The Express.
London, England, 1847-09-23 00:00:00

_
than in England. In many parts, wasteland may be
procured for nothing, or next to nothing, and fuel ob-
tained for the digging. The inhabitants of Ross-shire
or Caithness never taste animal food, nor complain
of the want of it. They live, and have always lived,
on meal and potatoes, with the occasional luxury of a
Wig. These considerations help us towards an
nadesstanding of such a case as that of old MARION
I goes. et Dersoch, aged eighty, living by herself, rent
gem, fa a mull croft, with an allowance of ninepence
a week. She could move about, but was quite
unable to work a neighbour assisted her.
Notwithstanding, however, the possibility of
MAR lON o Ross keeping body and soul together
on 9d. a week with these helps, her case clearly fur-
nishes no ground for contending that Ad. a week is
a fair allowance even in Doruoch for "needful sus-
Mutation." Perhaps a disposition appears in the re-
port to dwell rather too strongly on such cases. The
parochial board of Inverness, in its report for 1846-7,
states their highest allowance to paupers not bed-rid,
at le. a week, but that to some bed-ridden, the magni-
ficent sum of Is. 6d. weekly was given. Surely no
evidence can be wanted to prove that this sum is in-
sufficient for " needful sustentation" upon the lowest
conceivable estimate of prices or comforts. With
the facts stated by the Glasgow committee before us,
we are utterly unable to discover how the
board of supervision arrive at their conclu-
sion that the allowance to aged and disabled
paupers wholly dependent on parochial relief, all but
equals, if it do not actually equal, the MOM of in-
dustrious labourers in the same parishes. They are
bound, it appears to us as, to th® Glasgow Association,
to furnish evidence of such an approximation, espe-
cially
.when the facts they do supply seem to run
right in the teeth of their statements.
The most important function of the Board of
Supervision is that which makes them a court of
appeal for the pauper. from the parochial board. The
form of procedure is thee stated by the Glasgow
Association :
The board receives no complaints unless made in the form
prescribed. The parochial inspectors are bound to furnish
any pauper desiring to complain with a printed schedule,
containing a number of questions to be answered by the
complainer, in writing, upon a blank column in the schedule f
The samplainer having thus stated his case, or so much o
it as the queries in the schedule bring out, the inspector then
writes his remarks opposite to the complainer's statement,
and * this state it goes before the board, no opportunity
being allowed to the complainer to contradict or disprove
any assertion the inspector may think himself justified in
making. If the board considers the inspector's reply satia-
factory, the complaint is at once dismissed. But if not, they
then remit it back to the parochial board for further informs-
tioa—thus allowing the inspector an dppottunity of amend-
ing his pleading, and strengthening his case: but at no
time, so far as we can learn, does the board ever apply to the
pauper for farther explanations, or for a reply to anLsZtsed-
ment of the inspector or parochial beard. And.
after the schedule of appeal is sent to the hoard. the pamper
knows nothing of what ts going forward until )10 metives a
letter from the board announcing. its decision IS his com-
pliant. We feel that too much impertance out hardly, be
attached to the form in which the board allows a complainer
to approach it, and in which it deals with these complaints,
when we observe that, out of 597 complaints, 308 were dis-
missed at once, and 91 more, after communicating with the
parochial boards complained against, but with no communi-
cation with the pauper complaining.
We cannot help feeling that this can hardly be
considered an " investigation of the nature and grounds
of the complaint" within the meaning of the
statute. When we look for the principles on which
the board has proceeded in deciding on the com-
plaints—in other words, how it has taken its estimate
of " needful sustentation"—we find ourselves quite at
sea. The report speaks much and often of the great
variety in the rate of allowances which has been
found tolerable in different parishes, ranging from
the annual sums of 81. Os. 7d. in Berwickshire, to
2s. 6d. in Shetland. They seem to think themselves
justified by this wide range of relief in deciding
each case on its special circumstances. But if this
system is to be pursued, their method of procedure
admits no fair statement of circumstances on the side
of the pauper.
