The Express.
London, England, 1849-01-12 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING, JANUARY 12, 1Q49.

theme& Haw may are still allowed to
linter en some of them, taking up the room
of okay poitable stack ? Or bow many would be
I suffered to encumber the inheritance of Usti. owners,
six months after "the individualising of responsi-
bility- was made the law of the land
When premed with this too obvious argumsa, th e
semiss of poor law are wont to mutter
iedistiaoll about a law of settlement whiesr et=
check . Bat the embarrassments
and evils to which any stringent law of settlemen:
now introduced for the first time into Ireland mast
neresserlly lead, were ably pointed out at the meeting
in question by Sir MOSTAGO6 CHAPILt2I, one of the
beat mw of his class in the kingdom. Alone of those
who took any part in the proceedings, he seems to
have kept steadily in view the ;acred right
of the liberty of industry. In a few bike
sentences he strove to remind the short-sighted
men by whom he was surrounded that " the
free circulation of labour" was absolutely indis-
pensable to industrial health or vigour; and that
say attempt to imprison within anumberdr of narrow
cells the labour of the community in the miserable
hope of compelling the owner of each to find profit-
able employment within its precincts for all the hands
which it contained, mast end in speedy and
total failure. Bat he seemed to them as one
that mocked. Very little trouble they were disposed
to give themselves as to the practieability of
the alternative proposed. To wile away with the
essential principle of the poor law—the right of the
able-bodied to relief--appeared to be the sole ides
present to their minds; sad this they well knew
would be accomplished by the plan of estate or town-
land rating.
It is a good sign of the improving temper of so-
ciety in Ireland, that few men of any note or influence
have allied themselves with the parties whose efforts
we have thug detailed.

Quinuf VICTORIA is at this moment occupying
Windsor Castle in the place of a more direct descen-
dant of the STUART line, because the last king of that
race of incapable. held it to be his duty to force on his
subjects the adoption of a system ot regulations, of
which one—not the least obnoxious—was the celebra-
tion of the services of the church in a foreign language.
Strange to say, in the very principality from which
the Queen's eldest son derives his title, the services of
the church are still conducted in a foreign language.
It is scarcely an exaggeration to affirm that English.
is as little known to the great mapirily
of the inhabitants of Wales as was Latin
to the majority of Englishmen in the time
of the STUARTS. It is a fact that cannot be disputed
that a Londoner may in six or seven hours be car-
ried by the help of the railway into one of the great
divisions of his own island, where he will be u little
understood by the rustic population as if he were in
Timbuctoo. Scotland, in spite of national hatred,
embittered by centuries of hard fighting, has still
adopted our language. Ireland, ground to the dust
by English oppression, speaks the language of her
conquerors in addition to her own ; while Wales,
close upon our own borders, connected with us by a
union which has never been disturbed, knows of no
medium of communication more harmonious than that
afforded by its own gutturals.
Tne accuracy of our assertions may be easily con-
firmed by any one who chooses to compare them with
the facts brought forwardby Mr. WILLIAMS, in a
" Second Letter on the defective state of education
in Wales." The following extract, quoted by Mr.
Wituuse, from the report of the Commission ap-
pointed to inquire into the condition of education in
the principality, throws light on one of the causes ot
the iznorance we have been speaking of—want of
schools:

