The Express.
London, England, 1867-01-03 00:00:00

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.

TEIS DAT --11mmlog, Ob. 15m Afternoon, Oh. anat.
10-MOlioll-11torolng, 13 Im.. Afternoon, lA. 22w.

LONDON, TDURSDAY, JANUARY 3.

Or late years English winters have not been
getting their due. It is said they are losing their
grand old features, and are becoming but shadows
of their former mighty selves. People w'ao can
remember England without railways like to tell
of the great north road being snowed up and com-
munications between town and country cut off :
they talk of the old times till they half
persuade themselves that there is a sign of
something wrong in receiving your letters regu-
larly in mid-winter. Let us hope they are
now pleased. The snow fall of yesterday
might satisfy the most inveterate amateurs of
heavy weather ; but if it does not, there
is comfort in tho thought that more is to follow.
London presented some remarkable aspects yester-
day. The well-shod and well-clad had only to go
into our squares and gardens to enjoy a picture of
surpassing beauty ; every form of nature and art
which we are accustomed to see begrimed with
dirt and soot having its exposed lines and surfaces
set off with the pure drifted snow. It seemed as
if Nature would for one day pleasantly assert her
title in this great Babel. This was the agreeable
aide of out-door life ; but it had heavy drawbacks.
Unfortunate were the thousands who had business
in the City yesterday, and could not avail them-
selves of the Metropolitan Railway. More than
half-a-million of persons visit London from
the suburbs, and elsewhere every working
day, and yesterday those who had engage-
ments which they could not postpone had to
make their way through a storm without the aid
of the omnibus, on the aid of which they
are accustomed implicitly to depend. The
ordinary arrangements for the passenger traffic
of the metropolis were in abeyance. In
the morning a few omnibuses started, but only
a portion of these reached their destination,
and later in the day not a public conveyance
was anywhere to be seen. The main lines of
communication between the City and the west
were abandoned to slow-moving waggons. Here
and there a few idlers might be seen collected
round a brougham immovably embedded in the
snow, and tendering the absurdest suggestions,
mingled with mock condolence to the coachman ;
but at four o'clock Fleet-street, ordinarilyso difficult
of passage, had no more traffic than the High-street
of a country town. The cab service was thrown
out of order as completely as that of the omni-
buses. Very few vehicles left the yards, and as
two horses were required for these, the hire in all
cases became a matter of negotiation. Last night
the streets remained blocked with snow, and
beyond Sir RICHARD Idouts's notification to
occu:nela to keep the footways before
their houses clean, nothing had been done
to make locomotion safe or even possible.
In a few hours we shall see whether the capital
has or has not a Government. Tho snow-fall of
yesterday, it may be alleged, took every oody by
surprise ; at all events no arrangements could be
made beforehand to prevent the inconvenience
which such an occurrence would produce. But
the same excuse will not be available to-day. The
snow usurps our streets, animals suffer severely,
business is impeded, and the strongest and most
healthy anirdig us are subjected to great discom-
fort and grievous loss of time. The evil is
more likely to increase than diminish, for appa-
rently a great body of snow is still in suspense, and
will soon add to the present accumulation. But the
inconvenience at present endured, is nothing in
comparison with that which will be felt when,
sooner or later, the thaw takes place. Then, if
nothing is done to anticipate the occasion, as on
the memorable 11th of January in last year, we
shall see our streets deluged with a detestable
slush, which will be churned up, hour after hour,
by innumerable wheels, and be sure to be most
abundant at the intersections of the streets and at
accustomed points of transit. Not at the Carriboo
diggings can travelling be more wretched than it
is in London when a thaw has succeeded a fall of
snow. Now, are the heavily taxed inhabitants of
London to resign themselves to these miseries with
their eyes open ? Are all our venerated parochial
and more recent semi-municipal institutions to
prove themselves once more good for nothing
It is said that there are an unusual number
of labourers—we forget how many thousands—
out of employ in the East of London. The ordi-
nary surplus, however, that may be found in good
times about the Dock gates, would make a formid-
able brigade. If men are wanted, why cannot
these labourers be organized and set to work to
clear the streets T The money that this labour
would cost does not constitute the reason. We
should all be willing to pay the extra cost of
clearing the thoroughfares. for we should get the
money back in comfort and convenience, not to
say in actual saving of expenditure. Let our go-
verning bodies show at this time that they have
learned something, and are not so incapable as
their enemies are fond of asserting.

TEE Ministerial newspapers announce that
Mr. MANMEL, the Reader in Moral and Meta-
physical Philosophy at 31agdalen College, has been
nominated to the Regius Professorship of Eccle-
siastical History in the University of Oxford. We
have looked fur some explanation of this appoint