The Express.
London, England, 1856-01-12 00:00:00

ett Oxpregigt.

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LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 12.

SIR E. W. CARDEN is disposed to believe that
almsgiving in the streets mutt be pat down by law.
if it is to be put down at all. We are very confident that
it will never he put down by law it other means fail.
It is an old truth that law is the expression of the
morality of those who lira soder it; that if it falls
below that general morality, it becomes obsolete ;
if it anticipates that general morality, it is not
observed. All this is a settled matter to which
everybody agreot in the abstract, while our prattle',
in Parliament and out of it, shows tow little we take
the troth to heart. It is not very long since our
legislators believed they could settle rates of wage'
by law, es the HENRYS and the EDWARDS supposed
they could settle prices; and there are now numbers
of workmen who, whenever adversity betels any
branch of industry, think that their troubles might be
mended by law, it Parliament would only lend its aid.
Then are but too many instances of recent
netiuiiog kgislation to permit as as yet to beast
of much enlightenment in regard to the powers
and scope of law. Our unhappy experience of Sib-
batarian legislation must be fresh in the memories
of all; and we could, if space allowed, show a long
array of mischief..., daily miens,' from the carrying of
law into provinces where it cannot work. But we
confess we have heard nothing yet to compare in
wildness with the proposal to put down street-
almsgiving by law. It can hardly be necessary to
point oat what a cut increase of cheating would
immediately take place, when the givers and rs.
ceivers would practically combine to evade the police;
what a stimulus would be administered to the inge-
nuity of the most ingenious of all people,—the
beggars; what mischief would be done to the
au•hority of ►aw itself by en enactment which could
sot be enforced, and which would owe its very
existence to its opposition to public sentiment. A'
law which is opposed to public sentiment is a Legs-
San for good objects, and a dangerous instrument of
bad ones. That sty magistrate should invoke law
ander such circumstances proves nothing so clearly
as his perplexity how to deal with an unmanageable
difficulty ; and thus far Sir B. W. CIIIDZN has our
hearty eympsthy. The difficulty is enormous.

. . -
The disastrous consequences are indeed over-
whelmiog to those who have to administer the law,
and we could not wonder if every London magis-
trate regarded as a personal, certainly as a public,
enemy every one who glees money, or money's
worth, to street beggars. We would fain help the
magistrates, and the public morality and social wel-
fare of which they are the representatives and pro-
tectors; but we cannot join them, oe any one of
them, in desiring a law for purposes which no law
can accomplish. Sir It. W. CARDE2I calla for
"sow Act indicting a penalty (or the offence of
giving street alms." There is no sort of Act which
would prevent this, even if every ragged child had a
policeman for a keeper. The general sentiment
which causes the abuse meet be enlightened, for it
cannot be coerced.

That this can be dens, theme is no doubt. Every
elderly man will declare that the proportion of
indiscriminate alma givers is much smaller than it
was thirty years ago. There may be more money
spent by them, there may be more beggars, and the
tricks of their trade may have become more various
and refined. Bat among the educated and sensible
classes of socie:y, a large proportion, whose parents
used to give alms in the street, are aware that the
practice is not only a folly but a sin—en " °Snot.,"
as the magistrate calls it. As a living Archbishop
ones said, " I have committed many sins in my life;
bat one I
a beggar in the street." The most obvious thing to
be done is to further the process of conviction—to

make mavens to the truth in all directions, by the
publication of facts and the influence of reason.
These ladies, for instance, acquaintances of Sir R. W.
CARDEN, of whose doings he told a striking ante-
dots in Court—ars not they cured or curable, and in
a oriedition by this time to reform others? These
ladies, importuned by a wretched looking woman
sad her ragged children, gave the woman—not

money, but meat, for a Christmas meal. They went
into a bomber's shop, and saw the beggar supplied
with several pounds of good beef. As soon as the
ladies were oat of sight, the woman was urgent to
sell the beef to the butcher again, because, u she
concluded, ha nut know she did not want it. Do
them ladies read newspapers? Do they read this
article? Will they allow us to put the question to
them, whether they will, or will not, henceforward,
give alms to unknown beggars in the street? If
they henceforth abstain, let them Induce others to
do likewise. Converts are usually zealous. Let
them show their zeal here; for they cannot have
a better cause. If, on the other hand, they will not
abstain—if they will go and do the same thing
again—let them take our solemn warning that
the curs* of the drunkard will be upon them,
and the woe of 601:110 honest hunger-bitten man
will lie at their door. They give to the gin•palace
and the corruption of infancy what should recom-
pense industry and solace genuine misfortune. A
hearty conviction of these truths must surely be
more operative than law.

And yet the weakness on this point of persons
otherwise sensible is something marvellous. We,
like Sir H. W. CARDEN, know ladies who cannot re-
sist street beggars. 0::e of them is perfectly aware
that begging is one of the most profitable pursuits
in London: that wteping, bare-footed, despairing
wretches go home at night to suppers of spring
chickens, green geese, and the best of roast sad
boiled : that children are reared to tell fah, tabs
from the time they can sprak, and rewarded fag NM
Oes by drams in the gin-shop: and that theme ere
good objects all around her languishing fig wet of
support. All this our friend knows; 'ad yet, front
day to day, before leaving home, she goes to her
' halfpence basket for a supply for the beggars.
It is wrong, she owns; but, when eh* is wrapped
in fun, she cannot refuse the naked—when she
is returning to a good dinner she cannot rebuff
these who may be hungry. We see the
same thing constantly Cone by peruse wbo are in
s conflict of mind between a dim ease that they
are doing wrong and • dried of closing these sus
hearts because they can ill afford to give. WNW
who his not observed the feet can have ulliht, vise
contributions street beggars levy on the euell shy-
keepers. Base-legged children hang about the
windows: -
- time
is not
whom
'

windows; and one or another drops in a &len ti
a day, carrying cif • penny eack time. It is
osly the bakers and sating•hoaee keepers to ml
wo refer—tbs victims of each importunity as