The Express.
London, England, 1866-10-25 00:00:00

Ehe erproo.

TO CORRESPONDENTS
Advertisements Intended for " The ExEroeues;rielAndon ve.ing
Paper me elan thebeda;totthpne blicscanr, by

DRURY LANE.
THIS ITIVIIMO, FAUST. Mr. Phelps, Mesas. B.PhOps, W.
Benison, Vandenhff, and J. Johnstone : Xra H
\resin and Miss Poole.o—And TSB COMEDY 07 =ROM
The Brothers Webb.

riarclowa
Tintsysimso. TEI TRIPLE, ALLLINCI.—AIIer which TEI
HVOUZIIHT CAPTIN. Mama. O. Shore d 41. HOW ; WIMPS
Nsllson, Aassupta A
Thomson, and Xes. Intrtleg.—Asd Qum.
LODGIROS.

ASYLUM:T.
THIS Rename, THE [(
OVERLAND ROUTE. Mews. C. Ma-
thews, Buckstnne, Chippendale, Re. ; Mesdames C. )(ahem',
HeaChippendale, Wright. &e. —A Ballet Divertissement. the
ley. THE CILITIC.—And MY HUSBANLOR

This Nworrio, BRLTUB AND MAR. lieweede.—Aso
THIS LONG STRIKE. Mews. D, Doeciesalt, Lowy. Widdicosii,
, Ow.; Mrs. a Bourican4A—Coadadlog with TWINDLZ-
VOWTAIL COAT. Mr. H. WitiGareata--Cathothos at 7.

MANN
rag svoirrito,_ TEI YAW= sActumos.—nr
WRONG BOIL—DER YREISCHUTZ ; OS. A 000 D CAXT TOR
A PITCl,4roi WAITING TOR TER UNDERGROUND.

HOLBORN.
TOM ItTim°, at 7, LARKIN'S WYE LEITERS. Mr. Ba-
rnum and MI C. Saunders.—Apd FLYING SCUD. Neon.
Belmnre, Blake, Vsßake Me.: Mesdames F.
C. Saunders, He de Yoote, nide,* Immo& Rapttood. Re.

BRITANNIA.
TinglelMO, TILE OLD CIIKILILY TRU. Km LanA—The
Wondrous Brothers Vic/oral': Master George Perks; Mr. N.
Ogden, "Kind Old Daddy •" Psel Desille.—lnd VIZ BRIDE
01 ALDOATE.

HIGH WATER AT WWDOIf BRIDGE.
Tars DAY —Morning, 211. sloa Aftinioon, St 50m.
To-Mosow—morning. :.h. lln Afternoon. U. Um

LONDON, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25.

Wssw the guardians of St. Marylebone deter-
mined to carry out the provisions of the Houseleas
Poor Act they did so in spite of their professed
convictions, and without attempting to conceal
their hostility to the new law. By speeches at
board meetings, by florid denunciations in public
and private, by the action of their officers, and
through their local press this feeling made itself
felt. Some of our readers will remember the mis-
statements of a sensational Marylebone overseer
before one of the police magistrates of the district,
and how statistics afterwards proved to be false
were illustrated by some highly imaginative histo-
rical examples. Queen Elizabeth was brought
into court to prove the immorality of extending
food and shelter to the houseless, and the days in
which vagrants were whipped and branded mourn-
fully quoted as the time when they " roamed
about with impunity." Such was the spirit
in which the working of the Houseless Poor
Act was watched by many guardians and local
officials of this great pariah, and such the prevailing
feeling when it was loyally determined to give a
pernicious measure a fair chance, and to prove,
by obeying the Houselesa Poor Act in its entirety,
how utterly it fell short of the requirements of the

day.
But the Marylebone guardians did not do things
by halves, and their "casual" arrangements were
eventually placed upon a footing equal to any and
superior to most workhouses in the metropolis.
There were hitches, as when the run upon this
ono parish became disproportionate, and when the
people illegally refused admission elsewhere
claimed admission there. There were difficulties,
as when the provisions for sternly enforcing
the labour test were inadequate, and tickets
given for the stone-yard were calmly torn up
by the paupers, who departed in the morning, and
preferred sleeping without working to working for
their breakfast. There were protests, such as the
burlesque speech of a well-known parish orator,
who declaimed to an excited public meeting on the
lust for " Money, money, money !" being at the
root of every innovation suggested by the Poor-law
Board, past, present, and to come. But the up-
shot of it all is, that after two years' experience of
the working of the act this parish is able to show
us a fair balance-sheet, with the numbers relieved,
and their individual and aggregate cost clearly
stated. In the time named, 44,759 persons have
been admitted to their casual wards at a coat of
8971. 3s. 4d., or something under fivepence per
head. Wards have been altered and fur-
nished ; provisions, clothing, and superinten-
dence found ; fires have been maintained
all night in the winter ; woollen sleeping gar-
ments have been provided for all ; and, including
supper, bed, and breakfast for between forty and
fifty thousand souls, the cost has been less than
900/. The plan of separating the confirmed
"roughs" from the unfortunates whose necessities
compel them to seek shelter in the casual ward has
been consistently adhered to. The official in charge
has been entrusted with the task of discriminating
between the two classes, and it is said that the
result has been unfailingly satisfactory. The sta-
tistics now furnished show, moreover, a striking
decrease in the offence of clothes-tearing. But
three convictions are recorded under this head
against fifty-five in the previous half-year. Other
offences have been as large in proportion to the
number relieved 'as in any previlms term. Twenty-
eight men, thirty-two women, and seven children,
out of the number taken into the casual wards
in the half year, have been pronounced
sick by the doctor and taken into the house. Ad-
mission is now gained by means of tickets given on
application at the Marylebone police-station ; and
the wards are regularly visited once a week after
midnight by the inspector and superintendent of
police of the district. With the exception of
clothes-tearing, which seems to have decreased all
over the metropolis, the number of offences has
not decreased since police assistance has been
secured.

These particulars are interesting but inconclusive.
They prove that the houseless can be efficiently
sheltered at a moderate cost ; and that with mode-
rate care the rascal can be weeded out from the
merely unfortunate. But the general question et
metropolitan vagrancy is unaffected. We knO*
that Marylebone suffered for a time because
other parishes threw the onus of their
burdens on it ; and we know, too, that