The Express.
London, England, 1853-02-09 00:00:00

TO CORKItSrONONNTS.

Mowed MMus of The Part..." eacaixist •1.• Asa enairre
• tMsetts." b pebUJed Teat', saJ Frifay Mali; la obrot
Sr past.
A twevarmr•lstaton.ted Mr "Me Itspress." Leedom 11••• Ase mar,
um. be NA tine oak% Ir, browarie.genst. Two *Week as tAe
417 et piablitatim.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON HRIDOP.
Tim DAT —Minis& WU... -Aftwases, 30.140.
Torwatm—lllseales, ti 36a.. .Afisrasse„ 31.31 a.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9.

To-mum:ow evening Lord lons Ressete will—
it is now understood—explain the views of the Cabi-
net upon various points,
and amongst the rest upon
Parliamentary Reform. A contemporary, npposed
to represent more peculiarly the sentiments of
Lend ABERDEEN, earnestly deprecates any &wand
for the early realisation of those promises of
Electoral 14 form which,—with his sanction,—
were a few weeks ago held out at the hus-
tings by such of his colleagues and subordinates n
sought re-election at the hands of popular constitu-
encies. The new Government, it is said, have not
yet had time to consider the details of so important a
measure. Many minor questions press upon their
attention—to say nothing of the Income Tax and
National Education—all of which must be postponed,
it is averred, should any steps be taken prematurely to
lessen the present evilsof direct nomination and whole-
sale bribery and scandalous intimidation in the elec t ion
of members to scree in Parliament. Few people who
arc capable of forming an intelligent opinion on the
matter will be misled by the vague and unplausible
generalities of the Ministerial journal. It would not '
be true to say that any question or questions more
pressingly. require to be dealt with than those con-
nected with the notorious abuses of our present
electoral system. And, in point of fact, our contem-
pones' does not venture in so many words to say so.
The sleuneful prevalence of malpractices at the late
general election, and the undeniable delinquency
and decay of numerous boroughs which, throng
favouritism, or some other cause, escaped
the pruning knife of 1532, are points
that admit no longer of argument or confutation.
To persist in leaving—fur may needless length of
time—to the arbitrament of a tribunal thus da-
maged in public estimation, the solution of grave
practical questions in which the feelings and
rights of the people arc involved, is simply to ask for
a renewal of the lease under which all sorts of poli-
tical jobbing aim be carried on. Suppose for exam-
ple, that during the approaching session any scheme
of taxation or National expenditure were proposed
by Ministers, and after prolonged discussion were ,
carried in the lower House by majorities, consisting'
mainly, if not altogether, of the representa-
tives of the condemned boroughs, what
chance would such laws have of durability
after the inevitable change in the constitution
of the House of Commons should have taken place?
The best thing to be done with a bad jury is to dis-
charge it as soon as possible, and not to suffer the
administration of public justice to be damaged by its,
do:usive decisions. The mockery of a hearing is worse
than a waste of time, its verdict has no moral sanc-
tion and cannot stand.
It is argued by the Times that the Reform Bill of
Lord GREY is not a case in point. and we arc gravely
assured that its shape and form was the result of
forty years' meditation and reflection on the part of
that distinguished statesman and his friends. No-
thing an be more unlike the real history
of that celebrated measure. It is true, in-
deed, that in concert with Mr. Fox and others
proposals were made in 1792 by Mr. GREY for an
Extension of the Suffrage, and the extinction of
some of the rotten boroughs. But in neither respect
were the propositions then made similar to,—far leas
were they identical with,—thoso brought forward on
behalf of the Whig Government by Lord JOHN
RUSSELL on the lit of March, 1831. It is well
known that the latter scheme was the result of
anxious deliberation on the part of a Committee of
Five appointed for the purpose, and subsequently on
the part of the Cabinet itself. The Committee, it is
generally understood, consisted of Lord JOHN RUS-
SELL, Sir JAMES GRAHAM, Lord Bnoreune, the late
Lord DURHAM, and the late Lord Bessonoeow.
And so far is it from being a fact that the old
project of the Corresponding Society of 1792 was the
atercutyped formula adhered to by the Whigs in
1631, that the Committee of Five are known to