Only one in eighteen of the whole population attend
schools regularly; many of these are kept open only nix
out of the twelve months; of child-en under 15 years
of age lade more than one in five attend schools,
and under 5 years of age only one in eleven ;
of the number of children stated to attend schools,
more than 60 per cent. have been in school less than
one year, and 76 per cent- leas than two years to learn
a language entirely foreign to them. Out of 81 year,
in
C irmartuen and Pembroke, 42 have neither a day school
nor a resident clergyman. Out of 162 parialies, 72 have no
day school at all. Of 580 schools only 128 puns a bars suffi-
ciency of materials, the remaining 452 are destitute of forms,
dello, and other indispensable fixtures; of books for reedier,
slates, and other materials for writing and ciphering. In
another district, oat of 698 schools only 62 had apparatus fit
fur school purposes.
The account of the schoolmasters is in perfect keep-
ing with that of the schools.
The office of schoolmaster is everywhere one of the worst
remunerated; one of those vocations which serve as the
sink of all °then, and might be described as guile's of refuge :
they consist of persons who have failed to obtain a Synth rod
in almost every other occupation ; ruck as broken down
tradesmen sad fanners, disabled farm labouren, mechanics,
bleckansithe, carpenten, soldier., barber., quarrym-n,
weavers, Etc. . . A common labourer at the rolling
mills or puddling furnaces at the iron.wo. he earns more in a
week than the average of schoolmaster, earn in a month.
The acquirement. of these " guides, philosophers
and Mends " of " Young Wales " are in curious
agreement with their funds :
The schoolmasters rarely understand English perfectly,
th. it knowledge extending no further, in most instances,
than reading English, with a strong Welsh accent, and in
their ability in some c ,ses, but not in all, to hold cony
don in it on common subjects ; persons are appointed to con-
duct impurtaat Eugli,dl school. who are unable to speak or
even to unddrstand English. English remains an unknown
Warne to Welsh children who can read and wrPo it fluently.
Welsh eolith= seldom understand the meaning of English
words, &c. In forty-five schools in another district only a
very few children in each were able to give the Welsh for
ordinary Eng_lish words: they were utte-tog the words of the
Scripture in English without the most remote conception of
their meaning.
Such being the nature of the apparatus for training
the infant mind in Wales, it would seem that a very
scanty knowledge of educational arithmetic would
enable us to calculate the result. Given, a very large
population with very few schools—the least possible
quantity of school "materiel"—schoolmasters with
no qualifications—the proceeds will be evident to the
meanest capacity. It seems scarcely worth while to
take a journey into Wales to satisfy one's self that no-
thing is taught there. This rearming, however,
which is sufficient for ordinary minds, is far too
simple for official perception. It proceeds, too,
upon the ansumption which, if admitted, would lead
to the destruction of many a snug sinecure--
the assumption, namely, that where there is no-
thing to inspect, there needs no inspector.
The Lords of the Committee of Education have no
idea of giving in to this pestilent heresy, and with the
full knowledge of what Welsh education is, have ap-
pointed an inspector of Welsh schools. Ths govern-
ment appoint a committee to discover what is taught
in Wales ; the committee report that nothing is
taught, and the lords of the committee of council ap-
point au inspector to tell them how nothing is taught.
In order to be consistent, however, in inconsistency,
their lordship., in their choice of an in , have
selected a gentleman who, it is re , knows no-
thing of the colloquial practice of the Welsh lan-
guage ! A foreigner appointed to report upon the
state of education in a warm, and incapable of enter-
ing into communication with the natives I We
wonder whether the reverend gentleman entreated
with this arduous task of reporting von nothing, and
, incapable of obtaininq the materials for a report if
any such existed, will feel as he proceeds to fulfil his
onerous duties something of the difficulty which an-
gered the love-sick Moartmen in his communications
I with his wife :
. .

This is the deadly spits that sayers ne.
My wife can speak no English ; I no Welsh.

A memorial is to be presented to the lords of the
committee against the appointment t.f this gentleman,
hut surely it would have been wise of the memo-
rialists to have desired their lordship to see that
there was something to inspect before the appointment
of en inspector. As the cue stands, it appears to be
a matter of small importance whether the inspector
understands Welsh or not. CADWALLADER himself
could not by any process of inspection cause that
to be which has no existence. The curse of
Wales, that which makes it a foreign country to Eng-
land, that which in proem of time may cause it to
be a source of infinite trouble to England, is the after
want of any education at all. This is the evil to
which attention should be drawn. This evil it is
which the government of the country and the gentry
of Wales are called upon to remove. Mr. Wituems,
in the pamphlet alluded to, calls upon the latter to
come forward and assist in the sacred cause of educat-
ing and relieving their poorer fellow-countrymen, and
offers a handsome contribution as a commencement of
the good work. Sure we are that private munificence
mast owns in aid of public grants to put a stop to
the existence of this fearful anomaly in the most
eisilised nation in the world. If the rich wish the
rights of property to be observed they must observe
the duties of property.
I offer my contributive (says the asthma the pamphlet),

