The Express.
London, England, 1861-02-13 00:00:00

THE LATE GALE.

Did our apace permit we could fill columns to-
day with fresh particulars relative to the terrific and dims-
trou gale which visited the north coast of England, and
the coast of Ireland, on Friday and Saturday last, but we
must only add a few more details. The following is as
accurate a list as can he ascertained of the 'hipping lost in
Kingston harbour and its vicinity, and the number of lives
sacrificed. Industry, Collins, master, Whitehaven, King-
stown, four lives last. Lively Webb, muter, Newry,
Bricbmwater, all saved. Mary, Campbell,l master, Troon,
Dublin, all saved. Mau, Breen, master, Troon, Dublin,
all saved. Clans, Blair, master, Ayr, aublin, all saved.,
Wanderer, M'Mullen, master, Killough, Swamies, all saved.
Operient, Crawford, master, Workington, Dublin, all saved.
Vs anderer, Pickthal, miuter,Whitehaven, Dublin, all saved.
King °lave, Grimes, master, Stranraer, Plymouth, all saved.
Royal Sovereign, Smyth, muster, Straugford, Dublin, all
waved. Caroline, Douglas, master, Workington, Dublin, al/
laved. Hero, Covey, master, Antn.smin, Dublin, all
saved. Neptune, Fannings, master, Workington,
six lost.

In the course of the day the search for the bodied of
Captain Boyd and a missing imam name' Forsyth, belonging
to the Ajax, was vigorously prosecuted. Early in the
morning Lieut. Hutchinson, with Lieut. Morrell and a party
of sailors from the Ajax, and fishermen of Kingidowo, corn.
monad the search. It was supposed that the body must be
lying amongst the loose rubble, and the attention of those
who were looking for it well specially directed to the debris
of the wrecks, which it was supposed might have covered it
from sight. The vest and ouniforter, and 0, en the shirt, of
Captain Boyd were found, but there was no trace of the
body. Lieutenant Hutchinson offered the reward of W. to
any Prima who would find it, but the men toiled on without
success until darkness came on. Towards evening the sea
and wind began to rise and the barometer fell, murky clouds
drove scram the sky, and those persons who were mimed
in the search were deluged with showers of sleet. There is
some reason to fear that the gale has again proved (EAU-
crow during the night, as there was every prospect by the
continuance of foul weather. There is a finn thirrmination,
however, not to give up the scarch for the body of the cap-
tain, which cannot be far from the spot on which he was
drowned, and from the floating of Lis shirt, which was iden-
tified by Lieutenant Morrell, there is good hope of the dill-
' covert' of the coriric when the sea abates. An inquest ham
been held oc some of the bodies of the captain's companions,
and a verdict of accidental death was returned.

ST. PHILIP'S, BP:IIINAL-OREEN.—The inhabitants
of this district parish presented their incumbent (the Rev.
James r itt) on Monday evening last with a handsome
testimonial in the form of an elegant timepiece, supplied by
Mr. Densett, of Cheapside. ,The committee laid down three
rules for the subscribers :-1. That every subscription
should be smalL 2. That it should be spontaneous. 3. That
no unnecessary publicity should given to it before the pre-
sentation, • th►t nothing should in any catto be said to
the incumbent or his family. In this way the people,
though poor, raised about 301.

QECoND-lIAND PIANOFORTES.
cit A NiK. IN. U.K. an.l Ce= \Ave • Larbre a..ortgarllt el
orcuoul r, by We atu,l eltromea waken, at
greatly n,1ut...1 pncvs, itesrakt amt.

get erpreogi.

TO cng IIG• PON DLYTS.

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PIIPICIAAS.
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kr tit. Mk. M. Ilan* Idn.Waslea.—Aad lONINAOS
curt ob. or. 11.kriv•ima Irriday. mid The Kim of the Canibbee
laaba. %I•Peu. biptaoss S 114lla. M. Dimilake, W. A. Forest.

JAISIBII.
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1,11 rktserz liares.A.wriaa ad Mr,. n White.
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Cart, Herbal, and tom.—Casomence al liallipet 7.

