The Express.
London, England, 1850-01-03 00:00:00

ght Orprtg4o.

OUTGOING MAILS.
The malls for Modem. t►e Brasil.. and Buenos Apree,will
le made •py ea tomorrow seenieg, Jae 4.
The nails icr Lisboa, Spina, aad Gibraltar will be made
sp is Jas. I.
The soils rid Marseilles, te the Mediterranean, Egypt,
Cryles. I,dia. Hong-Kong, tr., will be wade up is
the weals, of Jan. 7.
The mails for British North Amnia sad the United
States will be amide up ea the *veins, of Jan 11.
Tilie West lathe Malls, 'whittle, Bermuda. Havansah.
Maimen, H,•.dares, New Orleans, sod Mesita, sad 'winding
those for Madeira, St. Jaaa•de-Nieseseua, New Gresede,
CllO4 end Perti.will be node up ea Jaa. 17.
The mails for Gibraltar, Malts, Orme, the Isaias blends,
Ceylon, India, sad Chios. via Southemptems, will
ha 11 as the main Mien. 19.

rtor ITATIrIi AT LONDON 141111101.
1).-1110ndag. A11...«.. Ib. Mo.
41.14 a. ifMmes. I L aeon.

LONDON, THURSDAY, JANI'ART 3.

IT is painful to KO how easy it is to misrepresent
and malign the character and feelings of a nation.
When we reflect that at this moment the opinions en-
tertained all round the Mediterranean of the spirit
and generosi'y of Englishmen are drawn bet to) natu-
rally from the mean and coward cruelty of an OPFER-
PALL, and from the dt•um-bead butcheries and floggings
of a WARD, the di-graceful brand thus affixed on the
British character by the vilest cf its renegade sons
Is almost too intolerable to bear.
When we add to this, that durirg the memorable
years in which the most oppressed and long enslaved
countries of central Europe rose to shake off their
fetters, the sym?athies of the most accredited and
successful organs of the English press were enlisted
all along in favour of tyranny, of military repression
and executions, what is Europa to think of us ? Must
it tot think that, free ourseivesi, we grudge freedom
to every other people; and the even in straggles the
most akin to those which Englishmen went through,
the approbation of English writers in the nine-
teenth century is cot for the Ressetts or the HARI,
DitNS, but fur the JEYFRIEs and the Sr afieroans of
?
thl day f
such unworthy denials of the best qualities of
Englishmen, are to be excused by the prevalence of
panic, and by the aversion which every commercially-
developed community enterains of disorder, how are
we to account for the rancour which pursues the
fallen cause, the foul calumnies gathered from the
vile sinks of the police, to be pelted at the head of the
patriots in exile and distress?
We do not tbick that there is to be found in the
annals of any press, much less of the English, an ex-
ample of viLdiriveness so ungenerous, calumnies so
personal and so foul, slander so wanton, and rancour
fro unmanly, as that which has calked the com-
munications of the Times from Vienna, and which
has even crept into the leading articles of that
ournal, respe3.ting the unfortunate members of the
Hungarian emigration. We have heard of the
Satirist, and tt,e penalties to which its editor was sub-
*led for speculating in attacks on private character.
iVe hear now and then much virtuous indignation
against the licence and personalities of the American
press. Bat we declare never to have met in either cr
any of these organs the scurrility and slanders with
which KOSSUTH has been assailed in the columns of
the Times, and not only Roast-tit, but young and
innocent females a the most Toth so life and repu-
tation, who were merely guilty of the crime of
flying from the whip of the Austrian executioner.
It is plain enough that the Austrian military police,
baulked of its prey, and unable to have the satisfac-
tion of tying up Madame DEMBINSKI to the triangle
in order to administer to a young creature of eighteen
Dome hundred lashes—this police cons:les itself for the
disappointment by raking up the most infamous lies
through its agents, and pouring them forth upon the
English public, through the credulous and sallied
columns of the Times.
The well-known author of the " Revelations of
Russia," however, in his letter published in our
columns un the Ist of January, has done justice by
these calumnies. It was icarcely to be expected by
the writer who slandered Kossetu from the Danube
and (rem Vienna, that an ete•witness of all that
in these regions would be here is Lyndon.
Easteledfortune enabled m at once to give a refutation
of his calumnies.

