The Express.
London, England, 1865-01-05 00:00:00

this new prooedure. As
*alibi', and wages rise ftuihee
minsitry,this nuisance will rather decline grow.
1 push AM, is one constant source of poverty in
a*ng oiuntry about which we cannot decide
whether it will grow or decline in the future.
There is always a generation in each branch of in-
dustry which has to be maintained by charity,
when old methods are superseded by new. The
Norwich handloom weavers to-day, se the Glasgow
and Manchester and other headier= weavers of
many years past, are an eiample ; and in London
the poor needlewomen, hungry enough before, are
now starved out by the sewing-machine. Their
lot was terrible, and their doom clear, before the
sewing-machine turned them absolutely adrift ;
but its introduction has suddenly thrown a large
body of helpless women on the charity of the
great town. This is undoubtedly a temporary evil,
as far as the particular class is concerned, but it is
impassible to say how long the suocessive improve-
ments in our industrial methods will go on, each
displacing a generation or a part of a generation
of workers. They should be willingly and gra-
ciously helped under an accident which is a cala-
mity to them, however fortunate an event it may
be to the rest of society.

A more serious question is, whether we may
look for a reduction of misery from the improve.
ment, moral and intellectual, of the sinning and
suffering classes who constitute most of our
pauperism. le Mr. BialNo right in saying, as he
did at Penryn the other day, that drunkenness is
on the decline among us t There is always a
vicious population afloat in all large assemblages
of men—is this element growing or diminishing in
London t And the idle and shiftless, the wild and
sunk—are they more or fewer than ten or twenty
or fifty years ago t It may be difficult to find the
answer to this ; but we must remember that the
i:oe and misery formerly concealed in the dens of
the desperate and the reteesta of the lost are
now laid open to the day by the improve-
ments in our law and police. We may
well be aghast at much that we see ;
but, if it is not new, we ought to be rather en-
couraged than alarmed.. If we consider how much
of the supply of juvenile criminals has been out off
by the Reformatory and Ragged School System,
and by kindred institutions, we may rationally
hope that the benefit will appear in the next gene-
ration. It is noticeable, too, that much of the
almsgiving which looks so formidable is on behalf
of these preventive charities.
This brings in the consideration of the wider
.cope and increased energy of charity in our day.
Formerly, the vicious, the ignorant, the early cor-
rupted, the diseased, the deformed and infirm, the
young thief, and the blind, the fallen woman, and
the deaf-and-dumb child lived or died as they could
or must, unknown to the comfortable classes, unless
by some accident of acquaintanceship. It is for
otherwise now, when misery is sought out, and sin
is brought to light by both justice and mercy, and
whendistrict visiting castes light into a multitude of
dark corners. Whether such a change tends to the
augmentation or reduction of misery of all kinds,
each man may judge for himself.
Some will say, and reasonably, that much will
depend on bow this new justioe and mercy is regu-
lated. The natural tendency, during such a
change, is to invite sufferers to dependence, to
make them welcome to charity, and thus to create
more dependence, and • greater need of charity.
This is the next worst thing to leaving sinners and
sufferers uncared for. It is a mistake unpardon-
able in England after our experience of the old
Poor Law and the squires' and saint•' charities of
half • century ago, which created generations of
paupers, the dregs of which are • nuisance of our
day. Yet this is the mistake which we are always
liable to fall into. We see it now in the longing
to make the workhouse a comfortable residence,
and more attractive to the poor. We see it more
or less in almost every charitable institution—
always excepting hospitals, the moat unexception-
able of charities. Here lies the greatest danger of
all, and the gravest doubt. If we can steadily
bear in mind that almsgiving, under all forms, is
only a pis-aller, a mere gaining of time to do some-
thing better—something towards raising men shove
the need and desire of charity ; and if we can ab-
stain from creating more misery than we are re-
lieving, we may hope that the next generation, if
not the present, may see the destitution of London
brought within manageable bounds.

gibe Court.

°Barnum JAL 4.

•
The Queen, accompanied by Prince Arthur and
Prince Leopold. walked is the pounds yesterday swesiag.
and dross in the afternooa with Princess Helena.

