The Express.
London, England, 1848-05-02 00:00:00

'the erprefio.

MAILS.
The overland mutt to Gibraltar, Malta, Greece, the lonian Ivlam*
Parypt, Aden, India, Hoag-Kong, and China, eia Southamp-
ton, will be made up us the morning of the 3rd May.
Tie mails tor the linage, tie River Plate, Monte Video, Permian-
bum,. Bahia, Madeira, and Buenos Aire., will be made up un the
evening addle 4th May.
The molls fur Brivah North Anse-rim and the Vetted
will he matte up en the evening of the Mb May.
-Inc overland cloud maga, rid Marartlle., to the Mediterranean,
Mgypt, Aden, relort. Hoag-Kong, etc., will be made up on the
evening of the oth May.
The malls for Vopo, Oporto, Lisboa, Madeira, Cadiz, awl Gibraltar
will be made up on the Inorrung of the Sth May.
The West India Muds, excluding Ilerniuda, Nemeth Havanna,
, Ilunturav, New thie.nv Vera Crur, Tampaw, and Porto Woo, and
inhaling those for Marlaira, Jacznel, Carthagena, Santa Martha,
Cliagres, r3/1411216, West Coast of South America, and lit. JUllite-
Niatralma. will be made up on the mot Ging el the 17th May.
The melte for New South Wales, Van ['amen's Land, and New
Zealand will be made up on the everting of the 31st May.
The mails fur the Wert Guest of Africa and ILedelm will be mode
op on the evesing of the 31st May.

NOTICE TO ADVERTISERS.
The number of STAMPS issued by the authorities of the
Stamp-office, during 1347, to the
DAILY NEWS was 3,447,009
This, we believe, is within eight per cent. of the number
issued to the Morning Herald, Morning Chronicle, and
Mornino Post, ALL PUT TOOETHBIL
In addition to the above, issued to the DAILY NEWS,
Morning Paper, there were issued fur the Evening Edition,
TUE EXPRESS 778,714
Which was more, we believe, than was issued either to
the Globe or Standard, Evening Papers.

TllOll WATIM AT L0,11:1014 SIMON.
Ten 1/41—Mereles.41slapasi 0; &Menem 14... put 1.
T0.r0n5u4,—)14.3.i.g. 26 at. pest I Mialear.69 4,4444

LONDON, TUESDAY, MAY 2.

- - - -
Tne special constables have been senrvily treated,
at least by their patrons of the press. On the morn-
ing which followed the 10th of April nothing could
be more enthusiastic than the panegyrics poured upon
them by Times and Chronicle. The former was to
stand foremost to give a great memorial in the shape
of a banquet. The latter compared the constabulary
class to Eddystone Lighthouse, against whose stout
uprightness the wave of democracy had struck, and
then retreated.
A brief fortnight has since elapsed ; and the Times
pooh poohs any commemoration. Its bowels, which
were so moved for the special constables and for order
on the 11th of April, yearn already for the chartists
on the 30th. It sneaks out of its dinner memo-
rial, and declines any more solid or expensive grati-
tude. The Morniny Chronicle is even more un-
gracious. It accuses the special constables and
those who stood out for order on the 10th of
having been actuated by selfish, rather than by
generous motives.
Now, we beg to say that all this fine chivalric
theory of disinterestedness in political motives is mere
twaddle. Let as analyse the actions, not of indivi-
duals, but of classes and masses, in all periods of his-
tory, and we shall find that selfish interests have ac-
tuated them, even when veiled under the finest
names. When the GRACCHT stood out for liberty and
equality and agrarian laws, were they and their
supporters di,interested ? Was ("Immo more disin-
terested in defending his " order " arm CATIT :NE in
plotting to rob it? When lords, and knights, and titled
classes devote their best energies to defend a throne,
what is their loyalty after all, but their own intCret
hien entendn? They would keep the cope-stone on
the wall, not so much for the sake of the cope-stone
as for that of the wall, which it protects. Loyalty is
a very noble and praiseworthy sentiment, but it is
conservative of self as well as of sovereign. Nor is
the exuberant loyalty of Col. 6113TRORP one atom
more disinterest, el than that of the special constables
of the 10th of April, who defended the Queen's throne
'
aria own lust as the first duke
ie.-
in the hind would raise artn to defend crown and
coronet by the same gesture of defence. We should
therefore recommend the Chronicle not to analyse the
motives wench induce Englishmen to &feud order as
well as liberty.
The great point is that they should do so, and
moreover, that all classes should be interested in
doing so. The spring of 1848 has passed over for
England and fur its metropolis without any of those
convulsions and catastrophes which afflicted the con-
tinent ; which naturally were offered for imitation
here, and were rejected by the good sense and good
feeling of the maj wity of all classes of our population.
It is proposed to commemorate so great an event, so
strikiug an epoch ; and we repeat the wish, that the
proposal may be persevered in. The wealthier, and
naturally the more timid, portion of the population
are fell of grateful feelings to their countrymen and
to Divine Providence for England's forming so re-

