The Express.
London, England, 1857-12-31 00:00:00

(Stamped ld. AdditionaL) [TWOPENCE.

'small. It remains for us to take care that India
shall be the better for the sin and sorrow of this
awful year. The subject of the government of
India henceforth belongs to a future, and not to the
put year ; but we must just note that the national
will in regard to Indian Reform was expressed and
recognised by the Administration before the close of
1837. It remains for the people to take care that
the reform is set about in a spirit of patience, cau-
tion, modesty, and intelligence, worthy of so serious
an occasion.
The renewal of the African slave trade under the

name of an immigration of free labour into the
French colonies is one of the grayest calamities
which could befal the world, civilised and uncivilised.
The year 1837 will be marked in history u that
which not only undid the work of the whole century
in regard to colonial shivery, but remanded the
African tribes back to their internecine wan, after

some of them had been led up to a promising condi-
tion of industry and peace. That such a retrogres-
sion should have been caused by one of the chief •
powers of Europe, in the name of a nation pledged
by treaties, and by Weirs llamailberses dpelfart - "44
oppose negro slavery in all forma, aggravated the
mischief. The speculation failed in a pecuniary
sense, and towards the end of the year it was given
out that the Emperor of the French was seriously
reconsidering the step he had taken ; but irreparable
mischief was already done, and it will require many
a future year to release the native African from the
liability of being regarded as an object of barter and
exportation for everybody's profit but his own.
This may be regarded as the second distinctive cala-
mity of the year. The third was preparing and
foreseen, and indicated by watchful observers (and
we may remark that the Daily News was among the
foremost) many weeks before the arrival of the
financial crisis which has caused the year to clue in
ruin to a great number of our citizens who seemed
furthest removed from any such liability. For a
year past there had been considerable difficulty
about money in our chief seats of manufacture and
commerce ; so that it was a common saying during
the summer, when all eves were directed to Man-
chester, that nobody there was the better for the
Exhibition except the innkeepers—not even the
milliners, es they could not get their bills paid, and
nobody had any money to spend. We had suffered
abundantly already, and were still suffering from
the condition of financial affairs in France ;
bat now we were to stand the consequences
of a financial revulsion in the United States, even

more disastrous than that of 1837. During the
autumn, we were daily hearing of the suspension of
banks and the insolvency of some, and the embar-
rassment of more, of oar great commercial houses.
The flimsy and fraudulent establishments which bad
sprung up in proportion to the popular rage for
magnitude as a sign of progress collapsed at once,
not only plunging into ruin those who had put their
trust in monstrous professions, but, as always hap-
pens, a great number of upright merchants, blame-
less firms, and innocent individuals, and many
thousands of our manufacturing population thrown
out of work at the beginning of winter. Onesation
has involved another, and the guilty and lax have
ruined the just and prudent, as well as the
,careless, to such an extent as to make the
year 1837 even more memorable for financial
calamity than 1837 in America, and 1847 in
England. The controversy about the Bank Charter
was renewed, and carried on with great bitterness ;
the advocates of its restriction being apparently
willing to incur national bankruptcy rather than
touch the provisions of the Act ; while the rest of the
world desired a timely suspension of a restriction
which was obviously and rapidly aggravating the
panic, and leaving less hope of escape from hour to
hour. The pressure upon the Bank of England
became so stringent that the raising of the rate of
discount to 10 per cent. did not avail even to check
it; and the inevitable relaxation of the law took
place at last under circumstances of discreditable
risk and haste. It was a case, not of days, nor even
hours, but at last of minutes ; and it is understood
that the Premier finally signed for the Chancellor
of the Exchequer, because the Bank funds would
not bear the delay of recalling that func-
tionary, who had just left town after a
prior interview on the same subject. 'f he conse-
quence of the delay was that the re-assurance of the
public mind did not suffice, as in 1847, but the Bank
issues actually exceeded the legal limit. The panic,
however, was effectually controlled ; gold flowed into
the country and the Bank vaults ; a few days be-
fore Christmas a reduction of the rate of discount
was hourly looked for; and a redaction of 2 per
cent. WSJ announced on the 24th of December. It
was on the 12th of November that the Administra-
tion authorised the Bank to exceed the legal limit of
its circulation, on condition of the rate of discount
not being lowered, and under the engagement that
Parliament should be summoned to pass a bill of
indemnity for the transgression of the Bank Act.
Parliament met accordingly on the 3rd of Decem-
ber ; and the fearful state of Hamburg at the time,
and the spread of the commercial convulsion through
the northern countries of Europe, left no doubt
in the mind of any rational legislator as to
the necessity of what had been done. The further
consequences in the shape of new legislation, or a
resolution to stand by that which has given way
under pressure twice in the thirteen years that the
Bank Act has existed, will be for another annual
review (probably the next) to show. The same may
be said for the other great subjects announced by
Ministers during the short December session; and
chiefly those of the government of India and a
further reform of Parliament.
The legislative results of the year are remarkable
is some particulars, while falling short of public ex-
pectation in others. The Jews are not yet admitted
to parliament, though varied efforts were made in
the summer to introduce them, with or without the
concurrence of the Peers. The work has still to be
done, and will presently be resumed. Provision has
been made for an extension of industrial schools, and
also of reformatory institutions. New rights are
given to married women in regard to the disposal of
their reversionary interest in proper ty. The civil
servants of government are released from the reduc-
tion of their salaries on account of the Superannua-
tion Fund. Improvements in the Joint Stock Bank-
ing Companies Act, and a special provision for
punishing frauds committed by bankers, trustees,
and other persons entrusted with property, show
something of what the public mind was full of in
the year of such legislation. Scotland received a
large share of the attention of parliament—the Act
providing for • better care of lunatics being the
most interesting of the group of new laws. The
Probate Bill for Ireland is nearly the same as the
English Act; and the Bankruptcy and Insolvency
Act also assimilates Irish to English law. Our