system like that which land WUARN-
CLIFFE recommends, all the paean; specialitica of 1
Ireland's conai•ion—evirytbing in shirt which pecu-
liarly demands sepirate and distinct legislation—
would be overlooked or disregarded. Lot one example
suffice.

By the union, the Established Cuurches in the two
kingdoms were declared to be united. This was done
avowedly with the view and for the purpme of
strengthening that fart delat-V of conquest and sub-
jugation. Every one who has the intelligence to
comprehend or toe heart to own the flagrant enormity
of maintaining by the sheer brute force of a garrison
of thirty thousand men, that insulting badge
of national degradation, well knows that
so long u it remains there can be neither
peace in Ireland nor international fusion. Yet
what does Lord WHARNCLIFFE and his fellow-bigots
propose ? Why, that in order mve effectually, as
they ignorantly dream, to efface all legal or *Wett-
able distinction between the two countrii s, " the one
hand and eye" should have the administrative control
over both; calculating, cunningly enough, that they
will have entangled the Irish church vestion in new
difficulty, when neither in the written law or in the
executive office will it be possible to sever the soi-
disunt united churches of England and Ireland. The
scheme u proposed to be modified by them is a high
church dodge, short-sighted and vain as all such
schemes are, but disingenuously put forward as usual
upon mock reasons and through an nuuspected be-
cause uninflaential medium.

We must say that the longer the project has been
before the public the stronger the conviction we ori-
ginally expressed becomes, that the modification it
requires to make it workable or safe, is not is the
direction of more intense and exclusive centralisation,
but exactly in the opposite direction. Nobody
except some scars of Dublin tradesmen cares about
the mere viceroyalty. Nobody else in reality cares
how soon that poor pageant is suppressed. But
every man of muse or feeling apprehends the conse-
quences which may ensue from the sudden and entire
transfer of the local government to Downieg-street
from Dublin. And a more cool specimen of hardi-
hood we seldom remember to have perused than Lord
WiLutxmant's aastrtion that the Irish people gene-
rally are in favour of the change. It is perfectly no-
torious that the only party in Ireland who have
uttered a syllable in its favour have been the ultra-
repeal, or, rather, the separatist party, avowedly upon
the ground that they hope from it to derive a
great increase of discontent and disaffection. But
from loyal men, or from friends to constitutional
pesos and progress, not a petition has been
presented, not a declaration has emanated, not an
utterance has been heard. Aud it is no unfair spe-
cimen of the insolent contempt for Irish feeling or
ignorant disregard of Irish opinion which pervades
the dominant and grasping oligarchy of this country,
that a man like Lord WHARNCLIFFE is to be found
putting his name in print to a statement so utterly
and foolishly false.
We cannot help regretting the character which the
debate of Monday last assumed ; consisting as it did
almost exclusively of an altercation without practical
purpose between the unqsalifir d supporters of the
ministerial plan and its unqualified opponents. Still
more do we deplore the attempt which was made
to cushion all free or calm discussion, by resisting
the adjournment of the house before any oce of the
more moderate or thoughtful men among the Irish
representatives had had an opportunity of expressing
his opinion.. Sir It. Pam. did himself infinite
credit by the manly part he took in resisting this
lamentable and abortive endeavour to throw an air of
unimpvtanceon the question at issue. It is emphati-
cally a question on which Irish members have a
right to be beard; and neither the government nor
the House of Commons will accomplish any useful or
equitable purpose by the abuse of their power as re-
gards them.
The reasonable men among the Irish, both in and
out of parliament, object, not to the transformation of

the vieeroyalty into a fourth suereterpalp of state,
bat to the bluishness el the degertmost from Ire-
load to England. They well knew that if the letter
be accomplished their eirelatien from all jut Infleesee
in the eondset of their own affairs will be Baal and
errepliMe. A deter sr adroit debater in tbs Hose of
Cemnime may be taken np u a speral tool by the
minister of the day t bat legitimate or Mr Minims
ea the modest of the Irish affair* there will be none.
♦gitation sad menace will be again resorted to as the
sole metal of extertiegeossinione t but la tbe dreary
intimate between emelt conveleire starts parliamen-
tary corraptim will preened anehoelted, sod the dis-
heartened sad distracted maim will eentinne to be
a prey to morbid dimontent.
•

