The Express.
London, England, 1862-11-21 00:00:00

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HAYMARKET'.
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PRI NCE‘TS.
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BRITANNIA.
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—And THE FATAL BRAND. Mr. G. Cooke and MI Loney.

HIGH WATT 3. AT LONDON' GRIGG&
Day Mmenthor. Om....Afterwmo. Ht. 25m.
To-Tmosaow—MornlAL lb. 50m... 212. 101 s.

LONDON, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21.

Ws are not surprised at the indignant remon-
strances called forth by the blind and indiscrimi-

nating attacks which have been made on the
employers and ratepayers of Lancashire by some
who have mere party purposes to serve, and by
others who ought to know better. The report of
the Manchester Committee, which we published

yesterday, may well call a blush to the cheek of
those unwitting slanderers who, living at a distance
from the scene of perplexity and suffering, have
recklessly lent their aid to swell the clamour that
has been raised against the upper and middle

classes of the distressed districts without distinc

Lion, because they have not in a Beason of unpre-
cedented exigency in all respects followed the pre-

scribed models and methods in use in ordinary
times. At the root of the whole question of
relief lice the obvious truth, which no virulence
of abuse can disguise, that the present
calamity is essentially exceptional, and in its
nature unlike those casual aggravations of poverty
with which particular districts from time to time
are visited. The standing rules and maxims of
Poor-Law administration are recognised as wise and
sound, because they have been founded upon long
experience of prevalent wants, and are suited to
permanent habits and tendencies. But they
wholly fail when they come to be applied to cases
like the present, where a sudden cessation of the
means of subsistence threatens to overwhelm a
whole community, not for a brief interval, but for
a period indefinitely prolonged. The eatimgale of
compulsory relief by means of parochial
rates is simple and intelligible enough. Society
in England has been practically working
out the theory for two centuries and a half ;
and one would have supposed that it could hardly
now-a-days be misunderstood. Yet, to read the
speeches and writings of some intemperate and in-
considerate public declaimers, one would really
imagine that the Poor Law was intended to meet
every imaginable want of society, and that its
machinery was capable, at a moment's notice, of
being applied to every conceivable condition of
things that can arise, without being dislocated or
put out of gear. Fifteen years ago the same in-
sane error was committed in Ireland, and very'
much owing to the same senseless and time-
serving cry having been raised, that the
rateable property of each locality should per-
emptorily be made accountable for the support of
its own poor. The rule which nobody gainsaid
in ordinary seasons ought, it was said, to be en-
forced in the midst of famine. The experiment

was tried, arid the result was that the circle of
destitution rapidly and fearfully widened, while

masses of property that might have helped to bear
the burden were rendered for the time literally
valueless ; and after au infinity of needless misery
had been inflicted, and wanton ►mischief done, the
stupid attempt had to be abandoned, and ex-
ceptional means of relief had to be provided for
the exceptional distress. The same thing would
inevitably happen in Lancashire if the same blind
and blundering adherence to mere routine
were unreservedly enforced. In Lancashire the
property of each district Ita4 hitherto main-
tained its population, and maintained them
well. Having, like Dorsetshire, its choice to pay
every man and woman who could work high
wages all the year round, and thus leaving hut a
few to be provided for out of poor-rates, or to
keep wages down to the lowest possible point of
subsistence, and thereby to entail a permanent
weight of Poor Law assessment—it preferred the
former. Which the people liked best is clearly
proved by the fact of the incessant immigration
from the districts of high rates and low wages
inta that where there were ample wages and trifling
rates. In times of ordinary slackness of work,
the Poor Law in the manufacturing districts
adapted itself to the increased necessity, and
nobody ever heard the increased burthen com-
plained of. The tests of labour were applicable,
and were applied as a check upon idleness and im-
posture. The machinery of legal relief was for
the time harder to work, hut it did not break
down. Those who had been thrifty in prosperous
times were practically made sensible of the benefit
of their foresight and self-denial ; and those who
had been improvident learned a lesson which,
though hard and unwelcome, they could not resent
as being cruel or unjust. But what resemblance
does such a state of thingi bear to that now ex-
isting in the County Palatine ? Of neces-
sity, and with the consent of all concerned,
everything in the shape of a labour test
has been abandoned. With a view to pre-
serve order and discipline, and to turn the
opportunity of physical distress to moral account,
attendance for a certain number of hours
at adult classes has been substituted ; and the
people readily comply with the new rule.
But will anyone seriously pretend that relief by

wholesale thus ministered is in aoeordance with
the fundamental principle of the Poor Lair?

