25 MAY 1850, Page 7

fintign an CnIntiat

rnaeree.—The general discussion on the electoral law in the Assembly was commenced by General Cavaignae : he had voted for the previous question, and new lie would give brief and categorical reasons for opposing the measure itself—

"In the 25th article of the Censtitution we read, that every Frenchman of the age of twenty-one years, enjoying civil and political rights, shall be an elector ; in the 26th article, that every elector of the age of twenty-five years is ; in neither is there any stipulation with regard to domicile : 1 cannot admit the existence of any restriction not laid down in the consti- tution. After the electoral right has been thus defined in all its fulness, the constitution has mid to the electoral law—univental suffrage has now been defined ; henceforth it is merely to be set in work ; endeavour to prevent its abuse, but beware of restraining it. I think the bill is not conceived in this spirit. There is an immense clues, or an immense collection of citizens of different classes, who are precluded by the nature of their occupation from continuity of domicile ; their rights will be made illusory. The consti- tution Will not survive such a consummation. The legislative and executive

powers yet had but two years of duration • it is inis mortune and us to declare, on such an experience, that the ei otaralbody contains impure elements, and creates majorities by chance. I have seen the Monarchy which founded itself on Divine right, and then the Constitu- tional ILmarely which acknowledged the national sovereignty, both exalt themselves above the power of public opinion: beware of the seine impru- dence, of similar disaster. One of two things will happen—either the law will seriously modify the expression of universal suffrage and fulfil certain hopes ; or the expression ni.M remain the same. If the expression is the same, be satisfied that you will berequired to go further. If the law modifies this expression, you yourselves will be attacked in virtue of this very law. The road is slippery, the descent easy ; you will be unable to find the means of resistance. I will then join you in opposing them, and I hereby make a formal engagement to assist you IT such a case--(Loud oheers front the Right) —although I highly disapprove of the course which you are taking. But is it wise, is it prudent, to excite this resistance ? I sty it is not. (Loud cheers from the Left.) Until the 24th February electoral suffrage had been a fiction. This the Previsional Government saw and bestowed the boon of universal suffrage upon France. The law which you have brought forward will reestablish this legal fiction ; ' and this I hold to be a grievous error. fear that, in deviating from the track which has been followed since the Re- volution, France may again fall into the order which was put down by the Republic."

Itertee.—The overland mail brings news from Bombay to the 17th, Madras to the 13th, and Calcutta to the 6th of ApriL

The Affreedees of Kohut have committed another outrage. Dr. Healy, in proceeding on the 20th of March to join the First Punjaub Cavalry, at Kohat, was set upon in the Eastern pass, which was believed to be open and safe, and so severely wounded that he died immediately after his reaching Kohat ; two attendants who accompanied him being killed on the spot. Captain Daly heard of the attack, and instantly went to his aid with a party ; they arrived only hi time to carry him to Kohat, lingering in anguish from a " gash in the skull eight inches long."

Sir Charles Napier is said to disapprove of any further petty ward* against these Affreedee chiefs in their muggy strongholds, and to advise a. settlement of the cause of war. This cause is said to be the discontinti- ance, or alteration, of some tributary arrangements of old standingg on the price of salt, and the cost of safe transit to travellers and in

which we have revised and modified in a way of which the hail tribes do not approve.

Sir Charles Napier is in bad health, but abates none of his stringent efforts at bracing the Indian dieeipline. He has lately issued a general order on the subject of the very numerous applications by officers for ab- sence during the hot weather ; • refusing the indulgence to officers which is not thought of in the calk! of privates except for Mune. In confirming the sentence of a court-martial on a field-officer who controverted instead of obeying an order issued by a superior, he says--" Those who imagine this army is a debating society will find themselves very much mistaken." A mission from the Rajah of Nepaul, with a complimentary letter and presents for Queen Victoria, arrived in this country by the

the last Indian steamer. The mission consists of General Jung Behadur Kcionwar Ranajee, the Nepanlese Prime Minister and Commander-be- chief, his two brothers, and a very numerous mite, including a doctor. As no member of this Hindoo mission could eat meat of unclean animals, or meat prepared by unclean rites, a number of kids were shipped with them for the voyage, and the Hindoo doctor superintended their due Kl- ing and preparation as meats.

OHINA. —The Hongkong mail brings home news of an Imperial dee raise. On the 20th March, our Consular agent at Shanghae received official notice that his Celestial Highness, " departing on the great jour- ney, had mounted upwards on the great dragon to be a guest on high" : in plainer English, the Emperor Taou-kwang is dead ; he departed this life on the 25th February, in the sixty-ninth year of his age and in the thirtieth year of his reign. The late Emperor was his father's second son, and was nominated by his father's will to succeed to the throne, on ac- count of his having shot two of the assassins who entered the ;Waco in 1813. He is supposed to have fallen a victim to the severity of rites con- sequent on the death of the late Empress, who died on the 23d of January. He nominated to succeed him his fourth son, Sze-hing, or Yih-Chu, who now ascends the throne at the age of nineteen. Keying was appointed by the late Emperor to be one of the principal guardians of the pre- sent Emperor, and it is hence inferred by some that the present regime and the present tranquil and friendly relations towards ourselves will continue ; but the Hongkong correspondent of the Daily News enter- tains different expectations—

