The Express.
London, England, 1850-04-20 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, SATURDAY EVENING. APRIL 20, 1850.

Efte erprefsfs.

OUTGOING MAILS.
The nails yid Mensilles, to the Mediterranean,
Celke, I ad*. Hoeg[-Kong, to., will be made aeon
the ',minx of April 24.
The nails far British North America sad the United
States will be nada up on the evening of April 26.
The wags fer Lisboa, Spain, sad Gibraltar will be made
op on April 27.
The West India Wells, laoludiag Serenade, Havessalt,
liessea, Honduras, New Orieaas, sad Mexico, sad ezelndiap
Mese tor Madeira, fit. Jusa-de-Nisaragna, New Grimed.,
Mil, and Peru, will be wads up on May 2.
Tie mane for Maderia, the Brasile, sad Buenos Ayres, will
be made up ea the 4th of May.

SION WAIU AT LUNDON IMMO&
7'. Allenem h.Na
41, N. AAinesa, SA 47

LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 20.

Tali ben of one of VOLTAIIIII'S TOMlallme,whea asked
whether he preferred black mutton or white mutton,
replies that it did not matter which, presided it were
tender. In political questions we confess to a leaning
to the philosophy of this poco-eureste gentleman; we
are comparatively indifferent to the forms of govern-
ment prsvided they admit of the public opinion and
popular will exercising their due influence in a peace-
able and ordeily manner.
Not so Sir WILLIAM MOLESWORTII and those who
follow his lead in the discussions on the Australian
Colonies Government Bill. They are not satisfied
with a measure that will enable the colonists to
govern themselves, unless it enable the colonists to do
so in the exact form and manner of which Sir WIL-
LIAM and his coadjutors approve. Thev are not con-
tented with tender motto* ; it must be black or white
(according to their personal tastes) to meet with their
approbation.
It would be pure waste of time to enter again into
an exposition of our views ',massing the ministerial
bill for the government of the Australian colonies.
We have repeatedly stated our objections to it. The
bill is awkwardly framed, and obscurely worded: it
is certain to prove a fertile source of legal chicane;
and it contains provisoes relative to the civil hat, in-
consistent with true constitutional government, re-
lative to the project of a general congress, incompa-
tible with the rights of the individual colonies, and
connection of all of them with the mother country.
V. believe that Sir WILLIAM and his colleagues, in
the existing temper of the House of Comment, had it
pleased them to address themselves to these defects,
could have obliged ministers to correct them. Bat
instead of doing so they have wowed their strength
upon a pedantical, unpractical controversy respecting
the comparative merits of double and single legislative
chambers.

We have objected, and still object to the constitu-
tion which ministers propose to give the legislatures
of the Australian colonies. If you have made up
your minds to concede aslf-government in local
matters to these colonies do it honestly and outright.
Do not attempt to hood-wick them by establishing
legislatures comically elective, but in reality under
the control ot government influences. Entertaining
these views we are anxious that the Australian legis-
latures should be composed 'exclusively of elected
members. But this is not what our vii-disant colonial
reformers are driving at. They wish to retain these
I nominee members, but to have them in a house apart
from the elective members. They appear to have taken
a hint from the traveller who, when a dish of butter
lull of hairs was served up to him at a Scotch inn,
poli'ely requested the waiter to have the hairs put on
another plate. This would satisfy Sir WlLLtall
MOLESWORTII : we want to have the hairs removed
shot then.
The truth is, that in communities in the actual
condition of the Australian colonies, a first or upper
house of legielsture must of necessity be a sham, or
something worse. Theorists have advocated double
chambers, on the ground that they ensure greater
deliberation and more thorough scrutiny of legirls-
five projects. But undue precipitancy may be midi-
ciently guarded against by orders ot the house rela-
tive to fist, second, and third readings and committals
of bills. In America and England double chambers
have been adopted, and have proved useful, but
for reasons altogether irrespective of deliberate
or hasty legislation. In England there existed a
powerful aristocracy and a powerful democracy.
they were pretty equally balanced, aid therefore it
was tscily agreed thet no bill should become law
which had not received the assent of both. Hence
our Houses of Lords and Commons. In the United

States the popular will wu bent upon establishing
the equal rights of citizens, but at the same time each
state in the Union was bent upon maintaining its
independence. The difficulty was solved by establish-
ing a House of Representatives, in which the citizens
were numerically represented, and a Senate, in which
each state had a voice equipoteot to each of its con-
federates. The double chamber system has been in
each of thus great n alone a concession to a pre-
existent state of society. Double legislative cham-
bers in an Australian colony would be • servile
mimicry of English and American institutions, with-
out the materials whereof to construct them.