It is evident that a system like that of the Scotch
poor-law, in which, before the act of 1845, local
authority was omnipotent, requires a very vigilant,
and, if possible, humane,central 'tape) intendenee. We
must not, as againat this conclusion, suppose that the
597 complainants were all the discontented paupers
in Scotland, much less all who had good reasons for
diacontent. When it is considered how little such
ns, as the Scotch law relieves, know of their own
grights, or the means of enforcing them, how
ring and degradation will blunt the sense of
misery, so that it is, at last, difficult to rouse the
wretched into such effort, whether of remedy
or remonstrance, as is necessary for self-
preservation, it will not appear surprising that
oat of parishes, in which the weekly rate of parochial
relief varies from a maximum of 2s. 6d. to a minimum
of id., &c., only 597 persons were found to com-
plain of the inadequacy of their pittances of " needful
sustentation."
If the board of supervision is to do its work
effectually, a different mode of action must be adapted
to it, proprio mob', or enforced upon it by the legis-
lature. It must be compelled to alter its form of
procedure in cases of complaint, and to come to some-
thing like a classification of cases, on which may be
founded something like a just apportionment of paro-
chial stipends.

the result of the resentment of justly dispossessed
tenants, who had been taught and led to believe,
by the conduct of many landlords themselves, that
the peasant tenant had more than a temporary
interest in the land. The first requisite, there-
fore for the peace of Tipperary, and of
Irish counties similarly situated, mast be either
the establishment of some law of tenant-
right, or a permanent and general disavowal
and abrogation of it. The moment of the great gift
of the poor-law to the distressed and the destitu
would have been a good opportunity for settling the
question of tenant-right, if it was to be decidedly
, withdrawn. But this, we fear, is not the only
measure which might have been introduced as a con-
comitant to that law, bat which will be found difficult
to enforce as a sequence.
Persons may be perplexed to discover how it came
to psis that landlords first came to admit the practice
of tenant-right. The answer is the same as to the
question, how farmers and landowners came to pay
black mail? It was an offering of propitiation to the
goddess of discord and murder, which, as the tenant
himself paid, the landlord could not but rejoice. Be-
sides, he was glad to get a tenant who had the capital
to invest. It was to him a pledge for his rent—a
guarantee of the solvency and good conduct of his
tenant.
In a more advanced, more civilised, more secure,
more prosperous state, the tenant would no doubt
have brought this capital in the shape of stock, or
have employed it upon the land. But in barbarous
states and countries, wealth is chiefly useful to pro-
pitiate or master violence, instead of reproducing
profit or fruit.
In the matter of tenant-right, the permanetcy of
tenure enjoyed by the peasant may in some instances
be advantageous; but the habit of an incoming tenant
paying a large sum to the out-going tenant, often
" as much as the fee simple of the land," mai ow
daily in Ireland, is simply an abstraction from the
land of all the capital that ought, and that astir*
tends to be employed upon it. It is in general a pay-i
meat from incipient industry to failure and neglect.
And, taken with the Irish character, in regions
peculiarly Irish, the existence of this sunken de-
posit removes a stimulus from the active industry of
the tenant, who instead of being forced to pay up his
rent, has a fund to fall back upon, and to save him
from the results of his own laziness or unskilfulness.

Scortssits has escaped lausy of the difficulties
which in England beset the esmtion of poor laws. It
has got rid of these difficulties, it is true, somewhat as
ALEXANDER settled those of the Gordian knot. In-
stead of attempting in 1579, as ELIZABETH in 1601,
to determine the limits and laws which should control
relief to the able-bodied, to draw the perplexing line
between sturdy beggars that will not work, and ill-
starred industry that cannot find work to do, the Scot
legislators at once declared that no able-bodied person
should receive relief on any terms whatever, by con-
fining their statutable charity to " aged
.poor, impotent,
and decayed persons," and classifying among the
strong and idle beggars and vagabonds • all common
labourers, being persons able in body, living idly and
fleeing labour, and never mentioning at all those who,
willing to work, could find no work to do. The law
of Scotland in principle remains in 1846 what it was
in 1579. The act of 1845 is purely administrative. That
act established a board of supervision, to super-
intend the working of the poor law in Scotland, and
to make an annual report, containing " in particular
a full statement of the condition and management of
the poor throughout Scotland, and the funds raised
for their relief. In fact, this board is to be for Scot-
land what the Somerset-house commission was in-
tended to be for England.
