The Express.
London, England, 1859-01-01 00:00:00

TNbt Tfpresl

LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, JANUARY 1, 1859.

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YR B. N. PRIMPS, ALP., OX POLITICAL
PROGRESS.

On Thunday evening, K. N. Philips, Esq., M.P.
for Bury, wee entertained at dinner by the memben of the
Nowebsotonf Association of that borough ; about 100 sitting
don's la Sitseeits room of the Albion Hotel ; Mr. Perna
Coosa
800

THE KNIGHTS LEAP AT ALTENASE.
(From Presses iltageeltd, kw January.)
" So the foeman hue fired the gabs, men of mine,
And the water is spent sod done;
Then bring ma a cap of the red Ahr-wine;
• I never shall drink but tide cam.
" And fetch me my hareem, and esiblle my hoses,
And lead him zee round to the dear ;
He must take such a leap to-night per force
As horse never took before.
" I have lived by the saddle for years a soon,
And if I =midis on tree,
The old saddle-tree, which hoe borne me of yore,
Is the rowan Umber for me.
" I have Bred my life, I have fought my fight,
I have drunk mshare of wine ,
From Trier to Coin there wee never a knight
Used a merrier life than mine.
" So now to show bishop, and burgher, and priest,
How the Altenshr hawk can die,
If they smoke the old falcon out of his nest,
He must take to his wisgs sad fly."
Hs burnt admit, by the clear meeetabiws,
'And be mousted his horse at the door,
And he took sic & a pull at the red Ahr-wine
Aa never man took before.
He spurred the old hors, and he held him tight,
And he leapt him out over the wall ;
Out over the cliff, out into the night,
Three hundred feet of fall.
They found him next morning below in the glen,
And never a bone in him whole
But heaven may yet have more ioercy than men
On such a bold rider's soul.

C. K.

A JAPANESE ClTY.—There was hardly a house in
Network' that had not some sort of garden attached to it,
and all were well and tastefully kept ; but the most striking
thing in Wm city (antUt was generally °reeved by all of us in
Japan), was discovery men, woman, and child looked happy
and contented! There was an exception to the rale—a
number of unfortunate eolemnitiee • ho were in charge of the
gateway leading from Decima to Mangarki ; and they were
evidently Lorca to death. Poor scribes! they had to keep
notes of everything, animate and inanimate, that went in or
out of that solitary outlet to Japan' Every one else met us
with a friendly smile or a good-natured look of amazement,
at either our brilliant buttons,our shining bora, or some other
phenomenon exhibited in the gorgeous attire of a British
naval officer. The labouring portion of the male population
decidedly took little sailor can for their raiment—spire of
cotton elo h, a yard long and six inches wide, conatituting
their general attire; and many of the children might have
just escaped from Eden, so innocent were they of any
clothing. Laughing and coaxing, they came unhesitetiogly
up to as, begging in their natural pretty way for buttons,
`• Cad button?" Cassi button P It was irresistible,
and we gave all we could span; but what those
little urchins are going to do with buttons, seeing
they had neither rag nor ornament upon them, in
a puzzle to us. The grown-up women were mo-
destly attired in dark-coloured garments, their beautiful hair
neatly dressed, and, but that their MO/ were dyed, there was
a general appearance of beauty about them, combined with
much grace in the figures of the younger ones. Thu
Japanese officials and gentry were vary well dressed. and In
their attire displayed considerable dandyism, according I.
their own brawn. Bat in their dress, se well as in their
' hours, in Japan, we noticed the prevalence of quiet, indeed
rembee colours, and the abortive of that vulgar culounng and
tinsel-work so common in Chins. Here the out-door dress
of the ladies, and that of the poor girls at the tea gardens,
end the wives of the tredeepeople, wa• quiet in colour, how-
ever tine the texture might be; and amongst the official
dreams of the Alone, black, dark blue, and black
and white patterns, were the moot general. Tor
boor and temples are likewise painted low 'surlily than
elsewhere in the East, and there wea far ler gilding about
them. This peculiarity in Japanese testa was one of the
first imprerions received on our visiting Japan and, like
woozy first iropreetions, proved to be correct.—Blackures
Jirrsg•ziow, for January.
GEORGE TUE SECOND'S I)RAWINO-100M.a—M Yon-
der," says Mr. Lusher, "ere two of my Lords of the
Admiralty, Mr. Gilbert Elliot and Admiral Hoecawen
pew Bosizewen, whose fleet fired the first gun in
your waters two year ego. That stout gentle-
man all belaced with gold is Mr. Fox, that was
minister, and is now content to be paymaster with a
great salary." " lie carries the are. fames co hie person ;
why, his widstoost is a perfect Potoei say. George.
'•durst Imp... Ow—bow goes the teat? He lore to set
money and to spend it," continues General Lambert. "Yoe
la my Lord Chief Jerre Wilkie, talking to my Lord of
Salisbury, Hooter Headley, who, if be serve his God as he
envoi his king, will he troslated to eome very high pro-
motion in Hearn. He belongs to your grandtat her's time,
and was loved by Dick Steele and hated by the Deno. With
them is my Lord el London, the Merced Doctor Sherlock.
My lords of the lawn sleeves have lost half their honours
now. 1 remember when I was a boy in my mother's hand,
she made me go down on my knees to the Bishop et Roches-
ter; him who went over the water, and became minister ro
somebody who shall be norelese—Perktes bishop. That
bandantne fair man is Admiral Smith. He was president of
poor Breg's court-martial, and strove in vain to get him off
his penalty ; ' Tom of Ten Thousand* they cell him in the
fleet. The French Ansittomadur had him broke, when he
was a lieutenant, for making a French man-of-war lower
topsails to him, and the Kiog made Tom a captain the next
day. That tall, haughty-looking man is my Lord George
Sackville, who, now 1 am a major-general myself, will treat
me somewhat better than a footman. I with my stout old
Blakeney were here; he cc the soldier's darlieg, and se kind
and br on! ea yonder poker of a noblemen is brave and
your lordship's very humble servant. This I. a young
gentleman who t• just from America, and was l Brad-
rintk•• sad bushiest. two year. ago." "0. indeed ! " says
the poker of a nobleman. " I hare the honour of speaking
to Mr. —" TO Mejer-General Lambert, at your lord-
ship's service, and who was in his Majesty', sometime before
you entered it. That, Mr. Wartiogtnn, is the drat Com-
111011Pr in England, Mr. Speaker Ouslow."—The Virginums,
No. IS.

