The Express.
London, England, 1848-09-12 00:00:00

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IR UM 'NMI £T LOXPOII MILIDBII.
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LONDO.Y. TUESDAY. SEPT. 12.
Tan greatest imp dine nt that life in the way of
the right waking of the Irish Poor Law consists is
the arbitrary and unjust distribution of the country
into unions and electoral divisions. From the Meal
map, made by the illustrious Mr. Geoßox Mathes^
in the consume ate confidence of ignorant empirical%
419eng his memorable sojourn in that country in
1839, no departure worth mentioning his been ab
lowed; and it is not too much to say that, if a spider
were dipped in ink, and set to crawl over an °edam,
chart of the island, the lines thus trend
would in nine cases out of tea furnish as
legitimate, intelligible, and uniform a set of bounds-
nes as these marked out by. the sagacious ezecommis-
&once. Of their glaring injustice, men of all par-
ties and of all dames in the community ewe not
to complain. The rich, whose property is unfairly,
because unequally, assessed; the poor, whose wants
are continually denied prompt relief; the man of
business, who desires to have the rates economised;
the man of charity, who desires to see the helpless
helped in time, and the famishing saved from the cried
and irreparableconsequences of protracted lack of food ;
all whom generosity or sdflahness impels to seek fora
better admieletthtien of the law, however they may
differ upon other points, in this are of unanimous
neon,. All agree that the "electoral divisions" need
to be carefully revised and re-distributed. tome
would reduce the area of taxation to a less unit than
others; but everybody (who is not paid so mach a
year toe saying the contrary) declares the existing
boundaries to be fraudulent and unfair as between
man and man ; and feels that they interpose an inn.
parable obstacle to every practical attempt at w-
earing either efficiency or economy in the working of
the law.
Of the specific blunders,or the comparative partiali-
ties of Mr. NICHOLLS'S Issail-esech map of electoral
divisions, we are not now about to speak. Flagrant
instances of injustice and inconceivable perversities
of allocation and grouping might be cited in
abundance. Perhaps we may, another time,
amuse and astonish our readers with se-
lect extracts from the statistical ooalbesions which
during the past session have been tardily wrung
from the infallible' of the Poor Law Commission.
Our present peirpose, however, is somewhat different.
We wish to direct attention to the simplest, but, as
we believe, the most important, point oonnected with
the whole subject—we mean, the general size of the
Irish Unions. And we are anxious that this gees-
Ike, lying as it does at the foundation of many others,
and intimately cow retied with all that relates to
the imposition and expenditure of rates cuss the
relief of the poor, suld be cossidered fairly
sad be jedged don its owe merits, which, in reality,
embrace many considerations of the deepest moment,
not apparently mixed up with the questions of public
charity. People talk of the want of practical habits
of co-operation in Ireland, of the want of industrial
spirit among the agricultural classes, of the want of
local public opinion there ; but here, at the very root
of social amelioration and political improvement, has
been wantonly and vexatiously opened a fountain of
',Warne" waste, and blight, which no individual or
combined activity, probity, or perseverance, can re-
move.
The introduction of the principle of a genera
poor law intrielreland we regard as one of the wisest
and most beneficent exercises at legislative power
tat have been witnessed in oar time. Without wish
a provision, we believe that the rights of labour la
that country could never have boon pmenfolly or per-
manently secured, and es the first attempt to put a
bridle on the lawless and heedless neglect of every
public and private duty by the owners of the soil, we
heartily rejoice that the experiment, impseket as it is,
should have been made, and that there pre-
vails among men of all parties in both countries
a growing sense of the duty and policy of having ie
burly tried out. But it is on this amount expressly
that we feel bound to reclaim, in common with our
Irishoooteesporaries,aonatthe obstinate adherence to
a part of the system which needlessly tends to bring
the working of the law intortmeate, and which
directly tends to prevent the in localities of
there habits of cooperation and mutual sopery
without which any elective or local schme of
management must prove abortive.
There are several anions in Ireland am large as cm,
ten English °centime There are many which con-
tain a population wbo, at particular seasons of the
year, are liable to be thrown on the rates for relief,
greater than any halt doses rani ea of perishes in this
country similarly situated as regards property and co-
cepatioos. Lit as endeavour to realise what this,
means. A number of parishes, varying in popula.
tion, rateable property, and other respects, are
grouped together in many districts of England and
Wales. For certain purposes a contributive mess-
!sent is imposed, and common benefits are
thus obtained. The like objects were pros
feaseelly sought to be secured in Ireland by the
constitution of unions—not of parishes, but electoral
divisions—the rats in the Irish division being, as in
the English division, raised within itself for the relief
of its own able-bodied poor—sod only a contributive
portion fro each being applied to the assiatennee
of the union workhouse, staff, is. Thus in amen
(those pliant, empty, and deceptive things
men all the world ever deceive theme=
one another) the two systems bear • tehr-
able likeness ; bat substantially there odds
no similitude whatever. Bailie parishes me
not lashed together without regard to
area, density of population, oe capability guarvbfiegitegi
managed in maims. Oo&rdians are not inked to
travel awe a week twee_ y or Wet/ miles to
their place of meeting. When they do meat they
have not to sit in judgment on the claims Mir est-
door relief of hundreds of peewees splinted keen dl..
*iota remote, dissimilar, and pwelfpoly usimeme to
them. The workhouse in Imbed m a reel test of
destitution, because it is sisysete (generally
speaking) to contain the icy
mi of three
who present themselves as for public
charity'. In Ireland the weehhense is seldom if
ever large enough for the purpose, bemuse it is
perched in the centre of a district which frequently
contains as many' scores of aseessitow families es
there are beds at straw within its walls. English
guardians are earthier of being guardians of property
against fraud and imition, and of poverty against
unmerited neglect, because they are called on to
administer the LRAM of a district, whether parah or
anion, of which they have, or can with ressocable point
°noire a competent knowledge. An Irish mulles
is neither able to protect property from =span.
thin, nor to shelter the destitute fro' se to.
fu il of aid. He does not know—he wisiset kesem—cess
teeth of the persons whew, claims be is asked to ad-
mit or refuse, nor the truth or falsehood of the chess-
dance. they state, nor what means of self-austaine-
swat they have left: untried. In a word the whole
thing is rendered a blind and hopelmel
beim, from muddling in which the wiser
and better men in meet of the localities, espe-
cial y is the west and math of Ireland, after vainly
strogglins, male, lv end in despair retire; -tearing
thew who have little busin as of their own to miud,
and those who love public byelaw, for other reasons
than the public weal, to sculls sad wra..gle, to belly
and Job, -Intl' the grievance grows intolerable, and
the semblance of an electioa board is swept away, to
make room tor the paid madam of those whose els-

