The Express.
London, England, 1850-03-15 00:00:00

THE FXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING, MARCH 15, 1850.

a body of county voters exist, numerous enough to
express in any degree the wishes and wants of
the occupying tenant class, might they not, some
fine day take it into their heads to say at the
hastier what they already say everywhere else, and
to vote as they themselves think fit P The bare con-
ception of a mate of things so dangerous to the main-
tenance of social and political domination fills the
territorial oligarchy with dismay. The end of all
things, in the despotic muse, stems at hand when
the dreaded vision of an enfranchised tenantry rises
up before them. Had the occupiers of land a right
by law to choose representatives in parliament, they
might take it into their heads to exercise it. At
present they have for the most part no such right,
nor even the semblance of it. Hence, no doubt,
much of the impulsive and excited ebullition of social
discontent, at whose distant echoes noble absentee
proprietors start in horror and wax wrath. The tan-
talised and Injured many have no constitutional mode
whereby to vent their dissatisfaction at the manner
in which their dearest interests are dealt with by
their hereditary lords ; and as the only alternative
left them, they have nc-ntly resorted to associations
and leagues, under various forme, in defence of
tenant-right and the security of industry.
Nor can such combinations cease to be re-
sorted to until either the great social gua-
rantees they week to obtain be ooneeded, or until
a full and free reoeseetation of the agricultural
' middle class be sstebliehed as part and par-
cel the ground-law of the realm. In parliament
or out of parliament the long smothered voice of agri.
cultural industry, as contra-distinguished from agri-
cultural indolence, and of agricultural thrift, self-
denial, and privation, as controdistinguished from
agricultural prodigality, self-indulgence, and luxury—
somewhere and somehow this voice wily ere long
mskeiteelf heard. In Ireland, where suffering has
been most acute and least alleviated—whi re land-
ladle n, in all its pride of power, has revelled with
least check—the people, driven welluigh to des-
' peratioc, have been the first to tarn upon
their tormentors, and to associate together
for purposes of self-defence. We are not at
all surprised that the landed class should feel
alarmed. They know better than arty one can tell of
them, the countless and ceaseless provocations to
popular resentment they and their fathers have given.
They tremble for the quiet resession of their rack-
rents, acid the fruit of the tenant,' labour, which they
hoped to appropriate to their own us, and benefit.
Panic is already amongst them, and its contagious
influence unhappily affects even persona like Lord
Cairrtenesnit, who eve individually guiltless of the
eine of their order. This, perhaps, is natural and
inevitable ; but surely it behoves such men to beware
how they internoso in such a quarrel. To mediate and
recoaeile, to admonish and advise, may at the fitting
WHIM be their privilege and duty. But to do so
with any prospect of auccese, they must retain some
charac er for impartiality, as between the hostile
patties. Once mingled in the intrigues and cabals of
the bland and infatuated caste which claims them as
its own, their only chance of usefulness is at an
end. The instant they suffer themselves to be drawn
into the counsels of monopoly and aosondency, they
most prepare to be viewed as partisans of the cause
whose practices they palliate, though they shrink
from vindicating its principles.
The ministerial bill fur the recore'r:ction of the
county constituency in Ireland upon the basis of an
81. rating is the filet step that hes Set been taken
towattis the social emancipation of the agricul-
tural clacste in that country from the thraldom in
which they have hitherto lain. It proposes virtually
to listen constitutionally for the futuie to what the
occupiers of the soil have to say, and to give them the
constitutional means of expressing their desires and
demand'. It does this confessedly in a very guarded
and limited way. It may even be doubted whe:her,
after making all reasonable deductions from the gross
number, who presumabV are to obtain the suffrage
or de ran 8/. rating, thee onstitnencie s will be sufficiently
numerous to be prat icelly independent. Tte bill
can hardly be looked upon as more than an experi-
ment ; its success must depend on the principle being
fairly trio], and carried out in practice fearlosly. To
raise the qualification by one-half, or from 81. to 121.,
would ensure its failure as a general measure. The
people would feel as much as ever that they were the
objects of legislative mistrust and suspicion. Tney
could receive the uugraiuus concession without gra-
titude, and use it only es another means of expressing
their unappeased discontent.

