The Express.
London, England, 1864-12-26 00:00:00

PEINCBSa'&

TEO It THE 110 ILSE AND THE ICE
MAIDEN. - tad THE antiltlS OF LONDON. Messrs. Vining.
J. W. Ray, D. Rohr, D. Murray, J. Nelsoa, H. Forrester, and
B. Maori . Nl= L Mardoo,ltbses Barnett and Gamma

LYCIGUIL

THIS EVIOIOO, MY WIFE'S OUT. Mr. Widd'comb.
=TY BLAS. Mews. Feebler, Ryder, Fitzpatrick. Charles, Kay.
mood. Mclntyre, Moreland, Collett, CWford Mira C. Leclart.q.
And SURFACED IMPOSTORS. Mr. Widdlcomb.

SAITANNLA.

Tam MonalSO, at 12 a pWforniance of the Pantomime, and
Toss Bemuse. LITTLE BUSY BEE ; or, the ()la Lady of
Threadneedle-street. Mesdames 8. Lane, W. Cranford, and E.
Jacoba.—And TILE WORK.OIII.B OF LONDON.

HIGH WATTLE AT LONDON-BRIDGE.

hlOnling. Oh. 0tn...../Jterooon., Oh. lho.
rogsoaaow Morning. Oh. 36m.....Attorauoa. Oh. Ohm.

LONDON, MONDAY, DECEMBER 26.

THE grave problem as to how we shall best
deal with our houseleas poor, is not one to be set-
tled by the turn of • sentence or the stroke of •
pen. Especially dangerous is it to pass judgment
on hearsay, to pronounce without complete know-
ledge, or to advise without fully comprehending
the difficulties of the case. On the broad question
that absolutely destitute persons have • claim
upon the community, and that urgent necessity
entitles every sufferer to relief, we are all agreed.
The law of England declares it, and the official
regulations of its authorised administrators affirm
it in language concerning which there can be no
dispute. " If a person alleged to be destitute,"
we read at page 33 of " The Consolidated Orders
"of the Poor-law Board," "be brought to the work-
" house, whether by the police or by any other
" persons, without an order for admission, the
"master must examine into the circumstances of
" the case ; and if he find that the destitution
" exists, and that there is urgent necessity in the
" case, it is his duty to admit the destitute person
" into the workhouse, and report the case to the guar-
dians at their next meeting." Again, at page
145, under the bead of " Duties of the Workhouse
" Master," we find the first place given to the
obligation to admit paupers, "and also every
" person applying for admission who may appear to
" him to require relief ;" and, without multiplying
examples, we may state that immediate assistance
to all actually destitute applicants is one of the
fundamental principles of our existing laws. Let
us further repeat that the Act of last session, on
which so much stress has been laid, was in the
main a mere recapitulation of clauses already sanc-
tioned by Parliament, and that its only novel fea-
ture is the holding out of specified inducements to
parochial guardians to do their duty, by promising
them that the expense attached to its performance
shall be defrayed out of &common fund. Bearing this
in mind, and knowing both the earnest efforts of
the officials of the Poor-law Board, and the almost
insuperable difficulties due totheir anomalous posi-
tion, we have noted with regret certain erroneous
statements which have been confidently given to
the public, and which, unless promptly met, may
aggravate instead of mitigating the evils we all de-
plore. We do not agree with several of the opinions
laid down by the officials at Whitehall, and in a
recent article endeavoured to show wherein we
differed, and why ; but we should be sorry to allow
unfair aspersions on the results of their manage-
ment to pass unnoticed. It is ungenerous and un-
just to assert, as one of our contemporaries did on
Saturday in an article headed " Onr Homeless
" Poor," that the Casual Poor Act of last session
" has proved a signal failure ;" it is a glaring error
to suppose that " very many of the metropolitan
" workhouses have no casual wards whatever ;"
and it is ludicrously incorrect to assert that "the
" best sleeping-place which the best refuges offer
" is vastly inferior to the comparatively comforts-
" ble accommodation that is provided for the
" same purpose in those workhouses that have
" casual wards." We hare shown from time to
time that the number of beds for the home-
less and destitute has been largely increased ;
that by circulars and personal visits the Poor-law
Inspectors have done their utmost to prevail upon
the various metropolitan guardians to perform
their duty ; and when the new Act is glibly de-
clared a failure, it should at least be remembered
that official authority has been stretched to its
utmost limit ; that the power to be exercised over
recalcitrant guardians is shadowy and ►ttenuated
to the last degree ; and that the failure of the
workhouses to meet the emergency of the hour is
in many instances not so much due to insufficient
accommodation, as to the painful and offensive
obstructions with • hich that accommodation is
hedged about. During the bitter nights in the
early part of last week, there was not a single
application for admission into the casual ward of
the :strand Union Workhouse. The ordeal at the
Bow-street Police-office, the long, weary walk to
Cleveland-street, Fitzroy-square, and finally the
prospect of a bath before going to bed, made up
too formidable an aggregate for the starring home-
less pauper, and the result was, as we have said,
that not • single application for relief was
made. \\•e are well aware of the perverse obstruc-
tiveness of the parochial mind, but we have yet to
learn that many of the workhouses are at this time
without casual wards. On the contrary, we be-
lieve that though in some instances the guardians
have been both unwilling and churlish, in no one
instance have they gone the length of uniformly re-
fusing to admit the casual poor. From Bermondsey,
where " We think it will do well enough as it is "
once seemed to express the spirit in which
suggestions concerning the new Act were received,
to elerkenwell, where the male " casual*" sleep in
cellars, where the female " casuals" are packed
away in lofts, and where it is decreed utterly use-
less to ask for the certificate of the I'oor•law Board,
or to make any claim on the common fund, the
winter of 1864 has seen increased provision made
for wanderers and wayfarers. But let it

