The Express.
London, England, 1856-03-06 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, THURSDAY EVENING, MARCH 6, 1856.

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LONDON, THURSDAY, MARCH 6.

THE Rare papers (an abstract of which appeared
exclusively in yesterday's Express) are illus-
trative of the extent to which corruption and feeble-
ness pervade the military and civil administration
_ _

of Turkey. Bat they also show that there are smug
the Turkish Ministers, men earnestly and sincerely
bent upon reform; that there ire among therm( men
trained in the Government Schools many both able and
willing to support this clue of honest statesmen ;
and that the Turkish soldiery are quite capable of
appreciating such leaders. What is of more interest
to an Englishman in this Blue Book, is the evi-
dence it contains of the untiring energy and devotion '
of General WILLIAMS and his staff, and of the strong
bold they have obtained upon the public opinion of
Anatolia. Though forced to succumb to the enemy
in a most unequal contest, they have conquered the
confidence and good will of their friends. Whether
we are to have peace or war, it will evidently be of
the utmost consequence to the Turkish Government
to retain the military services of General WILLIAMS
and the European officers who served under him in
Asia. It may be added that it would have been
better to continue their energetic and judicious
coadjutor, Mr. Consul BEARD, at Erseroum,
with higher official station and emoluments,
than to have removed him to Demean& But the
Kars papers will be more eagerly scanned in Eng-
land, with a view to obtain an insight into the al-
leged disagreements between General WILLIAMS and
Lord STRATFORD DE REDCLIFFR, than for any other
purpose. Most men take a greater interest in per-
sonal scandals then in more important matters. Noe
can it be denied that much will depend in the East
I upon the harmonious co-operation of British agents.
Enough is revealed in the Kars correspondence to
enable the public to form a pretty fair estimate of
the merits and demerits of the English Government,
the English Ambassador at Constantinople, and the
English Commissioner in Ears, with reference to the
I military operations in Anatolia. It would do no
good to attempt to conceal that there have been dis-
plays of temper which are much to be regretted.
Bat it seems equally clear that the public envies has
sot suffered materially thereby. In so far as General
WILLIAMS is concerned, it is obvious that what man
could do he did. His judgment and energy are
above all praise. It is equally dear that be was sin-
cerely and energetically supported by the Home
Governmest. The only party whose ondscrt is open
to criticism is Lord STRATFORD DE REDCAPS% We
are free to admit that the conduct of Lord STRAT-
FORD DI REDCLIFFI, in leering unacknowledged the
receipt of so many despatches from General WlLLeams,
between the time of that officer's appointment as
Commissioner of the British Government with the
Army of Anatolia and the beginning of December,
1864, was most reprehensible. Lord 81marronn ought
to have recollected that General WiLusies req•.lired to
be encouraged in the discharge of his urinous duties
by assurance of sympathy and support, and that he
ought to have been strengthened in the eyes of the
Turkish officials by tangible demonstrations of the
confidence of his own Governing. Again, the testi-
ness evinced by Lord tirnirroan when General
WILLIAMS remonstrated with him in a frank and
mealy meaner, and appealed to the British Govern-
ment, is little to his credit. On the other hand,
there is no reason to doubt that Lord STRATFORD
assiduously and energetically supported the repre-
sentations of General WILLIAMS in his communica-
tions with the Turkish Government, end that he faith-
fully transmitted all the despatches of General WIL-
LIAMS to the English SICRITAZT for Foam)"
Amnia. Throughout the correspondence relsr
tire to military operations in Anatolia in
1864.65, Lord STRATFORD DE BEDCLIFFI has
displayed a remissness in correspondence, and
an irritable, imperious temper, that are mime
drawbacks on his nodulose, as a diplomatist. But
it was known beforehand that these were his foible;
and to compensate for them he has displayed a saga-
city in estimating the characters of the courtiers end
ministers he had to deal with, a knowledge of
Turkish affairs, an honest devotion to the eau* of
England and of Europe, which have rarely been
*quelled. With all hie faults and weaknesses—and
they are grave ones—" another of his fathom we
have not" for dealing with the tangled polities of Cam-
staatinople. It will be ea irreparable lose to England
and Teaks'', if Lord ST/LATFORD Di REDCLIFFE is at
this janeture recalled or driven to resign. And it is
obvious that a "dead set" is being made against
him by intriguers and Interested speculators, English
and foreign. We have not been beckward to pint
eat the snots and faults of this Minister whenever
sesasies seemed to call for it ; but it is due to truth
eadjuslise—it is due to the interests of Mislaid
and Imp to assert his unequalled menu, when
Won b a risk of losing his services at • most
oessmstoss crisis.

