The Express.
London, England, 1866-02-22 00:00:00

THE' EXPRESS, THURSDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY SS, 1866.

saw will do so, as soon as they :sally be.
Hove we're not going to give then.. a bed.°
The statistios of the night and _of the pre-

oediag.. week fully corroborated this suggestive
admission, for while at 9 p.m. on Tuesday 35 men
and women had been admitted, the vagrant book
showed that an average of but ten a night had
stayed in the workhouse during the week at the

close of which the last return was made.
A few minutes' walk from Clerkenwell are the
casual wards of the West London Union, which are
comfortably—and, from a pauper point of view,
even luxuriously—fitted up. A few minutes' walk
in another direction is the Holborn Union Work-
house, where the wards are underground and com-
fortless, but where tickets for a lodging-house are
given when they are full. There cannot be a doubt
that these and other establishments are made to
suffer for the deficiencies of Clerkenwell, and it is
time to ask whether the guardians of this parish
have not had sufficient indulgence accorded them,
and if the Poor-law Board will not see fit to stretch
its limited authority to the utmost ; for the trans-
gressions of the Clerkenwell guardians have been
manifold and grievous. Casuals were illegally re-
fused shelter at their workhouse until the fact was
exposed in this journal; and at the official inquiry
which followed a guardian declared, without re-
preach or oontradiction from his' colleagues, that
" there didn't ought to be no houselees poor."
The Poor-law Board has stated officially
that, "with due regard to health," not
more than 460 inmates should be admitted
into the workhouse, and 620 people were crammed
within its walls not many weeks ago. A mild pro-
position, that a committee should be appointed to
consider and report to the local board upon the
propriety of erecting a new house, was laughed at
and shelved; and while the guardian seconding this
motion declared " it made a ratepayer's blood boil to
think of the inadequate accommodation provided
for the poor," a majority of 18 to 7 carried an
amendment, the whole animus of which was against
improvement or reform. List December a letter
was written to the Poor-law Board, saying premises
had been taken which were thought suitable for
casual wards, and asking for the *pinion of the
metropolitan inspector. The official sanction was
given in due course, and it was fondly thought that
Clerkenwell would, as far as casuals are concerned,
soon be on a footing with its parochial neighbours.
We are now told that those living near the build-
ings to be purchased, have protested against a
nuisance being brought to their doors ; and the
proper adjustment of matters is as far off as
ever. However unfortunate this may seem to the
guardians, it cannot be accepted as an excuse for
the obstinate continuance of their discreditable
treatment of the destitute poor. These people
must be sheltered at Clerkenwell as elsewhere ;
and until sufficient accommodation can be provided,
arrangements should be made at some oommoa
lodging-house in the district. It is no answer to
ay the certificate of the Poor-law Board has never
been granted, and the expense would fall upon the
ratepayers. This simply proves the incapacity and
obstructiveness of the local board. Sufficient time
has elapsed for a new workhouse to have been
built, yet such casual paupers as are taken in, are
leo housed as to outrage decency and invite disease,
while others are forced away by the simple process
of denying them space to lie at full length, a truss
of straw to rest upon, or a rag to cover their naked-
ness. The present workhouse has been frequently
condemned by the metropolitan inspector as unfit
for its purpose, and would have been closed long
ago but for the hardship such a course would have
involved to the hundreds of sick and infirm creatures
clustered within it. It is clear, however, that the
disgusting state of things we describe must not be
suffered to continue; and if the guardians cannot
provide suitable wards and will not pay for lodg-
ings, they may perhaps find retribution assume a
shape they little contemplate now, but which will
for all that be sufficiently effective and severe.

