The Express.
London, England, 1849-01-22 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, MONDAY EVENING, JANUARY 22. 1849.

wile► hided e deep bat tranquil eurrest. Fifty
loner down, at Miner, it first becomes navi-
gable, at least for timber-rafts At Waseerabini, 30
miles abo►e Ramnaggartit *ea measured by Lieut.
MscArritirt (the oompamon of ELPRIPSTONE), in the
meth of July, when, of course, nearly at the fuileet,
and found to be very nearly a Mile and a halt
wide, with a depth of fourteen feet, and a calesut
MN* swept pest at the rate of five mil's an hear.
At Issaligur Bunn= saw it in the low season of
Ihtintry, and wren then it was 300 yards wide and
aims hot deep.
New it was against each a natural obstacle as this, I
kettlied by the presence on the other aide of an army
of 40,00' men, ensconced behind masked benefice,
and extending their fortified piequsta across the
stream, and to an island is the middle of it, that the
efforts of tke British were to be directed. Judging
by the aid of snob evidence as we possess, the valour
of the men is entitled to more praise than the skill of
the general. There was undoubtedly a needless
sacrifice of life, and apparently a very culpable de-
gree of incompleteness in those matters of detail
and regulation, which can alone preserve
in easy and vigorous play the complex machinery
of a field force. The affair of the 21st November,
for example, originated first in some "defect or misap-
prehension of orders," and was conducted to is unfor-
tunate result by an indiscreet and dangerous conversion
of a reconnoissance into an attack ; and the whole of
the mancenvms of the let and 2nd December were
rendered entirely futile by the neglect of the com-
mander-in-chief to ascertain as a fact the reported
existence of a fordable point three miles above his

camp.
The honour of the skirmish of the 21st November
certainly remained with the British ; but the substan-
tial advantage was reaped by the enemy. Nothing
could excel the gallant style in which the handful of
dragoons and of light and irregular cavalry rode down
upon the immensely superior body of Sikh troops.
But it would be difficult to find any runnel cue
in which an assault of troopers against such odds, and
in the total absence of any immediate means of follow-
leg up the attack, was more perfectly gratuitous or
more completely indefensible : and it was nothing but
an appalling sacrifice of life and the energy of the
seen which enabled us to conclude the day without
eamesding some important advantage to the enemy.
Already fruitful in disagreeable casualties, the affair
of the 21st of November will for ever retain a melan-
choly notoriety u the occasion when Brigadier CURE-
ToN fell in the execution of a senseless enterprise,
and when, compared with the ordinary proportion of
lames among field officers, the British army found
itself sucidenly deprived in the desperate duties of a
single skirmish, of such valuable lives as those of
HAVELOCK, ALEXANDER, and FITZGERALD.
The loss of CURETON in the first action of the cam-
paign is a national misfortune. He was one of the
very few men entrusted high command who
have passed through the ordeal of the ranks : and,
probably, of all the distinguished officers attached to
the army of India, there were none whose proficiency
in his art had beeu acquired by longer service, by
more diversified experience, or by the aid of qua-
lities more characteristic of the soldier. He bad
gone throuzh the long campaigns of the Penin,
stile. He had shared in one of the greatest of
Indian sieges—that of Bhurtpore : he had seen the
fall of Ohuzcee : had le4 on the advanced column
which captured the Bala Hisser, and had borne a con-
spicuous part in all those operations which, between
1843 and 1848, ended in the subjection of Gwalior
and the occupation of Lahore.
If General THACKWELL had succeeded in crossing
the Chenaub three miles above the British camp, there
appears to have been some probability of compelling
Sagas SINGH either to coin. out of his entrenchments
or to submit to having his retreat effectually cut off.
This was the obect of the manoeuvre, and in this it
entirely failed. The delay of two days and the march
of thirty or forty miles fully apprised the Sikhs of
our intention, and gave them full liberty to effect a
leisurely retreat. We cannot adopt the language of
the official despatch, and describe an army as falling
back in the " greatest disorder," when in the pre-
sence of such a force as that commanded by Lord
Gouou it carried with it the whole of its heavy ar-
tillery, its camp, baggage, and its wounded men.
We must now await as patiently as we can,the arrival
of the next mail, and the reports given by Generals
GILBERT and TUACEWELL of the results of their pur
suit. These two officers are strong in cavalry, and
the 21st November is too recent to permit any bravado

