The Express.
London, England, 1850-03-30 00:00:00

OUTGOING MAILS.

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111011 WATTS AT LOOMS PRIPO
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LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 30.

THERE are three ways of dealing with crime,
ignorance, and indigence
To leave them alone in freedom, and interfere to
check, remove, or punish them, only when they
become nuisances or overt acts :
On the contrary, for the state to act paternally u
well as magisterially, and penetrate to the house, the
cellar, and the cradle, to see that the poor are
morally brought up, educated, trained to earning, and
endowed with its possibility, that the population are not
over crowded, or over worked, or, as the French say,
e.rploile, used up, for their own detriment and others'
advantage :
The third way is to combine both these systems, to
interfere in part, as chance may allow or casual
charity dictate ; to give the poor man a morsel of food
when he falters from starvation, but not provide any
chance for tt•e avoid:ng such extremity; to protect
the Lancashire operative and let the Donetshire
labourer take care of himself—to reform criminals,
but allow the industrious population to live in igno.
ranee, and neglect, and crime.
It is to be hop-d, for the dignity of oar nature,
that the first mode, which treats man as a rational
and independent being, is the true and practicable
one ; ard that where it bas been found to fail, this
is owing to adventitious circumstances, or to &grant
infraction of the principle. There can be no doubt,
for example, that under a state of law which pro-
vides a refuge in the workhouse or su-pirt from
it to t° e superannuated labourer, both the labourer
himself and his employer will be influxnced, the
one in Ws prudence, the other in his mode
of remunerating and treating the labourer, by
the certainty of his future provision. If the
operation of the poor law, and the influx of
Jr:sh labour—if these two circumstances are taken
into consideration, it is evident that the system
of leaving the employed and the employing classes in
perfect liberty has not been tried in England.
And yet if the principle of government be to act
tutor and carer for the poor, it is plain that it cannot
be partially done, that the duty must be railed
amply. It is a charitable aim, a noble task certainly,
to leave no mind untaught, no arm unemployed,
no family destitute. But to undertake this fur
a population, whatever physical comforts such
care may endow it with, is most certainly to deprive
that pixilation of all freedom, energy, moral elasti-
city, and worth. It brings man to be a machine, and
assimilated to the beset, not of the field, but of the
stall. It is slavery under another name, and we do
believe, would lead finally to more degradation and
corruption than all the severe trials of the lot alone
system.
But however strong partisans of the latter, there
are still some cases and circumstances which form

