SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR 1853. Previously announced R.A.Thicknesse, Esq., M.P. (special fund) (do.) Thomas Briggs, Esq., Manchester Board of Guardians, Wolverhampton W. N., do. Rev. W. McKerrow, Manchester £. s. d. 1 1 0 0 10 6 0 10 6 0 10 6 Robert Hughes, Esq., Ely House, Wexford 0 10 0 Rev. H. W. McGrath, Manchester. R. Leader, junr., Esq., Sheffield Mr. C. Hulme, Salford Mr. G. Gollie, Glasgow Mr. W. Skelton, Grimsby TO CORRESPONDENTS. 0 10 6 0 5 0 All Communications must be addressed (post paid) to "The Editor of the Constitutional: care of Mr. J. E. Taylor, 10, Little Queen Street, Holborn, London." every wrong and complaint that exists, or can the due and wholesome respect for the Crown and what not, the introduction of an effectual ma- The Constitutional. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1853. THE CORPORATION OF LONDON on the principles of Local Self-Government, monalty, and citizens. 'Tis not the two hundredth part of the corporation. 'Tis but the act of the Common Council; and we have distinguished ourselves by pleading that it does not consist of above 250, when the City contains above 50,000. This was done by a very small part of the citizens of London, and that does no way affect the whole Corporation, sure." But, even without that immediate Repeal, the citizens have the matter in theirown hands. This has been conclusively proved by Mr. Toulmin Smith in a tract we have just referred to. If the citizens will not look after their own affairs, it is in vain to expect that their We had an opportunity, in our last, in reviewing a recent work on Assay, of quoting There are few subjects on which the public an example from the Rolls of Parliament, ilhas less real knowledge, and few on which lustrating the true action of the Crown in re-affairs will ever set themselves right through more unmeaning prejudice prevails, than the ference to institutions of Local Self-Govern- any jugglery of a Crown-appointed Commisconstitution and action of the Corporation of ment, and the mode of its originating inquiries sion. We perceive that a "City of London London. The prejudice and the ignorance in regard to them. In a case like the present, Municipal Reform Association" has been are alike artfully cherished by many; and the constitutional and only lawful method, started. Its objects seem to be good; but it their results are made stock-capital by others. there illustrated, is peculiarly applicable, for commits the great and fatal blunder of hailing It is known to the public that a Commission it is the wrongs and rights of the body of the this Commission as a helper, instead of pointhas lately been issued to inquire into the citizens which are particularly professed to be ing out its true character, and taking meaCorporation of London. At this, many who the subject of complaint and inquiry. We sures to get what really ought to be done profess all sorts of liberality and all manner value most highly the function of the Crown effectually done in a legitimate mode. What of devotion to popular rights and to "Reform," in thus setting in action the instrumentality should be done is, for an active spirit to be sound great cry of rejoicing. If they were of institutions of Local Self-Government on roused in each Ward; for a body to organize consistent or sincere, they would regret such special occasions. It is because this function itself in each ward,-communicating with an event, both as absolutely illegal, and there- of the Crown has been wrongfully let grow each other through some such association as fore only mischievous in itself, and as beto- into disuse, and been craftily superseded by kening the apathy and indifference of those the illegal and mischievous system of inquiry who are really concerned, and who have it by Crown-appointed Commissioners (a thing entirely within their own power to remedy absolutely unknown to our Constitution), that See this quoted, with many other curious and very "What is the Corporation of London, and who are the valuable authorities, as to the Corporation of London, in Freemen ?" by Toulmin Smith: 1850. 66 A CHRISTIAN WORKHOUSE. may we have named. It should be the business danger,-and we will consider directly some of Malthus, to consider what are the other obof these bodies both to take care that a true the means which should be used for the pur-jects which ought to be sought by those enknowledge of the rights, duties, and respon- pose,-is but the first, and not perhaps the trusted with Poor-law management, and which sibilities of all the citizens is diffused among most important, duty of those entrusted with may more especially tend to realize the dream all, and to make it a special point to secure Poor-law management; other duties there are of making even the workhouse another instruthe return of sound friends of Constitutional which ought never to be lost sight of, other ment in the great work of elevating and humaLocal Self-Government on next St. Thomas's objects which should be steadily pursued, and nizing every one, even of the most depressed day, by whom the supporters of an exclusive foremost among them stand these two; first, and unfortunate of our fellow-countrymen, and and unconstitutional oligarchic system should that of doing nothing which can directly or of binding us together into one united mutube ousted. This done, the end is accom- indirectly tend to make the inmate of the ally helping nation. With this view it would plished; but, accomplished in a constitu- workhouse the worse man on account of his seem that one of the first things to be avoided tional and effective and permanent manner. stay there, less inclined to be self-helpful, less must be that a man should derive from the