The Express.
London, England, 1850-03-18 00:00:00

IiANCEINSTER, Mar:h 16.

BTOCK-EXOTIAI4OI.—The prineipsl business was is Las-
enter sad Yorkshire dirk. and a good many firths changed Made
at 9 die hatensioos sold at 19 dia. and Wes Ridings at 7 11-1011 s
; Fast Lanowhira shares add at tij. and Mandy:star and Mistheid
111. 110 s. shams at la. mm radirwe wr weak.

the !me.-
amnesia
lag. etarer
ellaNd•

DIRMINOIL4M, Mare* 16.
81001-Bacnamoz.—THa market °peed 'Meal hme
the news rewired by te sod
depreasia, Ilbotstioto 11127honee, but there eb:411111r little stook oar.
him stereety ,dy business wa• tranosoted at taa reduced prima. North
Stearns dosed with ram at 11/. Te. 9d. Ms.
BRISTOL, March 16. -..
- •
STOCZ —The market was cote, as tad= ' • rtt
almost always is on the log day of the week. In the law Bala •
prial were shoat the same as cut
7. —1 •

Vie Er,preoo.

OUTGOING NAILS.

The oath ler, Gibraltar, Nolte, Owes*, do lonian blames,
gyps, Onkel. ladia, aid Chios Oa Ileasloaaptea, will
be mods ap ea tbe thothe et Mink 20.
The oath fee British Nee* *moth sad eb. Usited
Bath will Maud. op ea lb. nosing of the nod last
TM sails sise Nethiliee, to Ike fl.ditonanoso. Rapt,
Ceplea, Idis, His.a-Hong, to.. will be oath or on tho
.twin/ of lb. Mit last.
The malls for Lisboa. Spain, the Gibealtsr will be made
op wa thi 2/sli Navels.
TM Walt India Meth, laded*" Bonale, ifeetheall,
Mn,am Hoodoos, Now Othello, sad Meath, sod *Raisins.
Noss Is. Ns Ara. 81. Jthe-dle-Nisariath, New theasda,
0101, end rem will be oath up ea April 2.
The =sib be libthria, the Boils, sad Banes Ayres, will
M oath ap ea the softies el April 4.

TO CollatirOVlDlNnt.
ied "Ilra Emus; Loam *wafts ...i
nedwalsol. Wive Wilda ilk• du of

IRON WATER AT LONDON WEDGE
Mt.ae—Vkawros. mow. 11. Is.
—llskim 14+.

LONDON, MONDAY, MARCH 18.