hare reported to the Cabinet two different plans, the
one comprising the Ballot, and the other not,—either
of which they conceived would be accepted as a great,
improvement by the nation at large. Subsequent toi
this report, the alternative plans had to be discussed
and couaidered by the Cabinet (of whom two of the
members of the Committee were not members), and
finally to be submitted for approval to the King. For
all this the period was not longer than that which
the present Administration now have had for a some-
what similar purpose. The change of government
had taken place shortly before Christmas, not one of
the Committee of Five had everbeen in office before, and
many of their colleagues in the Administration were as
completely novices as themselves. The case is wholly
different now. The bill introduced last year by Lord
dons RUSSELL, though defective in many particu-
lars, contained much that was essentially sound and
wise. It must confessedly form the stock on which
is to be engrafted more vigorous and varied branches 1
than it originally bore. But it needs aot to be
planted afresh. Nor are the hands appointed to tend
and prune it unpractised as they were two-and-
twenty years ago. Did the same spirit animate the
present Cabinet as • whole which inspired the
councils of the Government of Earl GREY, instead of
procrastination and pleas for indefinite postpone-
ment, we should look with confidence to the
production of early and energetic measures which
would appeal to the moral sense as well as to the
political spirit of the people, and which would
thereby enable their authors to surmount all obsta-
cles, and to command success.
But we are told by the apologists of a timid and
dilatory policy that the country is busy and in good
humour, whereas in 1831 it was depressed and dis-
contented—that then it clamoured for Reform;
whereas now it is content quietly to petition. If this
be the philosophy of our present PRIME MINISTER,
we are driven, however reluctantly, to infer that his
long experience of affairs has added little to the
stock of wisdom which he possessed twenty'
years ago. Lord ABERDEEN was a member of
the Tory Cabinet, who, in 1830, refused
to agree to any measure of reform. Within twelve
months front that short-sighted and infatuated deci-
sion the conviction that reform was indispensable had
become a popular passion. Prayers had given place
to menaces, and expostulations to threats. The
country was tranquil, rind comparatively easy to be
unified, during the session of 1830. In the House'
of Commons parties had been broken up by the
events of the previous year. The Government oecn-
; pied itself with small administrative improvements,
sad scoffing at the weakness of the independent
Liberal party in the Commas, superciliously refused
to entertain the question of Electoral Reform. A few
months passed away and their power to control
or guide had vanished from their hands. The COll-
- was convulsed with unlooked-for changes,
commercial and agricultural vicissitudes clouded
men's miuds at home. Disturbance and ineen-
disrism. instead of tending to strengthen the hands
of the Government, served only to distract and
weaken the resources of order. And the Reform
Bill of lts3l was carried hr a shout which shook the
pillars of our ancient system to their very fouoda-
tem. Who wishes that shout to be heard again ?

F.enntss arc among the last people to be moved
by any new social impulse, living, as dal, do, out of
the contagion of speculation, and caring less than
other classes about the most recent news. Hut, when
once moved, off they go, quite as fast as other people,
and with all the earietstoess that is cherished by an
isolated made of life. When our English farmers
begin to emigrate, they will do the thing thoroughly,
as Irish farmers have done. Their labourers arc
esting first, as the Irish labourers did; and here, as in
Ireland, the employers will follow --oat dribiling
away., one or two families from a to: itt,„,:„4
off by hundreds and thousands from a county. The
prospects of terming in Australia are such that
nothing but ignorance, reiatliy, or want of money for
the voyage, can keep English farmers here, when