"A change will conic; indeed, it must come. The bonds which have held Chinese society together for centuries are already loosened. On this point I have already written you at some length ; and, from ample means of ob- serving and knowing the feelings, wants, and sentiments of the Celestial Empire, the conviction gains ground that the time is fast approaching, if we are not already on the threshold, when changes must and will take place in the relative positign and condition of the governing and the governed. The fact is undeniable, that free principles, based on free representation, are die- cussed in all the assemblies of the literati—the jerme Chinois—which even now exercises the utmost influence on the policy and conduct of the Chinese Government. The literati, as they are styled in all official and municipal documents, are fast taking the position and preeminence occupied by the French philosophers, the index of a social and political revolution. Various events are conspiring, as it were, to bring about this revolution in the insti-

tutions and political condition of Chinese empire. The Empress Dowager, who expired on the 23d of January, exercised the utmost influence en the councilsof the King, and formed the great barrier to the advancement of the principles by which the literati were influenced. The late King was ever pacific, even to a fault, and on more than one occasion was deserted by his advisers, whose sentiments -were otherwise. The new King is young, and what is more, is overbearing and self-willed : brought up in a measure in the bosom of ;he literati, Yih-chu, the newly-inaugurated Emperor, has imbued largely their sentiments, which are well known to be hostile towards foreigners of all descriptions, without exception ; and though his Majesty, now elevated to the Imperial throne, may act independently of the literati, it augurs somewhat ill that the old, tried, and faithful Keying, (who, by the way, contemned the literati,) has not been taken into the youthful Monarch's

councils,—a token which certainly bodes unfavourably for the continuance of peace."

UNITED STATER AND CANADA.—The steam-ship. Cambria brought to Liverpool on Tuesday accounts from New York and Halifax to the 10th instant. The news is miscellaneous.

The papers publish an important letter from Sir Henry Bulwer to the United States Government, on the subject of reciprocity between the States and the Canadas. The Washington Government had inquired, what feeling the British Cabinet would entertain towards granting to the shipping and citizens of the United States free transit on the St. Law- rence, if the Canada Reciprocity Bill, now before Congress, shall pass the Legislature. Sir Henry replied, that should the bill pass, her Majesty's Government would be ready to respond to any application then made, by "at once consenting to open the navigation of the river," and specified canals adjoining. The answer was regarded as liberal in tone and sub- stance, and it had made our relations additionally friendly. Another despatch, attributed to Sir Henry Bulwer, but not certainly his, and whether his or not, published by some accident or violation of private confidence, had raised a slight breeze. It was a letter to Mr. Chatfield on the Nicaragua question, written only for Mr. Chatfield's own eye, and in the frank and confidential style of an instructor to his trust-

warthy subordinate. The following extract at once contains the sting whjich has wounded American sensitiveness, and shows the style and general policy of the communication— "Neither do I think that this Government has at the present moment the views you seem inclined to credit it for. It is, however, a weak Govern-

ment; and, being suspected by the Popular party, is ever afraid of seeming

in favour of any policy Mat is unpopular. Thus, though its intentions may be trusted, its course cannot be relied upon. Attempts are being made to

settle the Mosquito business. I think they may succeed ; they ought to do so. We have every wish to aid in constructing a canal,—that is, in protect- ing its construction, and guaranteeing its security when constructed. Nor have we any great interest in the Mosquito protectorate, or any selfish ob- ject to serve by maintaining it. But we ought not, and I believe will not, abandon it dishonourably, nor permit the Nicaraguans, whom we have ex- pelled therefrom, to be again masters of the San Juan. These are my private opinions, but I think you may like to know them. I have defended your conduct here as to Tigre Island, on the ground that it was provoked by Squier ; but it was too ' go-ahead.' " Some excitement in the manufacturing States had been caused by the stoppage of several cotton-mills at Lowell, the Manchester of Massa- chussetts. Upwards of 3,500 persons had been thrown out of employ- ment. The most probable of the speculations on the cause of this dis- astrous turn, is the rise of very active manufacturing competition in the Southern and Western States. There are at least 150 cotton-mills now

in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee, worked chiefly by slave-labour, at an alleged saving of twenty per cent on the Northern

cost ; and great undertakings of the same sort are actually succeeding in Ohio, Kentucky, and Illinois, where labour is free and dear. At Cannel- ton, in Indiana, there are 89,000 spindles at work, and new mills rising.

The New York correspondent of the _Daily Yews abstracts from Ohio newspapers an account of a kmale social movement- " A convention, composed of five hundred women; recently met at Salem to consider the social, intellectual, and political condition of the sex. There were a president, three vice-presidents, and three secretaries, besides a busi- ness committee. An address was read complaining of the legal liabilities to

which women are subjected, the want of protection for their labour, their inability to obtain for it a fair remuneration, and the inequality of their position as component parts of the state. Many good speeches were made by the ladies, and many spirited letters were read on the occasion; all of which breathed a spirit of resistance to the overbearing tyranny of the other sex."' Twenty-two resolutions were passed. They declare that all laws which pre- vent women from pursuing their own substantial happiness are contrary to nature, equity, and justice ; that all rights are human rights, and of course irrespective of sex ; that the submission of the sex to laws made for them without their consent is a submission to injustice and a proof of their degra- dation ; that the good of the race demands the extension of the elective franchise to women ; that the control of their property and of their children, by the men, reduces them to the condition of slaves ; that all distinctions between men and women, based on the difference of sex, are wrong, and

should be abolished ; "that the practice of holding women amenable to a different standard of propriety and morality than that to which men are held amenable, is unjust and unnatural, and highly detrimental to domestic and social virtue and happiness."

It may be mentioned that women did once possess the franchise in the State of New Jersey, but it was taken from them.

The advioes from Canada are not of immediate moment, but there was an under-current of progression in one way. The Central Committee of the British American League had issued another address, urging Cana- dians to petition the Imperial Parliament and the Queen, through their Local Legislature, for an Imperial act authorizing the Canadian people to hold a general convention of delegates for the purpose of considering and preparing a constitution for the government of the Province, and to con- cert with delegates from such of the other British Provinces in North America as may be desirous of forming a federal union with Canada.