Militarise have new WO =folded their budget
thy the year o' politics mid fiance. As usual, they
have made all their corossaises to that party is the
state which has proved the most noisy, and =ratite!,
and agitating, and ereo subversive. Everything is
for the landowner and the protectionist. Everything
that can possthly be thrown to mollify Isis wrath is
sacrificed. \1 hereat. nothing, either in principle or
taxation, is conceded to reformers, whether electoral
or finaseial. We can only conclude that these gentle-
men have been far too moderate, too temperate, too
gentle in their agitation —too anxious by Meads'ss and
confidence to keep the whigetruto free trade, to permit
of their exercising that t reserve in other things which
alone could have ensured progress. And the conse-
quence is, that we retrograde, that every measure of
electoral reform to England, and even to Ireland, is
scouted or neutralised, that there is to be io sensible
reduction of expenditure, no burden taken off the in-
dustrious classes, and no more tryst reposed in them.
The ministry, instead of being in the least awe of the
popular party, however growing in the Hoses itself,
and capable, if it would exert itself, of great growth
in the country, reserves all their fears, and attendees,
and conciliation for the landlords. And from them
they en not the least thanks. In obsequiousness to
SWIIOIIEIII' PEEL they have confined reduction to the
brick du y. Following up the recommendation of
the Lords committee on the burdens of land, they re-
move the tax on transfer. sod mortgages, and at
the: same time frame the whole budget to realise
the demand of cheep and &meet gratuitous capital for
the agricultural borrower; all to no purpose. The
member for Oxfordshire tells them, that all they have
done an mere Woos for towns and compliments to
forty shilling freehold societies. On the part of the
landed interest he does not thank them. And we
have no doubt the landed interest feels as its spokes-
man expressed himself,—bent on revenge aid mace
tioo, and not to be softened by sops of three
quarten of a mileior.
Oa the other hand, the liberal and reforming in-
terest in the House of Commons has received nothing
from ministers since the commencement of the session
but fair words and empty compliments. Ministers
admit or show that they stand in great need of liberal
support against ultra-conservatism; but it is evident
they want Whey@ it at the least possible price. Their
Barking of reform,their mere make-b Hue of economy,
their allowing every Irish lit. rat measure to be neu-
tralised and pervertel, are proofs that ministers hold
the liberal party far to) cheap. And it is really to
be mooted whether a frankly conservative and mad
tory ministry would not be considerably more to the
ultimate advancement toth of free-trade and reform.
The wbig ministry of the present day, in truth,
resembles those cyphers of which LOUIS NAPOLEON
threatens to form • cabinet. The Emma and GRETa
may indeed be far cleverer men than the HAUTPOVLS
and the LAHITT Es. But of what advantage Is cleverness
to do-nothings? LOUIS NAPOLEON'S nonentities of
ministers Dave merely allowed his bark to drift on
the quicksands of socialism. And the whip are
mak ;ng use of their time of command merely tole' their
state-vessel drift on prohibition and ultra-conservatism.
If the whip do no more than they are doing, they
are certainly but keeping the seat of power warm
for toiles and protsctionists, as LOUIS NAPOLEON
is evidestly -keeping a throne warm for
some one of the Bovasos dukes. And French
and English liberals are in the mean time
both plied in the some way by similar fair
words. We preserve order, exclaim tree French non-
etheless. We maintain free trade, cry the English
inactive,. And hence the country is induced to leave
power in hands too feeble and benumbed to wield, to
strengthen, or finally to keep it.
The small and piddlior way in which the CHAN-
CELLOR of the EXCHEQUER has dealt with the SOF
plus of the revenue is quite in character with the
pettiness, the tiniVity, and next door to nothingness of
all that the ministry does. By keeping the whole of the
surplus in his hands, the minister might have effected
a reduction of interest on the debt. Or by duelist
large and even measures of relief to all claims, he
might have made them share fiscally in the amend
improvement. As the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHE-
QUER has carved it, no party or class will feel much
benefit ; whilst the half million which he ha kept
for em-rgency will be but a standing prnvontive to
some official to set to to provoke some military ex-
dition. Indeed, there are already indications. Sir
H. Enuorr, secretary to the Governor-General of
Ind a, and Sir W. GILBERT at ;Lahore, have an-
nounced—the one the expediency of conquering
Egypt, the other the necessity of another onslaught
on Cabool. We should strongly advise Sir CHARLES
WOOD to have these officials reprimanded or recalled,
if he would keep his half million for any awful fiscal
or industrial purpose.
With respect to the brick duty, we ourselves
strongly advocated its abolition, although we fear
that additional legislation will be required to make
it profitable to the agricultural labourer. It is not
the high price of bricks which has made the land-
lords refuse tenements to these who cultivate their
estate.. It is the law of settlement. And if cheap
bricks merely far ilitsta the running up of streets or
labourers' habitations in town suburbs, little will
been havegained. Lord ASHLEY is much occupied
with his Ten Hours Bill c'ercion on the mill owners.
Should it not in fairness be accompanied by a similar
bill, prohib:ting landlords from compelling their
labourers to ride more than two miles distance to their
work on &sallies ? Sir ROBERT PEEL, who broached
the donkey nuisance, would surely second such a pro-
posal.
But the laziness of the whip, Ind their incapa-
bility of ever performing more than the one-twentieth
part of any task, was never better exemplified than
in their dealing with the stamp duties. Of all the
departments of the revenue, the stamp duties form
that which is capable of being rendered more pro-
ductive, without being unjustly onerous to any.
Countries infinitely poorer than England afford in
stamp duties far higher taxes than we do. The
French raise eight =dhotis sterling almost solely on
transfers and mortgages. And they propose a duty
on BUOMINgOI2III, which, if carried out, would enable
them to dispense with their most odious taxes on
consumption.
We, too, ought to have a revision of our stamp
dente, blotting from amongst them those mean and
beggarly Ali:hien of pence from the poor, in order to
writ g 130,0001. from poor advertisers, 26,0001. from
peer pedlars, sad similar sums from pour jarries.
Ise tad it these b gnarly remnants of eseelity, wor-
thy of Turkey or of some cobbling community, why's
not men a fair, large, and quite big toss upon trues
tars of all Mads of property, espeeielly when passing
from the dead to the lining,--a tax really
Nereus to sone—• tax whi h at precut
weighs heavily on the Wrenn' capitalist, while'
the ouselowner, originally and feudally sus+ et to this harden, has contrived to shake it off. Is the
levying such a lax it is is the power of the state to
bestow an equivalent is rendering the title to the
property thus transferred, legal, positive, patent, and
este. By so doing, and this avoiding law expenses
ag titles, it would far more thrill's's sad
sheaves ttie transfer of porticoes of land, great sod
small, then the CHANCELLOR of the Exemeounies
pad 'ling re.arranKement of the scale of duties. What
eirr CHARLES WOOD propose. may bs good, bit it
ive stir r all, beat a drop of 'medicine in the bowl of •
pstient that requires a full draught—a scruple
ties ineseend Lut as compensation in a system who,
sad ins gash'', are hourly dealt out ley the
pasted or the tun.

