The Express.
London, England, 1866-03-14 00:00:00

FRANCE.

rims, NABOB 13.
Baron de Bndberg, Russian ambassador to this
court, is expected to, arrive in Paris 4-morrow.
It is stated that the second sitting of the Conference
on the question of the Principalities will be held to-
morrow. Tslsgraphio Orion received here from
ConettiAippejg,,tft 1.201-,lipt.tennstnoe that
the Sultan Itan anti4ei the Convention between the
Viceroy of Bgypt and the Buss Canal Company.

~,

.
ORIN 4 AXD:44rAN.
BONG KONG, Frs. I.

Piracy has become very slariniz g in the vicinity
of Hong Kong harbonr. Three vessels have been
attacked, With loss of life. Alarming intelligence
has been received from Haakow. A large rebel
force is within thirty miles of that city. Advices
from Japan state that the Belgian envoy had visited
Jeddo, in, order to submit proposals for a treaty of
commerce between Belgium and Japan. Mimic's
have visited the Foreign Minister at Yokohama, to
coagratnlate him upon the ratification of the treaty.

AUSTRALIA. .
Alazaaddilh.)
'LEL SOURNS, JAS. 25.

The elections to the Legislative Assembly are the
chief topic of the month. Seventeen ministerialista
and seven opposition members have so far been
returned. Tarragon has won the race for the
Champion Cup. The drought has to a greet extent
broken up, and ,heavy rains have fallen throughout
the whole northern continent. The shipments of
gold to England during the month amount to
77,750 ounces.

SYDNEY; JAL 21.

A ministerial crisis has taken place here, arising
out of the Tariff Bill, which, however, was ulti-
mately passed. The new ministry are opposed by
the free-trade patty. Bush-ranging is on the de-
cline. Dunn and Thunderbolt have been captured.

NEW ZEALAND.

MELBOURNE, JAN. 25.

lidvices from New Zealand announce that the
war is virtually over. Several ships have been
chartered to convey home the 40th, 43rd, 68th, and
70th Regiments. General Chute attacked and cap-
tured a strongly fortified pab, near Pate, on the 6th
and 7th inst.

•
DMITRUCTION Of • COTTON MILL DT FIRE AT
BUENlNT.—Yesterday morning information was received
by the various fire iosureace companies of the destruction
of Mesas. H. Koowles sad Bon's cotton mill, Baruley,
known as the Frimley Mills. The Ices is estimated at
30,0013/. Several persons working In the mill are supposed
to have pseished.
SCOTCH SABEATAZIANISM.—I Can rmember the
day ori which a good clergyman said from t ehe pulpit, that
whenever, on a summer Sunday evening, he behold the
people of • certain Scotch town quietly sad decorously
walking a great peer expanse by the shore of the sea, he
always thought of Sodom and Gomorrah, and prayed that
fire might Dot fall from heaven to burn up the Sabbath-
breaker* I And as a boy, there was *otitis, I believed
more implicitly, than that it was a sin to take a walk
on Sunday. How we have atlysoc,d linos then ! There
is now no part ci the week pleasanter to me, nor enjoyed
with more assurance that the enjoyment is lawful and
right, than the hour after afternoon service on each Lord's-
day, when you may see a great part of the population of
this ancient city quietly walking on the beach or the bent,
and feeling an influence from all around them for which
only the very hardened can fail to be the better. We all
bold the value of the "Shorter Catechism" still t but we
have mime to ioterprat differently the follow air statement
contained in that excellent treat :—" The Sabbath is to
be sanctified by a holy resting all that day, even from such
worldly employamene and recreations ss are lawful on other
dap; and speeding the whole time in the public and
private exercises of God's worship, except so much as is to
betakes up in the works of necessity sal mercy." Doubtless
that lest clause, which speaks of necessity aud mercy,
always served as a very wide back door. But there ware
many parents who really tried to make their children spend
the whole tints in the public end private exercises above
named, aod who failed to discern that a decorous walk after
church, and the enjoyment of domestic quiet in the availing
are most truly of the nature of (Jude' worsh p, properly
understood and rightly enjoyed. Therefore they mails
their children go to church, to services of enormous
length, and withoit a vestige ci interest for a child ; and
then they devoted the sestet the day to examining them in
the shorter catechism. The natural effect was, to make the
children hate both the catechism and the Sunday as long as
they lived. A word as to length of church services.
While a Scotch sermon now, if preached by a good
preacher, rarely exceeds half-an-hour is length, and the
entire service lasts just an hoar and • half, I remember the
days when the sermon was an hour or more, sad sometimes
you had two of the fearful couipoait ens at one service.
Yes, it Deems Dearly as strange to me now as it will to as
Anglican reader ,• but many a time have I entered church
at 11 a.m., and been present at a service lasting till 2 p.m.
—three mortal hours! sod certain it was then as now, that
the worm the preacher, the longer was the sermon sure to
be.—Fraecr's Maga:ins for March.
SCHOOLMISTRESSES AND SCHOOLMASTERS. —No
woman takes to the business of teaching dirks except under
pressure of absolute necessity. The moat successful school-
mistral.se do not realise more than • very modest compe-
tency to retire upon in old age ; few get more thin daily
bread. Oteu there aan idle sc.mp of a husband in the
background, who is not ashamed to be the parasite and
cankerworm of his own wife, Every otni knows how dif-
ferent it is with men. The protonic* of a schoolmaster.
if sometimes irksome and laborious. is, and always has
been is Dieted, except by the mar's own fault, dignified
and bonourable—often, indeed, in the case of clenty, lead-
ing to the very highest preferineets in the church. Many
asters of ordinary private schools, after holding a position
cigreat reity *smog their neighbours, retire with
good forams.. This exoelleet suite of things is secured.
almost beyond fear of change, by the great position and
growing influence of the two universities is the country,
sod their sending their most promising sons not merely to
the old foundstious of Henry VI. and Edward VI., and
the great schools whir have sprung from the generosity
of prrvste pecans, but even to such r hires no rewires.
beyond the capital of an individual Lactim have no seek
helps and encouragements ; end perhaps the very first thing
to be dormiin order to improve the education of girls is to
add `and the calliag of their teachers. Many acoom-
plished attractive women are at the head of
gide' schools hen sad there throughout the country
such no doubt enjoy the respect and affectioo they de-
serve from their pupils and their fiends. Many charming
girls whose homes are poor, or who have been left in
orphaehood, go out as governesses for the sake of food sod
di.
shelter. These too are sometimes—often. let us hope—
treated with parental cue and khedives'. But it is iin le
to say that their calling is regarded by the nubile at •5 as
more then tolerably reepectside—ciertainly not
Take the sues test ci martyrlf a mas—tay a
man barrister, barrister, or military or naval Aker—marry • lady
who bas bus espied in teaching, it is at least • question
among his Moods -whether be may not have made some-
thieg of a sedsallisinea Certainly Jae inset chosen to have
mauled weiL -It is probable that very few sash marriages
COME at au. Far differeet is it with the other sax. Tutors
of maws sad schoolmasters lave, if ate may venters so
to put 11, the pick of the metrinierelslistarket. Diu at a
house in a provincial tow* when AIM is sovietism school,
end tee Uses bee the master's wife is one ci the preiiiieet,
sprishtiiest, sled meet lads lib" mimeo ie 4116 TOM. Why
there should be this diffuse.. is herd to eas.—Ons-
parer, 30144111 for Mara.