If, instead of thus putting their own shoulders able to have a wise self-respect, and of doing, mere fact of his having been forced to go into to the wheel, the citizens of London and her on the contrary, everything which may tend the workhouse any such feeling of degrada wordy "Reformers" are content to kneel to to improve him, to strengthen what is good tion as may render him, when he leaves it, in Jupiter, in the shape of a Royal Commission, in him, to lessen what is evil, and to send the smallest degree less determined or less able all hope of the restored vitality of that true him back to his natural independence a more to maintain a manful position in the world, old noble Institution,-the just pride of Eng-hard-working and industrious, not a more and to struggle once again with every diffiland through untold centuries, the breakwater listless and idle man; and secondly, that of culty in order to obtain the means of living and the beacon in many a tossing sea and giving to the children, who may come under from his own independent labour. It be lowering storm of our nation's history,-is the care of the Guardians, such an education true that the idea that to go into the workindeed gone for ever. as in a few years may extinguish for ever the house is degrading may tend to deter men national disgrace of hereditary pauperism, and from seeking relief there for the first time; may make of these children good and useful but it is no less true that when they have once citizens of their country, instead of perpetual been forced to do so, this idea makes them WE met the other day, in a book that we were paupers, seldom out of the workhouse. On feel less of that true self-respect which was a reading, with this question, "Is this (the this latter point, to which men's minds are stay to them before, and actually renders workhouse) a Christian household, or a pauper now happily more turned, and which involves their return more, instead of less, probable. barracoon?" and as we read it, we thought how so many important questions of parish ap- It is true also that to many a man, in what strange the notion of a workhouse being in prenticeship, etc., besides what is ordinarily are called "good times," like the present, esany sense a Christian household would sound implied in the word education, there is not pecially, it is really degrading that he should in the ears of most men, and yet how true it space here for more; and therefore we will have sought aid from the poor-rates, because was that, if we would not have our workhouses now only consider some of the questions which it results from his own idleness and wastefulpauper barracoons," we must make them in arise concerning the true and righteous me-ness, or vice; but, in his case, that which one sense or another Christian households. thod of dealing with the men and women who causes the degradation is not the workhouse, How! will exclaim some impatient reader, do fall into that unhappy condition, for which, but the bad conduct which brought him there; you propose to turn workhouses into monas- as it has been one of the great evils of modern and therefore, while the existence of a feeling teries, and drill their inmates into monks? times, we have invented the name of "pau- outside the workhouse, that to go there is No, nothing of the sort; and yet it is neces-per." And as we have agreed above that something of a disgrace, is in great part a sary, it is to be desired and striven for, that what has been called the "deterring" prin- sound, healthy, and desirable feeling, it is one all those who have to do with the management ciple of the New Poor-law should be main- which the managers of these institutions of these places should feel, and should act as tained, so far as its application does not violate ought to endeavour to counteract in the minds if they felt, that by being charged with such the other and higher laws which should guide of those with whom they have to do the acmanagement they enter into special relations all our dealings with our fellow-men, let us tual inmates of the house. This is not the with certain of their fellow-men, which impose first see what would seem to be the means place in which to enter on the controversy as upon them very important, and it may truly most calculated for this purpose. The neces- to whether "paupers" should be employed in be said sacred, duties; that the power which sary discipline of a workhouse, which in its productive labour, or either set to useless is thus given them over those who come under rules should be strict and to a great extent work or kept in yet more useless idleness; it their control, entails upon them grave respon- inflexible; the feeling that when a man enters is a long and difficult question, for the discussibilities as to whether they use that power its walls he sacrifices for the time he remains sion of which there is no space here; but for the permanent good or evil, for the making there a very considerable portion of that free- still it is impossible not to see, in connection better or the making worse, of these men and dom which is naturally his right, and to which with this point, how greatly the system of women; and that, in very truth, if the work- he has hitherto been used, these must always employing these men on work which they feel house is not to be only another name for a act in themselves to a great extent as deter- is useful, which they know will in its degree pauper prison, its inmates must be made to rents" from accepting the aid which they ac- benefit their country, is, as far as the men so feel that they stand to each other, and to those company; and then, while all the arrange- employed are themselves concerned, superior who overlook them, in some at least