not be thought that the beat appointed casual
ward of the most luxurious workhouse of
the most liberal parish ever approaches
the homely comforts of such a refuge as
was described in these columns • week ago.
Putting aside the compulsory bath, the searching,
and the police-office, all of which are escaped by
the man or woman admitted to the refuge, there
is a fundamental difference which is almost in-
separable from a voluntary as distinguished from a
formally legal administration of relief. It is
not merely that the food supplied is larger in
quantity and more comforting in kind, nor that',
literal pennilessness is not enforced as a qualifica-
tion,
nor that the promoters of these refuges
endeavour in the disposal of the funds entrusted
to them to provide some further connecting link
between the English guinea and the human soul
than is likely to be furnished by guardians having
the fear of local constituents before their eyes,
and parochial officials who are covertly hos-
tile ; but that the whole atmosphere of the refuge
is one of kindness to and sympathy with the poor.
How far this spirit should prevail in casual wards
provided by the law is another question,
and one not easy to answer, when the
prevalence of imposture is considered. But
it is as obviously unfair to call the Poor-law
Board to account for the non-performance of
duties it has no power to enforce, as it is to expect
from a mere permissive bill the comprehensiveness
of scope and rapidity of action only possible in the
ukase of a paternally governed country. Our
national dread of centralisation prevents our en-
trusting any portion of the executive with
absolute power ; and so long as local boards are
permitted each to do what seems right in their
own eyes, so long will any popular outcry for a
reform, whether in the shape of large district wards,
police relieving officers, or more prompt admis-
sion at workhouse doors, savour of sentimental
impracticability, and be miserably partial in result.

