The Express.
London, England, 1853-12-24 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, SATURDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 24, 1853.

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day of pe►:iatbe.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Teti* 711. Aftern.r..
IN-roaa...w—Nurillag, :Ss attersouo. 30ft.

LONDON, SATURDAY. DECEMBER 21.

CIIIISTMAS.EVE IS ours once more. It is pro-
bable that every Christmas-day since the institu-
tion began has been thought very rem arkable by
some people or other within the circuit of its observ-
ance. To us the present is a very remarkable Christ-
mas, for more reasons than one ; and whether
we look abroad or at home. If we look abroad, we
cannot but be struck by the infidelity of the Chris-
tian world to its professions of rejoicing in its faith.
All over Christendom men are professing to rejoice
in and be thankful for the glad tidings of " peace on
earth and goodwill to men." They are celebrating
the promise in all the churches, from Mount Sinai
to Iceland, from Thibet round to Califor-
nia, " with service high std anthem clear,"
while whole nations are disposed for any-
thing rather than peace on earth and goodwill
to men. At St. I'eteraburg, the Christmas festival
is kept with great splendour. While the heaven-
born Czaa is paying and receiving worship, and holy
bells are ringing, and holy candles are burning, and
holy altars are glittering, and he Virgin with three
hands inspires holy wonder, and the star of Bethle-
hem is declared to have risen again upon Hoes* in
the shape of the comet of 1853, the CUR is oppress-
ing the Jews moat horribly, breaking up their for-
tunes, driving them into the steppes, where their
lives will be one long torture, and robbing them of
their children, who are to be made soldiers and
sailors, and Creek Christians to boot—made orphans
and apostates before the very eyes of their heart-
broken parents. In their "strange land," the
safferen are doubtless vengefully mutteting, as they
do in the Place of Wailirg at Jerusalem, " Happy
shall he be who taketh thy little outs anddasheth them
against the stones." While Christian Russia goes on
in this way, how is it at that very Bethlehem where
the Turks rule and inhabit? Every eastern tra-
veller knows the convent there where no
molestation ever enters. The monks take

the guest nut into their garden, and point

out to him an enclosure, far off, at the foot of the
Moab mountains, where, as they say, the shep.
herds were abiding once upon a time when that
Christmas song was first heard. In the Greek
church on that rock there is parent freedom of woe.
ship, ercept in as far as the quarrels of the Christian
sects interfere. The Mahometeas give them no
trouble. They only stand by, and say, " See how
these Christians hate one another."

And how is it over the whole territory of the
Holy Alliance? It is not so many years since the
Sovereigns of Austria, Russia, and Prussia took " for
their sole guide the precepts of the holy religion of
our SAvtoun—namely, the precepts of justice, Chris-
tian charity, and peace, which, far from being appli-
cable only to private concerns, must have an imme-
diate influeuce on the councils of Princes, and guide
all their steps." It is not the profession, not the aspi-
ration here that is to be censured. The conception
and agreement are worthy of Christian potentates,
and unavoidable on the part of sincere Christian
rulers. It is in the falsification of the profession that
the shame and horror lie. In the very territories
where there was to be all this good will to men,
there is inexpressible and inestimable misery, caused
by the ultra-heathen tyranny of the Sovereigns.
The Christmas music of St. Petersburg can but
drown the groan of diversified suffering that goes up
from the ground wherever the rule of the CZAR ex-
tends. The serfs who live like swine, and the soldiery
who die like flies, would willingly exchange lots with
the Jew and the Pole, whose wrongs one can
hardly endure to think of.

