The Express.
London, England, 1849-01-25 00:00:00

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parpasitis ia the her...
poeible proof of —_-‘ uthir_phydral *stash= eon-
not be denied. It is spear esalsis-tine the reek
jraskalty of the pose who seethe* bons die withika,
short use of their birth. From these premise jut,
evident Wit heavy as the drake of migrated end mor-
tality are, this stoppage of=sustion strikes mine
dangenusly at the wry of society. Any
man who could look at the miserable hordes el
miscalled able-bodied wen congregated in all the
overcrowded workhouses, taut feel that there is Utile
hope for the regeneration of the country =VI .110• Y
are seat again to cultivate the soil. amp el tie
landlords who were the first to clear the royal die-
=ken et whattbey conceived to be a surplus Wesel
stook, are now beginning to see the eherteight-
edam of their heartless policy. In oar to
prepare for a =widened rating, they. 'made
a solitude, and called it unprovemmet Mt
now when they want men for the enilieg
'minimal employments, scarcely one can be ma. I
They begin to find that their neighbours were
equally ones in their generation, and that the
hewers of wood and drawers of water who survived
the famine are all driven to the workhouses, there to
be decimated by dysentery and fever. Even now, in
the depth of winter, when the labour market ought to
be overstocked with hands, the startling feat of a
short supply is forcing itself on the most unthinking.
This untoward state of things is but the nconsequence of the cruel clearances that wer=
more general than the public are aware of, loudly
as the press rang. with daily and weekly re-
lotto of the evictions which took place on
a large scale. Bat it has been stated to us,
on authority on which the most implicit reliance
can be placed, that a greater number of houses have
been thrown down, and under circumstanoes of more
sold-blooded cruelty by the farmers (the holders of
My or one bonded acres), than by the proprietors in
fee, who have been held up in newspaper publications
end parliamentary debates as the took oppressors of
the pesaantry. Our informant asserts that all who
are intimately acquainted with the minute details of
the nodal condition of the rural district, know that
the most unfeeling "grinder of the poor man's face"
is the person next above him in the scale. They em
glioyed[a labourer or two each under the conacre system.
'nos the failure of the potato in many districts not
one of this clue employed a labourer who would not
work for " his bit," which generally meant two
scanty meals in the day ; and young men without
families were found glad to accept those hard terms.
And in numerous instances they gave certificates le
relievierodicers, that the wives of men who laboured
late and early for this wretched pittance were widove,
aid thus had the families supported by the Union.
We mad scarcely add that they were the first to cry
eat that the country was ruined by the rates.
Them, at best, they never half tilled the land
droy held, and this semi-cultivation they re-
dosed by half ; and forthwith demanded a
1 proportionate reduction of rents. The helots who
held huts on their lands, who would not or could not
from sickness work on those terms, were driven into
the workhouses, and the cabins were invariably pulled
down the moment they became untenanted. In this
way they did more to devastate the country, cripple
its resources, and add to its burdens, than any other
class could effect.
It is true that the example was set them by the
higher ranks, who were well pleased to see their
favourite system carried out without subjecting them-
selves to public obloquy. But the inevitable conse-
quences are hurrying both landlord and tenant into
irretrievable ruin. Much land is lyiogwsste altogether,
and nearly all is more than ever neglected. Rents
are unpaid Interest is accruing, annuities accumu-
lating, and rates increasing with fearful rapidity ; so
that when mortgagees and bondholders try to force
*ales, no one will -purchase. Ireland, instead of being
the granary of England, is fast becoming an importer
of foreign corn of ell kinds. And we are much mis-
taken it an altogether new and unexampled series of
facts and miseneedoes not come to startle and perplex
parliament, on first turning its views in 1849 to
Ireland.

