The Express.
London, England, 1857-11-20 00:00:00

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LONDON, PRIDA 7, morimizz 20.

TnE =looked for suspension of remunerative
work in may of tl. murnfacturing districts, at a
period of the year when labour is usually in demand,
and wages readily earned, mad at amenity load to
pressure alike sudden and severe apes the arelaigy
means provided far the alleviation at dibtrom.
Throughout the greater part of Staffeedehim, sad
in many parts of Lancashire, Cheshire, sad ether
counties, the local authorities begin to feel sorely
embarramed as to the course they ought to pumas.

lo their capacity of guardians of the poor their
duty under oachnsry eimumstances is indleismtly
onerous, if they perform it faithfully. They
have to see that no man is allowed to perish
of want through involuntary idlatess i and

they are moan, bound to see that the
name and claim of honest poverty is not
aimed by iadoleace, or the semblance of destitution
made the mak el mare imposture. In ordinary
times tlis righteass sad easeful applicatime of this
double rile gives a Vasa sr a Pariah Beard quite
enough to Is. Is prospentat yam the *appestat
Poor-Bites levied and exparisd it Eashad sad
Warn anent is six we soma millet Mai* I
sad vast as that ma appears, when viewed asa Pro-
perty-Tan devetsd exclusively to public charity, it is,
we all tam, se nothing wowed to the sum white
wield le requisite at meet the ilsmads of pauperism,
if a win habit of rigid weratiley and Mama
economy did not pens& our load Poor Law a&
Montratiot.

But if this he so Is awl meeermakiag
ban, what met the bud= et eugesibility
be in rum et rendes& riviesky sal three P

Imbed of mem srldek, lovorew *neat,
then is yet in general time to *aim lots, the
Almoners of the lushly me of a males beset by
mares or hundreds of pedtionses fur Mist. They
apes to take time ler seneidecatiaa Ware they art ;
sod while they ere consuddag the enowd of clamant,
swells is thousands. Seam eats seem seal mil Ws
ezeibiable them the rest, desires the Clink to ma
mew Om berme sif the Prohibitory Order bond by
the Pam Law Coemeimilmen assinst sadism raid
to the able-bodied,sr, whore as werihome exists
sad as workhouse test ma amangssody be applied.
the neektion seem to some yeses ego met to groat
mast to sash pumas. except ander vat, peculiar
simemetances. Bat herons the glib Imatial taa
complete his task, the distant murmur of the multi.
Ws without falls epos the anxious Guardian's uffi,
or be fancies that he beers their cry. What is to las
done? What tan be dam? To gain time all agree
is something ; se • {Gag sad argent letter to address&
to the Houdin Loodos,calllog its immediate attention
to the peculiar condition of that portisehrtifidelsteami
begging of the Commissioseers to take apes death,
responsibility of messares adequate to the sseureweeys
which they confidently hope may turn out to beef Idol 1
duration. Bat unfortunately the same night mail beam
to the Based similar applications for advise eta
aid from too many other places, which simaltmeemeoly
are found in similar plight ; and the authadthe or
Owydyr Hoses have before them in the soaralai a
series of demands for relaxation of the aviary
ralee of relief that the out thoughtless aai
sanguine advocate of liberality in the way
of expenditure most own to be fraught with
commensal; the most grave. Admitting fully
the duty and policy of endeavouring to alleviate to
the utmost the cruel privation of work that has an-
expectedly fallen upon thousands who, while they
had labour and labour's recompense, never dreamed
of asking help hoot any quarter for the support of
themselves and their families; the fearful question
again and again means—what can be door that is
not asetain to aggravate rather than to mitigate the
evil ? Indiscriminate relief we know is utterly im-
practicable, and how or where to draw any definite
or intelligible line by law, or (what is the same thing)
by the temporary interpretation or adaptation of the
existing law, nobody seems capable of showing.
We esa fully appreciate the motives which may
actuate the Poor Law Commission in declining to
accept the undivided responsibility thus thrown
upon them. There was a time, perhaps, when they
would have vain-gloriously done so, and exalted in
the unpopularity their inflexible devotion to abstract
theory would have evoked. But the fashion of
administrative Quixotism has gone by, in this
country, we hope, for ever. Men at the heads of
Departments have learnt the wisdom of yielding to
the gusts and eddies of opinion that they may pre-
serve their legal rigging sate for use when the storm
is over, The paransociat duty of Government in
moments of industrial or political perturbation is to
maintain public tranquillity and good order : the
next is, to satisfy all honest and welt-disposed people
that it is not thinking of its own mere consistency or
convenience, bat that it broadly and compre-
hensively sympathises with the actual afflic-
tion of the hour, and is earnestly desirous
of contributing to its relief. We are willing to be-
lieve that the Poor Law Board is ready to act in this
spirit. Instead of slamming the door of hope in the
face of a hungry people they will, we trait, consent
to share manfully with the local Boards the laborious
task of discriminating as best they may between
classes of oases where relief may temporarily be given
and those in which from absolute necessity it most
still be withheld. It will not do to say recklanly—
one Life is es well worth preserving as another, and,
if you do for one, you ought to do for all. In a
wreck at sea all conventional rights are levelled ; yet
the women sod children are first got into the
boats, and the strong men are leg to swim
- it as they may. In the wreck of industry the

