The Express.
London, England, 1855-07-30 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY JULY 30.

OveEItAL COUNT ZAMOTSICI arrived in London
yesterday morning. We understand that his visit is
the result of a special invitation from the British
Government. The COUNT'S talents and abilities,
and his practical knowledge of military and diplo.
matic affairs, are well known ; and as he comes direct'
from the East, ho will be able to give important
information respecting the real state of matters in
that quarter. It is evident that Count ZAMOYSILI can
only have been invited to England at the present crisis,
with a view to enable Government to arrive at some
goal decision on the Polish question. We have had
occasion to notice ere now that the opinion of the
Continental Liberals who are most conversant in the
affairs of the Poles and of the countries bordering on
Poland, is, that the present moment is auspicious for
striking a blow at Russia in that quarter. The
nucleus of a Polish Legion already exists in the so-
called Turkish Cossacks, who are almost exclusively
Poles, wearing a Polish uniform and carrying Polish
ensigns. If there is any meaning in the expression
used by Sir WILLIAM MOLESWORTH at the South-
wark nomination—to the effect that it is the purpose
of the British Government to "strike a body blow"
at Russia—we may warrantably infer that Count
ZAmovs•t's arrival in this country will be the pee.
lude to some decisive movement. The meeting on
the affairs of Poland, to be held in St. Martin's Hall
on Wednesday, under the Presidency of Sir Da LACY
EVANS, will afford Ministers an opportunity of testing
the feelings ot the country on this question. It is ma-
nliest that the sphere and objects of the warare extend-
ing. An electric thrill is running through the whole of
Europe. We would be the last to encourage rash or
Quixotic enterprises, but we know that the people of
England will not flinch from any responsibi.ities
which the prominent position of their country among
the nations ot the world is likely to impose upon
them; and that they will insist upon their Govern-
ment's using every effort to conduct the struggle in
which we are involved to a termination that will'
better the position of liberty, law, and order in
Europe, in opposition to the convulsive efforts of
despotism.

A milasuirmAN was lost in the Baltic the other
day, probably from being unable to swim. He was
struck by a Russian shot; but the reporter of the
incident so connects his disappearance with his being
unable to swim that he evidently supposed that the
life of a promising young officer might have been
saved if he had not been in the miserable condition
of being unable to help himself in the water. Great
cause es we have to complain of Government
management being perilous to the lives and
welfare of our troops and sailors, Govern-
ment may answer us by the question why we
. .

are about to send out our sons, in the most
dangerous of all professions, unguarded by the most
common, easy, and indispensable precautions, which
none but parents and guardians can provide, To
send a boy to pass his lite on the water without
being able to swim seems to us a folly so egregious
that none of the faults
-of administration can over-
match it. Our soldiery was criticised, some time
before the war began, by an experienced inspector
of troops, who pointed out (with good Effect) that our
cavalry could not ride, and our infantry could not
walk. This was through faults which have been, or
presently will be, remedied. Our infantry were then
so confined to barracks, and so clothed when they
went forth, that a very short march knocked them
up—like that from Kertch to Yenikale a little while
ago. The controversy about the method of riding
and equipment of our cavalry occurring at the
same time occasioned the above pointed saying, even
before the test of warfare was applied. Too truly
may we add, that our sailors cannot swim.

It is well understood that our crews have the ea,
prejudice against swimming that they have against a
due provision of boats in case of accident. It is
alleged that of our blue jackets an incredibly small
number are able to swim, and that of these a majority
are ashamed of the qualification. But this preju-
due cannot be supposed to extend to the officers. If
it did, cur du'y is the same : to make the toe of the
bodily powers a part of every boy's education.'
That so few of the youVe of England are lOW
to ride, to run, to shoot, to play cricket,
is strange enough ; but it is stranger still
that in a nation of islan ere, whose coasts are out of
all ordinary proportion to their interior, swimming
should be a rather rare accompiishment. We have a
prodigious navy, a vast commercial marine, and a
stream of emigrants always issuing forth to an une-
qualled number of colonies ; and among such a people, I
of all in the world, we find swimming—or effective
swimming—anything but an ordinary qualification.
The waters are our highway, as they are to no other
people in the world; and yet we do not qualify our-
selves to traverse them. Oar missionaries go to the
ends of tee earth; yet how many of those divines
can take cu..) of themselves? When Messrs. TYER-
NAN aud 'lettere (or rather, the survivor of them)
published their missionary experience twenty
years ago, their narratives set the English
public laughing. These divines were natu-
rally full or amazement at the South Sea
islanders and others, who are as much at home in the
water as on land, and who can no more be drowned
than a man foredoomed to be banged; while they
who assumed to teach these people the arts of life,
were helpless in that great art of preserving life.
Luckily, they c trried with tht.a one of the cork-Lke
natives as a servant. A boat being upset with them
somewhere, in a place not very dangerous, they corn-
mended their souls to Om), in the absence of other
resource. One of them, feeling himself clasped tight
round tho mid.tle, quivered with horror, believing'
himself seized by a shuck ; but it was only his savage
servant, saving his life. Every reader's comment, of
course, was, that missioeariett ought to learn to swim.
Bat why does not everybody learn to swim ? Britons
have four limbs and a chest, like other men ; and
there is plenty of water hero, if anywhere,
They have also lives and health to preserve ; and no
"advance in civilisation" of which they can boast,
no mi chanical aids in themes of life—can be an occa-
sion or an excese for dropping the salutary practices
by which life and health must be preserved in all
stages of civilisation.
We do not seem to learn by the most vivid illus-
trations of this most important practical matter.
There have been shipwrecks enough, and especially
of emigrant vessels, to show us that the best swimmer
on board becomes the prince and arbiter of the com-
pany. He who can carry a rope to ohm, or pull the

