The Express.
London, England, 1857-05-09 00:00:00

we answer without hesitation in the aflinnative. ,
It is just that the rich people of the Weet-eni
should pay for the poor people in the East end
—quite Si just as that the wealthy inhabitants in
Bedford-square should pay for the Irish hodasn
of St. Giles's.
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Bet there is one point in Mr. Bourssis's speech
which deserves attention. He asked the deputation,
which consisted chiefly of clergyosee, whether they
had held sty semeelldeatlea with thsiebeothren at the
west end of Ueda en the subject. He dared to
taw stesther dee imputation teed any ilea of the
seallaseslii would be made to their par. It is
leadisrstand the anxiety of a Minister to be in-
famies this paint. No drat the demand was rea-
dable. The Ref. Mr. DPI:Mu mama d it by saying
est Amy had no ream to apprehend any great
esessaet reeistance to the equalisation of the poor
rate Illionsheat London. We trait that this anticips-
tia a esesset, though we must admit that the meet.
ap es Ai sahject have hitherto been almost exclu-
sively samba to the east end at Issfes. where the
evils of as past system are most plpable. It
woad be most umfal for the cam If sea meetings
were se ad to tie West-end, kr the Mese of die-
mmiseg the palm Boaanem tea pea mo-
tive of hems sabot, but we add Yn hope that
even sashase h not always synapsis with folly.
The pmesseme se wealth be this peat shy mast
with heipeity mesa the eaditios dale pear M
the east. They 03111 M ignore that state 8" of listsg
starvation" is which the peer are kept in the ream
districts. By the laws of Providence, poverty C
wealth are inseparably bound together. Therm
twin-brothers. We are told that at psme the
clergy at the West-sad often have a large sem of
money placed at their disposal far the prolapse of
charity, and know not what to do with it.
The spirit of charity is not extinct in this modern
Babylon ; and we cannot believe that if the
ease for equalising the poor-rate were properly
placed before them wealthy and charitable inha-
bitants of the Wotan& they would oppose a
measure designed far that purpose. Bat, even if the
common feelings of humanity and of justice do not
prevail, at all events let expediency have its effect.
By perpetuating the present system, the rich of
the metropolis are day by day demonstrating to
the poor that they care neither for their physical
nor for their sacral well-being ; they are widening
that golf which separates clam from elms, and en-
gendering that wont of all enmities, class enmity ;
they are breeding up in the very midst of their
possession a race of discontented aliens, who, km
their cradles, will learn to regard the wealthy Se
their natural enemies, and the wealth that sem
round. them as the natural inheritance of MI&
they have been robbed. Ls preprieti east le eel
will be the practical gospel of such a elms as this.

Tax ingenio•s youth who thought he should like
to be apprenticed to an Executor, because his father
had made so mach money in that line, was doubt-
less wise in his generation ; but bad he lived in oar
day he would probably have selected the trade of •
Promoter, as a• easier and shorter road to wealth.
The professors of this imoative art, better known
as " getters up of Comrades," levy a very handsome
black-mail upon the sabseribers to Joint Stock Asso-
ciations; bat they are like moles, and, working out
of sight, their opseations are • mystery to the
gems' public. Mr. Dox•ocx has, however, turned
cap it melt if them to the light of day ; and the
mode in which his statement of their labours, and
their reward, wee received by the shareholders of
the Western Bank of London was not very compli-
mentary or flattering to the particular set of
Promoters with whom he had to deal. Mr. ROE-
BUCK, in his ospecity of Chairman of the Bank,
called the attention of the shareholders to the item
of " preliminary expenses " in the following manner:

I an Is the Ikelit eimerideg plalry, red bid I
week 1 Issaltiag et titre Yr rtl the reser thst se

(13,121-) woeCl sat have tear hags. It is altdy sesis
'op el two hum, tee ct which Is the alum *I to the PTO.
amen el the book, Nal the ether the WI el the Wisher.
The oesVill n the Pressolses al the book woe 6,0001. TINT
slobeithilthey boil bon ell swathe et week—that they
wow kW Ow r the spat se—sol it wee sell that sassy
saw babe hal - toga "more to tbolr Pstretwo." I
thib b asestary Iht/osily to stets the raw ei these Pte.
Nolte% aai I lobe then Now how a Whir ilptel by thaw
whoa diklostly end divinely se prowelow. The amass am
Whom Comphall Olt" J. 1. Illochwerlat, Nosey Blies.
ley, Beejewia Cameo, John J. Rymer, sod Jeri Crosby.
The an the mass of the panto who here noshed the
6,000/.