There are two classes of advocates of the double
chamber system in the English House of Commons
who argue on quite distinct principles. Messrs.
IVALPOLE end ADDERLET are inimical to democracy,
and ask for an upper chamber in order to impose •
check on the demccratictl spirit of the colonies. They
dream of doing what is impossible. Aristocracies are
not to be created by means of statistics ; they must be
the natural growth of social relations. There is no
arist :cracy at present in the Australian colonies, and
you cannot make one by law. You may make family
compaca to job and lord it over their fellow-colonists,
but the experience of Canada is a beacon to warn
from the shoals of such a shallow policy.
Again, we have liberals who, while professing
to have no fear of the democratic spirit of young
colonies affect to support double chambers as
a concession to the wishes of the colonists
themselves. Where is the evidence that the
Australian colonists went doable chambers ? Sir
WILLIAM MOLESWORTH quotes the governors of Van
Diemen's Land and South Australia. It is something
new to find him attributing each importance to the
opinions of Downing•street nominees. We prefer to
gather the sentiments cf the colonists from their own
mouths. In New South Wales the most intelligent
of the conservative leaders, Mr. MACARTHUR, and the
most able and energetic of the democratic leaders, Mr.
WENTWORTH, have alike declared In favour of a'
single chamber. In Victoria, the cJloniate have peti-
tioned the QUEEN and parliament to pass in
the course of the present session an act
to separate them from New South Wales,
and confer upon them the same constitution
that New Synth Wales possesse t. The colonists of
Van Diemen's Land have pe:itioned the QUEEN "that
a legislative council, to be elected by the colonists,
may be granted without further delay." The colo-
fists of South Australia, in public meeting assembled,
have passed the following resolution : "That the bill
laid befire parliament entitled ' a bill for the better
government of her Majesty's Australian colonies,' so
far as it relates to the colo•y of South Australia,
meets the wishes and wants of the colonists in most
of its essential provisions; end by recommending the
concession of a representative government with such
extensive powers, deserves to be regarded ea • wise
liberal, and comprehensive measure." The provi-
sions objected to are the limited franchise, the general
Australian congress, and the fixed civil list. Mr.
MORPHETT'S resolutions in favour of an neper
chamber, intended to be moved in Council, and pub-
lished in the government Gazette by the governor two
months before the time fixed for the meeting of
Council, were treated by the speakers and auditors at
the meeting with the mait unmitigated contempt.

It is clear,therefore, that the Australian colonists
have no wish fur a double legislature. Common sense
tells us that a chamber of nominees possessing a voice
equally powerful with tho elective chamber, can have
no other effect than to invest a few individuals in the
colony with the power of neutralising the popular
will. Any admixture of nominees in the elective
chamberia undesirable, but if they are a minority the
elective members an defeat them on all vital ques-
tions. Such being the state of the case, it is lament-
able to see those members of the Heins of Commons
who take upon them to support tho rights and inter-
ests uf the colonies, wasting their time in pedantic
advocacy or bookish theories of colonial government,
instead uf exerting themselves to render the m nirte-
rial bill intelligible and coherent, and to eliminate
its really mischievous provi. ions.

