The Express.
London, England, 1850-01-12 00:00:00

hit erprtoo.

OUTGOING MAILS.
The West ladia Mills, embalm Bermuda, Ilmsausb,
Neer., dune, New Orleans, eel Mexico,
_sad iseindiep
there ear Madeira, St. Jasa-de-Niseragas, New Granada,
Chill, sad Panorul be made ap en Jan. 17.
TM wails for Lisboa, Spaini, and Gibraltar will be wade
op mhos. 17.
The imam fin Gibraltar, Malta, Grum, the leaks Islands,
/0179% Ogles. India, sad China, We Ileathaispeen, will
be wade ap MI the of Ise. 19.
Tia mai via Marseilles. to the Mediterranean, Iffpt,
ledia, Boariesi, As., will be wade ap ea lb.
...alai of Jen. 24.
The wage for Bridals North Armories and the UMW
Stews will be wade ap ea the evening of lam 26.
TM mils hr Modern", the Brasile, sad Beams Arld,wal
be wade sp ea the evesiag al Feb. 4.

SlOll warn AT LO1f1:1011 PRIM&
Tur Da -.NoblAb. lika. AIIIIMNS. Ib. 111*.
I'..A•amar-Illinime. 10a..........A5AmMa. Ib.

LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 12.

APROPOS to the extension of the &maims the tory
papers tell as that they have so objection whatever
to go into the whole system of electoral revision with
• view to revise the abuses which hove crept into
the worlds( of the Reform Act. The Tortes are
wise. They see, all Mr. CORDER hie told
them, that the time is miming when the
agriculturalists of England will be among the
Mat strenuous parliamentary and financial re-
homes ia the land. The tory leaders and their
spas in the press ars themselves not a bit more
millions for parliamentary reform now than they
were in 1831. Bat they feel the difficulty and the
baseness of their position. They know that they
bare not a single interest in common with those they
ass sow ; and, knowing this, they would fain
papaw themseres for the coming day, when they
My he Ismod to adopt views and plans of action
asserfileg lees with their own principles, bet with the
&mails of the nation.
The protectionist party therefore throw overboard
the principle of finality. They acknowledge the Re-
form Bill imperfect; let us, if you please, they say,
have a sasesar• of =midmost. Bat let that measure
be a large and general measure. Let it not be limited
to the right of voting, but let it relate to the whole
scheme of the Reform Bill ; the composition of the
catstitseaciss, and the arrangement of electorates.
We are glad of the opportunity of addressing the
protectionists in this humour, and of showing them a
few more of the abuses of the system at present in
existence. We bare commented once or twice on the
numerical disparities of the coostituencies ; we have
shows also cm on. or two occasions the anomalous
composition of what are " borough towns;" and
a few days ago we took an opportunity of exhibiting
in review the small boroughs of England. and the in-
flamer, at work in them. To-day we will refer to some
of the unrepresented towns of England ; and we be-
speak the sympathy of the protectionists for the
large masses of their fellow countrymen, who are,
as we shall show, excluded from the franchise

