The Express.
London, England, 1866-01-16 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 16, 1866.

fruit after its kind. What is clearly wanted is a
more stringent and effective mode of supervision'
and control. At present it is all but impossible
to affix definite responsibility and to award direct
punishment, and until this is ensured we have no
guarantee against carelessness, indifference, and
hardship. If our workhouses were inspected
with the strictness and impartiality which the
Poor-law Board itself thinks necessary to prevent,
or remedy, the evils to which such establishments
are prone, some sweeping changes would be forth-
with inaugurated. Among the most important
of these would be the employment of paid servants
in all posts of responsibility. It is a melancholy
but andoubted fact that no people are so harsh to
the pauper and so inconsiderate to his needs as
paupers invested with delegated authority. Apart
from their general ununiability—which is vouched
for by every one who has made the habits and
idiosyncrasies of this class his study—we have
ample evidence of pauper carelessness and neglect
to the sick. It was a pauper nurse at the Holborn
Union Workhouse who on her own responsibility
plunged the feeble TIMOTHY D&LY into
a warm bath on an inclement day in
December, and a pauper nurse who im-
properly applied fuller's earth to his sores. It
was a drunken pauper nurse, at the St. Giles's
Workhouse, who put the finishing stroke to the
maltreatment of poor RICHARD GIBSON, by giving
him gin. And now, at Bethnal-green, it is a
pauper wardsman who holds cold feet to be con-
clusive evidence of death, and a sufficient reason
for not disturbing official slumbers. The Poor-
law Commissioners insist that in large work-
houses a paid porter shall be employed, because
they " believe it to be of rare occurrence that a
" pauper can be safely trusted to exercise the
" powers and perform the duties of porter ;" and the
rule holds good for every position which involves
the slightest exercise of discrimination or power.
The one merit pauper service possesses is its
cheapness. It is illegal to pay those rendering it,
save by improved rations ; and as the holders of
the parochial purse-strings are, at present, mainly
responsible to themselves, it is perhaps to be ex-
pected that an argument addressed to the pocket
will have preponderating weight. It matters little
which cog in the wheel is declared faulty when the
whole machinery is out of gear, and whatever is
the result of the inquiry of to-day, we may look
for such miserable and shameful cases as this
Bethnal-green one until some radical and sweeping
change is effected in the system it condemns.

Tnz wretched character of the accommodation
provided for a large proportion of the male
paupers sheltered at Lambeth, opens a question
which we submit to the consideration of the autho-
rities and the public. When the liouseleas Poor
Act first came into operation, the right of each
parish to claim upon the common fund rested on
the certificate of the Metropolitan Inspector, and
the certificate of the Inspector testified to the
efficiency of the wards. It was, of course, im-
possible to fix the exact size of these, or to insist
upon the precise number of beds they should con-
tain. That they must be large enough to
receive such a number sa, having regard to
the circumstances of the locality, would be
likely to require "relief," was clearly put
forth as one of the conditions of the certi-
ficate, and as this has certainly not been com-
plied with at Lambeth, it remains to be seen
whether the privileges of the certificate will be
forthcoming. The wards approved by Mr. FAR:
NALL are excellent in every way, but they only
hold beds for a third of the numbers sheltered.
If the whole of these are to be paid for out of
the common fund—if the beds certified are to bear
no reference to the numbers housed—what gua-
rantee is there that the certified wards are used
at all, or that they bear even a fractional propor-
tion to the size of the workhouse or the needs of
the destitute ? A "show " tramp ward and a
ward where tramps really sleep might be the next
evasion ; and it will assuredly be fatal to the
working of the Act if "the bright poker" is
examined and approved, while the one really in
use is kept out of view.

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.
(THIS DAY.)

to the discouragement of imports from Europe ; and now it
attempting to obtain from congress duties actually pro- I
Wintery of a peat number of commodities. While the
hordes of laxities must be tremendous at beet, this
wealthiest elms in the country propose* to lay further taaas
ma the whole semmunity—not for the beesat of the
retinue, but to its great detriment, and solely for•
the anhanostosnt et their own profits. No wonder
a contrabandist class is being created, and that on
one part of the Canadian frontier the honesty and se-
sway of the ancient settlers sre disappearing. There is
ground for hope, however, that the mischief will be stopped
before long, and that the existing tariff will stand without
aggravation, though it will be a misfortune to the republic
if that tariff remains what it is. Al soon as the truth is
understood that the interest of the people is in freedom of
trade, the will of the people will secure it. The question
is, how long it will take for the people to understand it?
Whenever that happens they will see that, ea the North
has compelled the South to put away its darling sin, so the
North must pat away its own—a sin far less flagrant
and deadly than slavery, but quite as anti-republican.