The Scotch system of poor-law relief presents 110{110
curious contrasts to that of England. If the Amami-
' ment Act of 1834 placed the latter under the control
of too rigid a " centralisation," as some of its im-
pugners maintain, Scotland has presented the ether
I extreme of the laxest " localisation," evsey parish
proceeding on its own plan for raising sad ap-
portioning them to applicants. The E •
is theoretically one of in-door relief ; the db.
penes with the workhouse altogether, and relieves
the pamper exclusively in his own dwelling. The
English system has an application of medical
relief, however insufficient; the Scottish leaves
every parish to settle its own terms with a medical
attendant for the poor, or to leave its paupers with no
medical attendance whatever. Oddly. enough, with
such fundamental and almost antagonistic differences
of principle, the two systems have resulted in evils
almost identical. The most operative of these evils in
both cases is a want of humanity in estimating pauper
wants, and a want of sympathy in relieving them.
The appointment of the board of supervision in 1845
was loudly called for, yet the act which appointed it
is remarkable for the very mild tone of its dictation.
It runs throughout rather in the potential " may "
than the imperative " must." Parishes may still,
ender it, as before, choose their own method of raising
their relief funds', but the members of the parochial
board, corresponding to the English board of guardians,
are to be qualified and elected as the act specifies.
'The changes introduced in the constitution of these
iparochial boards are all in favour of increased control
by the rate-payers. These boards are obliged to elect
an inspector corresponding to our overseer, who is to
have the custody of all documents relating to the
management and relief of the poor, to make himself
acquainted with the circumstances of all persons re-
ceiving relief, to register their names and allowances,
and to visit them personally, at least twice a year, at
their own residences. Facilities are also given by
the act for the union of parishes to build poor houses.
A pauper, dissatisfied with the treatment of the paro-
chial board, must send his complaint to the board of
supervision, which stands between him and his an-
cient right of direct appeal to the Court of Session.
We have before us the first report of the board of
supervision, and a criticism on that report by a com-
mittee of the " Glasgow Association in aid of the
Poor."
After a careful perusal of the report, we are dis-
posed to concur in part, at least, of the strictures passed
upon the board of supervision by the Glasgow com-
mittee. At the same time, it must not be forgotten
that the board of supervision was engaged in the
task of superintending an expenditure of other per-
sons' money, and the association in the much easier
one of criticising that expenditure. The association
complain, first, of certain omissions from the report.
The book has not, they say, included in its blue
book, any statement of the allowances actually made
to any clam of paupers in the different parishes of
Scotland since the new act came into operation.
There is, however, a general abstract, showing the
number of pauper., and the gross sum expended for
their relief, daring the years ending February,
1813, and February, 1846, with the increase or
decrease of these two items, and a statement
of the annual rental and population of each parish.
A statement of the average allowance to different
classes of paupers would not only have given us a re-
sult more striking and immediately attainable, but it
world have enabled us to test more searchingly cer-
tain statements of the board than it is possible to do
with the materials before us.
It must be borne in mind, in all discussions of this
subject, that the Scotch law involves, as we have
already pointed out, very few of the disputed points
of political economy which have made the English
law so favourite a battle-ground. In Scotland, the
aged, impotent, and disabled only, have a claim to
relief. That claimable relief the law defines to be
such needful suatentation as " of their own consent
they will receive and live unbeggared" (I. e. with-
out begging). It certainly does appear startling
to English notions to find that this sum is
in some places fixed at Is. 6d., in others at
Is. 2d., in some at 9d., while in others, which may be
called homoeopathic parishes, it sinks to an infini-
tesimal average of Id. a week. In very few indeed
does it rise above 2s. 6d. To judge, however, how far
these sums are such as to satisfy the requirements of
the law, we must set aside both our experience of
English out-door relief on the one hand, and of the
English standard both of comforts and prices on 011
other.