THE anneal report of the Commissioners of Woods
and Forays for 1847 was published yesterday. From
a perusal of this document no one would conjecture
that during last session of parliament the affairs
of the commission had been subjected to a
minute and damaging scrutiny by a parlia-
mentary committee, or that gross peculation
had been detected in the management of the
New Forest. The report is as tranquil, self-compla-
oent, and vague, as if the commission enjoyed perfect
public confidence, and had made up its mind to abuse
that confidence to the uttermost. The appendices,
however, tell another tale, however studiously the
returns contained in them have been made.
The accounts of the commissioners are made up on
the old approved plan generally followed in govern-
ment offices. They are so constructed as to mystify
and mislead hasty and superficial inquirers. They
present a total balsa°e on hand at the close of the
year of 146,4881., against a total balance on hand at
the beginning of 127,2431. The difference is not
great, but as far as it goes appears to tell in favour
of the condition of the woods and forests, and of the
commissioners' management. But this statement is

deceptive.
There is a decrease in the balances on hand in every
item except that of "monies voted by parliament for
works and buildings." The balance in hand on this
account was 87,0971. on the sth of January, 1847, and
133,2681. on the 6th of January, 1848. The harems
is owing to the diminished activity of operations in
the parliamentary improvements on account of " the
depression of trade and the scarcity of money during
the lastyear." The general aooonnt of the commissioners
shows an increased balance, because they have spent
less of the money entrusted to their disposal
by parliament. But all the balances of unexpended
moneys, received from the crown property managed
by the commissioners, decreased during 1847 ; in other
words, they spent the whole of their income, and
pert of the money remaining in their hands, at the
beginning of the veer. The balance of their ash
accounts with the tank of England, and with Coatts
and Co., was 18,7521., on the 6th of January, 1847 ;
and 5,2051. on the 6th of January 1849. Daring the
year their balance at the Bank of Ireland was reduced
from 9,1371. to 3,4421.; at the Royal Bask of Scot-
land, from 10,5631. to 3,2361.; in the hands of their
receivers, from 2,4871. to 3521. ; in the bands of the
deputy surveyor, from 7551. the Wanes in-
creased to 8131. ; and in the bands of the
wardens. See., it fell off from 4791. to
1201. Exclusive of the balance on monies derived
from parliamentary votes, the balances in hand of the
Commissioners of Woods and Forests were reduced
during 1847 from 40,1461. to 13,1701. This is shown
by an examination of their accounts, but their report
only states that they have a total balance in hanr
146,4381.
Another fact which appears in the appendices, but
to which not the slightest allusion is made in the re-
port, is that in the course of the year the commis-
sioners incurred a sharp rebuke from the Treasury
for some very questionable practices. The com-
missioners have been in the habit of making
appointments and of granting permanent ad-
ditions to salaries without the previous sanc-
tion of the Treasury; and in some instances this
irregular exercise of patronage does not appear in
their accounts or reports to the Treasury. Five
appointments have been made in this clandestine
manner; of these, two have never in any manner been
brought under the notice of the Treasury ; and though
the fact of the employment of the other three appears
from the accounts rendered, it is " without names or
any other indication of the continuity of these em-
ployments in the same parties, and in a form in
which it was impossible for the rheum] board
to deal with them otherwise than ea per-
sons occasionally and therefore only tempo-
rarily made a charge on the funds of the
dteuLartment." Among the additions to salaries irre-
ly made, there is one of 1001. per annum to the
hid Examiner in the department of works and
buildings ; one of the same sum to " an officer, who,
being his senior on the establishment, would, in the
opinion of the board, have been otherwise aggrieved
by that proceeding ;" and one of no less than 1801. to
the Clerk of the Furniture, whose salary had been
previously increased by the treasury to 3204 on the
representation of the commissioners. In a treasury
minute is remarked of these clandestine grants :
" In two of the cases the names of the recipients are
omitted ; in the third, that of the Clerk of the Fur-
niture, there is no indication on the face of the ac-
counts submitted to the board of any payment what-
ever to this person."
This secret and unauthorised exercise of patronage