The Express.
London, England, 1867-01-11 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING, JANUARY 11, 1867.

this we may remind our readers that some
twelve months ago we called attention to the fact
that St. Olave's, Southwark, while nominally con-
forming to the law, had its casual beds empty
night after night, while its near neighbour Ber-
mondsey was crammed to overflowing. Refusals
to admit were peremptorily denied, and permis-
' sion to look over the St. °lave's casual
wards refused, as at Clerkenwell now. Yet
after we had publicly compared the statistics for
a few weeks, and patiently asking the reason of
the extraordinary discrepancy between the num-
bers relieved at the two workhouses ; the numbers
at St. Olave's mysteriously increased tenfold, and
a fair average between it and Bermondsey was at-
tained. It has since been tacitly admitted that the
numbers had been kept down by almost uniformly
refusing admission. The law was enforced in this
case purely by independent inquirers, as although
the returns had been made week by week to the
Poor-law Board, the master's report "no refusals"
had been accepted as fact. It is possible that the
statistics of Clerkenwell may not be below those of
its neighbours, but it would be infinitely more
satisfactory if we could have some approach to
certainty on the point. In one of the temperate
but inconclusive letters addressed by a Clerkenwell
guardian to a contemporary, it was stated in proof
of the extra humanity of this notorious board that
it did not send casuals to a police-station for a
ticket of admission, as is done by other
parishes. But this argument has a double
edge, for it proves the officers of the ward to
have unlimited discretion as to who is, and who is
not in urgent necessity ; and neither the choice of
instruments, nor the previous conduct of the
Clerkenwell guardians, has been such as to inspire
confidence in the liberality or humanity of the
instructions given, or the rules laid down.
The case upon which the action of the Poor-
law Board is now looked for, has been too recently
before our readers to need recapitulation. It is
well, however, to remind the authorities that the
country expects something more than vague ex-
pressions of confidence in good intentions, and
that it is their bounden duty to acquit or condemn
Clerkenwell of the charge of violating the law. If
the inspector, who on these occasions has to com-
bine the functions of judge and jury, declares
that no improper refusals to admit have taken
place, the guardians will stand absolved. If, how-
ever, the charge is said to be proved, the loss must
fall upon the ratepayers, as repayment for casual ex-
pears would in such a case be clearly illegal. The
issue is a narrow one, and it is of paramount im-
portance that it should not be shirked. We haie
heard of inquiries and reports which, after being
carefully elaborated, were never allowed to go be
yond the archives of the Poor-law Board and the
local board-room. There must be full publicity in the
case before us, for all interested in the proper
working of the Houseless Poor Act regard it as a
representative one, and other metropolitan guar-
dians are asking whether they are to regard
Clerkenwell as an example for imitation, or a warn-
ing to avoid

the dwarf and England the giant of the fable, and no
victory whatever will compensate for the actual injuries
that the weaker may have to pay for it. These are con-
Adoration' that would hardly have been applicable in the
good old days of imperial unity and colonial dependence.
Rut they are everything now. It is now for the colonies
themselves to answer the questions their forefathers
might have fairly put as to the designs of the mother
country. Responsibility goes with power, and the colo-
nits, being now powerful, are also responsible. What will
' they do? There *we trust, no immediate necessity for a
definite answer, but the time may come, and it is far
nearer than it has been.

The question raised by Mr. Torten' and his friends
as to the dwellings of the poor, is simply. as the
Doily News puts it, whether the charge upon the
rates shall be incurred in preventing the creation
of paupers and criminals, or in supporting them when
made. The evil of overcrowding, though it begins
only with individuals, though it affects in its direct work-
ing only a section of a class, ultimately reaches the entire
community. No one proposes to exact from the tenants
of the new houses less than their full value. Their occu-
pants will be able to pay such rent as will return a fair
'nterest on the capital advanced. lint it does not follow
from this, as seems to be supposed, that the whole thing
may be safely left to private enterprise. The action of
the government is required because, in spite of the pecu-
niary success of some model lodging•houaes, private enter-
prise is not forthcoming. In this case, as in others, the
initiative of the state may be necessary to bring individual
or associated capitalists into the field.
The plain and palpable facts of the case condemn, in the
opinion of the Times, the present want of municipal effi-
ciency and unity in London. They prove a want of one-
ness, cf central heat and vital force, in this enormous
mass, which for statistical purposes, and now for drainage,
has been tardily and reluctantly treated as one. The
Metropolitan Board is successful as far as it goes, but
necessarily, so far as concerns the quarters least able to
help themselves, its success has been underground. The
Metropolitan Municipal Association is for advancing on
this foundation, and dividing the metropolis into ten
boroughs, to be affiliated in due time to one central muni-
cipality. The Times urges the association to confine itself
to collecting and exhibiting the materials in favour of
some change. It has only to invite aid, and It will find
recruits and information from every part of the
metropolis.

