The Express.
London, England, 1862-05-02 00:00:00

A TEAR OP WAR.

(From the New Yortrirsat.)

When we think of all we have lived through
daring the pant year, ft seams like • life of materna. We
who had gone oar daily rounds of business and
had
plasma,
ei hoduid married and given in , who had bought
sada.* built booms and lived I. , built Aim and
✓ailed them, blayieg aimless sheet this•material proem-
ritycif ours, which, splendid though it is has yet little of
thalamic in it, we to be thus suddenly plunged into sack
a whirlwind of meats, which not wren dory can make
dell,mf denseness running through the whole range from
defeataed disgrace to victory sad snouts coming a epos
es She a aood—mew could such • year fail to meetly
MOTOIINWO in oar hires than our whole lima beside? Hew
much his been crowded into it ? We cheered our patriot
bona as sthey rushed from all nuances of the land to the
defence of their ;marmoset, so es.•selesdy amend ; we
beard, with gleaming eye and clom mend lip, the dying
shout of .that Massachmette boy in Bel
,tictore, our first
amrtyr, bail to the Stan and Stripes • we laboured
mad we waited alike; ere went down threigh the valley
of the shadow of death after the fatal field d Bull Run,
and nerved .eurselves defy with firmer determination to
miry on the conflict to the bitter end ; we have fol-
lowed, with mver-inermag joy, the movements of our
samisa. an they slowly liertid around thud strongholds
af aebellion, sweeping Meadows one after another, and m-
oans* them as surely mein rolling tides of the Bay of
Fundy eugulf4he beech. And now we stand to look back
lover Me past year, and dark God for it, as the richest,
meet houutente jam in oar history. A year of privations,
but of ,privations nobly bona. A year of griefs scattered
breeds et through fur preach' homes, but of griefs which
were emitted me nothing far the sake of the cense. A year
of herchare opaingiag up among the people, common
as wayside flowers. A pear of growth in ann-
um and eednranee, in omega and strength, in all those
manly qeditice which make a &anon truly great. A year
of progress each as, Maar shortsightedness, we had thwaght
that ma len years amid bring. A year mighty in events,
het miglutiar yet in prosaism A pear not free from stain,
• whollypare, not wholly worthyilf the great canes whiciait
henbane/onward, bat yet a year whom burdens and wham
liiimars we ems never be too proud that we wets permitted
to slum. Far better am inch year " than a cycle of
Seamy."
This year closes brightly around as. Victory is ours;
defeat is the portion of our minors. We are oonfideat in
ourselves ; we ere coin:up the approval of those who
es bear none too meth will. What shall the next
year befog to wit it be am than and yet more abun-
' dant, or shell we be celled upon in our turn to drink
the hitter cup of deader and defeat ! He who sees the end
from the beginning aloes knows. But if we are only true
to ourselves and to the teachinge which this year has given
es, no overthrow, no disaster ma take from us the meat
valuable rewrite of this past year, and the world will be the
richer, and resakind will be the better, for the burdens, the
toils, and the cares which have filled full its hours.

Tun rant Gummy ACCIDENT arcs PRESTON.—
Lest week we gave the particulars of • serious accident
which happened on Good Friday, to • bombardier, named
Jobe Ashley, who, with other Don•oommisaioned officer!.
had gone down to the battery at Warton, on the banks of
the Ribble, in order to make tho neoemary preparations for
the Preston Artillery Volunteer corps, the members of
winds were intending to open the shooting meson on that
day. Ashley, during the preliminary salute, was blown
front one of the guns and dreadfully injured. He was at-
tended by the surgeon of the corps, and afterwards removed
to the Preston House of Recovery. One 1 his anus was
broken, the fingers of his left hand were blown off, his false
was contused and lacerated, and in other ramparts be MY
seriously injured. He progressed very favourably until
Friday last, when he bad • relapse, followed by lock-jaw,
which terminated Mal& on Sunday afternoon. On Monday
evening the inquest was held, when it appeared from the
evidence that the accident had arises to consequence of
Ashley neglecting to sponge nut the gun. The jury returned
a verdict of "Accidental death."