Tin case of the Cheraw and Holyhead Railway
Company is • strange end a hard ens mere credit-
able to the spirit et the people than to the honour
and good faith of the goverseasat4 this country.
Unlike other railways the 'obeli, devised end
ibl
promoted, not so mach for the Of the distriate
the line runs through, es to add Is the many
I material links that counsel end Ireleed.
It has been executed by grivaee dam win were ea-
' oraraged to enter into the . by the impor-
tance placed on it by pediment sad the government,
at the enormous mist of 4,400,0001.; daring the
progress of its eonstrssese the government imposed
terms on the company width greatly aggravated its
cost; and, now, when almost cumpleted, the Admi-
ralty and the P. et Office have done their ut-
most to prevent it paying its working espies's.
The direst route from London to Dahlia, as all the
world knows, is by way of Holyhead. Whilst yet
we travelled by *rack every thing that Mao-
ADAM, seieDCP, and legislation, could do for
this read, was done; that the management might
be uniform, its turnpike trusts were consolidated ; a 1
parliamentary commiseion presided over its adasinis-
teethes that it might be responsible ; valleys were filled
op, hills were levelled,every bend was straightened;
the swiftest horses carried the lightest mails that an
hour might be saved in 'reaching Dublin. Bat just when
perfection in coach travelling had been reached in the
Holyhead Road, the railway b"tween London and
Liverpool intervened, and swept, all its traffics round by
the latter town. Scarcely, however, had the Irish
traffic been famil'arised with and extended
by this chaste, than, in spits of its speed and
its moony, the Irish began to find a grievance in it.
The fares were toe high; the route by Liverpool woe'
circuitous; the North Western Company bad a mono-
Wai:tpthe cast of
athe sistpxngistertb "Justice to
the r
way. Unfortunately those were the lays of high
dividends; time, when parliament and the public
held the opinion, ong since dead and baried,that every
trunk line could not pay less than 10 percent;
when every week added to the traffic of
every railway in operation. So, excited by
the Irish demand, deluded by the nation that
the railways would pay 10 per cent., parlia-
ment sad the government encouraged the scheme for
additional railway communication with Dublin ; and
the North Western Railway, in order to avoid com-
petition between London and Chester, consented re-
lactantly to be at half the cost of making a line be-
tween Chester and Holyhead. Accordingly, an act
for 0 this great national work" was passed ; a com-
pany was incorporated ; one-half the shares were
taken by the North Western, the other half were
scrambled fur by the public, who, reasonably enough,
thought that what the government so anxiously pro-
moted, and what the North Western so liberally sub-
scribed for, could not be a bad thing.
Its original capital was fixed at 2,800,0001. This,
however, it quickly became apparent, would be in-
sufficient. So power was given it to raise other
1,600,0001.; making altogether 4,400 0001. • which
has now been spent. Thugreat sum has not, how-
ever, quite paid for the line that has been made ;
for here is on it a simple contract debt of 250,0001.
Nor has it quite completed the scheme laid down;
for the line completed ends a full mile from the har-
bour of Holyhead ; a hiatus which it will take some
200,0001. to fill op. Bat not another stiver can the
company raise by hook or by crook ; and though this
"great national work" is now opened throughout,
its prospects are of the gloomiest.
The peculiarity in the origin of the Chester and
Holyhead R iilway is thee, it will be obeerved, that it
was the result of a semi-rational movement ; that it

was almost forced by the imperial government and
parliament on the country, and that its object was
not local bet national and governmental. The best
proofs perhaps that this was so are, firstly,that before
the line was begun the Post-office gave it, for twelve
years after its completion, the mail contract for
30,000/. a year; secondly, that when the company
sosurbt for pmt.'s to establish steam-boats between
Holyhead and Dubin, Sir ROBERT Pest bore down
all opposition by the glowing assertion that this was
practically a railroad between London and Dublin,
and that a service of steam-boats was a necessary
and indispensable part of the seta. me ; and, thirdly,
that its opening is to be followed by the termination
of the vice-royalty of Ireland, and tae placing of that
island under the direct administntti,in of the imperial
crown.

