The Express.
London, England, 1852-11-05 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 5, 1852.

TIM POOR LAW BOARD AND TUE NEW

ORDERS.

Tla Board of Guardians of tho Strand Union
having memorialised the Poor Law Board, praying that tl.e
new order for the regulation of out door relief might be is.
considered, and setting forth at length the objections to this
memorial, the Poor Law Board have returned the following
reply .
" The board have very carefully considered the ob-
servations and arguments submitted to them by the guar-
dians, with reference to the order, and they now proceed to
state, I. reply, their views. The guardians urge upon the
board a reconsideration of the subject from the belief that,
if persisted in, it will tend to lower she petition, and prevent
respectable persons from taking the °Mee of guardian. It
would be • source of much regret to the Poor-law Board if
such feelings were prevalent amongst hoards of guardians;
and it appears to the board that a sudicient answer is
afforded by the fact that there are above five hundred
boards of guardians, comprisiog gentlemen of unquestion-
able respectability, who, giving the Poor-law Board credit
for the same sense of duty which actuates themselves, Co.' operate with them in giving effect to the law
without the tangelo:wins or dread of any degradation.
The guardians state their opinion that Art. 1, which
limits the proportion which relief in kind is to bear to relict
in money, is an injudicious restriction upon that discretion
' which they have hitherto exercised, and that discrimination
which they ought to possess. The board have introduced
the provisions of this article, for the purpose of preventing,
tie far as may be, the misapplication of the relief given, and
they are, as they think, calculated to be beneficial in respect
as well of wettest es of the quality of the article supplied.
If, however, it shall be satisfactorily established by ripe-
clew* that the expectations of the board are not fully
reslised or that its working is atleonspanied with hardship
to the aged or helpless poor, the board will not be indis-
posed to eensider the expfdiency et &partial modification
of this article. The guardians consider that article 2, which
requires all out-door relief to be given weekly is harsh and
unsejw, and that men y aged. and infirm persons living at
• distance will be thereby` put to unnecessary trouble.
the board toast remark that weekly relief has been found
by the great majority of unions to be of essential import-
ance, and they are of opinion that it should be adhered
to. It will be, howrrer quite competent for the
guardians to order relief for as long a period as they
deem necessary., though the relief so ordered is
to be administered to the paupers weekly. A. to
the cases in which the pauper is too infirm to come
every week for relief, it is advantageous that the relieving
ornerier should himself visit the pauper and give the relief
weekly. Art. 6, which prohibits relief being given to
any able-bodied male parson while employed for wages,
the guardians allege " will operate with great 'severity
upon the industrious poor, and tend to iuerease the
burden of the rate payers." The board have not failed to
take into account the great evils and abuses which arose
before the passing of the Poor Law Amendment Act, from a
system of partial relief to persons in employment, which
operated as making up Insufficient wages to the amount
necessary for the support of the labourer and his family.
They also bear in mind that with a view to prevent
the recurrence of these evils, • provision similar to that
now objected to has been almost uniformly introduced by
the Poor Law Commissioners, and by this board, into the
orders fur the regulation of out-door relief to able-bodied
male paupers, which have bean issued, some of which are
now in force in districts of a similar character to the Strand
Union, and the board are unable to accede to the request
for a modification of Article 6. With regard to the objec-
tions against Article 6, which directs " That every able-
bodied male person, if relieved out of the workhous:, shall
be set to work by the guardians, and be kept employed
under their direction and superintsndeace, so long
as he continues to receive relief, and which the
guardians allege would be impracticable in the Strand
Union without obtaining additional officers end pre-
mises," the board desire to state that this very course has
been adopted in the East London Union recently, and in
others at a more distant period, with complete 'times'. In
the East London Union the number of orders per week
given In twentprour weeks was 645, of which 301 were not
presented. The hoard desire to inform the guardians that
}}he objections upon which they ground their request that
"the order may be reconsidered or rescinded, are Limon
identical with those urged by guars of other unions
against • similar order, which order nevertheless was found
upon trial to be practicable and beneficial, and is now the
settled rule and practice in upwards of 600 unions.
" The board, in conclusion, desire to add that the great
demand at present existing for labourers, affords a very
favourable opportunity fur asserting sound principles of
relief, an opportunity of which they trust that the guardians,
sided and supported by this general order, will endeavour
to talc* advantage. The board entertain a confident ex-
pectation that experience will satisfy the guardians that
the order Is generally practicable, and beneficial in its
tendency ; and while they will not be indisposed to consider
any application for • partial modification of Art. 1, if the
guardians after a fair trial are deliberately of opinion that
such modification is needed, they feel bound to adhere to
the main provisions of the order, because they believe them
to be both practicable and founded on eorreet principles of
poor law administration. (Signed) OK lIITINAY,
Se-
cretary."
The above communication was followed by an interview
between Mr. Hall, Poor Law Inspector, and several of the
guardians of the Strand Union.

