The case altogether affords a remarkable example of the mischiefs that follow from a departure from the constant recognition of simple and sound Constitutional principles. We trust this decision is but the beginning of a reflow which will steadily go on till all the many encroachments that have been made on the Constitutional Principles of Local SelfGovernment shall have been put aside, and the sound and healthy system restored, in all its parts, to full and vigorous activity.

THE PROGRESS AND METHOD OF UNCON-
STITUTIONAL ENCROACHMENTS.

In order to know the actual position of danger in
which a man stands, it is necessary for him, ever
and anon, to look back as well as forwards; that
so he may be reminded by what gradual steps he
has got into the danger, and be induced to halt be-
fore it is too late; and, peradventure too, that so
he may learn the only safe way of escaping from it.
Nothing can make the cause and true character
of many existing grievances so well understood as
applying this method to them. It is well to bring
prominently before the eyes of men who are in
earnest, what the crafty devices are by which free
institutions are always sapped; how stealthy is the
progress; how one bulwark after another is at-
tacked, always under the plausible protestation of
remedying some grievance; and how thus the
foundations all become loosened before men are
aware of it, and the triumph of functionarism over
every institution of the land becomes an easy pro-
It was admirably said by the great Lord
Somers, a hundred and fifty years ago, when some
had ventured to propose tampering with the Jury
system (though none dared, at that time, even sug-
gest what has been carried out in our day, and is
being daily and more mischievously extended):
Few men at first see the danger of little changes
in fundamentals: and those who design them usu-
ally act with so much craft as, besides the giving
specious reasons, they take great care that the
true reason shall not appear. Every design there-
fore of changing the Constitution ought to be most
warily observed, and timely opposed."

-cess.

66

While it has always been our aim to call attention to encroachments made, instead of following the common and easy clap-trap cries for "reforms," it must be useful, from time to time, to make this point a special one. We propose therefore to take now a rapid glance at certain classes of recent encroachments. We cannot go over the whole ground. Alas! it would be far too wide a one. We must be content with taking up one or two points, closely related to each other, and bearing on one fundamental Constitutional Principle.

We must particularly call attention here to the primary rule always followed by the attackers of our Institutions. It is, carefully to blink principles, and to fasten on mere specialities. We illustrated this in treating, in a late number, on the "Principles of the Jury system." So it is in the case of the questions of National Police, Codification, Charitable Trusts, and many other instances that we have lately touched on.

tunity for free discussion, as the basis of all action. sham. Even then some spirit of honest indigna-
And the primary and fundamental institutions of tion might occasionally be roused. It was neces-
the country are those which give and secure the sary to take away the powers of masters over their
opportunity for such discussion, and for consequent own servants, and to make the latter independent
well-devised action. That was the Principle, and of those whose servants they are, and dependent
those were the Institutions, that would necessarily only on the centralized functionaries. So it was
interfere with the carrying out of any doctrinaire enacted that the Poor Law Board were to direct
notions, or centralizing schemes, or organized the guardians to appoint such officers as the for-
functionarism. It was not to be endured that mer thought fit; and that they were to define the
what the bland red-tapist devised in his closet, respective duties of such officers, the mode of ap-
should be subjected to the scrutiny and considera-pointment, the continuance in office, and even the
tion of men who were merely familiar with the salaries!
vulgar facts and conditions of the case, and most Pretty well this: but yet not enough. English-
interested in the result! Such a danger, fatal to men are so perverse that some might still kick.
functionarism, must be prevented. Men were to So inspectors were appointed to look after the guar-
be made to follow leading-strings. It was needful dians, and the Poor Law Board was empowered to
that they should be drilled into as mindless and make "orders," as to even elections, and everything
helpless a state as little children. The devices hit else, as they think fit.
upon for this end were skilful and sure.

The marvel is that, even with a sham election and all the other contrivances, any set of men can be anywhere found so lost to all sense of selfrespect as to submit to these "orders," and to the system that empowers them. This submission is the best proof of the soul-killing tendency and result of the system. It will hardly be credited by those who are not aware of it, but is nevertheless the fact, that the Poor Law Board has very lately issued an order," which came into operation on the 20th of June last, by which a copy of every special minute, or notice of motion (!), at the meeting of any Board of Guardians, and of every special entry on the Visiting Committee's Book, is required to be transmitted by the respective Clerks of the Guardians to the Inspectors of the District. Degradation cannot go much lower. We cannot trust ourselves to comment on such an Order, and on the system that renders it possible that it should be made and be endured, and on the moral debasement which twenty years of centralization have so thoroughly sufficed to work in England, that such an Order should be ventured to be issued, and be endured.

First, all elections were made shams. This was a great point; and it was completely effected. Everybody knows that the election of Guardians is, now, a mere sham,-except where it is worse, namely, a piece of management. Open meetings, where discussion might take place, and questions be asked, and candidates be known, would obviously be fatal to the packing of men who would be duly subservient to the Poor Law Board. It is a valuable admission that was thus made-that the urgers on of centralizing schemes are afraid of open discussion. It is to be noted that it was not because any inconvenience could arise from the only constitutional and honest mode of election. Churchwardens are annually elected in open vestry; so are surveyors, and other officers. The same is the obvious time and place and mode for the election of guardians. It is well observed, in a document put forth by order of the parish of Hornsey, in reference to a late attempt of the Bishop of London to imitate the mode of election of guardians in that of churchwardens, that "a true public opinion can only exist where men have, and practise, the frequent, and regular, and known opportunity of coming together and discussing openly the matters that concern them. The facts and reasonings on which opinion must be founded and truth got at, can never be reached nor communicated except by such open discussion. Neither can any real Election of any Representative or Officer take place without the most open and public opportunity being given of question, and of perOur limits do not permit us to follow up the sonal knowledge and judgment as to qualifications. subject as it deserves. We can only say, that the Secret nomination and undiscussed election can local powers and functions of discussion, deliberanever be any real election at all. It is only a tion, and action, at which the New Poor Law Act mockery, a mauvaise plaisanterie. It has been in aimed such blows, have had those blows repeated order to destroy the reality of Representative In- many times since. The innate vitality of the institutions, while the disguise of the name is kept stitutions that had long secured the exercise of up, that, of late years, the use of written nomina- those powers and functions must be truly marveltions, privately made and lodged, and of the dis-lous, or they would long since have become a mere tribution of voting papers, instead of open nomi- nominis umbra. Let us enumerate a few of the nation, and seconding, and questioning, in Public later attacks. Assembly, has been so extensively resorted to. The result has justified the expectation."

We have lately had occasion to comment upon the attempt, from the same quarter, to introduce this dishonest system into Parliamentary elections.