markable an exception. And they desire to oomme-
morato their feeling by an act of generosity, a mom!.
ment, a building, or an endowment. In catholic
times, when a nation or the rich of a nation
were so affected, a church was built or a convent to
commemorate it. Such is the origin of most of
resent the
structures which ennoble Europe. Shall the p
age, because it wants the superstition of the past, be
also utterly wanting in all the motives which prompt
the great acts of foundihg establishments for the
poor Because places of worship for all creeds
wants are
now well supplied, have the poor no other ?
And shall not enthusiastic bursts of public gratitude or
accesses of public sentiment be taken advantage
ot.
of
to procure fends for such purposes? Certainly
Of old the great architectural efforts of the age were
' made for the poor. Churches and convents far
surpassed palaces, in cost and magnificence. At
present the lords and commons in parliament have
raised a splendid palace for themselves. This is the
very reason why the same age, and the same classes,
should do !something for the poor. An opportunity
offers. Sentiment is awakened. The rich are ready
to contribute. Let us take what they give,
and tarn it to the best advantage for
the class most needing it. To fling back
hnn :reds of pounds into the open purses of the rich,
and thus cheat the poor of the offering, because it is
not managed or expended precisely in the way we
might desire, would be a pc:ty and cruel malice. All
therefore should support the public order memorial.
Wo must own, however, that we object to the hos-
pital. Not but that the sick poor are worthy of the
arid consideration, and that both individuals and the
state are bound to see that the destitute receive suc-
cour especially in moments and cases of bodily suffer-
ing. But this duty ought not to have awaited such a
cuss as the present: what ought to be done now,
is something that the state is not likely to do, and
that is more exceptional and more out of the common
run o challegearity.
It if s d that " London, notwithstanding its
wealth, offers, in proportion to its population, a far
less number of beds for the accommodation of the
sick poor than any other capital in Europe."
This argument has been often advanced in favour
of increased hospital accommodation in London ; but
it should be remembered that in London as well as
, every other part of the United Kingdom, the
law provides for every sick poor person an asylum in
the workhouse, and that hundreds are thus
accommodated for whom no provision is made
lin the other capitals of Europe. Moreover,
we believe, that there is an abuse of hospital
accommodation abroad, in a far greater degree
than even ink London : that is, the middle or
tradesman's class take advantage of what was in-
tended fur the mere poor. This may be very well for
mreganuTreemProPlufeisantsio'nfalor skillca9 aonfdwocuarnedftlormainliangermetbnatt,
such as cannot behad at home. But these are not
hospitals fur the poor; they are hospital which
might be made self-remunerating.
There are, too, certain diseases that originate and are
propagated where numbers of sick rersens are
brought together, and which are known by the names
of hospital gangrene, and fever, which frequently
destroy the life for the preservation of which the hos-
pital is sought. Such are the effects of hospitals in
most contagious diseases, that in the late report of
the sanitary commission it is recommer.ded that they
should not be opened for the reception of cholera

