The Express.
London, England, 1861-04-10 00:00:00

HlOll RATES AT LONDON DRIDOL

DAT —Macula& Th. .. Attersoos. St. tm.
TO•goltaow-142fieg, ft Ma.... Anarboce. 4211. LAIL

LONDON, WEDNINDA Y. APRIL 10.

Tent is dreadful news from Warsaw. A great
crime has been committed. The massacres of
February, atrocious as they were, might in a
politic estimate be allowed to pass for an accident
or the mistake of a subordinate. But what is to
be said of this new, wilful, and deliberate slaughter
of unarmed citizens I It annuls at a stroke all the
former efforts of A LEXANDE a U. to met himself right
with Poland and with European opinion, and stamps
Ilia government with a character of old Muscovite
barbarism and brutality which we had hoped had
for ever been cast away. At this moment the
EMPLIWICS Foreign Minister is canvassin' g the
courts of Europe for a favourable appreciation of
him Mader's conduct towards the Poles, and of
his "sentiments al affection" for his subjects
of that nationality. Why the Poles cannot
resign themselves to the blind confidence the
Czaa requires we sufficiently showed yesterday.
They are not treated with frankness and con-
sistency. Words of clemency and promises of
concessions have been heard, but by what acts
have they been corroborated? Early in March
Prince Goarcnixorr associated a number of the
principal men among the Poles with himself in
the Goverment. That participation was of course
irregular and provisional, but it was the recognition
of a principle which the EXPIULOR professed to sanc-
tion when he afterwards promised an Executive
Council for Poland and elective municipalities. But
these measures remain a dead letter. Before any
attempt ii made to carry them out, the abases who
lewd themselves by the side of Prince GOUT-
csuutorr, in the interest of order, are driven
away from that position. A series of petty re-
strictions are issued, and lastly the Agricultural
Society, which contributed in so great • degree to
restore tranquillity after the mammas' of Fe-
bruary, and which is dear to the Poles as having
cherished the sentiment of national unity, is
violently dissolved. This latest measure was the
cause of the appearance of so many thousand
Poles before Prince Goarcnaeorr's palace last
Sunday. The Prince on this occasion addressed
the multitude, sod persuaded it to disperse peace-
ably. On Monday a similar crowd appeared
before the Castle. The people were unarmed—
they could not be otherwise. They had come to
represent their grievances, and it was in this atti-
tude that they were attacked by the military force,
the cavalry charging and the infantry firing, and
killing and wounding upwards of 100 persons.
The wickedness of this act is only equalled by its
folly. It has placed the Russian Government upon
a track which cannot possibly be followed out.
Neither Czar nor Kaiser can now pursue with im-
punity the old policy of drowning complaints in
blood. The Poles will not the less proclaim their
grievances for a wanton massacre which Milt UT*
this effect among others, of throwing the CZAR into
closer union with those of his royal and imperial
axighbours who are at feud with their subiects,
Sad of making impossible the alliance with France,
• i which some of his most eminent advises have
nit their hearts. Both at home and skald the
vonsequences of this irreparable breach with
Poland must develop themselves with an impor-
tance constantly increasing.

Texas is now reran to hope that that greatest
of London improvements, the Embankment of the
Thames, may be effected without the obstructions
and delay which commonly attend measures for
the public benefit. The embankment of the river
has been a favourite speculative topic for many
years ; but it is probable that if the necemity of
providing • place for the great sewer without
stopping and breaking up the Strand had not
been urgent, it might have remained for as many
more, a thing to wish for, and perhaps at last to
despair of. The House of Commons has now
overcome the principal difficulty attending the
plan ; it hes made up its mind to provide the re-
gulate money. It would have been a pest misfor•
tune had it decided otherwise. It has resolved to
renew for this purpose, and for a term of ten yeses,
the duty of ninepence a ton on coal, now levied
under the authority of several acts of Parliament,
by which also the money is appropriated to works
of public utility. This portion of the coal duties
expires in the present year ; in continuing them,
Sir 0. Lewis contracts very eoasidsr•bly the area
within which they are levied, reducing the radius
of the circle from 20 to 10 miles. It is calculated
that the ninepenny duty raised within this circuit
will yield about a million and three-quarters
sterling ; money suMeient, with good manage-
ment, to complete the work upon a worthy scale.
The objections to the tax raised in the House of
Commons on Monday were not based on conside-
rations such as ought to be weighed against •
project so full of advantage as this embankment
undeniably is. The weakest argument of all was
the allegation that it would press heavily upon the
poor—es those who live by the honest labour of
their hands are unworthily called. The toiling
classes are never more grievously calumniated
than when their self-constituted representatives
speak of them before the rest of the community
as desiring to escape • due share of charges
incurred for the common benefit. The coal
tax is liable to some real objections which
apply to the whole clam of ”etv"is; but that is no
reason why it should not be judged on its own
practise" merits, as • source of revenue easily ooh
beefed and sitting lightly on the shoulders of those
who have to bear it. It has been collected for many
years without the justification of a great public
benefit such as is now offered, and with far less com-