This was the way in which the New Poor Law of 1834 was carried. Attacking, as that measure Every contrivance by which the duty of actually did, the very fundamental Principles and some of attending at the time and place where matters of the most vital practical Institutions of our Constitu- common interest are discussed, and the taking a tion, success attended the attempt to impose it on part in, or hearing, that discussion, can be evaded, the country, entirely in consequence of the indus- is an undermining of the spirit and practice of free trious use of the method of tricking out, with all institutions. Our fathers knew nothing of the the art of the penny-a-liner, picked and dressed- modern practice of polling, with all its manifold up incidental facts, which had, in themselves, no- evils, that lead many to rush even to the ballot as thing to do with the Principles and Institutions a remedy. Their wholesome rule was,-open free that it was the object to undermine and supersede discussion first, and then a division, such as is by functionarism. What actual mischiefs existed, still the rule and practice in the House of Com needing and capable of remedy, were really due to mons, except that packed houses could not be the operation of causes which were never investi-whipped up, as absentees were fined. The polling gated; the investigation of which would indeed system was the first and a very mischievous innohave been fatal to the bureaucratic schemes and vation. But the secret nomination system is a dogmas of the promoters of the New Poor Law. much further encroachment, and of far more danWe will not enter on them here, but will confine gerous character. Its object and result are not ourselves to noticing what the New Poor Law Act did, on one or two more important points, to undermine Constitutional Rights and Principles.

The primary constitutional principle of this country is, Free Discussion, and the giving full oppor

to give an excuse for non-attendance and non-dis-
cussion, but-to prevent the possibility of discus-
sion, and so of any real election taking place, or
any real and sound public opinion being formed.

But it was not enough to make the elections a

We ought, in regular order, to have noticed that the Poor Law Act, as if seeking to combine in one all that is vicious and unconstitutional and insulting to the moral sense of freemen, adopted the plan of Sturges Bourne's Act, and extended the plurality of voting system; which was first enacted, in violation of all constitutional right and principle, in the year 1818.

The Public Health Act, 1848, trod worthily in the footsteps of the Poor Law Act. All the vicious parts of the latter were carefully introduced, and others added. The mischiefs introduced by the Public Health Act are too wide and varied to be

now entered on.

We have lately had occasion to dwell on some of them. Happily they have become so notorious, and have attracted such attention, and proved so fatal, that they will help to cause the downthrow of the whole system, if those who profess themselves anxious for constitutional principles are only true to themselves and to the cause.

The Bishop of London, as already noticed, lately introduced a Bill to destroy the right and practice of electing churchwardens in open vestry; and to introduce, as to that honourable office, the sham elections of the Poor Law Act and the Public Health Act. It happily affords a most note-worthy example of what great good the parish vestry may do, and of the powers it may put forth,-notwithstanding all the efforts at its emasculation,-that this last attempt has been signally defeated, and the Bishop of London compelled to withdraw, in writing, from the intention to prosecute that Bill, solely in consequence of the energetic steps taken by one vestry (that of Hornsey, in the county of Middlesex), in its constitutional capacity, to make

the nature and consequences of the proposed measure known and understood. We trust the example will be remembered, and followed by other parishes on other questions that already exist, or which are, unhappily, continually arising.

We have only space left to notice one other measure; on which, however, some parishes seem to have been under such extraordinary delusion (artfully fostered by interested parties, no doubt) that it would be a failure of duty to pass it over.

powers and independence of the vestry over its own action and officers,-even in matters totally unconnected with and irrespective of Poor-law management.

Review.

the institutions of England. The relations in which The Assay of Gold and Silver Wares: an Account those who talk much of both, and who shout readily the Crown stands to institutions of Local Self-government are little understood by the majority of of the Laws relating to the Standards and Marks, for this or that legislative innovation or "reform." and of the existing Assay Offices. By ARTHUR There is no doubt that the advocates of functionRYLAND, Solicitor to the Guardians of the Stan- arism are doing as much to undermine the sound dard of Wrought Plate in Birmingham. Smith, and healthy functions and action of the Crown, Elder, & Co. and consequently its permanent hold upon the affections of the people, as they are to undermine the

THE world is ever apt to be misled by names.

now the mode.

If

The object of the Act to which we allude, like the changes can only be rung glibly upon these, few other fundamental institutions on which the mainthat of all measures of the Poor Law Board (from men take the trouble to look further. In reference tenance of real liberty depends. The most impor whom it emanated), was to curtail yet more the to commercial affairs, a certain set of phrases are tant real function of the Crown, as the setter-in"Unrestricted competition," "no motion of the action of institutions of Local Selfprotection," etc., etc., are what every one is bound to bow before, as charmed words that will settle of over-riding them by a bureaucratic machinery government whenever necessary-the very reverse any argument. A work like the above would be of functionarism-is admirably illustrated by the It begins with untrue recitals as to vestry meet-worth reading, if it were only for the refreshment document to which we refer, and on which we find ings (recitals, by the way, directly in the teeth of of finding that cant phrases will not settle every- the following just remark: numerous Acts of Edward VI., Elizabeth, etc., etc.); proceeds to give the control over the building of vestry halls to the Poor Law Board; and then goes on to deal with vestry clerks. The vestry clerk thus contemplated, be it observed, is not for purposes connected, in any way, with the administration of the Poor-law. He is the officer of the parish for general purposes,-which began long before, and which will exist long after, a Poor-law (in the sense that term is now used) had or will have an existence. Yet, by this Act, wherever it is adopted, the choice itself of a vestry clerk can only take place by order of the Poor Law Board; the Poor Law Board are to have the control over, and direc

thing.
Gold and silver wares have had the honour of in this extract. It illustrates the care formerly taken to
"The observant reader will find much matter of interest

is

very

metals.

evident. It has never been from the view

provide against rash and crude legislation, and the only constitutional and safe means in which legislation on local

or special matters can ever be undertaken.'