patients.
During the late prevalence of typhus fever in Ire-
land and in this country, it was in hospitals and pest-
houses that the greatest amount of mortality pre-
vailed, and in which so many of the nurses and
medical attendants found their graves. Even where
these dangers do not exist, it is found that the de-
pressing influence of separating husband from wife,
parents from children, children from parents, and all
from their homes, is frequently attended with worse
effects than the privations they have to contend with
amidst the poverty and squalor of their own abodes.
Add to this the sad effect upon the mind of witness-
ing the varied forms of disease, the distortions of the
epileptic, the delirium of the phrenetic, the piercing
cries of those in agony, and the groans of the dying,
and some idea may be formed of the probable effects
of mental distress on those who enter these insti-
tutions.
We are quite confident that an ample sufficiency of
money is now vested in London hospitals for supply-
ing all the wants of such establishments needed by
the poor. But the administration of these funds and
resources is so faulty and so ill distributed, as no
doubt to render them ineffectual and deficient. Some
hospitals are full, with a surplus of funds they know
not what to do kith. Others have bed-room, without
the fends necessary to take patients into the beds.
Most of them receive patients indiscriminately, who
would better have been at home. In short, what
London wants is, not hospital increase, but hospital
reform. An inquiry in such charitable establishments
for the sick, similar to the inquiry made into chari-
table establishments for education, ought at all events
to precede any new expenditure of niouey in this
direction.
There lacks not, however, an ample cheice of insti-
tutions and edifices for the benefit of the paer, which
might well suit the purposes of the public order me-
morial.

TUE east of Europe holds out again little prospect
of settling down in tranquillity. We arc compelled
to acknowledge that the state of uncertainty is pro-
longed by the vacillating policy of the cabinets of
Berlin and Vienna, the leaders of which, after disarm-
ing the people by concessions, are now openly follow-
ing a rem denary system, in which they depend for
success upon the large body of organised employes
belonging to the civil service, and on the esprit de
ewes of the regular troops, as well as on the threat-
ening, though tranquil, attitude of Russia. Were
this reactionary movement purely conservative,
and openly resorted to for the re-establishment
of oriler, a large majority of the intelligent and influ-
ential middle classes would support it, and it would
have a beneficial effect, like the demonstration of
London and the recent expression of public opinion
at Paris. But, unhappily, the new movement in
Prussia and Austria does not take any such shape. It
is quite in the spirit of the old system by which na-
tional jealousies were fostered until they acquired
their present acerbity. The interference of the
Prussians in Posen, and of the Austrians in Galicia,
lis not adapted to heal the bickerinis of
rival races, and to reconcile petty conflicts
of interest, by holding out some common end
worthy of the united exertions of both Germans
and Poles. The governments hold up the means in the
first instance as an end, and desire to command unani-
mity before they remove the causes of distrust. After
confessing that the former r'frinte was unsound, and
declaring their intention of reforming it in c
plianee with the popular demand, they now require
the people to abandon, unconditionally, the vantage
ground which the popular movement has gal ied, and
to trust implicitly to the guidance of councillors whose
impeachment at the tribunal of public opinion by the
appeal to arms was followed by unhesitati'g con-
demnation, even by their royal masters.
Now, political daceptiona and subterfuges may be
occasionally tried with impunity in cases which are
only of partial interest. The settlement of the prin-
ciples upon which Europe is in future to be g..verned
is not a case of this kind. It is a question of vital
importance to every individual, for it invol,-ca the
means to be placed at the disposal of the pee le for
subsistence as well as the relative position which na-
tion is to take towards nation. The conviction is
deeply rooted and widely spread that popular institu-
tions confer greater social and industrial adv.mteges
than despotic governments, and that the former
consequently present the only sound foundation of
political jelluence. This conviction would in
Lo wiseoe shclreu were the most e7.ter-
minntive wars carried on to thin the numbers
.
of the two races, which in Prussian and Austrian
Poland are cheered on to a combat th r. each
shrinks from with the feeling that its only end
would be mutual extermination. The Germans are
in both cases less numerous than the Poles in the
localities placed in this cruel p ,ition. But the
German depend for support on their brethren in
other neighbouring lands. Were an exterminating
conflict to commence, and to turn out in the com-
mencement favourable for the Germans of Austria and
Prussia—which is of itself doubtful, and would at all
events prove a fearfully dear-bought triumph—what
could result from so unwise a course, but that
the defeated remnant would throw itself into the
arms of the Colossus of the north, who would receive
those with open anus in their defeat whom she would
have rejected if too powerful? The cause of Poland,
the territorial claims and the hatred of the Germanic