The Express.
London, England, 1851-02-15 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, SATURDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 15, 1851.

SERVICES OF LOCAL SECRETARIES.

TO THE EDITOR OP THE TERMITIC/It EXPEPis.

Sir,-1. have observed several letters of late in the
tewspapers urging some public acknowledgement to the
.eerctaries of local committees fur their services. I have
ittle doubt the Royal Commis.ioners will set judiciously in
. . . _ .

this a. in other matters, and I have no wish to interfere in
the least with theirdoings. !sly chief design in writing to you
is to state my objet tion to any exclusive entertainment to
these officials, as I consider this by no means a desirable
mode of testifying the public approbation of their conduct.
It may In presumed these gentlemen commenced their '
labours from pure love to the undertaking, and the more
they exerted themselves in its cause got Mill more in-
terested in it. To suppose that they wish any other than a
merely honorary acknowledgment would, I conceive, be
doing them great injustice.

It appears to me that a copy of the official illustrated
catalogue of the Exhibition, handsomely bound, might by
presented to every honorary secretary, and should the com-
tuissioners bo pleased to pas+ a resolution expressing a
favourable opinion of their services, a copy of such resolu-
tion should be attached to the catalogues presented. This
would b. a suitable book fur the library of its owner, and
would remain for ever, to remind him and bis friends of his
connection with the magnificent project.
In addition to this gift, which would be elegant and ap-
propriate, though aot so expensive, the most active and effi-
cient secretaries may he considered well entitled to some
farther mark of approbation, which I venture to suggest
should be some article of rare usefulness and beauty, brought
into notice by the Exhibition itself, on which their untiring
labours would justify them to inscribe such a mutt° as the
following Palma non sine pulvere."
I remain, Sir, your very obedient Servant,
, 7th Feb., 1951. A COUNTRY SECRETARY.

THE COMPLAINT OF A LION.

• TO TAT soma OF Tltli TIMM.
Sir,—l an a British lion, and I claim protection.
This, you will say, is nothing new—supposing, perhaps,
that I am your agricultural king of beasts, into whose foot
the thorn of free trade ha+ entered, and who has been stalk-
ing up and down these four years, making the country
hideous with his howls. Not at all. lam the lion heraldic,
the supporter of the royal arms, and up to the present hour
1 have never spoken a word or written a line, but simply
stood rampant and looked fierce.
Just listen to my story, nod then step down to the front
of Buckingham Palace and tell me what I look like.
Thae out of mind, then, it has been my privilege to guard
the dexter, while my rit al, the unicorn, guards the sinister
side of the royal shield. lily right to this honourable posi-
tion, as you are probably aware, was acquired in the mortal
combat the memory of which has been handed down in that
popular rhyme which tells how—
Ye Lyoun and ye rekenese
Fonelde for ye I ',woe,
Ye Lyoun att ye Unimrse
And kuokked aym Isirely downs.