Vitt Court.

OSBORNE, JAN. 10.

The Queen drove out yesterday afternoon,
accompanied by Miss McGregor, and attended by the
Dowager Duchess of Athole ; and her Majesty drove this
morning with Princess Christian.
Princess Louise and Prince Christian rode out this
morning.

Prince Leopold, Princess Beatrice, and Prince Henry of
Prussia walked in the grounds.
The Right Hon. Sir Stafford Northoote arrived at Os-
borne yesterday, and had the honour of dining with the
Queen and the royal family.

A Cabinet Council was held yesterday at the
official residence of the First Lord of the Trea-
sury, in Downing-street. The ministers pre-
sent were the Earl of Derby, the Lord Chan-
cellor, the Duke of Buckingham, the Earl of
Malmesbury, the Right Hon. Spencer H. Wal-
pole Lord Stanley, the Earl of Carnarvon, Gene-
ral Peel, Viscount Cranborne, the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, Sir John Pakington, the Right
Hon. Gathorne Hardy, and Lord Naas.

A committee of the Lords of her Majesty's Most Ho-
nourable Privy Council sat yesterday, at Whitehall, on
sanitary matters and quarantine. The lords present were
the Lord President, the Right Hon. Spencer H. Walpole,
the Right Hon. H. Corry, and the Right Hon. Gathorne
Hardy. The Solicitor-General was present at the com-
mittee. Mr. Harrison attended.

A committee of the Lords of her Majesty's Most Ho-
nourable Privy Council as; yesterday, at Whitehall, on
matters relating to the cattle plague. The Lords present
ware the Lord President, the Right Hon. Spencer H. Wal-
pole, the Right Hon. H. Corry, and the Right Hon.
Gathorne Hardy. Mr. Harrison and Dr. Alexander Wil-
liams ►ttended the committee.

Despatches were sent yesterday from the Colonial-office
to the Governors of Ceylon, Hong Kong, Labuan, Malta,
and Gibraltar.

The Duke of Argyll and Messrs. Gladstone and
Cardwell have arrived in Florence on their way north-
wards from Rome. Mr. Gladstone is to be at Paris, on
his way home, on the 23rd inst. The right honourable
gentleman has recently had an interview with Baron
Mauch.

The Hon. Frederick Noel Somerville, second
.on of the late Lord Somerville, and heir presumptive to
the title, died suddenly on Tuesday night at the family
seat of Aston Somerville, Gloucestershire. He was 27
years of age, and was a lieutenant in the Rifle Brigade,
with which he served in Canada.

Lord Cowley and his family will, it is expected,
remain in England the greater part of the season, so there
may be no festivities in the Faubourg St. Honor 6 this
winter.

There are to be four " universal balls," as they
are called, at the Tuileries this winter, which are expected
to be more crowded than ever on account of the number of
strangers now in Paris. The Americans alone number
some hundred,. After the month of February the Em-
press will resume her usual limited balls and receptions.

- The now Japanese Embassy now in Paris is com-
posed of 19 persons, of whom two are ambatsadors, ten
secretaries or interpreters, and seven domestics. The first
ambassador is named Ko-Ide, the second Tsi-Kawa. They
are expected to remain a week in Paris ; afterwards they
will travel rid Berlin to St. Petersburg, and thence to
America. According to the Temps, two permanent em-
bassies will be established at Perim and London ; the first
will be occupied by Asa-no, and the second by Go-Hera.
Japanese schools are also to be established in France and
England.
A letter from Count de Montalembert in the
Monde gives but faint hopes of that eminent writer's
restoration to health :—" After eight months' treatment
the doctors abandon me to nature, without giving me any
definite hope as to the term of my illness. However,
they say I shall be cared sooner or later, and that I shall
be better in the spring, without promising me a complete
recovery by that time."