In Prussia tke mind and beast of the nation are
wasting away, under a rule of folly, caprice, and
almost Absolutism. In Austria, we know too well
what is endured. That Empire is the Bridge of Sighs
over which the Cr %II means to step into his antici-
pated Western dominion. He knows well enough,
and so do we, that the tide of despair which heaves
below washes against the dungeons where the best
mind and heart of the Empire is shut down, to wait
for death, while Despotism stalks overhead. How
stands human welfare in Home, the great Chris-
tian centre for so many ages? How in Madrid,
whose Sovereigns have boasted of their exclusive
devotion to the maintenance of the faith? How
la the prisons of Dimples and Sicily, of Florence,
when there are heretic, to be caught,—of Milan
and Venice? In all these cities there is " Ser-
vice high and anthem clear" this week. Is
there not something remarkable in it, when the
profession and the thanksgiving are compared with
the results? It might be well if the assessor, who,
in the cities of Germany, precedes the Christ-child,
to examine into the behaviour of the youngest class
of Christians, were to visit the Potentates, and declare
how worthy they are to share the joys of the season.
The thins will be more sternly done some day by a
severer reckoning.
As for the Americans, they do not keep Christmas
as we do, but transfer the observances to their Thanks-
giving Day. which is annually appointed by
the state governments, when the last fruits
of the harvest are got in. In Canada,
however, and in all our half-hundred colonies,
our kindred will keep the day, as the rolling
earth brings each land in succession within eight of
the Christmas sunrise. The logs will blaze in the
Canadian dwelling, and the Australian diggers will
stop work for the day, to be fanned by the breezes,
and cool their palates with fruit. To many of them
this Christmas is remarkable enough. Some who
were penniless a year ago are very wealthy, and
probably • good deal surprised to Sod themselves
little the happier. Some who were then living de-
cently in a humble home beside us—happy, if they
weld only have thought so—are now in debt to
charity for their Christmas dinner. A multitude
more—lrish emigrants—who dined in a enigma house
last year, are sitting at a well-covered board of their
own, and spending an hour of their holiday in writ-
ing to their friends to come over to the land of
plenty. Wherever this hsppeos—whether in Aus-

iralia the letter-writer throws off his coat for cool-
ness, or in Canada gets into the chimney-corner lest
his ink should freeze—we regard it as a thoroughly
cheerful feature of our present Christmas.
As for us at home, the first remarkable thing is, that
we have two Christmas-days thisyear. 'fhe religions
observance is on Sunday, and the merry-making on
Monday. We wish the consent to this were universal,
for everybody's sake. Another remarkable thing
is, that, for the first time, we believe, in
human memory, since the days of great plagues,
—there are no more of us to keep Christmas
than there wire lust year! - It is a thing unheard
of that the population of Ores' Britain should be
stationary without any occasion for mourning. Our
people have gone to a better land (to them) other-
'site than by death. They were never so alive. or
likely to enjoy life; and there is thus no grief in the

case, beyond some family partings, when all could
not go together. As to the rest, the Christmas is
not so remarkably prosperous as the last. The prices
of provisions are very high; the price of coals is
enormous. Christmas warmth was never dearer
to buy. Christmas fare is out of the reach
of multitudes who, living in places where the
work depends upon the weather, have but poor
wages with which to meet the high prices. Sadly
too few of them laid by money in the interval—not
a short one—when wages rose and commodities were
cheap. A worse drawback is that of the strikes.
Hundreds of thousands of our countrymen and
countrywomen and their little children are pinched
and suffering through the waste caused by the
unhappy strikes of the last autumn. At the
best, their wages would have fallen before this time
from the injury accruing to trade from political sus-
pense. The CZ.►R would have put his hand into
their dish at all events, but they have chosen to have
no dish for him to put his hand into. He would
have made us all poorer; but some of us have made
ourselves destitute meantime. We do moat earnestly
desire that every one of us could have a merry
Christmas; and we do not doubt that the abundance
of sonic will be freely supplied to the destitution of
others; but there is only too much reason to fear
future hungry Christmas-days, if our workpeople
ao excellent and so sensible in many respects as to
make us proud of our relations with them—cannot
learn, by experience or other demonstration, the
philosophy and fact, the science and practice, of the
relation between capital and labour. We suspect
that they know a good deal more than they pretend.
We suspect that the mischief lies mainly in their
want of independence. Large numbers of them are
certainly slaves to dictation and intimidation. In
that case they cannot be aided. We may help
men—we cannot help voluntary slaves. We must
see that they do not starve this Christmas time,
but nobody can make them prosperous if they sub-
mit to be arbitrar.ly ruined. We fear it will be a
dark Christmas-day in some parts of Lancashire. Else-
where, the prosperity is unquestionably far above the
avenge, and we may, with as much propriety as
heartiness, wish our neighbours and fellow-citizens •
merry Christmas and • happy new year.

