The Express.
London, England, 1855-08-13 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, AUGUST 13.

THE ecstatic anniversary of the great grouse ucri-
flee returns. About as much powder will be burned to-
day on our English and Scotch moors as might keep
ups day's bombardment of Sebastopol. We plead guilty
to adore lieb far the approximation to the bottom system,
which his et late years superseded, to a great extent,
the good old fashion of grouse shooting. The ambi-
tion of our rristocratic sportsmen to return a high
figure of birds killed boa degraded the sport into
something little linter than pigeon shooting. The
chief takes the field, with half-a-dozen gamekeepers
to load and hand him a froth fowling-piece
as fast as ho can fire, and he thus en-
joys tie plecsure of committing an immense
slaughter. But this is butchery, not spat. The
true moorsman is he who is on his ground before the
dawn has fairly broken, with his brace of dogs, and
who establishes his reputation by bringing down his
bird every time, noway. solicitous to drive home
boneloade of carcases. There is health in the morn-
ing breeze, and inspiration in the broad purple ex-
panse over which he pursues his game. There is the
pardonable v.:nil' of conscious skill. There is the
pride of mil, do power. All these things conspire to
make the annual visit to the moors the moat fowl-
sating epoch in the lite of .those who pursue their
sport on a moderate scale. The poor vanity of
slaughtering an incredible number of birds is ineom-
pantile with the buoyant exhilaration of the true
sportsman.

We may be pardoned this protest in behalf of that
sport which, more than any other, carries us out of
the dull routine of every day life. The maddening
testacy of a bald burst after fox or deer hounds is
aseociated with highly cultivated districts. The sober
pacing alter hares and parte idges. from morn to dewy
eve, !Leda us from stubble to drilled turnips, and
thence to luxuriant clover fields. Even cocking con-
fines us to nurrow pttches of swamp or cover, amid
which wo rarely lose sight of the adja-
cent bi, h farming. It is not easy to dis-
sociate these sports from the meritorious labour.
of agricultural societies. But to reach the grouse
and black-cook we must plunge into wild, which
still bid defiance to the *kill of the husbandman. We
are brought into contact with wild onsubducd nature.
Amid the cecosional pauses in the keen pursuit of
our game we awaken to the consciousness that we
have wan!ered beyond the limits of cultivation. We
are in companionship for the time with the rude ele-
mentary grandeur and beauty of creation. We are
roused above the tame diudgery of business. We
catch glimpses of the pitubure, of a forest, a
prairie, or a desert life. It is this that renders so
fascinating the lonely rambles of " the twelfth,"
alike in the recesses of Highland valleys,
or on tho broad expanded moors of Shap Fells and
the South of Scotland. The scenery and the exer-
time it has witnessed aro stamped indelibly on the
memtity of imagination. Whoever bus enjoyed them
in youth is rtteudtd by their vision in after life,
even when the urgent claims of professional pursuits,
or indifferent health compel him to forego his prized
pleasures. It may be said of him and the wild re-
gions through ho once followed his doge, as
the poet Las said of shells torn limn the depths of
ocean—

And t!.cy remember their matron abode',
Aid murmur as the ocean murmurs there.

We are, therefore. more tolerant than some of our
contemp.irarics of the irresistible impulse that drags
legislators from St. Stephen's at this season. Know-
ing its power from experience, we can find excuses
for them. In the first place, a wan may be a good
shot and a bad voter; the mischief he doss in the
House of Cammous is ueutrali•ed when he is on the
moors. Again, he becomes an infinitely more respect-
able char:icier when he is pursuing the grouse than
when he is slavishly following the whip. The emo-
tions which pervade his mind on the shooting grounds
may no: to of the mcst elevated kind, but they are
healthy, sincere, vigorous; on tho contrary, the in-
trigues of a man plotting coents•uut, or stolen votes,
arc poty demising. The member of parliament
is a man Wi.4.11 he is on his moor; when he is in the
House of CAIIBIOII6 ho is too often little better than a
cat's-paw. 1

THE NEW STATUE oY WALPOLE.—On Saturday
a marble emu. of Walpole, the once famous minister of
George the Stens& wry paced u,vm its pedestal in the long
eorricior leading from Westminster hall to the entrances of
the Holm, cf Lards and Commas. The work is from the
etisel of Mr. John Hell, and rrprelente the fat, burly, per-
son of Walpole, In the court costume of his age, addresviag
the House of Commons, with one hand thrust into his bosom,
and in en attitude, and with an eapreseion of boldness, one
might almost say of effrontery, chsraveristic of the navn. He
is in striking vatrsst to "the learn. d Belden," immediately
on his right, and to tie pensive attitude of the gentle Falkland,
here hie trism via. This statue snakes the seventh of the
series of ten destined to adorn mast part of the New Palace
of Westminster. Those already created are Lied. Claren-
don and 8361 M, by Mr. W. Cilder Marshall, A.R.A. ;
Hampden and &idea, by Mr. J. H. Kiley, A.R A. ; Lord
Chief Justice Ma,.tield (.cry recently put up), by Bally;
and Lord Falklard and Sir Ruben Walpole, by Mr. John

The following Limited Liability enterprises have
been e• mrconicated to no (Journal 0/Auctions) as being in
preparation :—A Family Wishing Company; a Baking
Company in Loodun, to secure pine bread ; • Milk Conl-
pany, to secure unadulterated milk; • Bast and Shoe
making Company, to 'opened. the present makers, by deal-
ing more cheaply oa • hrL c scale; a Daily Morning News-
paper, designed to equal the Tenon in all its departments;
a Flour Crcapany, to supply pure fl nir ; a General Lean-
drapery C.,nipaty, having esta,liAnects in all the populous
parts of London; a Patent Parchating Campsiay, for the
purchase of patents, either for working or licensing ; a Print
Publishing Company.

The Inrerness Courier soya:—" The stir and ex-
itement which the commencement of the grouse-shooting
season naturally occasions in the capital of the gronse-shoot-
leg country, to already commenced here. Coaches sad
steamers bring large daily accessions to the number of
sportsmen who crowd to Inverness to h►ve thee sporting.
sear pat in order—to corn-Isle their kennel*, and stock
t►eir shooting-boxes. Whether the season is to yield se
much *port main former years is a mystery which cannot be
very aatialsetorily solved till Monday. We may state, how-
ever, on the authority of tLe keepers of many of the beat
ground* in the Highlands, the: there is good Town to ex-
pect an average number of birds on most moors. The young
grease will, h weaver, be found in three stages—full grown,
half grown, and little more than hatched. The oration has
teen thrraghout a backward one. A few good shootings,
sea nadeestand, are still %islet."
The Government, in accordance 'with the recom-
mendation of the committee moved for by Mr. Mackin-
non 0* the Arctic expedition, have paid 5,0001. to Captain
lt'Clure, anal the same sum to the Admiralty, for hie
olleera and crew.

Mr. Webeter, Madame 'Celeste, and agate other
raaaegen of Load= antra aro in Paris.