The Express.
London, England, 1857-09-08 00:00:00

PUBLIC OFFICE.

The Hon. Mr. Cauchon, late Commissioner of
Crown Lands in the Canadian government, has published in
the Ammo! de Quebec an account of the recently discovered
. .. , . ..

&Mention ►y the crown lands &gnat at Toronto.' We make
some entracte, adopting the Colonial, Emulation of the
stitch :

"A Wort time after, Mr. Cauchon nodi retood all the vice
of the system which it was his duty to conduct, and after he
had given orders that all letters and all burliness transacted
in the department should pass directly through his hands,
as he was ministerially responsible for all, some persons,
reesipt in hand, came to him to complain that they had not
received their patents, although they had paid long before
the price of their lands to the agent of the crown, Mr. Barnes.
"On marching in the hooka of the department, Mr.
Gulch= discovered that the sums mentioned in them re-
ceipts had not been entered in the monthly reports of Mr.
Dames. He sent immediately for M. Baines, who seat Mr.
Shortie in his place. This gentleman endeavoured to justify
his patron by saying that these amounts would be found not
to have been entered in the books in consequence of the neg-
ligence of a clerk, of whom he had been obliged to get ria, on
account of hie carelessnees, and he offered to replace them.
"From that moment Mr. Cauchon had his suspicion., and
he watched. In a short time he had gathered a dozen re-
ceipts similar to the first ; and of which the amounts were not
included in the monthly reports of Mr. Baines. Besides this, the
Commissioner not beteg aware of the feet, he did not make
any report' for three months. Mr. Cauchon demanded
these reports firmly, and they arrived at length, showing •
receipt of 8,0001. which had not been paid Into the Bank to
the credit of the Crown Lands Department. Seeing the
storm coming, and that it could not be avoided, Mr. Heinen
turned right about ; on being sent for again he declared that
he would liquidate this debt with • heavy claim which he
pretended to have against the government. It is easy to
imagine the reply. A head of a department does not settle
/upside/ with hie subaltern taken in the act of peculation.
Mr. Cauchon demanded from Mr. Haines his agency books;
be promiaed, but did riot give them up.
Mr. Shortie, whom this affair alarmed, because it might
destroy hie financial credit at the moment when he was en-
gaged in his largest speculatione,.prorented himself in turn,
accompanied by an honourable citizen of Toronto, to whose
credit it most he said that he was more anxious to save the
rah& property than his friends Messrs. Baines and Shortie.
In the course of the conversation the Commissioner of Crown
Lands led Mr. Sheltie who was overcome with emotion, to
make some serious confessions. He admitted that the seven
thousand and some hundred odd pounds which were entered
in the last monthly report of Mr. Baines were received a long
time before, and were not the half of the amounts actually
received by him. He admitted, besides, that be and Mr.
es had
Bain employed in their private Lunfeees • large portion
of these public fluid&
" These etaternente, extracted morsel by morsel, were •
valuable aid to the Commissioner of Crown Lands, who
wishiel above all to save the sum due to the public.
" It would have been early to promeute Mr. Baines for
embezzlement, and perhaps to send him to the Penitentiasy
but the law could not reach Mr. Shortie, who was not the
crown land agent, but only the clerk of that agent employed
and paid by him. Besides, Mr. Shortie had become the
richer of the two. It was necessary, then, to overcome the
difficulty to employ another lieu than the powerless
arm of the law, and to make use of the lever
of public opinion, which raises or abeam commer-
cial reputation as well as reputations of any other
kind. Mr. Shortie, menaced with publicity of his acts,
consented to make, conjointly with Mr. Baines, a transfer of
aU their property to the government, with the understanding
that it would show itself as liberal as It could without wholly
failing in it, duty.
"1 he government ought, cost what ft may, to keep to
this understanding, from respect for its mid,
above
all, because without this understanding Mr. Shortie would
have kept his property. In fact, what interest would he
have had to give it up if by this sacrifice he could not
hays saved himself more from the stigma of public opinion
than if he bad kept it? On the contrary, if he Lad kept it
something would have remained after the Inas of reputation,
and he would have retained poreestion of that pecu-
niary consideration which, under the sky of America, shel-
ters and saves all reputirtions, good and bad.
"Eut be could not give up that which, on the day of his
rusmage, he Lad settled on his wife, and which, according
to the law of tipper Canada, he had placed for her benefit in
the hands of trustees. Among these tentees was Mr. Philip
Vankoughnet, who hes wince become minister of agriculture.
He, then • simple citizen, could not be expected to be more
of a rimed than all those commissioner. of crown lands and
their clerks, who have regularly succeeded each other for
fifteen year. without being able to ere robberies constantly
committed, according to rule, by the crown land agents.
"Nevertheless, the books of Mr. Being. were given rap
and examined, and it was found that he was indebted about
30,000!., of which nearly B,OOW. appeared in the monthly
reports.
" The property of Mr. Blanes and that of Mr. Shortis
were to remain m the hands of the government until it could
Emceed in establishing the amount of the defalcation
"Many plane were discussed, but at length it was resolved
to make an equitable valuation of the property we have
scltren of, and to take es much as would cover the debt. If
mtirty would not do AO, then possession should be
kept -of the whole, and there would at least be the consola-
tion of having got all that it was possible to obmin. We do
net know whether the valuation was made, or what was the
result ; but we can affirm that the Mirage is deceived re-
lative to the nature, the number, and the value of the pro-
perties of Messes. Baines and Shortie; and we will believe
until proof is shown le the coattary, that they are quit;
sufficient to cover this 0110‘111011.11 debt of 80,0001.

