The Express.
London, England, 1849-01-20 00:00:00

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ilarrewiaraTthue late Mr. Mtor.hCisnpartsitLyEs; Bboutupi
injustice not only to his varied talents, but still more to which ought afterwards, in a coll,ctive forite,d-te—b.
that
were it
enlargednot t P l
00115 philanthropy
uponhhih ddaneisadtingul.th it:ha still greater run to exercise. the long
loss to that department of the public service over
which he had so recently been placed. There was
none that so much required to have a new spirit
infused into its administration; none on whose use-
fulness and popularity the personal qualifications of
its chief were likely to exercise so abiding an effect.
It was, therefore, with feelings of no ordinary satis-
faction that men of every party hailed the appoint-
ment of CHARLES &mita to the office, at the cosi,
of its transition from a bureaucratic to a ministerial
system of management. It was perceived that the
experience of the next three or four years would be
decisive of the character and influence of the new
poor law for half a century to come; and it was a
weight taken off the minds of all who appreciated
the importance, or understood the two-fold difficulties,
of the task, to find it committed to one who com-
bined in such an unusual degree the elements of ad-
ministrative excellence with the scarcely less indispen-
sable ingredients of parliamentary persuasiveness and
SUMPS&
It mast be acknowledged, therefore, that the new
head of the poor law board enters upon his functions
under disadvantages which might well appal the
ablest of his contemporaries. Mr. BAINES has not
only to contend with the natural difficulties of his
position ; bat let him do what ho will to satisfy his
own conscience and the requisitions of the public,
the results of his best exertions are sure to
be tested by a comparison with the standard
which men were confident that CLIARLES BUD.
Litit would have reached. An imaginary rivalry
of this description is always encountered at a disad-
vantage; and it is no disparagement to Mr. BAINES
to say that it rests with his friends, rather than with
the public, to whom he has hitherto been compara-
tively little known, to judge accurately the chances
of his success. One consolation he has, that what-
ever real benefits he may confer on the nation during
his tenure of office are certain ultimately to be appre-
ciated; and that, on the other hand, more allowance
will be made for his deficiencies than if his advent to
office had been heralded, and the expectations of his
success enhanced, by a brilliant parliamentary reputa-
tion. Mr. Batas has yet his character as a public
man to make ; and this, no doubt, in itself will prove
a sufficient stimulus to him to exert his powers to the
utmost in the unusually responsible position with
which his career

Wilma neither of the two universities can bout of
having done much to adapt its constitutions to the
wants of the age, Oxford enjoys the unenviable repu-
tation of being ever behind her sister. We mush
confess, however, that we very much question her
right to the distinction. Sure we are that no re.
form has ever taken place in either university, ;wen
such as is due to the pressure from without emu•
bridge, for instance, has lately made an addition
to the usual course of studies, but it was only be.
cause the reproaches which bad been levelled
against her for years on account of the deficiencies
of her system were hacked at last by the Prince
Consort ; and Oxford, it is well known, would
have gone on muddling the brains of its Btu-
dents with the antique barren syllogistic logic,
had not Sir WILLIAM HAMILTON, in the Edinburgh
Review, and other writers, shamed her out of her old
paths. We are quite sure that either of these univer-
sities would feel uneasy under tne accusation of out-
stripping its rival in the race of improvement; they
would rather, like the Dronaws, in the "Comedy of
Errors," say :

We came Into the world Ilk. brothur and brolhet,
And now let us go hand In hand, not one b. tore anet'er.

