The Express.
London, England, 1848-02-08 00:00:00

Ceylon.

OVERCROWDED STATE OF THE ST. PANCRAS WORN-
HOUtIE.—PROYOUD ENLAILOEMENT.—Yesterday a meeting
of the vestry of St. Pancras took place, for the purpose of
confirming or non.eonfirming • rsselution agreed to at a
previous vestry, proposing to erect an additional workhouse,
the cost of which, it is believed, will be little short of 12,0001.
—Mr. B. J. E. Wright having been called to the chair, Mr.
Churchwarden Howarth said, basing understood that an
attempt was to be made that day to non-confirm the minutes
of the previous vestry, with respect to the proposed enlarge.
ment of the workhouse, he begged to state, that by the
decision of the Court of Queen's Bench there was no neces-
sity for confirmation at all. Mr. Hewarth contended that
the Queen's Bench had decided that in this respect the old
local act superseded Hobhouse's Vestries Act, under which
the vestry was constitute& It was only necessary as a
matter of form that the minutes should be confirmed and
signed by the chairman, end the greatest mischief would re-
sult if; gentlemen could come down there and undo that
which they had done the week previously. He
moved that the minutes be confirmed and signed
by the chairman.—Mr. Morris seconded the resolution.—
Mr. Newton Crouch expressed his surprise that the church-
warden, to suit his own particular purpose, had ro objection
to give up the advantages of llobhouse's Act, and go back
to the act of the old select vestry. The 28th section of
Hobhouse's Act made it absolutely necessary that a minute
must be confirmed before it was binding. lie charged the
directors of the poor with being criminally guilty of over-
crowding the workhouse. He had been over the house that
day, and he found hundreds wiling to go out, if the board
woule give them out-door relief. 78 people had gone out of the
workhouse during the past week, and in defiance of a pro-
mise given at the last vestry that no more should be a&
mated, 99 had been made to come into the house, that they
might keep it full. lie denounced the course pursued by
the board in filling the house as a trick to impose upon the
vestry, that they might carry their budding scheme. Out
door relief was not only better for the puishionen, but
better for the poor; and he moved, therefore, as an
amendment, " That those parts of the minutes re-
lating to the building of an extra workhouse be non-
confirmed."—Mr. Bre:tingham seconded the amen.'ment.—
Mr. Harding, as a medical man, said he felt that the dictates
of humanity compelled him to vote for the confirmation.
The crowding of 1,800 human beings in a space only calcu-
lated for 1,200, tended to create diets's' and immorality.—
Dr. Birmingham oleo supported the confirmation, on the
ground of the vast amount of disease the overcrowded state
of the house engendered, and said if the additional building
was granted they would be able to keep their own lunatics
at half the sum now paid.—Mr. Mann said it wan frightful
to see three persona crowded into a bed only large enough
for one. He thought they could not be fairly charged with
opposing out-door relief, when there were 7,670 receiving
out-door relief at that moment.—A division was ultimately
demanded, when there appeared;: Fur the confirmation, 39 ;
for non-confirmation, 10: majority determining on the
building of an additional workhouse, 20. The vestry pro-
ceeded to • ballot for the election of a chaplain to the work-
house, which having resulted in favour of the Rev. J. M.
Fit:gunfire, M.A., the proceedings termioated.
THE NATIONAL DEFENCES.—Last evening, a pub-
lic meeting, to record an expression of opinion with regard
to the supposed probability of an invasion, was held at the
Lecture Hall, Greenwich. Mr. Wade presided ; and having
made some introductory observations, Mr. D. Payne moved
the first resolution