once the facts have penetrated to the rural recesses
of our country ; and then will come the retribution
on careless and rapacious landlords, asd the final
ruin of incumbered ones. The least improved farms
will be deserted tirst ; and there will be a large con-
version of tilled land into grazing and stock farms.
Iletore the gold discoveries, and consequent emigra-
tion, we used to think and say (with some conscious.
ness that it wits a hard thought and word) that the
existing race of farmers must give place to a better;
that men of capital and science must succeed to the
old farming class, who had never been properly edu-
cated for their business, and who had been beguiled
by bad laws to implicate themselves with a system
which must explode, after having ruined them. In
proportion to our sense of the hardness of their ca-c
is now oar satisfaction, that a new way to prosperity
is opening before them. To such of them as go, we
shall heartily wish success, and a fairer chance in
their new country than aristocratic law-makers have
allowed them in the old.

But before they go, wo may as well see whether
we cannot induce the wiser and best furnished of
them to stay, by affording them that fair field for
their labour that other classes have. Several im-
' provements in the law are required, and much social
organisation, to make the farmer as much master of
his own affairs as the manufacturer or the tradesman.
His relation with his landlord is a disadvantageous
ore—not necessarily from any fault in anybody now
living, but from the landlord's own relations with his
ancestors and his posterity. We cannot go into the
great subject of settlements now, further than just
to mention that it is mainly owing to the want
of some obvious improvements in our land•laws
that the tenant finds his farm in the back-
ward and uufavouruble state that too many
English farms are in, and that all manner of
difficulties are in the way of his undertaking
to bring it round. This was well understood when,
in 1810 and 1850, Govirnment loans were granted
for purposes of drainage. Most people think now
that it is an unpriucipled and clumsy way of going
to work to improve one's private affairs by borrowing
capital of Government. Our manufacturers would
stare at the proposal of borrowing money to build a
factory; and tradesmen, for the purchase of stock.
But the case of the agricultural interest is peculiar.
They are trammelled by laws which it will take some
time to get rid of; and they arc, as yet, unprovided
with some facilities which are clearly their due;—
that is, necessary to the carrying on of their busi-
ness, and not within their own power :mss, for two
instances, a regular supply of agricultural statistics,
and a system of arterial drainage, which should
make their own drainage a constant advantage,
and not an occasional curse. Pending suchjustice as
this, we have offered them a Government loan for
drainage purposes; and, as far as we have evidence,
the results have been good. We shall learn by ex-
perience how to do more and better. The boon
would hare been immeasureably more valuable if the
general drainage had accompanied the facility for
private drainage—if, when encouraging farmers and
landowners to dig little channels, we had deepened
and cleared out our watercourses and rivers. And

nobody seems able to give a reason why the loan
should bo for drainage only. We may have to wait
some time for a system of arterial drainage to be put
into action : but there seems to be no reason why a
loan for many or all purposes of land improvement
should not be decided on during this session of Par-
liament.

