The Express.
London, England, 1847-12-27 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, MONDAY, EVENING, DECEMBER 27, 1847.

clamed as follows :—Clam 1. Mea Mem throgb 111 low 4 1
other cause. Class 2. ANabsdied mss sad ratlike Aim '
16 years. Class 3. Boys abyss 6116 ese of yeses sad Landerl
that of 16. Class 4. Waimea faint through age or say
sem am B. Class 6. Abbe Wiled amen and girls above I
040 01 16 years Clem Gide above the sip of 7
' years and under that of 15. Clam 7. Children seder 7
years of age. To each alms shall be assigned that ward or
separate building and yard which may be best fitted fee the
reception of such clam, and tubeless of paupers shall remain
! therein without communication with those of any other class.
The guardians shall, 60 far as circumstances permit, fur-
ther subdivide any of the class enumerated with reference to
the moral character or behaviour, or the previous habits of
the inmates, or to such other grounds as may seem expe-
dient. That nothing in this order shall compel the guardians
to separate any married couple, being both paupers of the
first and fourth dames respectively, provided the guardians
shall set apart for the exclusive use of every such couple a
sleeping apartment separate from that of the other paupers.
The master (subjected to any directions given or regulations
made by the guardian') shall allow the father or mother of
any child in the same workhouse who may be desirous
1 of seeing such child to have an interview with such child at
some one time in each day, in the said workhouse, and should
there be more than one workhouse in the parish, and the
members of the same family are separated, they are to have
occasional interviews with each other, as may best suit the
discipline of the several workhouses.
The casual poor wayfarers are to be kept in a separate
ward, and to be dieted and set to work under regulations of
the guardians. No pauper of unsound mind is to be kept
in the workhouse for any period exceeding fourteen days,
and to be removed to some aßylum or licensed house as soon
as practicable.
The paupers belonging to the 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and Bth classes
are, from the 26th of March to the 29th of September, to
rise at • quarter before six, and to go to bed at eight o'clock.
They are to work for ten hours, and the remainder time is
to be divided for the breakfast, dinner, and sapper ; the
other period of the year they are to rise one boor later.
The diet Is to be the same as laid down in the dietary table,
except Christmas day, or unless the medical officer deems a
temporary change in the diet essential to the health
of the paupers. That no two paupers above the
age of oven years are to occupy the same bed,
unless in the case of • mother and infant chit.
dren ; and that they are to be kept employed wording
to their capacity and ability ; but no pauper shall be em-
ployed or set to work in pounding, grinding, or otherwise
breaking bones, or in preparing bone dust. The boys and
girls who are inmates of the workhouse shall, for three of
the working hours at least every day be instructed is reading,
writing, arithmetic, and the principles of the Christian reli-
gion, and such other instruction 'hall be imparted to them as
may fit them for service, and train them to habits of useful-
ness, industry, and virtue. No written or printed paper of
an impropertendency, or which may be likely to produce ipso-
bordination, shall be allowed to circulate or be read oat among
the inmates of the workhouse. No game of chance, or cards,
or smoking, be permitted; and that no work, except the ne-
'weary household work and cooking, than be performed by
the paupers on Sun lay, Good Friday, and Christmas.
day. In the case of disorderly paupers and which
are enumerated, the master, without the interven-
tion of the guardians, can punish, by substituting for a
period sot greater than forty-eight hours, for his dinner,
eight ounces of bread or one pound of cooked potatoes, or
boiled rice, and by withholding for the same period all butter,
cheese, tea, sugar, or brotb,whick he would otherwise receive,
while the guardians may, by • special direction, punish any
refractory pauper by confinement, for a period not exceeding
twenty-four hours, with or without an alteration of his diet.
That no pauper shall be confined between eight o'clock in
the evening and six o'clock in the morning, without being
furnished with • bed, clothing, &c., suitable to the season,
That no child under twelve years of age shall be punished
by confinement in a dark room during the night.
No corporal punishment shall be inflicted on any
male child, except by the schoolmaster or master;
no corporal punishment shall be inflicted on any female child,
the article to be used in the punishment to be a rod, unless
ordered otherwise by the guardians; and before the punish-
ment is awarded two hours are to elapse from the eommisaion
of the offence ; while those who are above the age of 14 years
• are to be exeMpt from flogging. In all oases of paupers
punished without the direction of the guardians, the Mimic('
and punishment to be entered in a book, and which book is
to be laid on the table at each meeting of the guar..iaas.
Should the board consider the punishment to bare been
im-
proper or illegal, the case to be forwarded to the commis-
' sioners, while the punished pauper can come before the
• I hoard, if he or she wishes.

THE EARL OF ELLESMERE ON OUR
NATIONAL DEFENCES.
The following lengthy epistle was pnblished on
Saturday by one of our contemporaries.
"Awake, arise, or be for ever fallen l"
Sir,—Asthe subject of this letter stands for early discus-
sion in both hones., of parliament, the propriety of this intru-
sion into your columns, on the part of one who hss de 'ure a
voice in the legislature, may fairly be questioned. I trust
my justification may be found in the circumstance that the
state of my health allows me no prospect of a defaces exer-
cise of the privilege I possess.