skogether.
We take first the very large unrepresented places.
Kensington, by common consent, heads the list. Here
is a metropolitan district with a population, if Chet-
ma, Hammersmith, and Chiswick are included, of
nearly 80,000, which by some mischance was excluded
altogether from the benefits which were conferred
upon other metropolitan districts under the Reform
Act. The privileges of disfranchised Sudbury ought
to be transferred to this district forthwith. Well,
then we come to a place which may almost be
considered as another metropolitan suburb—we mean
Croydon. Here is an important and rapidly biome-
lag town of more than 20,000 of population entirely
unrepresented, whilst the next place in the same
county, Reigate, returns a member with only 4,000
population. In the other division of Surrey there is
a similar anomaly. Kingston-upon-Thames and
Richmond, with a population of 23,000, are norepre-
suited, whilst the town of Guildford, with a popu-
lation of less than 6,000, returns two members. Let
us next go down the river into Kent. There
is Gravesend, with a population of 17,000, rapidly
increasing : Margate and Ramsgate, with popula-
tions amounting to more than 25,000, increasing
likewise. Surely Harwich, with its 4,000 people
and 181 electors, might transfer its two members to
these important towns.
In the North there are a number of large places
which are fairly entitled to consideration. Prescot
and St. Helen's, in Lancashire, have • population of
between 40,000 and 50,000: if the whole parish of
Presoot is taken'into account, of not lees than 60,000.
Bingley and Keighley, in Yorkshire, have 35,000 ;
Barnsley, in the same county, 17,000 ; Dewsbury,
24,000. In Lancashire there are Burnley with 17,000,
°rankle* with 20,000, and Kirkham with 15,000
souls. Here are, offhand, a dozen places which might
properly .share in the right of representation, and is
which might be transferred at least one member from
such doubly-represented towns as Thetford, Lymin4
tee, Dorchester, Buchnsham, Richmond, Morpe
Wells, Huntingdon, Ludlow, Tewkesbury, Wenlock,
Leominster, and other places which we need not
Mom.
At the head of another series of places which ought
tabs cnsidered,we should place West Bromwich, a most
important member of the mining district of Stafford-
shire, with a population of 30,003. Nearly every vil-
lage surrounding West Bromwich is included in one
or other of the adjacent boroughs. Wolverhampton
takes in Willenhall, Bilston, and Sedgley ; Bir-
mingham takes in Edgbaston and several town-
ships. Walsall comes close op to West Bromwich
vz
Hasa, in
side, and Dudley adjoins it on the other.
in the midst of a great borough district, are
30,000 people left without representation, or rather
thrown into the agricultural districts surrounding
Lichfield, Tamwarth, and Stafford, places with which
they hays no connexion, bat by which their electoral
privileges are swamped. This place either ought to
have a member of its own, or might be joined
with a part of Birmingham to return two represent-
atives. Another case we would mention is the came
of Derlingtou in Durham, a most flourishing town,
with 12,000 inhabitants. Darlington, at the ye-
ast meant, is absolutely the pivot point of
all the commercial and mercantile memos of an im-
mune tract of country. Perhaps mare money passes
through this one place than through all the county of
Dorset. Yet Darlington has been excluded from all
share is the representatioa, whilst every small town
Is ifs such as Thirsk, Northallerton,
Ripon, &a, hes been sending members.
Stooktes-upon-Tees is another town similarly
etc:l67lth Darlington. Farther south we have
with warty 13,000 ; Charley, with
1770073Iansfiel with 10,000 population. Ches-
terfield, in North Derbyahtre. is also a place which
has some claim to return a member, either alone or in
coanexioa with another place. Its population is
12,000, and it is situated in a division of a county
which, strange to an ,doss not oriels a single borough.
=borough, in , a tows with 11,000
mug also have claims, and in Eon certainly
ass of the members for Malden ought to be tzaniferred
to Cludindard, an unrovernated motes town, with
10,000 nitabitants. whilst Malden, returning two
manse% has only 5,000, and is a poor place besides.
la meatioaing these places vibe?* cursorily passed in
review most of the piastre unrepresented large towns
and please which present pressing claims. There are a
nambsrefisnaller places which ought tobe taken into ac-
osuatiarporranging the electoral systemof the eatery.
Inimiegtes has a 'popeation of 14,000, and is very '
improperly dissevend from Warwick in respect of
dotard privileges. Trowbridge., Wilts, with a
popes*a is the town and its vicinity of little less
Bela 16,000, should be joined with Westbury, the
boaadary of which borough ought to be revised.
Danstallbl and Watford desire to be represented;
possibly they might be attached to St. Albans. Be-
dale, in Yorkshire, might make a borough with the
two small towns of Northallerton and Think.
Maidenhead, with 3,000 population. might
he joined to Marlow and Wycombe, which
we urgently desire to see united, in
order is quash the impure influences which prevail in
each. Glastonbury ought to be added to Wells ;
Weresiolaw, with its population of 7,000, seems a
preps, piece to attach to Wilton or to Freon. Be-
nin them places, there occur to us Romford and
Brentwood, is Been, which have, jointly, populations
of 13,000; sad Tunbridge, Tonbridge Wells, and
p iul a
Sevenoaks, in Kent, which, jointly, have dons
of 21,000. These places possibly as' f t con-
stitute boroughs. Watley, in Oxfordshire. 7,000
inhabitants, and Burford and Bamptan 6,000 more. If
the wretched borough of Wooden* is to retain its
right of sending a member, it might probably be