IT would be mere affectation to affect to ignore the
painful reports that are in circulation respecting
undue interference of the Court with the Cabinet.
These reports are not of yesterday. More than two
years ago they were heard faintly and at intervals;
of latethey are more frequentlymade the subjectof dis-
course and with less bated breath. True loyalty, like
true friendship, is often best shown by daring to
incur anger and misconstruction on the part of its
object, and the public, in order to do real service. And
in this spirit it may surely be allowed us to venture so
far as to address a loyal remonstrance to the highest
quarter,—should any ground have been afforded for
these injurious rumours,— to pause in time, to look
back on the national history, to reflect on the conse-
quences. The English public, from reflection and con-
viction, are loyal to the throne and the institutions
with which that throne is associated, and by which
it is supported. It is probable the this cool, deli-
berate, abstract conviction might have sufficed to
maintain that striking sobriety and steadfastness
which a few years ago characterised England, while
all the other nations of Europe were caught and
whirled about in the giddy and maddening
vortex of revolution. But there can be no
doubt that the enthusiastic and devoted feel-
ing of personal attachment to the present occu-
pant of the throne,— which her frank, cordial
constitutional deportment as QUEEN, and the beauti-
ful picture of unostentatious domestic happiness pre-
sented by herself and consort inspired,—greatly in-
creased our security. Had the national heart been
alienated from the SOVEREIGN in 1848. by suspicions
or beliefs in unconstitutional interference with
Ministers in the discharge of their official functions,
or in the existence of a power behind the throne
greater than the throne, as was the case in the
earlier part of the reign of GEORGE lll.,—who can
conjecture how fatal the consequences might have
been ? The most loyal are at this moment reflecting
that as we read in history of princes whose reigns
have commenced darkly and inauspiciously, but
ended by conquering the people's love, so
we read of some over whose early promise
a fatal blight has crept, and earnestly praying that
it may not be their lot to witness any such change
in their days. They are tenaciously clinging to
the hope that sixteen years of prosperous tranquillity,
for which we are mainly indebted to a saaacity and
firmness in a young woman, rarely witnessed in the
most experienced men, may be continued under the
same auspices during s long reign ; yet unable alto-
gether to divest themselves of the anxiety springing
from experience of how far popularity can per-
vert the most generous natures, and sycophants
aggravate and confirm the evil. Should it in-
deed prove true that human frailty bad so far
prevailed with a high personage who has
won golden opinions by his abstention from
party and political contests, his cultivation of
the graces of domestic life, and enlightened patronage
of art and letters, as induce him to stoop to con-
vert these opinions intone element of vulgar political
power—and should the influence of • husband pre-
vail to undo the work of sixteen happy years, the
grief of the devotedly loyal would be great, but the
hazard to all parties infinitely greater.
England, it seems obvious, touches at present on •
crisis of no ordinary magnitude. A clear bead and
• strong steady hand will be required to steer us
through it in any circumstances. The paltering of
the administration with the difficulties in
the East renders it all but certain that
the struggle with Russia, which early and
firm opposition to the pretensions of that Power
would have made brief and simple, must now be ar-
duous and complicated. Had the deportment of our
Cabinet been such at the outset as to impress the
CZAR with the convicion that they were in earnest,
he might then have retreated, as he and his prede-
cessors have done ere now. But a contrary policy
has left him more deeply committed ; false and flat-
tering reports of imaginary or exaggerated victories
have confirmed his obstinacy; he will now, in all
likelihood, brave the worst and fight to the utter-
most. Russia, it is true, is no match for France and
England; but Russia is not easily accessible to
borne blows ; the Russian people are isolated from
European opinion; ignorant, prejudiced, fanatical;
capable of an almost incalculable extent of dogged,
pertinacious endurance; and these things confer
upon the Czaa a dangerous power of protracting hos-
tilities. The extensive and unscrupulous agency
which Russia maintains in all countries—from Persia
to the United States—must also be taken into sic-
count as an element that may be turned to account in
embarrassing its enemies. It would therefore be the
height of folly for Englishmen to shut their eyes to
the fact that the struggle which has commenced may
—most probably will—be both long and costly. The
danger from without is a trifle; not so the danger
from within. The tone of the English public seems
unanimous—not to shrink from their engagements,
even though they involve war; but different men and
pat ties are animated by widely different motives. Some
(ourselves among the rest) acknowledge the necessity
with regret as tending to withdraw attention from
useful reforms and economies ; others hail it with
delight for these very reasons, that it will stop