A decisive blow, fall where it may, upon the cause
of the insurgents will be most desirable, for there is
every day additional evidence that throughout the
whole of the country our prestige and authority have
been suspended. In the Jullundur Dosb—in the
very vicinity of the Governor-General's camp at
Simla—there is again a disturbance. The free-
booter, or prophet, or whatever he may be celled,
RAM SINGH, has again made his appearance, and if he
has not strength to raise a war, he 111 sufficiently for-
midable to be a nuisance. Brigadier Warman and
Brigadier PENNY both find employment in their
rear to clear out forts and chastise delinquents; and
in the Hazareh there is every probability that
Lieutenant HERBERT will have to give up Attock.
It is the anticipated fall of this important post, and
the retention of Major LAWRENCE and his family,
which account for the otherwise inexplicable march of
CHIITTUR SINGH to Peshawar. Moved down with ce-
lerity,the forces of Caurrea SINGH might have joined
those of his son in time to attack a detachment of the
British army previous to the arrival of Lord Cilouou,
and this must have been no small temptation to such
a movement. On the other hand, a departure to the
westward confirms the hold of the rebels upon the
mountain country, and promises a longer protraction

of the war. -
At Moultan nothing has been done, and apparently
nothing will be done until the arrival of the Bombay
column, by which time MOOLIIAJ will have made his
way to the northward.
The whole of the troops called into requisition by
this gratuitously provoked campaign—at first a con-
temptible affray, which it was scarcely worth while
to notice, so ran the versions of the summer—are
now on the verge or within the confines of the Pun-
jaub, and at present they are divided into six divi-
sions. There is first the grand army on the Chenaub,
commanded by Lord Gouou, and composed of 6,600
European and 15,400 native troops.; in all, 21,000
men. Next there is the Lahore division, under Gen.
WHEELER, of 1,000 Europeans and 4,500 natives ;
total, 6,500 men. There is then Brigadier WKEELEIeB
force of 2,360 men (210 European and 2,150 native).
Gen. Winos has with him, at Moultan, 7,580
men, of whom 2,120 are aropean and 5,460
native. The Bombay contingent, under Bri-
gadier DUNDAS, amounts to 6,750 men (2,240
European and 4,510 native) ; and, lastly, the reserve
army under Gen. HILL, at Sirhind, is 5,800 strong, in
the proportions of 1,000 European and 4,800 native.
Collecting all these elements, we have a grand total
of 49,000 fighting men (12,130 European and 36,890
native), possessing among them very nearly 400
pieces of cannon. With such materials and such
strength nothing but the infatuation and the misfor-
tunes of Walche-en can deprive us of a speedy
and a decisive victory.

Wrier some defect or abuse results in a public
catastrophe, like that of the Tooting tragedy, it
sometimes comes to pass that they who have to bear
the brunt of the indignation which thereupon arises,
are as little responsible for the cause of the evil se
their accusers. It has seldom, however, happened
that the supposed administrators of a law have been
gravely charged with the non-prevention of an abuse,
which their accusers have rendered them powerless to
check. This is, nevertheless, the position of the poor-
law board, and of the journalists who hold it account-
able for the misdeeds of Mr. Ditourr, and the reek-
lessnees of the guardians who knew of and tolerated
them.
Ever since the passing of the Poor-law Amend-
ment Act there has been no theme of abuse more fer-
tile than the alleged power, tyranny, and irresponsi-
bility of the Poor-law Commissioners. The articles
in newspapers, denouncing them officially, vilifying
them personally, anathematising their policy, ridi-
culing their conduct, and, above all, inveighing in
unmeasured terms againet their power—would, if
printed in volumes, fill a library. The natural result
has been, that men thus harassed and impeded in the
fulfilment of a duty necessarily unpopular, have
been not only daunted in its performance, but
stinted by timid governments and time-serving perils-
ments,in the means requisite for its due and effective
discharge.
We are certainly not disposed to indorse all the
acts of emission and commission done or left undone