With respect to the other stories that the Austrian
police have raked up for him out of their archives
against KOSiCill, we, of coor•e, cannot be prep ,red
with such a specific onset r. Bat they are sufficiently
refuted by the high character which. KOS3VIII tore,
not only with the public and popular party,
bat with the Hunger an magnates, who oft-times
pommel to endow him with fortune and e.tatee,
offers which Kosacut invariably refused. Aker a
long and unchecked control over the resources of
so rich a country as Hungary, with millions
sterling at his disposal KOIIIICTH has retired Fermi-
lees from the land; and the chests of treasure with
which the caterers fur the antes supplied him have
dwindled, by the testimony of an Englishman who
aoccompanied his flight, into a pair of saddle-bags !
The name and the shade of Ko-tuTu, however,
still dimpilets Austrian tyranny • and well it =m
acs scrap of the President's handwriting is obeyed
like a sacred Finnan at this moment throughout un-
guy, and even hi. paper money, though it be felony
to ke it, is still bought up by the Jews tor reselling
to the Magyars. The aim of Ans•ria is, however, to
injure by cal irony a character whos.• greatness and
parity they dread; and we blush to find an English
journal making heel even unwittingly in this, the
estspaw of the vilest motives of the vilest men.
Of Konst: cu cue character and Kos: Till's greatness
there can be but one opinion. If ever an individual's
asap was legitimately identified with a nation's cause,
it I. Kossertt's. We sly thiseven without reference
to the ise,ation in which the gallows and platoon have
b' him. It wee undeniably his sagacity which fore-
warned, his eloquence which roused. his administra-
tive energy and financial genius, which organised and
the Hungarian people for a struggle wherein
prepared
titniirrtersally alWwed that, but for Russian inter-
viatica and GollAnfe treachery, the empire of the
HAI ant Kos mist have crumbled.

Ws have no wish to deny that notwithstanding his
mgreeat qualities and vast popularity, Ko,strrit has his
detractor, and his heits. A perty organised by
Cleaner amongst the officers of the army, and whose
aim was military ink, had been schooled systemati-
cally to depreciate him as a " mere poet." Some
of the great magnates, hurt at his elevatioa,
and selfishly averse to change■ which abased their
feudal pre-eminecce, continue opposed to him in mis-
fortune as th.y were adverse in success. A portion
of the provincial nubility of Transylvania, lees clear-
sighted than their brother nobles, and who fatally de-
ferred till the autumn that emancipation from socage
elsewhere carried out in the spring, are still too pre-
judiced to pardon nim the sweeping character of his
reforms: and huitly, there are not wanting thou who
in the bitterness of failure lea sight of all that he
achieved for Hungary in the contemplation of what
be failed to do.

These reproach him with the extent of his concee-
sions,vr Ali his rupture with the hwiss of HA Pd BU no,with
hie unwillingness to punish, and his weakness towards
Gottoxx ; and it is nut to be denied that there is much
truth in the last of these allegations. lint even if we
assume them all, there is nothing to justify the scur-
rility of the Austrian organs, and of those " els iff.niers"
of our own press who pander to the wishes of the
Austrian cabinet. There is no charge with the
shadow of foundation which points at anything mean
or little in his character. liis very faults are mis-
placed virtues, adding more to his private worth than
din detract from his public reputation; and taken
all an all, be still remains the glorious impersonation
of a mighty struggle, the incarnation of a heroic
nationality and of a generous cattle. These, it will
be said, are opinisna—let us pass to facts. It is un-
deniable that with the majority of the once privileged
dame, and with the masses of his countrymen,
ICOSSUTiI has *till unbounded popularity and
uninjured credit. The nobles cannot forget that the
reforms carried by his eloquence, averted the repeti-
tion of the Gallician massacres which Austria was
preparieF in Iltrgary, end converted into den
voted allies the bondsmen who* exterminatiog wrath
she sought to kindle. They cannot forget th it, in
consequence, the magnate and the vassal, the peasant
and esquire, instead of being arrayed against each
other, have p.rishtd on the name scaffold, and Mid
side by side on the same &Id. The mssw s gratc-
hilly remember that to his exertions they owed the
substantial benefit. of csmpetence and freedom, and
bath all now to mind the prophetic nature of his

warnings, to lament having respoodeitoo tardily to
his appeals.
In addition to the endeavours to asperse the cha-
racter of the lee Presichut-Clovernoe by evert injuri-
ous invention which malignity could 4evise, it hes
been a chief point in the policy of the Austr.)-Rus-
elan organs to exculpate MAGEE, and render Ciiia-
oxY's exculpation KOSSUTH'S condemnation.
We mast take this opportunity of setting at rest
ones for all the question of CIiAGET'S innocence or
premeditated treason. Our readers must know then
that on the 10th of August, a Russian female
diplomatist of celebrity, announced openly in Loudon
that the Hungarian cause was lost, because the Em-
ersr
(of Russia) was Sure of GAGRY. °CAGEY'S
grayowsd negotiation for surrender only took place
on the 13th, so that from seven to ten days previously
his understanding with the Russians must at least
have dated. Furthermore, there is in existence a cir-
cular addressed by Prince WITTGENSTEIN to the
Prussian legations advancing about the mme period
the same fact; a document which we shall take an
opportunity to lay before our readers.

