The Express.
London, England, 1852-05-28 00:00:00

BATE.

On the dropped order for the adjourned debate being
read,
Mr. FRESIIFIELD moved that the debate be taken to-
day, at 12 o'clock.
Mr. WALPOLE objected that it was impossible for
ministers who were in attendance now, at near two o'clock
in the morning, to attend in the house again at 12 o'clock in
the day, considering the time required for the performance
of their official duties. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. ANSTEY had no doubt the hon. member for North
Warwickshire would accede to the suggestion of the right
hon. gentleman, and that the farce they had seen before
would be played over again in another form. (Hear.)
On Tuesday last there was ample opportunity, had the
house met after the adjournment for refreshment, for bring-
ing the debate to a close, but it was well known on the
other side that the house would not be made ; and when
the hour for re-assembling took place, except the member
for Dublin, all the members of the government were absent,
and the house was counted out. He thought, u the oppor-
tunity then afforded wee lost by the fault of the govern-
ment, they were bound to give a day for concluding the
discussion. If the hon. member for North Warwickshire
did not intend to bring the question to a decision, which
WAS the only reasonable inference from the course he had
taken, he had better at once move to discharge the order.
Mr. FRESHFIELD was ready, as far as he was con-
cerned, to make any arrangement that should enable the
question to be brought in.
Mr. KEOGH was glad to find in the bon. member for
North Warwickshire the most harmless antagonist the
Roman catholic' of Ireland had ever met with. (Hear,
hear.) He commented upon the absence of the members
of the government, who, assisting the hon. member to
avoid the question, had assisted in not making a house on
Tuesday evening.
Mr. NEWDEGATE reminded hon. gentlemen opposite
that it was the whig whipper-in who had counted out the
house on Tuesday. He was ready to meet bon. gentlemen
in their anxiety to renew the discussion, and pilled on ge.
vernment to give a day for the purpose.
The O'GORMAN MAHON took the opportunity st
repudiating the charges which had been brought agal
the allegiance and loyalty of the Roman catholic,.
Sir J. PAKINGTON deprecated wasting time at that
boor of the morning, and suggested that they should decide
when the house met again when the debate should be re-
sumed. (" Hear," and cheers.)
Mr. HORSMAN thought the house should know at core
whether the government intended to give the hon. seamlese
for North Warwickshire a day to renew the discussion.
Mr. EDWARDS wished the motion was for the repealed
the grant at once, instead of for an inquiry,
Atter some observations from Mr. Seotte,
Mr. SPOONER denied altogether the insinuation that
he did not wish to bring the question to an issue. If the
right hon. Fentlemsn the Secretary for the Coloniev
would give him a government day, he would postpone the
discussion ; but if not, he must press for the sense of
the house on the motion that the debate be resumed to 12
o'clock this day.
Mr. WALI'OLE explained the difficulty the government
MAU giving a day, seeing the state of public business,
and the desire on all sides to facilitate a dissolution.
After some further discussion,
Mr. FRESIIFIELD withdrew his motion, and the ques-
tion was further adjourned
NEV till
Wto-RlTdsy.
.
A new writ was ordered for Huntingdon, in the room of
Mr. 0. Thornhill, deceased.
The house adjourned at 3 o'clock.

Mr. Alderman Sidney paired with Mr. Milligan, for
Thum:lel, the 3rd of June.

GEOGRAPHY OF ENGLAND.—The celebrated Ger-
man Geographer,Karl Bitter, proposes to revisit this country
in June, for the purpose of studying the physical confor-
mation and structure of England and Wales. The veteran
professor hue more than once visited Great Britain, but
hitherto for the purpose of studying the physical pens-
liarities of Scotland. He will remain with us about three
months, returning to resume his winter lectures at Berlin.

ght erortoz,

TO CORR6BPONDENIB.

ieeniat Edkloa of " The Express." restaboac moo noel, ~,
Gaaette," to published ovary Towtoy sod 1 ratty 1.4,4 tb
for post
torsi Lamest" intended for " Ttss Exprean," Load's, even* Dir.
roust be et tin Mire, 10. Ifroveric.sarost, ly Two o'dook 11.
day id ;add 'mike.