111011 WATITS AT LMIDWIr =IDOL
TO Dar —MAIAAA 4b 1456.. Attorass6 4k Ms.
.401110/mi—Xandes, 46 um—. Mono" 41 Cass.

LONDON, ll' EDNIXDAF, FEB. 13.

lv is not unreasonable that, after five-and-
twenty years' experience of the working of the
system of poor relief authorised and limited by
the law of 1834, the community in general should
entertain a wish to reconsider the subject, with a
view to ascertaining how far the means employed
answer the purpose proposed, and how far im-
provement in administration is possible. There
has never been a period, perhaps, in which the
public were altogether contented with what was
done in this way, or how it was done. From
time to time the press has been made the vehicle
of rebuke and complaint on every variety of topic
connected with the dispensation of national charity.
But as the casual aggravation of hardship of one
kind or other has been mitigated by a change in
the weather, a change in the labour market, or a
change in the oflicial humour of Gwydyr House,
the voice of remonstrance has died away, and the
current of things has relapsed into its former
channel. Slowly and steadily, though of late
almost imperceptibly, the stream of bureaucratic
dictation has widened in its course, gradually over-
hearing the obstinate but isolated obstacles that
for a season resisted its force, and silently sweeping
over the local ways and bounds that distinguished
many localities from one another. It was avowedly
the hope of the New Poor Law doctrinaires of five-
and-twenty years ago that the whole of the land
would be washed clean of illogical charity by this
assimilating flood, and that by degrees the English
people would come to renounce all individual
discretion in the matter of public almsgiving,
and all local liberty as to its method. The
average wants of men, women, and children,
in certain defined stages of distress, being ascer-
tained and declared by the inexorables of central
authority, sitting apart and impassive in their
ministerial palace in London, everything else was
mere matter of routine, obedience, and tape. At
first and for a good while the inexorables held it
fur settled law that indoor relief was alone lawful,
and that all else was jobbery or robbery. Fierce
was the warfare waged for some twelve years or
more to assert this so-called principle : and in-
finite was the suffering and misery caused thereby,
of which we shall hear no more in this world. At
the end of that time a man was placed at the
head of the department, in whom the teachings
of mamlon worship and of utilitarian eco-
nomy had not stifled the higher wisdom
of human sympathy, or destroyed what the Scrip-
ture calls " bowels of mercy." CHARLES 1111.7LL6R
did not live long enough to impress permanently
upon the system the humanising traces of his own
enlightened spirit ; but ho was the first who made
a truce between the indiscriminate rigour of cen-
tralism and the wayward and sometimes wasteful
generosity of parochialism. Other men have since
presided at the Poor-law Commission, but we be-
lieve that in the main things continuo pretty much
as they were left by the distinguished statesman
we have named. In very many places large unions
have been established and large workhouses built,
the independence of local discretion has been
very much reduced, and relief has come
to be administered by inflexible rule. In
very many districts, on the other hand,
nothing of the kinil has ever been introduced ;
and with certain modifications the old way of
dealing with the wants of the poor has been per-
severed in. The result is that we still pay be-
tween six and seven millions a year in Poor Rates;
and far from finding that sum adequate to meet
the dementia of any sudden access of distress, we
have every now and then to organize vast schemes
of non-legal or extra-legal benevolence, which Mr.
C11•111.1JDI ViLtieas, and we suppose every true
doctrinaire, considers fit only to be sneered and
laughed at. The public were never less inclined,
however, a e believe, to give up their local and
individual consciences, for bell-metal substitutes,
on which the inn& hammer of oflkial whim loves to
play its monotonous chime. The fact is that there
are few things the people of England are less dis-
posed to adopt or submit to, than uniformity in
any of the great affairs of life ; and in this the
national instinct is assuredly sound, for there
never was a community to whose circumstances

and wants that most sterile of pedantic conceits
wu lens suitable.

And yet we are in the midst of a movement in
favour of a certain sort of uniformity. There is a
cry for assimilation of the bows on which paro-
chial rating is founded ; and these is a clamour
for elualizstion of rates. Great injustice arises
for want of the former, and great cnielty
as well us injustice for want of the latter. But
there is really nothing necessarily inconsistent in
a desire for ► uniform standard of valuation for
the purposes of assessment, and • uniform tax
upon property for the relief of poverty—with a
sturdy and conscientious resolution to see and
judge for ourselves in each locality whether the
poor are faithfully looked after, and an honest de-
termination not to allow them to be handed over
to be dealt with by departmental viej,biqs, accord-
ing to their absolute will. We freely own that
we do not believe the public mind fully appreciates
as yet the practical difficulty it seems bent
on being allowed to try. Uniformity of
rating it is certain to obtain, the ques-
tion of how to secure it being one of legislative
mechanism ; and equalization of rates, to a greater
or less extent, in part or in whole, is, we believe,
inevitable—the question being only one of time.
But how to reconcile the retention of local discre-
tion with the need of impartial superintendence,
and how to preserve habits of frugality in the
administration of relief after the check of self-
interest on the part of poor-law guardians is taken
away, is a matter worthy of the deepest and most
patient consideration. As far as the poor are con-
cerned, the change would be an unmixed good, for
it implies an obliteration at once and for
ever of the whole system of inhumanity,
impolicy, and injustice of which the Law
of Settlement is the root. To the small