AIR. BARNUM'a ARGI'NIENT.—Mr. Stoke: An fax
ea I tulderairead him, he contends that, provided you give
the public a really good article, you are justified in any lie
or artifios by which you attract attention to it. Poe instance,
if I bed • picture to show, • fine one, the sight of which wm
worth the ,billing I charged, there could be no harm in my
'boning the doors in the face of the public for a day, and
siliziag a huge placard, raying that the Queen bad sent for
the picture to Osborne by spaniel eapnem, as Prince Albert
wished to make a photograph from it. I should nit smoking
my cigar before the picture in my exhibition
rim, and laughing as I heard the people read
toy lie, which would amouredly bring them in treble
nu.ubere next day. Mr. Barnum would say that
I had done nothing objectionable; the picture, ea I may,
being • reel Roberle, or Philip. I have merely
compelled them to cornm in.—Mr. Damper When I WWI
being courted by the prevent Mrs. Drooper, that young
lady's mineable wawa,. bat no opportunity of telling me
that her Polly, now mine, W.ll a perfect angel. Thin was
not strictly true ; Indeed, the statement admitted of cons
Uderable tooditiettion but the elder lady gays me • very
pretty arid very excellent wife, end I conceive that the
Burnum Modems was all for toy good. I don't condo om
Barnum; I only refuse to see any novelty in his views.—
, Council of Tea," in lilcrary Ga..fte.

• - - -
THEATRE STAIRCA iEB.—The requirements made in
our pages, xerneularly in respect of Andreae's and spproachee,
hare been thought unsecessuily large and too stringently
demanded ; and now C,.111,e another appalliog catastrophe.
Imagine a similar panic at Exeter-ball, or on the stain of
the Surrey Mtetio 1411, although eornewhat improved sines
we foretold the cat erosient which did happen there, or in
h+lf•a-dorwa other places that we could readily name, sail
see what would be the result. It ought to be perfectly well
known by thm time, to all nonnected with public buildings,
that it is only times appliances which are in constant we
that can be reckoned no in such emergeodes. It seems
that the Examiner 44 Plays, under the Lord Chamberlain,
is .1w Inspector of Theatres, and makes official examina-
tions of such buildinm. It is time that he took to hie
assistance some competent architect, and enforced, if ha
have the power, mine improvement in a matter en which Do
touch dependa. A proper inspection, indeed, ought to be
made torupulaory under an net of poliatilent, which shsald
contain clauses requiring entrances end aromas of proper
tne, end of sins proportioned to the number of persons
t. ho may be expected to elogn.gute. In the public buildings
of many ;sartorial towns the danger retorted to exists; and
we have recently received stmements to the effect that the
resoricteel means for entrance and egrets in the two public
halls in Edinburgh render the occurrence of +oddest there
Dego than likely. The positively beet arrangement of stair-
cases for the use of lance numbers of persona, liable to
peal. and dependent on the behaviour of others, has yet to
be determined on. We have seked for, at all events, a
larger somber of them, in proportion to the number of
persons sccommidated, than are now provided; in short
flights, tot too wide, with good landings, no winder, and a
handrail en both Ades.—The Boulder.
CRYSTAL PALACE.—The Alhambra-court and the
Ballot the Abencarracee will be brilliantly illuminated by
MOM of coloured lanthoene and gee jets at dusk this evening.