If the new haliiteMoes for the poor are Doe judiciously
disbud. 0111,Yin no moue be finished thee they will he
pulled dowsread will be of NO use to anfliody wept ma-
tractors, jobbers, and spladatscs. Is there any region at
hand nits from the railway? If Hyde-park is spared, we
do not see why any other district may not be placed under
equal protection, and why we should not have suburbs for
the poor, laid odes healthy and cheerful plans, and reserved
from the railway. Nothing but the parliamentary ogle
will be sufiloiset to save them from the pick and shovel.
The suggestion is only offered to meet au emergency which
the bills of Mx. Childers and Mr. Torrens admit to be almost
beyond their power.
The Daily News, admitting the strength of Mr. Torreos's
ease, declines to commit itself absolutely to his bill. The
scheme is e very broad and general one; and though it is
easy to point to cuss in which it would be the most suit-
able remedy for a terrible evil, U is not so easy to be sure
that there are no came in which it would work harm.
Some amendment it obviously needs. If the owner is
willing to rebuild, he ought not to be compelled to sell
against his will. And if the dwellings destroyed are in a
bad situation, it is desirable that they should be rebuilt in
a better rather than in the game. Many Each paints will
moor even to thou who are friendly to the principle.
But the application of it is eminently worthy of being dig-
cussed fairly and fully by the legislature. Perhaps in a
matter affecting such a variety of local interests, a
reference to a select committee would be the most sands&
tory means of elucidating the data on which legialatios
ought to proceed.
The bill has at any rate, the Herald remarks, one merit.
It recognises the endeavour to provide the accommodation
needed Si a public duty, for which the state may properly
lend money on adequate security, on terms as easy as it has
already granted to drainage and other public or quasi-
public undertakings. Bat the bill is radically defective in
providing for substitutional not foe original works It
deals only with the very worst spots, the most closely
stived rookeries, the most repulsive fever dens. It leaves
the great want of the honest hardworking artisan almost
unmitigated. It does little to supply the present dearth
of labourers' houses, and nothing to remedy the evils of
overcrowding. In short, the scheme is a very unfavour-
able specimen of amateur legislation.
The &or oompliments Mr. Torun' for his courage in
braving a cry from the local authorities on the one hand
of "No esatzalisation,* and the dislike of the Home Depart-
ment of the government on the other of having thrust upon
it the reeponsibility of deciding on the destruction of houses
unfit for habitation all over the country, inspecting the
plans epos which the buildings substituted for them are to
be erected, sad forcing the sluggish municipalities on in the
task. The scheme undoubtedly proposes a revolution. But
"is tibiae sot • caws?" Can private enterprise or private
charity oope with the most crying social evil of our large
town, ? As yet assuredly neither has done so. Will local
authorities deal with it effectually ? Even the mast favour.
able example of Liverpool proves that they will not. If
any vital objections can be alleged against the bill, not even
the eminence of its motives ought to save it. But it will
ill become the parliament which has legislated extrava-
gantly and in hot haste on behalf of the cattle interest to
be too punctilious in its criticisms on a far lees objection.
able measure adapted to meet a mach more serious and a
terribly permanent exigency.

be thwarted by the qiene interests aced clam feelingef the
island. Whenever the time oomes foe a rish, peassfuli
well organised, disciplined, law-abiding colonial society to
ask for the powers and privileges of self-government, it will
be easier to grant the honourable boon than it is now to
provide an alternative method.
The Post decides very strongly against Mr. Clay's eds.
rational franchise, and contends that if a universal rule is
to be laid down, it would be much wiser to give • vote to
every man in receipt of • certain income rather than be
every man pawning • power of training for an exami-
nation.
Assuming that the object of the abolition of the Univer-
sity Tests Bill is to de•Anglicanise Oxford, the ilereld says
that Mr. Coleridge's adoption of the measure is no secu-
rity for Be innocence, Mr. Coleridge, wording to the
Herald, belongs to that clan of churchmen who, Anew
their political internals bound up with the radical party,
have made the convenient discovery that all which the
radicals demand must inevitably be conceded, and that he
is the wisest man who acts on the discovery first Not •
single reason can be shown in favour of admitting diem.
ten to all the emoluments of the university, placing them,
that is, on an equality with churchmen in the university,
which is not just as good for the separation of chinch sad
state and the reduction of the A.nglo.ostholio communion
to the position of a sect.
The Telegraph describes the petition against Mr.
Chichester Fortaieue as simply a party manoeuvre, and adds
that the impudent hopelessness of the application adds one
more to many former proofs that futile petitions are not
sufficiently checked by committees. Those tribunals sel-
dom have the stemmas to pronounce such proceedings
" frivolous and vexations," and °malignantly costs are
rarely if ever awarded against petitioners, however trans.
parent the futility of their complaints. Now the ordinary
rule of litigation is that the losing party shall pay for the
expense of it ; and until an analogous principle is applied
when the subject of snit is a title to sit in parliament, cow
troveried elections must continue to be decided as at pre-
; sent, net so much by superior right, as by superior length
L purse.