of those ments of the workhouse are such as to supply to either keeping them at nominal work on relations which are implied in the word the inmates only with that food and that ac- something which they know to be wholly usecommodation which is needed for their health less, or still more to forcing them to sit idle Now let us see for a few moments whether of mind and body, and with nothing which with their hands before them, and thus makthis be merely a very pretty Utopian dream, approaches to a luxury, the home of any man ing those who were before idle idler still, and or whether there be means by which it may in receipt of anything approaching to living turning those who were hitherto industrious be somewhat realized, and indeed no small wages will (and it is most desirable that it men into listless, careless workers, likely to need that it should be so. But before doing always should) be infinitely preferable; and be ever finding their way back into the workthis it is necessary to begin by stating that again, if the principles of Poor-law manage- house. But whether the Guardians of any all that is here meant will not at all interfere ment, which The Constitutional especially ad- particular Union think it right to adopt a sywith the fullest reasonable application of the vocates, be carried into effect, exactly in pro- stem of productive work or not, and surely principle on which the New Poor-law was portion as they are so, shall we obtain a they, the local authorities, should have the based; that, on the contrary, we would start test," that of real hard useful labour, which power to do this if they please and as they with the clearest acknowledgment of what may be made as hard as is consistent with the please, there are yet many other ways in scarcely any one, one should suppose, would health of the worker, which will effectually which they may show, and in which, above be found to dispute, that it is of first impor- deter any idle man from wishing to enter the all, a good workhouse master may show, that tance to do nothing which would weaken the workhouse, who is not forced thither by an they feel that even these "paupers" are still preference of every reasonable man for living absolute necessity. Here, then, surely we their fellow-men, their fellow-Englishmen,— on the freely earned fruits of his own labour, have ample means, if used wisely and yet in and that they are still entitled to receive at to being supported by aid from the rates; a spirit of true kindliness, for preventing that their hands that consideration and that reand that, on this account, anything which evil which seems of late years to have been spect which each man owes to every other. would make the workhouse other than an almost alone dreaded by Poor-law adminis- They must however first set before themselves unpleasant necessity to which a man may be trators; and we may now turn, without fear clearly the fact that the relations into which, driven, but to which he would not willingly of being accused, in this instance, of preaching by their respective offices, they have entered go, is to be avoided. But the avoiding this heresy by the most ardent disciple of Mr. with those under their charge, make it their household. duty both to their country and to the men ment itself may err; but a select committee Such efficiency does indeed require "inand women with whom they thus have to do, must be the "ne plus ultra" of national wis-terest" and "training ;" and such officers are to strive by every means, while faithfully dom; and such a select committee have re- only produced on the centralization plan. But administering the law under which they act, commended a National Police! A national we would submit that such officers may be to render the atmosphere, so to say, of their system for the suppression of poverty has been dispensed with, have been dispensed with, workhouse, such as will tend to make its in- tried-the country has been now for some and in some places still are. What has Engmates better men, certainly not worse men, twenty years rejoicing therein: and very suc- land done so many centuries without a cenfor their stay there, so that they may go away cessful in suppressing pauperism it certainly tralized police? or has it indeed been almost with their good feelings and their industrious has been! But there is one slight defect in disorganized by the boldness and frequency habits unimpaired, and may feel that the aid it, that in decreasing the number of paupers of crime? We think not. The Chronicle which their country has thus afforded them in it frequently increases the number of criminals indeed draws an affecting picture-what a their distress has been given in the kindly of various sorts, and therefore, as supplement connoisseur in landscapes would call "a sweet and loving, if yet stern, spirit which alone to a thoroughly efficient system for suppress- rustic bit"-of Hampshire and Essex, where is worthy of a great nation. The not small ing poverty, a sister society on similar prin- may be observed, "at distant intervals, a power with which they are entrusted over ciples for suppressing crime is needed. The smart but steady man in a quiet uniform, those of whom the law has given them charge, two will then go hand in hand-will be almost strolling leisurely along the highway or down affords ample opportunity for carrying out identical; and indeed it is much if the inven- the green lanes, shedding, in apparent unconvery fully such hints as these. The mode tive genius of cheap government does not sciousness, a sense of security over the peacewould probably vary more or less in each soon discover that the two might be amalga- ful scene." But there are two sides to every Union; but once let the