The Express.
London, England, 1852-12-25 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT
HOUSE OF COMMONS.—Faume, Dec. 24.
The 8 took the chair at two o'olvek. Very tow
monthen wen peewit.
PUBLIC BUSINESS.
PETITIONS PRESENTED.
Petition. were presented by Mr. CAYLEY, from places
ha the North Wiling, against ths principle of a state
church ; awl by Mr. W. J. VOL hoes °pretties claims in
Oldham, ageism any remission of the malt tee, they be
Miring that beer was not • necessary of dfo, and, from in-
habitants it the metropolis, praying Amnia an attendant
is the law may take place as will eatable th. new Crystal
Palos. to two °postilion Sundays.
FURTHER ADJOURNMENT OF TUE ROUSE.
Mr. DISRAELI said-1 believe it will be lot the conve-
nience of the putene ureic. if I move that at its noon the
house du adjourn to Monday near, at 2 o'clock. 1 therefore
move aceordinily.
Cul. bl lITIIORP mode some remarks ezpressive of his
disapprobation of the present suspension of the public
business.
Sir It. INOLIS took advantage of the opportunity the
motion othwed to him to (sprees • hope that the New go-
Irmo. at would folio* out the intentions of the Duke oil
Ifertliniumrlaud, eo lot, First Lwd of the Admiralty, vie.,
to mad another expedition to Behritig'• Struts in March of
the nuoinit snips; aid that those intentions would be so
for unplowed upen that the expedition should be of steam
ships and nut or sailing vs mal. This was • .00400, nut
of .6, rice nu rely, but of justice ; and all governments, and
each side .1' the hou.e, would, he hoped, take the mine
view of the duty which still timained foe the country to
diwhai ne in this mowr.
TM question am then put, and
The h-nee adjoin mil to Monday n( at, to meet at 2 o'clock.

gity OlCpref4o.

ru

t.d td.twAs .4- TA. P.loces.. watatatag
.I.aante.** puba.al onty wawkay Yl ilk •4bt. la unit
lag 1".4.
ai.vitAra.r.t.nniev!el •a/ "Tat MErna.,"Lons y,,,,aar tam.
avoi be .1 the I /bee. W. Beimew..tries. y Two q'elook us the
lay •t RVs.

MUNI WATIlit AT LONUON BILIDOIL
To I. Dar—Warms., Is. M 0...-. «Albinism, 14.34 V.
T.Nleßaul.-1147111.11if. .k. I 26. ,310.

LONDON, B.ITCRD4 Fs DECEMBER 25.
IN the memory of man there has not been a
Christmas at which the "compliments of thu season"
—the wish " A merry Christmas and a happy new
year"--memed more certainly to promise a pleasing
fulfilment than at present. Many of the dark clouds
that "loomed over the future, that cast a heavy
shade over the present, in Christmas days long past,
are scattered, never we hope to return. In times
past, the condition of the poor struck a mournful
note amidst the jubilant sounds that are the natural
accompaniment of Christmas. The thoughts of the
Pilfering, out of doors occasionally obtruded at our
merry makings, like the skeleton at the ancient festi-
val. Nay, so much was this the case, that many of the
allusions to Christmas in the old writers turn upon
the fact that this season was the one when
the " heritage of woe " to which poverty succeeds,
was to be especially lightened. It was to be u time
wham, as at URA 'S feast,
*. Slavery half forgot bar feudal Asia."

It wag, however, ouly half forgot. We trust, how-
ever, that we have "changed all that." There is
• every reason to believe that the time is fast vanish-
ityr when the industrious poor will look at Christens/-
tide upon a soup kitchen as an elysium, or depend
for the happiness of a Christmas Day upon the
presence of eleemosynary plum-puddings and
pints of ale. The workhouses are in process
of being emptied. Their customary tenants era
" picking up gold and silver," in the plains of
Australia, or sailing towards its shores with hopes
—for the first time excited—of being able to avoid
those miseries which philanthropists in England
used to assure them they were "born to." The men '
who used to be singing

