The Express.
London, England, 1850-02-26 00:00:00

Ole enirm.

OUTGOING MAILS.
The mails for Liable., Spain. and Oihra,:ir wAI 111 V!.
ap to.morrow morning, Feb. 27.
The West India Mails, including Bermuda,
Nassau, Ho-durso, New Orleans, and Metioo,and
those for Madeira, St. Juan.de-N,cara.rua, New ,•:
Chili, and Perumill be made up on March 2.

Th* mails forMaderia,tke Brasil., and Buenos An
h.e nage up on the evening of March 4.

The mails Ma Marseille:, to the Mediterraresn.
Ceylon, India, Hoag-Kong, &c., will be made sp
evening of March 7.
The mails for British North Amelia and •he 1
States will be made up on the eeening of Marsh S.
The mails for Gibraltar, Malta, Greer, •te I. man I
Egypt, Ceylon, ladle, and Chins, Ma Souttaatipt
be stuie up on the morning of March 21.

NIGH WATER AT LONDON nEll•OF-
Tat. 1).•—llonalm. u. 46u..........tErm • •••. 2 •
wawa:, an ....... Al•Mlooe, 1.

LONDON, TUESDAT, FERRI-ART 26

MR. Ht•Atst will to-night subMt a moron !o :'is
House of Commons that a drawback to a lo,c, d
bricks and timber employed in the co!,struc
cottages the rent of which may be under 1.. ;
annum. Nothing can be more rersonAb:e. ; •
drawback is allowed on bricks and timber a
the construction of churches, and there is :.2
whatever upon bricks which arc used for pulp ,sit
of drainage. These are weighty precedents !-.1 A
drawback upon bricks used in constructing •
dwellings of the poor; bat precedents are by 7.)
means the strongest arguments in favour :* • I
motion. Enter one of the cottages

poor : survey the labouring man's " iete•
in town or country and say whether it is C-.ri.•:.•
tax the materials by which such dwelling. tr.:. .•
improved? There are parts of Erg:and in •
clothing of the labouring classes are bud: .•:
in other districts they are constructed of •
very many parts their buildings are of
up with mortar ; elsewhere of plank.. and
frequently, along the coast, of an old 6C3: r• id
upside down. Any one who may have r.aa
601)01-NUN OSBORNES letters must know 's
the condition of the labourers' hi uses in Pon..
Here is an account of some of the lodging of !!:e •••;:-•••
cultural population of Buckingham :
We have entered. measured, and searched
mud abodes, in which there is only one renn
and atm her above stairs. Some of thine roan!, arc
than eight feet square. The height of some io tl
mansions is about four feet ten inches from th, ti r
ceiling. They are hiss, damp, badly
fit for human beings to dwell in. Numb. r•
built of what the pour people call " wattle snd . :
asquantly they are too weak to support a root. on l t'. Bra.
tiling poor ore thus in coustant danger of beirg
their own mud graves. To save lite, they ore 1.
necessity of ueit g props to support the place •
sleep. We have seen as many as nine or tilt Ft .> . •
small hovel in Buckinghamshire.
Here is an account from Oxfordshire :
Part of the county of Ozforkl is very tt to ohs: ••-•:
very wet weather whole villages prraen, we •ppei roi .
sheet of water. As the cottages ore
water reaches the poor both through the rot And ill
-
the thor. The eottsgers who are thus espon .1
hole in the back part of the aa•eall.,l ro ;Lt.) sv.l
rain finds its way, and from which it in bikes and •
out. The sleeping apartment in to". aaa c a ot .
is so low, that a girl or bay ol 12 or 14 yeors ot age
stand upright in any part of the Attie. except
place where the so-called bed stands. As their r., c
for a staircase, the degraded cottsgers climb up a • .
•
der, but only one at a time can retire to lost ;
three were to go up at the same time they would bo
other's way. We have visited a number of throe
vels in 13uckinghamshire, which have bent built e
'"
ie
to time by the people themselve, mid in eagh ••;,i
found one or two large open holes i.I the wa11...
single pane of g p
loss ; the oor men I- ft boles for o
I but they have never been able to hos, them put in ..1
holes may be usetul in summer, but they are the A •
the people in winter.
It not unfrequently happens that landlori!. ict
to
answerable for these things, but this i• by no
universally the case; and where the poor man t•
aponeiblo for the repairs of his own
thing like substantial reformation is rendered pi
impossible by the cost of anything like iiii!,!••
materials. A working man may give n p•
his time and labour Govt money it I' '•'';
difficult for him to pde, end without 11,1'•
be cannot procure bricks. For. be it renieni..:•,".
no poor man under the existing syst.in can
own brick.. If he were to concert a singl .
••
,
clay, though it lay at his own r s'rp, into •
,es'
to mend his wall with, he would be liable to
ya
to the Excise! Every working man, thereto,
wants to repair his own dwelling is driven Fel°

