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

ANN.
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boa been sameedully oonosaled. It is of cease-
quests that public atter titan should be direeted to
diem abossediemose the commissioners' report affords
good posed to suspect that the boastful announce-
ment of great reforms contemplated in this depart-
ment, published two or %hive days ma in the govern-
ment morning organ, is 'rowdy exaggerated.
The statement, to which we allude, seemed to
indiesse a desire to surrender the Woods
and Forests, with their undeniable peculation
and mismanagements, as a sop to stay the public
stomach for larger and more important economical
reforms. Bat the conoludiug paragraph of the coin-
-1 mission's's' report warrants a suspicion that even in
the Woods and Forests nothing more than illusory
and distant reforms are contemplated. That para-
graph is as follows :
A committee of the House of Commas has been ap-
pointed during the present [late] session of 'parliament to
Wntstte an inquiry into the management of this depart-
ment; and it is understood that, with the permindon
of the hones, it will roma its labouis during the en-
suing s. mien. Without presuming to anticipate the na-
ture of its final reoommewlations, we shall anxiously en-
deavour, as to as may be in our power, to take any steps
which ie progress of the inquiries may renderi advisable for
immediute adoption.
This, when translated out of the official language in
which it is couched, only means that if the Com-
mittee of the House of Commons on the Woods and
Forests be rt-appointed, and it its report reat'er fur-
ther defence ofthe abuses in that department impos-
sible, some undefined reforms may be conceded.