Tan Canty Courts Extension Bill stands for con-
sideration by the Howe of Commas to-night, Radtke
vase contain the notice of twenty-tour new and addi-
tional clauses which eight different members intend
to a sad commentary upon the knowledge
an sufficiency of the committee of the whole house
by which the bill has been already amended. It is
not possible for us here to discuss the nature and
effect of these several new clauses. The objects in
tended to be effected by them are for the most part
desirable and important. We have already dangly
expressed oar opinion that a limit should be placed on
the present discretionary power of a judge to
order payment of a debt by such instalments as
be in the caprice of the moment may cheese; and
have urged the propriety of enabling parties, through
the agency of a small debt court, to settle their debts
by the same cheap means as are available in the sups- I
nor courts. We admit that sums plan should be
devised by which an uniformity of decision by the
various county courts judges should be established,
though whether the appeal chines proposed by Mr.
Caownza offer the simplest plan may admit of differ-
ence of opinion ; and we are sorry that the practice of
some county courts should have been such as to justify
the amendment of Mr. WC:Uttar:Ml for promoting the
de:ent and orderly administration of justice within
them. But we still doubt `whether this kind of
chance medley mode of legislation is fitting in
respect to a subject so extensive, and which
involves interests so large. Altogether we entertain
little hope that the bill, as amended on recommittal,
will be such as to give to the mercantile public an
equal substitute for the remedies which they now
possess, and which the House of Commons declares
to be in its judgment insufficient. We much fear
that the doubts which will be open, and the law
which will be unsettled, will much more than coun-
terbalance any advantage which can be gaiued by a
creclitor by the more summary remedy, which, nomi-
nally, may be conferred upon him by this bill.
As one illustration of such doubts, we would ask
the members of the House of Commons whether it is
intended by this bill to abolish arrest for debt for
sums exceeding 201., but not exceeding 501. Such,
apparently, will be the effect, if the bill be adopted
as it now stands with the proposed amendments.
Whether, however, the County Courts Extension
, Act will be also an act for the abolition of arrests for
I debt for sums not exceeding 501. cannot be confidehtly
stated until the bill is through committee ; and if tt
should be so, the change is too important to be dis-
peed of in a cursory m
It is sufficient for us to allude to the possibility of
such a result as springing from the measure as now
before the house, and as proposed to be amended, and
to urge from thence the strong necessity of some
better supervision of the laws submitted to and made
by the House of Commons than is provided by their
present forms of procedure: In fact, the want of
some proper party, responsible for the cohe-
rency and legal propriety of the language
of the statutes of parliament is a serious
growing and crying evil. Evi ry session is occupiid
in remedying the blunders of previous sessions, and
the general interes's of the public are sacrificed to the
plosion for law making which expands in the bosoms
of m mbers, unab'e to expound toe meanin; or effect
of any one of the simplest laws which may be found
in the statute book, whose dimensions they sill con-
tr;terte to swell. This should not be, and cannot be
endured much longer. Parliament and the committee
of the whole house should discuss and determine
the principle of the measures submitted to them,
and agree upon the heads of the bills which
may, be necessary to carry out such principle;
bur the bills themselves shout I be prepared, or settled
and approved by some competent person, who would
be responsible for the due discharge of his important
duties without favour or partiality. Until some
method of this sort be adopted the character of the
House of Commons fur roundness of legislation, will
not stand where it ought; and the constant recurring
spectacle of No. 1 and No. 2 bills, pro forma commit-
tees, and re-committals, will take place, to the detri-
ment of the usefulness of an assembly whose charac-
ter it is the interest of every E,giishman to sustain.
To return to the more immediate subject of our
remarks, we trust the the County Courts Ex-
tension Bill will be discussed to-night with a care
befitting the question. The House of Com-
mons is under a serious responsibility respecting it.
It permitted the introduction of a bill which would
have been most injurious to the whole commercial
community, and the provisions of whichwere actually
at variance with the very principles of a county court
judicature. The amendments in the committee
very little improved this defective bill, and the
house now proceeds to the consideration of the
subject, after having heari the opipion of the
merchants &col traders of Lout. and Manches-
ter respecting it. Against their sentiments may
be quoted the opinion of a noble lord in
another place on Monday night, who affirmed
1 that the bill, as it originally stood, met his approba-
tion, and that he only objected So the amendments •
I bat as that noble lord at the emselosion of his 'peel;
said that he considered that the use of county courts
tart all debts above 20/. should be optional, and not
cskabory, and then expressed himself in direct op-
-1 Watson to the bill, as it originally stood, such
an opinion cannot disturb the House of Commons
to-night in their legislative labours.

Ir the subject of Indian Railways has not been
recently discussed in this journal, it has e?rtainly not
been from any diminished interest in the subject, or
from any doubts as to the benefi's such facilities of
communication will confer on India ; bat rather from
an inability to comprehend what was really doing in
the matter. For on no topic has there been " more
cry and lees wool" than on Indian Railways. And
beyond vague expressions of a desire from all parts of
the house to see India reticulated with railways, and
wordy promise+ of support from that official optimist,
Mr. JAMES WILSON, and from that governmental
pessimist, Sir lons HODIIOUSE, on behalf of the
Board of Control, we are unable to think that the
subject, at least in Bengal and Bombay, has really
been much advanced by the discussion on Lord
JOCELYN'S motion.