principle be admitted, mated, worked by the same board, with the question; and our experience of the working let it be felt that something of household same local officers, nay, even the same build- of the rural police is quite of another descripfeelings ought to exist between the managers ings for the punishment of both offences, with, tion, leading us to infer that whatever may and those whom, in this respect, they rule, of course, lighter work and better diet (as be the necessity for organized and regular and that those who are forced to take shelter hitherto) for the criminals, who might other- police in large towns, they are, in country for a time in the workhouse are not "pau- wise object to such a "union" of interests! districts, an unmitigated nuisance, without pers" merely, but men and women, to whom "The evidence laid before the Committee" the skill and power of numbers of town poall who have to do with them, especially in (says the Morning Chronicle) "placed the lice, without the popularity of the parish the way of restraint or guidance, owe it that efficiency of an organized general police in constable, where he is really elected by the they should endeavour, to the best of their such powerful contrast with the wretched in- people. ability, to promote their welfare; and the capacity of the parish constable, and with the Here indeed lies the gist of the whole means will, as in all other cases, speedily petty jobberies and corruptions of small local question-in the bona fide election by the enough suggest themselves, and there being bodies, that it was impossible to avoid the people. Every one who has had anything to once a will, the way will without difficulty be conclusion in favour of establishing a proper do with parish affairs knows that at present found. force throughout the kingdom."-Certainly they are not so: formerly they were; but, at the parish constable is frequently miserably the time of the Chartist agitation, the "respecinefficient, and we agree with the Chronicle table classes," as represented in Parliament, in, to a great extent, attributing such ineffi- became frightened at finding the people were ciency to the mischievous influence of magis- choosing constables of alarmingly popular trates, so delicately alluded to as the "small political principles, and so empowered magis. local bodies." Constables, responsible to the trates to call for a list of any number the people, and magistrates responsible to nobody, chose to name of persons eligible for con cannot work well together. The joint service stables, to be made out by the vestry, out of of God and Mammon would be easy compared whom they, the magistrates, might select the to the situation of a man who should do his number required. The practical working of duty to his neighbours as constable, and come this plan has been, that the magistrates have up to the petty sessions standard of an "active required sixty or seventy names in townships and efficient officer" in the eyes of the wor-requiring seven or eight constables: no townshipful Bench. We know what an "active ship could nominate so many qualified men, and efficient officer" is; we have one in our but among them will be some who will be obeye! He was a cobbler once, and far gone sequious servants of the bench, or, as often, in Chartism; but the presiding genius of the of the magistrates' clerk: such men get aplocal bench, having an eye to the weakness of pointed. The people may protest again and human nature, made him constable; and he again: they protest in vain; and at last, findis now a model of efficiency! He never wavers ing that all power of election is virtually gone in his evidence, or is doubtful about a point from them, they cease to go to vestry meeton which he has to testify. There are no ings, and every year is the farce gone through slippery degrees of comparison in his vocabu- of the "old list" being moved, seconded, and MORE patronage! More paternal govern- lary: the defendant is very drunk, the com- carried nem. con. in a "select" vestry of some ment! More corruption! More taxes! and plainant perfectly sober he could swear to three or four hangers-on of the constables; more police! More central councils of three, it! He has an omniscience of previous cri- and the same men as before are afterwards with irresponsible power, and £1500 a-year minality, and can tell, with the promptness appointed by the bench. The jobbery and for exercising it! More inspecting commis- of a recording angel, how often the prisoner corruption which follows on this is what sioners with £700 a-year, to palaver the local has been convicted for vagrancy, or suspected might be expected: but it is too bad to call bodies into obedience to the council of three! of poaching. There is a painful circumstan- this "popular election," and to argue from its More sub-inspecting commissioners propor- tiality about him, which suggests the proba- failure the necessity of a "national police." tionately remunerated; smaller salaries for bility of his carrying a pocket-book, and mak- This however is in strict conformity with the still dirtier work! More local superinten- ing constant memorandums of small parti- general practice of centralizing governments: dents, who will, for proper pecuniary consi- culars, which may turn up useful sometimes. first take away the fact of popular election, derations, regret that they can't interfere in He has a sharp eye for beer-house immorality, and then, after thus ensuring the choice of your case, but will be most happy to report and will never permit keeping open house incompetent men, lay the blame on the jugthe same to the sub-inspector, who will con- after hours, unless he be present himself to glery which still goes by its name, and