RAILWAY AMALGAMATION.
term the Deity Neigh)
Railway Amalgamation Schemes go swimmingly
on. Shareholders—at all events that portion who
attend railway meetings, or have proxies sent them
gratuitously--mem persuaded that it is for their in-
terest to unite great companies, even though the
terms of union are iu supense. They again follow
the advice which has often before deluded them—
advice under which dividends have dwindled, and
competition and rivalry grown fast and furious;
they again sanction the management and applaud
the managers who have lured them on into scheme
after scheme, each more dangerous than its
predecessor; they confirm more emphatically than
ever a system against which the public is in arum,
and so hasten ael iris that appears inevitable. In
their anxiety and eagerness to get rid of present ills
"they rush to others that they know not of." And
they who three short years ago would not tolerate
government supervision of their amounts, are now
precipitating great and extensive combinations that
no government tun long tolerate without powers for
very stringent control.
The amalgamations now before the public are of
very ditterent orders. Ono is the union of lines
spreading over 1,0110 miles, which do not compete,
hut which are, and always have been, iu the strictest
alliance; the other is a combination of lines, two of
which hive of late been in desperate hostility. Thu
motives for the union are, however, the mine in each
case. The North Western and the Midland seek
amalgamation to strengthen each other against
riials that inconvenience them to the west and the
east—against the Great Western, which pushes ou to
the Mersey—against the Great Northern, already in
the West Biding. The York, Newcastle, and Berwick
aims at dept iving the Tees, the Wear, and the Tyne of
competition of their traffic, by engulphing the Leeds
Northern. In both the object is to abate compe-
tition ; to deprive the public of competing accommo-
dation; to neutralise the competing designs of the
legislature in passing the statutes which incorporated
rival companies ; to gain power over fares and rates
of conveyance—in short, to possess a monopoly,
more or less. Amalgamations are but the crowning
point of that dictum which two years ago boldly
proclaimed, at a North Western meeting, "railway
competition to be madness", and which on Wednes-
day exclaimed " free trade did not apply to rail-
ways."
And so it is madness, as it has been lately carried
on ; at reckless speed, at unremunemtive farce, at the
risk of paasengers lives and limbs, at the cost of
shareholders' pockets. That is madness. That is
not free trade. But there is a competition reasona-
ble in its policy, ample in its accommodation, civil
and courteous in its management, fair in its speed,
which is also profitable in its rates; and that, so fur
from being madness, is at once beneficial to share-
holders and advantageous to the public. Of
the competition that is reasonable, the public
may see examples in the Brighton and South (;oast,
and in the South Western lines from the same
station at Portsmouth; in the South Eastern and
Brighton lines for the Hastings traffic; and in the'
relations of the Eastern Counties and the Great
Northern into Northamptonshire. While of that
rivalry which is insane and hurtful, there are
abundant iustances in the North and Great Western
as there was until the other day also in the districts
between tho Ouse and the Tyne.
Bat it is only the abatement, it may be said, of
insane rivalry which these amalgamations have in
view. Not so ; the union of the North Western and
the Midland, where there is no competition to abate
and where co-operation has long been complete,
aims at securing greater power and influence over third
lines which interfere with their united operations
and common policy. Already these two lines have
acquired great power over the western route into
Scotland ; they now seek similar control over the
eastern road ; subject to a new rivalry to Birming-
ham and Liverpool, they look for compensation by
invading iu their turn the western and Welch tent-
tones of the intruder into their more central districts.
What will the public gain by these unions? That
is the question fur the government and the legisla-
ture to consider. If competition in the hands of
rational and reasonable men be useful and advan-
tageocs to the public in every other department
of human industry and commercial combina-
tion, why not also in railways and in locomo-
tive conveyance? If monopoly bo injurious
in grain and in food, how can it be beneficial
in travelling ? In what consists the advantage of
having only one route to Liverpool, to Leeds, or to
Edinburgh; or—what practically amounts to the
same thing—one company on those routes so power-
ful and commanding, as to be able to control the
operations of all its competitors P If free and unre-
stricted trade in commodities be the true policy of
the nation, freedom of locomotion—that is, the
free and unrestricted use of all those routes which
Parliament has granted authority to construct, and
which are constructed—mast be still more useful ;
for they affect the internal trade, travelling, and con-
vevauce of the kingdom.
)iut these fears may be premature. Again we say,
not so. For by whom are these amalgamations and
unions projected P By the men who have by their
leases, their alliances, their contracts, and agree-
ments—by their arrangements and their breaches of
their arrangements--obstructed and interfered
with the public convenience and accommodation.
By the boards of directors in the penultimate
stage of discredit, who thus propound a great
scheme of national injury to remedy, if possible, a
decade of personal mismanagement and increasing
disorder. What faith or confidence in the schemes
and propositions of these persons can or ought the
public to have P
None at all; and they have none. With them the
public area flock of sheep to be shorn and fleeced only
to be charged highly and to bo indifferently served
to be driven into what trains they please, conveyed
at what rates of speed suit their own convenience,
and discharged at what hour their maladministration
permits. It is not on a sense of what best snits such
interests as these that amalgamations can be suffered
to proceed. They are public questions, and must be
decided and settled on public grounds ; and if conceded
at all, it must ho under conditions and regulations
that will secure the public the full advantage of
every line for which Parliament has passed statutes
of the realm.

