The Express.
London, England, 1850-05-08 00:00:00

OUTGOING MAILS.

---
The mails for British North America end the UMW
Mates will be made up on the evening of May 10.
The mails for Lisbon, lipais, and Gibraltar will be made
up on May 17.
The West India Malls, excluding Bermuda, Hatannalt,
Nll/8111, Iln-duras, Now Orisons, and Mexico, and inel■ding
these for Madeir►, Bt. Juan-de-Nita sera, New Granada,
Chili, and Peru. will be made up on t►c morning of May 17.
The mails for Gibraltar, Malta, Greece, the lonian Islands, I
ligypt, Ceylon, India, and China, tin Boathasaptoa, will
be made up on Ibe morning of May 20.
The mails eid Marseilles, to the Mediterranean, Egypt,
lino, ladle, Hoog-Kong, Be., will be made up on the
evenisx of 11.7 24
The mails tur tdaderis, the lirssils, and Buenos Ayres, will
made up on the evening of June 4.

MOM WATill AT LONDON SKIM&
rem fha—*.bralm.l1...
lb. Afiersoce. lit. few

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MAY 8.

CONSIDERING the nee which Chancellors of the
Exchequer have made from time to time of the
savings bank deposits, nothing certainly can be more
cool than the proposal of the government to invest in
these functionaries, as Commis,ioners for the Reduc-
tion of the National Debt, the entire management, con-
trol, charge, and responsibility of all the delimits of the
poor throughout the empire. Between 1833 and 1844.
as we have satisfactorily demonstrated, the National
Debt Commissioners by unwise dealings with the
savings bank securities, managed to sacrifice upwards
of two millions of the peopl.'a money. The interest
I upon the sum so lost, if it had been prop rly invested,
a ould have amounted, up to 1849, to no less than
780,0001 !
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER now com-
plains of an additional lose on the Savings Bank
Fund, which has occurred between 1843 and
1849. And this loss, revs he, is consequent
upon the necessity of selling stock to meet the
demands of the depositors when the funds were at
low prices. The result of these lieges we have already
stated:—whilst the balance of savings' bank deposits
in the hands of the commissioners amounted, on th,,l
20th of N Nember last, to 30,802,0001., the value of
the securities held by them to meet these deposits was,
on the same day, only 28,051,0001. ! At the present
time the value of the said securities is somewhat en-
hancal, but still the deficiency amounts to close upon
two millions ; or precis, ly the c Tits' sacrificed by
dabbling with this money in the public funds.
The lops of capital up to 1813 arose from the abuse
of the authority reposed in the commissioners. It is
not too much to sly that every fraction of loss which
has occurred since 1843 might have been prevented
had the National Debt Commissioners properly used
the powers entrusted to them by the legislature. The
Savings Bank Act of 1844 reduced by 1 per cent. the
amount col interest payable to the depositors. It re-
quired no very consummate knowledge of Savings
Bank transactions to foresee that that reduction of in-

tercet would be followed by a withdrawal of
money fram the banks. But a board which
has no eyes could not foreeea even that re-
sult. The commissioners, by their transactions
after the passing of the act in question, displayed an
entire absence of prescience and judgment, aid an
utter want of discretion in the management of the
fund whit which they were eetru,ted. On an ave-
rage they boat 3 per cent. upon all their stock trans-
actions between 1843 and 1849, and this entirely
because they did not foresee what a child might have.
told them—that a reduction of interest would b fol-
lowed by a withdrawal of deposits. Had they regu-
lated the fund upon this calculation they could have
entirely avoided the losses they have since sustained :
for the increase of balances in 1814 and 1845 more
than covered the decreases which ensued almost imme-
diately after the payment of the diminished interest
at the close of the latter year.
And yet it is in the face of all th's grocs misma-
nagement by which literally fuel/Lois ef mow!' have
been sacrifi,ed—that parliament is now asked to give
to the national debt commissioners not only additional
authority, but absolute power over the Savings Bank
Fund. and indeed over the Savings Banks themselves.
The bill which the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER
has introduced, authorises' these commissioners to
appoint a treasurer for every Savings Bank in the
United Kingdom, who is to receive and pay all the
monies of the bank. It authorises them to appoint in-
spectors to investigate the concerns of the banks. In
tact it entirely takes out of the hands of the trustees
and managers of the Savings Banks everything con-
nected with the financial arrangements of the banks,
whilst, at the same time, it imposes upon these trus-
tees complete liability for every error, defalcation, or
deficiency that does not arise by the act of the trea-
surer. Such is the principle of the bill introduced by
Sir CHARLES WOOD.