so gain sult the inspecting commissioner, who will see that no improper proceedings are going pretext for openly and unblushingly abolishtake the opinion of the council of three, whose on! A keen scent, too, has he for a case ing its last vestige, and the hope of its restoopinion, when you have it, is generally incom- which would put something in the way of his ration to healthy reality. prehensible, and when finally made out is friend the magistrate's clerk. He may be And mark the ultimate effect, noticeable always worthless! Cheers for the glorious unpopular; but what of that? He is the constitution! Cheers for the glorious prin- "terror to evil-doers ;" and he walks with his ciple of centralization! Cheers for a "Na- head up, and a proud consciousness that he tional Police!" can afford to disregard the rabble, while spoken of at sessions as our active and efficient officer!" It may be said that in these prosperous times questions of Poor-law management are of little importance; and thank God it is so; but we cannot wisely expect this state of things to last for ever, and it is of the first necessity that we should in all ways make good use of this breathing-time. We are able now, and we are bound, to discuss such questions as these, which in times of distress are of vital interest, with all calmness, and to give to them the most careful consideration; and therefore perhaps these few words, thrown out only as suggestions, which others far better able than this writer to deal with this matter may possibly find not unworthy of their attention, may not be altogether useless, and may at least escape just blame on the ground of their treating of a matter of which we need not now think at all. GODERICH. A GENDARMERIE FOR ENGLAND. We have a huge respect for Select Committees of the House of Commons. Parlia 66 a already in many places; the post of guardian of the peace, committed by magistratesmind, not by the people-to "rosy bumpkins or bilious greengrocers," as the Chronicle facetiously describes them, or subsequently made over to paid rural police, is losing all THE USE AND ABUSE OF PARLIAMENT. 66 MR. DISRAELI may well sneer at the fatal drollery of a representative government." If there is anything worse than the paternal administration which does everything for the people, or than that short-sighted "principle" of modern economists which would altogether neglect them, it is the half-measures and inefficient meddling legislation which have of late prevailed in this country. We recently pointed out one instance of the kind in the case of pawnbroking. The working classes, taught to abandon their watchfulness for the supposed security of a statute at large, too late discover that this supposed legislative protection is a delusion and a snare. The London police reports, which supply texts for so many homilies, lively and severe, lately contained the following evidence of the utter inadequacy of the present laws for regulating "the avuncular profession." respectability. The people naturally took to be set down as grasping or dishonest. But £60,000 in ten years from their own funds, part with their "constables," in old times; there can be doubt of the culpability of him are actually presented by the Commissioners now they take part against "policemen," who who, having undertaken to protect the inte- with £1000 extra for one of their own number are looked on as the servants of the upper rests of another, sacrifices them by a blunder, to act as substitute; "while a poor vicarage classes, and hated all the more, because in not in the contract, but in the arrangement in the same city, with a population of 4000, rank they are of the people: they are a body which is evidenced and expressed in such con- has been stinted to an allowance of £24 a in the people, yet not of it,-distinct in in- tract. Thus, then, is the deficiency of means, year from the very same fund and by the very terest and opposed in sympathy: a class most anticipated to arise for providing pastoral same Commissioners." Further, during the dangerous to a people's liberties. Already in superintendence for the people, in part ac- last year £16,061 was granted out of the comour large towns they are being organized into counted for. mon for the augmentation of canonries, at detectives; one step more, and they degene- The proceedings of the Ecclesiastical Com- the very time that the Commissioners tell us rate into spies; nay, evidence is not wanting, missioners with reference to the suspended that they were precluded from entertaining that on more than one occasion they have al- canonries in various cathedrals, present equally some 1500 applications for assistance to poor ready been perverted from their ostensible satisfactory results of centralized management. districts! Can any good thing come out of office of detecting crime to serve the purposes So far however from arriving at the conclu-a system under which good men of necessity of political oppression. Such an organization, sion adopted by the Times in favour of further commit such enormities? Surely whatever questionable in isolated towns, would be most and fresh reforms in the same direction, we reform may be necessary in order to enforce dangerous, if spread, as is proposed, through- think the abuses which it has of late so power- the rights of the people at large in relation to out the country. Efficient" enough it fully portrayed, tell with still greater force the Church and the Church's property, no would be in all conscience.