/11011 WATKR AT LONDON BItIDON
ins DAT—thorsing. 9n. 10u. APerkean,
Tc-k•asuu—aorklitg, 10k.

LONDON, FRIDAY, MAY 24.

THE speech made last night by the present Prim:
Minister in the House of Lords, upon the subjtet
our representative system, is full of significance. It
that harangue it will be seen what are Lord ItERBI,,
real views upon the subject of the suffrage. 1k kel•
ingly laments the panning of the Return lliil, and
groans in spirit over the growing power of the people,
denying that a majority should exercise autlicritv
in the state, and shadowing liirth the temper is
which he is prepared to secure—so far as in him lie:,
—the continuance of oligarchic rule. Such a
speech made upon the eve of a general election
affords both warning and guidance. It puts the
present ministry in their proper light--shows them
in their colours as bigoted tortes, from whom nu ex.
tension of the suffrage, no increase of poptdar
power—is to be expected, and points out an easy teL
fur testing all candidates at the coming election. At
the hustings the question must be, "Do you suppurt
Lord DElutx ?" a question to which an an-act,
" Yes," or " No," must be demanded. All who tipsy
in the affirmative, by that very answer prove flan,.
selves to be opponents of political progress and the
antagonists of 'popular emancipation. Neither free.
trade nor any other rational achievement of the pl.
plc can be safe in such hands.
There is no longer any doubt that a dissolution of
parliament may be expected to take place by thew)
of June. Whether the 20th or the 30th of the
ensuing month is destined to become historical Gc
account of that event, is a question which we leave
to contending quidnuncs to discuss and to determine.
Enough that the inevitable event, so long looked Ivr.
ward to with solicitude, draws nigh, and a few loon
more or less in the interval that must clap.t
then are of little consideration.

