The Express.
London, England, 1850-02-08 00:00:00

THR EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING. FEBRUARY 8, 1850.

not spare them. There Is not a sisgle member in the
hones who does not here perceive the complicity of the
Colooial-eillos in the crimes of its governor. The sots
of condston.tion rims to every lip. Aid then, as a
forlorn hope, teeth steps the Prime Minister,
and makes a ablest quedos of it. Lord
TORRINGTON must he permitted to escape,
or Lord Join, Roseau. resigns. If peel/sweat.
allows itself to be betook& is this way, there are be
no check, no hope ofeermatiag abuse. In /WM
peopled colonise, Wesel, the eshohts will tableffilie
of themselves by tablet isatlsrehttotheir own hands
Bat ir parliament doss sit is this itself for Ceylon.
and India, the popalatima @Mose countries will right
themselves one day,--es by petition ce soostita-
ttonal agitation, bat by isenneetioa and manure.
In order to mark the working of the Colonial.
office more closely, and the way in which it oaks to
codify inquiry, and even defeat the plainest ream-
mendatioas, let as examine Mr. Hawse's conduct.
It will be in the reenllection of oar readers that the
committee of last session wee appointed to inquire into
the affairs of Guiana es well ast3s7lon. Mr. ADDIRLEY
complained on Wednesday that the ncommendations
of the committee with regard to Guiana, and in per-
ticular its suggestion that the salary of the governor
was excessive, had been disregarded. Mr. Hewes
denied that this was the case. The words is the
committee's report are " Year committee is of
opinion that it is a subject of inquiry, not merely
whether the special grounds ea which the increase
in question took place still exist, but whether, all
circumstances being °medusa, a sahtry of less
&menet than 6,00 W. per annum would not suffice
to induce a person perfectly qualified in every
inspect to undertake the duties of the MU*, ad to
bear the requisite expenditure." Mr. HAWES, atter
reading this passage, declared—amid indignant cries
• " Oh, oh "—that it was not a recommendation to
reduce the. salary. Whoa the committee calls for
witnesses in express terms, Lord GREY and Mr.
liAwss say that this is dictation, to which •the
colonial government cannot submit; when the
committee points out the exorbitant amount of
a salary, Lord GREY and Mr. Hawn main-
tain that it ought expressly to have re com-
seeded its reduction. But Mr. HAWES went
terther; he broadly asserted that the colony approved
og the high salary. "New elections," he said, " had
taken place in Guiana on a more extended constituency
and the Court of Policy had not again raised the
quetion." This statement is contrary to fact. The
ivgistrations under Governor Iltaxee', franchise
ordinance gave a constituency, less by 200, than the
Isenstituency under the old system. Mr. HAWES
knows that the question of the governor's salary has
been dropped by a court elected under a system that
enalies the Governor to pack the Court of Policy with
manageable members. Ile knows that in most of the
districts the electors refused to compromise themselves
by taking part in the farce of the elections.
Mr. Hewn hes by a shuffle postponed the arrival
of witnesses from Ceylon in this country, and urges
on tbo resumption or inquiry in their absence ; he has
justified the neglect of the committee's recommenda-
tions with regard to Guiana by assertions that are at
variance with facts; and to bring his disingenuity
to a climax he has thrown out groundless
imputatiots as to the motives of those who
have promoted inquiry into the affairs of Ceylon. He
called the charge against Lord TORRINGTON " a most
malicious case;'' he represented Mr. BAILLIE'S con-
duct as " marked by his usual want of candour."
While extenuating the mr.duct of the government of
which he forms a part, in a tissue of quibbles and
evuions worthy of the Old Bailey, Mr. HAWEs
showers down all sorts of unworthy imputations upon
his opponents.
It is clear from this first debate of the session on a
menial topic that colonial reformers have to expect a
vigorous and pretty unscrupulous resistance on the
part of ministers. They have also, it is equally chyl-
ous, to be prepared for obstruction and misleading
from parties who will volunteer their assistance
in order to make them subservient to their own
siriiiiier ends. We have heard that Mr. DisiteEnti
when pressed to join the Colonial Reform Association,
declined on the ground of his peculiar position in
parliament, bat professed approbation of their ob-
jects, and great readiness to promote them to the
utmost of his power. He showed on Wednesday
how he intends to redeems this pledge. lie made
the dispute between the Colonial-office and the Ceylon
Committee the pretest for moving a formal vote of
censure on ministers • he thereby enabled Lord JOHN
RtSULL to shift the question from the conduct of
ministers with regard to Ceylon to a general
question of confidence in them. Lord JOHN thus
obfained a vote, which, in point of fact, went no
farther than a declaration that the House of Commons
think him less unworthy of confidence than Mr. Die-
meet ; but which Mr. HAWES may represent, when it
suits his purpose, as exonerating his extraordinary con-
duct towards the Ceylon Committee. The colonies are,
for Mr. DISRAELI and mary of his party, a mere stalk-
ing horse, from behind which they seek to shoot their
arrows at ministers. If the celestial reformers are not
on their guard Mr. DISRAELI'S faction will perplex
and hamper all their movements throughout the see-
size) as they did that of Wednesday.
And yet the result of Wednesday's discussion is
most encouraging to those who have the cause of
colonial reform sincerely at heart. Before Mr. BRIGHT
could place the question really at issue in a clear
point of view Lord Jons Rosseee had successfully
conjured up the bewildering mists of party passion ;
and yet even with their aid he only parried Me
Batour's motion by a majority of 109 over 100. '
There is, therefore, good reason to hope that if the
cause of colonial reform is skilfully and judiciously
advocated, the temper of the House et Commons is
such as to compel ministers to give way to it.