The Right Has. Sir Geary Grey left tows yesterday for
Hskfield•pleoe, Haste.

An Admiralty order has been issued by com-
mand of has Majesty, directing that all ships of war paving
Worse en their way to Spithead, during the Queen's stay
at her marine residesce in the Isle of Wight, shall in
future fir* the usual salutes, which since the death of his
Royal Highaess the Prices Consort have teen discontinued.
His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge, as
Field-Marshal Commanding-in-Chief, held a levee rider-
day afternoon at the Horse Guards. Above 150 anon
attended.

The Earl of Hardwick., who has been in to J a
few days, left yesterday on his raters to Wimpole
Cambridgesb'wo.
The Earl de Grey left Carlton-gardens yesterday
es a visit to the Qllllllll at Osbouse.
The Earl St. Maur arrived yesterday at the
Admiralty from Stover, the Doke of Somerset's nest in
Devonshire. _ .

-----
The Hon. Lionel S. West passed through town
early in the week from whiting Mr. Hartinp Ruses% M.P.,
and Lady Elizabeth Russell at Woburn Abbey, for Paris,
oa his way to Madrid to enter oa his duties at the British
Legation.
Major-General Lindsay and Captain the Hon.
C. Eliot, A.D.C., sailed on S tturday last, in the Cunard
steamship China. for New York, on their way to Canada.
During the last week the gallant general, with his wife and
eldest daughter, were the guests of Mr. and Mau. Eckenley,
of Standish Hall, Wigan. Lady Sarah and Miss Lindsay
accompanied the general to the steamer, sad, after Wan
leave, returned to Lando., where they will remain during
the winter mouths.
Major-General Hutchinson retired yesterday from
the command of the faros is the western district, and wee
marinaded by Major•Oesssl Vieeeant Template', who for
a short time will mid* with the naval Commander-in•Ckief
at Deroaport, Admiral Sir Charles H. Fremantle, 8.C.8.
It is understood that the official residence of the mili-
tary commander at Mount Wise will undergo eoasidsahL
alteration sad repair. His aidede•smp is Sir William
Fairfax.

There are still 120 military officers above the rank

of captain holding the Waldo 100 medal Of thane 18 aro
gams* 22 lioutiioant-gesoralo, 24 major-gosoralo, 19 cola
Digs, 24 liednennt-oolonolo, and 13 majors. Throe or font

yawl dace the number of Alms wearing this @Oda Move
the rank of captain) wee 150.
_ . .

On Satan:lay lut the ceremony of giving the veil
wee performed at Paris with the utmost pomp by the
Nuncio in pence, the fair postulant Wog the youthful
daughter of the late Duke el Norfolk. The church of the
Carmelite Convent woe crowded, and the queer (collection)
not the less in amount for having been made by the youth•
fel duke, brother to the fair recluse.

PRINCE NAPOLEON AND THE
GOVERNMENT.
The Di&as of to-day says :—" It is impossible ,
not to attach a very serious meaning to the decree
of the 24th of December, which appoints Prince
Napoleon vice-president of the Privy Council. It
is, perhaps, a reply to the Encyclical, and a rather
prompt one, since the decree is dated the day after
that on which the text of the pontifical document
became known in Paris. But we hope that it is
even something more. If we may conclude, indeed,
in accordance with public rumour, that the imperial
government has been for some time divided be-
tween two contrary influences, that which
is pressing it forward, and that which would keep
it stationary, or lead it to retrace its steps ; and if
we consider the attitude taken by Prince Napoleon,
whether in the Senate or in the different assemblies
in which he has had occasion to manifest his opinion
on public affairs, the decree of the 24th of Decem-
ber may be regarded as a pledge given to the party
of progress and of civil and religious liberty. The
real, though latent and indeterminate, influenee
which Prince Napoleon has hitherto been enabled
to exercise over the government is converted by this
decree into,a legally-defined influence. Prince Napo-
leon—his opinions afford a guarantee for this—will
use the title conferred upon him to beaten, and not to
retard, liberal institutions. Is there not, more-
over, already a commentary to this effect upon the
decree of the 24th of December in some of the
words which the Emperor has addressed to the
Senate, and which we extracted yesterday from the
Moniteur 1 The Emperor gave it to be understood
that the present year would realise legitimate
hopes,' ami would destroy certain apprehensions,'
which are not well founded. What apprehensions
are here referred to, if not that of seeing the go-
vernment reconsider the decree of the 24th of Deoem-
ber—an apprehension which was expressed in some
journals, and which we have never allowed ourselves
to share I And what hope could be more legitimate
than that of seeing the decree of the 24th of De-
cember completed by other analogous measures 1"