In this country, the weekly out-door pittance at
25., 2s. 6d., or 35., is intended not to suffice for the
sole maintenance of the recipient, but to eke out
scanty means, and so save the rate-payer-from entirely
supporting in the house those who can partially sup-
port themselves oat of it. In Scotland out-door relief
is the only relief The pauper is supposed to be en-
tirely dependent upon the parish, and this is the only
channel through which the parish supplies the necessi-
ties of its burdens. Looked at in connexion with these
facts, the Scotch pittance, eateris paribus, should be
larger than the English. But, on the other hand,
prices and notions of comfort are lower in Scotland

A portion of the following appeared in part of our
last evening's issue :
Our Pans despatches of Tuesday have brought
little intelligence of general interest. A royal
ordonnance appears m the Moniteur, calling out
60,000, out of 80,000, men, voted by the Chambers for
the contingent of the present year. Of this number,
63,650 are for the army, and 6,350 for the navy. The'
Journal des Mbats gives a long account of the state of
the forces of the Emperor and Abd-el-Kader in Morocco,
tending to show that the chances of success of the
latter are trivial. In the present uncertainty respect-
ing the real condition of eithbr of these parties, how-
ever, no conclusion can be formed on any satisfactory
grounds. We must await further and more definite

The journals and despatches from Madrid of the
18th have arrived. The Madrid Gazette denies, upon
authority, the statement that Mr. Bulwer has made
any charge against any party or individual, of con-
spiring against the Queen or her government. This
reclamation has, of course, been published by the
desire of the English minister himself.
Various decrees respecting the reform of the civil
aaministratien, the customs, and the tariff, are in pre-
paration. M. Sartorius having been publicly charged
with intrigues to seduce the soldiers, has demanded
an inquiry, for the purpose of tracing the calumny to
its authors. The letter of our correspondent is given
below.

The advices received from Italy directly, as well as
through the German journals, add little that is im-
portant to the intelligence we have already given.
The announcement which we quoted, first from
the Italian and later from the German jour-
nals, of the arrival of the Rodney, the Vanguard.
and the Albion at Ancona, is contradicted
by a correspondent of the Journal des D4bata, who
writes from that city on the 13th that no British ships
had been announced there as having appeared in the
Adriatic.
The detailed report of the great national celebration
which took place at Florence on Sunday, the 12th
(and which we have given on a former day), occupies
a large space in the Pars journals of Tuesday ; and
' the semi-official organ of the cabinet, which, a few
days since, attacked Tuscany in general, and Flo- I 1
ranee in particular, es being the focus of mis-
chievous
agitation and the supporter of a radical and
licentious press, devoted on Tuesday a couple of its
leading columns to a panegyric on the same people.
This journal admits that, notwithstanding all the evils
it feared, the report of the police establishes the fact
that on this day which witnessed a public assembly
and procession of 30,000 persons, the utmost order,
Imoderation, and respect for persons prevailed, and
' that not a single robbery or theft was notified, nor a
single instance of an individual intoxicated. Not a
cry hostile to the government, or to any functionary,
whether Tuscan or foreign, was heard.
The excitement at Leghorn had subsided on the
14th, and the people resumed their ordinary pursuits.
The population of the city has, however, been or-
ganised in sections and hundred% so as to be as-
sembled at auy moment without confusion or disorder
by the chiefs and authorities. .
The Sardinian government has evinced displeasure
at the like manifestations, which took place at Genoa
and some other towns, and which we have already
Three of the members of noble families
rvergeteorok part in these proceedings had been since
moved to Turin. These were, the Marquis George
Doris, who headed the procession on the Bth, and

THE EXPRESS, THURSDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 23. 1847.

MM. Giacomo Delhi and Rsggi. Demonstrations
hail taken place at Savona, at Clibtvari, and generally
in the neighbourhood of Genoa. The monks, who were
generallyopposed to the Jesuits in Piedmont, signified
Omit adhesion to the popular movement by illumi-
nating their convents in the most brilliant manner.