IT is very hard certainly to persuade Englishmen
to do two things at once, and loth in consequence we
are to give such advice. But it is urgent that the
prejudice should be unlearnt, for with the determina-
tion to hunt for the time but one species of political
game, nothing is so easy as to put the country on a
scent ands chase, which leads it away from its true
interests and baulks it of its meet desired and most
attainable objects.
. . . . _

It is qlite-evident that we have lost a year by the
late outburst of protectionism. The townsfolk,
menaced with having their bread taken from them, or
measured out to them, have flown to arms and de-
tested their enemies; but in ea doing they have lost
sight of every other object, of every other kind of re-
form. We are to have nothing done with the franchise,
nothing with education, or with the universities,'
or the church, or the opening of professions, with con-
sidering or equalising taxation. Ministers say they
have done enough by heading free trade resistance.
and they demand a new lease of power, without fur-
ther outlay of intellect, or exertion or reform. We
shall thus be driven to the very verge of new elec-
tions without the people having obtained a single step
in advance. These elections will take place, with the
people disgusted and supine, whilst the aristocratic
interests are united and animated. It is possible
that the mere tory section will greatly gain in these
elections; if they do, three-fourths of the whigs
will go over to them. And the consequence will be
another CASTLEILEAGII regime in England and in Ire-
land, which will inevitably give life and vigour to a
1 new and yet unknown democratic and insurrectionary
spirit.

Snob a prospect is menacing to all peaceable and
industrious men, be they wisely liberal or wisely con-
servative, and steps should be taken to prevent such
obnoxious and dangerous results. Instead, therefore,
of singing peens for the triumph of free trade, libel
rale ought to try to secure free trade and free every-
thing else by an extension of political rights and
political knowledge. Rights, indeed, we shall not
extend this year; but facilities of knowledge may be
wrung from the legislature, if drily pressed, and if
Mr. MILNER OIIIBON, who has undertaken the cause,
be supported as he deserves.
We are aware, indeed, how jealous are both aristo-
credo and official classes of the people acquiring further
political information. Both well be well pleased
to treat politics as an amuilltion for the initiated to
monopolies. But even they most perceive how the
stream of knowledge, now beginning to flow in abun-
dance to the people, overleaps fiscal and legal restric-
tions. Hosts of publications, discussing the more
important part of politic, that is, its very
principles and bases in social life, circulate through
the land at penny prices and by hundreds of thou-
' sands. The law allows tide popular press to discuss
theories, but not to tall facts. Those organs may
preach, or, at least, ntaT imply, that there is no Gots
Heaven, no sanctity in womanhood, no security in
property ; bat they durst set say that Lord JOHN