Waste perversity in maintaining the exceenlve sine of
onions has primarily aimed ail the mischief and evil.

IS appears from the lanes wants that the total
public expenditure of the year ended sth January,
1848, was 69,230,4131. 7s. tild. Of this stun there
goes to the aosount of Irish distress, 1,626,000 L ; to
looney paid to the Bank of &gland to supply defi-
ciencies on the balance resrnd for unclaimed divi-
dends, 69,6881. 17a ltd. Deducting these two items
we have 57,646,7241. 9e. Jid. for the ordinary ex-
penditure of the year.
This told in distributed under the following heads:
x as
amps di mind= end other pimento. 4017.445
now of dr Mad debt
IMMO_ IMAINFor-lib 4301111
Mega ea tie amoildeledi hod. ;715,5151
7,3.064
me,
Ogle

siussamerwes ecss
When you talk of economy and retrenehment to
any mbeevut of our great pliseahohling we place-
heads; parties, he turns with • self-satisfied sir to
tide classification, and demonstrates from it the im-
possibility of making any sensible diminution of ex-
petsditure.
"Yon see, sir, nearly five millions go to defray the
ehargee for collegting the revenue, and a very mode-
rate per-centageloo. Rather more than twenty-eight
millions are absorbed by the interest and management
of the debt; national credit., you know, must be sup-
ported. Then the charges on the consolidated fund
are permanent, fixed by acts of parliament; hey are
beyond our reach. The army, navy, and ordnance--
the national &Puce, the national hor,our, Great
firitain's place among the nations of the world, M-
oot be maintained at leas cost. So the only part of
GA national expenditure where there can be any pos-
sible room for economising is the miscellaneous esti-
mates, and they amount only to about three millions
and a halt."

