The Express.
London, England, 1847-11-25 00:00:00

the &inking reserve was reduced to 4,440,0001. on the
31st July, and in self-defence the directors were
driven into the adoption of those coercive measures
which caused the severe pressure ot the two
weeks of August. If there had been no separation
of &pertinent', and if the Bank had lain under no
obligation to make the most profit oat of the least
eflprodactiv e reserve, it is abundantly certain that
the disasters of August would not have occurred.
Here then is an analogous_ cue precisely in
riet—and, let it be remembered, a case where the
probabilities of future ease were much greater than
they are at preeent. The reserve was not only larger,
bot the instalments on the Irish loan had placed the
treasury above the necessity of borrowing from the
Beak on deficiency bills to provide the full atnoatit of
the July dividends. We venture to think that the
Csurcuwit OP THE ExcIIZQUEII. has severe mis-
givings as to whether he will be able to meet hie en-
/gement/ to the public creditor in January next
ieel equally independent resources. We conceive,
therefore, that there is the greatest likelihood of •
partial relapse into the evils we have just escaped,
if the act of 1844 is to be again reiustated in its us-
OOP
Sir CUARLES WOOD says that in the event of any
each relapse there is the resort to parliament. But
why is the commerce of the country to be subjected
to a week or a fortnight's intense uncertainty
respecting a problematical resolution of the House of
Commons ? Surely Sir CHARLES WOOD cannot stand
in need of being told that of all the calamities which
can afflict the mercantile body, the calamity of sus-
pense is the most to be deprecated.
We trust, it is not yet toe late for Lord Jonm Ros-
eau. and the CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER to re-
consider this subject, and to make some atonement
for the imperfection of the management of it hitherto,
by introducing a bill for the continuance of the per-
mission of the 23th October until the result of the w-
hew entary inquiries can be made known. Stich a
course would be at once consistent and safe ; and
would relieve the government from a load of suspicion
and responsibility.
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TEE report presented to the Committee of the
Privy Conocil for Education, by their commissioners
i% inquiring into the state of education in Wales, has
jot been printed. It consists of three bulky folio
volumes, with the contents of which we have only
been able as yet to make ourselves cursorily as
It is evident that the commissioners,
Mr. JELII4GER SYMONS, Ms. LINOZN, and Mr.
VAUGHAN JOHNSON, have devoted themselves strenu-
ously to their arduous labours, rendered more difficult
by the uncivilised character of a great part of the
country which they had to deal with, by its want
of roads, and by its distinctive language. Mr. JOHN-
SON was employed in North Wales, Mr. SYMONS in
Breoonshire, Radnorshire, and Cardiganshire, and Mr.
Lurcerr in the three remaining counties of South
Wales. Their general impressions as to the state of
society, the national character of the Welsh, and the
miserable deficiencies of education, agree sufficiently
to prove to every reader that their conclusions are not
founded on individual bias or on fancy, but derived
from experience and careful observation. A vast mass
of evidence is collected, principally from clergymen
and dissenting ministers ; and all the better informed
witnesses substantially agree in their accounts of the
virtues and vices of the people and of the state
of the schools. Al to the provisions for
education, however, the commissioners did not
trust to hearsay. They visited a great num-
ber of schools, and extracted, as far as possible,
from masters and pupils, the very little which they
knew, and the uniform and discouraging facts, which
were all that could be known about them. Every
Fenn who is acquainted with Wales, will recognise
the truth of Mr. SYMONS'S description of the ill-
taught, ill-paid, schoolmaster, appointed to his situa-
tion because he was fit for nothing else, and paid as
labourers are paid, who do the work which the whole
community around them consider the easiest and least
important. Often on entering a village he discovered
the school by the noise which issued from it, a noise
sometimes of unmeaning jabbering of lessons, some-
times of play or conversation which proceeded, while
the master was writing • letter for a neighbour, or
otherwise turning his small talents to same more pro-
fitable account than could arise from instructing his