The Express.
London, England, 1867-10-17 00:00:00

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LONDON, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17.

Few, indeed, are the dangers which menace a
free born Briton in his course through life so great
as those which now attend him during an after-
noon's walk in the streets of London. It is our
happy lot to reside in a city from which science,
intelligence, enterprise, and capital have gradually
banished most of the evils from which our ances-
tors suffered. Shameful as is the condition, and
squalid as are the dwellings of others even than
our poorest poor, there can he no question in the
mind of any candid traveller that, for people
of affluence, London is, all things considered,
by far the most enjoyable city in the world.
It is the healthiest, the cheapest, the richest,
and the most convenient residence. It is so
large that even scandal and evil speaking are
lost in it. No sane person of average intellect
and ordinary occupations troubles himself about
the doings of another, so as to make himself
unpleasant. Though we have no organized spy
system, we have, on the whole, as good a police
as is known iu any country for the protection
of life and property. No preventible disease is
suffered to linger in our richer quarters. The
well-to-do classes take the very best possible
care of their health and comfort, and yet, so
strange are the contradictions which exist in the
best regulated communities, they have suffered
an imminent peril to become one of the most
familiar things in their daily lives. We are grown
so accustomed to this constant risk of life and
limb that we do not even estimate the danger
which we run as of any importance worth caution
or remark. Rash elderly gentlemen, feeble as to
their knees and dim of sight, nod pleasantly to
their wives and families as they venture boldly
out for exercise ; the most absent-minded and
unprotected females are sometimes seen on foot
without escort. Yet it seriously admits of a doubt
whether within a whole week all the mismanaged
railways, penny steamboats, tipsy coachmen,
garotters, and Fenian put together, could give
such a numerous account of doleful mishaps as
that which would be produced by a truthful
chronicle of the accidents which occur between
the White Horse Cellar in Piccadilly and the
Bank of England every working day in the year.
There are times when a person who may be
obliged to go in a hurry from the Temple to Chan-
cery-lane and back again, or from the Mansion-
house to the Exchange, and thence to the Monu-
ment, hazards personal injury more real and diffi- '
cult to prevent than any a navigator need now
confront in a voyage to the Arctic Regions. There
are days, and especially hours in those days, when
it requires nerves as strong, feet as fleet and
firm, and a glance as quick, as would
snake a distinguished member of the Alpine
Club, to get a plate of soup or an oyster patty at
Btacir's ; and it ought to be added that no meaner
prize should lure a traveller into regions so diffi-
cult of access. Those hardy and reckless adven-
turers who will persist in taking a walk in popu-
lous neighbourhoods, between daylight and dark,
upon those November days now coming, when fog
and mist combine to smear our streets with in-
viaible grease, should be handed over to the
Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.
Little readable tracts might be prepared for their
enlightenment, and pretty illuminated cards hung
up in the bedrooms and passages of their houses,
earnestly calling upon them and all people who
obstinately take exercise on foot to insure their
lives. Fathers of families should feel bound to
hand their wives, or to put in an envelope,carefully
addressed to their executors, an accidents insurance
ticket ; and if they on any occasion fail to
do so, they should be delicately reminded of
the omission when presented with their gloves
and umbrellas. Such a proceeding perhaps would
not add materially to the cheerfulness of the do-
mestic circle, but it would add much to its secu-
rity ; and a prudent housewife might console her-
self when the bread winner was a little too late
for dinner, that if much injured, he would
be much compensated. She might even cal-
culate the precise value of a broken leg or a broken
ann ; and comfortably dismiss from her mind any
anxiety about her tradesmen's bills should the
brain or the limbs of the master be for a time
disabled.

Side by side, however, with this great civic
danger, and in the very midst of it, a wonderful
personage has grown up. This is the London
Crossing-sweeper. Without giving implicit cre-
dence to Mr. Ti.►cxta.tT's theory, that this func-
tionary is a gentleman of polite address and
elegant exterior, who drives a high stepping horse
with a smart tiger, and wins the hearts
of the young and beautiful by his delightful
conversation and profuse expenditure, it may be
reasonably inferred that he is very well off. There
are some crossings over which thousands of well-
to-do and opulent people pass daily, and every
day. Now, a crossing-sweeper who has carefully
blacked his face with burnt cork and water is
often a pitiable object to behold. This is the
peculiar mixture which produces a Hindoo com-
plexion of any tint, without injury or irritation to
the skin ; and if to this are added certain well