Tits sobiest Theatre in Fame has bees do-
obeyed by fire. The building that yesterday oesaed
to exist had stood somewhat more than six-and-forty
years. The old house which Manager RICH, the
ig Harlequin showman" of POPE and FIELDING, filet
opened in 1732, and where emu= first acted is
1748. was harped to the mead is September, 1808,
and the Coyest-golden which we all knew so wall—
as Clevent-garden of ourselves sad our fathers—was
apnea to the public in September, 1800.
What a crowd of recolleetions fora their way span
no as we think of the charred columns and black-
ened walla and smouldering embers, which are
all that now remain of Covent-garden Theatre. It is
impossible to look unmoved on the scene of so many
dramatic, triumphs and so many lively emotions, of
so much ennobling sorrow, of so much heart-easing
mirth. The House, which has a mood time perished
in flames, commenced its weer in a storm. For two
moths alter its reopening, the O.P. riots were the
exclusive talk of. the tows. The roar of this thee.
tried tempest has loss since paned away frees the
memories of men. Nothing remains of it but the
solitary recollection of that happiest of all dueled
pane—
Efodinater opee Ireitaassta maims.

Then ease the era of the ILintaus in all he
glory : the Sestet and Oriel/ow of the stately
brother, the Lady Atoka of the asiestie
sister. When thus greater lights want cut,
CHARLES Ems= sent slued foe a tine the
traditional glories of the beam The Belvidere
sad lsebelio of the OThum, revived the reeollectits
of the departed Clasen of Triaged, i sad the &lunatics 1
reins of FANNY sad tbe amiss' gifts of ADS-
Lams showed that the younger menthe lobe.
sited boa the elder a Wasp of intellect as wall as

of blood. After a period the epoch of the MACREADT
=maenad esened—an epoch ever memorable in

.the ainals of English drs.ma as having established
the principle that the most costly appliances of art
and the deepest researches of erudition an to be
lavished unsparingly on the illustration and embodi-
ment of the highest conceptions of the highest
dramatic genies. No playgoer of the ex-
isting generation is likely to forget the
" Tempest" and the " Coriolanus " as produced
at Covent-garden under the management of
MACREADY. The next vicissitude that took place in
the fortunes of the bons was a singular one. Its
stage became the rostrum of the Anti-Corn-Law
ILeague. COBDEN and Bonin, and Oneo" and Fox,
created within its walls that public opinion in the
metropolis which brought London up to the level of
the North, and caused the cry for untaxed bread to
go forth from all parts of the empire alike, till its
strength grew to be irresistible and Free Trade be-
came the law of the land. The next transition was
even stronger still. The heir of the DELAPIELDI con-
ceived the patriotic notion of spending in music the
patrimony which had been created out of malt.
Covent-garden became an opera. The architectural
skill of ALBANO and the decorative resources of Casco
made the house a model of easy accessibility, ele-
gance, and splendour. The season of the double
operas set in. Mayfair and Belgravia were cm-
vend with a repetition of the musical warfare with
which °Luck and Plectuu had in the eighteenth
century convulsed Paris; and the battle raged for
some seasons with all that intensity of discord only
known to professors of harmony, commentators on
the classics, and doctors in theology. The sums
lavished on the musical entertainments at Covent-
garden were enormous. In the season of 1848 the
vocal department alone cost 33,3491., and the
orchestra 10,0481. It is but fair to admit that the
result was commensurate. The ungrateful world
who shrugged their shoulders over "poor Mr. DaLt-
naio's" ruin, forgot to remember that this lavish
outlay had procured them for two seasons the mat
consummate enjoyment which it is in the power of
the lyrical drama to impart. We are afraid that the
admirers of the legitimate stage will think us sadly
degenerate for the avowal, but we must frankly con-
fess that amongst thole "pleasures of memory" in-
separably oonnected in our minds with the Covent-
garden that was but yesterday a reality and to-day
is &ruin, are those triumphs of vocal and musical art
which all London has witnessed within its walla.
The "To m'ami • of Maio still lingers in
our ears, the .Nonna and Lucresia of 011.111
the magnificent, the histrionic art and consummate
vocal science of WARM! OARCIA, are recollections
never to be effaced—rsoollenions which imply no
treason to the elder Queens of our national drama.
We will not dwell on the bear uses to which this
magnificent hues was devoted in the intervals of the
Opera season. JOLLIES and his promenade Concerts,
and his Bal Masques; then the Wined of the North
and his Pantomime; then an entertainment which
appears to have been Drams, Pantomime, and Dal
Mosque all in one ; and then—the Fire.
Amidst the general wreck and ruin, it is no light
matter of congratulation that no lives have been
sacrificed, though at the time the conflagration
broke out all the manure had not yet left the
house. We are not yet 'efficiently informed as
to the particulars to know whether it was so
in fact, but it may turn out that for this
fortunate result we are in some degree indebted to
the architectural skill of Mr. Auntro. Covent-
garden, after the improvements of 1847, was by far
the best contrived theatre in London, in all that re-
lated to means of ingress and egress. This is ob-
viously a point of the very highest importance in all
places of crowded public resort. The ancients were
well aware of this. The vomitories in Vzszursx's
great amphitheatre were so admirably contrived that
its 80,000 spectators could, without inconvenient
pressure, make their way oat of its precincts in less
than ten minutes. People who have a tarn for see-
ing special interferences in all those events which it
nits their views to regard &skull:matte, are fond of
improving such catastrophes as the destruct/fond thea-
tres. Our taste in such matters is so doubt improving,
still the conflagration of a theatre as the termination
of a Bal Masque is an opportunity that will prove, we
fear, too tempting for the Christian charity of the
telethon we have in view. What if we turn the
tables, and improve the merlon in our own more
mundane way. There is a plus of public exhibition
in this metropolis never profaned by any performance
less decorous (we do not lay lees harmless) than a
concert or an oratorio. The place we mean is Exeter
Hall. Now, this vast building—this great =phi-
theatre of spiritual gladiatorship—has nothing that
' deserves the name of vomitories at aIL ♦ fashionable
' chapel is not more difficult of exit. If fire, or the aims
of fire, were to take place among the three thousand
congregated in this highly moral building—and such
I things have happened even in chapels, nay, in