AUSTRIA AND THE DUCHIES.
If annierionist pretensions are put forward by the
Cologne Gazette, opposition to such a course is not
lees energetically manifested in the Get-Deutsche
Post of Vienna. On the day when the Rhenish
journal affirmed that no Prussian minister would
consent to the formation of • new petty German
state on the banks of the Elbe, the Austrian organ
announced that Baron de Halbhuber was named
commissioner for that power in the Duchies,
with the minion to protect their autonomy
against the attempts at " Pructilication," to
reinetal the native functionaries in their employ-
ments, to preserve the ducal administration of the
post-office, telegraphs, etc. The Austria's Gazette,
on its side, rejects with indignation the insinuations
of the Prussian journals on the subject of pretended
differences of opinion between M. de Schmerling '
and Count de Menstiorff
Whoever is eswealate4 with M. de fishmarling (mys that
journal) will avow that he is not treaties in patriotism.
Count de Meeederfi is a most' and sa Mutate soldier
who will never allow the ietereets of his country or her
position in Germany to be cosepsessiewl. No necessity,
therefore, Wets for receiving official inspirations to declare
that no &Miriam of opinion exists between those two

damn..
The same journal adds that since the retirement
of Count de Rechberg, Berlin must have perceived
that a stronger hand and a firmer will milted at
Vienna. It is certain that public opinion in Austria
does not support the idea of a pure and simple
annexation of the Duchies by Prussia, and that
the cabinet will on that question naturally follow
the path which is traced out for it by the interests
of Austria, as well as by those so seriously alarmed
of the secondmi states.

(axgrras Taukaux.)
CALCUTTA, CHINA, AND AUSTRALIAN

MAILS.

ALEXANDRIA, Jan. 4.

The Ceylon left at noon yesterday, and the Ripon
at 11 a.m. to-day. The former may be expected at
Marseilles on the 9th (letters in London on the
11th), and the latter at Southampton about the
17th inst.

Or.."TWARD MAILS OF SEPT. 20-26.
The Northam reached Sydney on the 13th Nov.,
one day early.

I never remember to have seen snowballing in'
the streets of Paris such a mammas as it hes been
yesterday and to-day. The sport is well enough
for those who choose to join in it. When
you are on the look out you can always
save yourself from a black eye, and a
wetting from melted snow, however disagreeable, is
only part of the recognised fun of the game.
Hitherto the pawn do Paris has been favourably
distinguished from his London contemporaries by
his gentlemanly resistance of the temptation to
pelt inoffensive citizens with snowballs. • howl-
full of coagulated snow, received full in the face,
is almost as bad as • stone. Wantonly to inflict
the smallest discomfort upon a stranger is a
highly uncivilised proceeding, but to injure him
under the pretext of sport is intolerable. A party
of young men in the Tuileries gardens yesterday
disgraced themselves by throwing snowballs indis-
criminately at the public. Several ladies had
dresses injured, bonnets broken, and umbrellas
torn. • group of a thousand people protesting
against these outrages was collected. The police
arrested some of the delinquents. . _

The Bourse has in greet measure recovered from
yesterday's fall. Rents rose 10e. for cash and 20c.
for account, closing at 68fr. 400. and 86fr. 80c.
Mobilier rose Mfr.

WEATHER REPOILT.-(THIS DAY.)

TIVUD&T. JASO AZT ts II Lid.

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—II 41' W.11.W.
.44 42 Z.
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0.14 41 W.N.W.
30.11 0 &W.
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41 W.
0 w. 11.14.
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