The Express.
London, England, 1847-10-30 00:00:00

~,~~~~_

gilt eportoo.

MAILS.
1)4 sans ler Wm 5S Wgzic Deems% 104 r
heJie
Leveed eel medeep ea the ef the lee Weweeker.
Tee Wee lediatmee. adwilew Mr lawlaw litwWww. eet
limmasele, elite mule op ea the merebretthe Xesteethee.
Theemdeeeleelis Ilana.l7ww% the Win Yorke
iffee.Adme.ChelawieMsee•Xeme,sl=isesell lmelee.
wee le mil se me ank. et the erl
The nib be be UMW
slaws. me homes =lfierrtember.
The mile elm the Uwe Maw.
ll b. Nimes Tellem lettsms.
iemerns/rele. rig Ayr., se Erb to cm the
Ile emetteell demi eat limeallem. t• the elefitanwasere
=time qwfwlet Welk Kw. its., Ida Wm& v. SR the
stele eft likw.
The meth fee Mee, Opel% Liehm. JM.4r CM; sad 011orelter
wW bs mem we ew We lemeeste et the eth November.

001111211PORDINIS.
••• livatlearal bbleb47llby Vie /Wm* Lemke irmiai . out be
Y Us Olko.141•••••*•••treet. by T.. Velma ea the Y.

MON WAIT/ A? U)16D061.11111D6t.
ra 1166-16.6ftbar. II sta. Not 6 ; irsosm. 71 .61. we 5.
14.111116.n0w-11seslas, Snds. pa 7. Alarm" 55 gar pm 7.

LONDON, SATURDAY, OCT. 30.

Tax meeting of the States-General, at the Hague,
is expected to form a remarkable epoch in the
history of Holland. The King, although with
much reserve, has signified in his speech that the
constitution of Holland shall be re-examined, without
hindrance on the part of his cabinet, and that its un-
sound provisions shall be reformed. By this promise
he opens a door for reconsidering every grievance,
and affords an opportunity. to the friends of Holland
to suggest important alterations in foreign and colonial
policy. Indeed, the affairs of the colonies are so much
mixed up with the financial doings in Europe, that
they cannot be separated ; and, if we are not misin-
formed, a desire to put the trade with the East upon
• sounder footing is one motive which has induced the
liberal party to press the revision of the constitution.
As the nearest neighbours and the most interested
dell foreign countries in the trade with the Dutch
dependencies in the East, the proceedings of the States-
Geseral will not fail to be watched with attention by
England. We are far from joining In the outcry that
has been raised against Holland, as desirous of mono-
polising the trade of the Eastern Archipelago. The
Dutch tariff, which admits our yarns to be worked up
at a low duty, and which only imposes six per cent.
upon finished goods in Europe, gives no proof of any
such desire. The duties levied in the East are cer-
tainly higher than those taken in Europe ; but the
Dutch have a precedent in our own Indian tariffs, which
are in the highest degree offensive to our neighbours,
and equally unjustifiable in political and in financial
respects. Our Indian presidencies are prohibited
from importing any foreign sugar by the act of par-
liament, which admits Laid India sugar into this
country on the same terms with that of the Welt
Indies. But since nothing is easier than to fix an
import duty on foreign sugars brought to Calcutta or
Madras, equal to the difference between our colonial
and foreign duties, which would put an end to all
danger from substitution, it is clearly time to do so
and to revoke the prohibition. Until this obnoxious
clause is removed from our East India tariff, we can-
not pretend to any claim upon Holland for liberal
treatment towards our merchants. The change can
be the more easily effected, as it is a restriction im-
posed in England, and not one devised by the council
of Calcutta.