Now, one of these gentlemen Mr. RYMER, besides
being a Promoter, happens to be the Solicitor of the
bank whose bill Mr. ROEBIL:CX thought very ex-
travagant, but it was cut down very much." It
figures in the "preliminary expense" item for 3,4661.
Mr.RTNEIt repudiated the Promoter part of the busi-
ness, declaring that he retained no more of the 6,0001.
than covered his expenses out of pocket, so that the
other worthies, GILLAN, WINCKWORTH, BLECKLEY,
COLIMAN and CROSBY, must have divided among
them a sum which gave them over 1,1001. each for
six months' work. Now, we should be glad to

know what sort of labour it is that these Pr;motere
are so handsomely paid to perform. One of them
probably manufactures a draft prospectus, with won-
derful attractions, hie an Beater playbill ; but what
is the next promo ? Do the other Promoters, when
the egg is thus laid, take it by turns to incubate
until it is either hatched or addled ? Do they all go
Director-hunting, and so forth? and is it done in
packs, or in couples? To succeed in that pursuit,
impudence and pertinacity are valuable qualities,
but ere by no wane so rare as to merit a reward of
2,0001. a year, the price, according to the Western
Bank tariff, of a Promoter's eervices. But they
guaranteed the expenses, it ia mid. This Mr. Briars
denies ; it was he who had given an indemnity against
the preliminary expenses, and had considered that fact
in his little bill of 3,4661. And Mr. RYMER gave
up six months of his time to promoting—no, not
promoting, he utterly denim that—but to doing
something which required extra clerks to mist him;
and that something he va►ued at 1,6001. or 2,0001.,
for the Charter met from 1,6001. to 2,0001. of the
3,4661. "In feet," says Mr. RUM, "I did everything
which was not done by Mr. BLECKLET."
Now this statement throws a new light on the
case. Out of the six Promoters two, RYMER and
BLECKLEY, do all the work; the former receives
nothing out of the 8,0001. except the money he has
spent, end the rest of the money is divided between
the other working Promoter, BLECKLET, and the
four drones of the hive, GtLLs.n, WINCKWORTH,
COLEMAN, end CIIOBIIT. Hence it appears that
Promoters are of two kinds—the useful and the

ornamental—and that the quaternion just named
belongs to the latter category. To an a phrase one
occasionally sees in police reports, the two kinds
of Promoter " work " together.

But there is another item in the accounts of the
Western Bank of London which sorely bewildered
Mr. Roasrar-1,0001. for brokerage. What can this

e.bary represent Did the Broker help in the pro-
moting, like °ILIA" sad the rest—that is, by doing
nothing ? Or was he charged with mine mys-
terious operations in that wonderful laboratory in
Cepa-mart, where they say premiums are mann-
formal P Tb total mount of shares in the Western
llak of Idelmi al: 4,000 I le SW if lea soli

every one of them it would give a Drawees of eve
shillings per share, which we apptehe•t le •
hir remuneration, especially in • wlolesale
transaction of that character. The Beretary
pro tem. received 6001. the Manager. 6001. ;
the Chairman (Sir Betwxe Liwros, who seems to
have abdicated) 3001. ; and advertising, stationery,
&c., cost 9001. moat bringiag up the totd of the
preliminary expenses to the monstrous sum of
11,3231. The present Directors have server fee six-
teen mwaths without touching a shilling o' rename-
ratioa ; the salaries and charges of aU kings amount
to 3,6121.; sad yet we end these Promotes claim-
ing 6,0001. for six months' work, that Ina being,
according to Mr. RTMEII, doing nothingas regards
four of them.

--
It is high time that this disgraceful abase was
checked, and that the trade of gettint up Com.
panics for the sake of pillaging tie original
subscribers under any pretext, or so pretext,
should be put a stop to. No one will ques-
tion the right of the founders of s company,
who undertake the risk and labour cf forming s
nucleus on which it may be based, to be emunerated,
and that liberally, for their trouble; but to pay
enormously men who evidently have nr further 'con-
nexion with, or interest in, the undetaking than
getting together enough share espial to enable
them to dip deeply into it witlout peril, is
utterly monstrous. Mr. Monet:ex had doubt-
less good authority for saying that "other
banks have paid much more to their ?remoter'," sod
we would recommend shareholders o elicit at the
earliest opportunity the sums their various Banks
have paid for "promotion," and tie names of the
recipients of the plunder. It is a leading in tke di-
rectory which is wanting, and it will be doubtlear both
rueful and curious to know whether On.tkir,
WINCKWORTH, and Co., is the only firm which doss
the " getting up " of Campania, on a grand isle of
remuneration, or whether there are still moremagni-
floent personages in the hierarchy of Promoters.
The acknowledged chief of the tribe, Barns, is on
his way to Australia to enlighten the colonists in
the 'arteries of this proltable oecupatioa, and we
trust some steps will be taken which will compel
the rest of the " professor" either to follow kis
example, or to seek a mmewhat more reputable
employment in England.