interest and value of which demand that we should The following is the extract referred to, and the transcribe it entire in these columns:

being cared for in England, by statute, for more than five centuries and a half. The reason of this of giving a forced encouragement to a particular manufacture. At the same time, there was always a common sense which made it plain that the rules "ROLL OF PARLIAMENT, 5 HEN. IV., No. 51. of caveat emptor and unrestricted competition could "A Petition was brought into Parliament, by the Goldnot be applied in all cases, without giving a pre-workers of London, in the following words :determination, from external appearance, of the Parliament: Pray your humble lieges, William Grantham mium to fraud. No care can suffice to enable the the King, and to the very wise Seigneurs of this present "To our very redoubtable and very sovereign Seigneur intrinsic fineness of articles made of the precious Salamon Oxeneye, Thomas Senycle, and Robert Hall, citiSome guarantee of the genuineness of of the mystery of Goldsmiths of your said city, and all the zens and goldsmiths of your city of London and Wardens tion of, what duties he shall perform; by the con- intrinsic value is needed, where a large proportion Commonalty of the same mystery. Whereas the said Warsent of the Poor Law Board only can he be reof the price depends on that value. It is the same dens and all others who have been Wardens of the said moved; and his salary is to be fixed and altered at as with money. We take and pass without ques-neth not, have had and used to have the search, survey, mystery in the said city, from time whereof memory runpleasure by the Poor Law Board (though paid, of tion that which bears the current die. Some years course, by the parish)! Is it credible that, in an ago, numberless sorts of money were, under the age that calls itself enlightened, and with a Parlia-name of "tokens," current in various parts of ment in which many Members are continually proEngland. But it was found that very much fraud fessing a nervous regard for the rights and moral was practised by this means. It became absolutely and intellectual elevation of the people, such an necessary to forbid the system; and the public Act should have passed? It is still more incredible are unquestionably the gainers. And thus it is that such an Act should have been adopted by any modes of authentication be as simple, for the public with wares made of the precious metals. Let the parish in England. It is quite certain that it can have been nowhere adopted, in any fair open meeting accommodation, and as adaptable to the conveniof Englishmen, except on careful misrepresentation ence and variety of manufacturing purposes, as or unwitting misapprehension,-which easily pass possible but we hold that the "touch" of the muster in bodies carefully trained, as we have seen, interests to have maintained. Assayer is a thing which it is essential to the public to the disuse of habitual discussion. We are satis

fied that, when the matter is rightly understood, the response of every parish in England to the proposal for the adoption of this Act, will echo that given by a committee of the parish of Hornsey (Middlesex), which, in a Report presented and received on Easter Tuesday last, speaks thus manfully and with becoming spirit:-"With reference to a suggestion which has been made, that the Vestry Clerks Act (13 and 14 Vict. c. 57) shall be introduced into this parish, your Committee would fail in the discharge of their duty if they did not express an emphatic opinion. The object and effect of the Vestry Clerks Act are, in contravention of the uniform usage hitherto, to take the entire control of the duties, salary, and tenure of office, of Vestry Clerks, out of the hands of vestries, in the parishes where that Act is adopted, and to put all these into the hands of an irresponsible centralized Board. Your Committee trust that the vestry of this parish will never so far depart from that independence and public spirit which have characterized the

course of their predecessors, or so far forget all that is due in self-respect to themselves, and in regard to the welfare of those who shall follow them, as to do other than resist to the uttermost,

this end should be carried into practice is another
The mode in which the necessary machinery for
thing. And it is this point that attracts our at-
the reader will find much matter of interest. It
tention to the work above-named. In that work
gives a history of Legislation on this subject; makes
plain all the mysteries of Assay Marks, which
every owner of plate ought to know something of;
and gives an account of the various places in Eng.
land and Ireland, where Assaying is or has been
done, and such particulars of each as are likely to
be of interest. It contains also a valuable appen-
dix of illustrative documents.

is

It is a lucky thing that the practice of Assay so old. Most assuredly, if it had begun in our day, parliamentary wisdom and enlightened statesmanship would have been able to devise no way to accomplish it but by a Central Board of Crownappointed functionaries. Begun, however, before English institutions had been tampered with, it has, at present, escaped the blighting hand that has been laid upon so many other matters.

assay, and government of all manner of gold and of silver works, as well in the same city as elsewhere in your king. dom of England. And whereas the very noble King Edfaults shown to him and to his Council in his Parliament ward, your ancestor, whom God assoil, upon certain deheld at Westminster in the first year of his reign, touching the works of silver by the cutlers done in the said city upon cutlery, granted to the goldsmiths of the same city, defaults, and to amend and redress the faults found in the mystery of goldsmiths, to inquire and search into the said that they might choose good people, and sufficient, for their said mystery, and due punishment to give to the wrongAnd now the said cutlers are wont to work in gold and in doers, by aid of the Mayor and Sheriff's of the said city. silver in a different manner to what they did in the times aforesaid. Through which, by the defaults and subtilties in the work of the said cutlers, great scandal and draw. to grant to the said suppliants that neither the said cutlers, medy be not applied. May it please your Royal Majesty backs will come to the said mystery of goldsmiths if renor any other artificers whatsoever, may execute in any other aforesaid. And besides that, of your more abundant grace, wont at the time of the grant by your very noble ancestor manner workmanship of gold or of silver, than they were to grant to the said Wardens that they and their successors, wardens of the said mystery of goldsmith-work, may al ways have the search, survey, assay, and governance of all kinds of work done and to be done, of gold and of silver, by any person, of any mystery, as well in the said city as elsewhere in your said kingdom, and by them to put ceptive, as well by aid of the Mayor and Sheriffs of the due punishment and redress for works defective and desaid city, as need shall be, as by aid of the Mayors, Sheriffs,

Bailiffs, or any other officers elsewhere through the king.
dom, for the time being, as need may be, in the same way
the goldsmiths have used always before now; reserving to
the Seigneurs of Franchises the profits which to them may
belong, on account of such false works as shall be found
aforesaid mystery, for love of God and of charity.
and proven in their Franchises by the Wardens of the
"Which petition, read before the King and the Seigneurs

in Parliament, and by them fully considered, was answered
the following form:-

in

well as that of the Cutlers now before Parliament, be sent "Let a Writ, containing the purport of this Petition, as to the Mayor of the city of London; and let the Mayor be empowered, by the authority of Parliament, to cause to come before hím both the men of the mystery of the goldsmiths in London and the men of the cutlers' mystery; and let them show before the said Mayor the evidences and usages past and present, as well on the one side as the other, King and his Council in this present Parliament, without in the said city, from old times past; and let inquisition be made, if need be; and let the said Mayor certify to the delay, what shall be found concerning this matter; to the Parliament, may be able to do that which shall seem best

We have no intention of troubling our readers with the details of the system of Assay. It is enough to state that, whilst the Goldsmiths' Company in London, as the most important body of should its introduction ever be attempted in Horn-concern in the matter, the power of assay is not manufacturers, have always naturally had most sey, the application of such an Act. The office and confined to them. Though it were, however, they functions of Vestry Clerk can be useful and honour-are a body self-existent and self-controlled, indepen-end that the King, having had the counsel and advice of

able only so long as that officer is, and feels himself to be, responsible in all respects to the vestry who appoints him, and to no other body or authority

whatever."