Were that bar to negotiation removed, there seems
to be no reason why we should not be able to come
to an understanding with Holland, which would be
immensely advantageous on both sides. The interests
of the two countries are strikingly exposed in a letter
which will be found in another column of our paper.
The writer shows the origin of the great trading
company which was called into life by the late King,
the services it rendered to the state, and the field of
exertion which was opened in consequence. He does
justice to the improvements in the mode of collecting
the revenue, and ascribes to them the successful trans-
formation of annual deficits into a large animal
tribute from Java to the mother country.
It is, however, easy to see that an export of rent is
no basis for trade. The Javans export their rent now
collected, with moderate deductions, to Holland. Bat
trade only begins after that rent is paid. Trade sup-
poses a return to be given for what is taken, and the
higher the terms offered by the buyer of colonial
produce, the greater willingness will be shown to
produce on the part of the landowners. But the
agency of the company is not at all necessary to car-
rying out this principle. Indeed, the privileges which
have hitherto made of the trade in the interior of
Java a monopoly of the company, militate seriously
against the extension of the traffic, which would draw
out the resources of that fine colony, and increase the
revenues of the crown. The monopoly of the Masts-
choppy has been felt in Holland to be injurious to the
private trader, and no doubt will form one of the
prominent subjects of debate at a later stage
of the anticipated reform. It is easily shaken
off, since the company is now in the habit
of selling to shipping houses in Java the largest
.por-
tion of the surplus produce collected from the natives..
Owing to the high rates of export duties taken on
goods shipped in foreign bottoms, the price of this
produce is necessarily low, and the company has no
claim upon the profit which would result from allow-
ing free intercourse between the shipper and the
planter. The great trading company might remain,
as before, the agent for the collection and transmission
to Europe of the produce belonging to government ;
but before a constitutional assembly it will be able to
substantiate no claim to repress the growth of trade
in the east to the disadvantage of the trading commu-
nity at large and to the diminution of the revenue.
We should deem it matter of congratulation if
a oordial understanding were established between this
empire and our industrious neighbours. Holland
is said to be engaged in active negotiation with the
states of the Zollverem, and to have shown a dispo-
aition to meet those states on liberal terms of recipro-
city. There can be no reason why the Dutch govern-
ment should refuse to meet us in a similar spirit
when we convince our neighbours that we mean fairly
by them. But it is not unreasonable to require of us
to give proof of this intention, and the best that we
can offer will be a revision of our East India sea
tariff.

ONE of the justest opprobria of the new poor-law '
administration has been the niggardliness with which
l
boards of guardians have paid their medical officers.
The fact is not to be disputed. Pariah and union sur-
geons have, as a class, been shamefully underpaid :
guardians have availed themselves of the stress of
professional competition to cut down the salaries of
these officers below their actual expenses of drugs
and horse hire. The threat, "If you don't like the
pay there are plenty ready to take your place," has
been used to good purpose. The hope of picking up
stray patients among guardians, the vague anticipa-
tion of good to follow from publicity, the mere wish
to seem employed, the determination to cut out a
rival practitioner at any coat—all these and similar
causes have worked in aid of the sordid economy of
some parochial boards, and the selfishness and ignor-
ance of others. Together they have, as a general
rule, brought down the payment of the pariah sur-
geon to a point at which he must choose his alter-
native between neglect of his duty and positive
pecuniary loss.
It is difficult to lay one's hand on any records more
disgraceful to local poor-law authorities than the
cases since 1834, in which this niggardliness has
borne its fruits. Humanity turns revolted from the
task.

The question is one, happily, in no way bearing on
the conflicting principles of poor laws. The advocate
of the old law and the supporter of the now may
join in denouncing the practice. No doubt, such de-
nunciations have generally come from those who
systematically distorted every hardship which oc-
curred under the old law into an argument against
the new law. The Times, for example, has generally
spoken, as if the inadequacy of medical relief were
an inhuman feature of the act of 1834. But it must
be evident to every one who looks fairly at the
subject, that ordinary relief might still be ad-
ministered strictly according to the new law,
with medical relief placed on an entirely
different footing. We believe that such a change is
in itself desirable. We believe that the experience of
the last 15 years has shown it to be necessary. We
are, therefore, delighted to welcome the new combina-
tion of new Poor-law Medical Officers, which held its
first meeting at the Hanover-square Rooms on Wed-
nesday. Such an association has it in its power to
bring facts to a focus. It can throw in a concentrated
fire on the points which it attacks. Now that the
parish surgeons, themselves, have put their 'shoulders
to the wheel, we may look forward to real results.
It would be idle and dreary work to go over the state-
ments of the different speakers at Wednesday's meet-
ing. They exhibit a melancholy unanimity, in the

