The Express.
London, England, 1848-12-27 00:00:00

first clam,. especially when there is a chute tit pus,
ing off the seeming fur the reality. The thia.
does not commend itself to a candidate?' resew, ;
to him m rely a positive enactment, to be e,,,,pliellid
with or evaded, because it happens to be ih tr,e case,
No appeal is made by it to the desire of srh ncpsosi,-.
meet which every stimulus to exertion, if it w,ul4 be
sum mful, must needs pre-suppose.
Bat the candidates, we shall be told, are the .fts
last persona whose opinion ought to be taker, ; thei
are in 'tofu pepillari—placed there to haze; to
frame an examination according to their
would be as "heard as to square the burglary jee;',
to the tastes of housebreakers. Perhaps it nail beim
but the tendency of their education is to make usee
(Oration things.
This wan of a proper division of lab •ur pro
not only on those who leve abstained from ~.Vllng pp
a particular subject; it is equally unfair neon the
most liborious and profound student. A mai rosy
have read his Herodutus in the light modern
science and discovery, and yet have l.ut se,
opportunity of trading advantageousi. wi h
knowledge in the market of lionourso.e distine.
Lion. History occupies perhaps a filth tof tbs
whole examiLation--enough to annoy it.al embarrass
the unhappy individual who has no tape toe it—Ter
to little to give scope for the exertions of one whose
interest in it is living and real. Scholarship, teehai.
tfiaornsiet.st.etLesdehiteoli;
tally so called, has more weight with me examiners;
yet every scholar will complain that thi• money.," d
the schools is low. Arid se to morel philsophy.
the great dory of Oxford, even the eth'es of Ans.
rbrjezfted gent) er's
temM than woull satisfy a continental student
, Mott sincerely is it to b” hoped, that any (hulas
toile, which
,eat
hbicc.r!tk,haareve
the examination statute, as ratified by 04,voeetioo
; will, above all things, recognise the neeies; y
division of work. It will not be enough, as we be.
:love most will consent to vote, to dirpoti, of tor fart
of the books read by an examination at the rod of the
eee,old year, leaving the matter of the different
author% to occupy another twelve months. S m.thtsg
must, be doe., to widen the field of the third years
examination ' • to give the candidete a greater choice
of subjects, by taking up one of which he is n%to
bird himself to pure an examination in a Lumber of
[ others.

This is not the place to state the preuiutioas
which might be necessary to prevent the muds gi
those trained in a single school from b.ionng set.
sided ; it is sufficient to say, that we believe tht dim.
culty not to be insuperable: at any rate, it Nnou'd be
remembered that, even in an isolated study, la more
powt r of compensation and self adj ustmtht may be
found, *tan unrefk.c.icg persons are awes of. as
evil of the present system is palpable; and cry
mew.
rence which may tend to call attention to it, dinctly
or it,directly, will, so far, not have been %vials/dila
use.

Tttr Colonial•ofHce i. a mystery. The reopy,
in that office are continually crying out that they are
overwhelined with busincee, and the• colonists pug

discover what they do. The peep into the istrrul
strbcture of the office, obtained from th.• evidence

given by Earl GREY a ben examined last seb,ion
tie committee on Miecellaneoua Expenchture, has

only made mystery more mysterious.
The Secretary of State for the Colonies hu under
him two under-secretaries of rate, and iv. 4.sistact

under-sec:etary. The principal, if not the sole em-
ployment of the assiltant under-weretsrv, 15 to take
charge of " all that relates to emigr:tion, including
land granting, and convict discipline. The notional
viewing " convict discipline " as a part of erni4ratioa
may rartle those who are unacquaiwed with the
history of our Colonial-office' but the °rips of this
strange classification lacy be easily tnc-d. Thu
country never had a colunial-office till it lost the
great colonies on the =inland of North America,
, and the infant estabtishment was rather at a loss fie

