The Express.
London, England, 1847-11-25 00:00:00

btet•MMMtl

emaciated and

wretch to the convoy.

don of the grave whilst in wealthier dis-
tricts it is not the pressure of actual ward
which weighs on the people, but the insecurity d
future support. Even in these districts, !rewind
passions were quelled during the crisis of actual want,
and it has been only with the return of comparative
odiciency that crimes and vengeance have spin re.
covered their prevalence in the minds and habits of
the peasantry.
When, therefore, the British parliament and public
are called upon to consider the sufferings and exigen.
cies of Ireland, let it be remembered that there are
two regions and two kinds of population and of
suffering, which each appeal to the most opposite
feelings, and demand the most contrary remedies.
There is a certain portion of Ireland, an extensive
one in territory but not in population, which require
relief, which has no landlord, no rent, and no rate to
come upon. We have already stated that in eighteen
of the hundred and thirty unions of Ireland, the
population far exceeds the number of pounds sterling
of the rateable revenue. Sir GEORGE GREY cake.
later the more destitute unions at twenty-two. To
provide for the insufficient means of these
districts, even supposing the continued failure
of their potato-crops, would not be a burden d
any, enormous amount ; nor is it impoesible
to devise means for giving food and employ in thew
districts in such a way as would in time reimbaree
the outlay.
The central, and fertile, and rent-producing counties
of Ireland present themselves in altogether a different
category ; and for our part we should be sorry to see
them obtain one single shilling more of British or
of imperial money. The moment is no doubt a
most distressing one, the famine of last year
having destroyed the resources of the landlord, and
the poor-law, superinduced upon it, having placed the
four classes of landlord, farmer, townsman, and ha
bourer, all at variance of interests with each other.
It is no wonder that landlords are recalcitrant, that
they seek to clear their estates, and are harsh beyond
all wont to tenants, and utterly scout the very ntme
of leases. It is no wonder that the small farmer,
trembling for his holding, buys a musket as the hat
defence of his tenure, the last resource of his existence.
No wonder that the priest, starved amidst the gene-
ral famine, does at times forget his calling, and allows
himself to be carried away by the social and po-
litical malcontention of his class. Throw all the
classes of English life into such a general state of
insecurity, and see, would not also they come to par.
take somewhat, like their Irish brethren, of the
nature of beasts of prey.
Government has the fearful task allotted to it of
descending into this Irish jungle, of aweing the
human tigers, driven to such ferocity by circum-
stances, and of rec icing these ferns nature to
mutual respect and peace, to social existence aid
observances. Some will consider the teak impomible,
the prospect hopeless. We are not of this
opinion. Even the violent crimes of this year, how-
ever abhorrent, are, perhaps, less desperate symptoms
than the wan apathy of last year. Then the heart of
the Irish peasant sank within him—of home he bad
no hopes, and if America was beyond his reach, the
grave seemed his inevitable resting place. Even the
land, to whose bosom he clung, as to a mother that
alone gave sustenance and life, became an object of
indifference. And despair, itself a moral epidemic
and a pestilence, infected the national mind, almost
as fatally as fever did the bodies of the population.
Sir WILLIAM SOMERVILLE powerfully and graphi-
cally described this. Now, -however, there was re-
turning hope, there was a struggle for existence.
And, as was unfortunate though natural, the same
reviving energy, which awakened the industry of
thousands, aroused the vindictive and murderous pas-
sions of those ruffians which all populations on the
verge of destitution never fail to bring forth. You
will find them in Italy and in Spain, and in every
neglected land where existence ie difficult to procure,
or not worth the trouble to preserve, and where the
worthless life of the poor is always ready to be staked
for the spoliation or slaying of the rich.
In countries and in regions such as these, we have
no objection to a temporary law of coercion, but upon
one condition, which is, that it be a law of coercion
not merely for the poor but for the rich, not merely
for the labourer and the cottier, but for the better
farmer and the landlord. A dictator could not be
too powerful to reorganise such regions, to eradicate
in one class the habits and the temptations of oppres.
sion, and in the other the traditional and permanent
sense of insult and injustice which generates crime.