LORD CAMPBELL KY renewed his motion for •
Select Committee on the Law of Libel, especially
as it affects the publiation of the reports of
proceedings at public meting,. It is high tins
that the law in questios should be therms*
rifted. The real pristine on which is Wed
the whole law of libel is simply this—dad
every man of whom anotlier maliciously speaks er
writes defamateey matter should have a 'WI, or, in
extreme oases, a ainsinakremedy apart the de-
famer. In as far as the dawn is ommemed„ the
essence of the thing is malice, either ewes
or implied; in as far as the defend is
concerned, the ground of his claim he Nom
is the damage his character has wastalauk er h
necessarily placed in jeopardy of embledrup by
reason of the delimatiem and the mthasted extent
of such damage molecule the ememe d Ws romper
action. These en the that primigies ea whist
nets the whole theory of civil nee by an laden
for damages in came of definition. la order Se eem
Isin melt an action there male proof of =Ma he
the &hoer, cheep. to the iihmsd. If dike he.
gradient be wanting, the seishile root hie, and
the 'him he relines is net nude eat. The.. as,,
se leek. suasion came when the MN mare of
the defamatory language mph* is ma es to
imply malice in the speaker or writer, so far, at
least, as to throw on him the burden of showing
ia point of fact, no malice existed. There are
ether eases where this presumption is so strong as
not to admit of being the rebutted—caeca where
the lineage used is se flagrantly and grossly
vituperative as not to be palliated by say
alleged rectitude of intention, or explained away by
say circumstance of extenuation. Again, there are
came, and they are by no mane infrequent, where
the ergesisa is reasonably sad properly hell to juo
ay the me of language, whether in writiog or
speaking, which is in itself unquestionably Ma-
-1 =story, in as far as it has a tendency to detract from
the dr raster of another to his damage. Among
the most &natter cams of this clam are those of
public oommenta an the chareeter and conduct of
public mot. A very considerable degree of latitude
is here most properly allowed, os the clear principle
that it is to the public interest that each comments
should be freely made, and, =lcon manifestly
prompted by personal malice, or other sinister
motives, should not be reordered onenable
to the penalties of the libel law. Another fami-
liar instance of the same principle is the
protection thrown nand the master in giving the
character of • domestic servant. This is an occasion
in which the general interest revues that the truth
should be told at whatever cost to personal charac-
ter; and accordingly, union dear proof be given that
truth has been wilfully departed from and malice
wantonly indulged, any statement whether written
Of verbal regarding the quelithation of a servant,
however disparaging, ia protected es a privileged

All these applications of the law relating to
defamation are manifestly based on the one principle
from which the whole proceeds, vu., that to con-
stitute such defamation as can alone give a ground
for claiming civil redress two things must concur—
malice in tho defamer, consequent damage to the de-
famed. Now, apply these principles to tie state of
the law brought before the attach= of the House by
Lord CAMPBELL. Parliament, let it bo supposed, is in
erica; a grave inquiry is pending on a mbject of
the highest public importance; the result of that
inquiry—all the steps by which those results are at-
tained—are matters on which the public have the
highest interest, and therefore the best right, to be
accurately informed. As a necessary part of that
inquiry disclosures are made disparaging to the
conduct of an individual. The report of the inquiry
is published by the authority of Parliament ; the
disparaged individual brings his action against the
printer; and as long as " STOCKDALZ O. HANBARD" is
law, in that action he must succeed, for the privilege
now enjoyed by reports of proceedings is courts
of justice is not enjoyed by reports of proceedings
in Parliament. Take again the case which arose
the other day. gown the publication by a public
journal of the report of proceedings at a public meet-
ing which is alleged by a plaintiff, and fiend by a
jury, to contain statements disparaging to hispersonal
character. Here again it is now conclusively settled,
by the case of DAVISON O. DUNCAN," that the
plaintiff must retain the benefit of his verdict. It
is no defence for the proprietor of the journal that
the meeting was pnblio—that the subject crocuses&
was one of general interest—that the report was
truthful and trustworthy.
We suppose there is no rational person in these
realms who will not agree with lewd CAMPBELL
that this state of things is eminently absurd and un-
as tiagictory. On principle, there is no reason whatevec
for extending the privileges of immunity to the
report, of the law courts which doss not equally
apply to the mods of proossdinis in Padigmist