to ore stud. or wattles, or thatch, or some other
wretched substitute for the material which almost
every ate of the world has recognised as the legiti-
mate material for building.
No one can expect to find morality or contentment
asitcl with a broken roof or a falling wall. Them
are abundant proofs that the high rate of rents created
be the brick duty, amongst other things, has a most
rissoirous effect upon the habits of the poor. The
Bee. Pr. OILLT, 006 of the osnoss of Durham and
incumbent of a large parish in Northumberland. has
&ea the following picture of the stabs of the
dwrlangs of the poor in that part of England:
lahourrs of this county are proverbially "heady,
thrif.e. sad w• 11. informed ; and the lest view of the interior
of • eof their cottegee—weU famished, well swabbed, sad
repleniehed—would lead a stream to suppose that all
s• it emit to be. Bat even la this imam' diserkk pub.
he b, sub sad goblin! Meese, are salmis. booths mashed
mai et army ef dee \ striation', while the modem and
lamas of the meet emelleat sad eiseerviag body of mss in
the mold," an seerifieed I. Matteatin sod aegleet.
Very 'ew mown have say secommodatios whatever for
the male of seta e. It many of them lamp families are
Abed to sleep together, without that separation of age sad
ova eibieh Mersey requires. Is two cottages whisk I could
some. and ins single room, there ars two beds sampied by
lather. mother. and am Mikirea ; aad is ameba wasp
there se • noels room, with two beds sett;, la which father,
mother. sod ilia children, eight la all,ea*. Box•beds, es
the) are called, placed adjoiaise to each colwe la the we
room retain the married sad the samervied la malignity,
which mum be Nosily fatal to health sod &limey.
We believe such things are not confined to No/r-
--ater:. erland or the more remote rural districts of
Gnat Britain. In many of the villages immediately
in the neighbourhood of London quite as but a state
of things prevails. We might instance cottages at
AVillesden or some of !hoes about Kilburn. But, as
Dr. OILLT says, if such is the state bf things in the
tlourishing villages of Northumberland and Middlesex
wh.t must be the in:seeable and debased condition of
the working classes in the poorer hamlets of other
counties, and in the fetid garrets of our crowded
tows, ? . .

The only objection we have to Mr. Hulas motion
is, that it dues not go far enough. Who ever saw a
41. hones in the Metropolis? And yet there
are suburbia districts, Kennington for example, where
we could show whyle streets built for the express
areceamaistion of the labouring poor. To these Mr.
Ilt•ma's elation will afford no benefit: in the country,
however, and especially in clay districts, it would
afford the people a very considerable boon.
'floe Duke of BEDFORD has lately been engaged in
building L r the working people upon his estates houses
of a very improved description, which are intended
to be let at the lowest possible remunerating rents.
N,,w these cottages are to all appearance substan-
tially built; but we are told that the intermediate
'pace between the bricks of the inner and outer walls
his been uniformly filled in with cinders and ashes.
Thie is done for no other purpose than to save the cost
of brit ke, so considerably enhanced by the Excise taxa-
tion. Were Mr. Humes motion to be adopted, his
Gray's co.teges no doubt would consist in future of
solid brit k walls.
ore question with us is, whether the brick duty
ought not to be altogether repealed. It was creigi-
taly a war tax, imposed by Mr. Pirr in 17144, in
order to provide for the payment of the debt incurred
by the American war. No tax that ever was imposed
bs Prrr was more vehemently objected to in parlia-
ment. It met with the most "decided opposition and
was only st:opttel alter great difficulty, and
upon the distinct understanding that a cus-
tom duty upon seaborne stone and slate should
also be imposed. Such duties were levied for many
Term, but they were found so objectionable that ulti-
mately they were repealed, though the tax on bricks
bad meanwhile been doubled. So much for the pod
faith of government to the brick-makers.
The tax on brick*, as at present levied, Is most
enemas urn the manufacturer. All bricks must be
of crrta'n dimension,. They must to made in sheds
duly entered and regularly marked, and numbered by
thiEscier. The duty is charged whilst the bricks are
in a raw, or street date ; and no matter what damage
they may anbittioestly suffer, the Excise will allow
the manufacturer no compensstion b:ycnd one teeth
for injury. This allowance operates most unequally
scwrding to the different situations of the brick fields,
std there bare ban cases where thousands of pounds'
worth of imperfect bricks have been ruined either by
frost or flood, or hot weather or wet weather, without
the slightest compensation being afforded by the
Leese to the u:ttappy sufferers.
The rate of duty is estimated by the Excise to
avenge Ss. 10d. per thousand bricks; but from the
remiss restrictions and impediments, it amounts
in reality to not less than eight shillings
per thousand. This is more than one-third
of the value of the article ' • and it is calculated that
every person who can make his own bricks saves
another third, so that the excise duty may be said to
be a tax of two.thirds upon the value to every con-
sumer under the existing system. And this tax, be it
°teemed. is tot imposed upon an article of luxury,
bit on as article of useful manufacture, which may be
said to be even et' the very first necessity.
The effect of the brick "duty upon architecture ge-
nerally may be recognised in every street in London.
Ornamental brickwork is exploded ; and instead of
it we bare plaster of Paris and concrete. Our bun-
dstioas are all of concrete; the casings of our houses
art plater. The bricks that are used are of the