The Oxford Chronicle, however, startles us with la
announcement of a real reform, and one which, if
carried out, will entitle the universil to the praise or
having made the first step towards the correction of
the fundamental evil. This evil, which has before
now been the subject of animadversion in:our columns,
is the oligarchical constitution of the university. A.
most of the opponents of the universities shoot tither
above or below this mark, which we are certain is the
true point of attack, we take the present opportnity
of again calling attention to the subject.
"The new statute," says the Oxford Chrcmicle,
"will, we are assured, be brought before Convocation
early. There are to be three public examinations
between matriculation and degrees, and at the final
examination there will be four examination schools
instead of two, as before. The cycle of educaion will
be enlarged," &c.
Now the great feature in the above alteration is
not the enlargement of the cycle of education, but the
increase of the number of public examinations between
matriculation and degrees. Under the old system,
the university, although compelling a man to pass
rearly four years in residence, only noticed him once
during the whole time before his final examination.
The coosequences are easily imagivable ; the great
majority of the men, relieved from all fear of disgrace
during so long a period, never applied themselves to
study. Those who came up well prepared forgot
what they had learned, and those who knew nothing
put off the dreaded hour of commencing to
learn something until the latest possible moment.
The style of examination fitted to enable such a class
of students to make any show at all must of necessity
be very inferior. If a high standard had been fixed
scarcely any degrees could have been granted. The
mass of men would have be. n sent away. The uni-
versities would have had to bestow one degree where
they now bestow five. Why not, it may be asked?
What was there to prevent these institutions from
making a clear sweep of the idlers and 'seeming its
honours in future for the industrious ? The answer's
easy enough. The mass of students are men of rank
and family, who conic up to take a degree bemuse
their ancestors have done so for centuries. Sad these
away and there will be none left but poor plodding
men, distinguished for nothing but their taints.
The men of family being gone, there would be no link
of connexion between the oligarchical authorities of
the universities and the aristocracy of the country.
The universities, be it remembered, are not merely
establishments for learning, they are " institutions
of the country. Their dignitaries are brought offi-
cially in contact with the highest authorities of the
realm. They supply the majority of the episco-
pal bench. They are the most elevated cape-
rate bodies in the king iom. It would be a
sad downfall, then, were the heads of these
institutions to be isolated for the greater port of the
year in their respective towns, and have no means of
communion with that higher world to which they
believe they now rightly belong. And yet this would
be the consequence of fixing a high standard of exa-
mination. It is not to be supposed that the great
majority of the scions of noble families are likely to
work hard to distinguish themselves.
Now while the only examination which required
an effort was fixed at the end of the student's four
years' residence, there was a valid plea for making
that examination easy. It would be obviously ab-
surd, it might be and was urged, to expect men
in the flush of youth with ample means, and all the
facilities for enjoyment, to pass four years in studious
preparation for an examination at the end of the time.
Such a course of study, deprived of all the usual ex-
citements either of fear or reward, for so long a time,
is likely to be entered upon only by a chosen few. and
those few wiU, most probably, be men who are urged
on by the sharp plea of necessity. The examinations,
therefore, must be lowered to the standard of the
men, and all further achievements in learning mast
be strictly voluntary. This is the actual state of the
case both at Oxford and Cambridge. The amount of
qualification necessary to pass is below contempt.
Anything beyond this is purely voluntary on the part
of the student.
For this evil the intended alteration offers the prac-
tical remedy. The greater the number of examina-
tions the less opportunity for idleness. As each ex-
amination must either introduce new subjects, or re-
quire increased proficiency in the old, there will be a
continual spur, and the incompetent or the lazy will
be dismissed at once, instead of staying four years to
acquire habits of profligacy and encumber themselves
for life. In the meantime we must confess that we
are not very sanguine that Convocation will pass such
a measure as the one proposed. It interferes too
completely with the position of the oligarchy, who
have always in the country clergy a vast force of ig-
norance and bigotry ready to swamp any measure of
practical utility. This force has, however, been tasked
to the uttermost lately, and it may be that, wearied or
perhaps enlightened by constant service, it may refuse
to come to the attack. Should this be the case, good
sense may win the day, and the richest university in
the world may relieve itself of the opprobrium of being
the most bigoted.