Mr. Piittre said that one object of their meeting he on-
dersted to be, that be might have se opportunity of
eiptessing his opinions upon matters that seemed to '
hams progressed rather more rapidly in the polities!
world than they promised to do when he met his oon-
mnimeets at the 30th of September. There had lately
base • great deal of talk about chases. that were to take
tette the cementation of the country. In newspaper
articles, we were frequently told just now,
that who entertained principles of progressive reform'
should take warning from the present state of political
again be France and In the United States ; and the aid
Wiry was repeated, that we were going to endanger the
helium of power in this country. Bat let them consider, es
sensible men, how far the changes they advocated would
be likely to bring upon the country the misfortunes of poli-
tical government that we saw to exist in Frees. and the
United States, We were told that the present despotism in
Francis was owing to outvoted suffrage. But since the
time of Louis XIV. there had bean slowed constantly •
esepotism of some kind. Under Louts XIV. there was •
legitimate despotic, rocearolty • then there was the despotism
of the syndic, and as • midi another despoil= elected
looted of hereditary. It appeared to dm that France had
and was, plated in tale, es we sapped, unfortunate
Poel ceisifiathe west of pokitisal rawer sad intiereet
sed Wier ikeram• thee ems arreleleg
i hremtTerses, the result being • total los of the
aristocratic power, and an almost total abnegation of
power by the middle-classes. Hence, though France had
pnopered, and was prospering, se • nation, no one could
pretend that Frenchmen enjoyed perfect liberty of
or of speech. (Hear, hear.) It was perfectly right thata
mattl
all we did we should endeavour not to fall Into the mistake
of our nearest neighbours. In the United States there was
an extraordinary state of things working out; the country,
owing its origin to emigration from Great Britain, was
governed by • republic, eetabliebed under the guidance of
one whom he (Mr. Philips) believed to be one of the most
able and honest men that ever existed—George Washing-
ton. America programme and becomes rich. We bond
there excellent lawe—the laws of England improved end
adapted; but we also found in many parte of the country
almost en Inability to execute those laws. The result wee,
that there did not exist the eame liberty of person
and speech that existed In this country. How had
this state of things originated ? When he was in Boston
three or four years ago, be heard a sermon preached be one
of the most eloquent of American preachers, In which the
minister, in the most urgent terme,called upon his congregation
to come forward sad state their opinions before their country-
men, and to take that position in the management of national
ottsirs to which they were entitled by their intellect and their
general position. When he asked the minister the cause of
such an skims, the rattly was, that that from which the
United States were yawing was the want of energy amongst
the upper classes—the want of that interest in the affairs of
the nation which was absolutely necessary for the well-being
and good working of the institutions ot • liberal and free
country. (lies, hear.) In confirmation of this look at
the recent addrese of the American President; in which
he expreiesd his great grief at the want of that purity of
principle, which all would admit to be neoweary as the basis
of free inatitutious and the prosperity of any_ free country.
(Appian's.) Looking to this country, his (Mr. Philips e)
view wee, that In extending political power to and amongst
the people we was preserving, not altering, the constitution.
(Applause.) It ltad been said that nobody ever raw the
British constitution ; bat what we felt that constitution did,
was to give to every man, rich or poor, perfect liberty of
parson—(mar, hear)—and of epeeoh also provided he did
not slander his neighbour. Being pottered of so good and
valuable • thing, let us by no means tries with it. What
we should do was by gradual program to make the con-
stitution work In the spirit of, and for, the age in which we
lived. (Hear, hear.) No man wished or would dream of
any Literati= with respect to the crown. Even if we were
not so truly blest as we were in the preseot monarch, the
constitution would step in to prevent ill effects from the
power of the crown. The Roue, of Peers he considered a
most important element In the constitution, more particularly
for those who wished to make progressive improvement In
the lower house. The Hones of Peers, in any time of excite-
ment, prevented rsah or absurd legislation on the part of the
Commons, and in so fee ea that it worked admirably. The
Lord, even now might object to pass some bills sent up
to them ; but when the people showed that they really meant
to have what they believed to be their deserts, you always
found the Lords gracefully give way. (Laughter). fhe Bench
of Bishops had been remarked upon pretty much lately. But
he thought that In 1688, and on many subsequent Oc.asion•
we had been much indebted to the bishops. They were able
men, who, from their previous poeirions, knew something of
the feelings of the people; and he believed that when the
House of Commons determined that there should be • reform
unaware cored, the bishops would be the first in the
Howe of Ledo to say that it ems quite right to take such
a step. (Laughter.) The real point of intermit in this
matter of committal...nal pogrom, however, wee the House
of Commons. In 1768 there was • general election. Out
of sight militate of people, there were but 160.000 electors;
and hides-7 told us unmistakeably that the flows of Com-
mons was then most corrupt. Scats were generally pur- '
chased, and the suffrage was valued only as • means of
realising money. Earnest reformer. of that day—such as
his (Mr. Philips's) father—of coarse caw and said that each
• fearful state of thing. could not continue. After a eerie.
of ware, and • great accumulation of debt, peace came in 1815.
The effects of war having yawed sway, there arm. through-
Out the land • cry for reform, which lasted from 1828 to
1830. It was at last conceded that the great principle of
the representation of ties, people should no longer Ito a
farce; and the Reform Bill of 1832 having been passed, what
had been the result ? Had the large new constimencies sent
to parliament men anxious to destroy property or liberty?
Certainly not. The Reform Bill of 1832 not only did well—
it had produced greet and good results. (Applause.) Take
one great result. The poor man now lived untaxed in those
absolute isemesaries; house, food, and raiment. But during
this time the national debt had increased Instead of de-
creasing; showing that those who up to the present time
bad been entrusted with the franchise had not used it
seleehly or for their own interests. Much had been going on
in another way. There had been • vast amount or educa-
tional effort, and of improvement in the morals end manners
of the people during the last twenty-five ; and he felt
sure that, without upsetting the co ration, the time
had now come when we ought to take a step forward
in political matters. There was not, indeed, • political
leader who did not avow that the principle of placing poli-
tical power in the hands of the people was just, right, and
safe. The question wax, how far wo were to go. The hon.
member proceeded to explain hie views in favour of the ballot,
household stereo, end a shortening of the duration of par-
liament. He adhered to the principlm of dime at whose
solicitation Mr. Bright had agreed to prepare • bill ; and
while he would do all be could to support that bill, he hoped
his constituents would have confidence in him, and allow
him to do his best in favour of whatever might appear to be
really attainable. A good measure would not be carried it. a I
Wrest hurl, ; and the resat of the discumione next sesion
would probably be an appeal to the country, eii that he or I
some one else would have to appear before the electors of I
Bury, and to hear their opinions directly upon the point.
Several other touts were proposed, including " The health
of John Bright, Esq., M.P.

