The Express.
London, England, 1866-01-29 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, MONDAY EVENING, JANUARY 29, 1866.

the future course of the money market who utterly
disregard all such common-place circumstances as
the movements of trade, of the exchanges, and of
bullion, and who simply adopt it as their creed that
the further the Bank pendulum is carried in the
one direction, the more violent will be its rebound
in the opposite. It has always been noticed that,
while 7 per cent. may be followed by a re-action to
5, 8 per cent. means subsequently 4, and 9 per cent,
3. No wonder that our practice in these matters
excites the astonishment of foreigners, who have
before them the superior system and comparatively
equable rates of the Bank of France and the other
great banks of the continent

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.
(THIS DAY.)

which pays a 6 per cent. dividend, and laus its shares at •
handsome premium. The earnings of the two warnpanias
are pretty nearly alike, and the working expenses of the
latter actually exceeded those of the Great Eastern, but in
the apportionment of it. surplus, while the Great Northern
required only 250,000/. for interest on its debts and mort-
gages, the Great Eastern wanted more than 300,0001.
This left the former company with 200,0001., and the
latter with only 100,000/., to distribute in a half•yearly
dividend ; but that is not all. The capital for which inte-
rest ia to be found is so much larger in the Great Eastern
than in the Great Northern that a sum which would afford
upwards of 4 per cent. in the latter case produces only a
poor 2i in the former. In round reckoning, a net profit of
60,000/. on the half-year, fairly earned and available for
dividend, would only give Great Eastern shareholders about
1 per cent. upon their stock. Last August the directors
professed to have only 40,0001. divisible, and, as it
now seems, had not really that. Of course, there-
fore, the dividend disappears altogether, and the predica-
ment is complete. The company has spent so much money
and incurred so much debt that it needs • greater income
than its proper business can be made to yield. The sequel, of
course, is a dilemma, for the directors must eithergo without
the money or try new adventures in the hope of getting it.
The new board embraces the former alternative so boldly
that it has warned its constituents to expect no dividend
whatever for some time to come. There is good sense as
well as honesty in that plain speaking, but the result must
. be qualified in some way or other before it can be acceptable
to the great body of shareholders. .

The exemplary patience and magnanimity with which
the shareholdere listened the other day to the various
lugubrious remarks of the speakers, is supposed by the
Herald to be due to the fact that tke Great Eastern pro-
prietary have got need to their reverses, as eels get used
to skinuing, or that, after the model of Uriah Heap, they
like to be miserable. Their great desire seems to be to
get at the worst. The most popular man in the room was
the one who obant3d the most dismal jeremiad. By
diligent attention, however, to the publics requirements,
sedulous development of low! traffic, anxious avoidance
of hostilities with other companies, careful husbanding of
the,r resources, and rigid economy in their expenditure,
they may yet redeem their property from its unenviable
distinction as the worst managed and least lucky example
of a great English railway.

the Court.

OSBORNE, Jia. 27.

Her Majesty and Prinoesa Helena went out
yesterday morning, attended by the Hon. Flora Macclonakl,
and in the afternoon her Majesty drove out in a carriage
and four with Princess Helena, Princess Louise, and Prince
Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, attended by Colonel the
Hon. A. Harding..
The Prince and Princess Hermann of Hobo:Jobe and
Prince Leiningen joined her Majesty's dinner party in the
evening.
Admiral Sir Michael Seymour, Commander-in-Chief at
Potamoutb, had the honour of dining with her Majesty and
the royal family.
JAN. 28.

Her Majesty, Princess Helmt, Princess Louise, and
Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, attended Divine
service at Whippiegham Church this morning.
The Rev. G. Prather° ofßciated.

Despatches were received on Saturday at the Colonial-
office from the Governors of Canada and Newfoundland.
Despatches were sent to the Governors of Canada and
British Honduras.
The Cabinet Council which was summoned to meet in
Do 'ming-street at 2 o'clock on Saturday was subsequently
postponed to the same hour this day (Monday).

It is said that some time during the month of
Merch the Prince of Wales will visit Belvoir Castle, the
residence of the Duke of Rutland.

His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge is
expected to leave town today on a riot to her Majesty at
Osborne.

Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge
will arrive at her residence in the Ambassadors' Court, St.
James's. on Wednesday, from Cambridge Cottage, Kew.
The Princess Mary is expected to arrive in London about
the middle of next month from Mecklenburg.

His Excellency the Prussian Ambassador and the
Countess Bernstorff and the Counts. TherZ•se Berustorff
arrived on Saturday at The Grove, sear Watford, Herta,
on a visit to the Earl sod Countess of Clarendon.

His Excellency the Marquis d'Azeglio arrived
at the Italian Legation on Thursday night from Turin,
after attending the funeral of his illustrious uncle, the
Chevalier Massimo d'Aseglio.

The Earl of Jersey will attain his majority in
March nest, when be will take possession of his ancestral
domains at Micklleton•park, oxfcedshire, &a The noble
earl is at present pursuing his studies at Bsliixil College,
Oxford, from whence he will take his degree.

The Earl of Harrington, who left Christ Church
last term for the south of France in oousequeoce of ill
health, has, with his Grace the Duke of Hamilton and the
sons of Sir Lionel Darrell, Bark, and others, taken his
name off the books of Christ Church.

His Excellency Viscount Monck, Governors
General of Canada, and the Hon. Colonel B. Houck, his
brother and aide, are passengers by the Australasian, which
sailed on Saturday for New York. They would join the
steamer at Queenstown.
The Cork Examiner states that the Queen has
been pleased to call Colonel French to a seat in her Privy
Council. The gallant member for Roscommon is, there.
fore, now the Right Hon. Fitzetsphen French.

