The Express.
London, England, 1862-12-25 00:00:00

later the lot of all human affections. But the
world felt instinctively that harder than the com-
mon fate was hers on whom by the accident of
birth was laid a burden of toil and responsibility
such as strong men have staggered beneath, in
whom the feebleness of sex, the anxieties natural
to a mother, the domestic cares that are usually
enough for a woman's strength, had to be forgotten
and laid aside in the performance of sterner duties
and in unrelaxing attention to imperial interests ;
who had, and could have, but one human soul to
share her thoughts and divide her labours, and who
in one blow had lost the husband of her love, the
guide of her counsels, the minister of her empire,
the staff and support of her overladen years. So
recognising her position, the heart of the nation
was stirred in its inmost pulses by the sorrows of
the Royal House. There never was a time when the
sympathy of a whole people so leaped forth as did that
of England to the widowed Queen. She on her part
accepted it—we all know how simply, gratefully,
and trustingly. In the midst of the first outbreak
of her grief she allied herself in the bond of a com-
mon love to those lonely widows who sat shivering
through the December nights round the month of the
Hartley pit. From time to time she took the nation
to witness that her first cares were to carry to com-
pletion those schemes for the public weal which had
!laid nearest her husband's heart. Visiting in
i mournful succession the places where the happiest
hours of her married life had been spent, she broke
the privacy of sorrow only when she could show
that each was marked with some memorial record
of his large and sympathetic mind. And now, on
the first anniversary of his loss, she has raised the
first stone in that which will prove his moat endur-
I Mg monument, the history of his self-aacrificirq
life. In giving to the public a new edition of his
public speeches she has in noble and touching words
told her subjects what her husband was to her and
what to them. They have already appeared in the
Daily News, but our readers will be glad to peruse
them again, accepting them sti the summary of a
story of devoted duty and hidden self-sacrifice.
In allowing this memorandum of the Prince to be pub•
fished, the Queen is also actuated by another motive in ad.
dition to those which have shady been mentioned. It
affords her Majesty a fitting opportunity for expressing, in
the most clear and ample manner, that which for many
years shehas desired to express. During the Prince's life,
the Queen often longed to make known to the world the
ever.preseut, watchful, faithful, invaluable aid which she
received from the Prince Consort in the conduct of the
public business. Her Majesty could hardly endure even
then to be silent on this subject, and not to declare how
much her reign owed him. And now the Queen can no
longer refrain from uttering what she has so long felt, and
from proclaiming the irreparable loss to the public service,
as well u to herself and to her family, which the Prince's
death has occasioned.
The position of her Majesty, foi many years accustaned
to this loving aid, and now soddea'y bereft of it, can with
difficulty be imagined to the full extent of its heaviness and
its Redness. Desolate and sombre, as the Queen most
deeply feels, lies the way before her ;—• path, however, of
duty and of labour, which, relying on the loyal attachment
and sympathy of her people, abe will, with God's blessing,
strive to pursue ; but where she fears her faltering steps
will often show they lack the tender and affectionate sup-
port which, on all occasions, her kf ajestj was wont to re-
ceive from her beloval limbed, the Prime.
We cannot but think that on this question the
Queen's own instincts were right. The entire
norauce in which the public, with a very few indi-
vidual exceptions, stood in regard to the Prince's
actual position and labours, was in his life the sole
cause of frequent misunderstanding, and of occa-
sional want of popularity. It was known that he
THE Casa OF THE REV. MR. M`LAIJOHLIN.— was a man of ability, judgment, and probity, and
This sass swine before Lord Navy" it' Edinburgh on Taw- credit was given him for • sincere desire to do good.
day, on a note of suspension and liberation presented in
But because it was not known that his influence
beLalf of the Rev. Mr. M'Laughlin. When the note was
first presented, it was found that a caveat bed been lodged was constant, his labours unremitting, his judg-
by the authorities here agninst the prism:in.'s being set at ment perpetually invoked, there wasa vague popu-
liberty, even ad interim, without their having an opportu- la- belief that he only sometimes "interfered,"
nity of being heard in opposition. Lord Naves thereupon English prejudice against such inter-
fixed a special diet for Tuesday afternoon, at and jealous
5.30, for the purpose hearing pat.. ierences as being dictated by foreign sympathies.