General Corbin has been appointed to the command
of the brigade of La Rochelle.
In the Legislative Assembly yesterday the bill re-
lating to the two additional twelfths applied for by
the minister of ficanze atd the other MIL demandicg
a credit of 10,160b004. to defray the expenses of the
colonies, were adopted. The discussion on the third
reading of the organic law on public instruction was
then resumed, and the articles, down to the 36th
inclusively, disposed of, without any modification of
moment. The &omission we. again adjourned to this
day.
The education bill is still going cm in the Chamber
to-day.
The panic which bad seized on speculators in the
Passage de l'Opera on Tuesday evetung, was followed
by • farther decline at the Bourse yeeteeday morning,
and Fives were at one time as low an 90fr. 10c., and
Threes 661 r. 60e.; toward, the close, however, a little
rally took place, and prices somewhat improved. As
compared with ' the last prices of the parquet on
Tuesday, Fives. for the account have declined
2tr. 10c., Threes lfr. 700., the former closing at
90ft. 90c., and the lath r at 66fr.; for cub, Fives
have fallen 2fr. 160.; Threes' lfr. Stio. ; the prices
being 90fr. 850., and 66fr. 80o.; Bank of France
Shares have declined 36fr.; Belgian Fives, i; Old
Roman, 1 ; New ditto, There bas been lade or
nothing dose in railway shares, bat where any trans-
actions have taken place prices have been lower.
Northern have declined I Ur. 260.; andeaux and
Strasbourg, 71r. 60c. each ; Nantes. 43fr. 260.; Orleans,
Oft. ; Marseilles, 21r. 60;.; and Bile, lfr.
A letter from Havre states that M. Porter de la
Pelletrie, a distinguished member of the legitimist
party, has been arrested is that city by a superior
officer of the Paris police establishment. Several
important documents were seized in his house.

reale, mums 14. Pa, ' it Amount.
Money. Opening Menem Lowest. Chine
3pa Ona. ....... 67 13 NI IL 37 33 513 IS 47 20
3 per Canto.
3 do. New Loaa • v. .0
Ili per Coats....
4 per theta 37.13 • • „
Exteange on [wawa: an dap.. 4 60; 13,1 day; 23 171. "
baled; I, 1410
Do. S, 1842
Do. 4
Do. 8
Piedmont 3 per Crate 97 0 " Sank Mores 227730
Bomma.—Vemiadlos (eight hank), 187 00; Varseillee (left bail),
—; Paris mid Orleans, 773; Pork aad Bora, 647 So • &men and
liana 287 30; Arline. and 193 73; Inman:re and Bale,
113; Orleans and Ileum, 320; and Bordeaux 402 SO ;
North, 440; Parla sad dipatboary, 343 73; Tours and Nantes,
242 30.

NApare, Yearn P.—Three pie Cents., 29 7.16 sesoast. Tour
per Csabi., ppm Mee per Crate., 121 paper. Coopiall. ;1 piper.
beak it. yffeased. bl mosey. Eacbauge oa Loado. &LW.

ITALY.

NAPLES.
The following is the letter of our correspondent :
NAPLES. Fin. 6. '
Petitions are circulating at this moment in the city
of Napier, of a smiler character to those which have
already circulated in the provinces, begging the king
to nullify the constitution. They are first taken to
government employ=s for signature, and in some in-
statoes, when such men have refused to subscribe, on
the ground that such petitions do not m..nifestly
emanate from government, and that they, by sub-
scribing, would subject. themselves to the charge of
high treason, they have been already suspended.
It is currently reported that his Majesty will, alter
this last public cot, oblitera a the word consti-
tu'ion, after which act, as a despotic monarch, he
will be in a position to sign the executim of s)me 24
leaders of the constitutional party now in prison.
I have heard, from p• non, about the Pope, that
there is an intention of his returning to Rome for the
holy week ; but the very same persons add that, in
their opinion, there is great doubt on the subject. In
my next I hope to be at4e to place before you some
interesting tinacc'al inforzca'ion touching a loan
which government is about to create for the supply of
the deficit in the Sicilian budget.
Five per Cents., 3/.