The Express.
London, England, 1852-11-10 00:00:00

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LONDON, 11711-WESD.4Y, NOVEMB Ell 10

Ya Insa.tett and his colleagues arc said to be
ill-agreed as to the language to be used in the ap-
proaehing discussions on the future policy of the go-
vernment. Even with regard to the terms of the
lie al Speech, disputes neither brief nor trivial are
said to have arisen in the Cabinet: and it was not
without considerable difficulty that a form of words
sufficiently destitute of .11 intelligible meaning could
be hit upon to satisfy the divergent intentions of the
two factions into which Toryism is avowedly divided.
At the head of the majority stands the Premier,
supported at the council table by Lords SALISBERT
and LoNSDALE, and generally by those who have most
to lose by a frank and tit.al renunciation of the prin-
ciple and pretext of monopoly. With such men
office is but a tiouhlesome way of recovering and
securing the excessive profits from land which the
policy of Sir Roomer Pert took from them,—to their
nextinguishable chagrin and the people's abiding
joy. Of these men it may be readily believed
that they would infinitely prefer being out of office.
six months hence, if in the meanwhile they could
huddle through Parliament measures that would afford
them any sort of excuse for exacting an addi-
tional half-crown an acre, than forego that
sinister hope for the sake of laying some foundation
for their logger oontinuance in power. They have
much to boc and little to gain by the latter specula.
tion ; they have much. as they fancy, to gain, and
little they care really to lose by the former act of
self-stultification and coufession of past fraud and
present failure. On the other hand, they are
encountered by men who, like the clever and
discerning ell sNCELLoR of the Fiume:ea, care
nothing for rents, for they have none, or none of an
amount sufficient to outweigh their ambition to hold
political posts conTerring large patronage and
pay. To them official existence, experience,
and success is everything ;—to be thrust out
as incapable. or incurables is all but extinction.
Dtanamt having. manufactured a party out of the
maimed and fugitive wreck of Conservatism would
fain invent a policy now which, like the constitu-
tion of Louts NAPOLEON, he would impose by dint
of his own impetuous will upon his followers. But,
unlike his French parallel, he is not supreme. With
projects of this kiud Lord DERBY can have no sym-
pathy. Fond of power, ho is still prouder of the
excitement of the game i—vain of being First
Lord of the Treasury, he is prouder still of being the
trusted and locally recognised head of the haughty
class to which by birth he belongs. To suppose
Lord Dewitt capable of balancing in his own mind
the transient tenure of office with the perma-
nent leadership of the Tory. aristocracy of three
kingdoms is utterly to misinterpret the nature
and position of the man. Despised and scoffed at
daily by that insolent class who have hitherto been
willing to make use of his rhetorical dexterity, Die-
"AEU must sensitively feel how brittle is his hold
Over them ; and, as a shrewd and sagacious clamberer,
he must naturally long for the opportunity of bidding
for the sympathy and admiration of the community
at Jorge, by whom he well knows that any man
aspiring to political influence of an enduring kind in
afree country alone can render himself secure. The
antagonism of tendencies and motives of the two
men is complete. Its results cannot be far distant;
but they may possibly be for • time deferred by
mutual consent. and by a species of compromise dic-
tated by the immediate exigencies of each.
For if Lord DERRY is not prepared to supersede
his literary colleague, and to name a successor whom
the deposed lieutenant would not be certain to over-
throw in the first day's march, neither is DISRAELI
prepared to take his solitary stand u a mutineer
below the ministerial gangway. He remembers too
vividly. the miseries and snubbing. of that desperate
condition. He recollects how many of his ablest
harangues were made therein to empty or drowsy
benches. Ho has since had the warning example of
the most experienced and one of the ablest statesmen
now living who after forty years of office the achieve-
ment of many memorable deeds already shrined in
history, and possessing all the advantages of
aristocratic birth and connexion, was yet unable to
draw after him half-a-dozen seceders from the camp
of his party. And why 11 Because he did not break
with his party on any great and intelligible principle
which the popular mind appreciated and loved.
Dowels knows all this, and he will therefore
seek at all hazards to gain time. He will begin to
make a distinctive character if possible for himself
as contra-distinguished front that of his stubborn and
stupid associates. His showy exercitation of last
session in favour of Free Trade will surely be repeated
before many days. If he cannot pull the Cabinet
round, he will show its dumb and dogged
members that they can neither hold nor muzzle
him. By a thousand inuendoce, sarcasms, and
inexplicable explanations, he will try to make
the country believe that he is for his part
quite convinced all he has been talking these
last six years is stark nonsense and delusion, and
that it is not Ala fault if the ministry do nut fling it
to the winds and come out in the wholly new cha-
racter of " fast men " for the Radicals. In • word,
if the lumbering crew won't allow him to steer s. he
likes, he will take his own time for scut ling the
ship, and then jump overboard ere she finally
goes down.