At the annual presentation of prizes to the Queen's
(Westminster) Rifles on Saturday 'seeing in Westminster
Hail, the corps, under the command of Earl Grosvenor,
was inspected by Colonel Erskine, and the prizes were pre-
sented by the Marchioness of Kildare, suter•in•law to Lord
Grosvenor. In addressing tke corps, Colonel Erskine stated
that the number of volunteers now enrolled amounted to
177,000, the number of effieients to 134,000, and that the
10s. paid for extra efficiency was awarded to 66,000. This
was an increase since December 1864 of 7,000 on the num-
ber enrolled, 10,000 on the number of efficient', and 4,000
on the number to whom the extra 10s. was paid. The
previous year had also shown a considerable increase over
its predecessor.

Earl Shaftesbury writes to the Times with a
view to show that the poverty of the Dorsetshire labourers
has been exaggerated. He dwells on the fact that the
system of payment is a low weekly'orage, supplemented and
eked out at various time' by perquisites and allowances in
coin or material, or opportnoities of piece-work (such work
being always paid for in cult), so as to form a considerable
aggregate at the end of the year.

Mr. Charles Dickens will give a reading at the
Myddelton Hall, Isliegtoe, on Wednesday next, in aid of
the funds of a local charity.

The English Opera Company have taken Drury-
lane Theatre for the season, and intend to charge usual
opera prices—via., one guinea for stalls.

• _
Mr. Boucicault is in Paris superintending the
scenery and mechanism of Arrah-na-Pogue, a translation
of which is in rehearsal at one of the Boulevard theatres.

An interesting ceremony took place at Verviers,
to Belgium, on Saturday. The Belgian Society of Political
Economy presented to the Chamber of Commerce of that
thriving manufacturing town a bust of Richard Cobden, as
a symbol of their appreci►tion of the services rendered to
the cause of free trade by the Version merchants and
manufacturers. It appears that these gentlemen were the
principal supporters of the free•trafe movement In Bel-
gium. Gentlemen from England, Ireland, France, Germany,
Spain, and other countries attended.

The Countess de Main died yesterday week as
she was leaving the church of the Madeleine, Paris, so sod-
denly that her daughter who accompanied her had scarcely
time to prevent her falling on the perron. Madame de
Mails was daughter of the Marquis de Chabrillae, one of
Count d'Artois's equerries, and granddaughter of the Mar-
chioness Caumont la Force, governess 0 "lea infante de
France."

A letter is published from Victor Hugo to
Madame George Saod. The popular novelist wrote to the poet
to encomia the b,rth of ber little granddaughter Aurora.
to which she received the followiog reply:

Cott* donee Aurora qul Mk - -
Vient A point dans notre del sombre;
A none dens noes ammo; la ma,
Vous Elm Vaatre et je ads tombre.
Madame Sand's name ID Aurora.

Within these few days (says the Court Journal)
an alteration of the time from the 12th to the 16th of
February has been made for the change of residence of the
Court from Osborne to Windsor Castle.

Mr. Goechen will (eaye the Sunday Gazette) be
``resent at the Cabinet Council to-morrow (Sfooday) for the
first time. The right hon. gentleman attended at the
Board of Trade,.and transacted business up to the day of
his formal appointment to the Duchy of Lancaster.
- -

For several days past (says the Court Journal)
some Royal Engineers have been engaged at Windsor, by
command of the Query, in correcting the surrey made in
1841 for her Majesty. A large detachment of the Royal
Eoginee-s will abortlyarrive at Windsor to survey the Great
Park, observations having already been node from the
Round Tower of Windsor Castle for their initialler. A
survey of the mix surrounding parishes of Windsor is also
to be taken by the Royal Engineers.

- -
THE COMING REFORM 81LL..--We have now
reason to believe the first reading will not be moved until
either close upon the adjouromeot for the Easter recess, or
even more probably upon the re-assembling of the house
after the bolidaya.—Sooday Gamete.

THE MEETING or PARLIANSIIT.—The House of
Commons will meet at two o'clock on Thursday. The
first business will be the election of the Speaker. Mr.
Evelyn Denison will be moved to the chair without oppoei-
tioa. The members will then proceed to tab the oaths and
their seats, which will 0000py some time each day from
Friday to Monday. The house being regularly constituted,
on Tuesday, the 6th of February, parliameoli will be
opened io person by her Mideety the Queen at two o'clock,
when the House of Commons will be summoned to the bar
of the Lords to bear the royal speech read. Both houses
will re-assemble at 5 o'clock, when the loyal addresses in
reply will be moved in answer to her Majesty's speech. The
ordinary formalities will be observed on this occasion very
much as abed, with the exception of the appearance of the
gilt glass coach. The public who enjoy these eights will
be gratified by the presence of the cream-coloured horses
and the used cortege. The movers sad seconders of the
addresses will be the some as we stated last week.—
Observer. The Sunday Gazette says :—" As the
meats at present stand it is probable that on arrivaalr:r
Palace of Westminster the Queen will enter, sot by the
royal entrance under the Victoria tower, as is utnal on full
state oecasiont, bat through the Peers' private entrance.
The royal gallery through which the procession need for-
merly to peek which was a great centre of attraction, will
be closed. Tickets for the peeresses, ambassadms, and
others entitled to the estrfe to the body of the Hones of '
Lords, base been blued. But tickets for the approsobs,
although in reclines', have not been distributed, as the
whole programme is under the consideration of her Majesty,
and it is posiible that it may yet be altered even In some
impcirtent respects."
blarwoPourcw FRIB HOSPITAL, DrITOISSEISIS-
SQUAW, Cret—The aggregate number of patients relieved
daring the week ending Jan. 27 was—Medical, 850; surgical,
573 ; total. 1,423 ; of which 597 wow now oisos.