churches—what, in the name of all that is feekul, is
to become of the imputed mass? Let the public,
by whom this excellent institution is supported, en-
force their views upon the trustees with whom its
management rests. Aka warn. We earnestly trust
that a catastrophe ea fearful may be averted ; but if it
did happen we feel only too confident that, in the total
absence of all available means of exit, the audience of
Exeter Hall could not, like the masquere of Covent
garden, make their maps with such complete mem
as not to add the loos et either life or limb to the
regret aceessarily inspired by an event almost SA
melancholy as that which hex left nothing remaining
of oar flout theatre

Bit blealuals. rasa, sad • Uttiorlog wall.

SIM WILLIAM CLAY% Bill for the Abolition of
Church Rates was, yesterday, read a ee:ond time.
Os the division 221 votes were recorded for the
second reedier, sad 178 spinet it. Many sincere
and devoted membere, of what is called the " ultra-
Church party," have implored their friends to meet
this assamire, by proposing some equitable comm.
inns. In vain I for Lord Joan Mammas not the
motion, that the Bill be read a second time, with an
oseempromisiog negative. The minority is by no
means a fair exponent of the strength of the party
which is prepared to support Lard JOHN MANNERS in
maintaining Church Rates in all their enonstrom
iniquity. Lord Joan Rues= voted against the
seemed reading, bet Lord Joan le no unqualified
advocate of Church Rates Si they are. Yester-
day's division has spoken the doom of Church
Rates. We unfeignedly lament the course which
Lord PALMAS/ON hie declared his Government
have resolved to adopt with regard to Biz WILLIAM
Ore's Bill. The additional provisions whisk the
noble Viscount peoples to aeon to the unsure
out only serve to perpetuate a contest which spreads
bitternessand strife through the land, and endangers
the mammies of the Church of England as se
establishment. The struggle is not between the
Church sad Nonosaformista. There are max—

wimps a majority of Chareban as mash aggris;nd
by March Rates, and as averse to their perpetaatioo,
as Dissenters.

M. Ville's= has fast written, foe a new edition
of tts .. Dlge•p%l• Thameslk." • Ufe of Chalk Foz,
et whisk the WWI Brats k /sty kik twos.