The Express.
London, England, 1867-05-11 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, SATURDAY EVENING, MAY 11, 1867.

come into line with it only br marching
forward. The facilities which the Bill gives for
the selection of all the worst elements in the
boroligh population fur the purposes of party cor-
ruption and victory, can be met only by including
the good, and even the indifferent, with the posi-
tively bad. The Government measure is based,
as has been traly said, on the principle of selec-
tion ; but it is framed so as to attract the worst
and reject the best elements. If household suf-
frage, not simply as a measure of justice, but as a
means of checking corruption, becomes before
long not merely a Liberal but a national de-
mand, the country will have Mr. DISRAELI'S Bill
to thank or to blame.

This suffrage, in all its simplicity and purity,
will be introduced by the measure now before
Parliament into twenty-nine English boroughs.
The principle of personal rating and personal pay-
ment of rates will establish a franchise practically
indistinguishable from, or at least closely approach-
ing to, household suffrage, in Scotland and Ireland.
Among the majority of Thursday, we are not sur-
prised to find the names of some honestly
Liberal members desirous to secure to their con-
stituencies the application of what they hold to be
a sound principle. They have doubtless voted
in accordance with their convictions. We should
be sorry to charge them with having been influ-
enced by selfish regard for their own particular
boroughs. No doubt they believe that house-
hold suffrage, once established throughout
Scotland and Ireland, and in twenty-nine of the
English constituencies, cannot be withheld from
the rest. They think that the constituencies in
which it is established will serve as a fulcrum
for the lever which shall move the entire
nation in the same direction. It may be
matter for regret that they should hare sought
this object by indirect means, forgetting that in
morals, as in mathematics, the straight line is the
shortest road from one point to another. Those
who, without fearing household suffrage, would
prefer to approach it practically ; or who would
like to see it guarded by such limitations as might
exclude the residuum which makes even Mr.
BILIUHT a little nervous, may regret this course.
But the real responsibility for what may
follow rests with Mr. DissASLI. The intolerable
political inequality which his Bill is calculated
to establish between persons socially indis-
tinguishable, and between boroughs of the
same rank and standing ; the jealousies between
class and class which it threatens to rouse, and
the rivalry of corruption between the political par-
ties which it will almost everywhere infiame—can
be abated only, if it passes, by a measure of
household suffrage. In that event the Liberal
party—that portion of it which is Liberal in
thought and purpose as well as in name—must
presently reorganize itself upon this basis. It is
impossible for the nation to rest for a moment
in Mr. Doutasm's scheme ; and there is no mid-
station now, though three months ago there were
many.

well unden4dsthat ininisters,having strained the docility
et ' their f to the utmost, had found it indispensable
to take their stand at last upon this comparatively insigni-
ficant question, and that, had they been lelVin a minority
upon it they would have thrown up the bill and dissolved
parliament.
The single interest of the Spectator in the matter of re-
form, now that there is no hope of an intellectual reform
bill, is that the tory squires should see clearly what they
are doing, should vote consciously and not blindly, should
recognise to themselves that, under whatsoever pretext,
or excuse, or theory, or hope, they are establishing in Great
Britain household suffrage. That franchise may work very
well, in the great centres of intelligence it certainly will
work well, and physical power in the last resort
lies there, end not in Harwich or Honiton ; but it is not a
system which men whose runent litre is resistance to the
rule of numbers ought to have established. Either they
have been converted, in which case they ought to have
announced and justified their conversion, or they have not
been, in which case they are subordinating their principles
to their party ties. In either owe, whether they are im-
moral or only inconsistent, they are assisting their chief
to establish immediately and without checks the system
which only last year they declared to be revolutionary, to
carry a bill three times as democratic as that for which
they overturned the liberal government.
Hyde-park, the Chronicle says, is attached to no royal
residence ; and it in, to all intents and purposes, simply a
pleasure-ground for the inhabitants of London. The best
course, therefore, would be to regard it no longer as royal
property, but to make it over to the metropolitan authori-
ties. In this way it would be regulated like the public
pleasure -grounds of any other large town ; and whatever
restrictions might be imposed on the use of it, no accusa-
tion of political bias would lie against those who framed
them.—The same journal describes the decision on Thurs-
day night as another victory in the cause of retrogression.
The thirst for restrictive legislation grows by what it
feeds on.