worm que:ity ; for the mode of takieg the duty is, to
DOMe extent, ad ralurem : polished and other bricks

le.rg charged nearly double the amount of duty
ul...ch is chargeable on inferior sorts. Such are some
of the abomicatiots of the duty. The number of
britkonkers affected by it is estimated to exceed
4,100. The amount of recenc~ the duty produces is
r," 40.1,0001. a year.
1: a maa wants to build a house he may collect his
stote..ime, slate, and timber from the adjacent fields,

sti•t+nut let, hindrance, ar melentafioit ; bat if be
v.:apt to take op a pines of his own clay and bake
it into a brick, the Facie, Gems down upon him for
'briny Faulty. When we consider what an absurd
iejtatiee is involved in this, and when we reflect also
dm this tax is imposed with great inequality on one
of the most whit of our native manufactures, we
think it is high time that this duty, with others,
should receive the attention of the legislature.

NorirMiefeargen the surprise sad aaitnadversio,
With which we eoeld not but receive the first intelh-
ram of the bl xhade of the Piers by a British
gumtree, we must admit that the case of Mr.
ftNestr is a eery strong one; that hie claims rest not
only upon his own statements, bet upon the ad-
mission of the most anti-English minister that
Gatos ever had, being General COLZTII him-
sr 1; and that the interminable delay to ren-
der him any kind of justice, worthily wound
op by ea insolent refusal, was conduct on the part of
the Greek government to an Englishman, with which
to British government could put up. If any foreign
parer can treat an Englishman aa the Greek court
re a treated Mr. FIN i LAY, with impunity, there s an
end of any respect for either the rights or property
of Englishmen abroad.
it. publication of the officiil correspondence, we
bur no hesi•ation in declaring, puts the conduct of
the English admiral and envoy in altogether a new
And we are only sorry that a case, so strong
end so plain as Mr. I.IIILAY's, should have been
Isr.s.d with others that are trifling, captious, and
eves ludicrous.
Hr. Frsi.sv, in 1830, purchased a portion of land
sear Alhens from the Turkish proprietor; all the for-
llielitiee to give a clear title to the land having been
gone ttroelth, sad, indeed, not being disputed. In
licie King Orgo selected a spot for his palace, and
telt (art of Mr. FiNteY's ground to form the royal
gardens. 01 course Mr. FINLAY remonstrated,
an`!ought indemnity. He did this in 1837, when
Litmus, the Greek Home Minister, told him
that nis laid was not, and would not be, required for
titter the place or the gardens, although it was oc-
squid by the buildings for the workmen. In 1838 a
see remonstrance was answered by a new minister,
14. Zonturitos, in the ume terms. At last when the
,sal gard'-ns were endued, it became impossible to
deny that they did take in a great portion of Mr.
}MAT); property. At length, in 1842, Mr. FINLAT
r•tolved to appeal for support to the British minister,
rod then, the Greek Under-Secretary, unable to :s-
-prat the old exam., put forth a new one.
from M. Scourros I learned (said Mr. FINLAY)
.1 hat a rot al ordinance, dated in the year 1837, offered terms
• intleranhy to the proprietors of the palace land hut a copy
t. ordinance was refused to as., Slid I found that it did
!I t• on the archives of the CO/ONOISO of Athens, the
ulfrh. vino only furnishni the Dimarsh of Attune with
a lriiptis ofits provision. Tie ealstente et this ordinance
awes hinted at to me until M. Beenlico mentioned it.
Ih, fact that Plots of ind. meity rtiesined eenotaled for SO

may pan 1* • county wino* th• {•tent of now has
°fun Dw doing th• tutorial 24 pox nut. poi ••ens,
►.wire the ear de son whl•h night hays ban r••••••bn
fa 1837 ea •et la••I; 1. 1641.