Now, on the part of the present trustees of Sivings
Banks, we will only say that it does appear somewhat
hard that the responsibility from which they have
been exempt, whilst the backs were subject to their
direction, should be imposed upon them at the
very moment that they toe to be entirely
divested of all control over their management.
It seems extremely improbable that trustees, under
such circumstances, will be disposed to c.trinue to
discharge the duties of their trust. Indeed, we do not
see why the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER should
desire to devolve upon them the performance of duties
invested with so little power, and at the same time
accompanied with such responsibilities. Either trus-
tees for Savings Banks are wanted, or they are not.
They are wanted if there is any responsibility which
the state does not affird ; they are not wanted if the
state will take all the liabilities connected with the
bank upon itself.
Now, what are the liabilities the government pro-
plea to take upon themselves ? Sir CHARLES WOOD'S
plan is, that the state shill appoint a treasurer to
every savings bank, and he promises in return that
the state shall be responsible for any defalcation by
such treasurer. But for all other losses or defalca-
tions, howsoever incurred, the state is to be irresponsi-
ble ; and in order that such losses may bi met,
the CHANCELLOR coolly tarns to the noblemen
and gentlemen acting as trustees, and says,
" Oh, you've nothing else left you to do,
so for all these losses and defalcations you
shall be legally liable in future." Well, but
is this sort of divided responsibility satisfactory ? Is
the share of it which devolves on the trustees quite
the sort of thing they relish ? What they are to get
by standing liable to the extent of all their lands and
property for all the defalcations which may occur in
a savings bank, except the defalcations of the go-
vernment officer, passes oar comprehension. We
should rather prefer, for our own parts, being di-
vested of the risk.
It is noticeable that the bill, by an express clause,
imposes liability upon truer:ea. It also, by an ex-
press clause, confers on ths‘..., CHANCELLOR of the Ex-
cueuvett (representing the Commissioners of the
Debt) the sportier..

National _ at) the sipointment of 580 Treasurer'.
of Savings Banks. But there is no clause, express or
otherwise, which imposes the promised liability upon
the state on account of the defalcations of a treasurer.
We gather the intention from the CHANCELLOR of the
Excilitclusn's statement—the Savings Banks authori-
tiee are invited to place, in this respect, full reliance upon
the right hon. gentleman's "assurance." Well, it may
be worth something or nothing, but in either cue we
would prefer the security afforded by a clause.

As upon the appointment of the 580 treasurers
by the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER appears
to hang the entire principle and detail of this
Savings Banks Bill, it is necessary to examine a
little into the responsibilities and duties which are
proposed to be devolved upon these worthies. At
present the business of a savings bank, under the con-
trol of its trustees, is reposed in a manager, the requi.
site number of cashie.s, and one or two auditors.
These functionaries are respectively paid out of the
amount which is allowed by government as interest
upon the deposit' in the banks. They all give secu-
rity for such sum as may be required by the trustees
or the commissioners. Wherein consists the dif-

ference between the manager u at present appointed
and the treasurer as proposed to be appointed ? The
treasurer ir to give such security as may be neces-
sary; the manager does so already. The trea-
surer is to be bound to account in future; the
manager is bound to account as it is. All the
difference seems to consist in the patronage ;
at present the managers are appointed by the trait. ea;
in future the 680 treasurers are to be appointed by
the CHANctittoß of the EXCHEQUER, the gnat.
" comiiiistiuter for the reduction (?) of the national
debt."

