The Express.
London, England, 1851-11-07 00:00:00

ghe erprefso.

10 vas.. •
• 11•8•01 sow of .110 iserao," oosaistai be woe w!d►fs
• pobbakoll ociol T001d.7 ..0 rcuk7 *4lt. le tlt•.
kr pot.
elloonlmosoolobiloodod "TM Foprous." London roma, pow,
ionot Wog **Ude% 116 lborecroosuvol. by Too o'clock es the

MON WATkR AT LONDON BRIDGE.
tb DaT—ikesi.s. Ih. $. Aftersesa.
ye.wissow—llmases, IA 3%n. Aborams. 33..

LONDON, FRIDAY. NOVEMBER 7.

THE Exhibition etimittee are just now suffering
most acutely the seimerhs eleasioned by the most un-
common of all disarders, the essierra• des richesses.
If the Exhibition led dews as were then exactly pay
its expenses, the commissioners, after emptying the
Crystal l'alace, might have locked the doors quietly,
and taken a long sleep at the end of
.their
.laboum,
certain of awaking to us much popularity as is attain-
able in this life, by men who have no opportunity
of devastating a pmvince, or slaughtering a few
hundred thousand of their fellow creatures. Had they
even managed to get handsomely into debt, their case
would have been far from pitiable. They would
have been deluged with sympathy, and relieved from
responsibility by a parliamentary grant or a public
subset iption. Bankruptcy even in such a cause
would have been pronounced intensely patriotic, and
rewarded with first-class certificates and orders of
knighthood. But, alas, the commissioners have a
surplus, and this promises to be a source of infinitely
more trouble to them than the management of the
Exhibition itself. There is no doubt they have
worked harder than any other set of men in the
United Kingdom for some months, but their great
labour is yet to come.
For this surplus is the focus in which converge the
looks of a countless number of projectors. It is a
sober truth that thousands of greedy eyes are cast
upon the treasure of which the commissioners are
the perplexed and anxious guardians. if our readers
remember the authentic portraiture of the " Minister
as lie presented to the public by the truthful
artist of Mr. Punch at the commencement of the
recess, representing Lord Joitx up to his neck in
ripen, with servants in the background bringing
in fresh supplies, they will be Law to form sonic
faint idea of the awful position of the poor com-
missioners, whom the world supposes to be taking
their ease, rejoicing in fame and titles and
pecuniary rewards. They are overwhelmed with
rojects for the due application of their golden
hoard. We know from good authority that the
number of these plans is such, that they would fill a
good-sized room. Their contents have not yet been
fully made out, and official discretion guards, with
doe rigour, the secrets intrusted to its care. Never-
theless, in spite of all the precautions of the com-
missioners, the nature of many of these projects
has laen made public, either through accident or
the vanity of the projectors themselves. It is pretty
well known that nearly every hospital, infirmary,
and dispensary in the United Kingdom, has put
in its claim for relief and aneistance. The statistics
contained in the various papers in which these re-
quests art- made would, if tabulated, form a more
exermt account than we have yet prase: wed of our
charitable. institutions. Claims of this and a similar
nature, of which there are plenty, have perhaps
some hold upon our sympathy. There come next,
however, a large class of plans which, although we
might be very willing to hock upon them with favour
on amount of the value of the object proposed, deprive
tia-mselees of all title to consideration from the
simple fact of their being impossible in ex-
ecution. Others, and of these the-re is a
large number, sire simply absurd, and seem to have
bee-n sent merely to afford a little relaxation to
the hard-worked conamissieniers by giving them an
irresistible opportunity of exercising their risible
mum-les. Of others it would be- difficult to find in
English a suitable predicate, the only word which
appears. to es thoroughly applicable, Ps the French
adjective bizarre. In this duos may be reckoned the
project fur a gigantic statue of Prince ALUERT, ano-
ther for a national soup kitchen, one fur a permanent
teetotal eongresoe, and crrelde lacsteri! one for gilding
the dame of
It would lie absurd, however, to suppose that
amongst the thousand and one schemes for disposing
of the surplus, there were none that did credit to the
practical good sense of our countrymen. There arc,
we base reason to believe, a large number of sug-
gestions that, if curried out, would produce results
of the gnatest importance. The most worthy
of notice are those which relate to education. As
far as see have been able to learn, the Exhibition
has produced us its nicest exeellent fruit a conacious-
nem that, if we wish to maintain our place in the
great industrial struggle which the continuance
of European peace- a ill impose upon the European
nations, we must spare no pains in preparing our-
'selves thoroughly fur the strife. The Exhibition,
flattering as it has been to our national prick, has
still told us that we might and ought to have known
much more than we really do. (In examining the
causes of our delieiency, it appears that, as fur us our
institutions an- concerned, there is no reason why we
should have known any thing at all! if we have an
industrial giant amongst us, he is one by the
grace of (hip; he owes noticing of his growth to
we In plain English, we have no institutions in
which a man may become acquainted with the prin-
ciples of thaw arts which have- made England what
it is. The genius of mechanism among us is heaven-
horn and self-taught.
The authors of many of the mast sensible projects
which have been sent in to the commissioners, ap-
pear to have recognised this fact ; and the result
Amiss itself in the expression of a desire for the
foundation of what, for waist of a better name, mar
Ise called industrial colleges. It is quite certain that
is large number of the projectors are quite alive to
the remarkable anomaly that, in the country which
par excellenre is called industrial, there is no scien-
tific education fur industry. The anomaly is the
more striking. as in many of the countries which
may be denominated non-manufacturing, there are
admirable establialimenta of this iodine; and the
influence of these is distinctly visible in the produc-
tions of those countries which have found a place in
the Exhibition.

Why, then, should not the surplus fund of an Ex-
hibition which owes its origin and its success to the
pre-eminence of the nation in manufactures, be ap-
plied to the instruction of the youth of the country
in the scientific principles of the arts which have
proved the foundation of its prosperity ? Why
should England be the only country in Europe where
there is no public institution for the education of its
industrial heroes ? We ore overstocked with mili-
tary colleges : why not vary the monotony by the
foundation of an industrial college? It seems to us
that this is the only legitimate use which can be made
of the surplus. The commissioners arc pledged to
apply any such surplus to the promotion it arts and
manufactures. Here is a most unobjectionable method
of fulfilling their pledge.
let them abide rigidly by the condition they them-
selves have laid down, and they will add another to
the many claims that they have established to the
gratitude of the country. In the mean time we can
sae no better way of fulfilling this condition than the
appropriation of the surplus in the way which we
have suggested.

I r is the deliberate opinion of the Secretary• to the
Enquiry that the inevitable tendency of
the existing law of rating and settlement is to over-
throw all the ameliorations effected by the Poor Law
Amendment Art, and to bring back even• preceding
abuse in all its pristine vigour. The maradministm-
lion of relief which was corrected for the time by the
Poor Law Amendment Act was not, according to Mr.
lI,;v sus, the disease itself, but only a glaring effect
and symptom. The disease lay in the laws of settle-
ment and removal, and it was the direct effect of the
parochial method of rating to stimulate and aggravate
the disorder. To the mere prestige of the change,
therefore, and not so much the practical bearing of
it, he attributes the immediate and long-continued
sneers of the Poor Law Amendment Act. The im-
provement was effected more by the declaration of the
legislature against the continuance of the evils, than
by the power of the new statute to redress them;
and much also is to be attributed to the perplexity
which the novelty of the procedure must have en-
gendered amongst the classes most practised in the
old abuse. But now, much of the novelty baring
worn off, the ancient evils have again shown them-
selves, and the voice of successful imposture is once
more hosed in audacious self-gratulation over the