The Express.
London, England, 1863-09-24 00:00:00

11JUTANNIA.

THE

Coun.

BALMORAL, ;ACV.
Tile Queen, accompanied by Prince and Princess
Louie of Henn, drove to Invereauld yesterday.
Prisons Helene awl Princess Louise, attended by Lady
Churchill sad BefOOMI Scbenek, reds a• hauberk.

The Prince and Princess of Wales dined at Balmoral, at'
Leaded by Lieutenant Colonel Koppel and the Hon. Mrs.
Bruce.

Despatches were received yesterday at the Colonial-office
from the Covernoni of Gibraltar and Malta. Despatches
were sent to the Governors of the Settlements ou the West
Coast of Africa.

The Marquis and Marchioness of Clanricarde are
expected in town early next week, from a tour at visits is
the north.

The Doke of Boot:lynch has arrived at his reel-
defies in Balpave•goare, from Soothed.
The Earl and Countess of Shaftesbury and
family hive left Switzerland for Turin.

Tilts Ervcisa. TUE 17,1071 OF TRY ORPHANS.—THE
GREAT 4IIIoAT IiFINCT. Madame, Cranford and Yamo
Ologiog To. Meosro Farker and Randall, and Madame Neon.
And AUROR U.OYD.

NiOR WATRI AT LONDON NRfDP•

D17L110.001170Z11112010.7. Aft0;;;m: Int 5(00.
T•.0oat.0111 —Yarling. 0 Ova... .A.glarsoos. Oh. 24m

LONDON, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24.

The Earl of Chesterfield, with his guests, the
Duke of Cambridge, Prins Edward of Saxe Waimea., Lord
Stanhope, and the Earl of Derby, commenced their annual
sport on Tu•aday last, starting from Mrs. Tomlin's farm,
no alt ttcliffa, on the Morken Hills. In the course of the
day the party brought down 74i braes of partridges, one
quail, aid 134 bares. The day's excursion closed at 5.40,
and the noble earl and his mum returned to Codling
Lodge. The sport will continue about eight days. The
,a'ne guests assembled at Codling Lodge Ist year.