-secret, sharp, and against the new system than against the old. sane man, with facts like these in view, will sure; but England is falling in character if This latest exposure of the inefficiency of sanction the pretence of effecting these reforms she needs such agencies for the preservation Central Boards for checking local abuses is by machinery condemned alike by all sound of peace and honesty. Englishmen are in- as follows:principle and by proved results. deed degraded if they will submit to such an "Before the 3rd and 4th Vict. c. 113, every encroachment on their liberties. A few cen-canon took a turn of two or three months' turies ago, the proposal to create a standing duty as the custom might be; and the Act army of soldiers would have raised a rebel- referred to, whilst reducing the number of calion. Now Government proposes a standing nonries in most cathedrals, in order to save army of gens d'armes, and hardly a voice is the old canons from an increase of work, emraised! powered the Commissioners to pay substitutes for those months of the year which, from the lapse of canonries, might otherwise be unproTHE ECCLESIASTICAL COMMISSION. vided for. Thus, in Canterbury there were Ir has been the favourite project of so-called before 1840 a Dean and twelve Canons, six Church reformers to transfer the whole pro- Preachers and twelve minor Canons, and one perty in, and management of, Episcopal and sermon on a Sunday; and the suspension of other ecclesiastical estates throughout the one canonry involved additional duty,' for country, to a small body of gentlemen sitting which a substitute might be provided and in London. Unjustifiable as appear to have paid for by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. been some of the irregularities, and flagrant Accordingly, the common fund' of the the mistakes of management, committed by Commissioners was taxed with £50 a year for the clerical owners of Church property, we a substitute during the first three years after fear that this remedy is worse than the dis- the Act, for which, as the returns show, the ease, and that centralization, however spe- Dean and his eleven received about £30,000. ciously advocated, has in this, as in other in- But whom did they select, and whom did the stances, been a certain means of multiplying Visitor approve? One of the six preachers? and perpetuating evils, which it only required No. One of the minor canons? No. One of the energetic local-municipal or parochial-super- deserving city or country clergy? No. They vision to palliate or remove. It is not for substituted themselves with the Archa moment supposed that the Ecclesiastical bishop's approval, and the allowance of £50' Commissioners are not honest, intelligent, was not specifically divided, but paid to the and disinterested persons, fitted for their general chapter account!' Such was the duties, and anxious to discharge them effi- beginning; and so they went on till 1850, reciently. They, no less than the public, are ceiving in ten years about £90,000 for their the victims of the system they work under.customary duties,' and upwards of £1100 The results of that system are precisely those from the common fund as substitutes.' For which have ever resulted, and must ever be several years, says the return, £200 was di- "Inspector Shelford said the City was overrun expected to result, almost necessarily, from it. vided among the seven canons appointed with these shops. He believed in his district The Ecclesiastical Commissioners, we were before 1840."" (Moor-lane station) there were at least from thirty lately told on good authority, have "done In Winchester, the Chapter formerly con- to forty, and they were the greatest difficulties little, and although their cost is somewhere sisted of a Dean and twelve canons, the re- the police had to contend with in tracing stolen about £17,000 a-year, they only last year aug- maining members of which received in ten goods, as they were receptacles for all kinds of promented the incomes of four livings with a years about £70,000 from their own funds, perty, and open at all hours night and day, Sungross sum of £117, granted to another incum- and £1100 extra for additional duty: one of days included. bency eight acres of land, and constituted two the 'substitutes' who received this allowance the existence of so many of these establishments 'Sir R. W. Carden expressed great surprise at new parishes. The Commissioners reported being the Rev. G. Pretyman, with a Church in a place like the city of London, and wondered, that fifteen hundred applications for grants income of £5000 a year, an incumbent of as the system was a gross robbery on the comwere made by poor incumbents, but want of three parishes, and Chancellor and Canon of munity of pawnbrokers, that no steps had been means prevented them attending to them." Lincoln as well as Winchester. So in the taken by those immediately interested to suppress Why it is that the Commissioners have other dioceses: Worcester, a Dean and ten it. If the attention of the public was called to done so little, and have had so little to do it Canons; £40,000 in ten years, plus £3150 paid these sinks of iniquity he had no doubt but that with, howbeit expending upon themselves the to them by the Commissioners, who yet" were the subject would be brought under the consideraendowments in posse of these fifteen hundred contributing only £51 a year towards the bet-tion of the Government before very long." hard-working underpaid incumbents, will be ter provision for the cure of souls in that city." It may be pleaded that this discreditable plain to those who recollect the improvident Gloucester, Dean and five Canons, £3600, with state of things is an evasion of the law, which arrangements made by the Commissioners £650 from the Commissioners. At Norwich, the utmost prevision cannot always avoid. with the bench of Bishops. It may fairly be the Dean himself was allowed to act as sub- But whichever way you turn, the people are questioned whether any man who avails him- stitute" for £50 a month; the same reverend thus victimized by the unskilful handling of self of the obvious meaning of a legal contract pluralist also appearing as a substitute at the their affairs by those who cannot be persuaded to claim an advantage which the other party regulation price in the diocese of Peterbo- to let them manage them for themselves. The denies to have been intended, is necessarily rough. The Chapter of Rochester, receiving Ten Hours Factory Act undertook to do "GUILDHALL.