frost a awe of ditty *posed woos property, and that I
ought to apply a pwslon of what I draw from the Malley
of the eosatty, to Wpm, the fault etas!, social, and Op
ideal rt.:edition of its people, plated la a position so tanfortu-
sato, amid which has boss isisterssually attested sad exhi-
bited to the world, wider the high authority of the commie-
slow» appoi•ted by tent, who point oat edseattou
ae the effectual y.
Until this remedy is applied, Wales an never be
said to be united to England, but merely in juxta-
roiliest with it, and the greater proportion of all the
advantages to be derived from the position—the
wealth and the fertility of the ootntry—will be lost.
The answer to the =cootie alluded to has been
just made public. From the tenor of this answer, it
is quite clear that the fears of the memorialists had
a good foundation. Had the inspector poiameed the
humor, qualiikatioes, the reply would have briefly
stated the fief The utmost, however, that the secre-
tary ran my in behalf of the appointment is, that
the "Lord President hopes that Mr. JONES will be
found to have a competent knowledge of the collo-
quial idiom of the Welsh language."

ONE of the distinguishing features of Asiat:e cho-
lera is its tendency to spread rapidly and fatally
where it has once appeared. On this ace•unt some
persons have ventured to doubt whether this disease
has really presented itself in London daring the last
six months at all. We mug, however, have this
question for doctors to decide ; that which concerns
us is the mortality produced by any form of &geese,
sad during the last quarter this has been so far below
the average, that if cholera has truly been in London,
we have bad no °cession to be alarmed at its pre-
sence.

The case, however, stands somewhat differently in
some parts of the provinces, and especially in Scotland.
There cholera, by its spread and fatality, has given
undoubted evidence of its presence. We shnidd be
glad if we could think, that as cholera in 1831 and
1832 did not attack some of our large towns—as
Birmingham, for instance—London might escape
this time. Big there are indications too evident to be
overlooked, that the enemy is lurking about, that it
only need■ a fitting nicks, or fitting weather, to be
at its work again. The history of the last epidemic
visitation of cholera in 1830-31-32, is too curiously
interesting in this point of view to b.• overlooked. It
appears that not only are the symptoms of the two
epidemics the same, bat that, from their first
appearance on the confines of Europe, the
route they took, the towns they attacked,
the rate of mortality in proportion to these attacked,
and the proportion of deaths to the population were
the same. Thus :—ln 1831, the cholera appeared at
Tiflis, May 5 ; Astrachan, June 21; Kasau, Sept. 17.
In 1847, it appeared at Tiflis, June 5; Astrachan,
July 31 ; Kum, Oct. 4. In 1830, it appeared at
Stavropol, Sept. 6 ; Novo Ticherkosk, Sept. 10 ; Tag-
atrog, Oct. 8 ; Krev, Jan. 8,1831. In 1847, it ap-
peared at Stavropol, July 16 ; N,vo Tscherkoak, July
30; Taganrog, Aug. 15; Krev, Oct. 5. During the
winter of 1830 it was suspended just as it was daring
the winter of 1847. It broke oat in 1831 at
Petersburg on the 251 June, and in 1848
on the 16th of June. It appeared at Berlin
on the 31st of Augur, 1831, and on the 15th of
August, 1848. In Great Britain it was first resorted
as present in the northern parts of this kingdom in
the month of October, 1831, and it was in the same
month in 1848 that it first appeared in Scotland and
some of the northern seaports of England. It did not
appear as an epidemic in London till the following
yea•, 1832, when, in the month of February, the
first cases occurred. Although the last epidemic his
failed in its extension to some particular towns which
it visited on its previous appearance, yet we think it
is not an unfair inference that, as it his thus far
obeyed the law it pr ,vieusly observed in this country,
it will still go on to do so, and that we may not un-
reasonably expect its appearance in Londou during
the spring of this year.
Another et-riot's point in the history of the two
attacks, is the correspondence between the numbers
of those who died to the number of those attacked, as
well as the whole number of cases of cholera in pro-
portion to the population of the towns is which it
occurred. Thus it appears from the returns made
from Russia, on the whole of the cases attacked, that
in 1831 the proportion of tiros who died to those
who recovered, was as 1 to 1.7 ; and, in 1847, as 1
to 1.8, or about forty per cent. The tame returns
give the proportion of tt-ose who were attacked in
1831, as 1 to 19.6, on the whop population, and in
1847 Re 1 to 19.9.