NARRATIVIS of popular superstition and cruelty,
like that elicited on the examination of Enn►
SMITH and S►MUEL ST►MMERS before the Essex
Magistrates at Castle Hedingham lutTuesday, may
well check any undue pride to which we may be
tempted on • survey of the indisputable signs of
national progress. We have lately been rejoicing
in the numbers and strength of our population ;
we compare ourselves with one after another of
the nations of the world to our own manifest ad-
vantage ; we project enterprises for the
enlightenment of distant lands, sending our mis-
sionaries to the ends of the earth. But scarcely a
week passes in which the records of our courts do
not reveal the existence of the most fearful igno-
rance and moral desolation among our own people.
For the last seven years a Frenchman, about
80 years of age, has lived in the village of Sibile
Hedingham, in Essex. Who he was, whence he
came, why he took up his abode there, were
questions which, if put, were not answered. The
old man was dumb ; it was popularly believed
that his tongue had been cut out; and
he communicated with his neighbours some-
times in writing, but oftener by those
expressive gestures of which all his countrymen
make considerable use. He lived alone in a
wretched hut. The mystery which surrounded
the old man was of a nature to impress the igno-
rant, and it would seem that he was ready to
cultivate it, and turn it to profitable account. It
is said that be received money for telling fortunes,
certainly after his death the police found in his hut
the proof that he had been consulted by many per-
sons who believed that he could raise the veil of
the future, and who were anxious for information as
to the course of their social existence. This pre-
tension to preternatural power was in the end to
cost him his life. About eleven o'clock on the
night of the 3rd of August last the old man was
in the tap-room of the Swan Inn, at Sibile He-
dingham, where between forty and fifty people
were drinking, when EMMA Semi, • woman of 36
years of age, the wife of • beershop keeper at Ridge-
well, six miles distant, told the company that
she had been very ill for nine or ten months, and
that old DUMMY, as he was called, was • witch,
and had bewitched her. She believed that he
could remove the spell he had laid on her, and told
him that if he would go with her to Ridgewell she
would give him three sovereigns and use him well.
The old man refused to go, and left the room.
Mrs. Set= followed him into the street and urged
her request. A crowd gathered round, and the
woman, finding she could not prevail, expressed
her determination to be revenged on him. " You
" old devil," ahe said, " you have served me out,
" and I will serve you out," and immediately pro-
ceeded to drag him to a brook hard by and throw
him in. As the old man scrambled out on the
other side, she crossed • bridge, met him, and
pushed him in again. He contrived to scramble
out a second time, and went and sat on a heap al
stones, the crowd all the while passively
looking on. Mrs. SMITH again asked
him to go home with her, and on
his refusal got a stick and struck him about the
bead and shoulders, and !subsequently kicked him
in the side. Fifty persons saw all this, but only
one apparently put in • word for the old man. The
next thing Mrs. SMITH did was to get the aid of a
man named Srutmess, • small builder at Reding-
ham, to help her remove the old man down
towards a water-mill. Between them they dragged
and pushed him the distance, the crowd attending
him all the way to the water, where • female
voice was heard crying out, "Swim him in the
" millhead," and immediately afterwards he was
thrown into deep water by Sutra and Seannees.
It appears that the actors in the scene were either
afraid of going too far, or they obeyed the superior
influence of a kind woman, named BRUIT, upon
whom the duty devolved of representing the hu-
manity of Sibile Hedingham on this occasion, for
STAMMERS got into the stream and got the old
man out, and laid him on the grass, completely
exhausted and almost choked with mud. Here
ho might have lain and died, but for the kindness
of two women, Mn. HARRISON and the Mrs. Balmy
before mentioned, who raised him up and led him
to his hut, shivering and wet. The poor man was
exceedingly grateful to those who had befriended
him, and kissed their hands. Thee next] day
he died of the ill-usage.
The woman Seim, on her examination before
the Magistrates, exhibited all the superstition
which had led to this cruelty. She said she would
tell the truth. The man had been to her house
ten months before ; she offended him, and he told
her she should be ill in ten days. She was ill,
and, although she had since applied everywhere,
no doctor had ever been able to set her right ; no
medicine had done hergood. She had met the old man
on the night of August 3, at the Swan, and begged
and prayed him to go home with her, but he would
not. She would not deny that she touched him,
but it was STAMMSRS who threw him into
the water. Everybody present joined in
the assault that night except Mrs. Barry, and
she was afraid. The presiding Magistrate, in
committing Semi and Sr►mezas to take their
trial, made some severe but just remarks on the
apathy and moral complicity of the spectators of
this series of outrages. It was, he said, a fearful
as well as a disgraceful fact that at the present day
an old and mutilated man should meet such • fate,
and that out of all the crowd no one should have
interfered to save him. It is indeed a fearful
fact that within forty miles of the centre of our
English civilization superstition begets cruelty and
cruelty shelters itself under superstition. With
all our railways, and Science Congresses, and
patent Ghosts, we have still to educate and
Christianize our people.

Lord and Lady Lyndhnrai are expected to return
to town the week after next from Tunbridge Wells. The
noble and learned lord, notwithstanding his great age, is in
ere Aleut he'll..

DELTII OP Ma. POITS, M.P. loit BARRNTAPLZ.
T is gentlormn, who ono Monied for Barnstaple in the
eon wrrative iotoreat, died on Monday !ant in the 5611 year
of h sage.

RIM THIIII4DAT EVEN ING, SEPTEMBER 24; 18-133.

ExpRE9B FROM PAM .
(nom On OWN CORRESPONDINT.)

PABIS, WIDNIIISDAY EVE:11111G.

The following tentative paragraph appears its the.
France; if we are justified In supposing' that it-lime
any authority at all, it may be a most important
warning :

The last replies of Prince Gortchakoff have produced the
same impression at London uat Paris. The three courts
continue to have the moat complete understanding. and it
is not impossible that events may bring France and England
into an intimate accord, the object of which would be to
face the eventualities of the present situation.