REFORM MEETING AT BIRMINGHAM.

BIRMINGHAM, FRIDAY Nicnr.

A meeting of the committee of the Liberal Asso-
ciation and of the Reform League of this town was held
to-night, Mr. Alderman HAMMEN in the chair.
The CHAIRMAN in opening the proceedings said a
" monstrous baud" had been perpetrated on the people
by the vote of Thursday night, and it was the duty of true
reformers to move step by step to rescii,d that vote.
Mr. T. A. PARTRIDGE moved, and Mr. RADFORD,
chairman of the Reform League, seconded • resolution
which, after expressing thanks to Mr. Gladstone,
Mr. Bright, and Mr. Mill, for their unanswer-
able and exhaustive speeches demonstrating to the
House of Commons that the government scheme for
the personal payment of rates would practically exclude
them from the borough franchise, declared that the meet-
ing regarded the decision of the house in favour of this
plan, after its fraudulent character had been so clearly
proved, as a crowning proof that a majority of its members
will resist any substantial measure of reform until their
hostility be overcome by the combined action of the people.
Mr. Councillor HARRIS supported thin resolution, and
in doing so urged the desirability of a petition to parliament
couched in strong but not intemperate language.
The resolution was carried unanimously.

The Spectator, treating of the case of the poet
Young, expresses a hope that Lord Derby will make his
peace with literary men by giving a pension to Mrs. C.
Bennett.

We (Gardeners' Chroniele) are requested to an-
nounce that in consequence of the ceremony of laying the
foundation-stone of the Hall of Arts and Sciences by her
Majesty having been fixed to take place on Monday, May
20, at South Kensington, immediately adjoining the Royal
Horticultural Society's Gardens, the society has deter-
mined, upon the suggestion of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales,
to hold a special floral fete, to which it is hoped that the
exhibitors of tricolour zonate pelargoniums and other
plants will largely contribute.
An Embassy from Japan to the United States
has arrived at New York. It oonsists of two commis-
sioners, a secretary, five interpreters and attaché., and
several servants, and came by way of San Francisco and
Panama. Its object is to examine and report upon the
army, navy, railroads, canals, schools, and various other
objecta of interest in the United States. Shortly after
their arrival at New York the Japanese were persuaded to
take off their native attire, and to make their appearance
iu Yankee clothing ; and the New York aldermen intro-
duced them to New York customs by at once taking them
to Niblo's Garden.

M. Louis Blanc, who had some experience of
popular meetings in his own country in 1848, says, in the
Temps, that he felt ashamed for the English people that
there should be the slightest fear about their demonstra-
tions. It was • calumny on the good sense of the public,
• calumny on liberty, • calumny on England. For
his own part, he paid so little attention to
Mr. Walpole's placard, which recommended all peace-
able citizens to keep away, th►t he and another
Frenchman, a friend of his, went together at 6 o'clock
in • carriage, both of them astonished to find how little
Englishmen know and how ill they judge of their own
country, and both of them laughing at the formidable pre-
cautions taken by the government. He describes in the
same pleasant vein the aspect of Hyde-park, with its
usual promenaders on foot, on horseback, and in carriages,
and with many others who were there to see what was
going on. Among these be recognised the French Ambas-
s►dor, " who was sitting quietly on a chair," and, in spite
of Mr. Walpole's solemn warning, he found Lord Gran-
ville, Lord Halifax, the Duke of Sutherland, the Marquis
of Sligo, Lord Ranelagh, Lord Chief Justice Bovill, ■cad
other personages, walking about at the risk of swelling the
ranks of the rioters, and encouraging by their presence the
enemies of order and of property. The two friends then
proceeded to another part of the park, and saw " five or
six hundred policemen sitting on the grass, eating, drink-
ing, laughing, and seemingly not penetrated with the ex-
tent of the danger from which society was to be rescued by
their courage."

