The Express.
London, England, 1865-12-01 00:00:00

,XPRESS, FRIDAY EVRIII47G, DECEMBER 1, 1865

Lomita? has never boasted of being an orna-
mental town. East or West, North or South—in
the regions where the highest of the land live, or
where the hewers of wood and drawers of water
crowd together--all we dwellers in this huge
human jungle are so absorbed in business of some
sort, that we have little or no time to look after the
symmetry of our streets, or to improve the architec-
ture of our houses. In fact, properly so speaking,
there are, in these days, hardly any Londoners at all.
Even of those whose lot of daily labour is cast
within the limits of the metropolis, the vast ma-
jority live out of town. A London merchant's or
professional man's time is now shortened by
having to hurry twice • day to catch the train
which brings him to or takes him from his home ;
and from the millionaire banker to his modest clerk,
everyone who can do so lives more or less beyond
the lamps. We see London during our working
hours, but no more think of making it a
city pleas-
ing to the sight than we dream of furnishing
our offices with satin-covered couches or rosewood
chairs. The abodes of extreme fashion are per-
haps an exception to this rule ; but even in May-
fair and Belgravia business—the all-abeorbing busi-
ness of pleasure—takes such a hold upon men,
that they have :no time for any other pursuit.
What nobleman or commoner, having the re-
venues and the care of large estates to occupy
him, would think for • moment of setting up
as an amateur iIIi.CSSM ANN of his square or street ?
No ; this great city is, in fact, the workshop, or
office, or counting-house of life, and as most of us
do but labour in it, so we care not for the outward
appearance of what we have neither the time nor
the inclination to make handsomer.
But whilst accepting the general ugliness of
London, are we obliged to tacitly approve of its
dirt'. There was • time, and that not very many
years ego, when, if we could not boast of the
beauty of our buildings, we could certainly chal-
lenge comparison with any town in the cleanli-
ness of our streets. The centres of our chief
thoroughfares were more free from mud than
those of any city in Europe, whilst oar foot-pave-
ments were the wonder and admiration of every
foreigner that came to England. The daintiest
lady might walk in our streets without
her thinnest boots wet ; and at every crossing
the foot passenger could pass from one
side to another without adding mud to what-
ever else he had to carry. Here and there
—in places where much traffic abounded—there
were exceptions to the rule. Great Tower-
street, the neighbourhood of the docks, and
certain smaller streets leading down to the river,
were certainly never pleasant spots for walking ;
but in these regions who was it that ventured save
those engaged in the trade of the locality I Ten
years ago, or even less, any person might walk
from Belgravia to the Bank of England and be at
no risk of even dirtying his boots very much, far
less of being splashed with mud from every passing
carriage. Could anyone say the same now even
of the short transit from Charing-creme to West-
minster-bridge t Everywhere it is the same. Our
streets are riven of liquid slush, our foot- 1
pavements spread over with slippery mud.
To walk with anything like comfort, or to I GI,
preserve anything like cleanliness, in the streets
of London, from October to April, is • simple
The fourth volume of the Rev. Dr. J. H. Merle
impossibility. In Piccadilly, Pall-mall, and a kubignes " History of the Reformation in the Time of
few of the West-end streets, the evil is not so I -
Leh,„ io the p
great, for the thoroughfares being wider, and the l We read in Longman's "Notes on Books" :
traffic considerably less, the foot passenger is not "The collection of gcsthoren.s Letters, recently edited
in so much danger of being splashed by passing ,by Dr. Nail, will shortly be published in as English
vehicles, and has more time to pick his footsteps as translation by Lady Wallace, translator of ileadelasobes
he proceeds on his way. But away from these mad Morrt'lst Lewtterds,
wand
difo6fce,Pallweekeo's tie theof
favoured regions, our streets are an utter disgrace ,
to us, and are as much a source of wonder of
so r ,:berfail""nthe
innaof "fithtfoul7o.pilohic,t dot:
to the stranger from their dirt, as they used
I tare of ace of the most sublime geniuses the world ever
formerly to be for their cleanliness. To saw. It is sad to read of his sufferings and the barely feel-
see • high-actioned carriage-horse sending the ' ing entailed by deafness, mad yet ebeerieg to see bow his
liquid filth through which he has to pass devotion to b
ut bore him up amid all biz trials. The
higher than his own head at every step letters offer atiofinbro retelner:byoflobvise
for art
peastomosfted.