IT is quite manifest, from the tenor of the proceed-
ings in both Howes of Parliament on Tuesday evening,
and last night, that there is no danger of the prevalent
feeling in the country relative to our recent financial
difficulties, failing to obtain a numerous and efficient
body of expositors. It is true that the occurrence of an
Irish debate reduced the discussion of the currency
measures of the government into the incidental im.
portanoe of an episode. But, in the tone of those
members who did open up this peculiar topic there
was an earnestness which will make itself felt with
ardinary weight at the fitting time ; and it is to
be bond, for the credit of the ministry, that they
have in store arguments of no common strength to
to the formidable criticism of Mr. HERMES
and rord ASHBURTON.
Nothing could be more forcible or just than the
emphatic condemnation by these speakers of the
oestrous procrastination of the executive which led
them to delay the interference of the 25th Oct. until
the fury of the hurricane had almost wrought its
own extinction by the destruction of every exposed
position, and of that lamentable error which induced
them to disfigure a measure of relief with a notifica-
tion; of alarm and an usurious rate of interest
Upon these two points we are quite sure
that the best interests of the public will be
promoted by the most searching parliamen-
tary discussion. For, not only are they question'
upon which the mercantile community are entitled to
lbw felin Won:nation, but they are precedents which,
ui they mem the amplest parliamentary on.
assitioncrallrie the fertile source of future mischief
smi
ire mast also raise our voice thus early against rho
peposal of Sir CnseLes Wool) to consent to the ap-
lnielteeent of a committee, and in the meantime to
. the set of 1844 as restored to full and
anypWe shall most deeply lament ny
such • • 'on on the part of the government or
highly impolitic on their own account, as a party
seeking the confidence of the country, and as
liable to the gravest objections on put&
grounds. What is the official testimony el
the Treasury itself as to the effect of their
own suspension of the act of 1844 ? At the time
when Sir CHARLES Wool) was speaking, the ink VW
scarcely dry on his formal letter to the Bank direr
tors, apprising them "that bet Majesty's government
have watched with the deepest interest the gravel
revival of con, sdence in the commercial dames of the
country, and they have the satisfaction of belies*
that the course adopted by the Bank of .knyiend so
their recommendation has contributed to produce tia
resole Upon the commonest grounds of osnietenee,
the mercantile interests are entitled to inquire why a
law is to be re-enforced, the abrogation of which is
declared, upon the highest authority, to have been the
salvation of the country._ Either the law was a poi
law, or it was not. If it was a good law, why
ennead it ? If a bad one, why restore it after so
tremendous a price has been paid for its abrogation?
Nor, while we fully agree with Sir C. WOOD that
the pressed condition of the Bank is a fair theme d
OM we at all perceive the form or
Z:Mtarestilte conoluaka he founds non lt-
says, "the Beek has a reserve in the bealdnu &Put'
meet d Ave siMern an a total anent of reruns
of bra mama Ws is quite edisiont to jortit
the greatest ermildnee, and to &admire the govern-
ment in maldaig se pennon for Mae casualin,
bet leave tbs. to be dealt with when they
over.' We mad beg to qqm ean the errancy
of this harems. If the dueatrw vine to b
relieved ken the injunctions and the Weirainery d
their peon charter, we should pare**, ill Sr
=sized anticipation Othelost
reseitsCluall.!Vr: mut be remind to pin eettbst
I this mode d is exposed to no tl:=11.
morel, el but of historical
la the of June last, the banking reserve wig
eetwiwely 5,000,0001. bat 8,540,0001., and the
Egmont of treasure was not simply 10
10,400,0001. and what were the
Una the drain arising on et the grfoll_
If the Jeky divider's* sad rossom,
erste et empiiii viii,it is the
tlMlWtt
Su War% loa,•"
edempaie, dem lentiation d 1844,