Kobito„, the Justice of the Peace before whom Had the nation been frankly told how thoroughly
the case was triad, and Mr. Douglas, the J.P. Fiscal, he understood and heartily accepted the prin-
were both present at that hour, along with ciples of the Constitution, there would have
counsel. His lordship, after argument, granted a war' been an end of this ignorant jealousy, and
rant for interim liberation. Notice of this was received
The warrant full justice would have been done to the genii-
here by telegram between seven and eight.
itself arrived by the train which left Edinburgh at 8.45. inettess of his English sentiments, even if 0001-
Mr. Mlatighlin's agents, who had previously informed the Glossily his opinion was avowedly in opposition to
governor of the gaol as to the upshot of the application, at the popular desire. But from all definition of his
once proceeded to the prison with the document, but were ition the Prince steadily shrank. He had re-
met by objections on the part of the head warder to allow- s- noa .
solved to renounce self, and he would not take
ing the rev. gentleman to quit the place at so late an hour.
A tormal protest against this delay was served. Of coulee credit for even the performance of his duty. No
Mr. M'Laughlin will be liberated early to-day (Wednesday), one can doubt how real was the sacrifice he thus
pending the final decision of the application on his behalf.— made. His was a nature io which a somewhat cold
In connexion with the ume case we learn that a communt- and distant exterior veiled a heArt full of tenderness
cation was on Tuesday received from the Home Secretary,
and love
of hie fellow-men.
Such spirits that seem
disposing of the application made to him by Dr. Murdoch,
Roman catholic bishop of the western district of Scotland, to repel sympathy as bereath them, are precisely
for the liberation of Mr. M'lsinghliu, by redwing it on the those which most crave for sympathy, and which,
ground that he sees no reason for interfering with the sea- though they can bear with seeming indifference to
fence of the committing nagistrate.—.Nordi Britia4 Mail. lie under misconstruction, are in realty the
FATAL QUARREL errwsaN Two Bacrrusas.— true martyrs to its pangs. All honour to Lim, then,
Two brothers, named John and James Hall, the former 75
years of age, the other 77. both weavers, sod residing in for this deliberate and costly self-sacrifice, not of
Rilbarchan, had a dispute about a stool, which each claimed ambition only, but of appreciation of his motives
as bis property. About 8 o'clock on Saturday night, John and hie conduct. But not the less are we bound to
went to bar brother's house to take away the stool by force, note it as an error of judgment, and to draw from
when the other resisted, and a violent struggle ensued, in
the tonne of which John's foot slipped into a hole in the it the moral that no man, be Iris mind ever so lofty,
floor, and he fell backwards, his bead coming in eontwit with and his conscience ever so clear, can in any pad-
a chair. He was unable to rise, and on being lifted be was tiou do rightly in withdrawing himself from frank
found to be insensible. Dr. Campbell was sent for, but the confidence in his fellows—in abstracting 'his
unfortunate man soon afterwards expired. The cause of
dew, actions through false modesty from their know-
Britiah ..opposed to be wee...
et the hrete._xerhe
.ledge, or in leaving his character to be eleuded
A POLICEMAN GARoTTED BY A BURGLAR. About through a false idea that it is his duty and his fate
loci(-past14 o'clockyeaterdes morning police-constable Nuts, to suffer in sileuec. No one cart thus separate Lim-
-56 B. was on doty near Blackheath-park, when Ilia atten• self and stand aloof from humanity without hurt
Moe was attracted by a noise, and he then saw a man air-
rently leaving OHO of the houses. Being provided wit a to it and to himself. For neither is there any
park, key, the constable unlocked a gate sod entered the among us strong enough thns to stand alone, nor
when the man named ran for some distance, butwarpur-
can mankind &third to lose the benefit of the full
sued, and el sn iron fencing arrested further progress, • knowledge of the noble thoughts and unselfish
desperate encounter took place. The policeman struggled deeds of those whose lives are spent in the luinia-
for a long time to secure hie assailant, but was rendered • taring services of high place.
insusible in ousequence of being seized by the at, and Yet, scanned with a scrutiny sharpened by igno-
was thus unable to take his truncheon from his coal pocket,
and the fellow by this mans eseeprl, and ,it wen subs, ramie and doubt, and with every defect magnified
onently discovered that the houses of Messrs. Bally and ' and distorted in the confused glare of courtly light,
Sasttos had been entered by forcing windows with a crow- Ins the flaws in a magic lantern slides are made
her, and a quantity of Jewellery and other valuable articles more conspicuous in the lights thrown upon the
liarsoiromeAs Faze HORPITAL, DILVONIIHIRI; parted to screen, how small was the sum of blame ever im-
the Prince's character A rarely suspected
pusses. Crre.—Tbe aggregate number of patients relieved
devise the week aiding December 20 was :—Medisal, 1,255 ; Germanic leaning, some trifling errors in taste, an
surgical, 500--tital, 1,855 ;of whirl 591 were sew eases. occasional over-rigidity in court etiquette, an eco-