It is now rather too late to consider whether a gentleman
who assumes the initial of " P " for his signature has been
governed by a -ice discretion in communicating his appre-
henaions of invasion, and the grounds of those apprehen-
sions to the public. I confess myself to be one who, having
long entertained those apprehensions, and having been
equally cognisant with " P" of the facts on which he vindi
rates them, have hitherto, fir reasons which seemed to me
imperative, refrained from publishing them to the world at
large. I have not, however, abstained from stating them in
ether quarters, and I do now see reasons for contributing
what support 1. can to an appeal which, whether discreetly or
sot, has been made to the common settee and patriotism of
this great country.
Whatever may be the result of these discussions, or what-
ever the fate and fortunes of this enormous empire, future
historians will have to record and explain the fact that for a
considerable period, of which it is difficult to fix the precise
commencement, the instinct of self-preservation has been in
abeyance and suspension in this country. It is difficult, I
sa, to fix the precise limit of the commencement of this
eclipse of the common sense and foresight which Providence
has given to reasoning man for his guidance—to the coward
dike who flies from danger, and to the brave and wise who
anal themselves to meet it. Some may date it from the year
when the report of a parliamentary commission first gave
gelentific assurance that the Irish Channel might be crossed
with equal safety and with greater speed and certainty by
steam than by canvas'. When Sir A. Campbell in the
Rangoon river made use of a war steamer to convey
troops, to batter stockades, and to run down the war
proem of the Burmese, I think it was time ler military and
naval men at least to look forward to the further develops-
mint of the agencies so employed. When, however, Sir R.
Stopford made Ilia feint at 13eyrout, and Sir C. Napier
dashed across Djouni-bay, and effected the lodgment of the
force at his disposal in the teeth of the hosts of Egypt, I
think the reign of judicial blindness had manifestly set in.
From that hour to this, the professed economista have pur-
sued their old habit of pressing for furt..er reductions. With-
in a few days of the time I am writing, one who has acquired
no inconsiderable influence over public opinion in this coun-
try, in an address to an important constituency, has held out
to them the old and hackneyed delusion of the feasibility of
wanking large reductions .a the expellees of the army, navy,
and ordnance.
The mere fart that such a topic can be so handled by a
popular orator before an applauding assembly, atone demon-
strates the prevalence and intensity of the torpor with
which a long peace and the absence of visible and conspicu-
ous danger have benumbed the faculties of the nation.
For the man who thus gives tha /eight of his authority
to such dangerous delusions I entertain, in his character of
political economist, a respect founded on accordance with
We view', as well as on the acknowledged ability which he
brings to their advocasy. With him I look forward with
hope and confidence to the eventual consequences of that in•
area and multiplication of our commercial relations which
• endeavours to promote. Can any man, however, be Imo-
gene enough to suppose that these results, whatever their
eventual value, will be arrived at per nation, or imagine
that, when attained, they will eradicate evil propensities,
obliterate recollections of former national rivalries, or stifle
every cause of fresh dissension ? It is the failing of succese-1
lkl propsfators of systems that they almost invariably
ascribe universal as well as specific efficacy to the offspring
of their invention, their talent, and their perseverance.
This propensity has now led Mr. Cobden, while he vol
proposes to denude this country of the notoriously
tient means of defence she now possesses, to deemed freen
the station of a leader of the intelligence of the people le
that of a representative of its ignorance.
There are two modes of refutation or consolation by which
Mr. Cobden, and the disciples who cheer to the echo the
dangerous doctrine he has uttered, may endeavour to scabs
the apprehensions or confute the predictions of Cassandra
like myself. They may hold that the attempt at an invasion
of these islands is either absolutely impossible, or too impro-
bable to be admitted into calculation ; or, secondly, that, if
attempted, this country has already the means to frustrate
and chastise such attempt. The first mode appears to be
that adopted by Mr. Cobden ; the second, no person of any
authority has yet been rash or ignorant enough to maintain.
Mr. Cobden's opinion on the naval and military question of
Mai possibility of the landing of an invading forae in this
Mookry being worth as much as mine would be on the
uswita of a new mordant fur printing calicoes, time would
merely be wasted in its discussion. The possibility of such
an operation rests upon authority entitled to as much
weight as human authority can claim. The probability of
each at Sept is certainly one of those political questions
' which detract calculation, end which afford no data to
ths witairty. The expediency of affecting an insurance, and
the mesh of sacrifice to be incurred for that purpose, are
to be measured rather by the magnitude and value of the
stake themby the probability of the occurrence. That Oho
is neither Ron nor less than our capital, our arsenals, war
lives, out' property, our wives, our children, which I, for
one, believe a few hours might, in our present state of mili-
tary preparation, place at the mercy of an unscrupulous and
resentful enemy. Ido not believe that it would be impos-
sible, in our present state of preparation, for a French mi-
nister of war, favoured by circumstances, to land on British
ground a force sufficient in numbers, discipline, and equip-
ment to march in any direction along the turnpike roads of
England.
I bat direction might depend on the place of landing—lt
might be Portsmouth, it might be Chatham, it might be the
capital. In each, in any ease, with our present means of de-
fence, I believe resistance would be hopeless, and an attempt
at armed opposition only productive of useless bloodshed. To
oppose in the field such a handful of muter troops as we
could muster, scarcely provided with trWlery, and totally
destitute of a reserve, to a French army, such as under my
supposition would be brought against them, would be an act
of sunless desperation. if the French were to appear at one