SIN ptioos, in which society or the state is bound to
interf-re, and limit that exuberance of freedom by
which the best growth of humanity would ran to
less, and the best fruits be choked by weed.. An
exceptional case is that of a great city, an immense
conglomeration of men : there is so much wealth,
so much of even stray wealth, that large
numbers grow op, as it were, to prey upon it, like the
parasites of the vegetable world. In a crest city, the
police should 'oet not only repressive, bat preventive.
It should have a right to inquire into the means and
the livelihood cf those who lice in that indigence
which is the fourder of crime. It matters little whe-
ther this be done by a registry, by a visitation of houses
and their inmate., or by a passport system—whe-
ther it he done by a general police or by a municipal
rice—every inhabitant of • hundred, as in the old
Saxon law, answering for his neighbour's life and
honesty, and looktog to it. We main-
tain that there is too much freedom, too
mach licence for vagabondising in a capital like Lon-
don; and that a system of prevention, cure, and in-
spection would reduce to one-tenth of its present
amount the quantity of crime, aye, and of misery in
this metropolis.
Another case, and another law, which might be
exceptional to national freedom, are. those of the
education of the juvenile poor. In the utter neglect
of this meat to be commiserated portion of the
metropolitan population, charitable men undertook to
do all in their power to remedy some of the worst
molts of destitution. They opened 'ragged seh,eds,
where the rising generation of outcasts were enticed,
is ceder to learn that there were other occupations,
aims, idea., other modes of living in the world, and
other modes of pride, than dexterity in thieving.
Of the immense good wrought by these schools no
rational or impartial p-rain can have a doubt. An
ingenious person has succeeded, by setting the esprit
de corps of the police against that of the charitably
ethicationists,to get op a caseagainst the ragged schools;
and the individual testimony of urchins is pressed into
the servics, as if it were not easy to demonstrate that
all the schools in England were hot-beds of vice,
if any one were itwenious enough to collect and collate
the evidence of malicious school-boys. That the acquisi-
tion of some elements of learning,thatcven the momen-
tary submission to the discipline of a school, the con-
tact with their betters, and the vistas open towards
the comparativerepose end happiness of a virtuous and
intel:i4ent life—that these have had their effect
in a thousand instances none can deny. But
that they sometimes fail, that boys who used to
herd fur evil purposes in idle resorts may do the same
in ragged schools, and that the horn-book is not alone
a specific for vice, must and may be admitted, without
in the least affecting the great value aid noble uses of
these ragged schools. How valueless the number of
police committals are as testimonies against ragged
schools, the article which follows this in our columns
abundantly shows.
If we viewed with regret this slur on a noble
institution, we read with somewnat of the same sen-
timent Lord A•IILEY'S letter, which seemed to despair
of the schools, unless government would offer
the premium of emigration to the successful
disciple of tee schools. We should have preferred hie
lordship's testimony to the fact that the schoc le were
beneficent, even as theystood. Government cannot give
those rewards to the outcast population of the streets
which would be gladly seized by the industrious for
thelr families. But still we think that some scheme
might be devised for articling or apprenticing fur
certain terms of years to colonial masters such children
as were found destitute in our streets. This might pay
for their transport, would not give them advantages over
the children of the industrious poor, and might supply
the growing want of labour in our colonies.
Independently of this, however, we do think that a
system of forced education, connected with a stricter
preventive police, might be established exclusively for
this Babel of vice called London. Great countries, if
they do not take care, will be eaten up one day by
the vice, ignorance, and the madness engendered by
both, which go to form the immense majority of
voices, and aims, and influences in a great metropolis.
Paris has eaten up France. If London aid Man-
chester took it into their heads, they would swallow

Two interesting documents have very recently
appeared bearing on the criminal condition of London
and its suburbs. The Aletropoliten C /ramie-
'loners give us forty-seven pewee of statistical inform-
ation, in which they chew the number of persons
taken into custody during 1819; their ages, sex and
offences ; the cues discharged, summarily disposed of,
held to bail or committed for trial; the result of the
committals ; the degree of instruction of all who were
apprehended ; and a variety of cmnpatative tables,
chewing the state of crime in London for several
years past, as contrasted with I's present state.
The other deseuatient is a short report from Mr.
%tau. W. HARVIT, the CommiNA•mer of City
Police. Ile review, the put and present condition of