Now, we do not think it a necessary conclusion
from these data that the cholera will be as fatal in
London in 1849 as in 1832. but wewould ask whether
our sanitary activity since 1832 has been such and the
physical character of our population been so much
unproved as to lead to the conclusion that we shall
have a greater immunity from the disease now than
then? We fear not. Nlf e are inclined to believe, not
only that the sanitary state of London is not im-
proved, but that it is worse even now than it was in
1832, and that the physical character of the mass of
the population has deterior-ted. Although in
some places old streets have been abolish' d
and wider ones built, yet in other instances
streets that were formerly thinly populated
are b-coming overcrowded. As the busineFs
part of London has swelled in size, and its rents in-
creased, the suburbs have been invaded, and dense
populations. in number exceeding whole counties,
have sprung up more rapidly than provision could
be made for supplying them with water, drains, sewers,
and other necessaries of a sanitary nature. The
Bawd of Health has not touched the unhealthiness of
London. It will be a in. rey if, with its present ab-
surd construction and feeble powers, it effects any
good in the rovinces. The act which brought it into
existence must be regarded as a failure. The com-
mission of sewers have yet done but little,
and that little has been injurious to the public
health. Some weeks ago we drew attention to the
vile state of the sewers through their acting the part
of ameteur night-men. Since then the sewers have
been flushed, once round we believe. But what is
this? They are as bad again as ever. Is water so
Iprecioue and human life so abundant, that the one is
to be spared at the expense of the other ? The sewers
ought to be flushed, whilst in their present state, at
least once a week.

Bat whatever may be the general state of the me-
tropolis, the city of London has got a medical sani-
tary onset% So far they have set the government a
good example.
The corporation of London was a long time in
acknowledging that sanitary improvements were ne-
cessary, but when they saw this to be the fact, they
provided at awe a proper man, with a proper
salary, to do the work. If the government
bad been wise, they would have done the
same, bat how can a Board of Health
be efficient when two-thirds of its members are un-
paid amateurs, and the whole of them ignorant of the
first principles involved in the duties of their office.
We shall watch with some anxiety the result of Mr.
SIYON'd appointment in the City. We trust that the
corporation will not think that their duty ends here,
but that they will give every facility for the carrying
out of the suggesticns of their sanitary offi er. Their
example may do much for the sanitary improvement
of the empire.
It is not, however, in towns alone that anti-sanitary
conditions exist. In the midst of green fields and
umbrageous hedgerows. the elements of disease
may be accumulated, as proved by the
oonditien of Mr. Dant:Bl-'8 establishment, at
Tooting. Build a house where yen will, if you
ventilate it badly, overcrowd it, under-feed its inha-
bitants, and surround it with ditches as receptacles of
stagnant filth, you will have conditions where not
only cholera may break out, but where typhus, and
every other form of contagious disease may become
rampant. Yet this is the condition of the residences
of the great mass of our rural labouring population.
The country must not rest satisfied with having talked
and written, and read, on this subject ; all effective
improvement is yet to be accomplished. The
demand must be made for • more effi-
cient constitution of the Board of Health. It
has no power to carry out its own recommendations.
In the case of the Tooting establishment the board has
decided that the cause of cholera there is purely
local. Dr. S. Swim aye that to leave the children
there is to leave them utterly to perish ; bat the poor-
law board has more power than the Board of Health,
aad that body decides that the children are not to be
removed. The same difference of opinion between the
Board of Meth and other bodies is constantly meet-
ing us. Now its medical opinions are controverted
by the College of Physicians, then by the Privy
Council; next it is snubbed by the poor-law board.
Such a body cannot gain the respect of the country.
It is in fact inefficient in its medical construction, deft-

dent in lrgal powers, and waning in either the re-
spect or confidence of the public.