Though the easy capture and condemnation of the
Fenian leaders in Ireland and the aspect of the
dissensions of the leaders in America have doubt-
less impressed the European nations with the idea
that the bubble is buret and the whole danger is
at an end, the Times regrets it cannot conscientiously
subscribe to such opinions. In ordinary plots, as in the
more highly organised animals, if you strike off the head
the whole scheme collapses. Bet a lower organisation hri
its advantages as well as its drawbacks, and creatures about
which it is doubtful whether they deserve the name of
animals at all are capable of sustaining injuries which would
be fatal to any of a superior type. Fenian are united
by the desire to combine for plunder, and to a
body so circumstanced, especially when it in unable
to estimate the power of the British government, the loss
of a few men a little or a vary little raised above them-
selves is a trifle. The news from Dublin shows that we
have not heard the last of Fenianism. An American
armament is foolishly expected, and the Orangemen are
supplying another element of difficulty by professing to
believe that the British government is unable to protect
them in the possession of their lira and properties against
the Roman catholics. although Fenianism is is itself not
a Roman catholic movement, and that it is necessary for
them to hold themselves ever ready to take the field at the
shortest aotioe. Of course, any outbreak that may take
pl►ce will be utterly futile—reaching to little more than
• few hours disorder.

The new adoption of the Peace Preservation Act in Ire-
land is described by the Telegraph as a step dictated by pru-
dence and not by apprehension. The Fenian prisoners have
been without any popular sympathy, ended any real progress
towards the fulfilment of the designs of the brotherhood
there is no indication whatever. This Act simply takes
away from people the means of homicide, and thus imposes
no very serious hardship on those who have not homicidal
tendencies. So far as arms are legitimately required, a
special provision is made for their use. The liberties of
the peaceably disposed inhabitant* are not in the lost
abridged, or the protection of the law taken from them.
The measure* are taken, not against the Irish people, but
on their behalf, and, there is good reason to believe, with
their entire and deliberate gamut.

The continued disaffection of the Fenian' in Ireland is,
in the view of the Star, very much the effect°, the absurd
hopes aroused by the promisee and preparations of the
senators and centres at Chien° and New York. The Star sees
a danger, in the meantime, in the excessive terms of penal
servitude to which the mere rank and file have been gen-
Lucid, and in the disproportion of the protestant and
Roman catholic jurors summoned on the Cork com-
mission. A just and generous policy—not special commis•
alone or troop. of dragoons and regiments of infantry—
is what is required to make Ireland prosperous and con-
tented.

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

(Rrtrrifs Tzuclakma.)
ItALY AND PRUSSIA.

FLORENCE, JAS. 16.

The King of Prods has conferred upon King
Victor Emmanuel the insignia of the order of the
Black Eagle.

THE MILITARY REVOLT IN SPAIN.
MADRID, JAN. 15, 3 rat.

The insurgents under General Prim were offi-
cially announced to be still retreating precipitately
towards Portugal.
Order prevails throughout Spain.

CALCUTTA AND CHINA MAILS.
The Delhi, from Calcutta, December 23, reached
Suez on the 15th inst. at II a.m.

site Court.

OSEORIM, JAIL 15.
Tha Queen and royal family drove out this
morning.

A deputation from the directors of the Poor of St.
Pancras, oonsisting of Mr. Lawfatd and Mr. Robson
(ohurchwardens), Mr. Rosa, Mr. J. R. Collins, Mr. Jonathan
Salter, Mr. North, Mr. Thornton, Mr. Watson, Mr. Turner,
and Mr. Plow (clerk), had an interview with the Right
Hon. C. P. Villiers, at the office of the Poor•law Board,
Whitehall, yesterday.
Despatches were reosived yesterday at the Colonial•offioe
from the governors of the West India Islands, the Mauritius,
Natal, and Gibraltar.

Queen Victoria has presented Prince William,
the eldest son of the Primus Royal, with a silver statuette
of the late Prince Consort, three feet in height. The
prince is represented u "a hero conquering sin," arrayed
in golden coat of mail, and carrying the Christian banner
aloft in his right hand. On the pedestal are engraved
several legends in Biblical language, said to have been
composed by Mrs. Prather°, of Whippiogham, sear
Osborne.

His Royal Highness Prince Christian, the
affianced of Princess Helena, arrived at Dover yesterday.
en route for Windsor, upon a visit to the English court.

. _
Sleswig-Holstein papers state that Prince Chris-
tian of Slsswig•Holatein, after his marriage with Princess
Helena, will spend a portion of next autumn at the Chateau
of Gravenstein, in Snndewitt, opposite the Isle of Alien.