THE announcement of a reduction in the rate
of discount of the Bank of France appears to have
taken most people by surprise, but the state of the
published accounts sufficiently warrants the change.
The last weekly return shows that the bullion has
increased nearly 500,0001., while the bills dis-
counted have fallen off by 1,000,0001. The note
circulation has also decreased by over 710,0001.
It is remarkable that while our Bank is obliged to
retain its rate at 6 per cent., in Paris, where
the monetary position is certainly not more
favourable than here, it has been found
not merely possible, but advantageous to lower
the rate to 4i. The difference is easily
accounted for by the opposite currency systems
of England and France. Both have their
merits, and both their defects. The golden mean
has yet to be discovered, or if discovered already,
to find sufficiently bold supporters. Many persons
will be ready to advocate a change, but few will
be prepared to initiate it.
For years past the management of the Banks
of England and of France has been more and more
nearly assimilated. In the time of NAPOLEON I.
the Bank of France was considered an insti-
tution devised to keep the rate of discount
at or under a certain point. The idea was
of course fallacious, but, to • greater extent
than political economists will allow, it had • cer-
tain foundation of fact. It is perfectly true
that in money, that is to say, coin or bullion,
as in all other articles, the law of supply and
demand will meet any contingency that may arise.
Plenty of reasons have been adduced against an
over-issue of paper by writers who fail to grasp
the equally great evils of an under issue. The
fact seems to be that the effects of an over exten-
sion of the system of paper money have been far
more patent than those in the opposite course, and
at the same time much more often exemplified. A
whole nation perceives readily enough the depre-
elation of the currency, but it is only indirectly that
a general withdrawal of credit, fully as serious an
evil, is really felt. A tradesman can easily under-
stand the hardship of being compelled by law
to take • bank-note for double its
actual worth, and raises his prices accor-
dingly—he knows the cause and provides
against it. The possibility of a mercantile crisis
and the failure of some of his beat customers is
naturally considered but little at all beforehand,
and when it happens is usually borne in silence.
There can be no doubt that many households have
suffered seriously during the present year in con-
sequence of the contraction of trade through
the high, rates of discount. Still there are no
public complaints, although they would be com-
mon enough if the loss proceeded from • more
thoroughly appreciated cause. An appropriate
proof of the effect produced upon general com-
merce by these apparent matters of detail has been
afforded by the different action during the present
year of the Banks of England and of France.
The former has been conducted necessarily
in • spirit of self-protection characteristic rather of
a private than of • public enterprise, while the latter
has in a greater degree realised the duties it owes
to the people as • State institution. We have no
desire to impute any fault to the management of
our Bank ; for in fact it has been as good as very
small discretion which the Directors are allowed to
exercise can permit it to be. The Act of 1844 has
so narrowed their functions that they have scarcely
anything to consider but the state of their reserve.
If it amounts to a given sum, the rate ought to be
reduced or advanced, as the case may be. The
whole question has been brought down to the con-
sideration of the figures of one item in the weekly
account. It might happen, as it has frequently
done, that the general trade of the country
lhas suffered from this peculiar calculation ;
but this is a question with which the Directors
have nothing to do. When matters come to the
worst they are the foremost to come forward to
suggest, and, if need be, to advocate the efficient
!remedy of suspending the present law ; but except
on such extreme occasions their hands are tied.
The case is different with the Bank of France.
The Directors there are in some degree hampered
by the action of the Executive Government, but
they are at least free from the trammels of an
impracticable law. Political reasons may some-
times influence their decisions in an unfavourable
sense, but for all economical purposes they have
full discretion. It is of course comfortable in
many cases to know that you are hound to a par-
ticular line of action, and that you have come-
; quently no necessity to exercise your judgment
lone way or the other. Irresponsibility has its
' charms, but whether it ought to be enjoyed by
persons of high official position is at least • matter
of reasonable doubt. At all events the principle
does not apply to the Bank of France, and, as far
as can be judged, the result is more satisfactory
than with us. As no system in the world has
been devised which shall at all times be perfect, the
best plan is clearly to leave the matter to be de-
cided by competent persons as any difficulty may
arise. It is in this way that the Directors of the
Bank of France possess a liberty of action
which is not allowed here. The discretion
that is thus given certainly gains in the

comparison of results, the experience of put years
showing an absence in Paris both of commercial
crises and of those important variations in the rate
of discount which have latterly so effectually dis-
organized our general trade. According to theory,
as we find it applied to our own trade, such dis-
turbances might be expected to occur far more
frequently in France than here. The difference
arises from matters of every-day management
being left to the discretion of practical men of
business, instead of being governed by a rule
presumed to be applicable at all times and in
all circumstances.

The defenders of our present system have but
one argument to allege in its favour, that it secures
the convertibility of the bank-note. As a strict
logical argument the reasoning is worthless, but as
the practical ground is taken that so many note.
are sure to be in circulation, and so forth, it is as
well to contrast the position of our Bank with that
of our neighbours. No one will venture to deny
that a French bank-note is as readily convertible
as one of the Bank of England. If the larger
issue is certain to depreciate the currency, how is
it that it has not done so in France ?
This point has been urged over and over ,
again, and never been answered, for the best of all
possible reasons, that it is unanswerable. One thing
is very certain, that the management of the
French Bank is far more favourable to the deve-
lopment of commerce than that of our own. A
comparison of the last account shows that with an
amount of bullion of 14,307,760/., we could only
lend on discount to the extent of 18,754,485/. ;
while in France, with the bullion at 14,560,0001.,
the commercial bills held were no less than
22,452,000/., without reckoning large advances
which in this country are included in the
former item. The note circulation was at
the same time about 28,860,0001., against
19,217,4301. here. This contrast will sufficiently
prove which system is the more consonant with the
requirements of trade. Our own is considered
good enough for the present generation &imply
because it was thought advisable twenty years ago ;
the other has at least the merit of being far more
adapted to the growing exigencies of the time. In
the meanwhile, until our high authorities can work
the matter out to their own satisfaction, English
merchants have the privilege of paying 6 per cent.
for their money while foreign competitors pay
only 4.1.