by the defunct dYsestilit Sommestehosse. Neither
are we anywise bound to eimmend the vied= or
the fortitude with which frond itis trials. , With that
neither we nor the coastal ere any longer concerned.
The odium it received, and the effects produced,',
have however descended to its successors; and if ever
there were men placed in a position at once respon-
sible and powerless, desirous of doing good from the
highest motives and wish the purest objects, yet
bereft of adequate meansof success, andoertain to incur
the blame of failure; those men are Mr. BAII7IIB

and his colleagues in office.
If any one will be at the pains of reading what the
sundry poor law acts require to be done, and will
then contrast with it the power they afford to do it,
he will (unless he be an anti-poor-law journalist) feel
the truth of what we have said. The treatment and
management of pauper children is among the
strongest instances of this. The 4th & sth .V.,
c. 76, a. 15, requires the commissioners to wake
order. for the due management, superintendence,
education, &c. &c., of these children; and a bookful
of "orders" were accordingly issued, of which article
114 and several others contain sundry wise provisions
not only for the education in religion and industry of
these poor children—for their proper diet, clothing,
and classification, but fer the restraint of undue
punishments. We believe that these wise regulations
have been more or less disregarded in three-fourths of
the unions in the country. Why is this ? Simply
because, though the commissioners have power
enough to order, they have no effective power to ea-
force their regulations: and the guardians and the Mr.
DROUETS know it as well as they to. There are cer-
tain fines which doubtless might be inflicted for the
violation of some particular requirements by
particular officers. But their enforcement would
in most instances be either impracticable, or, if
effected, result in tenfold worse negligence. to
matters over which the guardians have sole control;
and with which, if incensed. they could pay back in-
terference with interest. In such cases it would be
impossible for the poor-law board any longer to exert
that moral influence on which their slender power of
doing any good whatever now alone depends.
The effects of the incessant abuse of the Poor-law
Board and its authority has been of course to induce
parliament to place all additional power in the hands
of the guardians, who (at least as regards what is due
to the education and industrial training of the
children) are about the unfittest persons to exercise it
of any class in the kingdom.
In 1844 some clauses were introduced into 7 & 8
Viet., c. 101, giving power to the commissioners to
term district schools for pauper children, so that
they might be removed from the contamination of
wallower, and have efficient training under proper
management As usual, this provision was nullified
by limitations (of area and expenditure), which ren-
' dereo it wholly inoperative. It might as well never
have been passed. In the only cases (including that of
the London Unions and Tooting) where it might have
been enforced there was an express condition that the
consent of the major part of the guardians or direc-
tors should be first obtained, as a sine qua non to the
adoption of the measure. Of course it remained
equally inoperative with the rest of the clauses.
Mr. CHARLES BULLER procured (in the 11 & 12
Viet , c. 82) a removal of the restriction of area and
expense, but that act extended the condition of the con-
sent of the guardians to every union and district
throughout the country! It is likely to share the fats
of its predecessors.
Thus hampered and obstructed—bereft of power to
correct abuses on the one hand--and condemned for
their continuance on the other,—the poor-law board
are in a position from which it is due as much to the
interest of the country as to themselves to rescue
them. Their irresponsibility in parliament—which
was always made a source of accusation and a
reason fur withholding power from the last board—
exists no longer. The president and one of
the secretaries have each seats in the house.
Let their responsibility be increased rather than dimi-
nished, but give them full power to do their duty.
They have it not now. It is for the government to
see to this and for parliament to effect it.
'fhe measure first and urgently needed seems to be
that of empowering the commissioners at once, and
without seeking any consent whatever, to compel the
establishment of district schools for the training of
the pauper children, apart from the workhouses,
in religion and industry, according to their
existing and now powerless " orders " (magni
nominal' umbra !), and under the constant super-
intendence of the Queen's inspectors of schools ;
and as regards the regulations for their physical tree
men and condition, under the vigilant and effective
control of the poor law inspectors. If any abuse still
prevails, we shall have a right to blame those who
really, and not as now only nominally, administer a
system which appears to effect little else than a mis-
chievous example of laws defied with impunity.