main, with disagreeable little varieties in the particu-
lars. One surgeon may expend rather more beyond
his salary than another. Tne sickness of one batch
l another
may be farmed out at 2s. fid. of
at Is. 30. per head. Some boards
may allow extra fees for amputations, while others
hunt on legs and arms being thrown in under the
general charge. The Holborn union stands alone in
one application of economy. It allows no extra fees
for midwifery cases. It gets its pauper children
brought into the world without any expense to the
rate-payers. This is the closest shaving achieved
by parochial medical economy. It deserves record for
its ingenuity. There really did not seem room for.
any saving whatever.
The proofs of inadequate payment are, as we have
said, numerous, obvious, undisputed, and disgusting.
The results of this scale of payments arc evident.
They come under one of two sets of categories: low
salaries, incompetent and careless surgeons, neglect,
suffering, and death of paupers. This is the class of
category covering most examples. The other is low
salaries, competent and humane surgeons, private ex-
penditure in relief and drugs above salary, comfort
and health of paupers, lose, fatigue, and grievance to
surgeon.
As things stand, either the medical officer squares
his practice with his pay, and ne6lects his patients,
carries his practice beyond lus pay, and injures
himself. So much for the case as it affects the sur-
geons How does it tell upon the patients ? Is the
s Case, they suffer from the parochial system ; in
the second they are benefited in Rite of it. The
parish extends its aid, grumblingly, msufficiently, bru-
tally. They hate the parish official, and have no
gratitude for the parish surgeon. The race of pau-
pers, we are told, is ungrateful. In truth, not only
the race of paupers, bat the race of poor men, occa-
sional recipients of parish relief, have very little
grounds for gratitude. That relief is robbed, in the
mode of its administration, of every humanising aid
kindly influence that can be dissociated from it. The
pauper comes to the beard with a scowl, and quite it
with a curse. The board receives the pauper with con-
tempt, and relieves his necessities grumbly. There
is no good seed grows oat of the giving or the receiving.
The tie which our poor law recognises between rich
and poor is made into an iron one. It weighs heavily
on him who gives, and galls him who takes. By
different handling it might be made, if not a pleasant,
at least a salutary, burden, recalling the sense of inter-
dependence, and not that of repulsion—of the common
humanity that links pauper and guardian, and not the
social distinction that divides them.

But while guardians and paupers continue to be
what they are, in respect of education, this cannot be
otherwise. The new law did not create these things.
The old law only escaped them by not putting any
efficient machinery into action. The central body of
commissioners has always done its utmost to mitigate
the harshness of local authorities. Of all sins laid to
its charge, that of enforcing a severer application of
the law on local humanity is the least borne out by
facts.

If these evils, however, be inseparable from any
system of poor-laws which unites local agency with
central superintendence, they may be got rid of in the
medical machinery of such a system.
The sick pauper in the workhouse, or sick labourer
out of it, has special claims on sympathy. There are,
moreover, sound economical reasons for curing him as
speedily as possible. An efficient treatment, botk
medical and dietetic, is the cheapest for the rate-
payers in the long run. Such a treatment can seldom
be pursued under the present system, which cuts
down the remuneration of the medical officer to a
level which either draws young and thoughtless
practitioners into the service of the parish, or, if it is
submitted to by men of experience and humanity,
imposes an outlay which they often are unable to
afford, and which in no case they should be called
upon to incur.
Bat while boards of guardians have the privilege
of engaging medical officers their services will be
contracted for like other articles of parish consump-
tion. The sick will be let to the lowest bidder, no
matter if he be the most ignorant, the most unscrupu-
lous, or the most disreputable practitioner in the
union. . .