Let the spirit of this language become that of the other parishes of England, and the days of Poor Law Boards and Boards of Health are numbered.

dent on any government, and having the greatest
amount of actual knowledge of and interest in
the matter in question. These facts would separate
any powers lodged in their hands, at the widest
distance from the functionary system.

in the matter.'

the cutlers of London, in the following words :-
"Another petition was brought into this Parliament by
this present Parliament. The citizens of London of the

"To the very honourable and very wise Seigneurs of

craft of cutlers humbly supplicate your aid, that, as they But there is, in the volume before us, one docu- and their predecessors from all time have worked gold and the general subject of the volume, illustrates far said city, and sworn before him to amend all defaults in the ment printed, which, while it illustrates importantly four Wardens of their own elected before the Mayor of the silver upon cutlery, etc., in their said craft, and have had more importantly the true action and relations of same craft; and now lately the goldsmiths of the said city

have made a suggestion to you, not at all true as they are informed, saying that the said cutlers have worked in gold and silver not according to agreement; to the intent that the said goldsmiths should have the government of the said cutlers, which would be the destruction and ruin of your petitioners: May it please your very gracious Seigneurs to aid your said petitioners, that their rights and franchises may be saved; that they may have and enjoy their franchises in the same manner that they and their predecessors have had them before now; and that no charter be granted to the contrary; for the love of God and of charity.'

66

of London.

[To this petition was given the same answer as to the goldsmiths, both being referred to the Mayor of the City "Writs are then entered addressed to the Mayor of London, enclosing both petitions, and the answers endorsed thereupon, and desiring him to take such steps in the matter as seemed best to him, and to make return there. upon forthwith to Parliament: which writs were returned into the same Parliament, and severally answered by the Mayor in form following:-]

By virtue of two writs of our Lord the King to me, attached, the tenour of two petitions to our Lord the king in the present Parliament presented by the cutlers and goldsmiths of the said city, together with the indorsements thereupon, having been inspected, I caused to come before me the aforesaid Mayor, at the Guildhall of the said city, as well good men of the said mysteries, as many other good and sufficient ancient men from all the wards of the said city: and the charters, rolls, and evidences, as well written as not written, being there shown before me by the said mysteries, touching and concerning the rule, custom, assay, and government of the said mysteries, it was determined before me [coram, not per] the said Mayor, that the cutlers, citizens of the said city, have been accustomed from ancient

William Askham, Mayor of London, directed and hereunto

times to work gold and silver within the liberty of the said city, as fashion and their skill dictated, and still the same cutlers work gold and silver in the said city, as fashion and require; and that the Wardens of the mystery of the art of the said goldsmiths for the time being, subject to the Mayor and Aldermen of the said city for the time being, have been accustomed from ancient times to have the assay of the gold and silver wrought by the said cutlers within the liberty of the said city.'

their skill, according to the change of times, dictate and

"Upon which matters our said Lord the King having taken deliberation and advice with the Seigneurs in the same Parliament, by the assent of the said Seigneurs, granted to the said goldsmiths confirmation of the charter granted to them by King Edward his ancestor, in the first year of his reign, etc."

Correspondence.

PUBLIC FOOTPATHS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL.

as you are well aware, by the Commissioners of
Inland Revenue; but the obstructions and difficul.
ties thrown in the way of all persons living in the
country are very great. They entail great expense,
and, what is more, drive a great deal of business,
which essentially belongs to the country, to
London.

expense.

In the town in which I live a solicitor cannot
get a deed stamped without sending it to London,
and consequently he has to incur an extra expense
in so doing, although he may get a 2s. 6d. stamp
affixed to an agreement through the distributor of
stamps in that same town without
Whence this difference? And what is more, the
question is sometimes raised at the stamp-office,
whether it be a lease, or an agreement for a lease?
If it be a lease, it will be returned through the
distributor unstamped, and the parties must take it
to Somerset House themselves. If it be an agree-
ment it will be returned, stamped, through a dis-
tributor. Now I would ask why one should not
be stamped as well as the other, through a distri-
butor, if the proper duty is paid? For, whether
they are stamped through a distributor or not, they
both must be stamped at the same place, viz.,
Somerset House, in London.

Again,-parties living in the town alluded to
cannot go to the stamp-distributor living in that
same town and buy a lot of stamps, and have a dis-
count allowed (except in the case of receipt stamps).
But solicitors, law-stationers, and others, living in
London, can go to Somerset House and buy stamps
under the value of £10 each, but to the amount or
value in the whole of £30 and upwards, and have
a discount of 30s. per cent. (13 and 14 Vict. c. 97
s. 18.) Is not this a great shame? And it neces-
sarily drives a great deal of law-stationery busi-
ness to London, which otherwise would be done in

the country, and puts persons living in the country to greater expense than those living in London.

Thirdly, the utmost obstruction is placed in the way of parties living in the country paying legacy duties through the stamp distributors in the country. The stamp distributors in the country are only allowed to remit residuary accounts anp legacy receipts to Somerset House once a month. Those residuary accounts and legacy receipts are generally kept at Somerset House nearly a month before they are returned to the stamp-distributor; and then, if there is any mistake, they have to be corrected the second month and sent back again to Somerset House; so that, if there is one error to be corrected, it always takes from two to three months before a residuary account or legacy receipt can be got stamped through a distributor. But it often happens that, instead of all the errors and explanations required being pointed out at first, one objection after another is raised, so that legacy duties are unsettled for five or six months, to the great annoyance and inconvenience of solicitors in the country and their clients. The consequence of this is, that almost all the business connected with the passing of residuary accounts is drawn to that vortex, London. I would ask, what good reason transmit legacy receipts to Somerset House once a there can be why stamp distributors should not week at least. And then there would be a chance of getting them settled and stamped in a reasonable time.

will add another very important reason for letting
The payment of succession duty under the new act
more business be done in the country, and more
speedily.
I am, Sir, your most obedient servant,
A SUBSCRIBER AND A SOLICITOR.
August, 1853.

Now Publishing, on the 1st of every Month, 36 Columns, size of the Athenæum :
PRICE THREEPENCE EACH NUMBER (FOURPENCE STAMPED :)

THE

CONSTITUTIONAL:

SIR,-The following incident is one in which is DEVOTED to the Advocacy of MUNICIPAL INSTITUTIONS, TRIAL BY JURY, LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT

involved the maintenance of the most valuable of our public common rights.