Miss Curran, who painted a portrait of the poet
Shelley, which ham been recently alluded to by the Aar-
%RIM and other journals, was Amelia Curran. It was
Sarah Curran who wa■ betrothed to Robert Emmett, the
Irish patriot, who was executed for treason. When
Emmett was apprehended the Olken of justice proceeded
to Curran's house to search his daughter's apartments for
proofs of her lover's guilt. Amelia let the officer, in and
stated that her sister was ill in bed, and begged that they
would allow her to go and prepare her sister for the visit.
The officers consented. Amelia then went to Sarah's room,
and whispering, begged her for God's sake to tell her where
Emmett's letters were. In a very few moments she had
concealed all the letters shoot her person, and, having
made her sister sit up in the boil she let the officers into
the bedroom, where they found nothing criminatory.
Sarah became melancholy through the rest of her life.
Amelia lived chiefly in Rome, where she died unmarried.
A gentleman now residing in Southampton knew her in
Rome, and 111, her portrait. She is like her father, the
illustrious patriot, orator, and wit, about the eyes and
mouth. She was an accomplished and high-spirited
woman.

LITERARY AND SeLENTIFIC MEETINGS FOR THE
ENKIHNG WEEX.—Sfooday— Society of Arts, at 9, "Pottery
and Porcelain," Mr. Chaffers. Geographical, at 85, "Chinese
Tartary," Captain Osborn ; Dr. Livingatone's Lost
Journey," Mr. Findlay. Tuesday—Royal Institution, at
3, " Spectrum Analysis," Professor Miller. Engineers, at
8, " Optical Apparatus in Lighthouses i" " Experiment+,
on Removal of Organic and Inorganic Substances in
Water," Mr. Byrne. Wednesday—Society of Arts, at N
"New Machinery for cutting Slate, dm.," Mr. Fothergill
Cooke. Thursday—Royal Institution, at 3, " Ethnology,;
Professor Huxley ; Numismatic, at 7. Syro-Fpsptian
at 74, "Assyrian and Egyptian Civilisation," Mr. Nash.
Antiquaries, at 95, " MS. Volume of Songs of Henry
VIII.," Mr. Chappell ; " Earl Stanhope's Portrait of the
Empress Leonora, Mr. Scharf. Royal, at 85. Friday—
Philological, at 81, Anniversary, "Excrescent Consonants,"
Professor K. Royal Institution, at 8, " Absorption of
Gases by Metals," Professor Odling. Saturday--Royal
Institution, at 8, " Ethnology," Professor Huxley.—
..Wyo./qua.

THE CHURCH IN NOTTING-HILL.—The Lord
Archbishop of Armagh, acting for the Bishop of London,
oonsecrated on 'Ttiay last the beautiful new church St.
Clement's, Lancaster-road West, Notting-bill, which has
been erected through the exertions of the Rev. A. IX
Robinson, the incumbent of the district, liberally aided by
the Bishop of London's fund. It oontatna accommodation
for 900, all the seats being free, and one-half unappro-
priated. The Bishop of London is the patron.
LORD BURY. —W e(Norfulk News)are sorryto hear
that this smith's nobleman has not yet recovered from
the effects of his recent accident, and that be is still
unable to come down into Norfolk or to attend to public
matters.

Cht daurt.

OSBORNE, MAT 10.

The Queen drove out yesterday afternoon, ae-
ooinpanied by Princess Louise ; and her Majesty and
Prince Leopold rode on ponies in the grounds this morning.
Princess Louise and Princess Beatrice walked out.
Lady Churchill left Osborne to-day.

