The Express.
London, England, 1853-08-30 00:00:00

COMMERCIAL AND MARKETS.

MINCLNO-LANE.—THIS DAY.
SCOAR.—The large public sales are going off steadily at
fully last week's currency. There is also a good demand for
foreign by private contract. The refined market is without
alteration.

COFFEE.—The public sales are pragressing at last week's
prices, and the article has confidence.
Tas.—There appears more disposition to buy to-day, and
the market must be considered to be in favour of the seller..
RICI.-2.500 bags Bengal were brought forward in pub-
lic sale, and bought in above the market value, at 14s. ;
4,000 bags of Madras were also offered, and about half sold
at lls. to 12..

SALTPICTRE.-400 bap, refraction 41, were offered and
bought in at 295.
Ruts continues firm.

In other articles no material alteration.

TALLOW MARKET.—THIS DAY.
The market is steady, with but little business doing.
Town Tallow is quoted 50e., nett cash ; Petersburg Y.C.
on the spot, 515.; Oct. to Dec., 50s. 9d. to 51s.

SMITHFIELD HAY MARKET.—THIS DAY.
Mr. E. J. Davis reports the supply lame and trade
heavy. Prime Meadow Hay, 903. to 100 s.; Inferior,
80s. to 853. ; new, 60s. to 80s. ; Rowen, 50e. to 605. ; Clo-
ver, old, 1101. to 1265. ; Second Cut, 90s. to 110 s.; new,
70s. to 106 s. ; Straw, 28s. to 335.

A SINGLE GENTLEMAN AND HIS HOUSE-

KEEPER.

To Thomas Tallboys, Esq. (known when in the
House from his taciturnity as "Mum" Tallboys), Miss
Rudd would be a most eligible retainer. That stiff, stern,
melancholy, silent man would find a treasure in her. Tres-
tles, the footman, who is more than half brother to a mute,
would have a grim and silent respect for her. Her lank
canoe-like shoes would go noiselessly about the stairs; iato
Mr. Tallboys' ghastly dining-room, where there is a Tur-
key carpet, of which the faded colours seem to have sunk
through the floor, like spectres; into the study, where there
are great book-cues filled with vellum-bound volumes,
which seem to have turned pile with fright at the loneliness
' of their habitation, a neat view of the Street of Tombs at
Pompeii, and a model of an ancient sarcophae,us ; where every
morning she would find Mr.Tsllboys in a dressing-gown like
a tartan windina-sheet, with a bony paper-knife cutting the
pages of the Registrar-General's returns, which he will have
sent to him weekly ; into the silent kitchen, where an im-
posing and gleaming batterie de cuisine (never used but
twice a year) blinks lazily at the preparations for his daily
chop ; into the mournful housekeeper's room, garnished
with unused sweets and condiments; into the strange
crypts and vaults of the silent cellar would Miss Rudd roam
noiselessly, gloomily. Mr. Tallboys will, after she has
served him for a year, have the highest respect for her.
" She is a person,' he will write to his friend Colonel Ver-
tebra, judge advocate of the colony of Kensalgrenia, " of
singular discretion and reticence." When he dies he will
leave her a considerable sum in those mortuary securities,
South Sea Annuities. Then, perhaps, she will espouse the
grim Mr. Trestles, and conduct a dreary lodging-house in
vrce dreary street adjoining an obsolete square ; or
adhering to celibacy, will retire to a neat sar-
cophagus cottage in the Mile-end-road, or the
vicinity of Dalston. It is a mistake to suppose
that a single gentleman's housekeeper proceeds uni-
formly to her end—which is naturally connected with the
probate duty—by means of coaziog, complaisance, and
general sycophancy. Such means may be employed in
certain cases, where the patient—like a man who has been
addicted to opium-eating—cannot be kept up to the mark
without doses of his habitual medicine—flattery. But, in
nine cases out of ten, the successful treatment is tyranny
and intimidatioa. A proper impression once implanted in
the mind of the single gentleman that his housekeeper is
indispensable to his health and comfort, and she is safe.
Her knees need be uo longer hinged, her neck corrigible,
her tongue oiled. The little finger of the domestic becomes
a rod of iron, with which the celibatarian may be scourged,
or round which he may be twisted at will. How many
fierce major-generals there are, once the martinets of gar-
risons, who are now the submissive Helots of cross old
women who cannot spell ! How many Uncle Toms crouch
beneath the lash of a female Legree, whom they feed and
pay wages to ! This is human mature. We know that we
can turn Legree out of doors, and break her cowskin over
her back, to-morrow; but we don't do anything of the
sort.—Dickens's lleaseltold Words."

POPULATION AND MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT.—
Yesterday a return to the House of Commons was published
respecting the population and members of parliament
returned for cities and boroughs in England and Wales,
and Scotland. It appears that in England there are 99
boroughs and towns containing 5,000 inhabitants and up-
wards not returning any members, and in Scotland there
are 10. In some places in England the towns not return-
ing members have considerably beyond 5,000 inhabitants.
FLEETWOOD, PRESTON, AND WEST RIDING II7NC-
TioN RAILWAY.—The half•yearly meeting was held at the
Town Hall, Preston, yesterday (Monday) ; Mr. T. B.
Addison in the chair. The statement of aocounts showed :
receipts to June 30,18.53, 157,822/. Si. 4d. ; arrears of calls,
18,9541. 10s. Bd. ; awaiting completion of forfeit**,
19,9411. ; total, 196,7171. 16s. Balance due to Denham,
3,3781. 9s. 9d. The Chairman believed that no change hal
taken place in the position of the company since the lgat
half•yearly7 meeting ; and therefore there was no formal ,
report to be presented on this occasion. After a 'holt sow °
venation, the proceedings terminated.