The Express.
London, England, 1866-05-03 00:00:00

cruelties which have been practised rightly

cruelty, deaths through drunken nurses, dew.
from improperly aggravated . &seem, deaths from
flagrant and wicked neglect,' in our workhouses
and among our casual poor. We have had, too,
elaborate official inquiries, convictions, exculpir
ions, and explanations. Yet, in spite of all the
atspoken expressions of public opinion which have
followed, matters are left where they were. There
is absolutely no guarantee that the abuses we have
all shuddered at may not be repeated with impunity
until again temporarily put down by the occur-
rence of another public scandal, and in deference
to another spasm of popular indignation. What
is urgently required is that our system of adminis-
tration, and particularly our system of control,
should be placed on a satisfactory footing. The
public mind was never better prepared for the
judicious and dispassionate consideration of this
vast subject than now ; and we look with deep
interest and reasonable confidence to the author of
the Union Chargeability Bill and the Hounslow
Poor Act for a proposal which shall partake of
the comprehensive and statesmanlike humanity of
those measures, and relieve at once the needless
sufferings of the poor, and the roused conscience
of the country.
OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

(THIS DAY.)

PLACE OR WAR ?

- _
Though there are no states, observes the Time...,
so bound to be moderate in theirerpectations and cautions
in their proceedings as the two foremost in the impending
fray ; but though it is eminently their policy to addict
themselves to the arts of peace with no more armament
than is necessary for self-defence, it cannot be doubted
that they are all arming up to the very teeth.
Austria professes to be ready to refer all the differences to
the Bund ; but she, as well as Prussia, has lately set the
Bend at naught, and superseded its most solemn federal
act in the matter of the famous Duchies. It is evident,
too, that both Austria and Prussia are thinking much
more of the political sympathies and the armaments of the
several state' in the confederation than of their common
judgment. With Prussia on one side, Italy on the other,
Hungary within, and France not very far off, Austria cer-
tainly has the greatest possible reasons for peace, even at
a great sacrifice. War must be ruinous in her case, if not ru'n
itself, and final dissolution. Her only security or consola-
tion laths& she inflicts almost equal ruin on her hostile neigh-
bours. Great as was the want of money, it was the death of
man for man that subdued the dwindling forces of the Con-
federates before the ever-replenished hosts of the Federals.
All the European powers before us would fight as long as
the mere shadow of credit lasted, or rather on its pre-
tence, by simply taking what they wanted, and promising
to pay. But if that is to be the condition of three Euro-
pean powers for no one knows how long, simply to decide
who shall have the Duchies, or whether Italy shall have
her Venice, is it not possible to avert a continental reign
of terror by just daring to be moderate and wise!

MARRIAGE WITH A DECEASED WIFE'S SISTER.
The Tines allows that there being the highest authori-
ties on both sides, it is impossible to regard the above
subject as any other than an open question from a theo-
logical point of view, but it thinks that from moral
and social considerations the arguments in support of the
existing law are unanswerable. So long as the present law
is upheld, a man is not less able to associate with his wife's
sister in his house than with his own ; but render the re-
lation between them uncertain, and, as Mr. Coleridge put
it, no modest marriageable woman would consent to be in
a position where she might be regarded as having interested
motives, or, still more, in which she might create an em-
barrassment in the mind of the brother-in-law. In a
highly artificial and crowded state of civilisation restric-
tions on the relations between the sexes become mor: and
more necessary ; so much so, that if a high moral standard
is to be maintained custom must provide many more re-
strictions than are enacted by law. The mere fact that a
small minority of persons are unable to control their
feelings within the customary bounds of society may
rather prove the necessity of the law than its injustice.
Though most persons would be glad to see the
question taken out of the field of parliamentary
discussion, it is certainly destined, the Daily
New says, to reappear there until some satisfactory
settlement can be arrived at. The legal prohibition is sup-
posed to be based on the Old Testament, on the usage of
the Christian church, and on observations drawn from
social experience, but these are all too narrow to support
the superstructure of the existing law. There is neither
unanimity amongst the most accomplished Hebraists an I
theologians nor amongst the churches. Such marriages are
legal in the protestant countries of the continent
and amongst English nonconformists they are of continual
occurrence, the act of 1835 being regarded by large
numbers of the most moral and religious of our countrymen
and women as au arbitrary abridgment of social liberty.
Some of the speakers seemed to forget that Mr. Chambers'
measure is simply an enabling bill. It neither prescribes
a doctrine to churches, nor duties to individuals. Were
it to become law, churches might in their liberty con-