Lord JOCELYN has, we presume, obtained assur-
ances that the Fact India Company will give the
same terms to a railway undertaking in the Madras
presidency, as it has already aocorded to simile:un-
dertakings in Bengal and Bombay ; and very liberal
terms, it must be admitted they are—viz., land for
nothing, a guarantee of 5 per cent. for 99 years on
the estimated amount of their cost, and an obligation
to take them off their proprietaries' hands at
any time daring such term at their actual cost. But
these terms being granted, and the capital being Bab-
scribed for, the railways so favoured don't appear to
advance at all. In Bengal all that has as yet been
fixed is the point of departure; but whither for, no
one seems to know with any exactitude. And in
Bombay, scarcely has the line been laid down, than
confidence in its success and in the wisdom of the
choice made has evaporated.
Without having any plan of railroads of our own to
offer India, we cannot think that the schemes in pro-
grass are characterised by much wisdom. India is so
vast a country, the natural difficulties which obstruct
improved communications are so great, and the pecu-
niary difficulties are so much greater, that the utmost
care ought to be taken to economise public works.
Now the first jorinciple of such economy is to avoid
competition. But this is exactly the principle against
which the projected railways offend. The East India
Railway Company proposes to make a line from Cal-
cutta 72 miles inwards, in direct rivalry with the
Ganges; and the Peninsular Company, in laying
dowu a railroad for 33 miles across the islands of
Bombay and Salsette to Cellian, rushes into hot and
parallel competition with what Lord JOCELYN very
truly described as the zest water communication
in the world." Such schemes are neither economi-
cally sound nor politically advantageous. What is
wanted is first to open up the countries and provinces

whisk are not so favoured with natural means of
sommunicatios. To our thinking the point of de-
parture for allengal railway ought to be from a spot
diverging from the Ganges, and la Bombay from a
point Go the main laid, set hem the twins of Bombay,
so amply previiipi Ira ash. asap, and speedy inter-
Dour. with the ensefie
In Bomber Si egilnisa seems to have lend favour
and support, 0.2,61k7 when it is a little too We to be
usefully esteets sad applied. For, just as orders
to commence the lime acmes the islands to Callian
are received, and just as the intended contractors are
rive, out comes Colonel GIANT'S very remarkable
tract on the subject, demonstrating (for that word is
sosreasly too strong), that the lies which ought to be
selected is from the east towards Poonah ; and
scarcely bee this pamphlet been read when down go
the shares of the guaranteed company in Bombay,
thereby proving how deep is the public response to
Colonel GRANT% opinion..
• This, of course, puzzler people at home, and dis-
turbs confidence in railway undertakings in so dis-
tant a oonntry as India. Mr. Wasore, to be sure,
with a semis of the difficulty, now states tea the
Bengal and Bombay lines hitherto sanctioned are
only experimental lines; and will, when finished, be
carried onwards. But had Mr. Witaor any autho-
rity to make such a statement P And does the Eest
India Company hold itself bound and pledged by this
assurance of a Secretary of the Board of Control, which
was nut repeated by his superior, its President P
These are inquiries which require solution before
much confidence can be placed in such state-
ments; and, until it be given, there will remain an
amount of uncertainty about these undertakings, and
of the intentions of the East India Company, that will
prejudice them in public opinion.
The line taken up and advocated by Lord JOCELYN
has, it mart be admitted, more probable elements of
wooers than either of those as yet guaranteed
by the East India Company. It is a line from Madras,
where there it a population of 600,000 and a large
export trade to Moot, about 70 Miles in the interior,
where is iollectrd all the native produce that finds its
way down to Madras from the ceded provinces and
the other fertile districts that diverge from Wallajag-
nuggur, as the native town of Arcot is called. The
only objection to this line is what its promo-
ters put forth as its chief recammendation, that
between the two paints there is already the
best road in India, only finished within the
last few years, at a cost of not less than
7001. a mile to the Indian Treasury. But, on the
other hand, the country is so level as scarcely to r--
quire more than ballasting fora railroad ; nature itself
has almost made a line ; and the traffic is at present
so great on the road—nearly 300 tons of goods a day—
as to require additional accommodation. Therefore,
urges Lord Joe:ELY:4 and his supporters with
great cogency, if an experimental railroad
be needed, the experiment will be most ad-
vantageously tried between Madras and Arcot,
where a single line of rail will not, in all pro-
bab.lity, cost 4,0001. a mile. While, thee, Bengal has
gat a guarantee on n million sterling for its experi-
mental line of 7t) mike, and Bombay a guarantee on
halt' a million for 33 miles, Lord Joczt.re only asks
for a similar guarantee on some 400,000/. to make 72
miles ref railway in Madras. And thin guarantee, if
we understand the debate, he is to have, on present-
ing a perfectly formed and responsible company to
the India House.

This is nothing but fair play to the Madras pre;
sidetuy ; and late thlugh it be in the day before it
has obtained this promise, there is even yet ample
time enough for Madras to be the first presidency that
shall give a railroad to India; and with brighter
prospects of pecuniary sweets than tither Bengal or
Bombay at present.