Well, then, this being es, the Chester and Holy-
head Railway having thus had a national and govern-
mental origin, let as see what government has done
to promote its pecuniary emcee' ; for unless it be
pecuniarily successful, the national and governmental
object' will, of course, be defeated. Hsw has gsvern-
ment treated " the great national work ?" Scurvily
enough, it seems.
The original plan provided for ordinary, arched
railroad bridges over the Conway and the Menai
Straits, the estimates for which were 250,0001. Ti
such bridges, however, the Admiralty (that
plague of every ra lroad which crosses a tidal
river) objected. Like the malevolent fairy in
the " Island of Jewels," it proposed the seemtngly
impoeeiile problem of bridges which should cross the
Conway and the Menai Straits at an equal level from
the water at all points, and without obstructing those
channels during construction: the capital of the com-
pany—that is to my the resources of the cosntry—
being taxed to an extent entirely unknown to the
Admiralty that a few Welsh coas'ers might not de-
viate from their coarse for a few deys. The genius
cf Mr. STET neseox answered this appeal, and by it
the company was enabled, at an additional cost of
500,0001., to *stoned and confound the Admiralty by
a literal compliance with its at-reasonable demand.
This additional expense might, it would be sup-
posed, have satisfied even the Admiralty : but it did
not. The herbour of Holyhead wanted deepening ;
it was des:rable to mike it a harbour of refuge. And
the Admiralty, in the plenitude of its power, decided
that the court any should give 203,0001. to this work,
which sum is at this hoar one of i a unprovided for
liabilities.

Thus eoc3nraged, government went further. Par-
liament had, on Sir ROBERT Peet's advice, given the
company, in violation of general policy, steam-boat
powers. To establish a Ent-rate service between
Holyhead and Dublin, the com pany expended 160,0001.
en steam-boats. But notwithstanding that the
company, so encouraged and almost directed to become
steam-boat proprietors, were prepared to carry on this
service at moderate rates of passage, the Admiralty
kept up the opposition of the old packets at aloes to the
country of 6010001.. and induced the Dublin Steam-
packet Company to maintain its boats. Thus was
the capital vested in steam-boats on Sir ROBERT
Pena's recommendation rendered unprofitable by the
rivalry of the Admiralty, which rivalry, whitet in-
juring the company, cost the country 60,0001.
The company very naturally interpr ted the ex-
ception made in their favour as to steam-boats by
parliament as an admission that the Past-office per-
vice between Holyhead and Dublin would fall into
their hands if they were prepared to do it on rea-
sonable terms. Toey accordiugly offered the Admi•
ral,y to carry the mails acmes the Channel for
35,0001. a year. To this offer the Admiralty, it
seems, gave them no reply, but continued their comp.-
titioo. Bo matters remaired until it was accidentally
discovered by the directors that the Admiralty was
on the point of concluding a contrast with the com-
pany's Dublin rivals fur the sum of 45,0001. a year.
The directors remonstrated, end appealed to the
Treasury ; the Admiralty grew ashamed of the con-
templated job, and threw the contract open to pubLe
competition. The company reduced its offer to
30,0001. a year; but here, again, they were jockeyed
by their Dublin rivals, who tendered at 25,0001., and
obtained the contract.

The figures are el importaLt that we rept at them.
The Chaster and Holyhead Company Brat tender at
36,0001.; of their offer the Admiralty take no notice ;
the Admiralty is then on the point of concluding a
contract with the Dublin Steam Navigation C4mpany
for 45,0001.; being detected it throws the contract
open ; the railway company then offer 30,0001., the
steam navigation company 25,04X)1., and obtain the
contract. And thus, though the 160,0001. which
parliament induced the railway company to inept In
steam boats is rendered pnAlleev, the country eaves
90,0001. per annum by the intervention of the com-
pany and its frustration clan Irish job.
But urtrnmeot has, it may be said, encouraged
this company by giving it the mail contract for twelve
years at 30,0001. On examination, however, it turns
oat that this contract is far more advantageous to the
lgovernment than to the company. Fur whilst the
government arum 30,0001. a par of the former cost
of the mail., the 30,0004. gutran ced to the company
is mos thousands a year lea than the amount it