—A poor woman applied to Sir R. W. Carden for a summons against a woman who keeps what is termed a 'leaving shop,' for unlaw fully detaining an apron and a handkerchief. "Sir W. R. Carden wished to know if any ticket was given with these pledges ? "Roe said such was never done, as the property days, for which a specific charge was made, and if was generally pledged for a certain number of not redeemed within that period the keeper of the leaving shop kept the goods. At the risk of being tedious, one other piece of legislation must be noticed, which in an especial degree it behoved Parliament either 66 ral that which cannot perhaps be effectually ac- Again: "Nearly twenty years ago," says confine itself as nearly as possible to its legicomplished without a compulsory arrange- the Morning Chronicle, "the Legislature timate constitutional functions of granting ment, but which arrangement, instead of being passed an Act (1st and 2nd Will. IV., c. 37) supplies and levying taxes, and it will have effected by the Imperial Parliament, ought to which it was presumed would effectually sup- so little to do that this little there will be some emanate, as in France, from some local board press the prevalent practice of plundering the chance of its doing well. Parliament will or council of trade. What was the natural labourer by paying wages in goods instead of then "have time to be short." Its "acts" may consequence? The simplest possible mean- money." And now it has been publicly shown then perhaps emulate the brevity and clearing was imperfectly expressed; the ingenuity that a large number of masters, "by means ness of those of Marlbridge and Westminster. of mill-owners' attorneys suggested a feasible of very simple and transparent devices, have Above all, let the common law of England, evasion of the law; its enforcement, being contrived to evade the penalties of the Act, the safest and faithfullest bulwark and safety entrusted to justices,-many of them mill- and to perpetrate, with total impunity, a fear- of the commonwealth," be held fast; and let owners,-was perseveringly set at naught, ful amount of injustice and cruelty upon the those institutions which have been "altered and became a dead letter; the workpeople labouring classes." or diverted from their due course," be, "for and their friends had to do their work afresh, avoiding of many mischiefs, restored again." and to submit to a second "final" settlement. Now it appears again to be unsettled. A brilliant example of legislative discrimi- to have let alone altogether, or to have dealt THE interests attaching to this subject are ON THE EASTERN QUESTION. nation, falling within the same category, is with so carefully as at least to accomplish presented by the act for regulating Burial more good than harm. Of course it did nei- so many and various, as to make a reason and Societies. The reader is probably aware that ther, and the consequences are precisely what an excuse for almost any possible view of the such societies have been lately placed under might have been expected from its interfer- which includes the interests of the greatest case. And that view will probably be best, certain regulations, intended to secure the ence. We refer to that provision which every number of parties, and makes the most genemembers from fraud and the public from prudent man makes for those dearest to him those frightful crimes against human life which by what is termed "insuring his life," and to sweep of effects and consequences. have made the town of Stockport and the the attempt by Parliament to supply, with tion, which means the desire of the uneasy After twenty years of war against Revolu anti-coronatorial justices of Essex unenviably regard to institutions for effecting such insurnotorious. But what will he think when he is ance, a substitute for individual vigilance and to mend their position, and was of course to told that these regulations were made optional, attention. The mischiefs resulting from the be resisted everywhere except when we were and therefore are entirely evaded by those attempt to regulate Insurance Companies by whole went against what may be called the rethe uneasy ourselves,-the decision on the burial clubs which are not registered under the Act of 1844 have been forcibly pointed volutionists, though the form of the contest the Act. The lowest description of "penny out in the report lately presented by the Seclubs," which have supplied the chief incen- lect Committee, which was appointed on the by friends or foes. For a time however, all had so changed as to be hardly recognizable tives to these atrocities, avoid registration. motion of Mr. Wilson in March last. This change, of which Revolution is only the exagOur legislators have prohibited payment of inquiry has demonstrated" that the acts which "club money" by the officers of any regis- have already been passed with a view of congerated form, was put down. Everything tered society without the previous certificate trolling the operations of insurance societies was to run in the old ruts, and it was proof the coroner, or some competent medical have been rather hurtful than beneficial for nounced by the