The Express.
London, England, 1846-12-10 00:00:00

7The ortOs.

MAILS.
The mails for Vigo, Oporto, Lisbon, Madeira, Cadie, and Gibraltar,
will be made up on the morning of the 17th December.
The West India malls, excluding those for Mexico, Honduras, and
the Hnvannah, will be made up on the morning of the 17th December.
Tbl overland mails for Gibraltar. Malta, Greece, thee KOWA Islands,
Egypt, Aden, Ceylon, India, Moog-Kong,and China, Southampton,
will be made up on the evening of the 19th December,
The overland closed mails. via Marseilles, to the Mediterranean,
Egypt, Aden, Ceylon, India, Hong Kong, ha., will be made up on the
evening of the 24th December.
The mail+ for New South Wales, Van Diemen's Land, and New
Zealand will be made up on the evening of the Slat December.
The malls for Britbh North America, Bermuda, and the United
States, will be made up on the evenixg of the 4th January.
The mulls for the Brazils, tbo River Plate, Monte Video, Pernam-
buco, Bahia, Maleira, and Buenos Ayres, will be dispatched on the
evening of the 4th January.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.
We do not agree with .1. L. of Cockerrnouth.
V, Advertisements Wended for The Express, London evening paper,
must be at the Mice by Two o'clock on the day of publication.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON-BRIDGE.
Tog DAL—Morning, 22 min. past 6; Afternoon, 43 rain. put 6
To-Moscow—Morning, 8 win. put 7; littera°On, 36 man. past 7.

LONDON, THURSDAY, DEC. 10.
MERE is something equally strange in English
energy and in English apathy on matters of public con-
cern. NVe tolerate abuses for centuries. A wrong may
bo blazoned in reports, and its correction urged in news-
papers, without effect, for years. The reformer, who
has taken the subject under his special charge, grows
disgusted with his idle efforts, and is ready to fling
down his pen in despair. Suddenly comes some
glaring example of grievous, perhaps fatal, mischief,
from the matter of his vain attacks. Universal hor-
ror is excited. Complaint is bandied to and fro.
Master accuses servant: the public accuse both.
Animadversion and abuse are wasted on individuals
which ought in fairness to rest on the system which
public indifference has sanctioned—we say, public
mdifffirence, for official neglect is the result of this in
nine cases out of ten. But the clamour grows. The
press takes up the matter. It is mentioned in par-
liament. A change is demanded and conceded ; the
abuse which well-meaning, clear-headed benevolence
had in vain assailed for years, is swept away in a few
months before the fitful tide of public opinion. Bene-
volence rejoices in the change, but is not quite satis-
fied with the means and manner. Thus went un-
restrained flogging in the army—thus must go some
details of the New Poor-law; thus will go the
abominations of the Spinning-house at Cambridge.
Out of the last we are now receiving an excellent
illustration of our feverish and irregular philan-

thropism.
ELIZABETH HOWE, a poor Cambridge street-
walker, taken up whilst simply walking the
street, is committed by the proctor to the Spin-
ning-house, the place of confinement for such persons
when found in the town. The cell which she oocu-
pies with a fellow-prisoner is cold and damp ; with
iron shutters, ill-fitting, the glass broken out from
their central opening. The cell has no fire : the
blankets are saturated with moisture : the night is one
of piercing frost. She is already suffering from severe
cold. She is releasedon the morning ofthe 7th, after one
night spent in this way, and returns to her lodgings,
ill and pierced with cold. She gradually sinks from
that time, and dies of rheumatic fever on the 17th,
ten days after the fatal night in the Spinning-house.
An inquest is held ; public indignation excited ; the
jury reflect in a verdict, expressing their abhorrence
at a system which sanctions the apprehension of
women when not offending against the general
law of the land, and confining them in a gaol "not
fit for the worst of felons.' The case is made
the subject of newspaper comments, and abuse
lavished on the proctor who committed the girl.
This abuse is unfair and uncalled for. When it ex-
tends to the University authorities which tolerate the
place and system, we admit its justice, and will lend
our aid to expose the careless and stubborn inhu-
manity of these lawgivers of " a seminary of sound
lemming and religions education."
The law of the case lies, we apprehend, in
a nutshell. Even the acuteness of the very intel-
ligent coroner of Cambridge would not allow him
to charge the jury that the committal was
illegal. It rests on the authority of the Act
of Elizabeth, which inter alia confirms the charter
of the third year of her reign, in which a power of
punishing lewd women and such persons " coming or
assembling " to Cambridge, its suburbs, &c., by bodily
imprisonment, banishment, or otherwise, at the will
of the chancellor or his deputy. The charter does not
require that the persons committed under it shall have
been guilty of not or disorderly conduct. Whatever
may be thought of the expediency of continuing this
power there can be no question, it is now legally exer-
cised by the university as far as the intention
sof the framers of the charter go. As conferred
by the charter of 3rd ELIZABETH, it was but the
'affirmation with some extension of powers ready
conferred by letters patent of EDWARD aland
HENRY VI.
Perhaps the peculiar circumstances of Cambridge
life may justify the University in demanding and
exerting this great and unconstitutional power.
Young men are crowded there, who, whatever
University sermons may say, are not JOSEPHS in
their lives. The influence of decorous married heads
of houses and decorous unmarried fellows, is not
practically sufficient to keep undergraduates from
a more open profligacy than is compatible with
the decencies and restraints of home. More
than the usual checks on profligacy are indis•
potably required at Cambridge and "similar places.
The proctor's domiciliary visits to Barnwell may not
serve to keep a certain, and not a small class, of un-
dergraduates away from that scene of vice ; but they
do much, probably, to deter those who show a re-
spect for college authority, which they would pay
neither to purity of life or strictness of morals.
At the same time, the relegation of prostitutes
from Cambridge itself only drives them to its
notorious suburb. The foul streams dammed
bads from the college walks and quiet streets
into more pestilential foulness in Barnwell
ar Jericho. You drive your fish into a stew that the