Other parties were in the stamrpositioa as Mr.'
FINLAY. Lied for the Eases was also taken from
M. PAPAILIGOPULO, the Medan coasal-pnerel, and
Gem the Rev. Mr. Hui, goat of the American
Episcopalian Society, neither of whom wished to press
apps the Ortek government. M. Omni r, the
Austrian consul-general, who was in the same cars,
was mot so scrupulous and he got basdemsely
From 1842 to 1848 Mr. FINLAY kept dunning
Lad ADIUIDENN, and Sir EDMUND LYONS failed
not to make represistations, the judos of which
were fully admitted by the Oreek Minister, M.
Rtzo.

At length, in 1846, Sir EDMUND LYONS awakened
M. Cohan to the serimmasse of the claim ; end
Column proposed to settle it by referring it for
arbitration to two of his own officials! This proposal
was supported by the plea that other claimants bad
emisented to a small indemnity, and the Greek go-
verment could not make such an exception is Mr.
FIRIAT'S favour as to grant his full demands. Mr.
FINLAY having objected to this Battlement, CoLETTI
told him to bring the case before the Greek courts of
law ; but the claim of FINLAY against the King's
civil list for being expropriated by the King in virtue'
of his previously absolute power was not cognisable
by the newly-established constitutional courts. And the
Bavarian functionaries who had committed the injus-
ties had long since quitted the country. Mr. FINLAY
mold not demand indemnity from the Greek courts
on the plea that the land was takes for the public
service, for M. Zooaseuos had palpably denied that
it was taken in any each light. It was the private
doing of the court. To fresh remonstrances, M.
Coharn repred, that certain proprietors were paid
in 1837 for their land at a certain rate fixed by
government; and that Mr. Fuerre must be contented
with that rate now. Fresh refusals followed on the
part of Mr. FINLAY, who demanded the same rate of
tudeinnity that was paid foe other spots of ground
situated similarly as bl own, and at the same distance
from the palace. No demand surely meld be more
fair than this, and it amounted only to 45,000
drachmas, or about 1,6001.
The more recent facts and correspondence have
bees for some time known. Oar envoy was ordered
to press the matter seri?esly upon the Greek minis-
try, who we believe yielded so far as to consent to
name an arbiter, whilst England should name another.
If these disagreed, who should be called on to Bette
the matter finally P M. Loewe; said, in that case,
he would act arbiter himself, far he °sold not think
of putting the decision any further oat of his hands.
Something of this kind we understand to have been
hie reply, and it a really so puerile and impertinent,
that instead of bringing several hundred guns to coerce
him, the man really deserved a more humiliating
and boyish castigation for his folly.
It is quite evident throughout the whole of the
case, that the Greek government was actuated by
some personal pique to Mr. FINLAY, either with re-
ference to his own character and *aims, or to his
being an Englishman. The sum was set large, the
injustice patent, the various excuses with which he
had been pat off mean. And the final determination
of the Greek minister was no less tban that it would
not do an Englishman justice, but would pt English
power at defiance. We are not eurprised that
such conduct should have stirred the meek Mr. Wren
and the circumspect Admiral PARKER to Rem not to
be immured by the magnitude of FINLAY'S demand,
but by that of the question whether Engl ohmic ions:
despair of any justice or consideration from the Greek
government.
From such claims we do not see how the
British government can desist. Although we think it
committed the greatest of errors in mingling it up
with any political or territorial question, such as
that of the islands. The matter should not
be looked at in a political light at all.
It is en purely commercial, that bad the Greek
court at first offered to refer it to the arbitration of
an impartial personage or power--Governor TAILOR,
for example—we ought at once to have accepted it.
The government of France would, no doubt, be
equally impartial in each a matter. But there is a
puerile faction in Paris that long since erected a baby
house at Athens, and which cherishes that baby
house with childish spite and infantine predilection,
without being actuated by one thought or one motive
of rational or manly policy. The idea of France and
England having lastly distinct interee's in Greece is
absurd. And we trust that the mission of Baron
GROS will not only put an end to the foolish and un-
settled account between Mr. FINLAY and King Onto,
but also prepare the way for a settlement of the more
wide, though far more puerile differences between
French and English diplomacy in Greece.