ROYAL FREEMASONS' GIRLS SCHOOL.—We per-
oeive from a circular we have received that the treasurer of
this institution, Mr. B. B. Cabbell, has Invited the children
(nearly 70 in number) to accompany him to the Crystal
Patios, on Tbureday next, when the whole expense will be
defrayed by him. The children ere to dine at one o'clock,
and such of the brethren and their Mends who take an
interest in the proceedings will meet theca. It being the
second day of the flower show, there can be no doubt of a
numerous attendance.
Tun CIRCI;MLOCUTION-OFFICE IN AUSTRALIA.—
It appears that there le a cireumlocution•office in Australia as
well as in England. The Baltesaral Sloe has the following:
" The Deputy-Registrar at Amherst being in want of a small
supply of Ink, intimated the Fame to the authorities In Mel-
bourne, who sent him a bottle by the Telegraph line of
coaches He was charged Se. carriap for the creel. The
price of • similar bottle of ink on the spot is half-a-crewn."
THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE.—A semi-official
Bitutidournal, the Prews4rAs Chi ropondera, has been in-
to inform its readers that—" It is with anxiety and
indignation that the King has heard of the restless endea-
yours being made by certain clergyman and theologians to
deter people from attending the meetings about to be held in
Berlin by the Evangelical Alliance, with lie permission and
approbation. His Majesty had therefore commended the
Oboe-Kirchenrath to make known to all general superinten-
dents his determination not to allow silence on his part to be
misrepresented as consent (to this oppositional movement),
but wee resolved to leave no opening for doubt on this point.
The King attaches the most lively interest to this assembly,
in which he hails and Welcome. • manifestation of Christian
freteenal spirit as yet unexampled, and of the Providence that
reover the destinies of the Evangelical faith. While
ent
&Arian to • Impose on any one en attendance at
therm meetings, the King will as little conceal from every
one how much importance be attaches to them, and whet
enepielons melte for the future of the church he expects
from them."

trbe exortoo.

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LONDON, TUESDAY, 8177. 8.