Reform; while others again are carried away by the
mere pleasure of yielding to strong excitement. The
first class will seek to concentrate and confine the
national efforts to the one task in hand—the settle-
ment of the Eastern question ; but the second will
seek to prolong and multiply the external struggles
which serve their factions purposes; while the third
will unconsciously play for a time the game of that
unscrupulous faction. Already we hear defiance
muttered against other powers as well se Russia :
see a disposition evinced to stoop and take up
the gauntlet even of so petty an adver-
sary as Persia, unmindful that Persia, unable
to reach us, only resembles a monkey grinning with
spite and rattling the bars of its cage at the by-
standers. Should an unreasoning war spirit be
awakened in the nation, there is imminent danger of
even its resources being severely strained ; of the
reins of power being confided to those who for their
own selfish purposes would wantonly lavish life and
money ; and of a counter-spirit of discontent and dis-
affection being excited by the burdens thus imposed.
England might thus again be brought to suffer, as it
has done ere now, by being left single-handed to
struggle against numerous and inveterate foes with-',
out, while within infuriated factions were threatening
to resolve everything it.to anarchy. In such a position
of the national affrirs—in such a mood of the national
mind—should the Crown continue to observe the
same wise policy which has been so successful for 16
years, we should, even in the worst of times, have a I
standard round which all true and loyal hearts might
rally; but should the great constitutional principle—
that the SOVEREIGN of England reigns but does not
govern—be abandoned, along with it will be aban-
doned all hope of preserving that internal civil disci-
pline, our only security against the confused and
bewildering assaults of internal and external foes.
Again we repeat, the oriole that is impend-
ing will task, even in the moot favourable
circumstances, the sagacity and nerve of the
best of our statesmen. They will be called
upon to inspire and keep alive national enthusiasm,
and at the same time to keep the national judgment
clear and collected ; they will have to contend against
factitious and unreflecting eagerness for war on one
hand, and discontent with necessary burdens on the
other ; they will have to conciliate the affections of
the army and the navy, and at the same time, in
order to husband the national resources, to impose
unpalatable reforms on both; they will need to
repair and fight the vessel of the state at the same
time. These are duties to strain the best and most'
robust abilities. If to these should unfortunately be
added the necessity of watching and counteracting
court intrigue—of resisting attempts from a quarter
where affectionate loyalty alone is due, and whence
only friendly countenance and encouragement ought

to proceed—to compromise their parliamentary re-
sponsibility at the instigation of intimate and dear
connexions—they would need to be almost more
than mortal not to succumb under the additional
load.

