The Express.
London, England, 1847-04-24 00:00:00

the area of settlement and rating is diminished.
There will necessarily be more removals among
parishes than among unions, and a poor family which
may probably become chargeable will be regarded
with more suspicion where few are liable to the
burden than where it will be divided among many.
The witnesses are all, as we have said, opposed to
the present system. Some of them adopt the pro-
posal which offers the most obvious modification of
it, the transference of the ►urden from the pariah to
the larger department, se that intruding paupers
might still be removed beyond the limits of the
union. Within the district they would be perfectly
free to pass from one parish to another, and no parish
would have any motive to check immigration,
from among those of its neighbours who were in-
cluded in the same federal body. The motives and
opportunities for checking pauperism which are now
supplied by the interest of each parish, in keeping
down its own rates, would still act, though with dimi-
nished force, in the larger circle of the union ; while,
on the other hand, the inconveniences of removals,
and consequent litigation, and the checks imposed on
the free circulation of labour, would still exist, but in
a much smaller degree. Mr. J. M. WHITE, one of
the witnesses examined before the committee, recom-
mends a maintenance of the parochial system by the
side of the union division. He would continue the
liability of the parishes to maintain the sick, aged,
and infirm poor, while he would throw upon the
union the burden of the able-bodied paupers, which
he oddly enough considers a more permanent
charge. We can imagine cases in which this
arrangement would work beneficially, es, for
instance, when a depression of trade in
a manufacturing neighbourhood throws a large num-
ber of working people at once upon the poor-rates ; a
calamity which the funds of a union are, of course,
better able to meet than those of one or two parishes
to which the claimants of relief may belong. One objec-
tion to this plan is, that it raises up an entirely
new class of difficulties in deciding to which class any
particular pauper may belong. The differences be-
tween an able-bodied labourer and a helpless cripple
are graduated too finely to admit of any broad distinc-
tion which could be drawn between the two divi-
sions of paupers. Instead of the ingen'ous
niceties with which quarter sessions are
now edified, on the hearing of poor-law
appeals, innumerable contests might take place
between parishes and unions on such questions as
whether a man of 55, with a rheumatic lameness,
beloned to the parish as infirm, or to the union is a
middle-aged labourer. In time, perhaps. to make the
confusion inextricable, the Queen's Bench would fur-
nish litigant parties with an authoritative definition
of health, infirmity, and helplessness. And yet this
objection is not, perhaps, irremediable.

Another suggestion which :has been offered to the
committee involves the entire abolition of settlement,
retaining the union, nevertheless, as the area of rating
and of relief. The local precautions against pau-
perism which we have indicated as the chief ad-
vantage of a parochial, and in a smaller degree as the
recommendations of a union,settlement, would on this
plan be entirely disregarded. Those who advocate
it consider that the entire abolition of removals, and
the attendant litigation, and the removal of all obstacles
to the migration of labour, would more than compen-
sate for the removal of the safeguards efforded by
local jealousy. At the same time, they think, pro- ,
bably with reason, that while the union remained
chargeable with the maintenance of its resident poor,
relief would be administered with more economy and
discrimination than if the burden was thrown on
the public purse. Having no power to anticipate
pauperism by guarding against intruders likely to
become chargeable, the guardians would protect the
rates by looking narrowly after their distribu-
tion. The workhouse test would be enforced,
and made more stringent, and the paupers
who could not be kept out or sent out of the
union would at least be practically taught that it was
not a pleasant residence for those who depended on
the rates. Every union would in self-defence keep
its standard of relief as low as that of its neighbour.
Mr. LUMIAT, who recommends this caurse' thinks
that this judicious rigour is the only effectual check
upon pauperism.
After this plan, that of national taxation comes
next in order, and completes the progress of departure
from the old system of local control and liability.
There are some modifications of these different plans,
which we hive omitted for the sake of brevity ; and
there are many important practical questions as to the
most convenient and equitable mode of bringing any
new system into operation. Some of those who have
taken a part in the controversy wish to secure the
less burdened parts of the country in their present
comparative exemption ; others think it fairer to di--
tribute the charge of relief more equally. On all
sides of all these questions there is a good deal to be
add, and we propose to return to the subject on an
early opportunity. For the present, we hope we have
stated to our readers with tolerable clearness what
are the different views entertained, and the plans
proposed, for determining the liability to maintain
the

poor.

The debate in the Chamber of I>eputies in the first
stage of the project of law on parliamentary reform
of M. de Remusat, was brought to a close at an un-
usually late hour on Wednesday evening. The sec-
tion of the conservatives which has lately detached
itself from the ministerial majority, voted against the
government, the consequence of which has been that
the government majority, instead of being as hitherto
above a hundred, now proves to be under fifty, and
even in this case the ministry has the advantage of
the timid and wavering votes which are sure to desert
it as its strength fails. A number of deputies absented
themselves, being unwilling on the one hand to as-
sume a position of open hostility to the government,
and determined on the other not to oppose the mea-
of Mde Remusat The result of all this was, that
389 members voted out of the total number of 459
deputies, 70 votes being therefore absent. The votes
against the measure were '219, and those for it 170;
giving a majority of 49 in favour of the ministry.
Thus it appears that the loos of 25 votes more would
throw the cabinet into a minority.
Reform seems to engross the French chambers,
and in every case it is opposed with obstinacy and
system by the government. Electoral reform, parlia-
mentary reform, postage reform, railway reform, com-
mercial reform, and educational reform, have all been
brought forward and discussed without any practical
results. _ . .

One of the German journals says that the recent
fire at Buckbarest which has destroyed 1,500 houses,
bats considerably affected several bankers and mer-
chant., of Paris. The loss has been estimated at
several millions of franca. The report that Prince
Frederick of Denmark has arrived in Paris is con-
tradicted.
Our Paris correspondent adds in a postscript to his
letter, that a report was circulated on Thursday after-
noon at the Bourse and in the city, that a serious
accident had occurred on the Northern Railway by
the collision of an express train carrying an extra-
ordinary co,irier, with an engine on the line, tho re-
sult of which was that the courier was killed on the
spot. Our correspondent made inquiries in quarters
usually well informed, but was unable to ascertain
anything satisfactory either in confirmation or refuta-
tion of this report. One of the trains Wa.9 five hours
late, and bad not yet arrived.

The Madrid mail of the 17th inst., with our usual
correspondence, has been received, but contains little
intelligence of general interest. A commission has
been appointed to prepare a project of law for the
general arrangement of the public debt. The different
classes of public creditors, whether domestic or foreign,
are desired to appoint an agent to present their claims
to the commission, and to propose to it the basis of
such an agreement as will be consistent at once with
justice to the public creditor, and a due consideration
of the actual state of the public finances. A royal
ordonnance has appeared appointintr Lieut-General
Roncali Captain General of Galicia, instead of
General Juan Villa Longs, who has resigned. The
Queen is reported to have received M. Oloraga with
extraordinary distinction, insisting on the hon. deputy
sitting in her presence and conversing with him for
a considerable time with the most gracious affability.

BERLIN, Amt, 17.
Ever since the year 1842, when the united committers of
the provincial states declared in favour of the construction
of a lice of railway which should connect this capital with
Dantsic and lidnigsberg, the government have been very
anxious to commence the undertaking, or rather to extend
the Btettin line, which, at that period, was in the mune of
construction, and which since then has been opened. The
state of the money market, however, during some time peat,
has deterred private capitalists from embarking in the
speculation, even with the co-operation of the government.