A petition to the Kiag, for the institution of the
National Guard, and for a qualified liberty of the press,
was prepared. A draft of the memorial had been
submitted to the municipal chiefs, the syndics, and to
thli archbishop, for their signature. They individually
expressed their willingness to sign it provided it
were previously forwarded to Turin for the appro-
bation of the King. The Archbishop (M. Tadini)
was reported to have said, " I will sign it with the
vartest pleasure, for I cannot forget that before
being an ecclesiastic 1 have been an Italian." The
document was accordingly, forwarded to Turin.
The Roman journals and letters from that city have
brought a proclamation issued by the Secretary of
State, and directed against some proceedings in the
recent popular demonstrations. We have already
mentioned that the Prince of Canino had incurred the
disapprobation of the authorities on that occasion.
The present letters say, that, riot content with
joining in the exclamations uttered by the popu-
lace in favour of " Italian independence," the
prince, having been received in the hotels of
the Tuscan and Sardinian Legations, presented him-
self on the balconies in front of these palaces respec-
tively and uttered the same cries. We have already
mentioned a report that he had proposed to present
himself at the scientific at Venice in the uni-
form of the national guard. It is probable, however,
that this rumour was unfounded, as it is scarcely pro-
bable that the prince could be so destitute of discre-
tion as to adopt a proceeding so inconsistent with the
dignity of science, which belongs not to this or that
nation, but to the world.
All communications with the interior of the Nes-
politan territory are suspended. In the absence of all
sources of certain intelligence the imagination of the
public fills the blank with the worst reports. At
Palermo the authorities have agreed to recommend
to the King the institution of the national guard
as the only practicable mean, of checking the present
political evil. It was not supposed that any such
suggestion would be adopted.
rho town of Reggio, on the coast of Calabria,
almost op to Messina, and which we have already
announced to have declared for the insurrection, was,
according to letters from Naples of the 13th, bom-
barded by a squadron of steam-frigates. A great
number of houses were destroyed, and many persons
killed. This operation was conducted by Count
Acquila (brother of the King) in person. The inha-
bitants noon retreated, and took refuge in the adja-
cent country. It was reported that Syracuse and
Wawa bodyoined the insurrection. The most distin-
guished and influential persons in the Calabria", in-
cluding the clergy, are reported ,to have declared
for the insurrection, and to have received Romeo,
its leader, with fervour, and supplied his troops
with all the necessaries. Courts have been es-
tablished wherever the government retains its
authority, with powers to try in a summary manner
all persons charged with disaffection, and to cause
their execution in two hours.
The inhabitants of Milan, including the municipal
authorities, have protested. against the arbitrary vio-
lence of the police in the recent proceedings. The
government is reported to have suspended several of
the commissaries, and to have changed the orders
given to the military. Tranquillity had been re-
established in that city.
The Gazette de France gives a letter from Turin,
which says that a part of the army of Piedmont is to
be immediately put on a war footing:
The Augsburgh Gazette says that the Italian tri-
colour flag (white, red, and green) floats over Lucca,
and that the city has adopted the motto " The inde-
pendence and unity of Italy."
The same journal quotes letters from Rome, which
say, that immediately after the government had re-
ceived the answer of Austria. to the protestation
against the occupation of Ferrara, Cardinal Ferretti
had a conference with the principal members of the
diplomatic corps, who signified their opinion that the
right of Austria to occupy Ferrara was incontestable ;
that the cardinal then putting aside the question of
right, urged that the occupation of Ferrara, being it-
self the cause of the effervescence and irritation which
prevailed in the other states of Italy, its evacuation as
a mere matter of policy ought to, be conceded. On
this ground the cardinal again demanded, in catego-
rical terms, the retirement of the Austrian forces.
The day after the public festivities at Florence of
the 12th inst. the Grand Duke issued the following

decree :
To our good and faithful Tuscans,—Full as our heart is
of the lively emotions occasioned by the unanimous mani-
festations of respectful and affectionate exultation evinced
towards us and our family by the Tuscan people, we will not
retard for an instant the public decimation of our paternal
satisfaction and gratitude. The pleasing remembrance of
that day will be indelibly engraved on our heart. Let it be
so in yours also ; and, as it has been arcesly our pleasure to
declare to all the municipalities and populations of the state,
in the person of the gonfaloniere of the noble city of Flo-
rence, let confidence meet with conildenee, and love be re-
quited with love. Let now a generous impulse of the heart
be succeeded by the tranquil reflection of the mind ; and
while each of you peaceably attends to his own affairs, by
private industry, bin commerce, sources of private and public
prosperity, let your prince, after having without delay given
due development to the institution of the civic guard, pro-
mote also, by the compilation of the codes, already ordered,
by the improvement of the municipal institutions, the orgt-
maation of public instruction, and other useful provisions of
government, those moral and materiel advantages, which•
we all desire for our common country.