There are plenty of estates in England and Scot-
land that do not want drainage. Some are dry;
some are so well placed that the little aid required by
nature was granted her long ago, on her own broad
hints. But it would be a daring thing to say that
such estates may not want u much improvement as
many a greasy, soppy lowland, where the grasses arc
all sour. On those drier farms the buildings may, as
likely as not, beset round the outskirts !le sentinels
—a barn here, a shed there, a piggery somewhere
else—an the beasts far away from their food—the
kinds of food far away from each other, and the farm
servants a long way from both. Then, the roads which
have to be gone over so often, so needlessly, are pro-
bably very bad. Farms so old-fashioned as to have many
bits of road within their boundaries usually have them
very bad ; and then ensues the wear and tear of
horses and carts, prodigious waste of time, and not
less absurd expenditure of land. Club that land
together with that which is occupied by such hedges
as are required to grow ash trees, and you will have
as much as would amount to a field; and, if you add
to it all that is spoiled by the presence of hedgerow
trees, it will be a pretty large field. Now, if the
tenant finds that he cannot stand the waste of land,
of time, of cattle food, of everything, caused by such
arrangements as these, and wants to have the build-
ings concentrated, with a little steam-engine in the
midst and tanks below, and little tramways stretching
out all round, he asks the landlord to make these
improvements, and the landlord asks him to do it.
Too often, both are prevented by the operation of
our land laws. Why should not the conditions of
the Government loan be enlarged so as to include
this case ? Why should it not enable the owner or
occupier to plant woods, to reclaim bogs, to improve
his stock, to undertake anything in the way of his
business, as long as he can give ample security for the
repayment ? We cannot see why, if the plan of a land
improvement loan is admitted at all. And there is
no use in objecting to it till we have made land as
free a commodity as any other.
Another thing we must do. We must supply the'
farmer with intelligent labourers. He can choose his
own stock, and see that his farm horses are well bred
and trained; but he has no such choice about the
human assistants who are to do his work. The menu- ,
lecturer and the tradesman can command a certain
amount of intelligence and fitness, in their opera-
tives and shopmen, and can supply their places with
better, if they do not suit. It Is otherwise with the
farmer. If the men have not been to school, they
are the elodpnles that the world has made game ot',
from Saxon times to Suaxsemaz, and from Suatis-
eitsm to to-day. If the boys do go to school, they
come out, after five, seven, or nine years, barely
able to spell out a chapter in the Bible, sad clumsy
alike with the pen and the pitchfork. The girls,
too, would have known something about dairy work,
if they had been mercifully kept from the inefficient
school: but, as it is, they know nothing about anything.
Boys and girls have fairly lost several of the best
years of their lives, and now have to begin to learn
what would have come easy to them in their child-
hood, but is now stiff and hard. There mast be an
end of this. Throughout the rural districts there
mast be good industrial training connected with
book teaching provided fur erery child. The opera-
tives of our towns study mechanical and =theme-
I tical books in the evenings. The time must be
brought near when oar land operatives will be
studying agricultural chemistry in the evenings in-
stead of boozing at the beer-shops, or snoozing in
the chimney-corner—where there happens to be
such a thing—or poaching in the covers.
If we effect these improvements, with certain
others, quickly enough, we may retain a gaod
many farmers who will otherwise certainly
go. It has not happened, as croakers foretold,
that wheat-growing has ceased, or largely declined,
in England, after the repeal of the Corn Lass. That
danger is much greater from other and newer causes,
—gold and emigration. The farmers are fast learning
that there is glorious justice to Agriculture in the
valleys and plains of Australia; but they may still
cling to their old homes, if we are prompt enough in
securing real justice to Agriculture here.

MORMONISM IN SOUTII•MPTON.—The Mormons
have a nuniiitr of disciples in Southampton. Their place
of meeting is at the bottom of the liigli-street. The preach-
ing for intellectual incapacity and religious extravugalice
is on • level with that of the ranters. The Southampton
Mormons have a sort of religious dance, during which the
lights are extinguished and &Sang. re are secluded. The
dance sounds onside like the trawl of soldiers. It appears
that this sect believe in the anahaptist doctrine of the ne-
cessity of baptisin4 adult converts by immersion. The
place where they (the neophytes) are baptised are the pri-
vate baths at West gaily, where, at this time of the year
at least, the member. of the Great Salt Lake fraternity are
secure from impertinent curiosity mid molestation. Oa
Sunday night last the Mormon elder or priest baptised five
poor women. The thermomet.r doting the ceremony was
wisely down to the freezing point. There is a belief
amongst them that no bodily ill can result from the ccre-
mmy of baptism, no matter what is the state of the con-
verts health or the temperature of the weather when the
ceremony is performed.
cCIDENZ THE HON. HENRY l'EPYS.—This
young gentleman, one of the youngest s me of the late Lord
e;iiancellor Coat:than', met with rathir a severe accident
whilst hunting near Aylesbury on Saturday last. Mr.
Pepys's horse fell, and the young gentleman aislocated his
ctrl ir 11010 and fractured his wrist. Mr. l'opys is going on
very favourably,