The Express.
London, England, 1867-12-12 00:00:00

LYCHOII.

Tuts Immo, PRILFEZ7I437 \Du )land Shelley. —And
tOMEO AND JULIET. Messrs. W. Lacy and Ryder ; Miss
Vestrall, Mn. Manton, and Miss Mllly Palmer.

STRAND.

Tin Iviernro, NOTHING TO VI7ILSE. Ile. Thorne and Min
liaston.—KlND TO A FAULT. Mews. Parselle, !teflon], and
James: Mesdames Johastone, Glrynne, and Hughes.—And
WILLIAM TELL WITH A VENGIICE.

HOLBORN.

Tims EVISMO. FOR LOVE. Mears. H. J. Montagne, Pelee.
Garden. Westland, and H. Widdleomb; Mesdames Stephens,
Bennele, C. eaundern Re. —And MARY TVltNe.lt Olt, THE
WICIUUS WILLIN. Idles Josephs.

I.I.IETANIrIA.,

TRte avintrira, TAZ K5lOl DEATH-TRAP. Marra Ray.
molds, sdl, tc. : Mrs & lase.—Mr. Mark Floyd; Mr. and Mn.
Langan J.; Mr. J. Millkent—CAPTAlN °SKALD. Mama Howe,
Charlton, Madams Courtanay, Booth, etc.

NIGH WATIA AT LONDON RIUDGIL
fins DL —Yoram /A. Bas---Afternoce. SL SUL
To-llcautow—Mordas, 54m.......Atimmuuk. 31a.

LO_VDON, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 12.

THAT thoughtful pastor of Carolina who
feared to emancipate Si.*r. MARTIN'S sister lest
she should fall a victim to "free society," but
was ultimately persuaded to hand her over to her
own brother for a hundred pounds sterling, might
possibly feel inclined to preach us a sermon over
the dead body of that poor child, of name and
birth unknown, upon whom Coroner RICHARDS
held an inquest last Tuesday. If that " fine boy
" of two years old" had lived " down South"
ten years ago, his chattel value would have ensured
him an amount of attention that might have
preserved him through the common perils of child-
hood. At any rate it would hive given somebody
an interest in keeping him alive after he had been
abandoned by his parents. We want a name for
that inverted system of trade in human flesh and
blood which has sprung up among us, and in which
money is paid, not for, but with, a child,
on condition that its parents shall never see it
again. There are few days on which those who
know where to look for it may not find among ad-
vertisements of a " Billiard- tableto be disposedof,"
or advice " To All in Debtor Difficulties," or" Nine
"Houses for a Shilling Each," an announcement
that " A Respectable Couple not blesaed with offspring
" wish to adopt a Child." Such an advertisement
appeared last March in a London daily paper,
having been inserted by Mr. Wit.trait JAMAS
COOPER, of 10, Nelson-street, Bethino-green, and
elicited a response from a writer who had " a
" little boy fourteen months old" whom she
" wished to have adopted," and desired to be fur-
nished with full particulars concerr;ng the pra-
mium and other matters. Mrs. COOPER, who
replied, dealt with her correspondent in a very
business-like manner. As to the premium, she
wrote—" We have decided 201. if under
" six months, or 151. if over." The child, it
was further stipulated, was to be " entirely given
"up ;" the parents were on no pretence to
acknowledge it at any future time ; in short, as
Mrs. COOPER put it, " it is to be to all intents rad
" purposes our child." No pains, it will be seen.
were spared to strip the child of the last chance
it might have of aid from its natural protectors,
or to exclude the advantage it might possibly
receive from a revival of tender feeling on the
part of either of its parents. The case of many
children would be desperate indeed if there ex-
isted no pee er ready to defend the rights of
children thus abandoned by their proper guardians.
The child's mother could only give 101. prep-'um,
but she enlarged upon his good qualities : " He
"is now getting vet.). pleasant ; he is a very
" healthy and a very good child, and of good
" birth. I would give him up entirely."
These terms were accepted, and it only re-
mained to deliver possession of the helpless and
unconscious subject of the bargain. No mo was
lost in the process, and on the 23rd of March las.
a cab drove up to the COOPERS' door, and a young
lady of about three and twenty stepped out with
the child in her arms and 10/, in het hand. Her
words, as she handed over her boy, e:th all his
destinies, to persons she had never seen before,
were few, aid to the point :—" This is my
" illegitimate child ; it has not been baptized, and
"it has no name." What a description—a string
of negations ! A stranger in a world which has
no place for him, ho can only be described by his
want of all he ought to have. Who this spectral
visitor was, where she came from, whither she was
going, the COOPERS declare they know not. Ard
why should they want to know, when the child's
short history up to that day was thenceforward to
be a blank for itself and all the world I Enough
that there the child was, and, above all, there
was the 101. If the money were good and lawful
the guest might vanish and return into tho mys-
tery from which she came.