The signs of approaching collision in the Swiss
confederation increase. We have to-day the intelli-
gence that the cantonal government of the Valais has
not only protested against the resolution of the diet
to expel the Jesuits, but has formally declared
that the canton of the Valais will notes mply with
that decision, and, if necessary, ll oppose
forcible resistance to its execution. It was said that
the ministers of Austria, Prussia, and Russia, who
hitherto have resided at Zurich, were about to remove
to Berne, M. Bois le Comte, the French minister,
having lost all influence with the governments of the I
liberal cantons, 'without gaining the confidence of
those of the Sonderbund.
L'Amide In Constitution, a Berne journal, of the I
17th, gives the following revelations of' the diplomacy
of France :
The independent position of several Italian princes in the
recent collisions between the Pope and the Austrians has,
greatly astonished foreign governments, who were not in
the least aware of such a state of independency. The fol-
lowing is said to be the origin of the declaration of these
princes: three months ago the government of Louis
Philippe, seeing a crisis was inevitable in Switzer-
land and Italy, and that the Queen of Spain
was overthrowing his best calculated combinations by
her independent conduct, resolved upon proposing a
conference to be held in London, in order to discuss
the affairs of the three nations. England, foreseeing
the majority would be against her, refused; because she
was apprehensive that the question of the succession to
the throne of Spain might be resolved in favour of the
Duchess of Montpensier. Then the government of Louis
Philippe applied to Austria, with whom it appears to have
been for some time on most intimate terms. It ie said that
an agreement was entered into between the two courts about
the beginning of July. The first point concerns the Pope's
intention of sending a legate to Constantinople to protect the
eatholicsin the East. It is said therein that the two catholic
states agree on this point, that their influence is sufficient to
protect the catholics in the East; they, in conse-
quence, consider the envoy of a legate of the Pope
to Constantinople as superfluous. The second point
had ;for its object certain eventualities in Switzerland.
According to the third, Austria takes upon herself to re-
establish order and tranquillity in the states of Italy, which,
after all, the treaties of Vienna give her a right to do ; she
accepts this minion as much in the interest of the Italian
nations as in her own safety. According to the fourth point,
France takes upon herself to consolidate the regular state of
things in Spain, by every means in her power, and that in
the intereet of Spain and of her own safety. Lastly, in the
fifth point, the government of Louis Philippe promises its
whole moral influence in the affairs of Italy. Austria, on
the contrary, engages herself to obtain the assent of Prussia
and Russia to what France should think necessary with
respect to Spain. This arrangement has been concluded
verbally by the two ambassadors. The occupation of Ferrara
took place immediately after. The Prince Metternich
was in hopes this measure would have provolvid disturb-
ances in the Roman states, and that the opportunity of
filling Italy with his troops would thus naturally present it-
self, but he had calculated wrong. The conspiracy brewed
at Rome in this intention did not succeed ; the cardinal-
legate protested against the occupation of Ferrara, ond the
population gathered round him, to defend their
rising liberty against this unjust aggression. In
these circumstances the Austrians judged it prudent
to wait till the arrival of flesh troops. England, irri-
tated at this agreement, in what concerned
the affairs of Spain, immediately issued a declaration,
bearing Ist. That no state could be impeded from accom-
plishing the reforms it might have deemed necessary. 2nd.
She sent a note to every government in Italy, advising them
to join together against foreign intervention, promising them
at the same trae all kinds of support. The moat powerful of
the sovereb;ns of Italy, the King of Piedmont, was most par-
ticularly advised to declare dwelt, and so he dd.