THERE was recently • small meeting held in a large I,
place, on n subject of very high importaece. In the
Town Hall of Nlanehesbo, • few members of parlia-
ment end others kid • Conference, at which they had
invited dtputationa from variols Hoards of PoorTaw
Osardians in England tool Ireland to assist. The
attendance WAS meagre. The resolutions ttll all that
seems to he known of the views and aims of the
amneiation.
These resolutions declare the satisfaction of the
Conference at the report. of the indwitry carried on
in carious workhouses, " in lieu of idleness and Wit-
left tests :" thee pledge the Conference to efforts
to promote tho humane and economical system of
productive labour in workhouses, and they promise
to attempt the abrogation of all restrictions of ecvseri
kind which interfere with the free agency of b

of guardians in purchasing and renting laud. and dis-1
posmg of the produce of the industry of the paupers,
due regard being paid to the intermits of the
pendent labourers. It was further resolved that,*
subject shall be brought before parlianupst ;is the
coume of this et•siliutb ; thet subacriptioni shall be
raised fur the promotion of the movement I sad that
the society shall take the name of the National Poor-
' law Aitauelation. This title, it is said, will "obviate
misconception regarding the scope and objects of the
Aosta:lit ion."

It does not yet clearly appear what the Associa-
tion Lis to ask of parliament. The rnembora hays
heard with satisfaction of the people in certain work-
houses being industrious instead of idle, or tried by
useless tests. Very good. But who wishes paupers
to be idle? And what " tests" but labour tests us
there in our workhouses? An able•hotlii d man's
seed or relief is tried by the offer of work. If he is
in health and will not work, he cannot have his
food ; and his speedy exit shows that he has re-
soareLs elsewhere. If he does the work offered him,
there is an end of the " idleness," and the test is mot
" useless." Perhaps there might be some peanut
at the Conference who have not been in a work-
house of late years, and who have some no-
tion in their heads of such freaks of tyranny
in were exercised by poor-houses in the °idea
time—such freaks Ls making men dig holes
in order to fill them up again, and cony
stones to all the four corners of a yard in sums-
Mon, just to break the victims in to pauperism. Bat
no such doings take place now, under the sanction of
the lour-law Commissioners; nor do they sanction

