The Express.
London, England, 1862-05-06 00:00:00

PARIS FIRST CLASS sad LONDON PRIZE
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WATHWION mad DOOMS,
GOLDISKITHS sad JIIIIMULS.
Maaidactory, 10. liaartettastrist, Covaatipudan, W.C..166668.
N.B Tltit autablithiasat la eked at 61a the mob& and °a
eatardays at 1 o'clock.

UrARMONIUMEL-NEW MODKL.
CRANE& BELLE. and WOOD. 201. Weessi-Wrook

gitt erpreiksimuil

TO 0011,11131011 DENTS.
.dvertilmente intended ler "Tee Eutaw" London bluing
Paw must be at 4ha week lk Honetaiwetteet. by Two
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THI3 Evatimo, JOHN JONEB.—OUI CAN COUSIN.
Yaww swam. Blackstone, H. 'Mom and ; Itra C.
Young, Mtn Onver.—L HS stilt 07 ANDALUSIA. Pena Nona
and Senor AUcartio.—Aad MISHAND'S GM.

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TRH Emma), THE LITTLE TRZASIME.—And BUY
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SVIIIIIIM• • OOZY °WYLY—PRINCE AXABIL , or,
The Yale, Boma lawn. Yat.hews. B.lmare, and A-hley
Yin N. Moore, Yrs. F. Matthews, and the Misses Nelson.
—And UNDIX THE BOSL—Commence at 7S.

BRITANNIA.
Tin MIMIC OUL LOT IN LIVE Waimea 2. Lane and
Crauford.—Eatortainmanta by Id Laa 2, Pearce and Mr. llaclagan.
TIM MANAGER IN DISTMS. *r. and Yrs. Harrison.—
THE DOGS OP PALESTINE—And TEE GOILILLA.

MON WATT& AT LONDON BAWDS.
THIS DAY —Yarning, fth. Stra...— Minnow, 4h. 45m.
TO-AolnoM—Yerning, 7h. 11ia..... Afternoon, 7h. 45m.

LONDON, TUESDAY, MAY 6.

WE English are not a very thin-skinned people,
and are tolerably indifferent to what strangers
think or say of our character and performances.
Wrapt in the ample folds of self-esteem, we defy
the slings and arrows of foreign critics and carica-
turists. It is not that every other nation that has
_ _

a history is not equally persuaded of its superiority
to the rest of the world, for does not the modern
lonian patriot, the blood in whose heroic veins
is probably a deposit of half-a-dozen colonies and
conquesta,deem himself at least a caged Mu:runes?
But this self-love takes different shapes and
colours. In the South and East it is Vanity, com-

placent, conscious, irritable ; in the North
and West—we speak of our own hemisphere, it is
Pride, calm, contemptuous, and contented. The
one is like a sash gaily and insolently
Haunted on the sleeve ; the other is, as
_ . .

SANCHO said of sleep, as good as a cloak. This is
your Englishman's moral surtout, and no epigram
that foreign wit has ever darted at his fogs, his
spleen, or his Sunday, can pierce the stuff of
which it is composed. So proof against conti-
nental jokes is your Great Briton that no man
enjoys more heartily than he the contemplation of
his own eccentricities when he meets with them in

a French story of English life, or bees them de-
picted on the Parisian stage. Nothing leas than an
intense conviction of his own immeasurable aupe-

riority to that portion of the human race which
dwells beyond the narrow seas is needed to account
for the fact that be accepts homage from abroad
with a smile of sovereign indulgence, and dis-
misses any harmless attempts at ridicule as an
involuntary tribute to qualities too great to be
understood by unfortunate beings who suffer from
" ignorance of the language."
And thus it is, no doubt, that most Englishmen
would take up with a too careless curiosity a file
of foreign newspapers containing reports of the
Opening of the great International Exhibition. It
would not be so much curiosity as a confident expeo-
tation of " astonishing the BZOWNR ;" for let it be

whispered that JOHN BULL regards the Universe
out of his own islands from a purely " West-end"
point of view. Of course, " these fellows" are
quite overcome by that tremendous combination of
the Useful and the Beautiful, the ceremonial, the
structure, the procession, the size, and splendour,
and weight of it all. Of course, they are lost in
admiring wonder at the Princes, and Dukes,
and Lords all in a lump. Well, no ; we regret to
be obliged to confess that our visitors from over
the water don't exhibit the least amazement, and
only a very qualified admiration at all the stupendous
and brilliant effects of last Thursday's ceremo-
nial. With one accord they found the building
" detestable," and the ceremonial quite as " im-
" posing," as could be desired. There were "fine
" momenta " in the solemnity, however ; silences

of expectation, bursts of music, massive effects of
number, harmony, and colour ; but the whole thing
had a look of vulgar overdress, unchastened by the
niggardly and narrow spirit which marred the
generous purpose of the day. They lament the
absence of the rams, whose large and liberal
mind would not have permitted the national hos-
pitality to be quite so commercially administered.
These are some of the discords which come back
to us after several days to mingle with our domestic
chorus of self-laudation. Nor is it disparaging

remarks only, but unpleasant statements, that as
now flying over Europe to the prejudice, not, as
our critics are careful to observe, of the English Go-
vernment or nation, but of the conductors of this
Exhibition. It is recorded, for instance, that on
the day before the opening, in consequence of some
hasty and mistaken order to clear the premises of all
but workmen, all the foreign exhibitors and commis-
"ioners, including the Chief of the French Com-
mission, were actually turned out of the Exhibition
Building by the police, and that M. LIPLLY was
only prevented by a written and complete apology
from leaving London with his whole staff the same
night. This, however, was a mere blunder ; not so
the deliberate exclusion on the opening day of Exhi-
bitors unprovided with season tickets ; a restriction
which made many an Exhibitor register a vow that
this should be the last Internati3nal Exhibition
held in England. It is hard that the country
should be made responsible for irresponsible
buclatering, but exasperated men who have made
the Exhibition will not pause to draw nice dis-
tinctions. The COSTA episode is acutely judged
by our foreign visitors, who appear surprised
that the Royal Commissioners should have sacri-
ficed an English musician of the highest merit to
a naturalized conductor endowed with ex-
traordinary powers of self-assertion. On
the whole, many of these criticisms, though
not so favourable as we could wish, are not
entirely unjust. Some, however, are evi-
dently first impressions, subject to reconsi-
deration, such as the remark that the English
gallery of pictures is inferior to the collection
exhibited in Paris in 1855. One impres-
sion seems to be common to all, and that is
the inferiority of the present Exhibition to the
first, not only as to the building but as to the
" administration." It may well seem incredible,
both to foreigners and Englishmen, that an Inter-
national Exhibition should be administered with a
view, we will not say to profits, but even to
savings, rather than as a goodly and gracious hoe-
pitality which should redound to the honour of
the givers of the feast, and command the respect
and gratitude of the guests.
What our friends from over the water have
to say on London and Londoners in general
may, we would respectfully submit, be sus-
ceptible of explanation. We cannot expect one