throughout the winter, have been stopped. But
the authorities of Clerkenwell are guilty of other
mism9nagement which, if nut as hideously revol.-
ing as their late treatment of the casual poor, is
fraught with as much danger to its victims, and
reflects the same scandal upon us all. Their
workhouse is a standing nuisance, in which hun-
dreds of poor wretches are crammed, without regard
to the number for whom there may be accommo-
dation, and where they are immured without
proper breathing room, classification, or space for
exercise. Concerning this crazy edifice the
Guardians have made false promises to, and
equivocated with the Poor-law Board for years;
and at this hour, after more reports, squabbles,
recriminathni, and shuffling among themselves than
wo care to dwell upon, these gentlemen continue
to assemble in the condemned house, and, having
insolently closed its doors to free inquiry, fold
their hands iu the hope thpt the public cry for im-
provement will be stifled, and their darling abuses
be successfully maintained. Compelled to provide
proper casual wards, not by an order of the Poor-
law Board, but by the force of public opir;on,
which had made their name a byword for neglect
and inhumanity throughout the land ; their griev-
ance is that the further evasion of a plain duty is
impossible, and their determination, to guard against
similar compulsion for the future. Haring done
right under a bitter sense of injury, they regard
the maintenance of further wrong as a duty due
to their own dignity ; and co-nplacently argue that
by hiding their misdeeds from those acting for the
public, retribution will be avoided and amendment

tinue to condemn these marriages, and ministers refuse to
celebrate them, and no doubt their authority would have
its just weight. This, it seems to us, is all that can be
desired in the interests of special systems of morality.
Those speakers who undertook to object to the bill on
social grounds did so Tel/ feebly, and it was plain that
they were not the real reasons for the opposition. Looking
to the large interests which are growing up adverse to the
present law; to the number of persons of unimpeachable
morality who are yearly married in disregard of it, and of
the children who are born under the intolerable stigma
of illegitimacy, and to the high character and position of
the public men who have expressed themselves favour.
able to a change, we cannot suppose that the legislation
of Mis will not be brought before parliament from time
to time until a remedy has been applied_
The Herald thinks the division ought to extinguish any
further agitation on the subject, at least during the ex-
istence of the present parliament. The existence of a
conservative reaction is more apparent than ever, and the
church has been vindicated in the Homo of Commons in
her true position as the guanlian of society.

be unnecessary.
It is the urgent need of some assurance that
this cynical perseverance in ill-doing shall be made
impossible, that gave weight to Mr. KINNAIRD'II
questions, and significance to Mr. Vitaxerts s reply.
The absurdity of electing irresponsible dicta/ors for
life, and calling the process local self-government,
is only equalled by the anomaly of maintaining an
elaborate and costly machinery of inspection and
control without a single guanaitee that the one
will not be defied and the other laughed at. The
Select Committee upon whose recommendations we
are glad to learn Mr. VILLIERS'S Bill for amending
the administration of the Poor-law is to be based,
gives in the Blue-books published under its autho-
rity conclusive evidence of the attitude
assumed by the parishes worked under
local acts, of the privileges they claim, and the
views they hold of their own power. Of these,
the one in which a living child was recently laid
out as dead, was then especially conspicuous for
its ill-treatment of the pauper inmates of its work-
house, and for the flippant justification put forth
by the guardians examined by the Committee. In
another, the authorised representative of the Poor-
law Board had been peremptorily ordered out of
its board-room, the guardians refusing to proceed
with the business he wished to advise them on
until he had retired. An action in the Queen's
Bench had been the penalty of endeavouring to
enforce the orders and regulations of the Poor-law
Board upon one of these parishes ; while of Clerk-
enwell Workhouse an official high in authority
gave in evidence, in March, 1861, after pointing
out its utter unfitness for the purposes assigned
to it : " It is very old, and they tell me they are
" about to build another. It would tumble down st
" this moment if there were not at least 2001.
" worth of wooden props all round it." Further,
when pressed for his opinion generally upon such
metropolitan guardians as possessed the anomalous
privileges conferred by local acts, this same official
said: " My experience obliges me to say that they
" resist any order, almost any suggestion made to
" them, . . . and they submit only when
" you have gone to law with them, and they
" are beaten." It is five years since these words
were spoken, during which there has been as
little change in the character and constitution of
parochial bodies as in the workhouse it was
falsely promised to replace. We have had, besides
the countless instances which never come to light,
deaths from starvation, deaths from wanton

'E) -XPRESEI, THUINDAY 3,.