Roseau had transacted business in Downing-street,
or that Admiral PAIIILEZ had blockaded the Firms.
Facts are contraband with as anti' they become facts
of history. And yet we woadsr thatthe great mesa
of readers feed en *stare% and pictures, toe, of the
most demoralising kied. The novel, which depicts the
glorious life sad success et the Imaginary horglar and
robber, is free to simulate; but the pones report,
which retards the exposure sad eirevon of the
burglar of real ii&—thsta the labourer is forbidden to
read, unless he pays for it one-third or one.half of
his day's wages.
If society, or the state which rules and represents
it, have one duty more imperious than another, it in
that of duly promulgating the law, making known
its justice, its purposes, and results. Bat the pro-
otediege is oar courts of justice are only published
for the slob. The poor, whom they concern, are
denied the tasting of such wholesale but forbidden
fruit. We will be boned to my, that a penny publi-
cation devoted to criminal bias would sell far and
wide through the breadth of the land, and if not only
it, bat the judicial proceedings were conducted with
a view to decorum m well as justice, no more valuable
or pregnant lesson could be sent forth. But ro—the
taxes on knowledge close and dry up, except for that
wealthy class which neither read nor profit by it.
this great soma of popular self-knowledge and
morality.
Are subjects which bear upon wealth, or industry,
or the progress or relations of other nations, or the
events which bring on war or ensure these
lees neoemary for the popular minSeril-areur middle
clam, to whom three things are addressed, are often
indifferent to them. The coniequence is, the exist-
ence of no public opinion or adhesion on the most
grave and vital points. And home government itself,
which has become a huge vessel, utterly immova-
ble without a popular breeze to fill its mods, does in
truth but float sad drift from tide to tide, and
from session to session, !saris( to invoke those i very
breezes from which its only motion can be derived.
Oar paper and stamp duties, which are the pre-
ventives in the way of public information, are dis-
graceful to the age. Fiscally they cannot be de-
fended. The Excise interfere with paper, not only
as a bar to knowledge, but a bar to the perfection
of its manufacture, el to our making it an article
of export. Our stamp duty is a sham. It is a mere
game certificate, compelling the bolder of a political
pen to be responsible not to public opinion, but pri-
vate interest.

And a• to the advertisement duty, that tax on the
making known of people's wants, and especially o
poor people's wants—its continuance by a legis-
lature,- which prides itself on cheapening corn
and meat, and facilitating inch/try and earn-
ings, is an absurdity that only requires to be
looked at steadily for a few minutes, in order
to ensure an instant vote of abrogation. As
to the revenue which it brings us, it is little more
than the amount of the pension paid to her late
ho...esty Queen ADELAIDE. So that for an annual
sum so small that we did not begrudge it to • royal
widow, we put a tax, amounting to prohibition, on
one of the tint and most crying wants of the in-
dustrious and the needy. In private life we can got
up thousands upon thousands of subscriptions for
different branches of relief, all much needed
no doubt and well applied. Cannot the same
people in their public capacity abrogate a
tax which acts as a bar to the efforts of that
elan which is anxious to help itself? If the
maintenance of the piper duties be an absurdity, and
if the peaty stamp be • churlish and indefensible
error, the persisting in the advertisement duty is an
act in some measure of sloth, but in a greater degree
one of meanness and infamy.

PARIS, Fa. 7. For For Amount.
Money. Owns' Mined. Lowest. Claming.
--
8 per Cents. 3B 13 58 15 58 40 38 15 68 23
11 par Cents. 96 0 96 13 96 33 96 0 96 10
3 do. New Los& . . w w w w
4 per Ca t& w or 4 per Ceuta. 73 0 w ~ ~10 w
w
Lathing* ca laden: SO dark 23 43 ; 90 days, 25 30
Balkan, 3, 1840
6, 1841
Do. 44 — „ Traway 3
lends— 44
Do. 24 — w Bank Mores „.... U .
Piedmont per Cents 87 70 „
Boulaa.—Paris and Orleans, 917 30; Patio and Pau% 373; Rouen
and Bare, 251 50 ; Avignon and Marseilles, 113 30; ihrsabourg and
Bale, 116 ; Orleans and Vienna, 323 73 ; Orleans Sad Bogdan, 413 ,
North, 467 30; Maniersau sad Trani, 110; Parke and Straetaarg,
760; Tea,am Nantes, Grand Costa, eoo ; Of. Osman, 413 ;
Versailles (left bank), 168 75.