able-bodied must always be called upon to ADA '
themselves—not absolutely or entirely, )at
degree that the weaker portions of the
community cannot he expected to do. We point to
the distinction rather for the purpose of illustration
than with any thought of definition. But our
earnest desire is to lead men to consider that, after
all, a moderate degree of cautious expansion is the
utmost relief which the machlosry sad resources
of an established Poor Law system can sifted ; and
that any reel attempt to make it do the work of an
indiscriminate famine-kitchen must certainly aid
speedily end in disastrous tailors.
A great deal may and must be done during the pre-
sent winter by employers, and by wealthy individuals
in co-operation with them (or without them, if sad
need be), to save the unemployed from falling into
despondency, destitution, or crime. Every head of
a family who, by private aid timely rendered, whe-
ther in the shape of gift or loan, is kept from thinking
of going on the Rates, is a hostage withheld from the
great enemy of industry—the enemy we have more
real cause to dread than all the residue of the
world in arms. The occasion is one which may
be turned to the best of purposes if those
amongst us who have most to loos be
wise. Freely, voluntarily, unostentatiously, and
on-condescendingly the wealthier classes may pull
many a man through the pinch and penury of the
present season, and restore him after a brief space to
the loom, the workshop, or the stithy, with kindlier
feelings probably than he ever had before towards
those around him. Others will bravely sustain un-
helped the siege of want ; and remember hereafter
with noble pride how silently they bore up under
privation. Some, more impatient than their
brethren, will cut their way out of the beleaguering

mass of misery, and get' them to newer mod more
genial lands. But our counsel to both rich and
poor will ever be—promptly and before little stocks
and saving are exhausted, to set about making
agimtaneously exceptional provision for exceptional
wants, and to rely for extra meow as little as pos-
sible ea the Poor Rates.

Taz Court of Queen's Beach was yesterday
mowed to renounce judgment against a delinquent
mmisteate, ander circumstances which, in this age
and caustry, may be pronounced absolutely unheard
of The bets lie in a natahelL The defendant,

Yr. BV.LT a person of wmaiderable property,
ands Justice of the Peace for the county of Durban,
had two we brought Ware him by a policeman,
*harped with the destruction of a rabbit on his
own property. Instead of at once declining
to act in the matter, Mr. BELOIT con-
victed the defendants in a severe penalty, ordered
them la default of immediate payment to be hand-
gelid and sent to prison, and finally compromised
the matter by liberating them on payment of 11.
ash, whit, instead of handing over to the county
find, he pat Into his own pocket. For this scan-
_

daises misconduct the Arra•ZY-010111AL very pro-
peel, awed a criminal inkemation to be sled against
BILLAWIT. charging him with extortion and sunup•
ties if the exercise of his magisterial functions.
The emes was tried at the last Assizes for the
erenty if Durham, the evidence was perfectly con-
cludes, sad the jury loud that the defendant wee
guilty of taking money corruptly under colour of
his elks. Nothing was—nothing, indeed, could be
—urged In mitigation ; and Mr. Justice COI.IEIIOOI,
after setting forth with grave severity the singular
enormity of the offence, and justly dwelling upon the
fact that the ease was entirely divested of anything
that could by possibility be relied upon as an ex-
.