Ern. days have fallen on the Cr6dit Mobaier of
France ; that wonderful machine which was to be
the lever for moving the financial world at its plea-
sure. Although the institution carried within itself,
mart unmistakeably, the seeds of great peril, and
almost certain ruin, we woes scarcely prepared to
see asp', st,ye disappear so rapidly, or find the rib-
lie so soon abandon the worship of the golden image
it had set up. Foe month' past its power and infia•
epee have been steadily declining, and with them the
price of its shares, which has dwindled from above
73/., the quotation the 201. share once ItSChtd. to
341., that of lout week. This represents a fall of
above 60 per cent. more September, 1836, and
where it will end no one at patient seems

dined to guess. A series of unfortunate events
have hastened this crisis, beginning with the refusal
of the Government to allow the issue of bonds, pay
able at remote periods, for a vast sum. Then came
the failure of M. Pt. sce, one of the directors, who
was suddenly recalled from Marseilles whither he
had gone on his road to Constantinople, charged
with • special mission for the regeneration of Turkish
finance. This catastrophe, which pat an end to the
scheme for a time, was probably • fortunate one for
Turkey : and although the affair was very quietly
hushed up, it undoubtedly left • scar on the
Credit Mobilier, his fellow-directors having been
heavy losers by him. The secession of the
Count de Mount was another, bat • Ism serious
blow: The note in the Mossiteur of the
9th March, 1856, prohibiting the formation of
new companies, was of far deeper import, for
it dried up one of the great sources of profit both for
the Company and its directors. Still later, the suc-
cessful attempt by the Government to check the de-
moralising habit of gambling on the Boone, which
was infecting every grade of society in Paris, was the
coup de grace to the Credit Mobilier dividends. The
scene of its great meemees was gradually deserted ;
speculation died away, and the vast army of
brokers and cuuliseiers in its pay were left to devour
each other.

In May last, Mr. Cu. Tnuaszvests absconded,
leering behind him debts to an enormous amount.
He was the nephew of Mr. Atf.V.TE TM A-
NET.,EN, a director of the Cridit Mobilier ; it was,
therefore, naturally assumed that the Company was
inrolred in the affair, and that since a nephew
and former partner of one of the directors had
made such disastrous speculations, the reaps of the
Credit Mobilier were no longer so sure as hereto-
fore. In a letter to the principal London journals
Mr. I. Veletas stated that the Credit Mobilier
was in no way mixed up with the absconding bank-
rupt, that the amount of the failure was exagge-
rated, and that Mr. AUC.VSTE Tiivarterssex was
only connected with the affair as a creditor. It now
appears that there was no exaggeration, the amount
being declared in the Bankruptcy Court to be
640,0001., and Mr. A. THUIINEV6bEN, from having
neglected to publish the fact of his being merely a
sleeping partner in the firm, being made oankrupt
with his nephew. Immediately following this comes
the resignation of Mr. E. ANDRIC, accompanied, it is
said, by that of two others of the most influential
members of the Direction. The resignations not
haring been accepted, Mr. ANIME again tenders his
through a legal officer, evincing a determination to

- - -
get out of the affair, which hu had a most dis-
utrou effect on the public mind. Men do not resort
to what is almost a public scandal in order to sever
their connexion with a flourishing institution; so
we cannot wonder at the depreciation of Credit
Mohilier shares, and of those of all companies con-
nected with it.

These blows are the more serious as this institution
is essentially dependent on credit rather than capital
for its existence nor, whatever may have been the ease
originally. The capital of the Company is 240,0001.,
of which, at the date of the last accounts
rendered, about 36,0001. were invested in
the public funds, and the remainder in various
shares, the value and convertibility of which mainly
depended on the power of keeping up the fever of
excitement in the Bourse. It owed on current
accounts 4,061,000/., and the bulk of this sum was
likewise invested in loans on bonds and shares, the
value of which hang also on a tenure which events
have shown to be somewhat frail. The mere know-
ledge that any break down of this immense gambling
house would throw upon the market securities to the
amount of above four millions, aggravates most
seriously the effects of any unfavourable rumours.
Nor does the evil end there. We long ago stated
that the Cridit Mobilier was a peril is the
whole of the Continent. Its unfortunate prosperity—
unfortunate for all unconnected with it, led astray
the weak and unsound tinaneialista—the speculative
and the needy—throughout Europe. The failure of