Ile the goys:meat. They could Sint gala by a dpn-
saution—the eceantry rent hall* hens in • melts'
conservative frame of mind. To send 810 isrileded 1.111132•
hers beck to their constituents *Min a yew, to punish
them with heavy expenses, and then bring them up to
Westminster to wit far into the autumn, would be
• course which the boldest statesmen would hesi-
tate to try. Unless he could succeed in unseating the
majority of the members of the present house, he would
find the new one bent upon his destruction, irrespective of
party. An honest and effectual settlement of the ques-
tion can only be made with the consent of the moderate
liberals, and, it may be said, also of the conservative
party. These two sections united will form a majority of
this or any future House of Commons, and they make up
the whole body of the House of Lords. To these, then
the government must appeal, to these it must defer.
The real source of the vexation of the Adullamites, the
Daily News contends, is in the fact that the Franchise Bill
has, not that it has not, made progress ; that it has
escaped, though narrowly indeed, the ambush laid for it ;
and that the pretext on which resistance has hitherto been
based no longer exists. As matters now are, the Franchise
Bill on Monday will assume its place as a per.
tion of that complete scheme of reform which the
supporters of Lord Grosvenor's amendment are pledged
candidly to consider ; and the advance of the question,
regarded generally, is even more remarkable than the pro-
gress of the bill. A specific measure has now been sup-
ported by 318 members of the liberal party ; the anti-
reformers in the liberal ranks have been reduced to 33 at
the outside, and the conservatives as a party have been
planed in • positionmuch more advanced than they occupied
before. All this we owe to the tactics of the government.
If what is called a comprehensive scheme had been pro-
posed in the first instance, this clear and simple issue
would have been avoided. Principles would have been
lost sight of in a labyrinth of details, and evasion would
have been endless. The government has forced the House
of Commons to know itself, and to declare Heel' with
almost absolute precision. If neither ministry nor parlia-
ment was pledged to Reform in February last, both are
pledged now. The Franchise Bill has acted as a sort of
chemical test, analysing the House of Commons into its
component elements. False pretences have been cleared
away, and both the great parties have been forced to take
up a definite position. In the face of these things, it is
either childish or disingenuous to contend that no pro-
gress has been made.
The Post mourns over the slight on the memory of the
late Lord Palmerston which has been cast upon it by Mr.
Gladstone in pretending that the course pursued by him
would have been followed by that great minister. As to a
dissolution of parliament, the Post cannot doubt that it
would be received with delight by the members of the
opperition.
, The Telegraph reminds the boroughs whose represents-
tion has been declared vacant, that they can give a dis-
-1 tinctly practical kind of aid by filling the seats with libe-
rals too honest to bribe and too fearless themselves to
1 practise intimidation on others. At Nottingham Lord
Amberley, the Telegraph hopes, will be supported on his
own merits, and Mr. Bernal Osborne be returned with
him ; Mr Coaham is not exactly the sort of man for the
House of Commons, and the candidature of fierjeant
Simon can only distract and diN:de the l'beral party.
Windsor ought to find much better representatives than
any of the four candidates who are now seeking its
suffrages.
The Star says the country should urge upon the
government to dissolve parliament in the event of an
unsatisfactory division. Let every city and town and
political association press this with emphasis on the atten-
tion of the ministry and the parliament. Let it be known
that the country will not submit to have the reform ques-
tion unsettled by any faction in tho Home of Commons
or the House of Lords. If the Commons will not pose the
bill send the Commons to answer for their conduct to the
country. The constituencies will soon find more faithful
servants, and the work of reform which the nation de-
mands will be done.
The Advertiser predicts that the conservative amendment
in the committee, that the 71. franchise in boroughs be
raised to Al., and that a 201. franchise be substituted for
the IV. one in counties, will be carried, and yet that
ministers will not only not resign, but will acquiesce and
proceed with the bill.

the Court.