IP"'

scholars. -
We do not at present enter into the arithmetical
statistics which are abandantly supplied in these re-
ports. The commissioners complain of the insuffi-
mat numbers who attend day schools, but we believe
that the figures which they return seem to represent a
far greater amount of education than that which is
xyliy given. As some of the witnesses state, the time
allowed by parents for education is utterly inadequate,
and a quarter's schooling is measured out as a pound
of butter, and assumed to be of value strictly propor-
tional to &longer course of instruction. One instance
is mentioned in which a mother of *family boasted
that she divided the year fairly amongst her four
children, sending each to school in its turn for a

.quarter.
The quality of instruction generally supplied is
indeed such as to make the quantity of little im-
portance. The Bible is universally used as a spelling-
book, and it seems that the children are rewarded for
proficiency by the privilege of reading in the difficult
parts of the Old Testament. Nevertheless, it seldom
occurs to the master that it is any part of his duty
to teach his pupils in e
anyway to understand wh
at
they read. Th reports furnish numerous instils's@
the strangest ignomnov of the very facts which the
children were employed in reading, and the mambo
singularly enough r nded their scholars that they
might have learnt the points of which they woe
ignorant, not from themselves, but from the Sunday
sermon or the Sunday school. For detailed proofs of
the utter inutility of the little education which the
poor receive in Wales, we mast refer those of ear
readers who are curious, to the report We We be-
have that the smamissioners have in no degree eg-
the evil, and we may add that the middle
cliErthere meth dames exist, are little better off
in this respect then the labouring population. It is
abestutely neessemy that soots attempt should be
made to extra se to iatrednee edge/Aim into Wain)
but it will be hopeless
to do ms Utile effempt is lelt
to voluntary exertion.
Innumerable witnesses assure the emimiselasses
that it is impossible to establish bettw sok& by
local effort. The clew are in gamed =dote,
gentry not always one in
and a larm part of the
poorM.l=Wm-
bibed by tabours, and o ilingsse *de "bream
boom% either in conditioa or Wigwag.
Webb value ebrrdoe, and pewees meter igelleded
bug thsa their soniewhat better taught mist-
bean ; bug at preesst they are tonally *aoraM vim
intim ortinVie is. Their wiser imclt
la quetions and b*,
imillintion of S ragmen in the akell fki
they Esquimau imaillivi cor ,numi et
mg mune= in &sumo salstleties7a;
ern utterly with the meist ordinary
usegier knowledge. of Yaw, who only
lacer when he kissed hi bra, " list they were
a batik id Liam, sad enamor gr a eat
• was
ai=rsaisime, week after
=og Nor 11" Perbafitto Legal!,
as we are tma wag iba Mee 6 use MAW
whet was *s amine of lbe sari cube dogged
Deigginseinsi.
The ffembr "boob differglasel widely from the WNW
dime et fiat near in ffi. They am
mains gal abaft seeletise for mesas ofBl2Al
wei bold bell
tie s ea bat got in
r of tie premier, vs C 7.11;
be mash enegied en then day to ism
=Velem* is them. livery mix* or moves* pa,
ma is a
Wier,W as ezemmis or reggaes with th
dielh e
inesmi aeries AM so remericald
gad& tie Teibmem when using lie own
Sim liess. A =dwell inemast."l7-6
L the baltreetkal half-mystisal divinity 'Adak
me& from this as wheel of menler
; - and as far as tie imwerbust Air el
=sod arming the brothel is as d,
there b puha* no Vats wile agave
elided em image the Webb are dm
es
akeAr mdek eat egetolgy mature is a bet esalEmed
t y Albs smelt on the mow`sled
Trieddagrentiem tie essemiedemis
ef lids aggeal dtarwas bee led time to
mdtivate frothy elftwas• gad theelegleglA...i.assorm
physics, an/ those peagnite have in tura
their Uinta It des net arms their -
seal in any way ham ages thdr tbalstad
are totally unacquainted with the more sera ia
which might tend to correct the peculiar vices of
their character.
The oommiesioners are miff? right la *lag=
Matra of the iateSsetral curium of the