What is the meaning of this distinction between
an existing " complete understanding" of three
powers and a contemplated "intimate accord" of
two 1 I hope we are not going to repeat the mistake
of ten years ago, so forcibly exposed by Mr. King-
lake, when we were seduced into an " alliance
within an alliance," and thus made to undertake a
war with one ally which we had never contem-
plated except with three.
The Nation seems to fear that some rash project
is in the wind when it says,
We have no precise information, enabling us to predict
either the recognition of the Poles as belligerents, or en
event more menacing still for the peace of Europe, and we
most heartily hope that FROM, may not give way to im-
pulses which may lead to great calamities. Our sympathy
for Poland is most legitimate; but the duty of self-preser-
vation is more legitimate still. The government should re-
member that among the friends of Poland it has personal
enemies, and it should beware of listening to their prompt-
ing. Its responsibility is humane., and the call to deliver
the Poles is less urgent than the duty of not compromising
the safety of Frame, and the future of the dynasty.
Jn au article headed "There aro no more treaties
of 18111," the France makes use of the following
enigmatical language :
Yea, the treaties of 1815 are torn up by Russia herself.
This is a grave fact, which opens up for Europe a new
situation, and one which the Emperor's prudence shrunk
from, but which the shortsighted obstinacy of St. Patera-
' burg has now realised. We are convinced that Frame will
not abuse this opportunity. She is, no doubt, now freer in
her movement', but she will bo, we hope, no leas moderate
and calm than before, and no less resolved to sacrifice to the
interests of civilisation and the peace of the world every-
thing not essential to her just influence.
_

It is said that most of the bishops in France, fol-
lowing the example of Rume, have ordered public
prayers for Poland.
The Emperor has just granted a considerable
boon to the army. The marching money of officers
and men is to be materially increased. Majors
will receive Cdr. a day instead of 4fr., and sub-
lieutenants and lieutenants 3fr. instead of 2fr.
50c. Non-commissioned officers and soldiers,
who hitherto bad a kilometric allowance, are now
to have a fixed sum of from lfr. 25c. to 2fr. a day,
according to their rank, and a kilometric allowance
besides. These changes will greatly add to the
comfort of troops ou a march.
A Paris correspondent of the Emma of Antwerp
says that several subscribers to German newspapers
have made up their minds to raise the question of the
legality of those confiscations of foreign journals in
which the French government so frequently in-
dulges, by bringing an action against the post-office
for non-fulfilment of its contract with the public.
The ease is expected to come on for trial imme-
diately after the present long vacation.
A man named Vidocq, grandson of the cele-
brated thief and thief-taker of that name, has just
been condemned by the Tribunal of Correctional
Police of Lisle to six months' imprisonment for
stealing shirts from a Mdme. Lecourt, a washer-
woman, with whom he lived as servant. Although
he is upwards of thirty years of age, this attempt
to emulate the early achievements of his ancestor
is believed to be a first offence.
The Bourse has not recovered from the effects of
yesterday's panic, but the fall made no further pro-
gress, and just at the close of business Rente was
a little firmer.

WEATHER REPORT..:

1-(TELII3 DAY

THIIIIDAY,

21, 8 B.IL

B. ILI D. W. 1. H. 11. LZ. 8.
Num - ..... - 19.41148 L N.H. I o 0.17 S
Abram ... - 19.8861 N.L 4 r 0.27 3
Lath 19.1130 R.N.& 10 r 0.12 2
Edda
6n= 211.3e47 88 W. U 0- 1
.18 61 INA 10 c 0.83 1
Heavy . 30.64!60 N. 11 b 0.60 1
Veleatla 14.3766 N.N.L SO 0.81 8
Hosesintevm -31 11. W. 80 - I
Liverpool AO 45 S&L. IS 0.11 1
Holyhead 1248' LILL ' 18 0.40 1
Pembroke 10.21 48! L N.lB 20 0.14 1
Pond nos . .161' 6. ss au 1
Brest
L'Orkint . . ... - 10.37 II 3W. 12 0.04 II
Itochefort 81.67 60 S.W. 211 0.14 7
Plymouth ... - WU 181 W. 14 0.18 1
Weymouth all id. 2.8 K. 16 O. I
W & Portsmouth U W. 14 013 11
London I.. S.S.W. SO a -
Dover 111.40 - ft W. U 1.01 6
Yarmouth ... -WU 51 1 LBW. SO - 3
Holigoland - 8