Opinittnil of HO

POST-OFFICE ABUSES.

TIME6—We beg to call the attention of the Government and the public to that part of the letter of our Brussels correspondent which relates to the negotiations now going forward for a new Post-office ar- rangement between England and Belgium. Our high direction in St. Martin's-le-Grand, with all its vis inertia, cannot stand still, while the rest of-the world is moving onward ; but it changes its position or its course as -little as it can, and being a very heavy body, always in the way, infallibly succeeds in diminishing the progress or obstructing the career of more active parties. We formerly showed with what reluc- tance it commenced, and witla what eagerness it broke off, negotiations with the French Post-office,—how many obstacles it threw in the way of an arrangement, and to what small extent that arrangement was car- ried,--and we finds repetition of the same resistance, and an employment of the same mancentres in its present diplomatic relations with Belgium.

• Hitherto our regular' weekly communieationa with the Belgic provinces by Ostend have only been two; now it would appear our Post-office authorities have mustered up cotirage to contemplate the possibility of

arranging a letter-bag for Brussels four. times in the week. This pro- posal must, like the French improvements, have Come from the other side of the Channel, as it never would have originated with Cl!F Fabius of the P-ost-office. Our correspondent tells us that the Director of tile Belgic Post intends coming to London to attempt some further ar- rangements, and particularly to propose a mutual communication of journals on something like a reasonable footing. We can tell him that he may save himself the trouble, unless our Government compels its subalterns to attend more to.their duties and less to their profits. Be- fore he starts from home on this mission, we would advise lam to con- sult M. Comte, at Paris, who, along with us, will assure him of the fruitlessness of his journey. Really it is " too bad" that matters should be allowed to be so managed. If the Post-office clerks, or the other subalterns of the establishment, are not sufficiently paid without enjoy- ing the monopoly of the journals, or having sonic leisure time to devote to profitable extraneous employments, let their salaries be raised, and let their effective services be secured by a proper remuneration, but at any rate let the work be done, and let public servants have no sinister interest to obstruct or to embarrass them in the honest and zealous dis- charge of their public duties.

COBBETT, THE DEVIL, AND THE DISTRESSED LANDOWNERS.

MORNING Cneoximx—The Devil, we are told in Scripture, is al- ways going about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

Cobbett is cunning enough to see that the present time of resistance to taxes is peculiarly favourable for tempting insolvent landowners to try what they can do to get rid of the interest of the National Debt. At another time he might as well preach to the winds. The landowners, whatever the fall of rent and the inability to pay the interest of mortgages, durst not propose any plan of confiscation merely for their own relief. But they will not look with much dissatisfaction on practices which

may lead step by step to the object of their wishes. • The Devil, in the shape of Cobbett, is at their elbow, painting the manifold advan-

tages they would derive from cheating the national creditors. In the

Register of this day he is quite sanguine' as to the success of his schemes. The national creditors, by way of encouragement, are painted

as people who ought to be thankful if they are only rolled. He charitably sums them uP as Jews and usurers and tnumping old devils of maids,

and retired sharks, and butlers and usurer's, that have cheated their

masters. " Oh ! say you; but then . my hook-nosed, round-eyed, tan- skinned, and Devil-begotten Jews and usurers, and all the inumping old devils of maid:5 and -retired sharks, and butlers and housekeepers that have cheated their masters; then these dalightfol.creatures cannot get their interest in full tale, and in gold of full weight Mid fineness."

This is by v of illustrating the proverb, f` Give a dog a bad name and

hang him." Because he himself has pig's eyes, and the Jews have round eyes, the Jews ought to be robbed ! And this is a far account of the hundreds of thousands of heads of families who have confided their savings to the Funds ! We will answer for it, that in every town and village throughout the island, the most industrious and deserving tradesmen and mechanics will he found in the list of those who have intrusted their savings to the security of the nation. The degree of

heart-rending distress, the sufferings of whole families at once plunged from competence into poverty—the widows and orphans driven to the streets or the workhouses, all go for nothing with this lover of equitable adjustment. " The people (qtioth be), coolly, will insist upon the taxes being taken from their shoulders in the malt, hops, soap, legacies, probates, and some other things; and then the landowners nmst redeem the interest of the Debt, or their estates must be given to the Jews."

The landowners would not be sorry to see the people take the hint, and commence a game of plundering each other. We have, however, too much coalidence in the love of justice of the people of England, to suppose that they would ever-wittingly sanction any course of confisca- tion. But let them beware how they enter on these questionable courses of resistance to taxes. One step leads to another, and bafore they are aware, they may be entangled in proceedings from which at one time they would have shrunk, and which they would bewail in vain when they saw the calamity in which they had involved the industrious classes.