Are the people ready for the event It—that i, the
question—the only question worthy of a taikau
thought. Have the industrious and freedoin-loeiss
menace who, either as electors or as con-clettor.,
arc interested in the result of the approuil.
ing election have they realised to tin LI.
selves fully and adequately the magnitude ,1
the issue that is at stake? We purposely inth,l,
the yet unenfranchised millions because we feel flat
it is emphatically a question for them to pone r
deeply and well. A new parliament is about to .4e.
convoked by the sovereign to consult fur the tonna,:
weal. If to that parliament be sent back the gate
majority against all reform, as wo have had in thy;
winch is about to expire, then for another five er
seven years the hard-toiling mass of the tax•papn
of this country will assuredly continue to be deprivi
of all participation in the government to whose main.
tenance they contribute, and of whose partiality and
neglect they arc the principal victims. Whatever
may have been the sins of the whigs—and we meet
were accused of overlooking theta—they proved them.
selves willing to breakdown some of the worst portions
of the present system of political monopoly and ex-
clusion. Now that they arc in opposition they will
doubtless be still more inclined to conform in that
pledges for the future to the popular wants and will;
and there can be little doubt that if at the hustings
the ballot and a rate-paying suffrage be generally
made the test of acceptability on the liberal side, we
shall have a new House of Commons returned that
will render a just and enlightened change in the
electoral system speedy and secure. On the other
hand let every elector and non-elector in the lard
remember that the present chance occupants of
power are pledged to resist in every form
what Lord HERBY has stigmatised as "the
noxious and dangerous influence of the people:
They are sworn to maintain in all its
hateful integrity the oligarchic system by which
England has been ruled for generations,—the system
that has rendered the annual expenditure in poon
rates alone greater than the whole national outlay e:
Spain, Belgium, Sweden, Tuscany, or many oils:
independent countries of Europe,—a system, whit:
for thirty years levied a tax in aid of rent on the
bread of the people, and which would fain reinitiate
that plunder-rate again—a system which has mon.
gaged the industry of the existing generation and
its demendants fur the means of carrying on ruinous
wars, for the advantage and exaltation of the
hereditary spendthrifts who would to-morrow
plunge us still further into debt for the like pup
poses. The upholders of the good old tory system
know well that a free suffrage and. free
voting would extinguish their hopes of its continu-
ance for ever. They are, therefore, consistently op
to every concession of rights to the humble aud
resseilpulent classes of society. They fear the re-
inforcement of plain common sense and justice which
the present liberal electors of the three kingdoms
would thus receive; and they trust by wholesale
bribery and intimidation to obtain at the coming elec-
tion such an augmentation of strength in the lower
house of parliament as may enable them for some time
to make their own the vast resources of the empire.
Surely this is an affair for the claimants of the
franchise, as well as for those who actually possess it,
Every man who buys his children's bread with the
hard money earned by a day's useful toil has in-
fluence, and for his own sake and the sake
of his family, is bound to exert it, in order that he
may counteract the sinister threats and inducement,
held out by the patron-class of customers, who
everywhere seek to controul the genuine inclination
of the honest voter. With the ballot, neither the
solicitation of the many nor the few would be possible;
but until that great safeguard and guarantee of inde-
pendent voting shall be obtained, it is not only
allowable, but tho manifest policy of self-defence on
the side of the people, to show the menaced trailer
and bullied artisan that ho has more zealous friends
on the right side than on the wrong: and that he is
more likely to lower himself in general estimation by a
cowardly truckling to the foes of his class and
kind, than by giving a fearless vote for men whom,
were it only. for the sake of the ballot, he must in-
stinctively wish to support. Let 250 men be returned
this time pledged to insist upon the ballot, and never
again will the shopkeeper or clerk be subjected to
the wearisome importunity of canvassers for his cote,
or, what is far worse, the audacious intrusion of those
who assume tho privilege of dictating to others how
they should give their suffrages.
Before another moon has waned, every homestead
in the realm will have the question put to its inmates
who are to tax and rule us for the next half dozen
years? It is the question of more or less food, of
more or less rent, of more or less wages. of MOM
or less rates in country as well as in town. Let
the present ministry succeed in mustering even
a bare moiety of the new House of Commons. and
patronage, whCedling, and corruption, under various
guises, will speedily do the rest. The tortes are old
hands at the skilful use of opportunities, which.
being literally translated, signifies the abuse of
everything, most dignified and sacred, to the bad
purposes of party ; and we have the fullest
belief in their undiminished zeal and uncontrolled
recklessness, if, through popular apathy, the sem-
blance of a chance is given them. A working ma-
ji 0111
neootnt tyt
11,:me
found
dtp
chit-
in of the Carlton once succeed
attainable, and,
at w
floc huestliwnlgsie.ve,
in numbering ono-half of the entire represen-
tation, or anything approaching thereto, and !Inane
will soon be found of accomplishing the rest of shat
may be requisite to secure what is called "iv working
majoritp. Every seat, therefore, is of consequence,
and ought to be contested on the side of truth, purity,
and progress; and we repeat, what we shalt nose
cease to reiterate, that if the great battle is to be
successfully fought, and triumphantly won, it 10'"
be fought by the people at large, in the plenitude ~
their sober, moral, and constitutional might—eh-des
and non-electors moving as ono man.

ME University of Oxford has been maligned.
.It
has been supposed by many that it is the consemttoe
institution pare:cc/knee—that it is the Yenembh rn-
server of all antiquated abuses. People have 1001
upon it as the great theological and literary oPlcr.
dreaming somnolently its sell, qrowisg to the
rock on which it is p4=d, unsuhsceptible of