the great prototype would bring down the numerous
imitations which have sprung up in Germany and
Spain, and would seriously check, if not entirely
stop, the progress of the numerous works set on foot
by them. Already we find the Austrian public
feeling itself pinched by the rut mass of railways,
good in themselves, but undertaken somewhat
recklessly at the instigation of the Credit Nlobilier
of France, and the golden visions of shareholders
are fading away. In France the good sense of the
Government and the powerful means at its disposal
have served to cheek the progress of the mischief, bat
not until its effects bad made themselves severely felt.
For the Credit Mobility has been the parent of a
host of smaller associetiont, all founded with one

object, that of profiting by the blindness and info-

tuition of share gamblers; to raise up fortunes felt
their managers, and enable them to rival lie
PZIETICS, the Mutes, Ice. The journalism of Paris
was rapidly becoming merely the organ of this or
th►t clique of speculators, and the history of the
Roma railways wns an admirable comment on th.
mode in svt.ois these conductors of industrial jour-
-1 nals, who combined at the Mlle time the character
of genet and speculator, preyed on the credulity of
the public. The code of morality thus introduced was
pitiable, and for this we do not hesitate to my, the
Credit Mobilier is entirely answerable.
. .

Its pretensions to act as a sort of buffer to Indus-
trial undertakings have been too often ridiculed
sad exposed by the English press to need further
eocunent ; to the very last, however, they are
paraded as claims to public gratitude and confidence,
as though the world were ignorant that the ante-
rooms of the great premium manufactory in the
Place Venddoie were thronged throughout the day
by Bourse agents of every class and every shade
of morality. It is not by such instruments that
panics are averted, or that an insane speculative
fever is moderated; but it is by such machinery
that forty per cent. dividends are created, to be fol-
lowed by a collapse. That the handwriting an the
wall has appeared to the Directors of the Credit
Mobilier we do not doubt, but we see nothing to
lead us to anticipate an immediate crash. The
Directors, who cannot get rid of their responsibility
suddenly, and who are still connected with the Com-
pany, are mea of capital and experience. They will
need all their resources to let this famous institution
down gently with as little ruin as possible; even
under the moat favourable circumstances we cannot

.
sntimpate that any very lengthened period is likely
to pass over before another chapter of popular delu-
sions in France sill be added to the history of LAM'S
Mississippi Scheme.

ON the 29th of lut month we published an official
list of seven English Militia regiments about to be
embodied. As the harvest was in full swing, we
made no comment at the time on the smallness of
the number; and we advert to the subject now
merely for the purpose of expressing our confident
belief that, u the harvest is now almost every-
where gathered in, a much longer supplementary
list will be issued in a few days.

It is not only for home duty that the services of
the Militia will now be required. Our correspon-
dent at Malta writes, in a letter which we
published a few days ago, that the regiments
in garriaon in that island are most eager to proceed
to India. There can be no doubt that the regi-
ments which have been accustomed to the compara-
tively hot summers of the Mediterranean will be
better prepared to encounter the still hotter clime of
India than those which start at once from home.
The regiment' in garrison at Gibraltar, Malta, and
Corfu, would also, if sent on by way of Egypt, have
a much shorter voyage, and be better prepared for
immediate forced marches after their debarkation.
These considerations point unequivocally to the

conclusion that it will be wise to replace the regi-
ments now in gurriaon at Gibraltar, Malta, and
Corfu with some of our crack militia regiments.
It would be invidious to name individual militia
regiments, when the majority in almost all of them
are eager to be embodied. From all sides we
hear the remark, " Our regiment was not em-
" bodied during the Crimean war ; surely we ought to
. .