LATEST INTELLIGENCK,

ITALY AND GERMANY.
The "(emir National of to-day contains the
following :
We receive from a source in which we have every confi-
dence important information which the despatches of
the day do not supply. We are informed in the first
place that Prussia, discontented with the reply of Saxony
to the demand for disarmament, has threatened the
Saxon government with ass immediate attack. We
are likewise informed that the British Ambersdr
at Berlin has made an ineffectual attem to
to bring about a better understanding between Prussia
and Austria. On last Sunday Herr von Biemarck for-
mally refused to comply with the advice of the English
minister that Prussia should be =Called with the promise
of Austria to disarm in Germany without insisting on her
disarming in Venetia. He based his non-compliance on
the consideration that Austria could in a few days transfer
her southern army to the north and take Prussia by stir-
prime.
Writing on the 30th ult., the Florentine corres-
pondent of the Dads says :
While writing these lines, I regard the state of war as
existing between Austria and Italy. Hostilities have not
commenced, it is true, but one is unable to see how they
can be prevented now. The movement has commenced,
and it will run its course. Yesterday the walls were
placarded with an order from the government calling in
the soldiers on leave. This order, which is dated
the 30th, was posted on the 29th, which proves
the urgency of the occasion. The railways are crowded
with soldiers proceeding to their various destinations.
They are in the highest spirits. Judging from what I see
the war is more popular here than it was in 1848 or 1859.
Everyone seems rejoiced that the hour has come when
Italy is to assume her proper and definitive position. Gene-
ral La Harmers has entire confidence in the army, and
believes that it is able, not only to resist,
but to beat the Austrians. Garibaldi is ex-
pected here from day to day, and the aid of
volunteers will not be rejected. No enrolments
of volunteers have as yet taken place, at least officially,
but from this date the army is on a war footing. La Mar-
mom's resolve to take the command of the army will make
a change of ministry se:weary. It seems certain that
Baron Ricasoli will be made prime minister, and that he
will take some of his colleagues from the left of the cham-
ber, probably Signor Mordini. It is evident that the
events which are now developing themselves are not the
result of chance, but of plans long prepared and patiently
wrought out. The question now is who will fire the first
shot ; but whether it be in Italy or Germany, in a few
hours after the conflagration a ill spread from the Elbe to
the Arno.
The Italia of April 30, says :
There is no longer any room for doubt. If war is not
actually proclaimed,peace, or to speak more properly, the
truce which has continued for six years, has come to an
end. This announcement of a speedy solution, which will
certainly be a favourable one, has re established that con-
fidence which the state of doubt and anxiety, which
existed for the the last month, bad entirely shaken.
Considering the enthusiasm of the people, the resolution
of the army, and the patriotic and courreous spirit of
all citizens, we can entertain no fear, and believe that
Italy, though scarcely re-constituted, is about to prove
that she is not only a nation but a gnat nation. Without
being initiated in the secrets of cabinets we may be certain
that the government has availed itself of solid points of
support, and that while appealing to the vital strength of
the county for a national war it has not neglected the
precautions which a poutical war demands.

OSBORNE, MAT 2.

The Queen went out in the grounds yesterday
morning with Princess Helena, and drove out in the after
noon, accompanied by Prince Arthur, and attended by
Lady Churchill.
Colonel Du Plat was in attendance on horseback.
Prince Arthur, attended by Major Elphinstone, visited
the forts on Portadown•bill yesterday.

The Prince of Wales rode oat on horseback yesterday
afternoon, attended by 3lajor Teesdale.
The Princess of Wales took a carriage drive, attended
by ViAcountess Walden.

A Cabinet Council was held yesterday, at the
official residence of the First Lord of the Treasury
in Downing-street. The ministers present were
Earl Russell, the Lord Chancellor, Earl Grarville,
the Duke of Argyll, Sir George Grey, the Earl of
Clarendon, the Right Hon. Edward Cardwell,
Earl de Grey, Marquis of Hartington, the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer, the Duke of Somerset, the
Right Hon. T. Milner Gibson, Lord Stanley of
Alderley, the Right Hon. G. J. Goschen, and the
Right Hon. C. P. Villiers.

