The Express.
London, England, 1866-12-28 00:00:00

eitt exa+refso•

TO CORRESPONDENTS.
Advertisements intended for " The Mores'," London Evening
Paper, must be at the Office, 10, Bouverie-street, by Two
o'cWelc on the day of publication.

DRURY LANE
Sole lessee and manager, Yr. F. B. Chatterton.
Tuts EVENIS4, A DAY AFPER TUE Madamescon-
e with the Pantomime, NUMBER NIP. Lyda
Thompaou, Hudspeth, Bodenham, seyrnour, Cardonni, and H.
Vandenhoff
Bea. Tom Nlatthews, bandit, Clifton, Heater
Percy Roelle, Bolen°, Lauri, Cormack, Saville, Morris, Willa
Bolen°, and Marion.—To commence at 7.

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HAYMARKET.
THIS EvßwiNn. A MERE emu) stews. Howe, Cordon,
White, 64. ; Mesdames Chippendale, Mum Bliam, Laws,
Powell, &c .
—A LE...e4ON FOR LIVE. Mr. *Ahura -JENNY
LIND AT LA3T. I.lMaßtirke.—And the BALLET. Mdlle.SophM
--- ---

--
PRINCR9B'R
TvIIS Emus., BARNABY Ritriog. Means. B. caihaera,
7. Villiers, J.G. Shore, and G. Honey: MMus Amami& Thom-
ann and Katherine Rodgers, Wm H. Vining, and C. Hors-
raan.—And Till. INVISIBLE PRINCE.

__
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L 1 CEUSI.
TUIS Evisrici, THE TWO VOL N. ?dr. Wirldicomb.—And
BOUidE ET NI ii It. Stews. Fech,er, Emery, Cowper, Moreland,
Fitzpatrick. D dual. itayuolds, Lamas, Andrews, Atider•oll, du:. ;
Mrs. L. Yurnty, add Ulises ileurade, Gnat au, and C. Leclerc+
-- ---7 ---

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STRAND.
Tui:ErENTNG, NEIGHBOUR:4 —After which will be produced
• Grand Durleague, FAWKES.—Aud BOOTS AT THE
SWAN.

110LBORN.
Ting EVVITSO, MY TONY NEXT. Mr. Belmnre:Mee
Foote and Leannx.—And ILY ING SCUD.
Josephs, Mews. Neville, Bei-
Inure, Make, Voltaire,; Mesdames F. C. daunders,
Bessie Foote, }Ude', Lennox, Raymond, &e.
_ .

BRITANNIA.
Tut.; Evvosa, THE PRlNvy.as OF VIE PEARL ISLANAND D
_;
Oft. THE THREE KINGDoNIS Or PEARL, OOLD.
SILVER, Mrs. Lana and Situ J&coba—lirst.mlo Pantomimist&
—And THK SKELETON CREW.

MOH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
THIS DAY —Morning, ch. ;UmAfternoon. Th. ft.
TO-Ilossow—Morning, 7E. ?..+En ...... Afternoon, TO. sft.

LONDON, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28,

Moaz remarkable, perhaps, than the vigour with
which their civil war was waged, and the simpli-
city with which peace resumed its reign, is the
rapid ease with which our cousins beyond the
Atlantic have recovered from that extraordinary
struggle, put away fighting from their thoughts,
and cast their superabundant energies again upon
the works and the sports of peace. Doubtless
during the time of the Russian war Englishmen
at home found leisure for national sports ;
the race meetings and regattas went on as
usual, though many well-known faces were
missed at Epsom and at Doncaster, at Cowes and
at ilytle. Some of our yachtsmen, it is remem-
bered, made themselves and their vessels useful in
carrying stores and comforts to their friends in
camp ; and as to racing, vas there not a " Balto a-
" clava Spring life:ting lt is interesting
those who desire that Englishmen in the Old
World and the New should understand each other
and be friends, to note the likeness of the two
great families. The Anglo-American is but an
Englishman "writ large," with features a little
hardened and sharpened by a keener climate and
a more eager life, with the old spirit of daring and
adventure, stininlated by bounding hope and per-
petual promise, by an illimitable expansion of
political liberty, and by the perfect sense of social
equality. The American Englishman has the
tastes, the amusements, and the habits of the
Briton born. Identity of blood, language, and
literature accounts of course for much intel-
lectual and moral sympathy. But the taste
for sports and exercises in which skill, endurance,
and resource are needed, and which minister in
some sort to the national greatness, is one of the
chief characteristics which both the sections of
the race have in common. An Englishman
returning home from some far country might
address his native laud in the language of the
Athenian poet, as a land illustrious for its
horses, its ships, and its colonists. We are not
quite sure that the transplanted Englishman of
America could properly speak of his country as
illustrious for horses, except for fast trotters, but
it can scarcely be doubted that within a few years
there will be an American Derby, compared with
which Epsom or Doncaster will be as the Thames
to the Mississippi. Nor could he celebrate 11;s
country as illustrious for its colonists, since it is
itself one vast colony, but he might assuredly,
like his kinsmen in the old world, speak or sing
of his country as illustrious for ships, and famous
at sea. We have seen how from a small but ser-
viceable peace establishment of a few wooden
cruisers the present American navy of the largest
ironclad frigates, armed with the heaviest guns,
of sea-going turret ships, of monitors, of rains, of
gunboats, has grown up, and how month by mouth
a coastline of more than three thousand miles
became all but impermeable to the swiftest and
boldest blockade runners. Even while Ameri-
can cargoes were compelled to seek safety wider
a foreign flag, whole fleets of common merchant
steamers were transfermed into men-of-war, and
American yachts were doing signal service to their

country.
The New York Yacht Club did itself high
honour in those trying times, and showed that
its vessels were not playthings, nor its crews
mere watermen. This noble national sport of
yachting belongs of equal right to England and
America ; in other countries it is an exotic ;
among Englishmen on either shore of the ocean it
is of native growth. The honour of its origin
belongs to England, and the gallant
combatants for the Atlantic prize have hand-
somely acknowledged the classic sacredness of the
waters of the Solent by making their rendezvous
off the Royal Yacht Squadron House at Cowes.
It was at Cowes that yachting, as a sport, began,
and the " Royal Yacht Club " was the first
society of gentlemen to whom the privileges of a
pleasure navy were accorded by the Admiralty, in
consideration, no doubt, of the obvious advantage
to the State of encouraging the construction by
private owners of the finest models of naval
architecture, and the employment of the smartest
seamen. The Royal Yacht Squadron, and its
excellent clmpeers, the Royal Victoria, and many
other clubs round our coasts, now employ annu-
ally several thousands of seamen, many of whom
belong to the I:aN al Reserve, and annually turn
out from the builders' yards some of the finest
specimens of cnnstruction afloat, famous for all the
qualities of erasers. Surely no national sport can
be more worthy of encouragement and admiration
than this ; none can be healthier or manlier
in itself, none more serviceable to the State, none