We hear no more of this " pleasant, healthy,
" good child " for six months. How he fared at
the hands of strangers during that period when
he should have been
Fretted by sallies of his mother's kisses,
With light upon him from his father's ryes,
•

we know not. On Saturday last, however,
Mr. CAA M KERS, a practitioner in attend-
ance upon Mrs. COOPER, was about to leave
her house, when he was abruptly called by her
husband to the fact that a child was dead in the
house. Stepping into an adjoining room he saw a
boy, about two years of am described as
very beautiful, but with a " blue mark over
" the lips," and some other signs which
usually accompany death by suffocation. A
Coroner's inquest was of course held, when the
facts we have narrated were given in
evidence. COOPER was very reluctant to
state the circnnistances under which the
child came under his care. Be denied that in
the advertisement for a child anything had been
said about money; but the letters which he most
unwillingly produced showed that from the first
money was the main consideration. The actual cause
of death remains to be investigated, the inquest
having been adjourned for that purpose, it would
therefore be premature to offer an opinion on
that subject. The COOPERS declare that the child

IT would be to assume that Lord DERBY is a
negligent observer of what is passing in the world
to suppose that when he recommended the trans-
lation of Bishop SELWYN from New Zealand to
Lichfield he was unaware of the Church princi-
ples of that eminent missionary, or of the manner
in which he has sought to apply them in his own
diocese, and to promote them in the dioceses of
his neighbours. The Bishop is a great eccle-
siastical organiser, committed to very serious
changes in the constitution and administration of
the Church of England, and the Government in
transferring him to Lichfield must be held to have
taken him, if the expression may be pardoned,
" with all his engagements." Dr. SExwirx was
one of the Colonial Bishops who remained in
England after the earlier sittings of the Lam-
beth Conference, in order to assist in bringing
its business to a conclusion. At the September
meeting of the Conference the affairs of the church
in Natal were referred to a Committee, consisting
of three English, ono Irish, one Scotch, five Colo-
nial, and three American bishops, of which Bishop
SELwrzi was appointed convener. The Conference
re-assembled on Tuesday last, as many as forty-six
bishops attending, when Bishop SELWYN presented
the Committee's report. This document, we are
informed, bears the signature of every member of
the Committee—among others, the names of Dr.
TRENCH, Archbishop of Dublin ; of Dr. C. R.
SomNaa, Bishop of Winchester ; of Dr. HAROLD
Baowits, Bishop of Ely ; of Dr. Enworr,
Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol ; and of Bishop
SELWYN himself. These prelates concur in
representing that the sentence of deposition
pronounced by the Metropolitan and Bishops
of South Africa upon Dr. Cotxwao is
spiritually valid ; that the Bishop of CAPETOWN,
as Metropolitan, might have visited Dr.
Coteries° with summary jurisdiction, and taken
the management of the diocese of Natal out of his
hands without trial ; that the proceedings of the
South African Church have been approved by the
Convocations of Canterbury and York ; by the
General Convention of the Episcopal Church in
the United States ; by the Episcopal Synod of the
Scottish Church, and by the Provincial Synod of
Canada ; finally, that the spiritual validity of
the sentence of deposition was accepted by
fifty-aix bishops at the former meeting of
the Lambeth Conference. These statements
are preliminary to a practical recommendation.
The Committee, judging that the see is spiritually
vacant, and learning by the evidence brought
before them that there are many members of the
Church who are unable to accept the ministrations
of Dr. COLENBO, deem it to be the duty of the
Metropolitan and other Bishops of South Africa
to proceed, upon the election of the clergy and laity
in Natal, to consecrate a bishop to discharge those
spiritual functions of which these members of the
Church are now in want. Such is the recommen-
dation of Bishop SELWYN and his colleagues, which
the Conference received on Tuesday without dis-
cussion, and ordered to be printed. Its impor-
tance will escape no observer. It will be noticed
that the Committee treat the " South African
" Church" as an organised and self-governing
body, capable not only of electing, but of con-
secrating its own bishops without external aid,
and independently of external control. It is to be
assumed that these learned persons have well con-
sidered the principles on which they act, and the
direction in which those principles tend. The
course they are taking may be • wise one, but at
the least it is radical and revolutionary.

