The Express.
London, England, 1867-04-08 00:00:00

TEE EXPRESS, MONDAY EVENING, APRIL 8, 1867.

SWEEPSTAKEB OF 25 SOyS. T.Y.C.

Ratty, Narita°, Bismarck, and Bret*line are here.
HANDICAP PLATE OF 50 SOUS. FOR THREE-YR.
OLDS. T.Y.C.

Volunteer, 94 91b ; Priceless, list Sub ; Lytham, Sat ;
Union Jack, let 101 b; Lady Sophie, 7st 916; Bessie, 7st
71b ; Magpie, 7et 51b ; Indian Star. ist 41b ; Confederate,
7st 41b ; Scrmgapatam, 7st 216; Midwife, 7st Ilb ; Black-
thorn, 7it ; Dutch Aibuintl, fiat Eilb ; Rhymer, fat 1216 ;
Rus in l'rbe, fiat 10111; Katie, Cat 716 ; hiss Elizabeth,
net 7th ; Feodor, lit 716 ; Maid of *wham, fist 616 ;
Court Card, Gat ; Topsail c, sirt 121 b; Vandyke, Suit 1216;
Gas, sat 71b. All are here.
FREE HANDICAP SWEEPSTAKES. D.S.C.
_ .

Ceerop7, Lord Ronald, PAri., Archimedeg. Eigmarek,
Pirate Thief, Thalamina, Czar, Montagnard, The Skipper,
Jasper, Diadem, Gretna, Leases, Maid Marian, and Leas-
clerk are here.

SWEEPSTAKES OF no/. R.M.
Eglamour, Bismarck, and }lying Scud are here.
PLATE OF WI. Criterion Count. _

Apron Strings (sold for 2((11.); Rase, Doretta, Bravura,
Pocket Hercules, la Sorrentina, Dinah, Osprey, Demon-
stration, and Drummer u (sold for 100/. each). All are
here.

METROPOLIS OAS BILL.—Sir S. Northeote has
announced his willingness to introduce a new bill in which
blanks would be left for all figures relating to price, rate of
dividend, and the standard of gas. If this should prove
satisfactory to the gas companies, he would withdraw the
bill at present before the house. In the meantime he
postponed the second reading to Thursday next.
RP:PRESENTATION or BRISTOL.—The Bristol Times
sad Mirror of Satunlay states that the liberals of that
city have determined on bringing forward Mr. E. S. Ro-
binson, the present mayor, as a candidate for the seat now
held by Sir M. Pete, who, it in said, has.placed himself in
the hands of his party, and intimated his willingness to
resign at any moment that they may deem most favour-
able.

