The Express.
London, England, 1864-12-30 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 30, 1864;

ductive of injustice and hardship to individuals;
and, when once the supremacy of a principle has
been asserted, our next duty must always be to
inquire whether there is any discoverable corrective
to the mischiefs which follow from its application.
The most obvious remedy in the present instance
would be to relax the stringency of the prohibition
against the grant of outdoor relief. But simple as
this proposition seems, it is open to very grave ob-
jections. If a pauper is wholly without the means
of supporting himself, he can be maintained
at far lase cost in the workhouse than he
could be at his own home ; and in this case,

therefore, the administration of outdoor relief
would be a waste of the public money. If,
on the other hand, the pauper is able to partially
support himself by his labour, it seems at first
sight more economical to help him by a grant from
the poor-rate than to insist, as a preliminary to
relieving him, that he should surrender the little
which he is earning. But to do this would be in
effect to make it the direct interest of masters to
employ inferior workmen at lower wages, in the
expectation of their eking out a livelihood by the
receipt of &parish allowance. In other words, it
would be to turn the rate for the relief of the
poor into a rate for the relief of employers. Pro-
bably the remedy is really to be looked for in a
better organization of the efforts of private charity.
At present nothing seems more easy than to obtain
money for the assistance of the distressed, while
few things are more difficult than to get
it at the right time, or to apply it in the
right quarter. Too often it goes to relieve
that very destitution which has the most direct
claim on the poor-rates ; while it passes over
unnoticed the poverty which requires all that
nicety of discrimination and generosity of outlay
which must always remain the province of private
and individual almsgiving. From the evidence
to which we have before referred it appears that
the 5,000 persons who were relieved at the Man-
sion-house and the Guildhall during the hard
winter of 1861 could all have been relieved by the
City of London Union. So far, therefore, as
these persons were merely saved from actual star-
vation, private charity was taking upon itself the
duty which the law imposes on the community. We
do not deny that the pressure on the ratepayers
may at times be usefully lessened, but to do this is
not the same thing as to minister to the necessities
of the poor.

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

ROME.
THE CONSISTORY.

A letter from Rome of the 23rd has the fol-
lowing :
It is sow certain that there will be no ocesistory held
this year at Christmas. All the recent rumours relative
to promotions, therefore, fall to she pound. The diffi-
culty of conciliating all the pretausious and satisfying one
of the chiefs of the two rival influences, without displeasing
the other, has decided the Holy Father to abstain. The
vacant seats in the Sacred College will not be filled up, in
ceder to avoid exciting jealousy. The Cardinal Vicar has
jest published two new ordinances one grants permission
to prepare meagre dishes with fat coadiments dorieg the
new ecclesiastical year. and sumacs' that the Pope re-
serves to himself the regulation of the diet of the Romans
during the holy season of Lent ; the other relates to the
celebration of Christmas, and forbids the vendors of food
sad drink to open their shops daring the night of the 24th.
Neither of these documents contains the slightest political
allusion, nor any of the Molest language often found in
the lucubrations of this dignitary of the church.

granted. In consequence of this "gracious idea,"
as all the schoolboys in France are officially in-
formed, K Duruy has received orders to fix the
re-opening of the schools and colleges for Tuesday
instead of Monday. " Vive le Prince Imp4rial !"
31. Prevost Paradol's journey to Egypt is said to
be connected with a project for founding a uni-
versity and an institute at Cairo under his super-
intendence.

A telegraphic despatch from Naples states that
the night before last a French detachment attacked
the band of Cuoco, near Veroli. Seven brigands
were taken prisoners ; some of the French soldiers
were wounded.

The Opinion Nationale condemns the sequestra-
tion of the Savoy Bank, and asks whether the Bank
of France might not any morning be shut up by a
decree on no better pretexts.
The flourishing financial promises of the Moniteur
produced a rise of 50c. in the Rente. M. Fould's
prophecy that he would get it up to 66fr. before
New Year's Day is accomplished ; the closing price
was 66fr. sc. for cash, and 66fr. for account.
Mobilier rose 22fr. 50c.