the City, and declares that there is "a marked im-
provement in the condition and conduct of the
people." In 1841 nearly 8,000 per one were taken
into custody by the City pollee: in 1849 the arrests
numbered only 5,100. In 1841, 9,0001. we. reported
to be the value of the property steles ; In 1849 the
amount had decreased to 4,4061. Mr. HARVEY urges
that this is strong evidence of the improved and im-
proving habits of the people, whose conduct comes
more especially within the =guipure* of the police.
From the returns of the Metropolitan Police Com-
missioners, the same inferences might not, at first
sight, be drawn. Tbe number of persons taken into
custody during 1819 exhibits a Marked increase over
the arrests for 1847 and 1848: 62,100 were ar-
rested in 1847, 64,500 in 1848, and 70,600 in 1849.
Upon the face of it, this account tells disadvanta-
geously. But whoa we come to look into it, we find
that although the number of arrests had so greatly
increased, the number of committals for trial
had undergone a marked diminution; 5,900 persons
were committed in 1847, 5,500 in 1848, and only
4,500 in 1849. The number of convictions, also, was
4,500 in 1847, 4,300 in 1848, sad only 3,600 in 1849.
So that it is evident that the arrests made by the
metropolitan polio, are for the most part for very
petty offences: indeed we find that out of the 70,600
taken into custody 34,700, or more than a
personsal were discharged by the magistrates, and nearly
32,000 were held to bail or summarily dealt with.
Out of the 70,600 arrests, therefore, nearly 67.000
were on paltry charges.
" Drunkenness" constitutes a fourth part of the
" crime" of the metropolis. Out of the 50,600 pertain
taken into custody, more than 21,000 were arrested
as " druek," or " druek and disorderly." We appear
also, to te a very pugnacious people. Moro than
8,000 arrests were made for " assaults," of which num-
ber, it should be observed, that no less than 3,000
were " assaults on the police." 6,500 persons were
taken into custody as " vagrants," and 3,200 more
as " suspicious characters ; 5,200 as " disorderly,"
and 2,400 as " prostitutes." Here are nearly 50,000
charges for offences against public order rather
than against the law. And this may account, to a
great extent, for the inefficiency of the police in the
more delicate and important duties of their office.
They are street keeps re, not Bow-street runners : pre-
servers of the peace, not detectors of great crimes.
In everything aprertaining to street keeping the
vigilance of the police appears, indeed, to be greatly
on the increase. In 1848 the number cf stage and
hackney coachmen summoned by the police wa52,049:
in 1849 they summoned 2,855. In 1848 the police ob-
tamed 920 summonses against publicans : in 1849 they
obtained no less than 1,372. How happens it that so
many more hackney-cabmen refuted to" move on" in'
1819 than in 1848 ? What was it that occasioned
such a great increase in the number of " crimes"
committed by the publicans ? It seems to us, we
must say, very questionable how far this increased
rigour towards industrious dusts of the community
is either desirable, or likely to be followed by benefi-
cial consequences. And we view these charges with
the more jealousy because magistrates invariab'y
convict en police testimony in cases of this sort, and
because such cases therefore open very ready facilities
for extortion, annoyance and oppreeron.
The number of summary convictions by magistrates
amounted in the year last past to 31,343. Of these
16,000 offenders were fined, whilst somewhere about
12,000 were imprisoned for terms varying from seven
days to three months. Of those who mere thus com-
mitted to gaol, the largest number, were arrested for
assaults on the police, for acts of vagrancy,
and as suspicious characters. We are glad of
this opportunity of expressing an opinion very
adverse to short committal., and especially for these
offences. This is the way our thieves are made.
Some poor creature wandering about in a state of
se is arrested by the police as a vagrant or as a
" very suspicious character," at d is sent fur a month
or six weeki to board and lodge at the national ex-
pense. In prison he is obliged to mingle with a
criminal class steeped in depravity and vice, and by
the time he leaves he has come to think that
thieving is no such great crime after all. A remark-
able in-lance in pint is given in the lut report of
the Chaplain of Giltspur-street Compter.

was a soldier's ,on. 11:s father died in his early
childhood ; his mother gained a precarious livelihood by
begging about the courtly until her death in 1840, when
I. L. was under ten years of age. He had not long continued
to beg for his living before he met with boss of his own age,
who took him to a house in Wentwortb.street, Whit/chapel,
where be was regularly trained for six month, in the art of
picking pockets. After pursuing this mod.. of life for some
time, be Purchased a quentity of counterfeit money, and
started with a companion into the country. ID the course of
this and subrrquent journe.s, be was committed to priemi,—
once in Nottingham; twice in S enthwell gaol; twice in
Liverpool ; three times in Carmarthen ; twice en Cardiff ;
b.sidrs various imprisonments in Dublin, Glasgow, Coester,
Siaffird, Kingston, Brizton, and almost every Linden gaol.
He had been committed more than 40 times; and taken into
custody much more than one hundred timer, but dischirged
for went of evidence. At length, at the age of nineteen. he
was committed, in February last, to Giltspurstreet. Shortly
after his committal, the chaplain was greatly surprised to
receive en *4TP/silos from him requesting to be placed in
an asylum. At first he declined to entertain the ease, fearing
his sincerity. But the lad pressed his suit s t earnestly, and
with such strung assuran TII of siticeri,y, that it was im-
p ssible to refuse. Eventually he was received into the
Refuge, Pear-street, Westminster, where he remained for
sic months under a course of industrial and moral train-
ing; and fully proved to the satisfaction of all connected
with the institution the reality of the change that had taken
place. In September last, through the kindness of the
sheriffs, he was sent to America; and sine, his arrival he has
written a letter expnising his gratitude to those who be.
friended him, and his determination to follow out the new
coarse on which he had entered.