IT a writer were to undertake to compass a history
of the &ebb poor, of their fortunes, audition, and
the law seder which they lived, he would have to
shady saufally the entire of the proceedings in par-
liament daring this week. For, in fact, the public
Maces, as it called, has been • amiss of proposals
affsedag the poorer classes.
One friend of the people called the identical of the
legislators to the fact, that a large proportion of the
population, that which was beyond the ewe or
seatrol of either rich proprietors or totes religiose
eseistiee, was totally without instruction. He pew
peed to remedy this by providing schools and sobs&
meters to teach them to reed, to cultivate their
understanding, and thus prepare it for the reception
and appreciation of religious truth and moral beauty.
To this proposal the leading men of the house showed
themselves decidedly adverse. For any peer shit
to be taught except under the inlinease if Ow
clergy, however it might be beyond the Ilea or
power of the clergy to teach it, was declared to be
profanation.
This is chapter the first of the history of the
English poor, in the month of April, 1860. The
next proposal was to give better and cheaper mums
of information to the mass of the adult poor, and net
merely the very indigent, bat the middle and indus-1
trions classes. It was folly shown that the reviler
clinical organs for communicating intelligence, record.
ing public events, promulgating laws, defending the
rights of the poor, and resisting their pretenatots,
if exorbitant—these useful and necessary vehicles
of knowledge were utterly denied to the lower chases,
by taxes of some hundred thousand pounds, not more
than was annually spent in efforts to check the kid-
napping of regrow. Parliament, in its wisdom,
however, dt aide.: that the money could not be spared
from the polies of the Guinea *oast, and that
worthy JOHN BULL might very well do without
newspapers. The Prime Minister plainly maid so.
There were abundant penny publications, with amus-
ing accounts of rape and incest, and of every ape-
„pies of conceivable crime. Let those who like reed
these lessons of morality. It was better intellectual
food for the poor than a speech of Lird ASHLEY on
the discipline of ragged schools. As it is, it would be
much cheaper to get an English book printed in
America or France, and re-imported for the use of
our population. Bat free-traders in corn are not
always free-tradern in intellect, and a wore or two of
liberals voted fur the continuance of the paper duty
and the newspaper stamp duty.
Then it was argued that it would greatly facilitate
the poor and the industrious in their changing and
gaining employment, bettering themselves, and
escaping the poor-house, if the wants of one class could
be made known to the other by means of cheap
advertisements. At present this cannot be done,
except by the price of the daily wages of a poor
man being paid to the revenue for an adver-
tisement, in addition to what the newspaper
charges for its necessary expense and profit. Eras
to this modest and righteous demand parliament and
ministers were deaf They could not spare 150,0001. for
the advertisement duty, although they were paying
nearly the some sum for head-money to officers for
having done their duty in the Chinese seas.
This forms chapter the second of the cotemporary
history of the English poor. And on Thursday night
we bad chapter the third. Certain representatives
of the squirearchy came down to parliament with
the complaint that the growing juvenile population
of the country were fast demoralising. Shut
oat from the fields, denied a house or • garden,
shared off and exiled to go and reside in town rows,
Ismail lodgings, from whence they went on foot or au-
back miles to work, this once rustic population had
as indescribable longing for trespass and for game.
Driven to loiter and play in towns or village streete,
the young peasant has been rendered all the sharper,
and lees respectful of property. The squirearchy has
already the power of seizing and summarily whipping
boys they wished this power to be extended to
the almost adult. Why not send them to the regular
wart to be tried' There were intervals of six
menthe during which they would linger in prison.
and the prisons were 13 ill-regulated, so full of
immorality and crime—in short the system of Eng-
lish justice and English detention was so abomi-
nable and corrupt—that it was more charitable to
palish the youth by a summary flogging, even if
he were innocent, than to send him to a prison.
We must own, that on reading this we rubbed our
@yogi, and asked, were we in Turkey ? It is precisely
tbe argument that a Cadi might use for administer-
ing the butinado summarily. But, on reflection,
we must admit that we inflict a Deedless outrage
ern the Turks by the injurious comparison. For
if the Turkish peasant is brought before the Cadi to
be summarily condemzel and bastinadoed, it is not on
the ( ad; and his class that the rffender has necessarily
committed his depredations. Ile has robbed one of the
people, and the Cadi may be supposed to be impartial
between the public and th- criminal. But in
rustic England there is no property to rob, no rights
to invade, but what belong to the squire of the
locality. His is the wood, his the enclosure, his the
park, his the game. He is therefore judge in his
own cue, and what he asks is authority to flog all
the youth on and around his meat The House of
Commons, thani's chiefly to the generous efforts of
the hon. member for Dundalk, would not unction
the extension of this law.