The Duchess (Dowager) of Sutherland is some-
what better than when she arrived at Stafford House, St.
James's, from Soothed. Her Grace is not so unwell se to
amnion any alarm to her family.

Viscountess Dangan gave birth to a son on Sun-
day last. Her ladyship and inf►nt are going on very
favourably.

Yesterday morning the marriage of Lord Charles
lanes Ker, eon of the Duke of Roxburghe, and captain in
the Fusilier Guards, with Miss Blanche Mary, third
daughter of Colonel Peers Williams, was solemnised at Bt.
George's, Hanover-square. The bride was attired is a dress
of rich white satin trimmed with Brussels lace flounces, in-
troducing for the first time a train of new shape, trimmed
with a waved flounce of fine Brussels lace and niches of the
same, and wearing a necklace and ear-rings of magnificent
pearls and diamonds, the gift of the bridgegrown ; the
wreath was composed of the finest orange blossoms, the gift
of the Duchess of Roxburghe.

The Hon. Julian Fane has been appointed
Secretary of Embassy at Paris, a post which has become
vacant by the lamented death of Mr. Grey.

Lord Stanley, M.P., took the chair yesterday at
• meeting held in the Manchester Town hall to promote
the formation of a Discharged Prisoners Aid Society for
that district.

The Speaker of the House of Assembly of
Jamaica writes to the TiY4fl to oontradiet in the strongest
terms an assertion made by the 11ev. Jno. Radcliffe, of
Kingston, to the effect that threats have been uttered in
the House of Assembly, without rebuke, of " driving the
whites into the sea," &c. The Speaker, who has been a
member of the Assembly for twenty years, rays th►t if even
he or his predecessors in the chair had been remiss in
their duty, "it is only an act of equal justice
to the two black and the several white and co-
loured gentlemen who were from time to time my
associates in the house to say, that without the leant
emsideration of his particular caste, one and all of them
would have promptly called for the infliction of the severest
punishment in the power of the House to impose upon the
offending member. lam quite certain he would have been
'expelled."

A Methodist church has just been inaugurated
at Copenhagen with great solemnity. Mr. Wright, United
States Minister at Berlin, and several members of the
methodist clergy of America, were present at the ceremony.
" The Protestant church of Paris," says a letter
in the Salut Public, "is again disturbed by the dissidence
between the two antagonistic parties. Some days since the
Presbyteral Council superannuated the Rev. Pastor Martin-
Paschoud, allowing him a pension of 6,000 fr. a year. This
decision is founded on the state of the rev, gentleman's
health, which, as alleged, will not allow him to falfil all
his pastoral functions. This argument would have had
some weight two years ago, but since then, in consequence
of the son.re-eleetion of M. Coquerel, jun., his assistant,
M. Martin-Paschoud, has duly performed all the services."
The Patithion de r Industrie et des Arts announces
that the relics of the earliest Nal, such as the flint imple-
ments and rude carvings pertaining to the alluvia. period
and the age of stone, are to form a special division at the
Great Exhibition Palace of the Champ de M►rs, under the
direction of M. Lariat, the distinguished geologist, whose
communications to the Academy of Sciences we have often
had occasion to mention.

M. Frantz, a metallurgist, and M. Henri Faure,
editor of the France Medicate, have just announced to the
learned world that they have discovered a method for trans-
muting silver, copper, and mercury into gold, " which,"
they say, "are only one and the same metal in different
dynamic states."
Liszt has received an official invitation to com-
pose a march and man for the approaching coronation of the
Emperor Francis-Joseph at Peath, as King of

M. Von Born. a banker in Dortmund, lately
made excavations, or rather borings in the neighbourhood
of Frankenhausea, ia the hops of finding copper, and in
doing so has discovered the largest and most beautiful
caverns in all Germany. The two largest are 300 nud 600
feet in length respectively, about 130 feet in breadth, and
40 to 10 feet in height. The third cavern is also several
hundred feet bog. The three caverns °octal'. in all nine
pools of water, so clear that the smallest pebbles can be
seen at the bottom, though they are 8 and 9 feet deep.
This, of coarse, is only possible when the caverns are
lighted up by rospcsiom or Bengal lights, which, however,
is very constantly the case, ■s they are visited by many
hundred persons every day. A great many beautiful slabs
of gypsum hang from the roofs.