A deputation from Lancashire had an interview with the
Right Hon. H. A. r. -uce, at the Privy Council-office yes,
terday, on the subjoct of giving greater facilities for the
removal of cattle by rail. The deputation, wh'ch WAS in-
troduced by Mr. T. B. Putter, M.P., Mr. C. Turner, M.l'.,
Mr. H. Woods, M.P., Mr. Edward Potter, Mr. It. N.
l'hilips, M.l'. Mr. John P. Hibbert, M.l'., Mr. W. H.
Hornby, Mr. J. Platt, M.P., Mr. Jos. Feib'en,
M.P., Mr. J. Cheetham, M.P. Slr T. Hesketh, Bart.,
M.P., Mr. Ed. W. Watkin, .P., and Mr. T. Barnes,
M.P., consisted of the following gentlemen :—Mr. Joshua
Lim;ard (Ashton), Mr. John Lupton (Rochdale), Mr. E.
Wood Norris (Rochdale), Mr. Bradbury (Oldham), Mr.
Willing (Bolton), Mr. King (Beryl, Mr. Barlow (Wigan),
Mr. Latham (Mitoelestieltl), Mr. Clough (Prestwich), Mr.
Mai -hall (Burnley), Mr. lieu:won (Stockport), aild. Mr.
Constantine (Blackburn).

The Prince of Wales and Prince Alfred, accom-
panied by his Highness the Prince Edward of Saze Wei-
mar, and attended by Major Teesdale, Lieutenant Haigh,
and other gentlemen, honoured the Strand Theatre with
their presence last evening,

The Right Hon. the Chancellor of the Exchequer
had a parliamentary dinner last e ?ening, at his residence
in Carlton-house-terrace, when the following members of
the House of Commons were guests :—Viscount Milton,
Lord George Cavendish, the Right Hon. Sir Wm. Hutt,
Bart., Lord Edward Clinton, Sir Edward Dering, Bart.,
Sir John Hanmer, Bart., Captain Hon. R. W. Grosvenor,
Mr. D. Robertson, Mr. Adana, Mr. Moffatt, Mr.
Ewart, Mr. R. Phillips, Mr. C. Forster, Mr. C. W.
Martin, Mr. J. Maguire, Mr. W. H. Cogan, Mr. W. H.
Gladstone, and Colonel Greville. Mrs. Gladstone had an
assembly later in the evening, when their Royal High-
nesses the Duke of Cambridge, the Duchess of Cambridge
and Princess Mary, and his Highness the Prince de Teck,
attended by Lady Caroline Cost and Colonel Purvea, ho-
noured the reception by their presence.

His Excellency the French Ambassador enter-
tained the following company at dinner last evening at the
French embassy, Albert-gate :—His Excellency the Bava.
rim Minister, hie Excellency the Portuguese Minister, the
Marchioness of Ely and Lady Marion Loftus, the Earl and
Countess of Clarendon and lady Emily Villiers, the Earl
and Countess Russell and Lady Georgians Russell, Vis-
count and Viscountess Stratford de Radcliffe and Hon.
Mir Canning, Lord and Lady Stanley of Alderley and
Hon. Miu Stanley, Baron de Baude, the Marquis de Tami-
sier, the Marquis Caumont la Force, and Mr. and Mrs.
Arthur Russell.

The Marquis and Marchioness of Clanricarde
entertained his Excellency the Austrian Ambassador and
the Countess Apponyi, the Duke of St. Albans, the
Marquis and Marchioness of lunsdowne, the Earl and
Countess of Beuborough, the Earl Cadogan, the Berland
Countess Grey, the Countess Frances Waldegrave and
the Right Hon. Chichester Fortescue, Viscount
and Viscountess Sydney, Sir William Alexander, the
Attorney-General for Ireland, Hon. Mr. Calthorpe, Ate.,
at dinner last evening, at their residence in Stratton-
street, Piccadilly.

The Marchioness of Salisbury and young family
left yesterday on a tour in Germany. The Marin% of
Salisbury is at Hertford, doing duty with his regiment,
the South Herta Militia.