In the report of the City Commissioner we find ore
passage to which we deem it highly necessary to ad-
vert. It will be in the recollection of many readers
that there was a cue of assault dismissed at Guild-
hall, not very long ago, in which the defendant made
a very remarkable statement rezardin4 the police.
He was going, he sail, steadily along Wood-
rtreet with a bag, containing music, in his hand,
when he was stopped by a man in a fustian jacket,
who insisted upon searching him. Very properly
resisting any such interference, he foucd himself
to his surprise seized and thrown into a police
cell, for " impeding the police in the execution
of their duty." Mr. Alderman SALOMONS, before
whom the case was heard, strongly condemned
the conduct of the constable, and expressed a most
decided opinion that such a moCe of carrying
out the police system was perfectly unwar-
ranted. We had hoped, after an opinion ex-
pn-ssed from such a quarter, that a practice so
abominable and obnoxious would have at once been
stopped. Whet is our surprise at finding Mr. CUM..
misooner DANIEL W. HARVEY (of all men in the
world! coming forward to justify the practice and to
declare " that it is very unreasonable that the consta-
bles should be exposed to such rebukes!" " I should
regret," says he, " the relinquishment if the practice
rf employing constables not wearing the rtnyhrm of the
firce, being satisfied if its great !" We
strongly recommend the government to send Mr. D.
W. HARVEY to second his friend, Mr. WARD, in
Cephalonia. He will there find opportunities of car-
rying out the spy system to his heart's content, and
on a very much more extended scale than we trust he
will be permittel to practise it in London.

THE EQUINOCTIAL GALF.B.—The Hull Akerliser
says : " During the pest week we have been visited with
tremendous gales of wind from the north to north-west, se•
eempanied by a heavy fall of snow ; indeed, the weather,
after succession of genial, sunny days, al at this pe-
riod of the year, he. asinuned all the rigour of winter, and
strong frost. have been of nightly recurrence. We, did net
feel the effects of the gale so much in the town, nor did it
cause that heavy swell in the river near Hull created towards
the sea. Persons who arrived on Monday in coasting and
other verbal experienced the storm in all its violence, and
in some butane, s the stamen suffered delay. The Humber
pilots, who are accustomed to hard weather, and whose
tight, substaatisl, and handy cutters are well adapted and
equipped for stormy seas, state th..t on Sunday tne gale,
accouipenied as it was by driving snow, tried both men and
their craft, the sea running unusually high. Owing to the
quarter from which the wind blew, fortunately few casualties
have occurred on our coast. The barque Lesmahagow,
however, bound from Grimsby to Shields, to embark emi
grants, put back after buffeting with the storm, and rode
out the gale in safety, with both anchors down, in the lower
part cf the river. Oa Sunday the sloop Sarah, from 1,, no
for Lincoln, with barley, which had been riding in the
bight of the Hale, in 41 fathoms water, for a considerable
time, in a very exported position, hoisted • signal ler &cis-
taw e, the crew being 'alienated with the fatigues they had
endured. The pilot cutter Nettle (No. 1) immediately bore
down to render the necessary aid, and after some difficulty
succeeded in getting • pilot ow board, and towed her up into
Sank Island Roads. It r bowsprit is sprung, but otherwise
.Ite is not damaged. A schooner is reported nn chore on
Handball, crew saved, having gone on at high water ; she
missed stays, and went on shore in the act et wearing.
From various parts of the east coast we have received ac-
counts of the boisterous state of the weather.

FRANCE.