Tim effect of the paper duty is pretty conclusively
shown by the diminution of the number of manufac-
turers engaged in the trade. In the year 1801 there
were 413 paper-makers in England alone. In 1845
there were only 381 in England, and in Great Britain
only 473. But here is a statistical table showing the
decline of the trade under the influence of Excise
res:rictiocs.

No. of paper mills.
Boitl9nd.Great Britain.
1821

1831
1845

So that in the twelve years during which, more
than at any other time, literature nn.y be supposed
to have progressed the most, the number of paper-
maki rs in England have actually been reduced by

more than one-ihird.
It has been said by some that the am= •t of the
paper duty is so small, that it is mutely felt in the
cost price of any b:ok we putehase. A dictionary,
for instat.ce, that weighs a pound, end costs 12s.
or 145., only pays. • paper duty of • penny
halfpenny. But this is a very delusive way of looking
at the effect of this duty. A publisher lull w(11
knows that so capricious is the public taste in books,
that of all the new works issued from the press not
mo,e than a fourth ever pay the cost of their produc-
tion. Inasmuch, however, as the paper duty is paid
at the time of purchasing the paper, the amount
of that duty upon unprofitable works is
irredeemably lost. The publisher endeavours
to compensate himself for such loss by placing
an enhanced pries upon successful books. The
public, accordingly, pay not only the duty up:n
the paper consumed in the books they purchase, but
the duty upon paper need in printing four or five
different books which they do not purchase.
What is the state of the book trade in England ?
Every publisher will tell you that, for a long time
past, it has been absolutely stagnant. Here are a
few statistics of new publications and reprints culled
from the veritable pages of MACCULLOCII:—
_

Nirw Works. Reprints. Total.
1839
1840
1841
1842
Since 18-12 the production of new works has still
farther diminished. The cause of this is certainly not
a diminution in the public taste for reading : at lent,
if it is, the Education Commissior.era are in no way to
be trusted. We must look for the cause rather in the
cost attending the production of books, and the ca;ital
consequently lequtred to bring them before the world,
and au element of this cost is u.idoulmdly the ob-
noxious duty the Excise impose on paper.
We talk of foreign piracies, and complain that
English works are reprinted at cheap rates in Paris
and in New York, and abuse GALIGNANI and CAREY
for producing, for next to nothing, books which in
England are paid for from the gold end
of the purse. True, theee republications are an
hardship upon our authors, who profit in no way by
the piratical publication.. But what is it that in-
daces these piracies? Price. And what creates the
price ? Taxation. Why, in an edition of flee hun-
dred of even a hill-priced octavo volume the duty
pod to !government is shown by Mr. MACCULLOCII to
within a few shillings as mach as the whole profit
to author and publisher, when every copy of the
work is sold ! The profit on the sale of .500 copes,
when everything is paid, amounts to no more loan
16!. 18s. The duties are as follow :
1.7p0n paper
„ materials used in boarding Ol3 G
~ advertising

£l5 11 6
And this only the btrc charge, the addi•ional
expense resulting from the monopoly, &v., which the
system fasten, not being taken into consideration.
Under the it,fluetce a the Ex:ise law, the export
trace of books and stationery is, and must be, a de-
diming trade. Here is an account which proves it :

ZIPORTS 07 NJOILII AND bTATIONIKY.
Books, value. tkationery, value.
1538
1540
1844

