The Express.
London, England, 1866-01-20 00:00:00

LIFEBOAT BERVICES.—During the storms of
the pus year the National Lifeboat Imtitution, by its life-
boat and other mean; contributed to the saving of 707 persona
tram afferent wyedui on our cassia. The Institution also ex-
pended 01E74 In the same period on its lifeboat establishments,
In selditioa to granting ELM for rewards for saving life and
exercising the lifeboats.
The committee of the Institution earnestly APPEAL to the
public for ASSISTANCE, to enable them to meet the continued
Wavy demands oa the lastitution's 153 Lifeboat Stations.
Contributions are received h the London and Country
Bankers and by the Secretary, Richard Lew* Bp., at the In-
mantion,ls, Johnxtreet, Adelphi, London.
JOHN BROOPEN.

nRIGDIAL GOLD CHAIN MANUFACTORY,
N. 14 EZNILIIIITA4TAILT. 00VINT4AILDEN.

JOHN BROODS= GOLD CHAINS.

JOHN BROGDENS GOLD GUARD 0 RLINEL

jORN BROODER'S GOLD ALBERT CHAINS.

JOHN BROGDENS GOLD BROOCH C HALM.

MESSRS. WATHERSTON and SON,
Goldsmiths sad Jewellers.
Rave Ready for Loapeation a Great Variety of JEWELLERY,
of the Latest Dodos, Imitable for
WEDDING PRESENTS sad NEW-YR/XS GIFTS.
It. Pall-mall East. S.W.

(PELLE MEDAL AWARDED.)
ALLEN'S PATENT PORTMANTEAUS and
TRAVELLING BMX with
LAMM: WARDROBE TEITNEB,EtuaIIIABTIrTAGB, with
Ryer
Mt= BOXER, WRITING and Lamm CABIN, and
ON other articles for home or oonilnental travalling. Llinetrated
alien's fres.
Alba Barrack /furniture Catalogue of Portable Bed
Made, Drawers, Easy Chairs, Washhandande, Canteens, &c..

%w. Amax.
steam. w.c.

and ?Modes, 37, West Inroad,

the ovroveoo.

TO 001LIMPONDISML
Averilleaments Wended tor " The tomes " London Verdes
=, must be at the Once, Boaverie•dreet, by Two
lc on the day cd

Tars EVENING, BROTHS& SAIL Mews. Rather% Hea-
dstone* and Compton • ' Owe Nell, Moore, Snowdon,
ORPHEUS IN DIM HAY MARKET, Mews Tanen & D. Maher;
Man Keeley, Howard & Wright —MY HUSBAND'S GHOST.

P'!UNCEBET&

THIS Svionso, QUIRT-
'LODGINGS.—After • which IT IS
RIMS TOO !ATI TO MIND. Mews. Vining, O. Melville,
I. Mead, D. Murray. b. Csiluiem, Villiers. J. 0. Shore, 0. Mer-
sa, sod R. Cattruirt; Misses L. Moore aad K. Rodgers.

LYCII7If.

THIS NVINT/10, iffificritious STRANGER. Mr. H.
Widdicomb.—T HZ MASTER OF RAVENSWOOD. Loam.
toolatar. Jordan. Train. titary, Widdluxumb, Fitzpatrick, Evan;
Madam= Taman, Ziawarthy, Loom C. Lodging.

BILITAIIIRIL

'mg imago, OLD DADDY LONGLEGS AND SIR REGRET
CIRCUS; OR, *HE RACE fOR THE GOLDEN APPLES.
11. and Wine. Martmsbacb.—Shinor BennL—Olmar.—Shower
of Golden Rain.—And JIM& THE MORMON'S DAUGHTER.

IfIGHWMA AT LONDON-BBIDOL

TI DATZI43TbibT, 4k sea
xo-atozzow— Moratag, 4b. ..Atternoos. (41.175.

LONDON. SATURDAY. JANUARY 20.

IT will be some time before we hear the last of
the loss of the London. Since the wreck of the
Royal Charter, more than six years since, no such
catastrophe has shocked and saddened the public ;
and the noble behaviour of her commander, and
of the passengers who calmly stood to meet their
fate, as if strengthened and consoled by the firm-
ness of his great example, has affected all who
have heard or read this story with a most pro-
found and poignant sympathy. Nor is it un-
seemly or ungenerous that, after the due offices
of respect have been paid to the memory
of men who died at the post of duty, the public
instinct of self-preservation should seek to
be convinced by all manner of sugges-
tions and explanations, very apt to occur to
critics undisturbed by the dangers and
lifficulties they discuss, that the calamity was pre-
ventible, and that some one was to blame for dfing
this or for not doing that. Whenever a coal pit
falls in or explodes, or news of some uncommon
shipwreck is brought to land, there is a certain
alms of public instructors who noisily pounce
upon the narrative of the survivors, and turn
it to account, by showing how it never should
or could have happened had they been in charge,
and by painting the horrors of the scene with the
biggest brush in the world. They do this of course
under a solemn sense of responsibility to the vast
number of their readers who may probably at
some time or other be exposed to the dangers of a
sea voyage. Now, we are not for one moment
supposing that tenderness for the reputation and
memory of brave men who are gone beyond reach
of praise or blame should make public writers
forget what is due to the living interests they
represent. We would simply take the liberty
to suggest that, in anticipating so hurriedly
a severe and stringent official inquiry into the
cause and circumstances of such a calamity as
the loss of the London, writers who must always
make a display and a sensation at any cost, would
do well to combine the slashing style with a little
common sense.

One of our most extensive contemporaries, in
order, perhaps, to make sure of saying something
that would not be likely to occur to anybody else,
and to say it with the proper amount of blue
fire, declared with all the emphasis of the
printer's art that the 220 human beings who
petshed in the London might be living
at this very hour —if the London had
never put to sea when she did : This search-
ing and startling conclusion looks at first sight, it
is true, singularly modest, and almost too awes-
Bible to the comprehension of the humblest intel-
lect. But our contemporary guards against the
rash interpretation of its italics by a careless
reader. It proceeds—a little injudiciously,
perhaps—to give its reasons. The commander of
the London, it insists, should never have proceeded
to sea with &falling weather-glase ;—aremark which
also seems obvious enough. Now, in the first place,
it is by no means evident that the weatherglass
was falling when the London left Plymouth Sound.
A gale from the W. and S.W. had been blowing
for three days when the London entered the Sound;
but when she left Plymouth the wind, though b'ow-
ing from the same quarter, had lulled almost to a
calm. No doubt the weather was broken and dis-
turbed ; it has been so with scarcely a day's in-
termission since the year began. But does our
contemporary mean that a packet or passenger-
ship, of the size and rate of the London, with her
passengers and cargo on board, bound to Australia,
is to wait weatherbound until her barometers mark
set fair, and her windgleas certifies a crlm ? What
would become of our trade with America and the
West Indies if the captains of the Canard and the
Royal Mail line never ventured to proceed to sea
except in fine weather 1 Why, for three months
oat of the twelve they would never proceed to sea
at all.

If the Cunard boats never left their moorings
in the Mersey when the weather looked
threatening, or the barometers marked " change,"
what would become, we should be glad to hear, of
their contract with the Post-office, and how would
the merchants of London and New York like the
arrangement? It would be just as rational to pro-
pose at once to go back to the good old days and
ways when a six months' voyage to Calcutta, or a
six weeks' voyage to Quebec, was prefaced by a
month's anchor in the Downs. Conceive a line