Drink sbout--sast army sem—
Tbe wish is Mw/ to lad us ;

are now looking with confidence to a strong arm
end a determined will, to do more for them than any
"parish" could ever do. This is a remarkable fea-
ture of the present day. It removes the only wrinkle
en the brow of " Jolly old Christmas." Labour is well
rewarded and plentiful, the *sceneries of life are
cheap and abundant, and the labourer himself is
elevated from a state of debasing dependence to one
I. which he may hope to secure the comforts and
seceseexies of life without the si
AL nee neighbour.
Without any wish to sober the revelry of the sea-
son with a dash of grave polities—giving way
completely to the popular idea that at this time
the wl.ole nation should be turning its back
upon the severe realities of life, and allow-
ing full play to all kindly and genial affec-
dose—still it ta impossible to sink the reflection that
the nation will dance rather more lightly in the
universal festivity than if the legs of the DEBAT
Mini-try had been round its neck, cramping its ac-
tivities, like the celebrated legs of the Old Man of
the Sea on the shoulders of our veracious friend,
SINDBAD the Sailor. Many en old father of a
family would have tottered down the last
country dance less nimbly at the thoughts
of the double House Tax in store for him.
Many a dapper clerk might have made a
false step in a polka, at the image of the
slice of has income which Mr. DtaltAFJ.l intended
appropriating. If the brewer, amidst the general
relief, sighs at the loss of the thousands of which the
ellaMeauma was to have made him a Christmas-
box, we may console ourselves with the reflection
that there are very few brewers to suffer, and that
they can very well afford to lose. While therefore
we are enjoying the luxury of dipping into the
new books which the season introduces to our notice,
we may count as en additional item to our gratifies
tin the absence of that CIIANCILLLOkin Christmas
book—" the Budget."
Perhaps the fact of there being no Ministry at all
may be considered a very sensible subject of Christ-
mas merriment. It is so much more likely that a
Ministry will go wrong than right, that the chances
are, that if a Cabio et had been finally formed we should
have had our attention turned away from the solid
grounds of enjoyment before us, to the troublesome
coasideratioa of ministerial blunders. If we were
witnessing the representation of the old games in
which the Lord of Misrule takes so great a
share, it would have been impossible not to con-
nect this mythical personage with the First
Lord of the Treasury. On the whole, and
considering how marvellously England seems to get
on during a ministerial interregnum, it will be as
well to look upon the absence of a Ministry as one of
the happy fulfilment, of the greeting of the season,
"A merry Christmas." If any very political Eng-
lishman finds it imp Bible to banish politics from
his thoeghta on Christmas Day, let him do his beat
to do what political leaden so often do for bins—
turn polities into a "farce.' Let him make a
" mummer's play or masking" of the late political
events, and he will find ample material to chase
away his gravity and contribute to the amuse-
meat of his friends. Should he not happen to
be of a literary torn of mind, he will find
the thing done to his hand in the "play or
disguising "—mentioned by Mr. SANDYS in hie
amusing book on Christmas-tide—which was
anciently enacted before the benches in Gray's-inn
The plot of thin antique
_piece of merriment was, we
are told, " that Lord Governance was ruled by
" Dissipation and Negligence, by whose misgovern-
" meat and evil order Lady Public-Weal was put
" from Governance, which caused Rumor Popasii,
"Inward Grudge, and Disdain•of-Wanton-
" flovereigntie to rise with a great mul-
" titude to expel Negligence and Dissipation,
and restore l'ublic Weal again to her es-
" tate." What an ingenious summary is this of the
plot of the drama that has been acted during the
last year by her MAJVATT.I4 servants and the public.
Who does not see that while the landlord's slaver
Dissipation and Negligence, were ministers, ell idei
of tiublfc weft was lost in that of private compensa-
tion, and that nothing but a union between Rumor
Popsii (public opinion), Inward Grudge (deceived
friends), and Disdain-of-Wanton-Sovereigatie (gene-
ral disgust at arbitrary changes), would have sufficed
to see Public Weal made the principal object of the
care of governmen ts.
It is no mere compliance, then, with an ordinary
formula which leads us to wish our readers a
"Merry Christmas." The mans of the timee are
sheering. We have durin the last yea killed ass
loaned the waster i Oar commerce is In.