I was lately walking, with a friend, through some fields, along a footpath leading from Muswell Hill

-as opposed to the encroachments of Centralization and Summary Jurisdiction-and POOR LAW REFORM (on the plan of the National Poor Law Association); to the upholding of the COMMON LAW of the Land, as the safeguard of our liberties; to the conveying, in a familiar and illustrative form, of sound knowledge on the CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS and DUTIES of Englishmen; and to THE GENERAL ELEVATION AND IMPROVEMENT OF THE PEOPLE, irrespective of sect or party.

to the Asylum at Colney Hatch. On reaching the A particularly practical character is given to this Journal by the devotion of a considerable space bottom of the hill, near the Asylum, where the land in each number to questions immediately concerning the functions and management of THE PARISH, as is being lotted out for sale, we found a strong five-the most universal form of Municipal Institutions now in active existence among us. barred fence, very securely put up, directly across The editorial management has now been undertaken, at the solicitation of its promoters, by a the path, in such a manner as entirely to prevent gentleman peculiarly familiar with the subjects to which it is devoted, and who is well known as having a passage. A more flagrant defiance of the public been engaged in long and successful efforts to maintain the functions of Municipal Institutions and to common right cannot be conceived. Seeing several resist the encroachments of Centralization. other persons near, who had apparently walked to the spot, and turned back, we determined the encroachment should not remain. Accordingly, with our united efforts, and using our utmost strength, we forcibly tore down the obstruction, dragging it away into an adjoining field, and leaving no trace of its existence.

This path is so well known and acknowledged, that, in two places, boards have been put up stating its direction and publicity.

As just complaints are frequently being made of encroachments on public footpaths, I ask your insertion of this, in order that your readers may be made fully aware of the course which is lawfully open to them in all such cases, and which it is certainly the duty of every man to adopt. I am, sir, your obedient servant, J. ORTON SMITH.

8, Serjeants' Inn, Fleet Street, August, 1853.

STAMP OFFICE MISMANAGEMENT.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL.

SIR,-There is one subject of Centralization which I have not seen adverted to in your paper, but which, next to the Customs' Reform, is, I think, entitled to your consideration and that of the country at large: I mean the Stamp Duties.

The affairs of Stamps and Taxes are managed,

The new management began with No. VII. (July, 1853), the contents of which Number are as follows:

CIRCULAR OF THE NATIONAL POOR-LAW ASSOCIATION :

Resolutions of Executive Council.
Bentham on Pauper Management.
Selections from Correspondence.

THE CONSTITUTIONAL:

A National Police.

Centralization, in its effects upon the Character and
Development of Art.

On India, by Colonel Perronet Thompson.
Codification of the Law.
Coddling the Guardians.

THE PARISH :

Charitable Trusts Bill.

Election of Incumbent by Parishioners.

Local Acts of Parliament, and the Action of Local
Vestries.

REVIEWS:

Thorpe's Yule-tide Stories-with an unpublished old
English Legend.

Beauties of Parliamentary Literature.

CORRESPONDENCE:

The Abasement of Poor-Law Guardians by the Functionary System.

The "Constitutional" is at present published monthly; but it is hoped that arrangements may be made, before long, by which a more frequent issue will be secured. Of this full notice will be given. A large guaranteed Circulation renders "THE CONSTITUTIONAL" an eligible medium for Official, Literary, and Commercial Advertisements.

** A few sets remain on hand, and may be had on application to the Publishers or the Printer.

LONDON:

CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY.

By whom "THE CONSTITUTIONAL" will be supplied regularly, on order through any Bookseller or
Newsvendor in town or country. Communications, Books for Review, etc., to be addressed to " The
Editor of the Constitutional, care of Mr. J. E. TAYLOR, 10, Little Queen Street, Holborn, London."

Printed by JOHN EDWARD TAYLOR, of 10, Little Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the Parish of St. Giles-in-the-
Fields, in the County of Middlesex, and of Weybridge, in the County of Surrey; and published by him at his
Printing-office in Little Queen Street aforesaid.-Sold also by CHAPMAN & HALL, 193, Piccadilly.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1853.

No. X.]

"I wish we could so perfectly distinguish the Legislative "from the Ministerial authority as once we did; when the "HOUSE OF COMMONS had not the power of a COURT LEET "to give an Oath: which distinction, doubtless, is the most "vital part of freedom; as, on the contrary, the confusion "of them is an accomplishment of servitude."-A Plea for

IAmited Monarchy:-1660.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

CIRCULAR OF THE NATIONAL POOR-LAW ASSOCIATION:-
The Sheffield Union Farm
Poor-law Amendment

The Stock Fallacy.

Compulsory Emigration.

Progress: Agricultural Schools
Subscriptions..

THE CONSTITUTIONAL:

The Corporation of London Commission

A Christian Workhouse

A Gendarmerie for England

The Ecclesiastical Commission.

The Use and Abuse of Parliament

On the Eastern Question

Drainage of London

THE PARISH :

Propositions for Parishes

REVIEW :

LONDON, OCTOBER 1, 1853.

THE SHEFFIELD UNION FARM.
THIS establishment appears, from the Report lately
presented to the Board of Guardians by their clerk,
Mr. Watkinson (to whose intelligence and enter
prising spirit much of its success is attributable), to
be answering the expectations of its founders. The
interesting document alluded to begins by referring
to a Report, in the Sheffield Times, of the proceed
105 ings at the Union farm, on the 19th of August, last
106 year, when the farm committee then existing pre-
106 sented an estimate (made by the superintendent of
106 labour) of the value of the growing crops, for the
107 year ending July 30, 1853, subject to an allowance
for depreciation by adverse weather. The esti-
mate Mr. Watkinson gives in juxtaposition with the
109 amounts subsequently realized (pence omitted):-

106

107

108

110
110

111 Hay

112

Oats

40 19

113

Wheat

14 10

Political Education

113

20 4

Potatoes.

42 15

Turnips

4 10

Profit on cows

Law of Coroner, or Summary Jurisdiction

115

The Cholera in England.

115

Profit on pigs

Mr. Tyrwhitt on Summary Jurisdiction.

116

116

National Poor-Law Association.

22 4

8 0

£228 4

The estimate of horse-keep made by the committee

was £13. 10s. lower than it ought to have been

hence the cost of manure and seed was in reality
£91. 10s., instead of £78. 10s., as set forth in the
subjoined statement, which is given as showing the

Under the superintendence of the Executive Committee of "THE NATIONAL POOR-LAW ASSOCIATION" (established to promote the substitution of productive labour for idleness and useless tests), who are responsible for this depart-real position of the farm affairs:-Dr. Cost of mament of the Publication exclusively. Communications for the Association must be addressed to the Secretaries, 1, Elm Court, Temple, London, and 7, Norfolk-street, Manchester. THE NATIONAL POOR-LAW ASSOCIATION has for its objects the diminution of Pauperism with its demoralizing consequences, and the reduction of the burden of Poor's Rates, by promoting the extension of agricultural and other industrial employment and training for adult and juvenile "paupers," and the more rational and humane

administration of the Poor-laws.