Waits the financial reformers of Liverpool and
Manchester are busily preparing weapons for their
gallant onalaught upon legislative extravagance,
another est et delegates, representing the interests of
the NW thriving and thrifty districts, are commen-
cing a campaign against the same enemy in one of its
minor, bat still important, forms. Some days since a
body of gentlemen, representing nearly all the boards
of guardians in Lancashire, met at Newton-le-
Willows, "to discuss the question of county-rate
expenditure, and the best means of effecting a more
economical administration thereof." For this meet-
ing there was indeed ample cause shown. The rate had
risen in certain localities from 1141. per annum in 1837
to nearly 4001. in 1848, without any reason asbigned.
The constabulary expenses were 791. 14s. per man is
Lancashire, while in Stafford (also a mining and ma-
nufacturing county) they were 621. 10s., and in Wilt-
shire only Us. Bs. 1,900 prosecutions in 1824 had
cost 16,0001., and 1,600 in 1848 more than 18,0001.
Inquests were charged at 1,9271. eleven years sines,
and had progressed to 3,3071. last year. Among the
smaller items, it was stated that a bridgemaster
in one place was paid au annual salary of 101.,
to overlook an outlay of 6s. 6d.; and that the
surveyor of the works somewhere else received an in-
come of 701., the amount expended upon the works
surveyed during that period being exactly
431. 6s. Bd. Since 1824, in short, the gross total
of amount levied by way of county rate had swollen
from 80,7731. to 179,8871. ; and nearly one-third of
the whole rental in certain districts was threatened
with absorption by the increasing demands of local
taxation.
The great grievance, however, was not so much in
the amount contributed as in the contributors' lack of
control over its assessment and outlay. Justices ap-
pointed practically for life by the crown, do for the
county what nothing less than the three combined
powers of the legislature are permitted to do for the
nation—and they prove themselves as liberal as they
are irresponsible in their drafts upon the rate-paying
public. It is no wonder that the latter complain : and
that, as stated by one ti the speakers at the meet-
ing, " Yon heard of it in all directions. There was no
place where you could travel, whether among friends
or strangers, bat it formed a subject of conversation.
All parties, high and low, rich and poor, complained
of the excessive expenditure of the county rates ; and
it was only by taking the course they were now pro-
posing that they could hope to control it." One
would think that so flagrant an anomaly in our con-
stitution required only to be detected in order to se-
cure its abolition. Yet this subject has beeu mooted
repeatedly during the past twenty years, and has,
since 1836, been a copious provider of material fur
the blue-books as well as a frequent question
for alternate remonstrance and neglect in parlia-
ment. In the year we have named (1836) a detailed
report upon the county rate was drawn up by a
committee of the Howie of Commons, wl.erein the
oommissioners recapitulate facts and draw conclusions
absolutely identical with those that were produced
and suggested by the delegates of the Lancashire
guardians. The report declares "that the persons who
contribute to the county rate have little control over
its expenditure; the administne ion of this fund is the
exercise of an irresponsible power er trusted to a fluc-
tuating body." And it quotes with approval the dic-
tum of a Somersetshire magistrate concerning this
body, of which he himself was a member. "I cannot
avoid remarking the objections to giving that respect-
able but very varying body, the court of quarter ses-
sions, the authority to raise, expend, and audit the
accounts of large and indefinite sums of money, with-
out any effectual responsibility ; and I dore4 the ad-
vantage of giving the quarter sessions the patronage of
officers, together with the power to fix the emoluments
thereof. It is a temptation to magistrates to make
interest for these offices, and then to increase the
salaries for the sake of the holders." The remedy
suggested by the commissioners is the same which,
after the lapse of 13 years, is still the object of de-
sire ; namely, the establishment of a " county coun-
cil," or other such elective body, to regulate the im-
position of the local charge. 'ln the evidence given
by Mr. Hums before this committee, it is stated:
" After mach consideration of the various complaints
connected with the disbursements of the country
during the past 25 years, I have come to the conclu-
sion that no economy is so injudicious as that which
entrusts to unpaid and irresponsible persons the appli-
cation of the public funds. And with a just appre-
ciation of those parliamentary habitudes which in-
duce the legislature so perpetually to fight off
the reformation of a faulty system by some
trifling amendment of details, the honourable mum-
ber added, " I consider the principle so vicious that
no efficient reform can be effected without &rake
change in the principle and the ovate ."
This report, be it remembered, was presented thir-
teen years since. Since that period many similar
documents have been "laid on the table," bearing re-
femme to the several items, or the general subject of
local taxation, in which the same complaints were
urged with even tedious iteration. It was hardly
possible to make out a stronger case against the exist-
ing state of things. Nevertheless the vicious
system, with all its accompanying extravagance,
remains unreformed. Parliament has hitherto proved
too sluggish and impenetrable. But economy, like
charity, begins best at home. It is fortunate that
the increase of the evil ham at length aroused the
active hostility of the men of Lancashire. From that
natek solute of leagues we anticipate the appearance
of a new anti-county rate emaciation to run a course
net lea energetic and victorious than its great pre-
decessor.
We have seldom seen a meeting in which a com-
plete unanimi as to the object in view was owes-!
bitted with such ready and practical suggestion of
remedies or concluded amid so general a manifesta-
tion of good feeling even towards the parties whose
conduct was censured. The highest respect was pro-
fessed for the county magistrates, individually and
collectively. Those authorities had themselves, it
was acknowledged, confessed that economy was be-
come imperative, and had even passed resolutions far
accomplishing that end. And nothing but the
" system" was condemned for the result, that not-
withstanding all those good intentions, year afar
year saw the assessments still increasing, while the
very resolutions passed by the justices at quarter
sessions were disobeyed and neglected by their own
servants.
The remedy suggested is simple and immediate.
All the necessary machinery for local responsible
administration exists under the poor law. The
practical duty of collecting the county nte
is already performed very generally by the
isms of the board of guardians, and nothing would
be easier than to transfer to those boards, for a time
at least, the control over its expenditure. At the
Newton meeting it was not proposed to annihilate the
jurisdiction of the justices over the county funds. The
resolution then passed recommended merely "the
mmikelioa of county financial and administrative

boards, to be composed of magiwrates and elected
members from each board of guardians." There to
some shrewd tact in this partial waiver of the " re- 1,
sponsibility" principle. The first change is less ab-
rupt, and there will be many facilities in obtaining
and working the measure assured by this deference to
the authority sanctioned by long precedent. Bat in
praetioe, from what we know of the temper of the
parties, and from what we see occur in other seem-
blies there is little fear that the control of those
members who rest upon the powerful basis of the
ratepaying constituencies will suffer diminution from
the admixture of a few colleagues who represent only
themselves.
It is almost superfluous for us to express our hearty
approval of the Lancashire movement in favour of
responsible tax gathering. If, indeed, our earnest sym-
pathy in their object an entitle us to interfere in a
matter so peculiarly.their own, we should be inclined
to suggest an extension of their plan so es to include
a number of miscellaneous items of local expenditure,
such as those for highways, drainage, sewers, light-
ing,.and militia. Tale general scheme has already
received the sanction of a very competent commission,
whose detailed report was presented to the House of
Commons in 1842. Although these classes of taxation
are irregular and comparatively trifling, their levy is
not a little vexatious, and their expenditure quite
as extravagant and irresponsible as that of the
county rate.