reminds the spectator of riding by
7„. and by .nos:llfiab siderstion for others."
side, where sea water and sand are splasthehed " The Diary of the Right Hon. William Wind-
There is hardly an exception to this ails
ham, M.P., from 1783 to 1809," edited by Mrs. Hoary
of dirt throughout London, but if it were Bariel, is now is the pram
possible for the foot pavements of one street
" The Life of bombard Kingdom Brunel
to be dirtier than the extremely dirty pave- F.R.8., Civil Engineer." by leambsrd Brunel,
menu of another, the distinction might with ILL, is preparing for publicatioe.
justice be conferred on the regions east of Temple- 1 A lake for skaters now forms a charming addi-
bar. In the west there is still a feeble attempt Bon to the many attractions of the Bola de Boulogne. It is
made from time to time to cope with the tide of situated close
Thet eriekijot groausrL_ bet rierrossled from
th of half a
street dirt, but in the City the authorities Viefoot.'"Zdtri
perfectly y
smelab ll "
seem, as our American friends would say, to
design will afford every accommodation to the privileged
" let things slide." From Fleet-street away scrienirer, who. fairy lake is railed is, and will be the
to the far eastern districts, where the City easlddvs
property of the dub.

Tin borough of Harwich ia in a fair way to become
distinguished for its justice as it is for its politics.
On Wednesday last the borough magistrates, nine
of whom were 'present in petty session, heard the
complaint of Mr. W. F. Beck, who had summoned
Captain Jervis for an assault. Mr. Beck is a clerk
in the Audit Office of the Great Eastern Railway
Company, of which Captain Jervis is a director, and
had been sent down by the chief of his department
to take an inventory of the plate in the Great
Eastern Hotel upon a change in its management.
Mr. Beck began his work on the morning of the 7th
of November, and at a quarter to five o'clock, having
nearly finished it, he was sitting in the bar, when
Capt. Jervis came in. The Captain having secertained
who he was, and what was his business, ordered
him out. Upon receiving for answer from Mr.
Beck that he was at the hotel upon a certain se
it
-
vice, and that it was his intention to perform
before he left, Captain Jervis told the complainant
that he was a " datnnedryoung vagabond," and that
if he did not leave, he (the captain) would kick
him out. This admonition not taking immediate
effect, Captain Jervis followed it up by stating that
Mr. Beck was a "blasted cur," and then dragged
the young man, who is of small stature, through
the front parlour into the hall, and put him out.
Mr. Bolton, the manager of the hotel, deposed
before the magistrates that the young man bad done
his work very properly during the day. Mr. Foam,
the audit clerk to the company, proved that Mr.
Beck had gone to Harwich by his authority,
and that the work he had done showed
that be must have been fully employed
during the period that he was at the hotel.
The defence was that Capt. Jervis is Member for the
borough, for which he had been elected three times;
that he is a director of the railway which owns
the hotel ; that to refuse instant obedience to his
demands was a premeditated insult; and that hews&
perfectly justified in treating Mr. Beck as he did.
Upon the point of authority Mr. Owen, the secre-
tary of the company, was called, and stated, as his
" solemn opinion, that a railway servant is
abound
to obey an individual director in regard to
he might direct, even to the extent of compelling
him to stop a train."
The magistrates took this view of the case. They
were unanimously of opinion that Mr. Beck bad
not been assaulted ; that Captain Jervis did in a
very proper manner that which as a director he had
aright to do ; that the case must be dismissed ; and
that Mr. Beck must pay the coats. After this we
may expect to hear of a great rush for clerkships
in the office of the Great Eastern Railway, espe-
cially as the directors are notoriously at sixes and
sevens, and for every one of them who would have
kicked Mr. Beck out of the Harwich Hotel, another
might be found to kick him in again. Sir George
Grey, too, must be proud of magistrates who are
" a terror to evil-doers, and a praise to them that

__-------4—_. ---..,-----•—•----"r—
-police authority ends, and to the confine, of lAA. t (RJR COTEMPOOARIES.
