The Express.
London, England, 1864-12-31 00:00:00

mising of Catholic organs is this oesintry.
through the closing months of the year, we hare
watched the bearing of the Italians, and especially
the Piedmontese, under the operation of the Con-
vention of September 15. It is too early yet to
speak of the result as clear and complete ;
but the fortitude of the Piedmonteae under
their deprivation, and of the whole people
under the postponementof their hope of possessing
Rome, and the patriotism with which they have
devoted themselves to carry the kingdom through
a crisis of peril, have won fresh esteem and sym-
pathy for Italy and her sons from all good men in
all free countries. The riots at Turin were a me-
lancholy spectacle ; but it presently became known
that they were a sort of accident, caused by folly
and imprudence, and they were soon forgotten in
the nobleness of what followed. In America the
aspect of affairs has become less painful as the year
has advanced—the national forces having gained
ground essentially in the South, and the emanci-
pation of the slaves having proceeded rapidly,
steadily, and prosperously. Month by month the
extinction of factions and reconciliation of parties
I has gone on, till the great step was taken in No-
, vember of re-electing Mr. LINCOLN. The prospect
is in every way improved by this re-election. De-
finite and avowed objects will now be pursued by
methods of which government has experience :
the abolition of slavery is secured, and the pacifi-
cation of the Southern States seems to be only a
question of time.
Manufacture and trade have flourished, generally
speaking ; and every incident which draws attention
to the fortunes of the working-classes shows that
those *lasses understand better and better how to
obtain the full advantage of their earnings. In
two years no less than two millions sterling have
been deposited in the Post-office Savings Banks :
the same amount is invested in co-operative asso-
ciations ; and some of the legislation of last session
—as the Government Annuities Act—will prove a
great help in enabling the labouring classes to
become capitalists in their degree, and to obtain
the same advantages from such money as they have
as richer men can command. This kind of social
advancement has a political as well as an econo-
mical bearing, important to the whole country ; for
the franchise cannot be long denied tocitizens who
have shown that they have ability to obtain pro-
perty„and sense enough to keep it safe. The in-
crease of Working Men's Clubs, and the Industrial
Exhibitions which have been so prominent in the
last few months, are influences tending in the same
direction. The Lancashire men have kept up
their character for fortitude, patience, and willing-
ness to make the best of things. The state of the
cotton-market, through the action of specu-
lators, has disastrously prolonged the suffering
of the operatives, and renewed their hardships on
the approach of winter ; but they have turned so
readily to other employments, and their interests
have been so well managed, that there can now
I be no doubt of their being safely carried through
till the fast increasing supply of cotton shall restore
them to their old way of life. We have had pan-
ful evidence meantime of the backwardness in
intelligence of some climes of labourers, while
others are advancing so rapidly. The strikes of
the Staffordshire and the Yorkshire colliers, and
the riots at Belfast are the domestic diagnose of
the year. Those riots happened when the late
Viceroy was prostrated by fatal illness. His suc-
cessor has entered upon office while the shame of
the Belfast outrages was fresh, and when the
people of Ireland were beginning to be cheered by
the return of good seasons, and a prosperous
agricultural year ; and we may hope that there
will be a happier story to tell of Ireland twelve
months hence than for several years past.
The QUEEN and her spreading family have had
their experiences, sweet and bitter, like the rest
of us. Three grandchildren have been born to
the QUE2N—our own future Prince of WALE%
one at Berlin, and one at Darmstadt. Oar little
Prince was born urtimely into a cold and then
troubled world ; but the warmth of the national
welcome was all the more fervid. His Danish
mother has had all possible sympathy front the
country generally ; and her husband and she were
followed w'th eager interest in their visits to her
parents, and to the Royal Family of Sweden. The
QUEEN and her children have made more than the
usual journeyings to Balmoral and Osborne; and
it was gratifying to the whole country, as well as
to the people of Perth, that she found herself able
to attend at the unveiling of the statue of the
PRINCE CONSORT in that city, in August. Much
was hoped from this ; and if more has not followed,
there has been some relaxation since last year—
some few guests admitted, and somewhat more
of intercourse with the world outside. The Prince
and Princess of WALES have held levOes and
drawing rooms, and have paid a memorable
visit to Cambridge University, and attended
reviews, and enjoyed at Sandringham the
domestic repose so well earned. While
the continental despots have been circling
about in Europe, like flies in the air, as if for the
purpose of encountering or avoiding each other,
it was felt everywhere that the Queen of ENGLAND
could not go to Germany this year. Almost all
the continental Sovereigns and their Prime
Ministers have met, at various times and places :
but England does not want to enter into their
counsels, under the present aspect of affairs ; and
the only representative of our Royal Family has
been Prince ALFRED at Berlin (where he received
the Order of the Black Eagle), against the inclina-
tion of the people at home, and probably against his
own. People at home liked better to hear of him es
a student at Bonn.

Jt has been a year of much sickness and unusual
mortality ; and this appears in the long list of
deaths of eminent as well as common or unknown
men. Everybody's first thought will be of the two
statesmen whom old men little thought to survive,
the Duke of NswcAsrxx and the Earl of CARLISLE.
The Church has lost two Biahop•---Drs. TURTON,
of Ely, and DAYS'S, of Peterborough. The Navy
has lost two Admirals--GAax (Admiral of the
Fleet) and SAVEAREZ. Among the peers, two
Dukes of CLEVELAND have died within eighs
months of each other. The peerage of the Earls
of CLARE has become extinct. The Duke o;
Anil/LE and the Earl of ABEILDEZN have died in
middle life ; and Lord Asnararow before he was
old. From the House of Commons Mr. &vortex
will be missed with kindly feelings by those who
differed from him most. Among political agitators
that too Cervantic hero Swirls O'Hatrar must be
first, in whatever year he died ; bat there was also
the sound and sensible WILLIAY JOHNSON Fox,
memberfor Oldham. The lawyers have lost Sir Wu,-
'
, max ATHERTON, late Attorney-General, and the
1..•
miagedon.• not forgotten Serjesnt naEREWETHEIL, and
&desalt STEPHEN, whose commentaries are a hand
book in the profession. In philosophy and science we
cannot restrict ourselves to our own country, and
must therefore feel the loss, not only of our Pro-
; tenor Farman and Leonean Houma, but of the
greater Brains, the Russian, and Sruics, the
American. In his own way, KIM ENIANTIN, EOM-
time Chief of the St. Sitnonian brotherhood, whose
name was dear to many brilliant and enthusiastic
Frenchmen thirty years ago, should rank with

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