greatest lumber of helpless beings after bbn to
a reeky b like a heaven mot rnsemenger to the
rest. The emigrant girl or boy, settled in
the wilds, who can ride roughest sad fastest
and longest, is a sort of life-insurance
to the rest in case of fic.,o(l or fire, or an incursion of
natives. A GRACE bARLING who can breast a storm
with her Dar BMW a shipload of passengers as It
matter of coarse; and her monument—that exquisite
statue of the young girl reposing on her oar—ie al
sort of national shrine. GRACE DARLING'S esseces
for her own deed was, that every girl alms thet
stormy coast would have done the same, sad vie in
fact ready at all times to rescue the walked. U
there is such a set of oars-women, we can only say
that we are very glad of it ; and especially as the
fact shows (no less than South Sea Island experience)
that there is no natural reason why women should
not have fall command of limb and nerve, on land
or water, and therefore a much better chance
of life and health than they have now. At
present we hear much, and with pleasure, of
the institution of gymnastics in boys' schools, and
calisthenics in girls'. These are far better than
bodily indolence, or the mere exercise of walking ;
but we cannot but remember that, u to boys, cricket,
drilling for military exercise—horse and foot—boating,
and swimming, would train every muscle to action
just as well, and with the benefit (of incalculable
value) that the training is for an ulterior purpose--as
people would say, it is a " natural" training. And
as to girls, we cannot but remember the cues within
our knowledge where parents have had the good sense
to make arrangements for their daughters being con-
stantly in the practice of swimming. In these families
no calisthenic exercises have been necessary to give
breadth to the chest and vigour to the lungs
and arms; and these young ladies are in no
danger of that drowning in bathing, too
often involving the generous governess, who,
as helpless as her charge, rushes in to lave them—
which we hear of every year. Of our own know-
ledge we could tell of a dozen cases at least of life so
thrown away for want of the physical training which
simply increases the grace and beauty of the human
form and bearing. Not a month has passed since a
man of eminent value and eingular merit was killed
by what is called an accident, but by what would
hardly be called an accident by any one who could
sit a horse properly. This accomplished lawyer,whe
would have been a judge—a man marked for mi.
nent patriotic service, the father of nine children, and
the centre of a widespread social and family reigns&
and affection—was destroyed in the vigour el his
days by the disqualification of being a timid rider.
lie was put on a wrong horse at the livery stables,
and nothing happened that a good rider would haul
thought of mentioning when he got home. His nri•
venture would have been nothing to a girl at an I
Australian out-station, or to a ten-year-old boy on an
American prairie.
There seems no possible reason why these things
should not be amended. We remember a very large
boys' school, where no child was ever permitted to!
bathe after a big boy (who ought to have been able to
swim) was drowned in bathing in a pond. Instead of
having all the boys taught to swim, the proprieties
thenceforth permitted no boy to bathe. Scores and
hundreds of men brought up at that school are now,
in the world; and a singularly helpless and awkward
set they are; and their children seem to be even
weaker in physical capabilities and accomplishments
than their parents. We are as unsound in this respect
es the Government is in any ; and we may make our
complaints of neglect with a better grace when we can
no longer be taunted with the shiftlessness of our
foot-soldiers who can do nothing but fight, our
cavalry who cannot ride, and our middies who cannot
swim.