METROPOLITAN COMMITTEE.

Rev. William Hunter.
Joseph Kay, Esq., M.A.
James Kershaw, Esq., M.P.
C. H. Latimore, Esq.
J. M. Ludlow, Esq.
P. Mac Mahon, Esq. M.P.
George Macartney, Esq. M.P.
Edward Miall, Esq., M.P.
W. M. E. Milner, Esq., M.P.
G. F. Muntz, Esq. M.P.
Cornelius O'Brien, Esq.M.P.
Apsley Pellatt, Esq., M.P.
Robert Potter, Esq., M.P.
Wm. Scholefield, Esq., M.P.
Francis Scully, Esq., M.P.
Wm. D. Seymour, Esq., M.P.
G. Poulett Scrope, Esq., M.P.
Rev. James Sherman.
Toulmin Smith, Esq.
Rev. Canon Stowell.
Dr. Sutherland.

PRICE THREEPENCE. STAMPED EDITION, 4D.

deduct £41. 4s. for ascertained cost of manure and
seeds; £37 for carting manure; value of work-
house manure, £8; rent, £14; taxes, £2; leaving
a balance of £148. 58. in favour of pauper labour,
subject to the same charges as heretofore for the
labour and rations of the superintendent of labour,
etc., after deducting which the estimate exceeds the
amount realized last year by £12. 18. This estimate
of crops and profits being based on the resolutions
of the Board of Guardians of 1848, and the adop-
tion of his report which led to those resolutions,
Mr. Watkinson gives extracts therefrom, taken from
a published letter which he addressed to the editor
of the Sheffield Times in 1851. He contrasts the
land-labour test and the test which it superseded,
namely, the grinding of corn by hand-mills. In the
former case,
he observes, the employment is pro-
fitable, while the latter, he contends, was repug
nant and degrading to the labourers, and carried on
at a heavy loss.

Mr. Watkinson, it appears, like other reformers, gets small thanks from those whose pockets he has saved, and whose credit, as sensible men and sound economists, he maintains by the system which he has introduced. Some of the Guardians, clinging to the anti-productive theory still in vogue in Manchester and elsewhere, are apparently trying to make the experiment fail. "There are," said Mr. Watkinson, "enemies of the poor man and the ratepayer who wish to destroy the reproductive system established at the farm. The study of cer

tain members of the board (opponents of the scheme)

had been to improve their own fortunes, and not to improve the morals and secure advantages to their less fortunate neighbours." These are grave charges. They were openly made at the Board by their renure, seed, rent, etc., for the year ending July 31, sponsible agent and adviser, and if true they cer1853, £78. 10s.; cost of horses beyond the esti- tainly serve to explain what has occurred both at mate, £13. 10s. ; total, £92. Cr. Produce of farm, Sheffield and elsewhere,--not the non-adoption of as realized during the period just named, £228. 48. the reproductive system, which may arise from dif Balance to the credit of pauper labour, £136. 48. ficulties and various causes which the Guardians The next statement gives the following items of cannot control, but the vituperation which has prooutlay :-Manure, seed, and rent, £92; salary and ceeded from some opponents of that system against rations of superintendent of labour, £75. 83.; which all who venture to question the costly and deitems deducted from £228. 4s., the value of the farm grading "test" system. The worthy chairman of produce, leaves the balance of £60. 16s. to the cre- the board fully supported Mr. Watkinson's estimate dit of pauper labour. The next item taken into ac- of the great superiority of farm labour. He added, count is the wages of the farm-labourer, who re- "With respect to the corn-grinding test, he receives 168. a week as a sort of foreman or exem-membered that the year he was mayor there was a plar. Mr. Watkinson questions the right to charge great deal of disturbance amongst the paupers at that item as a dead weight on the concern; but the workhouse, and he and some of the members of supposing it deducted, he takes credit for a balance the town-council visited the workhouse. He then of £19. 48., which he says (touching on the subject stated, what he was now ready to prove, that good of depreciation of stock) is much in excess of the corn was most shamefully destroyed; he never cost of all the implements supplied to the farm du- saw property so abominably wasted. The men ring the year."Thus," the report continues, "I were so refractory that he believed at one time a presume to think that I have shown beyond dispute man was in danger of losing his life." In the face that pauper labour has been made reproductive." of evidence to the same effect, which could be proAnother item, in respect of which Mr. Watkinson duced without limit from the records of workhouses claims credit for the farm as pauper labour test, is and prisons in England, Ireland, and America, there a reclamation of waste land. The committee of last are still to be found rational and otherwise wellyear, he remarks, claimed credit for having con- meaning persons who recommend, as the perfection verted land worth only £6 an acre into land worth of pauper management, the exacting from neces£40 an acre, and thus created an increase of value sitous persons some irksome and penal infliction, in to the extent of £509. 38. Since then three acres order to deter applicants from relief. Not Christian more have been brought under cultivation, which kindness, but brutal severity, is still regarded by at the same rate is an improvement to the extent some as the best means of improving the character of £102. The fact that the land could not be ob- of the poor, and saving the pockets of the rateSUBSCRIPTIONS are requested to be paid into the Bank tained of the Duke of Norfolk otherwise than on a payers. Experience shows that such methods reof Messrs. Glyn and Co., London; the Union Bank of lease, it is submitted, does not operate against the press neither pauperism nor crime. They only react Manchester; or sent by post-office order to Thomas Greig, question of remunerativeness or otherwise of the upon their authors and administrators, inducing agEsq., Treasurer, 60, George-street, Manchester; and com- land-labour test. Mr. Watkinson next gives an es-gravated severity, until cruelties such as those lately munications from gentlemen desirous of co-operating with the movement may also be addressed to the Secretaries-timate of the crops from August 1, 1853, to July 31, proved against the visiting justices of the BirmingThomas Wheeler, Esq., LL.B., 1, Elm Court, Temple, Lon. 1854, the breadth of land under cultivation being ham prison are perpetrated without compunction. don; James Winder, Esq., Bolton; T. H. Battye, Esq., Hud- about nineteen acres :-Fourteen tons of hay, from Against such judicial blindness and hardening of dersfield; T. Worthington Barlow, Esq., Manchester: from whom can be obtained all the addresses, etc., issued by the eight acres, £59. 10s.; five acres of oats, at six the heart, Guardians of the Poor, as they are not, Association. Members will be enrolled on the payment of quarters per acre, £30; 3A. 3R. 36 P. potatoes, at it is hoped, quite unmeaningly designated,―ought half-a-guinea and upwards. Donations, of one shilling and £16 per acre, £60; two acres of turnips, at £8 per especially to guard themselves; and we rejoice to upwards, in postage stamps, will be received, and a number of the "Circular of the National Poor-Law Association," acre, £16; oat-straw, at 308. per ton, £7. 10s.; see such establishments as that at Sheffield, in (Constitutional,) containing the acknowledgment, trans-profit on five cows, £5; agistment, £5; profit on which good hard healthy work for the strong and pigs, £7. 10s.; total, £240. 10s. From this amount well-disposed is joined with agreeable occupation