sod unconscious or careless of the roar and the motion
et the waves around it. No such thing. Oxford
is convicted by the report of the cow-
easioners of being the most revolutionary
body in England. While all other institutions retain
low truces of their origin, Oxford retains none,
except a few names. Never has revolutionary folly
acted more wildly than in the university. It has
prowl etctainly for a century or two, but the pre-
/Nat oxford I hms are the legitimate descendants of
a race of real revolutionists. The career of the uni-
Teri:s, from the earliest time to the reign of
• IMES 1., had been one constant system of change,
And the result is that the Oxford of the pre-
sent day has scarcely one feature left of the Oxford
of the past.
The uwr. nit), (says the report), like ell the older uni-
vrnan. of wastes Europe, appears to have been at the
get an aeon of teachers, united only by mutual in
ten':. E•e,i association requires a legicative body and
es,cut.ve otti, es ; but in at voluntary associations these
wa•unat vb owlets exist, originally at least, in their simplest
10101. his caul, suit seems prohibit., that the legislature
On
f 10.. r•i.y in carly times consisted of one house only,
whiOt all the masters or teachers had a scat, called " the
gengr.gation •• tieing engaged in the daily bushiest of the
adwob, the mason were always at hand, and Gould be ma-
ws... 4 at any moment except in the holidays. The house
which bran their name is, even to this day, summoned
snip by the sound of a bell The house of congrega-
tion n the real representative of the primeval legislature of
the linear) ignakie of Ottford.
In the course of time a number of masters of a con
taro rank were selected to form an upper house, called
the 110 Ise of Convocation. The head of the whole
body. chosen by tho master,' thernselres, was called at
tint Rector Sclolarum. or Master of the Scholars,
and afterwards Almost equal in autho-
rity mere the two proctors. They were likewise
chosen by the whole body of masters.
disc is as proper a democracy as it ever entered
into the minds of the most ardent republican to con-
ceive. Now. let us see what the spirit of change has
done toward. upsetting every trace of the old cousti-

tut ion.
The tirat innovation, as we have represented before,
was the inthience acquired by bodies which, at the
time we speak of, had no existence,—the endowed
colleges or hall*. The report tells us—
The students who resorted to °ironl in early times lived
In the houses of the townspeople. In some cases a number i
of youth., sufficient to support an authorised teacher, that
is, a tuaster of arts, or a graduate in one of the superior
facultie-, occupied with him a whole tenement, which then
bore the name of inn, hostel. or hall. 't he master who
ruled it took the title of principal, and acted as guardian of
the vounger members es the number of students increased
the balls multiplied. Anthony Wood states that he could
show the 11•13106 and places of more than three hundred.
Still, the great majority of the scholars lived in
hired rooms independently. Cardinal POLE struck
the first blow at the system by ordering all students
under a certain age to withdraw from the houses of
citizens and place themselves under tho care of a
principal in some hall. Now, the independent halls
would frequently cease to be tenanted after the de-
par:are or death of a favourite master, or after the
soe:e:y had been broken up by the acquisition
of 'lei:ices by the students. They would have
no better chance of a perennial existence
than a modern private school. The case
would i.e different with the endowed halls
or colleges, the value of whose endowments would'
be gradually increasing. These incorporate bodies,
strong through wealth, union, and presence on the
spot, Were enabled to purchase such of the private
halls as had been abandoned, or were not sucososfid,
and by these means it became practicable to enforce
the residence of all undergraduates in some col
or collegiate hall. This was the first entrance of the
edge of the wedge. The endowed halls ate up the
unendoweol. After well digesting the meal, they sot
to work to appropriate the university.
There is no part of the report more clear than
that in which it is shown that these colleges were
eleemosynary foundations.
A college (says the report) may be defined as • charitable
foundation for the support of poor scholars with perpetual
puree ease, devoting themselves to study and prayer, admi-
nistering their own again under the presidency of a bead
within and the control of a visitor without, according to
statutes which were to be neither altered nor me-
dined, and which were sanctioned by solemn oath.
. . They were designed to supply poor studestamolang
as they were poor, and so long es they were 'Mani% dad
no loeyer, with a maintenance decent and honest, to it
is expressed in the statutes of New College, but of a
frugal
character." . . . " That poverty was heldt
the indispensable (roadie= appears conclusively from Abe,
reproof addree.cd by Archbishop Peckham, the Tinter id
Merton College, to that society, in the year 1281 :—'Zs
oucht only to have received the indigent, as is shows as
the eleventh chapter of the regulations, whence it apposes
that se have no liberty to receive such u have sufficient to
peuvi, fur their own necessities .... with their own means,
or such as arc employed in any other business, or enjoy any
other situation which brings them a competency."'
In order that this condition of poverty might not
be infringed, all division of a surplus was forbidden.
So late as 1609, Archbishop Bancroft speaks of tho divi-
sion of any part of the corn or money of All Souls' College
among the fellows as a " fraudulent diverting of the same
from the behoof and profit of the college unto private uses,
which is the point principally forbidden in the statutes."
The statutes of Merton, balliol, Oriel, Queen's, and Pem-
broke provide that, in cue the revenues of the society
Aall inervaw, the number of fellows shall also be increased.
Even where the number of members on the foundation was
Seed, it by no means follows that the fellows were to divide
a surplus.
It would take too much space to quote from tho
report a number of passages, all tending to prove
that the funds of the colleges were intended to be
applied solely to poor men and to students, and that
the moment these conditions were infringed the right
to a participation in the funds was forfeited. Intel-
lectual proficiency was not even deemed a necessary
condition.
Archbishop Peckham, who cannot but have rightly ap-
prehended the spirit of the statute, of Walter de Mende,
fai the 12th chapter of hie ordinances, thus reprimands the
kllows. " Contrary to the intention of those regulations, ye
are unwilling to admit (that is as fellows) youths likely to
advance in knowledge, but only those who are alread far
advanced, which is clearly contrary to the terms laid down
in the 11th chapter ; since, as is shown above, ys °oedema
to admit thou who are learning grammar."
In site of admonitions, however, colleges sae-
needed to departing so far from the spirit of their
ancient regulations, that the fellows, instead of being
poor students, labouring to instruct themselves,
became rich men, without any duty of study im-
posed upon them. They usurped the whole privilege of
tuition; whereas, the were bound formerly to be
learners. Finally, they excluded from the uni-
versity all who would not be taught by them.
We perceive already the republican constitution at
the university tottering. After the collegeehad takes
parassion of the whole power the rest wuessy. Belere
the loth century the Heads of Colleges had, as se*
no statutable power in the university. Is 1589
Rosser Drinitr, Earl of Leicester, the einninilor,
=Bard to pass some statutes enacting that 1111111,1111
ghoul be uo more disco/led before the tong:option
—the old democratic body—but before a meeting of
the Vice-Chancellor, Heads of Colleges, Doctors and
Proctors. In the time of CITABLE' Ithe Doctors
lest their privileges and the meeting was limited to
the Hinds of Colleges and the Proctors. The next
step was the degradation of the Proctors. The
whole power of government in the university is now
virtually in the hands of the Ikeda of Colleges, who,
with the Proctors, form what is called the Hebdo-
madal Board. Is there not some reason in saying
that the ancient constitution of the university has'
been rtvolutionised ?
It is scarcely necessary to say that the commis-
sawn are unanimous in the condemnation of the
hebdomadal board as a means of governtnent. Our
object is this article will be achieved if the reader
has been made to perceive how monstrous is the
eatery made by the authorities in Oxford against a
change in the university, when history proves that
change has been the exception and not the rule in
the institution. Wo only insist that henceforth
changes shall not be made for tho interest of the
few, but the good of the many.