THE LICENSING SYSTEM. —A meeting of vice-
praidents of the conference on the licensing system was
held on Saturday afternoon, at the Earl of Shaftesbnry's
residence, in Grosvenor-square. The principles of the
Liverpool Licensing Bill were discussed, and it was re-
solved that the Earl of Shaftesbury, the Earl of Harrowby,
the Earl of Lichfield, and Lord Lyttelton should be re-
quested toconsider the expediency of introducing a bill
into the House of Lords with reference to the opinions
expressed by the vice-presidents.
SACRED HARMONIC SOCIETY. —M. Benedict's
new cantata, " The Legend of St. Cecilia," will be again
performed at Exeter-hall on Friday evening next, the lath
instant. The performance will commence at eiiht o'clock.
DELIBERATE MURDER. —At about 6 o cluck on
Saturday evening a murder of the most deliberate kind
was committed at Birmingham. It appears that Mr. John
Pryse, brother to one of the partners in the firm of Messrs.
Redman and Pryse, gunmakers, of Aston, Birmingham,
had discovered that the cashier, James Scott, who is only
22 years of age, had been tampering with the account..
He was called into the office and charged with several de-
falcations. When he learned that Mr. John Pryse had
made the discovery the prisoner went straight from the
office to the gun department, where he selected a seven-
bsnelled revolver, ready loaded, and returned to the room
in which his victim was seated. Without saying a word
he deliberately shot Mr. Pryse through the body. The
report of the pistol attracted atten'ion, and Mr. Redman
and his partner ran to see what had happened. They were
just in time to see the prisoner fire a second shot, and so
kill his victim. The brother of the deceased took hold of
the prisoner, and had the utmost difficulty in wresting the
revolver from his hands. He succeeded at last, and then
struck the pi goner about the head with it, wounding him
severely. A constable was called in, but it was necessary
to move the prisoner to the General Hospital. The pri-
soner is said to be well connected.
A RAILWAY FEDERATION.—The suggestion for
a railway federation is one that has seemed to commend
itself to the plain sense of all parties. Each company
might retain its existing organisation intact, not a single
chairman or director or official need be displaced, and a
federal council might be established to regulate the
general relations of all, this council being com-
posed of the chairmen of each company with an inde-
pendent president. That this or any analogous scheme
will be opposed by such few lines as may not be actually
mixed up in the present distress, however much they may
have squandered past opportunities, is highly probable,
but it could at any rate be carried out in a minor degree
by groups of lines such as the Brighton, the South
I Eastern, the South Western, and the London, Chat-
ham, and Dover, and the results might be safely trusted
to cause the others subsequently to fall into it.
After a definite period it would be possible for an amalga-
mation to take place of the capitals of all the federated
companies on a scaleruroportion to their market value,
and if it should be u that the federation would defeat
the very object for which the system of independent lines
was first insisted upon—namely, the prevention of mono-
poly, the true mode of meeting that objection would be to
provide that all profits above 10 or 15 per cent. should be
applied to a reduction of faros.—City artide of the Tines.
Qrtu THE Acron.—We are apt to think of this
great player, who lived a good deal according to the jolly
fashion of his rather too jolly days as a mere imbiber
of claret and the most unctuous of Falstaff,. But, in
offices of charity, rendered with exquisite delicacy, Quin's
active life wears a very different aspect. How refined was
the manner in which he forced upon penniless Thomson
a hundred pounds ! It was a debt, he said, which he owed
the poet for the pleasure he had experienced in reading his
poems. What generous humour in his reply to half-starved
Winston (for whom he had procured an engagement, and
an outfit to enable him to enter on it with decency), who
timidl asked, under the impulse of hunger, what he
should' do for a little ready money for the next few days?
" Nay," exclaimed Quin, " if you're in want of money you
must put your hand in your own pocket." And when
Winston did so, after Quin had left, he found a ten-pound
note which Qum had placed there. Then what princely
munificence there was in Quin's presenting 1,000/. to poor
Ryan—old friend and colleague. By giving such sum,
instead of bequeathing it, " I only," remarked the giver,
" cheat the Legacy-office." If James Quin was not exactly
a saint of the stage, he was, at least, exemplary in his
charity, and what Thomson said of him on, was equally
applicable to him off, the stage :

tie known to keep
Each due decorum.
He knew, too, how to have the best of it in dissuasion
with • bishop. When Warburton reminded him that God
showed himself against the regicides by bringing them all
to • violent and sudden death—which was not true Quin
triumphantly refuted the logic which discerned God's
wrath in individual affliction in his celebrated answer:
" I would not advise your lordship to make that inference,
for, if I am not mistaken, that was the case of the Twelve
Apostles."—Corshai Magazine for April.
DRILLING AND RR-DRILLING.—The hardest work
to which • man can be put is that of which he cannot
see the use, yet such is the work constantly demanded of a
soldier in time of pease. Year after year he is put
through " setting-op drill ;" he has to stand on one leg
and go through a number of contortions which are hateful
to an old soldier and perfectly useless, however useful
they may be in setting up • round-shouldered ploughboy
or narrow-chested artisan. Then on full-dress parade be
takes part in • series of manoeuvres at battalion or
brigade drill, of whose meaning and object he is left in
utter ignorance ; he learns his position as a right or left
sle or as • number of his company ; but why he moves in
certain directions, or why his battalion goes through
these evolutions, he has no knowledge. Again he parades
for " position drill," with more contortions, and such is his
life from day to day. No matter how perfect in his drill,
or how old a soldier he may be, no matter what foreign or
active service he may have seen, he most go through
this farce of drilling and re-drilling, till from sheer weari-
ness and disgust he becomes careless and slack, and
degenerates from • smart quick man into an indifferent
automaton. All this drill is only required because taught
in this senseless manner, which compels men to learn by
rote without appealing to their understanding, and because
of our adherence to a cumbrous system of drill, which we
shall bitterly regret the first time we have to meet an
active enemy. Half the drill-book should be swept away.
The cramping and complicated pivot system should be
abolished ; a man's face should always be his front, his
right hand always the right of his battalion or company,
changes of front should be performed by the facing about
of the line, and each man should learn to be more indepen-
dent than now.—Freeer's Magazine for ApriL
ROYAL FREE HOSPITAL, GRAY'S-INN.ROAD.—The
number of patients relieved at this hospital during the
week ending APRIL 6, was 3,506, of which 1,165 were
DOW Mesa.