victors that the old ruts were man that the death in question has not been the very objects they had in view; that an sent in the world, and little by little they to be eternal. But the uneasy were still precaused by crime or culpable neglect. They apparent compliance with the provisions of made themselves heard. The English Rehave actually left the unregistered and less re- an Act of Parliament, and a certificate of com-form Bill was the most prominent evidence as putable societies wholly unchecked, and the ne-plete registration, while they have proved en- far as this country was concerned. The Engfarious traffic in child-life to be carried on (there tirely ineffectual for their professed objects, lish Reform Bill would have been put down is little doubt) with increased oftenness and and no real security to the public, have af-like a revolution at Naples or Palermo, if impunity. Such a perverse non-adaptation of forded facilities, under the sanction of parliameans to desired and readily attainable ends mentary authority, embodied in regulations there had not been some difference in the appears incredible to those who do not know administered by a public department, for the physical circumstances of the case. how legislation is too frequently conducted. formation of companies and the perpetration their uneasiness, and which would undoubtedly The great agent for keeping the uneasy in Savings-banks everybody considers as na- of frauds which could not otherwise have been have been applied against the English as well tional institutions. That they were so in accomplished." point of responsibility and in every other re- Provisional registration-complete registra-nity, was a nation less advanced in civilization as any others if there had been the opportuspect is taken for granted by the illiterate, tion-annual balance-sheets-every measure was surely never doubted by the most intel- of security or precaution prescribed by the than most in Europe, and which had in fact ligent depositor. The Legislature, by requir- Act, has proved abortive for want of enact-got no farther than a sort of blasphemous ing trustees to be nominated for the manage- ments and machinery calculated to ensure God and the Empress," with such changes adoration of a human sovereign. Glory to ment of local banks, interposed a further se- their proper working; and the Committee, from time to time as the sex of the mortal dative to individual cautiousness. Yet, not-not without reason, are deeply impressed 66 beau idéal of what they would have desired here, and every remove from it was grief and sorrow of heart. breed of Conservatives at home; it was the withstanding this universal opinion of the with the opinion that, as the law now stands, portion might suggest, may be taken as the people at large, the national pledge which the it does either too much or too little; too symbol of the enthusiasm which brings the nation's so interfering as to produce this uni- much, inasmuch as any legislative enactments regimented slaves of Russia into the field. versal opinion ought in common sense and professing to protect the public in such mat-Nothing could be more delightful to the old common honesty to have been held to imply, ters have a certain tendency to weaken and is, as we have lately found, treated as null, impair that individual vigilance which would and thousands of families thereby involved in be more surely exercised if no such attempt rretrievable ruin. The right of Parliament was made; and too little, inasmuch as the o interfere at all with the savings and invest- securities which the law provides are ill calments of the poorer classes may be doubted. culated to effect the object at which they Let it place these classes, with regard to banks, aim." paper currency, combined capital, and limited In these and numerous other instances of responsibility, upon equally favourable terms, legislative interference, the people of England in relation to their pence or shillings, which have, it must be acknowledged, been very the wealthy enjoy for their hundreds or thou- scandalously maltreated. Their confidence in sands of pounds, and it will probably have representative government has been grossly done all that it can do in this useful direction. abused. How then, it will be asked, are these But it was bound either not to interfere at evils to be avoided in time to come? It will all, or else to make its interference safe and be readily believed that we are no admirers efficacious. No more flagrant instance of neg- of the fainéant selfishness which (except in lect of the rights and interests of the people such cases as cab legislation, wherein the at large was ever afforded than the refusal of pockets and convenience of the middle and a Parliament of rich men, elected by a pro- higher classes are unscrupulously "protected") perty qualification, to redress the crying in- is noisily upheld by the mercantile politicians justice it had inflicted upon the poor. of the present day. But let Parliament only But there were extensive portions of the There were those who believed good governBritish community who thought differently. ment, in matters civil and religious, to be a more complex affair than setting up an hereservice, his good pleasure. Large tracts in ditary idol, and cheering for his faith, his English history, were studded with the triumplis of all kinds of counter principles. Notwithstanding the blandishments of the opposite party, Englishmen in general believed in the benefit of their victories. Religious men thought religion well relieved of mercial men looked at the condition of counthe incubus of conformity to statute. Comtries where arbitrary power was unchecked, * Sir E. Coke's Reports, vol. iii. preface, p. 18. |