united with these places or some other', m se to gi
it at least an appearance of bider embass." In
same way if Bt. Ives continues a lossongl, it m
properly be connected with Pagialie, unrepipl•
seated town of 9,000 inhabitants.
If the people are to be satisfied, it seems to as per-
fectly clear- that them large unrepresented towns can-
, not any longer be permitted to go unrepeesented
whilst sixty rotten borong_he are returning nearly a
hundred members to the Boo's of Commons, repro-
meting propitiations which scarcely average 3,000 for
• member. Large town. like Kensington and Croy-
don, Gravesend and Goole, are left out of the borough
system of Egghead altogether, whilst constituencies
have been mule up of large parishes sunnenediag
little plass% Ilke Westbury and Wallingford, merely
ogine these pines a &dittoes importance in the scale
f isdiwininhingspountation. Bat the hollowness
of Ile whole Meg are semis exposed, and it is the
fault et the people *smarm if they allow each a
system to be perpetaated, now that there seems an
available opprtanity of correcting it.

Tim railway audit question, it cannot be too fo-
goeedy repeated, Is altogether a shareholder's ques-
tion. Directors are merely their representatives in
the natter. If the proprietaries prefer a government
&edit, directors have only to bow and submit with
the test grace they can muster. If they repudiate
goverment anapestic. or supervision of their affairs,
on se solid growth known to our constitution or oar
habits, hes the government any right to force its
interference on railway companies f Now, as the
shareholders of nearly every railway com-
pany have on two separate occasions pro-
nounced against government audit, the directors
have as strong mesons for holding independent audit
to be the wish of their constituencies as declarations,
resolutions, and returns can afford. Directors are ap-
pointed to attend to the interests and carry out the
wishes of their shareholders; and in endeavouring to
improve the existing system of independent audit
Mr. GLYN and his associates are simply doing their
duty to those who have imposed on them responsibi-
lities which, however eagerly sought once, moot men
would now shuffle off with very great satisfaction to
themselves.
Whether the scheme of independent audit, devised
by Mr. GLYN and the other delegates, be sufficient
to protect shareholders from all the varied dangers
that environ railway invitements, is another and
quite a distinct question. But here again railway
thareholders are omnipotent—if only they choose to
act. If the scheme be insufficient, they had an op-
portunity afforded them of rejecting it in foto, or of
suggesting improvements or of enUAituting another
plan. How they have used this opportunity will
appear at the adjourned mreting of the delegates
on the 17th. But if they have not made the most of
it; if they have not shown how the plan can be im-
proved; or, thinking it radically defective, if they
have not rejected it, Mr. GLTN and hie associates
cannot be blamed if they treat their scheme as having
substantially the sent of railway proprietors, and
' persevere in bringing it before parliament.
Formerly, railway directors had far too much of
the confidence of their constituencies; now they have
much too little. Then they could do nothing wrong ;
now they can do nothing right. The shares were at
a high premium ; now shares are at a great discount.
Then every one was anxious to invest his money in
railway stock ; now every one is so desirous
of getting his money out, that any consider-
able rise in the value of railway property appears
to be quite impoesible. Hostility to directors
is now the natural position assumed by shareholder.
Thus, for example, the proprietary of the York, New-
castle, and Berwick Company lately elected by large
majorities a new set of directors ; yet, at the very first
general meeting of the company, the new board was
met by almost as much opposition and by as many
hard words as ever the old board had been. Now,
this tendency to perpetuate discord in railway com-
panies, to make want of confidence a chronic com-
plaint in railway affairs, to be for ever finding fault
alike with the weightiest concerns and with the small-
est trifles of these corporations is, to our appre-
hension' the worst feature in railway politics.
Let the affairs of every company be thoroughly over-
hauled, by all means; let the whole history of its
concerns be written so plainly that he who runs may
read ; let there, above all things, be the utmost