TILE MINISTEE

All day yesterday the question still was,—Who
will be Home Secretary? the balance of opinion
being that Lord Palmerston would be induced to re-
turn to office. Another arrangement strongly can-
vassed was that the scruples of Sir James Graham
might perhaps be overcome, and that he would
assume the post thrown up by the honourable Member
for Tiverton, —the vacancy thus made at the
Admiralty finding an occupant in Lord Paumure,
The rumoured desire of Mr. Sidney Herbert to
occupy the post of First Lord of the Admiralty
could never meet encouragement at the hands of
any far-sighted liberal. Mr. Herbert's family
alliances with Russia render it most undesirable
that he should at any time assume a post con-
nected with the British navy. He is (of course) a
highly honourable man, but he certainly is not the
official to be entrusted with the management of" our
wooden walls."

The return of Lord Palmerston to his place in the
Coalition—if arranged—would no doubt avert many
Ministerial difficulties otherwise impending. It is
not easy to speculate about the exact terms on which
such return could be satisfactorily arranged. Those
Reformers—and amongst them we find many of im-
portance, weight, and high principle—who would be
glad to see the Ministerial breach healed up, explain
their views very candidly, and, it may be, very wisely;
somewhat after this fashion. If it be undesirable to
break up the Government at the meeting of Parlia-
ment, there is no purpose in discouraging a re-
union between Lord Palmerston and his late
colleagues. The public are in many quarters angry
and disappointed at the present Ministerial disturb.
once. They do not want splits and differences, out
of which there is no present promise that good shall
come. The Tories are not either prepared or qua-
lified to take office, nor is the country (so runs the
argument) in a temper or condition for a dissolution
of the House of Commons. Therefore, say the peace-
makers, let the differences be healed up. The
alleged lack of men equal to the position of governing
this country in the spirit of the age, renders it all the
more desirable that all the good which may still be got
out of the present combination should be got by the
people, and that the Coalition should be supported,
at least for a while, on that account. The trouble
and risk of a premature dissolution of Parliament is
not held to be desirable. We must have something
definite and clear before the people are asked again
to select their representatives—something more exact
than the rallying cry of an unproduced Reform Bill.
The Duke of Newcastle (now said to be earnest
in his wish for representative reform) has, it is under-
stood, been active in the kindly and judicious office of
mediator and arranger of differences in this Minis-
terial juncture. We believe that the rumour of
Lord Clarendon's contemplated desertion of his
I present colleagues is entirely without foundation.
Reformers, when considering the question of the
value of the present Ministry (of course apart from
its Foreign Policy), will scarcely overlook one con-
sideration : whether it is not better to tide on for
awhile under King Log Aberdeen than invite the
opening of the jaws of King Stork, Palmerston or
Derby, who may possibly come next if ill-considered
steps should be taken. In the present Cabinet there
are at least some men who have the zeal of con-
, verts—who profess reform now, having once op-
posed it, and who may be supposed to keep the
' Whigs up to their promises and their old creed. The
Coalition "mixture" has, perhaps, done more from
internal rivalry than we might have got from a
Cabinet collection of all Whigs, or from one-half
Whigs and half Protectionists under such a liader,
for instance, as Lord Palmerston. One club rumour
yesterday was, that Lord Aberdeen was going out,
but, as we before stated, there is no reasonable cause
to suppose he will retire from office befure he has at
least given in Parliament au explanation of his
remarkable Russian policy. This last likelihood,
perhaps, is as strong as any one connected with
the present arrangements of the Ministry. The
season—Christmas—is not one for fomenting dif-
ferences and discontents, and is thus rather in favour
of a new " patch-up" of the whole Coalition.

ROYAL COLLEGE OF PIITSICIANS.—At the usual
quarterly meeting of the Comitia Mejora, held on Thurs-
day, Dec. 22, the following gentlemen having paced the
necesssry examinations for diploma were admitted mem-
bers of the college :—Dr. Roseow, Sumner-place, Onslow
square; Dr. Clark, Montague-place, ltursell-square ; Dr.
Barnes, IMonshite-square.

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