The Express.
London, England, 1867-06-29 00:00:00

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DRURY LAHR.
Twis Emma, TNAT RASCAL JACK. Menus. Roue and
Neville . Mesdames Mimes and Thompson.—To conclude with
THE ORKAT CITY. Ream Cowper, NI •Int)re, Villiers, Irving,
Rouse, Yitsjames, it Warner: Mesdames Robertson dr Le There.

HAYMARKET.
IMM XVIIMIIIO, A WILD GOO6L Hems. Sothcrn, litiekatone,
Howe, gegen, Jordon, Re.; Headmen Halite. Chippendale.
Dalton, Wright, 4c.—BllX AND COX. Mean, Iturksidne and
Compton.—And FISH OUT OF WATRIL Mr. Compton, Ac.

PILINCINYIL
TIM EVENING. TRUK TO THE 0011 E. Meagre Crewiek, H.
Marston, H. Yorreater, S. Y. Edgar, ; Miss 0 Pauneefort
and Men Nelly Moore.—Dams open at hall-past seven . tom-
mace at eight.

ETRAND.
Tea EvEnlno, OUR DOKEBTIOI.—PYONALIOV oft, THE
STATUE FAIR. Meson Thorne, Jamas, Re.: lidrad.am. swan-
baroagh. Raynalun, Harland, Johnstone, and Molt.—And THE
111.1LNull 10/HlB[7lON.

BRITANNIA.
Tefs EVISIsiI, THE BALLINASLOE BOY; OR, THE FOR-
11INKS Or AN IRDIN PEASANT.—Mr. O. Bueluitone , Hr. and
yrs WHalle ileews.llo4ebrAnd and greinode --Concluding
with ELLEN AND SUSAN. Yr. J. B. Iluwe k Miss S.

MOH WATER AT LONDON RRIDOR
THIn DAT —Warning. Ilh. 24m.. Afternoon,llh. Onni.
To-lloszow—lioralag, OIL as Afternoon, Oh. 27m.

LONDON, SATURDAY, JUNE 29.

THAT singular specimen of an apostle of the
Gentiles in the nineteenth century, M. Lo' is
Vatru.tor, who is more a Roman than a Gaul,
though his style is very strongly flavoured with
Gallic salt, wrote two books which achieved, and
deserved to achieve, a certain success among the
scandalous and the devout public of his nation a.al
his adopted country. In one, entitled " The Per-
" fumes of Rome," he described his impressions
as a pious Catholic layman of the capital of the
Papacy, which by right of the majestic monuments
and traditions of its ancient history, and
of the haunting memories and associations
which make every vestige of its ruins holy
ground to the pilgrims of everycreed and country,
no less than by the buried multitudes of its Chris-
tian martyrs, and the splendid fans—as many
as the year counts days—of its Paganism trans-
formed, claims the rank and title of an " Eternal
" City." There might be something of presump-
tuous impiety in this appellation were it not for
the profound and melancholy irony of an eternity
which is composed of all that most reminds the
generations who come and gaze and go, of
the perishableness, the transitoriness, the
inanity of the proudest human names and
works in this world below. No sublimer teach-
ing of the vanity of mortal destinies is to be
found than in that " majesty of situations "
which M. Vein ttor worships at Rome. That
mute sermon—that " sermon in stones "—which
makes the voices of the present Rome sound so
weak amidst the echoes of the past, is one that all
the pulpits which proclaim the eternity of the
latest dogma cannot silence or preach away.
The eternity to which they bear witness—these
ruins upon ruins—is no more and no better than
the eternity of matter—an eternity of perishable
elements incessantly transmuted or transformed.
Those churches in which the rites of a transformed
worship are celebrated are built over and some-
times out of the remains of heathen temples.
And to-day, as two thousand years ago, the priests
of the dominant worship proclaim the city of
these altars " eternal." With " The Per-
"fumes of Rome" M. Vzurizor contrasted
the "Odours of Paris," greatly to the disadvan-
tage of the capital of modern civilization. Some-
thing more than a Roman at Rome, the fervent
Catholic journalist could not shake of the
Parisian in his contemptuous and angry peregri-
nations through the theatres, the casinos, and the
estainineta, the schools, the lecture-halls, the
dancing-gardens of Paris. Be denounced the vulgar
luxuries and unsavoury seductions of the French
capital in the choicest argot. It was easy enough to
make Baron HAI:MULCH'S architectural prodigies
look small beside the monuments of the Roman
decadence, and to turn with an impatient sneer
from the feverish ennui of the modern city of
pleasure to the solemnities and sanctities of a city
which not even a frivolous mob of fashionable
tourists can vulgarize. M. VEUILLOT, certainly in
a style not always so edifying as his theme, drew
the two pictures of Rome and Paris with all the
zest of a sinner, and all the zeal of a penitent.
But he has now found a rare occasion for en-
larging upon his favourite text, in transferring
himself from Paris, in all its glory, to Rome in all its
spiritual splendour, as the capital of the Christian
world. M. Vriumarr, feeling sick, as many leas pious
people may have felt, of the fumes of Parisian
dinners, the gas of Parisian theatres, the cease-
less gabble of the Boulevards, and the buffets of
the Champ de Mars, rushed off to Rome to
refresh himself with the " perfumes" of the Tiber,
and of that vast collection of ecchsiastics who
have come together at the call of the Vatican to
celebrate the eighteenth centenary of the mar-
tyrdom of Sr. Prrza and Sr. PAUL. Preferring,
perhaps, even the "odours" of the Italian king-
dom to those of a steam-packet from Marseilles to
Civita Vecchia, this remarkable religious product
of an age of unbelief passed over the moun-
tains to Turin and Florence, and thence to
Rome. Everything in Italy displeases his delicate
taste ; the custom-house officers at Susa are
rudely conscientious ; Turin is dreary, and has a
"left off' look ; Florence is simply an abomina-
tion; its walls are covered with odious caricatures;
the Parliament Chamber is a hive of drones and
wasps ; only ten frescoes of Bun Ananuoo