The Express.
London, England, 1848-09-26 00:00:00

Dalai qtsarter imam Ladyday.

1840
1041
1042
180
1844
1115
1147
1847

ii;sTaslo
woven.

16,562.000
16.770.000
15,9131.0u0
14,194,001
16.41(M0D
16,09.000
16.861,000
17.074.000

160,333
103,106
M. 6411
730.1500
230,313
316.336
1,10,710
235,037

1,039,197
1, 106942
1,914,,544
1,300,933
1,246,743
1,256,646
1,131.8.9
1,436,313

1,119.620
1,299,048
1,421,1417
1,630,400
1,43:661
1,.332.009410.070
1
1,731,350

•
There is considerably less fluctuation in the expen-
diture of each year, the salaries of paid officers and
other establishment charges not varying materially
from year to year. The following table gives for the
same period the expenses of in-duor maintenance and•
out-door relief separate from the establishment
charges. In this and the previous tables estimates
have been made for places not under the Poor Law
Amendment Act :

Yon
waded
lob-
ay.

OITURE.

Outdoor
Reef.

1.601,213
1.206.33)
3,030N4
3,3121,508
sms.as
traz
3,467,9e0

i4-4:1111
801,101
a99,10$

Average
egVrget
par ate•

6,TA414
3.866,213
4.0'15,042
4.279,565
4,057,474
4.117,446
4,011X0
06'1,033

974 i
61 6
49 2
63 3
69 0

. .
It will be seen by the above table that the propor-
tion which the expense of in-door bears to that of out-
door relief, has been remarkably steady ; the charge
of out-door relief having varied in that time only three
per cent. of the sum directly expended in the relief
of the poor. A comparison of this table with the
one contained in the comments on poor law expendi-
ture which we submitted vol our readers on the 14th
inst., will show that the ram spent for the sustenance
and shelter of the poor, is just about four-seeenths of
the poor-rates actually levied. The remaining three-
seventh are swallowed up by paid officers, establish-
ment charge', law charges, payments towards county
or borough rates, and sundry miscellanerns items, by
which the backs and bellies of the poor are very indi-

reedy benefited.
We make no apology for introducing tabular state-
ments like the above, into oar leading columis.
There is no tax, local or general, which weighs so
heavily on the 'Bahr of the country, or presses more
severely on those least able to bear it, than
the poor rate ; nor is there any over the expenditure
of which the public are so bound by their own inte-
rests, as well as those of the poor, to exercise an un-
relenting scrutiny. In a country so enormously
wealthy as England, and where the lower classes du
not possess, and are unable in times of distress, to fall
back upon the lend, as the more equable distribu-
tion of landed pr Tatty, or the large extent of un-
enclosed moors and forests enablesthem to do in other
countries, seven millions per annum is, perhaps, after
all, not a very extringant amount to levy for the
relief of the poor. But it does seem most ex-
traordinary that all the economical and financial
ingenuity, which was the peculiar characteristic
of the ex-commissioners, was unable to devise some
less expensive system of management than the pre-
sent, by which more than 40 per cent. of the rates
are intercepted before they reach the pauper himaelL
A certain proportion of that amount is, we have
already acknowledged, most judiciously laid out. But
of the remainder we cannot p thinking that a con-
siderable sum must be wasted which might, without
much difficulty, be applied more directlylo the bene-
fit of the poor. We do not, however, blame the Poor
Law Board for this. It is rather the coesequenoe of
injudicious legislation, and of the want of a fixed prin-
ciple as to what local expenses ought to be
defrayed out of the poor-rates. The education of
the pauper children is, for instance, in our opinion,
a duty of the state, perfectly distinct from the
relief of their or their parents' bodily wants, and
which ought to be provided for out of some
other fund than the poor-rate ; and that is we I
reopen why we are anxious that Mr. BULLER'S
plan of establishing district schools should have a
!lair triaL The education of a clam whom it is so
much an object to train up with ideas and habits of
industry and self-respect ought to be freed altogether
from the workhouse stigma as well as from the dan-
gers of workhouse contamination ; and we eta no
means of effecting that except by the entire !Deletion
of the poor law schools' from the workhouses.
Any examination of the working of the Poor Law
would be imperfect which did not advert to the pro-