PARIS, Funky, 6 r x.
The startling incidents, the shallop :of character,
, which the French introduce in such rapid succession
into their polital existence, weld induce one to be-
' lists that their versatile and excitable natures were
driven by an inward necessity to invest the political
stage with all the excitement of the dramatic. Thus
not only the situation, as it is called, is continually
changing, but the personages who figure in the situa-
tion seem to take a strange satisfaction is surprising
the public by feats in complete contradiction with
the character popularly assigned them, and startling
the world by ' exactly what is lent expeced of
them. Thus we d to-day M. Froudhon, in a long
letter published in the Voss du Peuplo, ceiling upon
the socialists to support the government. M. de
Larocbejacquelin, the ardent champion of monarchy
by the graos of God, all at ones does an act which
breathes the most genuine spirit of republicanism, and
acknowledges the sovere;guty_ of the people in its
widest and fullest Pease. Louis Napoleon, the represen-
tative of the civil government of imperial France,
becomes the tool of the Jesuits. M. Tniers, who has
been studying all his life how to be constitutional,l
openly profanes the rankest absolutism. Thus each
actor throws by in turn the principles that were his
badge, to adopt, not a modification, but the extreme
opposite.
Great numbersof the most zealous republicans have
called on M. de Lerochejacquclin to express their
sincere thanks for the service which he has rendered
to liberty and the republic by his celebrated pro-
position.
The metallic reserve has at last received a alight
check in its accumulation this week, giving a smell
diminution of nearly a million, for whilst Paris
shows an augmentation .of nearly 4 a million, the
branch banks manifest a diminution of 1 million.
The discount accommodation shows an increase of

11 millions in Paris, and a diminution of about I,mil-
lion in the country; the amount of the former being
41,122,531 fr., and of the latter 64,016,262 fr. The
protested bills aro somewhat less, Paris showing a
falling off of about 50,000 fr., and the provinces about
20,000 h.; the amount of the former being
1,3.56,263 tr., and of tt.e latter 1,435,202 fr. On the
side of the liabilities, the notes in circulation have
increased about 141 millions in Paris, and fallen off
about 11 millions in the branch banks. The credit
account of treasury hes fallen off 334 millions; the
present amount being 33,744,320 fr. Private la.:counts-
current in Paris have increased nearly 16 millions,
and in the provinces about 1 of a million ; the amount
of the former being 97,633,588 fr., and of the latter
24,026,010 fr. Tne whole amount of the metallic re.
serve is now 481 millions to 4801 millions of notes in
circulation.
The Ami rle rOrdre publishes the following letter,
addressed to it by the Cruot de Chambord, dated Ve-
nice, 10th inst.:
I bear that subscriptions have been °period in several de-
penmen's for the purpose of presenting ma with some are
ticks of great value. I ans deeply touched and grateful for
thee, marks of sympathy and remembrance ; hut I wuk my
friends to know, that under existing circumstancn it is not
possible for me to accept the's. gifts. In presence of the
misfortunes of the country, and the number of persons in
distress who require relief. when the am. lioration of the
condition of the working climes calls for all our solicitude,
and that I am every day afflicted at the ilea of being de-
prived by the misfortunes of the time and by my absence, of
the satisfaction of assisting them as my heart would dictate,
how could I with pleasure are my friend, putting themselves
to espies* on my account ? I beg them, th.refore, to reserve
all the resources they have at their disposal fur a more useful
purpose. The good they will do in France, in my name,
will be the best proof they cm give me of their affection, and
for which I shill always be the most thankful.
(Signed) II exit

General Pacheco y Obis, envoy extraordinary isT.d
minister plenipotentiary of the Argentine republic,
embarked the day before yesterday from Havre for
Rio Janeiro, on board the Ville de Rio, ;Captain
Hebert. M. Eugae Guillemot, who lung filled di-
plomatic functions in South America, accompanies
General Pacheco y 0W.%
. . .

The Central Congress of Agriculture has propised
that a duty of 50t. per brad shall be levied upon all
cattle imported into France.

blit'ILQE.