Aldermen have power, filthy mad, pavements I ..'t * "..
IS DAY‘) s.
slimy with socumulated greasy iTtrt, and • guniVel -..,
-
recklessness of public opinion in these matters,
everywhere prevail ; and every year King MOCK THZ OPINING or ragout/sr s SHY (MESS.
asserts more and more the univernality of his do- Though the Herald has never joined iu the co:nit-
rate of some of its ociesemporaries that her Majesty had
minion. Nor is this merely the case after a day
or two's rain. Thick mud in the streets of London ;gill.
ttefnor hffiercialown
dutyee kine.the indulgence
ente ehmotbperee soaaefl teeliehe'negki
'is now the rule--a rule to which there seems no have yielded so little to the soothing influencegn of time ;
exception- Neither the centre, the aides, nor the
sad it heartily rejoices at the announcement that henceforth
pavements appear to be ever cleaned, or at any I we shall see her amongst as in something like the same
rate cleaned in such a way as to show that , manner SI of yore. Not, however, that to be the cynosure
cleanliness is intended. Now and again a couple ,of ell es in • procession, to hold the highest place
up ,at leveeyobserved es, to be the of all observers iu public
of feeble old men may be seen to scrape
esh.lTeebratiossi, wfill ever
e be to the
i(i4ueehe herself what they
a few inches of the dark brown liquidDees
I
er
to the sides of the street from the path, but only
open the firern Orm. daysOn of ;he new pa:l parliament tya
gismos too(
in a sort of amateur way, as if they knew their 1 sympathy with her will pervade all hearts, and every one of
attempt was but a joke. Where forty or fifty able , her subjects will feel a real, though necessarily imperfect.
bodied labourers would barely suffice, one or two ', sense of the change which Prieto Albert's death has
broken-down paupers are set to do what they are I made. It will be an occasion for mingled teenage, for
rejoioinp and regrets, for jubilations and lamentations, for
not overlooked in doing, nor have any set task put
ohedeoedthem before they begin to work. And as it is well lay and softened "new'
The Telegraph says that the Prince and Princess of Wales
known thatthe only effectual et of cleaning streeta have done their best to supply the void ; yet they but
is in the early morning before the traffic has cum- imperfectly compensate society for the abacus of its Queen.
wonted, to this forlorn hope is invariably set to To her Majesty, with her mature experience, the nation
work when the businees of London ia at its full histinotively turns as its representative sad leader, in abso-
lute Mimics upon her wisdom and discretion. Returning
noon-day height. The poor old men are • much
to public life, appealing in her own familiar voice to the
more occupied in avoiding the dangers of the carts,
omnibuses, cabs, carriages, and every kind of
vehicle, than in getting on with the work they are
supposed by a pleasant fiction to get through. 'WT4OBIIOI
governing tati Teethe: the peo
ire spil,ee
wfoirutheir.
than a mere abstract idea.--she will make it an Zi3taziyil vital
lid
in
ethleo laTtatmt"orke
forceem
again
in Eaglish politics. Excellently as the Prince of Wales
Latterly to this manual has been added a little has, on the whole, fulfilled his rather arduous foutioes,
machine work. There are a few patent street- it could not be expected of him that he should altogether
cleaners paraded in various parts of the City, and avoid mistakes. Hunting, phensantehooting, deer-stain
some in the West-end. but at an hour when the —it is devoutly to be wished that none of our primes had
\ drivers that conduct them have to look out for the eTher followid
os edm.oremq.ueasttiwolTiebhlesopueersuie
e'fteethhae
goratheessee
affairs
iffbat
danger of other carriages. Beyond making sport of life might not unreasonably claim a larger share of
for our street Arabs and the cabmen, it is difficult attention. There are moods of the public mind when the
Ito say what good this new invention has done. nation, itself sufficing wider a sense of sorrow and lament-
' There is no use mincing the matter ; London is jog the loss of men who had served it long and well, learns
now by many degrees the dirtiest town in Europe. with regret and disapproval that the heir to the throne
has been seen as. s theatre or • racecourse.