And these projected amalgamations, effecting,
perhaps, one-fifth of the whole railway communica-
tion of Great Britain, are, and mast be, the prelude,
if carried out, to further unions. It is idle to suppose
that, with one great line from Leeds and York to
Berwick, the North British can maintain its inde-
pendence; it, too, most succumb and yield. And
while, in amalgamating with the Midland, Mr. Tito.
IRS SMITH renews Mr. OLYN'S offer to unite that
amalgamation with the Great Western, Mr. ELLIS
suggests to Mr. DENISON " a more complete and last-
ing union of interests between the Great Northern and
the United London and North Western and Midland
Companies;" junctions that would give to the huge
monopoly thus coolly and deliberately contemplated,
• capital of nearly ono hundred millions sterling, and
power over nearly one-half of the lines of rail-
ways in the island. Other smaller feeders
of this great monster would too quickly fall
victims to its insatiable maw; and all the
best districts of England would be laid under
contribution by a company almost rivalling the
state itself in the extent and value of its patronage.
The creation of such en incorporation—the placing
such power in the hands of a set of men under
no responsibility to the public, but bound by
the obligations of duty to their constituents to
screw the highest possible dividends out of
the community—the surrender of half or even a fifth
of the railway communications of Great Britain to a
great company having such influence—this, we say,
cannot be sound policy. It is dangerous to the
public; it may become mischievous to the state itself.
And now that we know what amalgamation really
means, we must be at all events in a position to
, impose conditions, even if we cannot arrest om-
-1 elation.

ACCIDENT AT LElTll.—Between eleven and
twelve o'clock on Monday forenoon the boiler of the por-
table steam engine on the emit pier, nerd fir driving piles,
burst, scattering the furnsoe-bars and fire to a considerable
distance among the workmen and others on the picr and
breakwater below. Mr. M'Andrevrs, the resident en-
gineer, who was present inspecting the works, was scalded
about the face and neck ; and Mr. Tench, the assistant-
engineer, was struck by ono of the bars, which cut his fare
and fractured one of his arum in two places. Several of the
workmen received cuts sod brui•ti, but all of a slight
descriotion.--atrobiwita