Well, sir, when it was found that the royal children
could not live in nurseries 211 feet high, a new wing wise
built to the palace, in which those young Anakim might
hays room to grow. Wheu the wing was built there was
no garden to match it, ro the rats in the office of the Woods
and Forests nibbled off a good piece of St. James's-park,
which is now being enclosed by gigantic stone posts and an
iron railing. so tall that a giraffe could not look over it, and
so close that my cousin the lynx, sharp-sighted as he is,
could scarce see through it. he railing is necessarily close,
that the vulgar public may not see the Prince of Wales
playing at leap-frog with his brothers, and necessarily high,
lest when the young princes have grown to twenty feet or
xo they may elude 11. M. Birch, and climb over the railings
'of the palace garden, as they ace the blackguard little boys
scale the Liliputian railing>, in St. James's-park.
When these stone posts were determined on, the royal
architect was ordered to provide embellishments to stand
on four of them, two on each side of the great entrance. To
do him justice, he set to work like a man, though the lux-
uriance of the rococo-renaissance style in which the new
wing of the pulse° was erected had exhausted the round of
ancient mythology and modern fable. If he cast his eyes
up aloft, he saw, on his left, Apollo in the act of changing
his shirt after his exertions ou the lyre; in the centre,
Britannia with her lion, and St. George, clothed in a full
suit of huff, manfully slaying the dragon. Between the
two the eye of faith may discern a gate leading to nothing,
and shove it a wreath extended either to crown the king-
dom's acknowledged " strongest," when Mr. ('arlysle shall
have found him, and he may chance to be wending his
way to the seventh heaven through the said gate, or an
eyelet hole, in which a " sufficient" rope may be rove to
hang the arch-scoundrel when hi:shall have been ultimately
detected by the Male philosopher, and be finally deopatchea
through the airy portal into infinite space. On the ex-'
Creme right the architect saw a group of men women, and
boys, and Tritons doing nothing in particular, but evidently !
up to mischief.
These mighty conceptions. " all standing naked in the
open air," perplexed him for a time, hut at last his fertile
mind recovered itself, and in each hand he seised four un-
happy dolphins, whose tails he twisted together and tied in
a slipknot. " Here," he said, an he gave them to the stone-
cutter, "let these be your model. They are a fanciful
allusion to the naval triumphs of England, and a delicate
Buttery to the Prince Consort, who is free of the Fish-
mongers' Company. Let these stand on the two posts next
the gate." Two pasts of the four still rent lined, but the
architect was not abashed. "Carve me out," he cried, "a
lion and a unicorn supporting the royal shield, and let the
lion stand on the right and the unicorn on the left." Now
the stonecutter was no herald, he knew nothing of dexter
and sinister, hut he knew his right and his left hand, so he
carved us out to stand right and left as he looked at the
gate. We were finished in due time. I first, and stuck on
Cagy post. It was then that I perceived the falseness of my
position ; I was on the right of the spectators and the
public, but I was on the left of the shield, robbed
of the privilege won by my prowess. You may
fancy how sulky I looked. "'What ran make that
lion look so cross?" said the people as they passed by.
At last a herald came that way, and he saw in a trice what
ailed me. " You'll never get that lion to look happy till
you shift him over to his proper place on the right side of the
gate." Now, the architect was a sensible man, and followed
the herald's advice, and at last we stood as we ought. But
now a new source of grief has arisen. We stand heraldically
right, but actually wrong ; we look wrong ways, and are
perpetually at cross purposes. Instead of turning our backs
to the public, we turn them on the Queen as she comes out
of the gate. Think what misery it must be to a royal and
loyal lion to present his posteriors to Majesty ! True we do
an we can to put a hold front on the matter, and to get our
heads round to face the gate ; hut it won't do—we still
carry our tails behind us. For very spite I could sink
Into the earth, for though I cannot see my own
shame, I can see the sorry plight of my rival, the Unicorn,
who cowers down in the most unseemly attitude, as if
about to call on Chadwick and Cloacina, or those patriotic
gentlemen who signed that address to the commis-
sioner% of sewers which appeared in your paper a day or
two ago.
lye stretch out your hand and help us ; have us taken
down or broken up, and new figures carved, but let us not
stand here a laughing-stock to all who pass by.
In conclusion, I may inform you that our attitude has
created HO small coneternation at court. One of the
royal footmen standing behind the royal state coach
drawn by the royal horses was so affected that he forgot
to lower the royal window before he opened the royal
door, in consequence of which the glass was shivered
to mom.. One of the horses, too, of the Lancer
escort took fright at us, and ran away with the officer
who rode him; nor did he stop till he hod nearly deposited
his gallant master in the Serpentine. The chamberlains
talk of resigning, and the Marquis of Westminster, Lord
Steward of the Household, has been heard to soy that ho
wouldsooner have giving a dinner for six than that mieh a
mistake should have happened. An Austrian Kammerherr,
ton. "roil so-hazehn Ahrien," who rams over key and all to
see England, beheld us and fainted, and hoe since left the
country, protesting that this indecent exposure of our hind-
quarters under the very nose of msjoity, was enough to
frighten away all the nobility of his country from the Great
Exhibition. Pray help us, and
Believe me yours, very misplaced,
Tug LION THAT SUPPOHTS THE ROYAL ARMS.

WORKS.