Our streets will not for a moment bear comparison
The Star thinks there is a special fitness which the Queen
in cleanliness with those of Paris, Vienna, Berlin, doubtless feels in resuming her public place on the oc-
Florence, Rome, or Naples. There is no dirt like assist of the opening of this parliament. The eeo, pun.•
unto our dirt, and none so copious in any meet begins, we trust, a new chapter is the political his-
other city of the civilized world, either in or tory of the weeny. Oa the last oriession when her Ma.
out of the United Kingdom. And yet we jests delivered the speech in person, the benches and gal.
have able-bodied paupers by the hundred seeking lona of the Howe of Lords seemed to be almost entirely
for work. Could not these be organized into tenneupp to the
peared tedisplay
ieof crinolineeeebeei andt thwheitef
eesth that ouldeers.he
gangs which would have the town clean by the bumbler of the parliament was was not to be does. Her
its business. time the rest of the world began its work 1 But Majesty now returns to her parliament, and her parliament
Bumbledom has no idea of an) thing like organize- returns to
tiou—a word which it generally confounds with
centralization, and hates equally as much. If our
thoroughfares are ever to be clean again, it must
be under the direction of some authority greater
than that of the pariah vestry, and having ideas
more enlarged than those of local boards. Let us
hope that in the coming Session of Parliament a
remedy may be provided for what is now an in-
tolerable, add a disgraceful, nuisance to every
class of the community.

UNIVERBITT ZYLTINSION.
Apart from the question of discipline, the problem of
university extensioo presents, the Pima contends, no very
serious difficulty. No extemion sweeping enough to
" nationelis 3" Oxford in the largest sense ca
be effected
without many changes besidee the abolition of reetrictioes
on residence. There must be a fuller recognition of studies
beyond the ordinary Oxford curriculum, and especially those
which have a utilitarian value ; boys must be allowed to
matriculate at an earlier age,l and perhaps degree must
be thrown open to all comers who pans a certain mosaine.
tics. Short of this, and even short of what Dr. Temple
proposes, a great deal may be done to open the university.
A very simple modification of the system already in force at
Cambridge would combine many benefits of the college
system with those of cheap hills or licensed loilgieg-houme.
Without haviog anything to do with college " battels,'.
unless he chose to dine in the college hell, a man might be
allowed to attend the lectures of tutors, end obtain their
advice as to the course of his reading. If it were thought
desirable, the college might ply the tuition fees on behalf
of poor men.
The Post °attends that Dr. Temple's proposal would
enable men to be in Oxford though not of Oxford, and to
pan to their degrees without nocemarily
nt
having that which
under the present system a degree repreees. Professor-
ships midtowns down from the high position which hithert
they have held, and mast ha mere teacherships, little, o
if
anything, better than an nadermastership in a large
school. If the university is to be converted into a large
grimmer school, where boys may matt iculate at sixteen and
get their B.A. et eighteen, at a cost of 50/. year, it will
soon follow that the Oxford degree will collet for little or
nothing. Except for the purposes of deception, a university
degree is nothing apart from a university education. All
that Oxford could give on Dr. Temple's plan is given now
much more consistently by the University of London.

,PAIN AND CHILI.
Senor de Castro blames the diplomatic body at San
tiago for their want of respect to Spain, and partiality to
Chili, in deprecating the aggressions of the Spanish
&rel. He must extend his censure, the rises says, to
every civilised nation in the world, sod the con of one
man against the world the presumption is that he is mis-
takes. This is the presumption when the question involved
is merely intellectual, but when it turns upon the moral con-
duct of the complaisant the inference is almost inevitablee.
It is clear that whatever the diplomatic body
might hav
done, short of advice to the Chilies"
Affil yield to edvery inso-
ld
lent demand which could by possiy mae, wou
have been not merely unavailing, but treacherous, partial,
and insecure. It becomes an immediate question how far
standers-by are justified in icquieacing in this highhanded
interference, and every day proves mere clearly the necessity
that we should be prompt and decisive in our action. It
would be better that Spain itself should raise the blockade
of Valparaiso, but it would be ,ntolerable that it should not
somehow or other be raised.