FATAL WAGER.—Yesterday, an inquest was held
by Mr. Baker, at the White Bear, Lambeth-street, White-
chapel, on the body of Robert Churehlow, aged 36 years,
ly neiding at No. 34, Gower's-walk, Church-lane. The
was • labour. r in the employ of Mr. Webb,
builder, of Gower's-walk, and as Wednesday, the 19th
'lst *hilt (Imaged in repairing a retort at a sugar baker's,
he laid one of the other workmen a gallon of beer that be
woo; I carry a piece of sheet iron, M 1 cwt., Reran do rat
Four of the men, at his own desire, then placed the hem ea
his hae k, and one exclaimed, " Don't do it, Bob." The
decea.ed ',aid," It is all right;" and as he walked along, he
slipp. 4, a.l sprained his back. The piece of iron was
placed on iserieh, when the deceased seemed very ill, and
complained of severe pain in the loins. Ile went home,
where he or es visited by Mr. Gwyn, the surgeon, to whom
be io s,r mentioned the injury he had received, and whilst
srtliuJ at ',Apia r on Sunday night, he was suddenly seised
with s fit and expired. Mr. Gwyn said be had no doubt
the .1.4..4%11 bad died from internal hemorrhage, caused
ihe heavy weight lie had carried. The inquiry was ad-
s-awned for the attendance of an important waster, and for
%post eaorfens examination of the body.