The Express.
London, England, 1852-05-14 00:00:00

thing to iebnitoirsw t iaterest, as a salary for
his taxi& Theo is only one word in the English
longues that thowilies fly such a peemeding,
and drat rod Ws&
It is tieas Nat in the report, • copy of which 111111
1111111 loammitted by Mr. Easisa Hispania to the
NM elms and other memoMlsts, some wonderful
eisseart which the Commissioners have in view is
ohmurely hinted at. But except that this scheme is
not of a" limited, partial, or local character," nothing
is known about it to the public, nor even, it would
appear, to the Commissioners themselves. They
admit that their project is yet vague, undefined, and
shapeless. They admit that the money they have in
Land would be quite inadequate to realise any
scheme of national utility. They, however, give
it to be understood that they will keep
fast hold of the surplus fund until, in the first place,
they have devised some plan for spending a great
deal of money ; and, in the second place, until they
have persuaded parliament to entrust them with
money for carrying this yet unformed plan into effect.
In short, they say with poor Lear—hut not exactly
with his single-minded lunacy—" they will do sudi
things--what
yet they are they know not ;" and that
they will keep the surplus fund in their possession
till the Cruet Culends. We have heard of mcu so
fond of fingering money, that no client could ever
get it out of their hands, though they abstained
from using it themselves: the Royal Commissioners
would appear to belong to this unaccountable class.
The state of the case, wo repeat, is this. A surplus
land remains in the hands of the Commissioners,
now that the business of their commissien is
at an end. They cannot with common decency
pocket this sum themselves, or allow their
agents to pocket it. The surplus of the money
taken at the doors is yes nullius; the money sub-
scribed to the guarantee fund was contributed on the
express understanding that it was in no case to be
refunded—i. e., to the individuals subscribing. Here
is a sum, then, that belongs to nobody. It is agreed
on all hands that it ought to be applied "to purpor
strictly in connexion with the cods of the EA -
tion.". The Commissioners have no such purposes is

view. The memorialists from Blackburn and else-
where suggest that to expend the surplus Lund in
promoting local free libraries and museums, would be
to " apply it to purpose: strictly in keeping with the
ends of the Exhibition. They add that to this end
every locality that subscribed to the guarantee fund,
should receive the amount of its subscription on be-
coming bound to apply it in aid of the establish-
ment or maintenance of a local free library

and museum. They leave it to tho Com-
missioners to distribute the sum that has at-
crued from the surplus receipts at the doors to the
best of their judgment. No other party hiui pro-1
poseel any other mode of expending the surplus fund.
There is one, and only one, proposal before the publics
for applying the surplus " to purposes strictly in con-
nexion with the ends of the Exhibition." The Commis-
sioners refuse to adopt that proposal, but offer none in
its stead. They will keep the money useless, or will
waste it upon a secretary, who has nothing to do.
They will emulate the dog in the manger, who denied
the ox the hay which was of no use to himself.
The position assumed by the Royal Commissioners
in utterly untenable. To shame them out of it,
nothing more is required than to oblige them to argue
the question publicly. To bring upon them the
pressure necessary for this purpose, the public are
entitled to look to the local committees, who collected
and transmitted subscriptions to the guarantee fund.
These gentlemen aro responsible to the subscribers in
particular, and to the public in general, for the right
application of the fund. They have most of them at
heart the promotion of local free libraries and
siteseums; they arc connected, most of them, with
incipient institutions of that nature; it is their duty,
as it is the inclination of many of them, to follow the
example set by the local committees of Warrington,
oxikermouth;Bolton, Belfast, and Blackburn.

From what we can learn there are some of the

Commissioners who would gladly support • general
representation from the contributing towns. They I
feel annoyed by the awkward position in which the
dog-in-the-manger policy of their colleagues has
placed them. Their annoyance has certainly not
been diminished by the singular lack of delicacy
which led Mr. BszLEY—himself a Commissioner—

to use his vote and influent* in • tartiater the
local committee of Ma•ehdse, ea provost it bee
moving in aid of Blackballs, Mil ether plates that
have memorialised. Than is anew roans te baikve

that a general expressionatopiaion from the contri-
buting towns would induce the Commissioners to
abandon their present no•ciews as to the disposition
of the surplus fund.