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.
(THIS DAY.)

was found dead early on Saturday morning lying calleges, sees, or clergy, and insist on applying a special
lon his back in bed, having had nothing the matter system of education to a part of oar dominions in which
with him but a cough, and the disturbance inci- Romanian predominates simply on this ground.
The Times mays the French government and people ought
dent to teething. An attempt is to be made to
speedily now to give up the conceit that then exists more
find out the parents of the child, and very properly, than ono opinion in Italy about the temporal power of the
for it is time to ascertain whether natural reapon- Pope. There may still be men in Italy who do not care
sibilities can thus be shuffled off for a small money much about Rowe as a capita, ; there may be others who
payment and with an assurance that whatever hap- would regret the departure of the Pope from the Vatican
pens no questions shall be asked. If this is per-
as a national calamity ;but that Rome should belong to
nutted by law, it is high time the law was
Italy, and that priestly rule ia no longer compatible with
the free life of the Italian nation, are principles which no
amended.
longer admit of discussion in the peninsula. The present
ministry of Italy, than which a more conservative one
could not be found, are all as determined to go to Rome
as Garibaldi himself. The only point of divergence is as
to the means.
The Daily News describes the vote of the American
House of Representatives against the impeachment of Mr.
Johnson as removing a source of irritation and mistrust,
and as indicating a moderate temper on the part of
congress. The vote may be taken to mean that congress
will modify its reconstruction requirements rather in the
interest of the moderate party than in that of the
extreme radicals. Indeed, the power of the radical section
of the republican party is probably pretty fairly indicated
by the number, fifty-seven, who votcd in favour of Mr.
Johnson', impeachment. That is about the number, per-
haps more than the number, of members of the House of
Representatives who might favour a repressive polity at
the South if the present reconstruction measures should
be hindered in their operation.

Int Court.

WINDSOR CASTLE, Dec. 11.
The Queen went out ;1 the grounds this mow-
ing, accompanied by Prince Leopold.
Major T. P. Hopkins, LH , Governor of the kliPta:j
Knights; of Windsor, and Lieut.-Colonel J. H. Cooke,
Lieutenant of her Majesty's Body Gaud of Yeomen of the
Guard, arrived at the Cootie this afternoon, and were "Aro-
dyad to her Majesty by Lord Raglan, Lord-in-Waiting,
and received the honour of knighthood.
Major-General F. Seymour, C. 8., and Colonel Du Plat,
Groom and Equerry in Waiting, were in attendance.
Colonel H. and the Hon. Mrs. Poneonby and the Hon.
Mrs. Robert Bruce had the honour of dining with the Queen
and the royal family yesterday.

Field-Marshal his Royal Highness the Duke of
Cambridge held a levee yesterday aftmaoun at the Horst-
guards, when about 120 officers waited on I'l royal
highness

The Marquis and Marchioness of Bath have left
Berkeley-square for Chatsworth, on a visit to the Duke of
Devonshire.

The Earl and Counteas of Derby arrived at
Knowsley on Tuesday aftei noon from town for the Chrlst-
MA.

The Earl and Countess of Denbigh have left
their residence in Eaton-square, for Newnham Padden,
the family seat, near Lntterworth.

The Earl of Hillsborough has arrived at Hills-
borough Cutts.

Lord Claud Hamilton, M.P., has left town for
Northamptonshire.

Lord Taunton left town on Monday last for
Overstowey, his seat, near Bridgwater, where Lay Tarr•
ton and Hon. Misses Labouchere have been stay'rtg since
they left town.

On Thursday last the Earl of Dudley, accom-
panied by the Duke of Athole, the Count and Countess
Gleichen, the Countess of Kinnoull, Lord New)ort, the
Hon. C. G. Lyttelton and others, arrived at Round Oak,
by special train from Witley Court. The paa4 proceeded
to the Locks Lane Colliery, and descended a coal•pit under
the care of Mr. Jeffries and Mr. Greenway.
The death is announced of General Sir Richard
Lluellyn, K.C.8., on Saturday last, at the advanced age
of 84 years.

The Right Hon. W. Brand and Lord Pelham,
the members for the borough of Lewes, will address the
Liberal Registration Society in that town to-morrow.

The Bishop of Salisbury purposes sending a copy
of his charge to every member of the House of Lords in
consequence of the attack made on it in that house. As
an antidote to the charges copy of the protest against the
principles of the charge, signed by 92 clergymen and 200
churchwardens, is about to be sent to every member of the
House of Lords. In the protest the obnoxious principles
of the charge are pointed out.