The christening of the infant Princess, third child of
the Prince and Princess of Wales, took place yesterday,
at Marlborough-house.
Thv ceremony was performed by his Grace the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury, in the presence of the Queen of
Denmark, the Prince and Princess of Wales, Prince
Arthur, the Duchess of Cambridge, the Duke of 011112-
bridge, the Grand Duke, the Grand Duchess, and Prince
Adolphus of Mecklenburg-Strelits, the Prince and the
Princess Mary Adelaide, Princess of Teck, and Count
Gluchen.
The infant Princess received the names of Louise Vic-
toria Alexandra Dagmar.
The sponsors were :—The Queen of Denmark, the Grand
Duchess Cannons (Princess Dagmar), the Grand Duchess
of Mecklenburg-Strelits, Primer Christian of Schleswig-
Holstein-Augustenburg, Princess Louise, Princess Louise
of Hesse, the King of the Greeks, the Crown Prince of
Prussia, Prince Frederick of Hesse, Prince Edward of
Saxe Weiniar,and the Duke of Schlesvrig-liolstein-Glucks-
burg.
The following had the honour of being present at the
ceremony :—The Countess of Macclesfield, Madame de
Bine, the Hon. Mrs. Stoner, General Sir Wm. Kaollys,
K.C.8., Major Elphinatone, M. 41e Castenschiold, Major
Teesdale, Mr. Herbert Fisher, Dr. Farre, Mr. Paget, and
Mr. Preseot Hewitt.
After the ceremony luncheon was served.

The Prince of Wales presided yesterday forenoon at a
meeting at Ilarlborough•house of the Committee for the
Paris Regatta, to be held in July. The following were
present : the Duke of Sutherland, the Hon. G. Denman,
M.P., Mr. C. J. Selwyn, M.P., Mr. M'Gregor, Mr.Chitty,
Captain Donnelly, and Mr. Wylde, Secretary.

The Prince of Wales honoured Mr. Geo. G. Mama
with a sitting for the obverse of a medal for the Acclima-
tisation Society.
In the evening the Prince of Wales, attended by Major-
General Lord Frederick Paulet, Viscount Royston, and
Major Teesdale, left 3larlborough-house for Dover, en
eon& for Paris.

The plenipotentiaries accredited by the European l'owers
to the London Conference on the Luxemburg Question
met yesterday for the third time, at the official residence
of the First Lord of the Treasury, in Downing-street.
The Conferenoe will sit again to-day (Saturday).
A committee of the Lords of her Majesty's Most Honour-
able Privy Council sat yesterday at the Privy Council-
office, Whitehall, on the subject of the cattle plague. The
lords present were the Lord President and Lord Robert
Montagu. Mr. Harrison and Dr. Alexander Williams
attended the committee.

Mr. H. W. Wickham, M.P. (chairman of the West
Riding Quarter Sessions), Colonel Smyth (deputy chair.
man), and Mr. J. H. Dixon (deputy clerk of the peace),
transacted business at the Homßoffice yesterday.
A deputation consisting of Mr. C. H. Turner (chairman
of the Great Eastern Railway), Mr. Lightly Simpson
(director of Great Eastern Railway), Mr. W. H. Shaw
(solicitor to the company), and Mr. R. Baxter (parka.
mentary solicitor) had an interview with the Duke of
Richmond, at the office of the Board of Trade, yesterday,
to solicit the board's recommendation to suspend the stand-
ing orders of the House of Commons, to enable the Great
Eastern Company's Finance Bill to be introduced.
Despatches were sent from the Colonial-office yesterday
to the Governors of Ceylon, Hong Kong, Labuan, Malta,
and the Straits' settlements.

THE PRINCE OP 1, ALES'S VISIT TO THE PARIS
EXHIBITION.

The vessel in which his Royal Highness the
Prince of Wales left Dover last night for Calais was the
London, Chatham, and Dover Company's fine steamer the
Maid of Kent, Captain Pittock. This vessel had been
specially ordered by the Admiralty fur the conveyance of
his royal highness across the straits. The Calais and
Ostend steamers for the other passengers were on
the opposite side of the pier. Mr. Knight and
Mr. Karns, the Queen's courier, superintended
the royal embarkation, during which the heights and
castle were lighted up by the glare of the lightning, a par-
ticularly bright flash occurring just as the boat mat off
from the pier. The Maid of Kent left the pier at 11.20
p.m., the see being far from rough, notwithstanding the
disturbed state of the atmosphere. The passage across
the straits to Calais was made in about an hour
and forty minutes, the vessel being a very fast one.
From Calais his royal highness proceeded by train to Paris,
and it was expected that he would arrive at the English
Embassy at an early hour this morning. During the
prince's stay in the French capital he will be
the guest of Lord Cowley and will make
several vista to the Exhibition. The Prince's
stay in Paris will be limited, it is understood, to about
eight days, and the royal return to this country will take
place about Monday week. The Queen of Denmark re-
mains at Marlborough House with her Royal Highness the
Princess of Wales, who is still progressing satisfactorily.
General Knollys was in attendance at Charing-cross on
the departure of the Prince.