While acknowledging the temperate and conciliatory
language of Senor Bermudez de Castro's despatches, the
Daily News cannot but diniognish between the nation
whose dignity they profess to uphold, and the government
whose eccentricities they pretend to justify. These re-
posted 'amanita spun emancipated colonies, and all the
mutes of little wan and abortive expeditions are but the
trick of an unstable and unpopular government to seek to
divert or to distract the public attention from domestic
grievances by raising a prodigious rumour of its deeds of
daring rotted the world.
The Pont pronounces the vindication of her conduct,
which Spain has published, to be incomplete. No valid ex-
cuse hes been offered for the peremptory tone which Ad-
miral Pareja was instructed to use in addressing the Chilies
government. Either, as the Foreign Minister suggests, it
was useless to reopen negotiations—and in that ease Ad"
mural Pareja should not have demanded a concession from
the Chitlins as a preliminary to a conference which be
knew would be fruitless—or negotiations might have led to
• pacific settlement of the matters is dispute, and in that
case they shenkl have been commenced unconditionally.
England and France are anxious to mediate in the matter,
but in order to secure the adoption of their suggestions,
they must be advanced in much a manner as not to hurt the
pride of a morbidly jealous people.
The Herald describes Marshal O'Donnell as one who is
under the impression that Spain is still a first.rate power,
and able to meat herself se such in despite of the world,
and therefore not likely to be anxious to get out of such a
quarrel as that with Chili. Though Spain is utterly wrong
in the matter, the Herald does not see its way to an armed
intervention on our part, especially as we have established
a prudent against such intervention by our neutrality
during the civil war in the United States. Moreover, our
conduct to Brazil, dictated by our present Prime Minister,
was every whit as overbearing and unreasonable as that of
O'Donnell is Chili.

THE t;ovcarritrirr OF JAMAICA.
The Daily News observes that those of its contempora-
ries who are most interested in the production of evidence
in rapport of the assumptions upon which the evid
ence
massacres in Jamaica have bees defended, are as unable to
discover it as the Daily News itself ; and one of them, the
Times, seems so sensible of its predicament that it has re-
sorted to the extraordinary expedient of suppressing all the
news of the mail with the single exception of a speech by
Governor Eyre, which is pot forward in the place of the
proofs ter which the public has been so eagerly inquiring.
The assertion that those who are anxious to redeem the
honour of the country apologise for negro murderers and
abet insurrection is worthy only of contempt. Nos a weed
has been said in the country against severity in dealing with
persons either found guilty of crimes or taken with arms
in their hands, but wholesale butcheries in districts where
not a single person was found in an attitude of resistance
ran inspire nothieg bet horror and disgust. The colonial
newspapers received by the Shannon—tbe planters' news-
pspere—are full of deeds of this kind—hanging, shooting'

cattily, burring—rd, as Colonel Fords esys, "the Wein
so joy it." No evidence is asked for, no eourt-zonstials
glutted.
ere held ; 6114.11 ie a fiendish passion to be
and we Aim only hope that it hie been gtattool.
On pointa respecting which oar information y ie.
festive, lot tia, by all mean', reserve our °pinkies, but on
lurow enough already to make the blood run cold. As to
the general character of the outbreak it is Dowaad rkk
all but
certain that it was nothing more than an aggrava
strictly local and accidental in its origin. There is plenty
of fieldmice that the great mass of the people is Jamaica
were extremely dissatisfied with the assembly, but there is
at present no 'video.* accessible to Englishmen to show
that they ever intended to attempt the subversion of the
Queen's authority.
The Advertiser ridicules the attempt to establish Governor
Eyre's infallibility on the pound of his merits 20 yore ago
as an Australian explorer. As governor of St. Vinosat's, in
fact, he got into a wrangle with the Assembly,
troo aed the
Colonial-office had to refuse his application for ps—
resort to force to martial paw seeming to be his favourite
plan in all difficulties. His propositiou that because there
has been a riot or a rebellion a despotism most be esta-
blished, is no-English. The discontent rather shews
the existence of previous misuminagement. Mr. Eyre
says that be wants a strong government." Now we
should think that the preprint government of Jamaica is
quite strong ecough. It has punished a riot in which 20
lives were to
by banging or shooting 2,0t0 poor people
whom it called " rebels." It these museums are not
"strong" enough, we cannot easily imagine what kind of a
government, outside of nameless regions, fdr. Eyre would
fain have.