' With all due deference to the men of high name
who join in this curkoosong, we are ,f opinion that
' miscellaneous estimates are precisely the part of the
national expenditure where least retrenchment is to
be looked for. We are far from defending them. We
have ere now pointed out die reditable items among
them. But they have been mainly swelled to their
present amount by imuroved organise ion of our
system of government, which of course must be paid
for. There is room for reduction in tee miscellaneous
estimates, but on the whole they are the most defen-
sible part of our national expenditure.
The way in which they are to be arought under bet-
ter management and con t rol is this : —The whole civil ex-
penditure for government purposes (we are keeping
the debt out of view at present) is covered by the
consolidated fund and the miscellaneous estimates.
Some naval and military pensions have crept into the
one, and some items whist properly belong to the de-
fensive departments into tho other • but on the whole
the character of this branch of the national outlay is
civil. Now, nobody knows what work is got in re-
turn for the charge on the consolidated fund. There
is so much fur the civil list, so much for annuities and
pensions, so much fur salaries and allowance', so
much for diplomatic salaries and pensions, and so
much for courts of justice. But bow these salaries
and pensions have be.n earned and what they
amount to, or how mary judges and dip-
lomatists are kept busy and what pro-
portion their work bears to their pay, nobody
kr.ows. The truth is that many posts and
employee paid out of the consolidated fund belong
to oar old government framework, and ought to have
bssa abolished when the new machinery charged in
the miscellaneous estimates came into play. This vas
if in addition to paying the new polies theft& staff of
the old " Charlie/ were still kept up and paid for.
Let a detailed account of the estaWishments and per-
sons paid out of the consolidated fend be presented to
the House of Commons every year, with the raistalin-
news estimates, and it will be found that in many
departments we are keeping up two sets of institu-
tions and officials—those who used to do, and those
who now do, the business of the state. It is requisite
for the right understanding of our annual expendi-
ture tnat this should be done, even 'hough the "vested
interests" on the consolidated: fund should be re-
garded as inviolable. But in point of fact such a
statement should be made the first step towards piecing
the whole of theinstitutioas and persooscharged on the
consolidated fund on the same footing as those
charged on the miscellaneous estimates. The whole
annual expellee of civil government, like this
whole expense of our defensive establishments, ought
to be defrayed by an annual vote. When our whole
civil expenditure is thus subjected to annual sorutiny
and revision it will be found poseibleto make veryeen-
siderable reductions in the 6,274,680L135.3d., which it
cost us in 1847; but the least part of this reduction
will be in the three millions and a half of miscella-
neous estimates.

When the gross revenue comes to be paid into the
Exchequer, as it ought to be, and subjected to the
oomstitutional contra of parliament, it is highly
probable that considerable saving may be effected in
the slam (nearly amounting to five millions) charged
for the expenses of collection.
Bat the great field wherein redaction is possible is
the 18,502,1464 18e. 6d. charged for our defensive
establishments. When we place the sum of 6,274,580.
paid for the maintenance of civil government in 1847.
to juxta-position with the earn of 18,602,1481. paid
for our defensive establishments in the lemma year:los

embark hosed the air et a It is as if the
waist of a benselisid should le three times
es mash kr limb( his prembos Tabbed as for the
whale et hie dosimds maangsmird. We pay within
a Was of three dares as ask kr soldiers and sailors
te guard no as far all the great purposes of eivilgovern-
mat. It is Fabbiffe moulds' reatity of sack to
hi small halfpeony worth of bread ever again.
The truth la that we are keepko and have for the
Isla thirty years been keeping, ear army and nary aa
war footing during a period of ail bet minter-
rupted and universal peace, and tte habit has SD
grown upon our statesmen that the evil is early in-
creasing. Oar naval and military estatt is
have been immensely increased within the het
thirteen years, and it is scarcely two years ekes
we bad an organised agitation (unrivalled for the
clamorous mendacity of its aasertiote) aiming at
doubling their oast. A vigorous rally has been made
to bring back the time. when soldiering was regarded
as the freest end and aim of human existenoe—when
the whole industrial aliases of a nation were tolerated
or encouraged merely as the serfs of the military
cede.

This tendency is but faintly denied; and the palliation
put forward is, that though wean at now we
know not how won we may be precipi into war, and
that armies and navies cannot be extemporised. The
fallacy of this allegation admits of being easily ex-
c= War is a science, and, like all sciences, em-
the collective experience of many centuries.
We do require professional soldiers to form the
nucleus of our army, in the event of w..r bruiting out;
but it is not necessary to the efficiency of oar army
that the bulk of it should consist of old experienced
soldiers. Even when a nation commences a war with
• large army of trained soldier., its ranks, by the close
of the first campaign, are filled in a great measure by
recruits—by new hauds,who have to k arn their business
under fire. Now, it we look back to the experience of
the last century it will be seen that whenever an army
thus composed has been brought into conflict with an
army entirely or principally composed of trained
soften the advantage has been on the side of the
latter. In the war of the American revolution the
British armies were mainly composed of old trained
soldiery, the American of raw remtts, organised by the
few able and experienced soldiers possessed by the
United States when hostilities commenced. In the

early wars of the French revolution the immense
standing armies of the other European powers were
driven like chaff before the wind by the ardent volun-
teers of France, disciplined and mstracted by the
remnants of the old monarchical army. In the war
of the Peninsula, in the German war of liberation, tb •
veteran armies of /ii,po!eon were in their turn dis-
comfited by armies compsei mainly of recruits, with
a sprinkling of experienced and able soldiers among i
them.
It would be easy to multiply examples ; but what
is more to the purpose, the ratimale of the fact is
obvious. There is true economy in laying up
large stoves of commodities which will keep ; but it
is sheer waste aid extravagance to accumulate large
surlies of those which spoil by keeping. Now,
soldiers and sailors are eminently of that clam of
commodities which do not keep. The time ot life
daring which the average ot men are available for
military service ranges from five-and-twenty to fifty.
By maintaining large standing ai mica in time of
peace a majority of the officers come to be past the
rims of life when they are fit for service. The