Rapid progress is being made in the Paris Exhi-
bition buildieg with the Russian Court, which covers 1000
metres. There is to be a great display of agricultural he-
plements ; a model Russian peasant's cottage (iebaA), put
together without nail or screw ; a great stable, containing
24 Russian horses of every description ; a Tartar tent
complete ; and a post indicating the number of rents from
St. Petersburg to the Champ de Mars.

The Ottoman Ambassador Ruetem Bey, who,
albeit unmarried, is probably the best-lodged foreign
minister in Florence, a few nights ago threw open his
spacious and sumptuous apartments to a few hundred of
the elite of the native and foreign society in Florence.
The dresses and diamonds were brilliant and, although it
is said there are to be a groat many peat balls in Florence
this winter and spring, it will be difficult for any of them
to be more completely successful than the first has been.

It is said gambling and card playing at the clubs
are very much on the increase in Perim. Certain ladies are
reported to be again " receiving" after dinner, when large
.tns of money are lost and consequently won. An anec-
dote is in circulation about a certain sporting countess who
cut off her "beaux cheveux blonds" after an unfortunate
night or two, proceeded to Room, and vowed to the Pope
in penitence that she would never touch a card again.
Alas ! for woman's frailty, she is often seen at the green
tables still !

A German statistical return states that the
country of Europr in which the grc►test number of mar-
riages takes place is Saxony, where the average is 1 yearly
to every 117 inhabitants. The proportion in Spain is lin
126. In France the rate is lin 127.

Miss Rye states that she has no more vacancies
for families in her next ship for Victoria, and that single
women applying will not sail before the end of February or
beginning of March.

John King, the steersman of the boat which left
the ill-f►ted London, and to whose skill the safety of the
few who escaped death was mainly due, has arrived in
Melbourne.

and nightly visited by large numbers of persons.
By the ship Lightning, which sailed for London
a few days prior to the departure of our ad% ices,
the greater portion of the products of the colony
and specimens of Australian industries for the
French exhibition have been forwarded to Paris.
The season continued to be extremely favourable,
and a very large harvest was expected. The clip
of wool had been heavy, and fat cattle and sheep
were abundant. No part of the colony had been
unvisited by frequent and abundant rains in good
season.

By the ship Essex, from London and Plymouth,
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Gavan Duffy had returned
to the colony, and Mr. Duffy waa to deliver a lec-
ture on " The experiences of an Australian in
Europe."
A portion of the 2nd battalion of the 14th Regi-
ment of Foot arrived in Melbourne per ship
Monarch, from Auckland, N.Z., early in the
month.

Robert Burke, the New South Wales bushranger
who ventured into Victoria, was actually in Mel-
bourne, and was at last taken by Mr. W. F. Hurst,
the son of a sheep and cattle farmer at Diamond
Creek, Melbourne, had been tried for the murder
of that gentleman—whom he shot in the struggle—
found guilty, and sentenced to death.
The Jre", gives the following from the gold
fields :

There has been nothing startling in the news from the
gold-fields during the past month. A nugget weighing
60doz. was found in the Lady Don claim, at Ballarat.
The miners are well employed in the principal auriferous
districts, and the average yields have generally been
maintained, notwithstanding that the attractions of
the Intercolonial Exhibition have in some in-
stances led to • cessation of work. A new rush of
considerable proportions has set in to the Cambrian Lead,
near Landsborough. Two nuggets, the one weighing
fourteen ounces and the other nine ounces, have been un-
earthed in this locality. Another new reef has been
opened on the Yow Yow, Caledonian Diggings. Several
claims have been taken up both east and west of the pros-
pecting claim. The proprietors have christened the new

find the Fallen-tree Reef, from the

of the

reef being first discovered under the roots of a tree lately
uprooted by the wind. Some very rich specimens have
already been obtained, and sanguine hopes as to its ulti-
mate value are entertained.