For our part, we are horrified at its rigour. But,
nevertheless this we will say for it, that, If you will
not educate the people, nor allow them to be
educated,—that even in cue of their picking
up the rudiments of learning, you will allow
them nothing sans and cheap to read, —it
you will fetter them by the law of settlement
to one parish, and extirpate them from another,
circumscribing the area of earning as of that of know-
ledge ' • if you exclude them not only from a
healthy cottage, but from • plot of ground to em-
ploy their own idle hours and those of their children' •
if you do all these things, we fear that you must fill
up the measure of fendality by granting full fettering
and whipping power over the populatioo.
When things come to this, however, they will firm
chapter the last of the history of the English poor,

BARROW. UPON-SOAR GRAMMAR SCHOOL. A
numerous and influential meeting of inhabitants of Bar-
row-upon Soar has bean held for the purpose of consider-
ing whether certain complaints which have of late been
renewed with respect to the management of this school ware
will-founded, and, if so. what steps should be taken to pro-
mo the redress of the abuses proved to exist. Mr. Hudson,
• member of the Society of Friends, was in the chair • and
the proceedings throughout were conducted with exemplary
order and a manifest desire on the part of all the speakers,
while telling the truth, and the whole truth, not to advance
• single step beyond " the truth," so far as they were aware.
This school was founded by Dr. Hantfrey Perkins, rector
of Holm. Pierrepoint, Nottinghamshire, is the reign of
Charles 11., for the gratuitous and efficient education of
the children of Bwrow but the evidence of the different
'peahen clearly proved that the intentions of the li
beral.minded testator have been most shamefully per-
verted —that the foundition.children have been badly

treated es well m neglected in their education—and that thi
school has been in effect ox.verted into a private academy
for the benefit of a master who is st the same time receiving
a respectable income from the rents arising from the lands
leit by Dr. Perkins for the performence of duties which he
takes every opportunity of evadieg ! We were glad to hear
the rector Owatkin) spoken of with respect as diaap.
proving of the cola wit of t►e muter—his curate ; and also at
hearing the Rev. H. Fames, rector of Loughborough, onset
the trustees, alluded to as a gentleman anxious to have the
trust ethaluistered with a conscientious regard to the wish..
of the Munger. But we would remind the one that the mi•
migrations of his curate ma scarcely be effective while mob
abuses are allowed to exist ; the other (busily engaged as we
know he is), that the trustees under the testator's will hoot
extensive and peremptory powers placed in their hands ; and
both, that they who permit the continuum of a long.
oomplsined•of and acknowledged abase, become as repro.
►erosible as the active authors of it.—Leicester Mercury.

" JACK'S" ALIvE.—Cla Friday night laat an Ameri-
can sailor was taken into custody, having been found creating
a disturbance in the Low street. Oa being taken to the
station house for the purpose of slaking the chug., lack
was seated quietly en a harm, bat suddenly he sprung out of
the police office into the yard, and jumped over the iron
r-ids. Sergeant Grey at once seised him by the collar, but
he was unable to hold the fellow, who suddenly tumbled a
suramerset, and fell from a height of forty feet to the ground
below. Nothieg the worse of his fall, he got up immediately
and leaped over the wall into the rann-road. Sergeant
Grey immediately ;intim d. but on nearing him Jack ran at
full speed through Ur. W. Mitchinson 's ship building yard,
dashed Into the river, and swam towards the north side.
Sergeant Grey ran to the quay, got on board the river pollee
boat, and gave chase to Jack who suddenly wheeled about
in the water, an I swam towards the briJgu. When measly
overtaken he dived under the boat, but when rising again to
the surface, he was fairly hooked by the jacket, pulled into
the bra% and conveyed to the station house, which he
reached much exhausted. The superintendent kindly ad-
iniulatered some restorative*, which had the desired effect.
S ion after this he was inquired for by a number of team-
mates, and his ship hoeing on a tide sail, he was aid at
liberty.