The Lord Bishop of Ripon.
Viscount Goderich, M.P.
Sir R. Gore Booth, Bart. M.P.
The Hon. C. J. Lawless, M.P.
William Biggs, Esq., M.P.
James Bell, Esq., M.P.
John Billing, Esq.
George Bowyer, Esq., M.P.
Thomas Carlyle, Esq.
Thos. Chambers, Esq. M.P.
George Chance, Esq.
James Clay, Esq.
T. W. H. Cogan, Esq., M.P.
William Ewart, Esq., M.P.
William Fairbairn, Esq., C.E.
F. Ffrench, Esq., M.P.
William Gorton, Esq.
Rev. William Harness.
J. Heywood, Esq., M.P.F.R.S.
L. Heyworth, Esq., M.P.
P. Holland, Esq.
Rev. W. F. Hook, D.D.
Henry Thomas Hope, Esq.
Leonard Horner, Esq., F.K.S.
Chandos W. Hoskyns, Esq.
Rev. H. Hughes, D.D.
Joseph Hume, Esq., M.P.

-mitted to the donor.

R. A. Thicknesse, Esq., M.P.
G. E. H. Vernon, Esq., M.P.
Edward Warner, Esq., M.P.
Thomas Wheeler, Esq.
H. W. Wickham, Esq., M.P.
J. A. Wise, Esq., M.P.

for the aged, and a humane consideration for all. O si sic omnia!

tricts:

"The second made a permanent payment of rent-charge, We fear that there is some truth in this alleged by the Act, upon land that had been cultivated, which before But what justifideportation of young children. had only been liable to tithes when in cultivation; so that all the lower description of lands, which of course go out of cation can be supposed to exist, either in law or in cultivation when the price of growing corn is not remunera- the present state of the labour-market, for this POOR-LAW "AMENDMENT.” tive, are now burdened with a tithe rent-charge, besides wholesale and compulsory expatriation of those having a priority of payment given to the rent-charge so We have been favoured with the perusal of a cor- secured on the land before the rent, neither of which dis- whom guardians of the poor are bound to train for respondence between Sir S. B. P. Micklethwait, advantages applied to the land previous to the passing of industrious and useful citizenship at home, we are Bart., and the respected Treasurer of the New Poor- the Commutation Act." at a loss to conceive. Any plea of consent by the law Association, Mr. Thomas Greig; and we pro- newswaper of the 10th June, relative to the great want of The writer next refers to an article in the Morning Post children themselves is clearly untenable, and the ceed, with their kind permission, to lay before our female domestic servants, which is there attributed to the acquiescence of parents, given under duress in the readers such portions of it as relate to the practical large emigration of females, but which Sir S. B. P. Mickle- workhouse, or procured by the proffered "tests" administration of the Poor-laws in country dis-thwait shows to arise from a totally different cause, namely, and gentle compulsion of relieving officers, is the virtual repeal by the Poor-law Commissioners of the law enabling churchwardens and overseers to apprentice out equally nugatory. This Herodian method of dealthe male and female children of poor persons that were ing with the unoffending offspring of English citichargeable. Besides this, a custom, he says, prevailed zens affords one of the most painful illustrations of throughout that part of England, every Easter time, of putting out to the service of the farmers and tradespeople the non-productive system, but for which these all the male and female children of the age of twelve years, poor children would have been a blessing instead giving with them a weekly payment of 18. 6d. or 28. for one of a drug. We must, however, caution Boards of or two years. This practice not only cleared the workhouses Guardians against being led by any motives of apand relieved large families of the elder children, but, what was still more advantageous, it operated as a nursery for the parent (but most unreal) economy to assume the rearing and teaching domestic servants, as the coast trade office of "crimps" for Transatlantic Emigration furnishes seamen for the navy, and the training-schools agents, in the way which our contemporary has educate masters for schools. "This alteration (he says) has had a most demoraliz. | lent himself, impliedly, to recommend. ing effect upon the females, as you will find the union-houses crowded with young women with illegitimate children; but this is kept a secret from the public.

"In the Ticehurst Union" (Sussex), says Sir S. B. P. Micklethwait, "which is purely agricultural, you will see in the printed report that the principal item of expenditure is out-door relief, and in the parish from which I now write amounts to £634.3s. 74d. for the past year, from which outlay no reproduction arises; the consequence is, that the farmers, having been thus deprived of their ready money, have no means in the spring of the year to pay for weeding their crops, and large fields are to be seen covered with that obnoxious yellow weed called charlock, which in olden times all the women and children from the workhouses, and those in need of relief, were employed to pull up to prevent its seeding; but now, under the régime of the Commissioners, in not allowing the inmates of the Unions or those receiving relief to do any work to repay that relief, large fields of charlock are ripening their seed and ruining the land. I can only say, the result of this waywardness of opinion on their part is already speaking for itself, there being a large quantity of land untenanted, and reverted into the hands of the proprietors; one gentleman occupying his whole estate of about 2000 acres of stiff, unmanageable soil, from the occupation of which no tenant thinks he can derive a living; and this I attribute to the high local taxation the land is

liable to."

"This very day, before the Hurstgreen Bench of Magistrates, one young woman from the Union applied for the pay for her child (being the mother of three); another obtained orders for her two children, and there were in addition five cases of orders for one child. The elder daughters of the outdoor poor who remain at home with their parents, have almost invariably from one to two children: this was obviated under the old plan of putting them to service at twelve years the better it will be for all parties. But the Commissioners of age, so the sooner we fall back upon the old tried customs Hea-withhold all information as to the bad consequences arising from their departure from the good old system of our forefathers, of providing for the poor a mode for their children to earn their bread.'"