SW Court.

WINDSOR, THIMSDAT.—The Duke of Norfolk, and
the Leaks Mary and Adsliu F itaalaa Howard, are expected
t 'arrive at the Castle this evening, en • visit to her Majesty
and hie &nal Highness.
The royal dinner party at the Castle this evening
will nen& the Dachau- of Hest, the Primaries Amelia and
Bliss of II shansiohe ilehilllegsfent, Prince Lowenstein, the
Marquis and Kathleen' of Donglse, Laity Fenny Howard,
Bareness de Speth, the Duke of Norfolk, and she Ladies
I Mary and Adelizs F. Howard, the Earl and Countess For-
' tonne, the Berl of Carlisle, Lord Janes P. Murray, the
Right Hon. Sir R. and Led, Peel, and Sir Junes Clark.
Her Majesty will afterwards have an evening party. The
following had the honour of receiving limitations
The Counters of Mansfield and the Ladies Murray, the
D.,wager Lady Lytt.lton, Hon. Mite Lyttelton and Miss
Carew, the ItiAt Hon. IL and Mrs. Labonehera- General
and body Isabella Weems, Mies aleynell, Mr. and the Hon.
Mn. G. E. Anton, the Hon. Mn. C. B. Phipps and Min
Bathurst lion. H. Ashley, Sir 0. and Lady Couper, Min
and Mr. Hammy Conner, tee Dean of Windsor and Lady
Charlotte Neville Granville, and two Misses bLville Gren-
ville, the Provost of Eton and the Hon. Mn. Hodgson, the
Rev. Dr. &twiny, the Rev. W. and Mrs. Canning, Colonel
and Mrs. Challoner. Mr. and Mrs. Peter Wells Mr. Glover,
the commanding cane of the Sad Life Guards, and two
officers of the 2nd Lite Guards, the commanding officer of the
Coldstream Guards and two officers of the Callatnam
Guards.

-----
The Queen's private band attended on Wednesday
evening in the Cattle, and performed the following pieem :
Overture, " Der Freisef um," Weser; Trio in D minor,
Al egro motto vivre*, Andante, Scherzi, Finale—Mende:e.
Bohn ; pianoforte, violin, and violoncello, Madame Dulcimer),
M. Stint-m, and Mt. Chipp.—Marien Walser. Strum ; Mor-
risen pour le Claveein, pianoforte, Madame Duicken, Sear-
lard ; Triumphal March, Rh..

A deputation, COOlnstwg ut the Lord Mayor, Mr.
Pattison, M.P., Mr. Masterman, M.P., Mr. John Wood,
Mr. Deputy Harrison, Mr. John Dixon, Mr. T. H. Hall,
Mr. R. Tailor, and the City Remembrancer, had en inter-
view with Lord John Russell yesterday, at his official re-
eidence in Downing-street.
Mr. M. T. Ralik' had an interview with Sir G.
Grey yesterday, at the Horn. 'pl..

DEATEI OF EARL l'sLeuT.—The demise of Earl
Taloot took place at his lordship's residence, Ingestrerhall,
i Staffordehire, on Wednesday. The noble earl, who had
been ailing for some time back, and of whose recovery no
hopes hail been entertained for some weeks, was in his 72nd
year, haying been born in April, 1777. He was Llrd Lieu-
tenant of Ireland for some years under the Liverpool adrri-
nistration, and up to his death held the lord lieutenancy of
the county of Stafford. He is succor ded in his title and
estates by Viscount Ingestre, • captain in the arms., and
member of parliament for the southern division of Staff /rd.
shire. The present earl is in his 46th year, and marred to
Lady S ash Seresford, daughter of the late Marquis of Water-
ford, b) whom he has • large family. Nen: April his eldest
sou will have completed his nineteenth year.