Mutating eirenmetence, sentenced the offender to
am et 2001., and to a year's imprisonment in the

QOM'S Prison.

We began by speaking of this as an unheard-of
sass, and so it is. Our unpaid magistracy are too
frequently chargeable with ignorance, heats, and en
smfair leaning against certain classes of small demo-
dators. la game-preserving district+. no peewit
tainted with the suspicion of poaching has the
slightest Asses with them. It is notorious that
leaded mid doable-bewailed men, however esti-
mable end sane ea other points, are apt
to nn positively wild on this. They lite-
gully moot be brought to understand that
the fine and imprisonment of a villager who has
wired a hare or bagged a pheasant, is a penalty
in the slightest degree disproportionate to the
nature of duodena.. A punishment which sends the
poacher's foully to the poor-boom, and animates
the man himself with a spirit of tines hatred or
sullen discontent, alike dangerous to others and
ruinous to himself, is too often complacently re-
garded by worthy, orthodox, chinch-going men, u a
sort d natural and necessary dispensation as muc►
in the providential order of things as the family
worship before breakfast, or the port wine after
dinner. All this is true and lamentable enough; bat
it is not true, and for generations has not been
true, that anything like corruption or extortion is
practically known amongst the unpaid magistracy
of England. In fact, the very intensity of the sur-
poise ocaisioned by such a cars u this of Mr. Bah-
LANET'S affords a fair measure of the isolated and
entirely exceptional nature of his delinquency.
r Astonishment is the first feeling produced on the
mind of an Englishman when he hears of such a
I charge ; the next is a sentiment of deep and stern in-
dignation that any English magistrate should, in thee,
• times, bare been found who could so far prortitote
I the dignity of justice and degrade the character of
hie suntry. The judgment of Mr. Justice Cohz-
RIDI3II and the sentence of the Court of Queen's

Bench gin admirable expression to both these feel-
ings it is weU for the world to know that the high
tribunal to which is more particularly committed the
charge of vegetating the proceedings of all local and
inferior jurisdictions throughout the yea* will not,
when the occasion requires it, evade the painful but
neeemary task of visiting, by adequate retribution,
the grave misdemeanours of the subordinate magi
'Macy.
There is one other point suggested by this case on
which it is almcet impossible to forbear comment,
Suppose the delinquent magistrate, instead of patting
the guinea into his pocket by the threat of fins ne
imprisonment, had imposed a fine and allowed it to
go in the usual course into the county fund,—where
would hate been the offence in the eye of the law ?
The ease would have perhaps furnished an " indig-
nation" paragraph or two to the local papers ; it
might even have crept into a coiner of the metro-
politan journals ; but there would have been
as end of it. And yet how truly monstrous
is the state of the law that renders this possible! By
the law BELLANET wee empowered to fine, and in
default of payment to commit, these two peasants
for killing a rabbit on hie own grease. It was, no
doubt, bad Mats to alt in judgment open them under
the circumstances, but no one pretends that it was
illegal ; indeed, in all garne-prreerring parts of the
country the thing, we fear, I. only of too frequent oe-
. currence. How much Imager are them absurd and
wicked laws to be kept up ? How much longer
is an age eager for popular education, fix social
improvement, for the abolition of class-prejadiess,
P to nineties the perpetuation of a feudal system of
I law which, for the sake of keeping up a breed of
wild poultry, fills oar county gaols, sets class against