The Express.
London, England, 1866-12-03 00:00:00

gfte nniet4o.

TO CORRESPONDENT 3.
Advertisements Intended for " The ftprest," London Evenbig
Pap
er. most be at the Odic*, Eoeverte-street, by Two
o'clock on the day of publication.

DitURT LANL
THIS ITINIZG, THE HUNCHBACK. Yearn. Swinbourne, W.
tgamery, C. Webb, Harcourt, B.zsby, &c.: Mu Helen Truett
Ws. 11. Tenn.—And KATHERINE AND PITRUCHIO.
eirinbourne, Mr. J. Robin; and MW Isabel Adams.

HAYMAII.7.IT.
Tors Evewilco. A GAVE OF SPECULATION. Mears. C.
Slabews, Chlppendsie, Rogers, &c. Mesdames Fitwilliara, Laws,
&a—ANTON Y AND CLEOPATRA. Messrs. C. Mathews, Ca:ll3*-
ton, &to. ; Meads/awl Mathews & RiII—FISH OUT Of WATER.

ranrczaira.
Till Inlinga, BAJLNABY RUDO& Mown & CaDram
F. Valises, J. G. Shore, de. ; Mrs. John Wood. Mims Augusta
Thomson and Katherine Rodgers, Mrs. H. Vining, sod Mrs. C.
Hormen.—Preceded by THZ MISTRESS OF THE HILL

LI MIL
Tun Immo, BEUTIIB AND CESAR. M 1 Ilearade.—And
THE LONG STRUCK Masers. Emery, WiddkomlL Cowper, Ens-
patrlek. Reynolds, and Moreland; Min lienrada—Conelnding
what rwszourows TAIL COAT.—Commence at 7.

AND.
nas IMMO, NEWHBSOURRS. Wawa PeroDs, Ballard,
and alarm lie•damta Bwanbucangh, Joinadone, and Hughes.
DER TBSISCHUTZ ; OR. A GOOD CAST YOB • .PII.C.IL
end BOOTS AT THE SWAN.

HOLBORN.
MS Minx°, at 7, FAMILY JABS. Xt. Sefton Parry sad
Miss C. Saunders.—And FLYING SCUD. Messrs. Neville Bell-
more, Blske, Yollslre, ; Mesdames F. Josephs, C. essiksis,
Bemis Foots, Mdse. Lennox, Raymond, ett.

BRITANNIA.
TIEDI BVENTRO, LAURETTE'S BRIDAL: OE, MORE THAN
MEETS THE EYE. Km Lane—Miss Owasso Mr. Daseing
Mad" Erma Mr. LaPburnam.—MOTUEß 06 :0$
THE FOUNDLING APRENTICE. Mrs. E. YarnolcL

MOH WATER AT LONDON BRIMS.
Tfl DLT —Kolalng, fib. s4m Al wows, OIL O.
TO-MOMIOW—MornIng. Oh. Im Attalla:a. Z. fa m.

LONDON, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3.

THERE will be great excitement in the Capitol
at Washington to-day, and all over the Union
anxious crowds will be waiting for the news of
what has been occurring there. To-day Congress
assembles for its short session, but with the uni-
versal conviction that on the events of this session
much of the future hangs. We may dismiss as
utterly without foundation the vague suspicion
that the PRESIDENT would refuse to send his Mes-
sage to a " Congress of only part of the States,"
and may take it for granted that Mr. JOHNSON
will perform his constitutional function and meet
the representatives of the national will with his
Annual Message. But it will be impossible to
conceal the altered position in which he stands to
Congress compared with that in which he stood at
thistime last year. Then his quarrel vriththe Legisla-
turehadnot begun—now it has been prosecuted to its
issue. Then, too, he had a policy which was apparently
approved by the people, and Congress had not yet
originated a scheme of reconstruction—now the
policy of Congress has been settled, and an appeal
to the verdict of the people has resulted in its
almost unanimous endorsement and the rejection
_ _ -

and repudiation of Mr. JOHNSON'S plans. In his
Message last year Mr. Joussos assumed the atti-
tude of the great reconstructor of the Union, and
invited Congress to co-operate with him. But what
will he do in the Message of to-day? He and
Congress have changed places, and the popular
anxiety is to know whether he will consent
to co-operate with the Legislature and to carry
out its plans. It will be hardly possible
that there should not be something like
a look of triumph on the faces of the PRESIDENT'S
opponents to-day. They come back to their duties
after a campaign which has been for them a
most decisive victory, and for him an irretriev-
able defeat. Both have appealed to the verdict
of the nation, and the nation has declared itself on
the side of Coe:Jess, and has given it a successor
in its own likeness to take up the policy it has
initiated and to carry on in the same spirit the
work it has begun. This Congress, which Mr.
JOHNSON sconi..al, anal which ho designed to repu-
diate as an incm?lete and unconstitutional body,
meets him to-day with the vast mass of the
American people behind it. On the other
side, Mr. JoiiNsos may claim that he repre-
sents the excluded South, but he can no longer
claim that ho " represents the people of all the
" States." He represents to-day only an opposition
to the national will, and the one question with the
people is, not ns to what ho will recommend, but
whether he will yield. There can now be but one
way of healing the division between the Legislature
and the Executive, it is by the distinct abandon-
ment on the PRESIDENT'S part of his dictatorial
attitude and extravagant claims, and by the entire
abandonment of legislative work to the legislative
body. But if Mr. JOHNSON is not able to do this
his attitude to-day will not be dignified, nor will
his position be enviable. If he should reiterate his
proposals for immediate reconstruction, he will be
like a voice crying in the wilderness. If he sug-
gests another constitutional amendment which ad-
mits the principle of the present one, he will only
cover his retreat with the semblance of dignity, and
offer a compromise when judgment has gone against
him. Nor would his suggested adoption of the
" Radical " policy, by the proposal of " universal
" suffrage and universal amnesty," at all retrieve
his position. It is too late for new proposals,
which would be too obviously made in the bitter-
ness of defeat, and would be regarded as mere
clever moves to checkmate his opponents. There
is but one course really open to him. When there
was nothing left but to die the old Roman tried to
die with dignity. There is nothing left to Mr.
JOHNSON but to yield, and for his own sake and
that of the Republic we hope ho will yield with
dignity. He need not even confess that he was
mistaken. He may still prefer his own method of
reconstruction, but as the people have chosen an-
other, may see it to be his duty to co-operato with
them. He, the executive of the national will, has no
alternative but to do as the nation bids him, and
carry out the policy which the people have resolved
on. If Mr. JOHNSON takes this tone to-day he
will do much to redeem the indiscretions of the
past, and will establish a claim to the tolerance, if
not to the respect and confidence, of the American
people.

Whatever Mr. JOHNSON may say on the one
great question of reconstruction, there are some
other matters in which he and his audience will be
one. He will most likely say something of the
Fenian movement, but though his sympathy with