The Express.
London, England, 1867-10-17 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, THURSDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 17, 1867.

known other signs of fabricated distress, and a few
mud-bedraggled rags fluttering in the keen cruel
wind, an effective Regent-street costume is pro-
duced. Britons are not hard-hearted, and it
would be probably far within the truth to assume
that one person in every twenty gives something,
if only a halfpenny ; while the thoughtless, the
extravagant, and the ostentatious give much more
when the begging is well done and per-
sistent. A crossing-sweeper has also many
opportunities of rendering small services,
taking messages, and directing stray folk upon
their way. He seldom does any of these things
unrewarded by some token of his employer's
esteem in small change. Indeed, it will be easy
to perceive from the tenor of his discourse that in
such cases he considers his claim on the purse of
the wayfarer as a just debt ; and it is not the
custom of Englishmen to leave even the semblance
of a claim undischarged. We have not mentioned
the more popular arts of standing on the head,
turning round like a wheel, and singing nigger
melodies, by which appeal is often successfully
made to the lovers of amusement by youths who
have no sense of decorum, because it is evident
that anything like activity is considered by its
more legitimate members as beneath the dignity of
the profession. The true artist, with a right
knowledge of what is due to him, never moves
from his post but to beg, broom in hand, and
adroitly to brush up mud or dust over those who
give him nothing.

The London crossing-sweeper is, perhaps, one of
the last of our really well paid sinecurista. He de-
rives, as we have shown, from his place an income
such as would rejoice the heart of many an edu-
cated and laborious gentleman. His profession,
indeed, is one which is all income. There is no
outlay for so much as the value of a brass plate
necessary ; and the less ho spends upon his per-
sonal appearance the larger will be his fees—a fact
which has not been observed in any other liberal
calling. Even petty tradesmen in the poorest
neighbourhood' must be neat and clean ; they
must not look squalid or smell of gin, on peril of
losing all respectable custom. But the crossing-
sweeper may stand in Bond-street, or Piccadilly, at
three o'clock on a fine afternoon in the height of
the season, all in tatters, and with a nose of
too bright a red not to have been very
recently recoloured. The dirtier, the more
maudlin, the more abject and ragged he can con-
trive to make himself the more numerous will be
the kind words, the readier the smiles and the
gifts of the flush and the fair.

Might not all these things be advantageously
altered when we get rather a more sensible class
of parish politicians ? Might not a good crossing
be given to a respectable, trustworthy man bound
to perform his duty, and properly paid ? There
are a great many things which want doing in our
streets, and which might be well done by such a
man. Street robberies, assaults, and insults to
ladies, would not only be materially diminished
by his presence, but there would be
always a witness at hand to secure the
legal punishment due to the guilty ; and to tell at
once in which area the policeman on duty is
lunching when instantly wanted. He might act
as a silent crier, going peaceably from house to
house giving notice of things lost or dropped in
the neighbourhood, such as keys, purses, and
handkerchiefs ; mention the rewards offered for
their recovery or receive them from the finders in
deposit till claimed. He might be bound to go
on certain errands when called upon by any
resident in his district, such as to fetch a doctor
in case of sudden illness, or to give notice of a
fire or an attempted burglary. Finally he might
do his own business as it ought to be done. Hia
chief duty should be to prevent street accidents,
and at stated intervals, perhaps once in every ten
minutes, stop random cab, and thundering van,
private carriage and public omnibus, just long
enough to render it possible for timid and infirm
people to peas from one side of the road to another
in cleanliness and safety.

jeet which the bishop. had in view. Nevertheless the in-
crease ill the number of scholars since the resolution in
194;.: condemning the schools should decide the govern-
ment in refusing to meddle with so admirable a system.
Give the bishops a charter for their college by all means,
for little danger may be dreaded from an institution de-
pending for support "on the parochial contributions"
which are so pathetically solicited from the faithful.
The Telegraph thinks it strange that the bishops in
considering what should be done with the revenues should
neglect the education of their docks, and wonders they do
not invite us to plant schools in every p►sish, to rear
colleges in every large town, and to make the educational
endowments large. With the funds at our command we
could do all this so completely as to render the educa-
tional machinery of Ireland better than th►t of any other
country.

THE BISHOPS AND THE ESTABLISHMENT.