That this meeting, believing the system and practice of war to be
utterly at TIIII.IOe with the s;,trit and priaciple of Christianity and
the true interesta of mankind, deeply regret the attempt. which hays
been made, and are Atli' making, to excite in the public mind a belief
that war and invasion are imminent, and to ground upon this pre-
text an addition to the naval and military eetaiiliebrnents of the
country.
The proposed measures were intended as preventive mea-
sures' and it was considered by many that the best way to
avoid war was to be prepared for it. It might just as well
be said that the best way to preserve a people sober was to
indulge in the immoderate use of what would make them
drunk, as to talk of pr..venting war by maintaining a warlike
appearance.—The Rev. Dr. Burnett seconded the resolution.
He considered the present wan a crisis when every
person should interfere, and not leave the great
question now under discussion to the Po-called statesmen
who probably did not understand it half so well. H., con-
sidered the present fears of invasion to be in the highest
degree groundless and absurd. The alarmists seemed to
consider it impossible, in the event of the French running
over to Dover, that the English could run over in their turn
to Brest, Havre, or Cherbourg. They gave every advantage
in point ot courage and activity to the former, and seemed to
consider the powerful nary of the latter as counting
for nothing, and necessarily and unquestionably incapable.
He considered that the great strength of the country lay in
the political and commercial progress which she was making
every year. It wan said that this country had been several
times of late years on the eve of war, particularly on the
subjects of Tahiti and Syria, but in neither of these cases
had there existed at any time the remotest possibility °flinch
en occurrence. He asked whether it could be supposed, in
the event of an invasion by the French, that Ciermany,
Holland, Spain, Austria, Prussia, or and other European
power, would stand quietly by, being aware, as they could
not fail to be, tnat if the wealth and strength of the two I
countries were united, their own annihilation would follow?
With regard to the origin of the alarm, there could be no
error in ascribing it to the government. The establishment
of the militia would tend to increase the troops of the line to
a large extent; for after six mouths' drilling the men could
be fit for nothing but soldiering, and would be induced to
forsake their callings as tradesmen to the prejudice of their
families and the commercial interest of the country. The
national debt was now about one-fifth of the worth of the
country; so that alter a few more wars the country would
not be worth fighting for, and might as well be given up to
the French as retained in a state of bankruptcy. The reso-
lution wan carried unanimously, and was followed by a
second, which was supported by the Rev. H. Richard and
other gentlemen. It wu to the effect :

Thatihis meeting desires ta record its diliieratecceiviction that the
apprehension of nor and invasion is unfounded, and that an increase
In the existing naval and unlit...tit forces of the empire, whether by
the enlargement of the standing army, the enrolment of the militia,
or the establiahm.nt of additional fortresses, or by any means what-
ever, is not only uncalled for and unnecessary, but must Inevitably
tend to destroy rather than preserve peace, to lower the tone of nubile
morality, to Impede the drone mating for the instruction and im-
provement of the people, to retard the great moral reforms now in
progress, J burden more heavily the present generation or their pos-
terity. =lto aggravate the commercial difficulties of the naton.
Ilt:8Jil•SON'• STATOL—The final resting-place for
this work.of art has at length been determined in favour of
the ante-chamber to the underwriters and subscription- '
mama at L'oyd's, where it was erected on Saturday night, ,1
after the close of business. At one o'clock yesterday 1
afternoon, Mr. Robinson, M.P. for Poole, and chairman of
Lloyd's, accompanied by the members of the committee, and
by Mr. J. R. M'Cracken, of the Old Jewry (to whose charge
the statue was consigned), proceeded to inaugurate the
statue previous to uncovering it for the public view. A con-
siderable number of gentlemen were assembled in the small
space assigned for the ceremony, and on the approach of the
choirman and committee through the subscription rooms
they all uncovered.—Mr. Robinson briefly referred to the
merits of the deceased *Mittman whose statue was shrouded
before them, and dwelt on them solely in a commercial and
utilitarian point of view, carefully avoiding any reference to
the political career of Mr. Ruskisson. The enlarged views
entertained by that person on the subject of fres trade and
interoommunion of nations, for the purposes of exchanging
each other's productions, and the susemlus which had
thereby been given to the manufacturing dames of this
country, constituted 'dation rounds whereon his falai
might warily rest. Mrs. If mailman, his widow, had gene-
rosity eared the week of set, which Kr. (Mete had tow

plated, to the committee ti( Lloyd's, and when the acceptance
oldie statue by himself and his colleagues was signified to
t►at l►dy, she expressed her gratification at the circum-
stance that a lasting memorial of one whose memory she so
much revered would be placed before the citizens of the m*-
1 tropolia. For himself and his brother committee-mon, he
(Ur. Robinson) could only say, that they felt great pleasure
in having had the opportunity of securing a memento of so
wise and sagacious a legislator as Mr. Huskisson was. The
veil which covered the status wss then removed, and the
parties present dispersed or formed into small groups, for the
purpose of discno.ing its merits and of comparing it with
the effigy of Prince Albert, which occupies the opposite
corner of the vestibule.