---
The interests of the rate-payers, no less than the
comforts of the sick, suffer from this practice. The
only remedy for it is for government to interpose.
The sanitary necessities of the kingdom furnish them
at once with an opportunity for doing so in a way
effective not only for this, but for further good.
Every town should have its board of health, with a
responsible health officer. Why should not every
anion have the same organisation imposed upon it P
The duties of health officer might in most cases be
combined with those of parochial surgeon. In large
towns, where each would find sufficient employment in
his own special duties, the union surgeon, no less
than the healtk cater should be in communication
with the Board of Health, appointed by it, respon-
sible to it, and paid by a rate expressly levied fer the
purp on a scale determined by competent medical
authoritiesose in London.
Until some such measure as this be adopted, all the
hardships of all the parochial surgeons will do little
to improve the present system, however glaring in
themselves or powerfully set forth. The health of the
parish poor must, in a word, be treated as a branch of
the general sanitary legislation for the community, if
the common rules of humanity and policy are to be
applied in relation to it.

TAP. Catholic bishops of Ireland, stepping, as they
are most prone to do, on the political stage, arc not
personages whom we can receive with either favour
or welcome. There are many most estimable men
amongst them, tolerant, enlightened, and liberal.
But they have a fanatic tail of episcopal brethren,
narrow, rancorous, retrograde, and replete with those
qualities, which render the word priest the object of
every free and liberal man's abhorrence, and which
consequently desecrate and contaminate religion.
The episcopal pastors of the Irish catholic church,
the good, the christian, the humane, have bandits
among them, armed as partizans, whose mission is
not that of charity and peace, bat of rancour, and
war, and spoliation. We cannot see their names,
coupled with those of their brethren, attached to any
document, without thinking of CURISTIE of the Clint-
hill and Father EUSTACE linked together, the rapa-
cious and unscrupulous feudal retainer, by the side of
the pious, unworldly, and conscientious churchman.
All this starts more prominently to the mind at a
time when one of the effects of these bishops' uniting,
and of the lambs being led by the wolves, has been
the dealing of almost a death-blow to the establish-
ment of educational institutions for the middle class of
Irish.

Will these reverend Harplota do more for the
lower classes? We fear not. They have coma before
the Lord Lieutenant with a representation of their
views, which are those of book-worms and recluses,
more than of men of actual life. We have not yet
heard of their lecturing their own people, bat they
came to lecture the Lord Lieutenant on the evils of
past centuries, on the great mistake of tho Irish poor-
law, and upon the advisability of replacing " unions"
by monasteries.
The catholic prelates would have done far better to
have mingled their just allusions to the fatal effects
of past misrule with some monitory reference to the
equally undeniable faults of the Irish people. Men
in their position ought not to utter one-sided truths.
The bishops trace the depressed condition of the
country to the effects of the penal laws, not to the
" innate indolence " of the population. Now, it is
not more certain that those laws were barbarous and
abominable, than that the Irish peasantry are
now deficient in those hardy virtues which good
legislation might have fostered. The laws were
demoralising, but the laws are abolished and
the demoralisation remains. Whether the present
faults of the national character are entirely, or only
partially, to be ascribed to historical causes, is a point
more curious than practically interesting. It is for
the friends, and particularly the pastors, of the people
to rebuke their follies or their vices, let speculation
trace them to what source they may. We see with
regret in this part of the episcopal memorial
another proof of the unfortunate propensity of Irish-
men to brood over past grievances, rather than apply
themselves with stout hearts to the contest with actual
disorders. A pastoral appeal to all classes of the
people upon the duty of industry and the cardinal
virtue of independence, would at least be a proper
accompaniment of a prelatical discourse on the
penal laws.
Lord CLARENDON does not deny that history may
be referred to with great advantage, that there is a
profitable application to be made of its lessons. He
observes upon this part of the subject—
The eternal principle of judo. and Christian morality can
never be violated with impunity, and the unrighteous legis-
lation of by-gone times has left traces which must be long
and severely felt. By penal enactments, doubtless, industry