The following is the inscription on a tablet which
bas just been placed by Mrs. Shelley 'n Ovington Church,
Hants, to the memory of Mr. John Shelley, her husband,
and a younger brother of the great poet Shelley : "In
memory of my beloved husband, John Shelley, son of Sir
Timothy Shelley, Bart., of Field Place, Sussex, and only
brother of Percy Bysshe Shelley. This tablet i■ erected
to record the love which be inspired as an affectionate and
devoted husband and father, and my grief for his
parable loss. He died on the Ist of November, 1866.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.'"
. .

A letter from St. Petersburg of the sth says :
" On Sunday last the great bell of the Kremlin announced
to the inhabitants of Moscow the death of the venerable
Metropolitan Mils:eta. This event was quite unexpected.
There had been no illness to give warning of its approach,
indeed since his return to the ancient capital from his
summer residence the Metropolitan seemed to have
gained additional strength, and the very day of his death he
performed Divine servioe with his usual fervour. Agar
leaving the church he retired for a short time to take
some repose, at half-past Ihe was summoned to his frugal
repast ; but as he di i not oome, the lay brother entered
his study a second time and found 10m lifeless on the
floor, with his face turned to the holy image which was
suspended from the wall."

The Mont Cenis Tunnel has advanced 109 metres
during the month of November.

BISHOP Csowniza.—lt seems that a mistake has
been committed when Dr. Samuel Crowther has been
described as Bishop of Sierra Leone. That Sierra Leone
may be the headquarters of Bishop Crowther is quite
possible ; but the bishop of that see, according to the
1 " Churchman's Almanack " for 1147, is Dr. E. H. Heckles.
Dr. Crowther is bishop of the "Niger Territory "—i.e.,
of the countries generally included in the begin of the
river Niger, where be presides as " miazionaly bishop"
over those negroes who will receive him as such. He is •
native African, and was appointed on account of the
adaptation of his constitution to the climate, and his
natural capacity for sympathy with the negro mind.
THE CAPTAIN OF THE UNIVERSITY EIGHT.—He
ought to be a refined diplomatist, to have a rapid and de-
cisive judgment, and the power of enforcing. discipline.
He should have the courage to hold firmly to his own
opinion, and the rarer courage to make changes when it
is necessary. A captain requires as much skill in corn.
posing • crew as a minister in forming his cabinet. It is
not enough that the men separately should be good—and
the breakdown of anyone at a critical moment may ruin
the whole plan,—but each moat fit into its proper place.
There are infinite difficulties in soothing small vanities.
and propitiating silly jealousies ; as in the larger world,
each man chosen is apt to make one grumbler at his
selection and half a dozen grumblers at their exclusion ;
and the mere task of keeping eight men in good temper
who are all in a feverish state of hard work and excite.
meat, and who have to take all their melds and pass most
of their vacant hours in each other's company, is itself
enough to try an angel. Bow is an unpopular man, and
ill-natured people maintain that he has been put in oat
of favouritism ; Two takes the captain aside every other
morning to reveal to him—not without gloomy satisfac-
tion—a sure symptom of some new and fatal disease
which he has just detected in • vital organ ; Three is a
picture of health aid strength, but is so clumsy that no
one knows whether he can be licked into tolerable shape in
time ; Four ia • heavy good-tempered giant, who serves the
invaluable purpose of being a butt to the rest of the crew
at feeding times, but he is apt to lose his head, and then
he is about as dangerous in a boat as a startled elephant in
a caravan ' • Five would be unimpeachable, but for dark
hints that he has a private score at some unknown public-
house ; Six labours under a chronic grievance, declaring
with much loss of good temper to all his fellows that Four
does not take his share of the work ; Seven is really
delicate, as Two professes to be, and will conceal his Ril-
-1 malts till it is too late to find a substitute ; and if the
captain does not himself row, Stroke probably considers
himself to be the one man in the university who under-
stands the art of rowing, and has to be coaxed and
wheedled into• decent subordination ; the coxswain has
been chosen after long deliberation on the ground that ft
is worth securing an mime more brains at the cost of a
atone more flesh, and all the crew are profoundly convinced
that if they lose it will be owing to that superfluous weight
in the stern-sheets. Thet there are perplexities about the
boat, about the details of the work, about the cruel ex-
aminers who will torture some members of the crew,
about the food supplied, and about • hundred other mat-
ters which are a constant tax upon the unlucky cap-
tain's fund of good humour.—St. Paul's Magazine for
December.