The treasurers, however, ere not to displace the
managers. Their duties, rays Sir C. WOOD, will be
qu te distinct. They will only "relieve" them : i. e.
take charge of the Gash. But in this case, a very
balmy additional burden will be thrown on the Savings
Bank Fund: that fund which is already eta discount,
and "paying far more than it can possibly afford!"
The act leans it to the CHANCELLOR of the Ex-
CHEQUER, in his character of Lord High Com-
missioner for the Reduction, &c., to fix the
',lvies the treasurers are to be paid. Each
u•essurs r is to be allowed to appoint a clerk. To
secure responsibility by these officials they must. of
course, be well paid. To underpay them would only
be to give them a premium for defalcation. Well,
what will the ewstrecemou afford them ? Say 1.0001.
a year for each treasurer' and 2601. for each clerk.
Total fur the 1,160, 725,0001. per annum! Why this
charge alone will swallow up more than one half the
living to be derived from the proposed abatement of
the interest on savings banks deposits from 31 to 3
per cent. per annum. And then there will remain to
bas paid the " Inspectors "—also to be appointed by
the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER—and a variety
of other officers rendered necessary by the bill.
Would the treasurer be overFaid ut 1,0004 a year ?
Nut a stiver. His ri.sponsibilities are to be great, and
so will be his labour. The following clause will
show that Sir CHARLES WOOD'S new functionaries
are not to hold sinecures:
B. it ena..trd, that from and after, &c., the treasurer of
savings hark shall tilts r peril:sally, or by his clerk ce
*est, attend at the office of the savings be. k during all
hours at which the said funk is open, and shall receive and
pavan monies, and 'hall affix his siensture to every invest-
m. et er withdrawal in the bock of every depositor; . . .
and if any (Aces of any hank ( slept such treasurer or his
desk) shall receive any sum of mosey as • deposit, te:., he
shall be guil.y of a misdemeanour.

Why, in some of the savings banks there are as
many as 40,000 depositors requiring the attendance
of at least half-a-tkzen cashiers! This treasurer, who
is to have the pay of six cashiers, is at any rate to
have their duties also. But, practically, how is the
treasurer, or his clerk in his absence, to work a large
bank es proposed by this bill? The whole business
eta bank may be suspended by an accicbmt, such ac
the absence of the treasurer Ir.= hGme, and the ill-
ness of his clerk : for there is no power to appoint a
subAitute. Iu any ease, the business of a bank under

such a system is not likely to be better conducted
than at present.
The mode in which the bill affects depositors we mile
take another opportunity of considering. It certainly
offers them no boon. The rate of interest is to b.,
reduced ; additional charges arc to be imp-seed upon
them, end it is intended to limit the payment of
lutes eat to one-half the total sum on which it is at
present paid. Ard all this is to he done to cover the
losses which hive occurred in consequence of the mis-
management of the Savings Hank Fund, whereby, as
we 'said before, miliious of money have been lust to
the nation.

Tire last number of Btu:brawls Magazine con-
tains an article, welt worth perusal, on the subject of
Greece. It is written by a tory, exceedingly well
informed, though wild and hsrum-scirum, like most
of his way of tbirking now-a-Drys, when they put up
vows and draw conclusions. Greece he depicts in a
complete state of decadence, mo-al and material,
under the stupid and withering rule of Onto. Its
landed proprietors and its peasants are, according to
this witness, much more backward and ignorant than
they were under the Turks, tencith whose sove-
reignty they enjoyed a full degree of local liberty,
with the sagacity and independence eelt;ch it begot.
Un,ter Turkisi rule, and subs:quently iu the
struggle with it, the Greek merchants and ship.
owners formed the ari,tocrac3 of the nation. They
became the chiefs, the financiers, the warriors and the
statesmen of the revohation. One of the molts of
King Ovito's policy has been to set aside this class
altegeth2r, to ignore and to proscribe them. They have
no longer honour or irfluetce. 'lnc country equ're or
the court official has taken their place, and it you
would find a Greek merchant, you must seek hint at
Odessa, o: Marseilles, or Manchester, not at Atueos.