One of the earliest objects of Mr. BAINES'S solici-
tude ought to be, to secure to the public a more accu-
rate knowledge of the working of the poor law than
they have access to at present. We are anything but
solicitous to increaso either the bulk or the number of
the blue-books with which we are annually mem-
bered. But a little more care and discretion in the
compilation would vastly increase their usefulness, at
the same time that it diminished their actual bulk. In
this department Mr.BAINES cannot do better than fol-
low up the improvements introduced by Mr. BULLER, I
of which the first fruits and alas ! in his
case the last fruits too—are embodied in a
set of returns lately issued, and which we shall
take an early opportunity to examine in detail. They
supply a variety of data, for which we had hitherto
looked in vain, and the want of which compelled us
to cut short a series of articles on poor-law expendi-
ture, of which we commenced the publication last
September.
Valuable,bowever, at the materialsare,which, thanks
to Mr. BULLER'S foresight, these new returns supply,
they still labour under the defect, to which we ad-
verted on a former occasion, of giving no information
later than the year ending March, 1817. We cannot
imagine any valid reason why the English poor-law
statistics should b always a year and a halt in
arrear, and that in the spring of 1849 we should have
no later dater to rearon from than the experience of
the year 1846. It is not so with the Irish pour-law
reports. There we have not only a variety of returns,
such as may in vain be searched for in the English
reports, but we have the information brought down
to the last moment before the compilation of the re-
port ; many details being given u to the working of
the poor law during the current year. The indefati-
gable Mr. POULETT SCROPE, indeed, takes even the
Irish poor law returns to task for not being all they
might be ; and doubtless some of his suggestions as
to the compilation of tabular statements of the proxi-
mate causes of pauperism in Ireland; as, for instances,
evictions, levelling. of houses, uncultivated lands, &c.,
are worthy of attention from the Irish board. Meantime
we only wish the English reports contained anything
like the minute, well-digested, and moat interesting
statements, in which the Irish reports abound. The
Irish reports, in fact, supply materials for a fair
judgment of the mode as well as the results of the
administration of the Poor-law in that country. The
English reports, generally speaking, supply neither
the one nor the other. This is of course partly to be
attributed to the recent establishment of the Irish
Poor-law, and the new developments which the ano-
malous state of the country requires it successively to
assume. But we are bound to say that the Irish ofli-
cial statistics have long been of a character far supe-
rior to anything of the kind produced in England.
The mountainous mass of the English blue books pre-
sents nothing that can be compared in interest and
availableness for use with the Irish census report for
1841, the poor-law inquiry reports, the land commis-
sion reports, and various other publications we could
mention. If the other duties of the Irish executive
were as well attended to, and as successfully per-
formed, as the collection, and, what is more important,
the elaboration of statistical information, Ireland
would be the best governed country in Europe.
-71.17-Yre is no reason, at all events, why English offi-
cials should not borrow a leaf from the Irish book,
where it is worth borrowing. It would give us great
satisfaction, and spare as not a little unproductive
toil, if the statistics of the English poor-law supplied
the same details which are found in the Irish reports.
Taking, for instance, their most prominent portion,
the union accounts, we find in the Irish Reports—
first, the accounts made up half-yearly instead of
yearly ; and, next, a variety of details, to the
extent of eight or ten additional columns,
which have no place in the English Re.
ports. The balance in hand at the beginning
and end of each half-year is stated : the amount of
rate collected is distinguished from th" amount to be
levied ; the charges for maintenance, clothing, and es-
tablishment are kept separate ; the collector's pound-
age has its column, and so en of several other items.
Nor is this all. A separate trble gives the details of
what is called in England the " direct expenditure "
on poor relief. The separate cost of salaries, repairs,
furniture, fuel, stationery, drugs, rent, insurance, and
other charges, for every union whose acount has been
audited, may be seen at a glance. Nothing :of this
latter description appears in the English tables, even
in the improved form in which they have of late ap-
peared, though it is precisely in salaries, fuel, station-
ery, and establishment charges generally that the
greatest extravagance is likely to be committed. A
publication of these items in the accounts of the
charity of the state, would, we are convinced, bring to
light many abuses of a scarcely less flagrant character
than those whose prevalence in private charities we
halm lately had occasion to expose. Whim will the
expenses of the English unions be subjected to the
test of that wholesome publicity which the exigencies
of the state have made imperative in Ireland ?
The establishment cherges disposed of, we find in
the Irish reports a third set of tables, in which the
expenses incurred for provisions and clothing in each
union are compared with the total number of paupers
relieved, and the average weekly cost per head
deduced. Here we find an item, the want of which in
the English tables has often stopped us abort in our
researches. We have not only the total number of
paupers relieved, but we have likewise the collective
number of days' relief given; a third column contain-'
ing the quotient of the previous two, or the average
number of days' relief to each pauper. It is needless
to remark how indispensable such data are for form-
ing a correct notion of the duration, and the extent of
pauperism in each union.
la another table we have the extent of workhouse
and hospital accommodation : in another we find
weekly returns extensively classified, of the work-
house inmates in each province. But we should
never have done if we pointed out all the details
which the Irish tables supply, and of which the
English reports and tables make no mention whatever.
All in fact that we learn from the English tables is,
that seven millions per annum are levied on the
people, and what proportion of that sum total each
union collects and expends. Of the details of the
direct expenditure, and of the establishment charges
of each union in England and Wales, we have no

SOME men have honour thrust upon them, and of
the number is Earl GREY. The election of Mr. Coo.
DEN by the West Riding of Yorkshire, while that
gentleman was in a foreign land, and unable to
solicit their suffrages, or in any way plead his own
cause, was considered a high compliment. What
then shall we say of the flattering testimony borne to
Earl GREY'S reputation as a statesman, when the in-
habitants of Australia Felix have invited him from
the Antipodes to perform the part of their LYCCRGYS
in the legislative council of New South Wales?
It is nothing new that any unanimous public testi-
mony borne to superior merit should excite envy
and ill-will. We have all read of the Athenian who
voted that ARISTIDES should be ostracised because he
was tired of hearing him always called the just. But
the governor of New South Wales's expression of this
unamiable sentiment on learning the tribute paid to
Earl GREY'S high character as a statesman by the
electors of Port Phillip, transcends any upon record.
He took upon him to declare the election null, and
to issue writs for a new one before the legislative
council met. The legislative council is the only
competent tribunal to decide on the validity
or invalidity of an election ; and the offi-
cial who has usurped their authority bolds his
appointment under Earl GREY. It is rather a
strong step on the part of that nobleman's subordi-
nate to refuse him an opportunity of accepting the
honourable mission delegated to him, and to violate
' the constitution of the colony for that purpose. Time
can be no doubt that Earl GREY, or any o her British
subject, is legally eligible to sit in the legislative coon-
cil of New South Wales.
Earl GREY cannot do better than accept the honour
conferred upon him by the electors of Port Phillip.
He is their legal representative ; no power in or out
of the colony has any right to prevent him from
taking his seat. 'rho business of the Colonial-office
, here may with great advantage to the colonies be
impended during his absence, and by serving a
few years' apprentieeship in the Australian legoils-
, tare, he would acquire a practical knowledge of the
i nature, wants, and a ishes of a colonial community,
and furnish his country with what it has never yet