At a sale the other day in Vienna small busts
of Charles the Bold and the Duties', his wife, carved in
wood by Holbeio. fetched 30,000 fr. An agent of Baron
James Rothschild bid 25,0001 r. for them, but eventually
they were knocked down to a Vienna dealer in pictures
sod other objects of art. Seven small tablets, carved i•
relief, by Holbein, fetched 5,000 fr. ; and a little bead, not
more than an inch high, 5001 r.; • wooden figure of
Adam, by Albert Darer, fetched 4,0001 r. ; a wooden
crucifix, 1,200 fr. ; and three small figures, all by the last•
mentioned master, 2,4001 r. " Christ os the Cross," a small
but exquisite painting, was bought by an agent of the
Dreadee Picture Gallery for 10,000 fr.

A list of the apartments to be let in each of the
20 districts into which Paris in divided la now posted up in
the ball of the Marie of each district, so that anybody re-
quiring an unfurnished lodging will no longer be obliged to
late valuable time in inquiring at the various bureaux el,
location. which alone afforded each information. The lista
so posted may be consulted gratuitously.

The United States corvette keanarge, which
may be remembered for having seat the Alabama to the
bottom off Cherbourg, has just arrived at Marseilles from
Villafraaea.

Dr. F. Neumann, who was a member of the
Auglo-Austrian Committee of Inquiry, is now delivering
a course of lectures at Vienna by which he hopes to be able
to coo wince his bearers, many of whom are protectinniats,
that free trade will be a peat boon to Austria.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.
(THIS DAY.)

•-•-•

COURT Or QUEEN'S BENCH.
Rittinp In Banco.--(Befote Mhe Lord Chief Jtutioe, and
Jostioes Blackbunt, Mellor, and Lash.)

WEBB V. =NM AND ANOTHER.
111. Chambers, Q.C. (with whom was Mr. Wool.
lett), said this was an action tried before the Lord
Chief Jetties at Cutildhell far perusal injuries,
when the jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff, damages
60/. He moved for a rule nisi for • new trial,
on the ground that the 'verdict was against evidence.
The plaintiff is a labourer. and at the time of the lad'
dent was in the employ of the defendants, who are large
iron ship.bnildere en the Thames, and as he was
engaged in lowering the stage need for the construction of
an inn ship, one of the poles snapped close to the ground
and inflicted the injuries complained of.
The learned counsel contended there wee no evidence to
fix the defendants with personal liability. They did not
know thattthe pole was rotten.
The Lord Chief Justice said there was evidence which
showed that after • certain time the poles became rotten.
but that no one was employed by them to ascertain if the
poles were sound or decayed ; therefore be could not with-
draw the awe from the jnry. The master was bound to
take reasonable oars that the poles were sound. He could
not withdraw the case from the jury, though he expected
the verdict would have been the other way.
Mr. Chambers contended that it was not the master's
duty to do more than examine the poles before they were
put into the ground, and if they were sound when they
were put into the ground, they must assume they
were so whilst they continued there, and that if
an accident happened a workman could not fix
the muter with the liability. The defendants here
employed • competent foreman to lower the poles, and the
accident was a common risk incident to the employment.
The fault, if any, was the foreman's, who was a fellow
servant.

Mr. Justice Blackburn said it had been bed by Mr.
Justice Williams that a foreman was a deputy master.
The court ultimately granted a rule alai, on the pound
that the verdict was against evidence.

IiMINDTT V. DORSIDT AND ANOTHER.
Mlir. Chambers, Q.C. (with whom was Mr. Hance), said
this was an action tried at Guildhall before
the Lord Chief Justice, when the jury returned •
verdict for the defendants. He moved for • rule nisi for •
new trial on the ground that there was no evidence to
submit to the jury upon the plea of fraud, but that if there
was the verdict was against the evidence. The action was on
• charter party, with option of purchase, within six months,
for 12,0001., of the steamship Dantric, then lying in the
Victoria Docks.
Rule refused.

COURT OF EXCHEQUER.
Sittings in Banco.—(Bab» the Lord Chia( Baron, and
Barons Martin. Channell, and Pigott.)

_LOBE AND Axarani T. PIC[HLET AND ANOTBIE.

This was an action for breach of contract tried at
the last Liverpool aasizes before Mr. Baron Pigott, when
a verdict was found for the plaintiffs for 150/.
The plaintiffs were commission agents at Manchester,
and the defendants were agricultural implement makers
carrying on business at Lee, near Manchester. In the year
1863 or 1864 there was an international exhibition
at Moscow in kneels, and according to the plaintiffs'
case, they having an agent in Moscow entered into a
contract with the defendants that they should act as
their agents in Moscow in exhibiting and selling their agri•
cultural implements, for which service the plaintiffs were to
be paid by a commission on the sale of the goods. This
contract the defendants had broken. _

Mr. Brett, Q.C., now moved for a rule nisi for a new
trial on the ground of misdirection, as the learned judge
ought to have directed the jury that there was no evidence
in support of the contract within the statute of frauds.
Rule granted.