The return of the Court to Windsor will be
either on the 15th or 113th, and on the 20th her Majesty,
with the junior members of the royal family, accompanied
by their royal highnemea the Prince and Princess
Christian and the infant prince, will leave Windsor
for Balmoral for a short period. It is, we believe, the in-
tention of her Majesty to stop at Leeds on her journey to
the north, and perform the ceremony of laying the 6rat
stone of the Hall of Arta and Sciences, and afterwards re-
sume her journey.—Cowlkw.

The Duke of Cambridge honoured the Marquis
and Marchioness of Donegan with his company at dinner,
on Thursday, at their residence in Grosvesor-square. There
were present to meet his royal highness—The Marchioness
of Ailesbury, the Earl and Countess of Cork, the Earl and
Countess of Tankerville, the Earl and Countess of
Clarendon, the Earl Granville, the Earl of Sefton, Lady
Moleeworth, Lord Chief Justice Sir Alexander Cockburn,
Colonel the Hon. J. and Mrs. Maodonold, Dr. Quin, &c.
The Duke and Duchess of Montrose will enter-
tain his Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge at dinner
on Monday, the 27th of May. The duchess will have an
evening party afterwards, and on the following week a

Viscount and Viscountess Falmouth entertained
at dinner last evening, at their residenee in St. James's-
square, the Earl of Stradbroke, Viscount and Viscountess
Ho!modals, Lord Eliot, Lord and Lady Vivian, Colonel
ilia Hon. Strange Jocelyn, Mr. and Lady Charlotte Wat-
son Taylor and Miss Taylor, Colonel and Mrs. Wood and
Miss Wood, Colonel Gambier, Colonel Airey, Hon. Mr.
Calthorpe, Mr. Digby, kn.

Lord and Lady Egerton of Tatton entertained at
dinner yesterday evening, at their residence in St. James's-
vinare, his Excellency the Danish Minister, Lord Chutes,
Lord and Lady Lyveden, Lord and Lady Aveland and
Hon. Mum Heathcote, Sir Dudley and L►dy Marjoribaaks,
Mr. and Lady Elizabeth St. Aubys, Captain Shelley, Mr.
Edwin Earton, Mr. Fleming, Mr. Petra, Mr. Tracy, kc.

The Countess Cowper had a dinner party last
night at the family residence in St. James's-square. Later
in the evening her l►dyship had a reception, at which a
numerous company assembled.
Tho British ambassador at Paris and Countess
Cowley have issued invitations for a grand ball, which is
to take place on the 17th of May.

With deep regret we have to announce the fact
that the popular Earl of Chesterfield is at present suffering
from a severe illness. The noble earl has been eonfined to
his room for some days, but his friends anxiously hope
that he may soon be catered to health.—Derbyshire
Courier.

THE THREATENED GOVERNMENT PROMEt'UTIONR.
—We (Imperial &Dino) believe that the Home-office will
not proceed against Mews. Healer, Bradhiugh, Ito., for
trespass in connection with the meeting in Hyde-park on
Monday last.
ST. PANCRAS WORKHOUSE.—For many month/
past small-pox has extensively prevailed in the pariah of
St. Pancras, and wards hare hew fitted up in the work.
house for the reception of the patients, where there have
been from 30 to upwards of 40 for • long time past, but
the whole of the patients are now convalescent, and this
day Dr. Bennett, the resident medical officer, reports that
the nurse; and atteadants will be dismissed, and the wards
closed. This result has been obtained by an arrangement
being made for the whole of the cases of smallpox as they
occur being received into the Smallpox Hospital at a
charge of fear guises, per patient.