Can anyone in hie senores believe that were the

legal right to subsistence on such terms to be

... .
established by mew in vast and dense communi-

ties, it would 146 possible to provide the means for

it out of rates for any considerable period ? Will
rOrybody have the hardihood to say that such a
system could be organized and established without
utter demoralization of the people and absolute
confiscation of property ?
Let us not be misunderstood as wishing to
exempt the propertied classes of Lancashire from
the pecuniary obligation which lies upon them
of endeavouring to meet the present grievous
calamity. Every consideration of prudence,
honour, and benevolence points to uninter-

mittent efforts and sacrifices in the region

which has heretofore pre-eminently prospered by
the loyal and diligent industry of those who are
now in want. We join as heartily as any of our
neighbours in execrating the sordid selfishness of
those millowners and capitalists who have as yet
contributed little or nothing in aid of the working

people, and we are ready to concur in the severest
measure of reproach which may be dealt out against
the landowners whose properties have been enor-
mously increased in value by the enterprise and
industry they have too often affected to despise.
But what we contend for is, that as the mere
amount of rating is not, and cannot be, a uniform
or unerring test of the extent of substantial relief
actnally given, so it cannot and ought not to be
looked forward to as theprimary means whence relief
under present circumstances should be drawn. If
all patriotic and Christian effort were suspended
to-morrow by the foolish cry that some of our
contemporaries have raised against the owners
of wealth in Lancashire, and could the whole
population now out of work be driven in
the name of a perverted law to the workhouse
gates to sue for daily bread, a greater social
blunder and a greater political crime could not be
perpetrated. The people are now patient, tran-
quil, and undebauched ; let us hope, also, that
they are not ungrateful for the proofs they daily
receive of sympathy and kindness from all classes
of the community and all parts of the kingdom.
Inestimable good is thus being educed out of
eviL Instead of being exasperated by suf-
fering and bewildered by despair, the nnem-
ployed masses are kept not merely alive, but,
as the returns prove, in tolerable health, and, as
the testimony of all observers declares, in excellent
temper, partly, and we believe we may say to a
great extent, by the unadvertising munificence of
their respective employers, partly by the free-will
offerings of aid from the nation at large, and partly
also through the instrumentality of the Poor Law.
It is our decided conviction that this conjoint and
co-operative system of relief is a wiser and a better
thing by far than it would be to leave all to
be done by any one method. If opulent
employers could be bullied, as we humbly trust in
GOD they will not be, into ostentatious forms of
charity, shutting their hearts against the old
hands that have served them long and well,
they might doubtless cheaply purchase by
contributions to the Central Fund worthless
praise from the unthinking, and exemption
from a heavy weekly call upon their resources.
But what would be the consequence ? Their
parish rates would indeed be quickly raised, and
the splenetic rancour of their calumniators would
for an hour be silenced ; but if bitterness and re-
sentment did not soon overflow around them, it
would be because their deserted and pauperised
hands would have sought new homes and fields of
toil, and abandoned a locality where, when they
were wanted, they would not be found. If, upon
the other hand, the necessarily irregular and preca-
rious resources of national voluntary benevolence
were wholly relied on, great inequalities of relief
must inevitably result. In every system of spon-
taneous charity, however generously planned and
carefully organized, there must be a wide margin
allowed for partiality and abuse. Relief from the
rates conies in happily and well to redress all such
inequalities. What we now see passing before
our eyes in this great Lancashire trouble is, in fact,
like all the best and noblest things we have
amongst us, not a single or simple result of any
one cold, calculating theory, or principle, or law,
but the mingling of several distinct streams of
good, having their sources wide apart, but tending
naturally and uncompelled to one happy conflu-
ence.

WHAT are Mr. COWPER'S people doing at
the Kensington end of Rotten-row ? The wire
fence which was put up before the opening of the
Exhibition, and which, in fact, divided the Row
into a road for carriages and a road for riders on
horseback, is beginning to be taken away. In
fact, Mr. COWPER seems determined to destroy
the new road which was made as an approach to
the Exhibition between the Bayswater-road and
Kensington. Now, why should this be ? This
road has existed for months—it has been used by
the rich and by the poor, certainly by all the per-
sons who desired to get by the shortest road from
Paddington or Tyburnia to Kensington, the Ex-
hibition, or Brompton. Its existence has caused no
sort of inconvenience to the people on horseback
or upon foot, to old gentlemen or young ladies, to
nurseryn.aida with perambulators or without per-
ambulators ; why, then, should it be stopped
up ? If Parliament had been now sitting perhaps
Mr. COW PER'S experience of former defeats might
have rendered him more cautious ; at all events,
it would have been possible to have the matter
discussed, and answers made to such questions as
have been suggested. But in the month of
November the public is helpless. In such a
matter as this Mr. Cominissioner CowrEß becomes
dictator, and he can only he restrained by his own
common sense and public spirit from giving his
fellow-citizens infinite annoyance. If the
new road between Bayswater and Kensing-
ton is to be abut up, at all events
let it be done after due deliberation. Every one
knows the difficulty of restoring a state of things
which has ceased to exist. There can be no seri-
ous necessity for closing the road immediately ;
let it only remain open for a month or two longer,
and then the whole subject may be debated in
Parliament.

There are two reasons, however, which seem
conclusive in favour of maintaining the road as it
at present exists. Anyone who knows London
knows that there are two enormous towns which
stretch away from Kensington-gardens on either
side. There are hundreds of persons in either
quarter whose business and pleasure require that
they should communicate with each other, and to
whom time is a matter of considerable moment. Why
should they be prevented crossing the Park by the
shortest road ? Why should those who live in
Oxford-square or Craven-hill, or even further off,
be compelled to go round by Park-lane, or through
the wilds of Kensington, in order to reach Princes-
gate or Brompton T There might be something to
be said if the road did not already exist, or if
any inconveniences were apprehended from its
construction. But the road is made—it has been
open for months—it has proved an immense con-