With respect to books we know the sort of com-
petition to which the British publisher is subjected.
With regard to stationery the facts ere not so
generally appreciated. But we b:lieve it to be a well-
authenticated fact that the paper-makers of Freuce
sappily by far the greater part of the paper which is
used in the British colonies, and especially in the
East and West Indies, and that they have a habit of
copying even the very labels—the sacred hieroglyphics
—of our b!essed Excise, in order to make their com-
modities pass as a veritable home production.
The duty upon paper, it ;8 said, is small. Is it
mall? Upon by far the greater proportion of the
paper manufactured it amounts to 50vr cent. ups.
the price. And this paper which pays 50 per cent.'
duty is the paper, be it remembered, that is most used
for purposes of trade. In France, Belgium, Ger-
many, and America, manufacturers can pack their
goods for exportation in untaxed paper at one-half
the coat which is paid for packing paper by exporters
in Great Britain. Every one who has undone a
French package will have observed the great quantity
',paper used in it. First a layer of paper shavings,
*ea some folds of stout packing paper, then a quan-
tity of ti-sue papers, and if the article is delicate
more paper shavings and tissue paper, to an extent
which in England would make up a frightful item in
the cost of packing. Even uron boo-boos the paper
duty has its influence, and gives to the French menu.
facturer an advantage which we in England covet.
We are assured by those who know the paper-
making trade, that maltifarioua experiments in the
use of materials and their adaptation to &variety of use-
ful purposes are at present entirely prevented by the
operation of this tax. The Excise have removed the
legal restriction by which the manufacturer was com-
pelled to use old rope ; but in effect the old rope
limitation still exists, and so long as enterprise is
checked by the operation of this Excise duty, so long
the hands of the manufacturer will continue to be
tied with the old rope of the Excise.
"Paper," say. Sir HENRY PARNELL, " carries the
productions of the human mind over the whole world,
and may be truly called the raw material of every
kind of science and art, and of all social improve-
men's." The tax upon this "raw material of science
and art " was first imposed by an act of Queen ANNE,
which recites ass. reason for it, " the necessity of
raising large supplies of money to carry on the war."
May it be one of the glorits of the peaceful reign of
VICTORIA to repeal this war tax of her last female
predezeseor.

FRANCE.

PARIS, iFfsaitssixav, 5.30 r.w
There is no potitiesl news to give this evening. The
commtnes are still occupied on the La Plata question,
but in the Chamber it did sot come on for debate to-
day ; a law relative to contumacious prisoners omen-
pied the dosing attention of the Legislative Assembly;
and after its adoptimi the Assembly distassed the law
relative to primary instructors, the urgency of which
was not adopted. The members came is small numbs a
wished each other the compliments of the seams, and
seemed to ask themselves, " Where shall we be next
year r The only rumour current in the passages
was that Jerome Bonaparte, governor of the Invalidee,
has been made a marshal of France.
The poet of receiver-general of the department de
Nord, which, since the death of M. Dame, the fa-
ther-in-law of M. Thies, had not been filled up, hat
just been given to M. Gailhera, receiveir-general of
Finisterre.
M. de Lamartios is expected this week at his resi-
donee in Paris. His health being improved, he will
soon, it is said, resume his place in the Legislative
Assembly.
It is supposed that the mode to be adopted in the
affair of Monte Video will be the enrolment of the
men of the disbanded mobile guard, to form an auxi-
liary force destined to act in case Rotas refuses to
negotiate. M. Pacheco y Obee, the Monte Videan en-
voy here, has addressed a memorandum in this tense
to M. Dupla.
The Patric of yesterday evening says kern
that several members of the minority who voted yes-
terday against the amendment of M. de Rance, are
disposed to demand to-morrow, at the opening of the
sitting, that the ballot shall be annulled.'
The President of the Republic, on Monday and yes-
terday, received at the Elysee the complimentary
elate, in honour of the new year, of the diplomatic
body, the clergy, the magistracy, &c., in the follow-
ing succession : The foreign ambusaora and minis-
ters ; the Archbishop of Paris, and the clergy ; the
ministers, the marshals of France, and the Grand
Commoner of the Legion of Honour; the deputations
of the Coar des Comptes, and the different law
courts; the councils of the University and the Insti-
tute, and the Council of State; the Prefects of the
Seine and police, the municipal council, the sub-pre-
fects and mayors, &c.; the deputations of the Tribu-
nal of Commerce, the Chamber of Notaries, and other
corporate bailee; and the officers of the army and na-
tional guards. Nearly the whole of the officers of the
national guards paid their respects to the President
of the Republic on this occasion.
The national guard of Paris, in February, 1848,
was 58,000 strong ; whilst under the provisio- al
government it was increased to 241,881. At present
the number is not more than 100,383. The effective
strength, therefore, is now greater by 42,000 than it
was under the monarchy, but inferior by more than
141,000 to that existing emcee the provisional govern.
ment. The average proportion of national guards, as
compared to the population, is 1 to 91. 'I he expense
occasioned by this force stands in the budget of the
city of Paris for 1850 at 1,081,124 fr.