The Times has been furnished with a long letter
addressed by the Bishop of lowa to the Bishop
of London, expressing the amazement he has felt
at witnessing the extent of the ritualistic move-
ment in England. The vestment exhibition et Wol-
verhampton filled him with the saddest forebodings.
An awful responsibility, he says, rests upon those en-
gaged in this movement, for the present excitement will
end in many going into genuine itomanism, and many
others into infidelity, rationalism, or indifferentism. The
Times objects to any advice on the affairs of our church
given as from a member of the late Pan-Anglican Synod.
In the same way, regarding that synod ss having no
authority whatsoever, it protests against the peremptory
requirement of the Bishop of Oxford that the clerg► of his
diocese should read the Lambeth encyclical to their con-
gregations. The majority of the persons who sign this
document are bishops of the Scotch, the colonial, and the
United States' churches, and these bishops have not the
slightest authority over the faith of the people of England.
The Bishop of Capetown claims a free church in South
Africa. Let us, at least, maintain a national church in
England. If we must listen to encyclicals and resolutions,
let them, at all events, proceed from our own bishops. We
shall be always ready to give a friendly welcome to bishops
of the American and colonial churches ; but they must be
content to come as friends, and to abstain equally from
entangling us in their own disputes and from interfering
in ours.

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

TEE PRINCE AND PRINCESS Or WALES.

ANTWERP, Orr. IT.

The King of the Belgians and the Prince of
Wales have arrived here and immediately went on
board the royal yacht Osborne, where they took
luncheon with the Princess of Wales. The King
will return to Brussels at noon, and the yacht will
sail at 1 p.m.

THE CONCORDAT.

VIENNA, Ocr. 17.

This morning's papers consider the Emperor's
autograph letter to Cardinal Rancher as a proof
that the times are really changed. It revives the
confidence of the nation that his Majesty's efforts
to carry out the duties he had undertaken as a con-
stitutional ruler will be realised. These hopes im-
part value to the letter and render it a political
manifesto of the greatest scope.

NORTH GERMANY.
BERLIN, Ocr. 16, Evinnzio.
In to-day's sitting of the North German parlia-
liament a bill abolishing the import duties upon
cattle and sheep over the frontier from Burg, in the
island of Fehmern, to Blorbro, in Schleswig, was
adopted.

NORTH SCHLESWIG.
HADERSLEBEN, Oar. 17.
The Nordschleawigitii.kncle of to-day asserts that
the negotiations between Prussia and Denmark for
a settlement of the North Schleswig question are
based upon a proposal of Prussia that the Dano-
Prussian frontier line in Schleswig be drawn be-
tween Hadersleben and Chriatianfoldt.

ITALY.
FLORENCE, Ocr. 17.
Prince Humbert has arrived here.
The papers deny the statement that Garibaldi
had left Caprera.
Menotti Garibaldi is announced to have assumed
the general command of the Papal insurgents.

TURKISH FINANCE.
CONSTANTINOPLF., OCT. b.

The Imperial Ottoman Bank has published the
usual periodical statement of the Turkish govern-
ment account, according to which 835,000 liras
have been received between the 13th of July and
the 12th of October, to meet the half-yearly
interest of the foreign loan and general debt.

THE MAURITIUS MAILS.
SUEZ, Ocr. IS.
The Mesaageries Imperials.' steamer Emirne,
with the above mails, arrived here to-day.
She was delayed by damaged machinery.

BOMBAY MAIL.

MALTA, Om. 16.

The Ripon and Mazola& left this afternoon. The
former may be expected at Marseilles on the 19th,
and the latter at Southampton about the 25th inst.

CALCUTTA, CHINA, AND AUSTRALIAN
(HEAVY) MAILS.
GIBRALTAR, Ocr. 16.
The Pera left at 6 p.m. on the 14th. All well.
She may be expected at Southampton on the
19th inst.
OUTWARD BOMBAY MAIL.
The Sumatra, from Southampton 12th inst.,
arrived to-day at 4 p.m., and leaves at 7 p.m. for
Alexandria.

THE BRAZILS.
RIO DE JANEIRO, Sim 24.

Intelligence from the seat of war announces that
the position of affairs was unchanged. The siege
of Humaita continued. President Mitre had
refused to advance, and the Marquis de Cazias
was much dissatisfied. A rumour was current of
the death of Urquiza.
The Brazilian Chambers are closed. The govern-
ment, however, had previously obtained their
sanction to the measures it bad proposed.

AMERICA.
(By ATLANTIC TZLEOLLPH.)
NEW YORK, Ocr. 16, G rat.
The steam-ship Fulton has arrived out.
COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.

Closing Prices :—Gold, 143 i. Sterling exchange
on London, 109 k. 5-20 United States Bonds, 112 ;
Illinois, 1221; Erie, 72i. Cotton—Middling Up-
land, 20.

PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 16.
Petroleum, standard white, 34.