A small fractim of shipowners remain, hat the schooners
that now compose the ristrzantile navy of Greece cannot be
compared with the fine sips that Hydra, Spezia, and Ipsara
formerly emit out to engage the Turkish fleet. The compara-
tive increase of the tonnage of the trading vessels of lax to
ELI in Greece and Turkey, sines IS4O, shows that the trams
of the Levant is extending more rapidly under the Turkish
than under the Greek flag.
The fault of all title it pleases the writer in Black-
wood to attribute to the constitution, triremes he mays
what Greece wanted was an administration. No
doubt, in all countries, especially in rude and infant
ones, a great deal must depend on the initiation of an
enlightened government. But Low was an enligat.-
ened government to be formed or supported in Greece
but by a free and national constitution ? Th•o tendency
of the young King, bred in Bavaria, was of course
to exercise his authority, to keep up an army
with one officer to two and a half 6.1-2iers, to
dream of conquering a new empire and throw
away millions in the occult preparations, to
spend another million sterling in palaces, to
expend the state revenues in paying the landed
magnates, to give them in tura full power over their
districts, to manage the elections, and pillsge the
people. But this is not the working, it is the per-
version of a constitution—a spectacle which tills Rus-
sia with deligt,t, and ought to fill Franco and Eng-
land with shame ; but France far more than Eu4land,
for it was MM. GUIZOT and PtscaTuev that patron-
lied and upheld this system.
The tory writer in Mad:wood lears to M. Get.
ZOVS view,• that of governing Greece by municipali-
ties and a senate. But what should prevent the court
from nullifying the election of the one, and corrupt-
ing all independence in the other, with tar greater
ease than they have reduced the present constitution
to a nonentity?
The curse of Greece has been our making a great
power of it whilst it was yet but an intent—our
giving it a king, when an avoyer or a stadtholder
would have sufficed. Then the forcing it without the
least necessity into the political balame and struggles
of the great powers suggested consequently the expen-
diture of its revenue by a military, and a naval, and a
financial power. Had it been left a republic like Swit-
zerland, its old municipal institutions would have suited
it ; for there would have been no powers interested in
corrupting or making use of them. The writer
in Blackwood talks of representative govern-
ment as absurd where there is no middle
class. Municipal institutions are quite as
absurd where there is no middle class ;
municipal institutions, as they are erroneously called,
in purely agricultural districts, are merely a form of
dominion by the proprietorial families, such as those
which exist in the Forest cantons of Switzerland,
where there is nominal freedom, but where bigotry
and tyranny thrive as rampant as in Turkey.
The fact is that Greece, in order to be great, in order
to have a destiny, must re-become a commercial
people, governed by commercial influence and form
of government. If England was to relapse under the
rule and the ideas of its squires, it would soon sink
to a fhird-rate power; so Greece governed by its
court and Capitani, will never be anything but a
rural canton, playing at monarchy. But instead of
striving to be the Holland of eke Mediterranean, Greece,
under Onto, swells itself into a military empire.
The Bavarian prince apes the German potentate ;
and unfortunately we encourage him in the ides.
We could, indeed, keep punishing him for his imper-
tinecce and injustice, but we regret that our castiga-
tion had not more of the mastiff character, when
applied to such a puppy-dog.
As it is, we have put King Onto upon stilts; he
fancies himself the rival of Queen Vterroaht. He
will not yield. He is not thinking of the wants, the
rights, or the interests of Greece ; be thinks merely of
the doings of Onto, and puts us very much in mind
of the picture of the Pet Prisoner, in .11Ousehold
Words, with whom the portentous importance of " I "
quite obliterates the consciousness of either feebleness
or fault.

The last accounts from Athens represent his
MAJESTY as determined to set off the loss incurred by
the blockade against the indemnities due to FIN LAY and
PACIFICO. A defendant, after being condemned to pay,
might as well insist on subtracting his costs from the
original debt. All this is mere impertinence and
chicane, to which the poor king has been unfortu-
nately spirited by the ltussian court at St. Peters-
burg, and the Russian agents in our own capital.

METROPOLITAN RAILWAY .1 UNCTION.— Water.
day the Master in Chancery Kirderaley proceeded with
the settlonient el this list of contribltolirs liable to pay
cif the outstantlind claims of this concern, the assets an
connexion with which are reported to be about 3001.