We have just recorded a satisfactory solution of
the differences which existed between the English
and the American post-offices. Bat we see by the
Paris journals that from Wednesday next, it is threa-
tened to suspend the postal communication between
France and England by Boulogne, the shortest, moat
convenient, and speedy line.
We reed not say of what importance it is that the
public should be informed, as soon as an individual
can, of great events affecting the political and the
moneyed world. Of old, when the mail ran bat once
a day, and through Calais, it was easy for a specula-
tor to ran a courier by Boulogne and oltatrip the in-
telligence of the mall. The same continued sacrifice
of the public to the speculator would take place if
the two mails were now to run by Calais, when any
traveller could distance them by taking the more
direct line through Boulogne.
We are sorry to say that the reverses experienced
by the English arms in India were known upon our
Stock Exchange on Thursday afternoon last, whilst
the account only appeared in our journal on Saturday.
We gave the report in our Friday morning's impres-
sion. ThisehowsthattheFrenchtelegraph is as alert as
ever, whilst the secrecy which till lately enveloped its
communication is no longer kept. There is the more
necessity for giving the public the full advantage of
the quickest route and the most convenient mode of
communication with the continent. _ _ _

The reason for the suspension of the Boulogne
route is the objection of the captains of her Majesty's
packets to the dangerous service performed at eight,
throughout the year, of entering Boulogne at late
hours of the tide, or of 13 ing in Boulogne roads—a
service of great difficulty and danger at certain con-
junctures of wind and tide. The French have the
easy task to and from Calais, the English the difficult
one—an unfair division of labour, no doubt. But the
present is not a moment when we should suddenly
challenge the French to procure new steamers, and
suspend the service on the inevitable alt'rnative of
their being unable to do so.
Our own opinion is, that fixed times of sailing to
and from tidal harbours are absurd. Take, for in-
stance, our communication with Holland by Rotter-
dam. The vessel, with the post, leaves Blackwell at a
fixed hour. She arrives off the coast of Holland at a
time when there is not water enough to allow of pas-
sing the bar at the Brill, and the vessel is obliged to
steam down to Helvoetsluys, reaching Rotterdam
atter some hundred miles of inland navigation. Of
what use could possibly be the fixed and early hour of
starting in the face of such inevitable delay?
It is said to be highly inconvenient to men of busi-
ness to have varying hours of post departure. Bat the
time of the tide is an easily ascertained fact, together
with the poets that dep. nd upon it. We do not see
why the Sooth-Eastern Railway Company and the
Folkston packets should not take charge of two mails
a day ,nand from Boulogne, the railway company
at Boulogne taking charge of them to Paris.
If the British AdmiraPy decidedly object to the Bou-
logne route, and refuse to undertake it, here is a
remedy. In fact, it is the remedy that private spe-
culators,and people greedy for news wij recurto ; and
for this very reason we claim it fur the public.
There is another point of almost equal importance
with the question of quick communication between
Paris and London. And that is cheep postage. In
England there is penny, in France two-penny p wtage.
Surely, then, it is absurd to have a tenpenny postage
between Paris and London. Half that price ought
to suffice ; and, if the English post-office per-
manently take the more difficult sea passage, that
should compensate the greater length of distance be-
t ween Paris and the coast, and the cast of a letter should
be fairly divided, each country taking half. When we
consider not merely the growing relations between the
French and English themselves, but when we see that
the English post is the channel for French com-
munication with all parts of the New World, whilst
our correspondence with the southern portion of the
continent, and even with towns on the Rhine is best
carried on through France, there is no limit to the ex-
tent of the intercommunication of the two countries,
were the prices and the facilities what they might
easily be rendered.
We must do the French the justice to say that
they have shown every desire to continue the Bou-
logne communication. There is no rivalry whatever
between the Calais andthe Boulogneßailway Co npany.
The latter have offered to expedite the line of transit
by nearly two hours. M. MATER, who came over to
London for the purpose of negotiating, is well known
for his desire to facilitate free and cheap communi-
cation between the two countries.
On the other hand it must be said for the Admi-
ralty that the year, for which the Boulogne service
was undertaken provisionally and experimentally by
our packets, has expired, and that there was every
right and reason to demand a new agreement and
other conditions. If the result were cheaper postage
and quicker conveyance, the public would have great
reason for congratulation. But as to a total suspension
of the Boulogne line of post conveyance, that we feel
to be attended with so much inconvenience to all
parties, that even to contemplate it is a disgrace to
the two governments, and will prove a serious loss to
the two countries.