employment. It so happened that government almat
the same time that it lost its best colonies and app
pointed a third secretary: of state to look after the
residue, took up the idea of forming exclusive moat
oolonita In the early part of its carter, therefore,
the Colonial-office was little more than a berms for
devising and superiatentling experiments in con-
vict dieeipline. It was a house of call for
dilettanti philanthropists, and through their ioiloeuee
became in time a permanent central committee for
manegiug the anti-slavery agitation. Very ere llent
objects these were, no doubt—the improvement of
our penal at.ministration and the enfratetioement of
the African—but not al ways compatible we t, the func-
tions of colonial government. Through its devotion
to these pursuits the Colonial-office came into a poi-
tion of permanent antagoni-m to the tropical colonies,
and administered the affairs of Australia, lone after it
had become the seat of free and industrious colonis%
se if it were a mere nest of gaol-birds. Toe extra-
ordinary classification by Earl GReY of convict
diseipliee" and "emigration," as one and the tame
thing, is the last remnant of this unhappy blending
of incompatible functions.
Apart from this consideration, however, it meat
strike the uninitiated as curious that with a fully-
manned aid duly salaried board of land and emigre
tion commissioners, the Secretary of the Colones
should n. ed an assistant under-secretary to take
ch trge of emigration. Earl GREY, however, ac-
counted for this seeming anomaly. Formerly, it
appears, that the business of the second Colonial
Under-Secretary (or legal adviser, as he was origin-
ally designated) consisted mainly of an examination
..1 colonial acts, a duty of a very importaie ware,
which required to be performed with very great care."
By a recent arrangement this duty has beel trans-
ferred to the Colonial Land and Emigration Commis-
Mutters, " two members of that nosed being
lawyers, and very well qualified for that they." This
inform atioo is of too much consequence to parties
connected with the colonies to allow it to slumber
lin the cumbrous blue-book from which we
have disinterred it. Gentlemen with emigre-
tion business, and gentlemen interested in the ate
of colonial acts might, without it', be led, trusting to
titles and designations, to repair to the wrong offices
They will now know that the emigratiot commie
goners are offic els who examine the acts of colonel
legislatures with a view to deride whether they
ought to receive the sanction of the crown, sod that
the assistant under-secretary of state has the charge
of emigrants and convicts.
This is not the only instance in which the nature
chyme of the Colonial-office is at variance with the
received usages of the English language. The office
has a librarian, but, as the office has very few WAIT
the business of the official eo designated is to act u
regkrar or archivist. If there were no officer
ou the establishment bearing the title of registrar no
confusion could arise from this peculiar phyaseolocyr
but unluckily there is a person designated by that'
ambitious title, who is, in point of fact, nothing mote
than a clerk en,a •yed to arrange and catalogae de-
spatches and other papers of the current year.
It is a safe maxim for the guidanoe of all who see
unlucky enough to have business to transact with the
Colonial-office to assume that the business of every
employf in it is something quite different from what
his title indicates. Some disciple of RABELAIS would
seem to have had the organising of the Moe, sad to
have shaped it on the model of the court of that else
trious philosopher's Queen Whim.
In a propagandist spirit the office seeks to exceed
this confusion of nomenclature and funs iOllll to the
colonies. The stipendiary justices are, acoording to
Earl GREY "of great service in :he colonies." Tbel
are of service, however, not in their judicial catmeillo
but as spies of the Colonial-office—" they furnishmost
useful information." The Governor 01 Hon Bong,
it is now well known, is sent out lees to govern tne
colony than to transact the diplomatic business of
England in China, and to be the central referee of the
consuls in the five ports. Sir JAMES Baouaz is ap-
pointed Governor of Laouan, but "he will continue
to exercise his functions as Rajah of SARAWAK, and
the
he
will also act es Consul in Borneo." We pus over_
circumstance of entrusting the government of a fin;
tish settlement to a Rajah—a feudatory of a foreign
and barbarous potentate. What moat excites woofer
in this arrangement is, the more than realisation of
Sir BOYLE Bootee famous bull, ina-muckastree
functionary will require to be in no het than
places at one and the same time.

„BOMB, Dec. 16.
” Rumours of all sorts are flowing. It is said the
Popo won't return, save on condition of dioxiudiag
the national guard, dissolving the cambers, suppres•lse.
sing the newspapers, uLd heaven knows Whitt e
These reports I look on as originating with the
h be ultra-
, republicans, and meant to widen the breeceen
the crown and the parliament.