"he allowed our turn now." A list of seven Welsh,
ten English, and one Irish Militia Regiment is now
before us--all of which are to be called out this year
for training, and not one of which was embodied
during the late war. When they have been brought
together they may u well be kept together.
During the late war insinuations were circulated
in various quarters of undue influence having been
used by militia officers, who might have been incon-
venienced if their regiments had been embodied, to
have them kept inutile. We know not how this
may be, but a study of the Army Lief has convinced
us that there are some regiments among oar
militia to which, prima facie, a certain
degree of suspicion attaches. There is, for
example, the 2nd Middlesex, or Royal Mid-
dlesex Rifles, of which the new member for Mid-
dlesex is colonel. This regiment has served five
years, and is allowed by all the officers who have
inspected it to be equal to any in the kingdom; and
yet it was sedulously kept in the background
throughout the Crimean war, and is now threat-
ened
with the same neglect. Now, of the ten Cap-
tains in this regiment one is Chief Clerk to a
celebrated military agent, two are Members
of Parliament, one is Private Secretary to
the MINIP.TER of WAR, one is a Clerk in
the Admiralty, and one a well-known City
Banker : the remaining four are private gentle-
men, two of whom have served in the Army.
Again, of the Lieutenants, two are members of

Parliament, one is Recorder of Faversham, one is a
City Banker, and one a clerk in the Foreign-offiee ;
the mat are private gentlemen. Now it is perfectly
intelligible how the embodiment of this regiment
might inconvenience so many important gentle-
men ; and it is equally intelligible how their in-
fluence in certain high quarters may be suf-
ficiently potent to avert such an evil. But it would
be rather too much to concede that the interest of
the country should be sacrificed to the convenience
of a knot of gentlemen who wish to play at soldiers
twenty-eight days in the year. Thanks to the
Major, who was a captain in the army, and went
through the Kaffir war—and to the other officers,
whose heart is in their business—the 2nd Middlesex
is a most efficient regiment. The private soldiers,
too—with few exceptions—arc not agricultural
labourers. They have been, for the most part, re-
cruited in London and Barnet ; many have only
a precarious livelihood; scarcely any of them would
be inconvenienced, and most of them benefited by
being embodied. It is just the regiment for active
service ; and its influential officers can scarcely hope
to escape imputations, which we cannot believe they
deserve, if it is not embodied. Of course, in order
to neaps the imput►tion, they will use all their
influence to have it embodied.

CAMBIIDGR, SIFT. 7.-INTWIEST OF THE LAT It
PIIGIPTIIT or Quartos Cottrok —The internee' of the
teasel= of the Lea pvilwt of Qom,' College took place
this day in the Zee* ceemaceies.
The body lad been std the college boll the
Doe of the night, sad about l l reckon, ins pee-
rage* started, It peened mead the tire coon of the col-
lege, and at the maniacs et the chapel-eras marred by the
1t.,. W. G. Seark sad the Row. W. M. Campion, officiatiag
mitentee. Chant service was celebrated, and, amid the
chop repot of all ananaiated with the late president, his
remains wen beneed to their Met reating-plee
- - -

More failures are reported in Bristol, come of
which are consequent re the tenet suspension of payment
by Ilmors. Bruford, Dysr, and Co., African merchants.
Mown B. F. Pardon and Co., of the Stoke Sospworks, near
Bromogrirm him convened • meeting of their creditors at
the dime of Masts. Barnard, Thomas, and Co., Bristol, for
Thenday next. This liabilities of this tirm an stated at from
30,000/. to 40,0001. On the Maw day a martin, of the cre-
ditors of Ids. AJUVII Crosfield, gwaeral merchant, of Bristol,
Is to be held. The liabilities in this ewe are about 10,0007.
Oar. Charles imam, Australian merchant, has also sm.
payment, with liabilities amounting to about 1.5,000/.Mil isaid-established house of Gooey W) Id and Sons, recti-
fying distillers, and wine and brandy merchants, hare also
failed, and a petition in bankruptcy has been filed against
Keene. Perms and Co., tnerobsum, ship and 111011701 We
rUntamed peasouper and general brokers, whose Habil!.
ot stated at 20,0004