The Express.
London, England, 1866-05-25 00:00:00

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MAPPIN BROTHERS. —Established A. x.lBlO.

CHESTSof SELVERPLATEfor the COLONIES.

CUTLERY and SILVER PLATE for
itatrasmo.

MAPPIN BROTHERS, LONDON BRIDGE.

MAPPIN BROTHERS, 222, REGENT-
mum

/HURTLE, TURTLE, TURTLE.
lT J. Clear Mak. TVA. vsßd TURTLE SOUPS always ready.
rAidirs-kr siorxrzrzzar, rwcaDELLT.
WM. DONALD. Prop/War.

VWEST-END DINERS.—The WELLING-
TON, theamas Picea&ll7. UM&
are Diraarrosa on aria floor. The subscrtptlon rooms are mow
'pm Tama, twelve mostbs. £1 lla ad ; raciaths, El la—
Apply to A Ouseroo, 41, St Jararitirstrest

LONDON must have a SUPPER and 14-USIO
SOON for Owitheurn—Ranomber, we wan fee yea M
"'VANS'; atter the Covent Garden Opera and the Theban'.

'Mt erpreslo.

HAYMARKET.
TKO lemma, THE BALANCE OF COMFORT. Mown
Hove, Roma. Braid, du.; Miss Ada Caveadisli.—THE FAVORITE
OF J'ORTUNIL Mama. Bnekatone, Cleippenki, and ifotharn ;
Cnippendsia, die..--And THE WOLF AND TRE LAMB.

PILINCLidr&
THTS BYINDOG, A LUCKY "Mal HENRY VIII.
Cardinal Wolsey, Mr. Maria Bean ; Queen Katherine, Mra
Chlet• lean.

LI CRUM
Teas Immo, SIMPSON AND 00. Mr. Row, and VW
Elaworthy—And THE CORSICAN BROTHERS. Maws. Pech-
ter, Jordan, Emery, Vezln, Wlddlcorab. Moreland. & Ilteratrick;
Madams Laren, Durarney, Remade, and Tessa,

BRITANNIA.
Tne Iteirriu,RlCH AND POOR; OR, THE POUR SEASONS.
—The Hungarian Dancers, tom the Orford and Alhambra—To
conclude with THE CORPORAL'S DAUGHTER. Mem% Rer,
mitts, Cranford, & Itigwood ; IllatClara SR Gime &Ma S. Dm.

HIGH-WATER AT LONDON-BILIDOL
Tnm DAT —Morning, 111 Elm Afternoon, 11h. Aftn.
TO-Xosaow—Morning, Oh. Om Afternoon, Oh. lam

LONDON, FRIDAY, MAY 25.

AT a public meeting held yesterday in the
Mansion-house, it was resolved to erect a public
statue on some conspicuous spot in the City of
London, in honour of Mr. PEABODY, and in acknow-
ledgment of his magnificent benefaction to the in-
dustrious poor. The occasion of the meeting was
almost unique in the annals of the Egyptian Hall,
where complimentary speeches and panegyrics are
as common as the delicacies of the season. The
Marion-house ideal of human heroism is seldom
of so unconventional a type as that of the illus-
trious American. It seems a pity that the natural
impatience of grateful admiration to express itself
in some enduring form should have found none
more congenial to the character and life of the man
whose munificence was declared to be "more than
" princely," and who in doing good had shunned
ostentation as others seek it, than a vulgar effigy
in a thoroughfare, after the manner of a ca-
nonized GEORGE the FOURTH. There is probably
no cheaper or more vulgar way of dis-
charging an obligation to a benefactor than
this, and we may be allowed to regret that Mr.
PEABODY (who was happily far out of hearing
when his statue was proposed) should be con-
demned to fall a sacrifice to the genius of English
monumental sculpture. One speaker, indeed, at
the meeting yesterday, ventured to express a
doubt whether the erection of a statue was the
best way of recognising Mr. PEABODY'S services
to humanity, and whether, having already de-
clined the honours proposed to be conferred
upon him by her MAJESTY, and having " objected
" to be dinnered and feted," Mr. PEABODY would
be peculiarly pleased to find himself pilloried for
ever in the street. As Mr. BILLING remarked,
neither the climate of this country, nor
the atmosphere of this town, is propitious
to public statues. On the other hand, a
statue is the most classical and the most con-
spicuous embodiment of public gratitude, and as
it is undoubtedly far easier to erect a statue than
to found a hospital, and far easier to do either of
these things than to copy a great example, and
to cherish the memory of a benefactor by emu-
lating his virtues or following in his footsteps, we
need not be surprised to find that the opinion of
the meeting was unanimously in favour of the
statue. A Peabody Hospital, or some other
similar institution, founded by public subscrip-
tions, might, as it was suggested, appropriately
be decorated with statues, which need not be
exposed to the rain and dust, and such an insti-
tute would be a worthier monument of the
great benefactor. But it is a simpler process for
the richest men in the richest city in the world
to relieve their consciences and pay homage to
unexampled virtue by celebrating it in stone.

THE most important movement in the Stock
Exchange yesterday was a continuance of the
fall in bank shares, the depression in which was
again serious, especially as regards London
and County, and Agra and Masterman's. Pro-
fiting by the dislocated condition of mercantile
credit, and by the belief that further failures will
take place in the cotton and other trades, which
are greatly hampered by the difficulty attending
sales in the present state of the money market,
speculators for a fall yesterday pressed sales with
extraordinary boldness. These operations have
now been organised into a complete system by a
clique of speculators, who seem to be more nume-
rous outside than inside the Stock Exchange.
Day after day they make a set against
some particular bank, in the same way as they
did recently with the financial companies. They
are well aware that by persistent sales they can
greatly depress prices, and that in these anxious
times a daily fall is very likely both to induce refs-
lisatione by bona fide but timid holders, and to in-
fluence withdrawals of deposits or current balances
by some of the customers of the banks. All this,
together with the sedulous dissemination of
rumours prejudicial to credit, is done solely with
the object of buying back the shares at a lower
price. The Bank of London adds one more to the
list of companies which have been destroyed
by these tactics; for, however unsound, con-
sidered from a banking point of view, may
have been its policy in locking up its funds
indefinitely in securities of an inconvertible nature,
and suitable only to a financial company, that
bank would not have succumbed, and been obliged
to utterly sacrifice a valuable and well established
business, had it not been for the pressure by deposi-
tors and other customers, caused by the fall in the
price of the shares. It is very desirable that the
public, before falling victims to these speculative
snares, should take counsel with sound advisers.
The real nature of the depreciatorymovementis seen
more clearly now that the speculators, having
worked their will upon banks of recent
formation and weak credit, are beginning to

attack the older and better established in-
stitutions, which, from their standing at
comparatively high premiums, present, in their
view, a proportionate scope for a fall. If bon& fide
holders, satisfied with the soundness of their
property, would but be calm, and view these