idleness among any who are able to work. Wherever
the local board takes any pains to carry out the in-
tention of the central authirities, the boys and girls
will be found in school for a part of the day, and bIll•
ployed, during other hours—the girls hi tho work of
the house, and the boys in learning trades or garden-
ing. Of the aged and infirm nothing of course' can
be expected. Of the able•budied men, there ore
at present so few that it is difficult to de-
scribe their r,ginte but, taking the case as
it was a year or two ago, it would be
found, wo believe, that the men were employed
partly in the business of the house, in raising water
and grinding corn, in repairs and gardening; and
for the rest, in the piaetier of such shoemaking and
tailoring, tee., as would supply the wants of the
house. It was found, moren..er, that their labour
was of a very poor quality ; for the obvious reason
that, except in rare masons of crisis, it is only the
refuse of the able-bodied who appear at the gate of
an English workhouse.
The aim of the Association may, perhaps, be best
discovered from the resolution which associates
" productive labour" with the freedom of the guar-
dians to purchase or hire land. The Association
contemplates, perhaps, making workhouse. self-sup-
porting by means of farming—with the paupers for
labourers. If they bring their projects before par-
liament, it is probable that this will be found to be
i their aim. It s a pity that they do not alter it more
plainly meanwhile, that previous discussion might
save the valuable time of the national council.
It will never do—that scheme of supporting a
workhouse by a farm. If men cannot support their
own families under all the inducements that belong
to an independent condition, ho e should they main-
tain the helpless iumates of the poor-house, under
the discouragement. of a pauper state? If they can
do it, they have no business in :he workhouse; for
assuredly they must be much wanted elsewhere.
But, before land is purchased or hired on such a
speculation, let these people show what they can do
with the work which lies under their hand—the
production of articles required fur the consump-
tion of the house. Wheu tried upon this, the
labour of paupers is found to be inferior
to that of independent labourers, just in
proportion to their disadvantages of posi-
tion and motive. These gentlemen of the Confer-
ence contend, probably, that the niedful stimulus
might be su?plied by offers of reward, of indulgeuce,
or of pecuniary gain. But, if the first was given,
the doors of the workhouse would be crowded by
the more indolent and selfish of those who now find
a maintenance outside; and, if the second were
given —money, a share of the profits, or the like—this
would be a mere conversion of the workhouse into a
place of board and lodging fur persons capable of
earning wages. Supposing—what, however, we do
not suppose—that pauper tarms could be made pro-
fitable, the labourers maintained by them would con-
stitute a wholly different class from the helpless,
for whom a legal charity is provided. fhey
might be, and they would be, in a dif-
ferent abode. The helpless class would re-
main just where they were before (for it is not to
be supposed that their maintenance is to be imposed
on the pauper labourers), and thus the result would
be the creation of a class of men who, in virtue of
their inferiority, physical or mural, are aided and
privileged in the face of the independent labourer,
and, at least, set a-going at his expense. There
would be an =Section presently of that friendly
helpfulness which keeps many inferior labourers out
of the workhouse, but which would think itself un-
der no obligation to keep them off the farm which is
opened expressly for such as they. The workhouse
is an asylum foe the helpless. Such an asylum there
must still be; and if this pauper farming could suc-
ceed, we should have, in addition, an artificial class
of inferior labourers, who would be incessantly re-
cruited from the rank above them, and for ever in-
creasing on our hands.

But the scheme could not possibly answer. All
experience and all reason ale against it. We think
it a great thing that an able farmer, here and there,
with capital at his free disposal—with faculties awake
and active, from his personal interest in his enter-
prise—with a choice of stout independent labourers,
and that unity and steadfastness of purpose which
belongs to unglued and undisputed command—can
show that farming answers well in our day. We are
wont to say that, sorry as we are for them, a large
proportion of our existing generation of farmers must
go out of the business, and give plane to men of
higher qualifications—pecuniary and educational.
What chance could a farm have, at such a period,
which is under corporate management, u a mere
administrative affair—and the machinery of which is
labour of a quality too poor to find its natural use
elsewhere P

Thus we should say in an ordinary season and state
of society. Perhaps we might have spared ourselves
the trouble of saying it in a season when women are
hired to clean the workhouses, because there are not
strong-bodied inmates enough to do it; and when
every man who can reap and bind has been sent for
from some anion houses to help to get in the harvest.
But, even in such a season, the Conference has been
held; and, in even such a season, the Conference
has pledged itself to bring the subject before
parliament without delay; and this is oar jus-
tification for asking "what subject ?" If there is
wanton " idleness " in any workhouse it must be
the fault of the local guardians; for neither the law
nor the oentral board sanctions idleness. It these
are " useless tests," let the local guardians be called
to account for them too.—the point being first clearly
ascertained that the I.,bour test employed is "useless."
Before taking up the time of parliament with proposals
that guardians shall apply the rates to the purchase or
hiring of land, let it be pmved that the farmers of
the district are making their business answer. If
they are not, there can be no hope for pauper farm-
ing. If they are, there can hardly be any able-
bodied paupers to put upon the land. The probabi-
lity is that there will be found within the walls an
insufficiency of hands to keep the garden, and answer
the daily needs of the house.
The gentlemen of the Conference are benevolent
men—earnest in their compassion, in their manly
respect, for the least fortunate class of their fellow-
citizens. lied they not better try to prevent these
poor people becoming paupers, using the present
favourable opportunt.y of a rise in the value of
labour ? The ragged regiment is not now so largo
abut that it might, with a little pains, be trained to
I turn face about from the workhouse door and to march
on to a higher destiny. This is no time for tempting
men into the workhouse, but for separating them
from it altogether, unless infirmity brings them beck
to its gates. Let their children grow up regarding
It as a hospitaL Let the advocates of the principle
and practice of association, who see how its economy
is bringing it into use, from tho club-houses of the
West ( nil to the co-operative store in a Welsh valley.
beware how they c=pose it to needless disrepute by
sinking it in an enterprise which would combine
every possible element of failure at a time when
there is no occasion for its btlooollll.