publicity of management for the future; give share-
holders far greater powers of inspection and control
than they now poems ; let every man tainted, sus-
d, or incompetent, be driven from the various
boards; but, this being done, let confidence and con-
cord (for perfect unanimity, Is hopeless) be restored;
and let shareholders and directors pull together for
their common end—an improvement of dividends
honestly earned.
Without improved feelings and relations between
railway constituencies and their directors, railway
affairs cannot be satisfactorily managed. Now,
whilst we admit that directors themselves have much
to do to improve these relations, we must also think
that shareholders have not a little to do. The utmost
frankness, the most complete truthfulness, the most
resolute economy, are what us wanted from directors;
some little confidence, some small faith, some more
extended view than the Stock Exchange list are
quite as indispensable on the part of share-
holders. Prima are low and tempers are short; but
quarrelling, wrangling, abusing, at railway meetings,
make prices and tempers worse, instead of better.
Indignation on the first discovery of the nefarious
transactions which have disgraced railway affairs, and
brought a stigma and a reproach on the country, was
all very natural and proper at first ; bat the prolonga-
tion of passion and anger is ill calculated to remedy
the evils. If we have to wait for better prices as an
indispensable condition to improved discussion of
railway affairs, proprietors will, as Mr. Prrr told
parliament when milled on for an apology, " have to
wait long enough." It were, we soggestimuch more
preferable to try the simpler mode of improving the
tone of discussion at railway meetings ; for to render,
by fractiousness and universal dissatisfaction, good
management impossible, is the way least likely to ant
favourably on the value of shares.
When • thorough exposure of past mismanage-
ment has been effected, the wont to be gained is good
management for the future ; and to secure it, the leas
the railway mind dwells on the past and the more
it is directed to the future the better. The days of
high dividends are either peat or suspended ; the
Lys of honestly earned dividends have come into
fashion. Now, the great problem is how increase them;
hew railways can be more cheaply worked; whe-
ther by lower rates of speed, or by fewer trains, or
tulighter descriptions of engines and carriages.
are all questions needing the coolest judg-
mnt, the most matured information, and the most un-
semitting attention. But what railway director will,
or 4111% all ;bees faculties into play, who is liable,
edam's: he meets his constituents, to be bully-
Valike a HUDSON ?
is part of the professional policy of a contem-
pussy much given to the promotion of strife, to
mathage 11l ings between railway proprietors
eel dkabrs ; and, by the tyranny it exercises over
the wear and more excitable portion of the public,
It has te arms extent been successful in this policy.
But hot as suppose its success to be complete,
and that discord be perpetuated. The result is
obvious, that railways will, sooner or later, fall
into the hands of government, and that,
too, for au old song. This is the but in-
differently concealed object of the policy of railway
discord. Yet such a concluaion would be equally dis-
utrous to the country and to shareholders; to share-
holders, because railways would only be purchased
by government on terms diaadvantsgeou to the
vendors; to the country, because bad as independent
management in some oases has been, government ma-
sagement, all experience proclaims, would be much

worse.
Good dividends hereafter can only be worked out
by good management ; and where doubt, and savi-
ors, and jealousy, and dissatisfaction prevail amongst
propistars as a rule of action and conduct, good
maaagesissit is unattainable. No exaggerated or
IMOSIONSry confidence is wanted or wished for; but
auk • ral assumption of right intention and right
eo•dsstaswill insure harmony and co-operation in rail-
way oseperations. If madam cannot be reposed in
one set of directors, let smother to which faith can be
given be elected. But support from the general body
the boards of railway companies must have, or their
affairs cannot go on profitably.
Now, the question of railway audit is exactly one
in which confidence ought to be shown, and whence
renewed cordiality between proprietors and di-
rectors ought to flow. Mr. GLYN and his
t friends are as desirous as any section of share-