PROGRESS: AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS. THE following extract from an interesting paper read by Mr. J. Locke, at the late meeting of the British Association at Hull, on Emigration and its reparative agencies in Ireland, presents a contrast between the management of English and Irish workhouses, most discreditable to the former:—

"The admirable industrial system now generally adopted in our workhouses is also a very efficient auxiliary in the reduction of pauperism; agricultural schools, in connection with the National Board of Education, were established in many Unions; and besides elementary Education, the hors were instructed in trades, and the girls in various useful which the promises of economy, improved morality, were to be seen in the Dublin Exhibition, from 53 cut of If any further proof were needed of the extent to and ornamental work, admirable specimens of all which and independence of character to arise from the 162 workhouses in Ireland, also from several of the gaols; Poor-law Amendment Act, have been falsified, in and one conspicuous stall was filled with the industrial products of lunatics at the Dundrum Central Asylum. It is a great degree through the vicious elements of cen- admitted that educational training in the workhouses cannot tralized control, and the anti-productive theories compensate for the moral advantages of home and parental introduced by that Act and its misguided adminis-discipline; nor can labour, unproductive to the labourer himself, awaken that energy of character the idea of ownership supplies; but still these have important moral and economic uses, especially in the case of orphanage.""

THE STOCK FALLACY.

In reference to this state of things, Mr. Greig offers the following practical suggestions. ven helps those who help themselves. It is to be regretted that the tendency of the present system in so many different ways is to destroy the selfdependent character of the English people, and to render less and less probable the adoption by the ratepayers themselves of efficient Poor-law, Sanitary, Police, or any other municipal arrangements. Mr. Greig observes, "The guardians and ratepayers of Ticehurst Union have the matter en tirely in their own hands, and may supersede the necessity of even requiring the consent of the Com-trators, such proof is afforded by the melancholy missioners. They have only to meet together and instances which we have placed before our readers. arrange among themselves to employ able-bodied paupers, each agreeing to find work according to their several liabilities for the support of the poor. As Ticehurst Union is purely agricultural, there must be various modes of employment, such as draining and clearing the land, clearing ditches, trimming hedges, mending roads, thinning and pruning trees; and in such places as cannot be easily reached by the plough, spade husbandry might be introduced to advantage, and occasionally ornamental work might be found: in a word, to adopt the system of paying money for work done, instead of keeping them in idleness. A schedule of different kinds of work, with prices attached, should be given to the overseers or guardians of the poor, and on application being made for relief, they should dispose of applicants accordingly, keeping in view the pro rata scale of employment, for which landlords and tenants should alike be liable. The rate of wages paid to able-bodied paupers should be less than that paid to regular workmen, so as to induce them to look after employment elsewhere."

Sir S. B. Micklethwait next gives the particulars of the receipts and liabilities of a farm in this Union, consisting of farm-house, buildings, and 168 acres

of land,-

IN commenting upon the late cruel and unconsti-
tutional proceedings at Birmingham, that high-
and-dry politico-economical paper the Morning
Chronicle thus unceremoniously deals with the ar-
gument by which the productive employment of
prisoners and "paupers" is still resisted in cer-
tain quarters:-"We must confess our astonish-
ment at meeting with the old and exploded fallacy,
that the employment of prisoners in useful trades
is calculated to militate against trades outside the
gaol;' yet this was the objection with which one
of these sapient magistrates met the remonstrances
of the chaplain against the system of compelling
the inmates of the prison to pass their weary hours
in utter idleness. It would, we trust, be unfair to
take this preposterous theory as a specimen of
Birmingham political economy in the nineteenth
century; and serious argument would probably be
wasted upon those who do not at once perceive the
fallacy of so extravagant a Protectionist doctrine.
Perhaps, indeed, in using such a term, we do some
injustice to our Protectionist friends, who always
professed themselves the champions of native in-
dustry' taken collectively, and did not avowedly
regard the increase of national wealth by English
labour as in itself an evil to be repressed."

Further satisfactory evidence in favour of the reproductive principle is supplied by the Report recently presented by the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland to the Lord Lien tenant :—

"The progress of the agricultural department, during the past year, has been, on the whole, satisfactory and encouraging. On a comparison of the statistical details of the year 1852 with those of 1851, it will be found that they exhibit a favourable result in every particular. The number del, ordinary, and workhouse agricultural schools was, in of day pupils receiving agricultural instruction in our mo 1851, 1726, and in 1852, 2355, being an increase of 629. In the quantity of land brought under cultivation during the past year, there has been an increase of nearly 195 acre. In 1851 there were 1086 statute acres, and in 1852 1281. L each of the kinds of live stock kept on the farms there he also been a considerable increase.

"The total number of workhouse agricultural schools, on twelve are in Ulster, seven in Munster, three in Leinster, the 31st of December, 1852, was twenty-three, of which and one in Connaught. One was struck off during the year, and the grant withdrawn. There has been an increase, on the whole, of six over the year 1851. We have great satis faction in stating that, since the close of 1852, twenty schools of this class have been added to the list."

"Whence you will see that the landlord's rental is the smallest and last payment out of the produce, rent-charges, poor-tax, and Government taxes, each taking precedence, so that after a few years it is probable the then prior claims will absorb the whole amount of produce, unless some alteration takes place in the administration of the Poor-laws." He attributes this reduction of rental mainly to the intro-WE copy the following passage from the Canadian duction of the Poor-law Amendment and the Tithe Commu- Emigration correspondence in the Morning Chro-payers. There are in Ireland 133 workhouse

tation Acts.

COMPULSORY EMIGRATION.

nicle of August the 18th:

"The first took the control out of the hands of the rate- "The want of farm-labourers and domestic ser-
payers, who conducted it with advantage to themselves and
benefit to the poor; the present mode being exactly oppo- vants now amounts to a serious inconvenience, and
site, doing good to no party except the officials in all degrees to supply this deficiency applications have been
of rank, who are shamefully overpaid for their services. made from every county in the Province to obtain
The ratepayers have remonstrated with the Commissioners,
but without being able to effect any reduction. Indeed, the children from the English workhouses. The Poor-
whole direction of the Poor-law expenditure is now confined law Board have not wholly refused this plan, but
to the officials, insomuch that the relieving-officers at present require much preliminary information, and to be
consider that any inquiry made by individual Guardians is
not to be attended to by them unless submitted through the assured beforehand of various precautions as to the
Board,
care and disposal of the children."

great advance which the reproductive system has We have before had occasion to point out the made in Ireland, notwithstanding discouragement, if not actual prohibition, by the Poor Law Commissioners. Common sense seems at length to have completely triumphed, on the other side the Channel, over those spurious principles of political economy which still prevent English Boards of Guardians from adopting the simplest means of benefiting the indigent and unburthening the rateschools, of which nearly a third are agricultural, and more or less reproductive. It was shown in a recent number that £20 or £30 an acre is by no means a large estimate of the average produce of land cultivated by the inmates of such schools. There is still room for extending the farm-school system in Ireland. But in England it is almost unknown; and we cannot but deem it little short of infatuation in Guardians of the Poor still to oppose, upon the puerile grounds of “socialism"