REPRESENTATION OF ROCIIDALE.:Vhe requisi-
elm frow the elector. of Rochdale to Mr. Cobden, soliciting
him to become a cwididate for the borough at the nest elec-
tion, make. steady program. It has a/foody received the
signatures of seven magistrates resident la the borough, and
those of many Influential manufacturers and bankers, who
at the teat election veers neutral. The liberals having Marge
of the requisition consider, however, that over coufldence,
such as has been indulged in on former occasions must be
suited until suceese is placed beyond doubt. As yet no
concerted opposition has beim 'Moiled by the conservatives
in favour of the present member, Sir A. Ramsay, M.P. A
few ooneervatives casually meeting tegerher Si. public-bowie
• few days ago issued a bill advising people to reserve their
pledges, as at the proper time an efficient man would tei
Mmght forward. The name of Mr. F. Peel, late member
for Bury,haa been mentioned in different pleats. but with no
authoritative sanction from the conservatives.—Mancheskr
Guardian. _ _

OXFORD MIDDLE-CLASS EXAMINATIONS.—The
Uniseesiry has accepted Glnaoewter se a local cattle tor the
coming year. sad a committee is bring formed for the pa-
pa. of carrying oat the neceraery amalgamate. The Bev.
Hugh limier ha accepted the office of hassarary sectaarp.
—fltlteeltant Est:lroner.

The 13 iehopof London has set on foot special services
for the new year, which will commence at Bt.Dunstan's, Step-
:my, St. Onsa's-in-the.Fields, and other churches on Mooday
evening nest. Some of the most eminent of the metropolitan
clergy have accepted his lordship's invitation to preach. and
the bishop himself will preach at St. Oiles's on Friday. To-
morrow the Westminster Abbey and the Ender-hall err-
vireo we to be revived, and a new minim. by diewnring miniw
ter., will be commenced at St. Jame's-bell, sad will be am
-
tinned until the 20th of Muth. The Dean of Westmineter
(Dr. Trench) will preach the opening minutia at Westminster
Abbey to-toormw evening, end that at St. Paul's wall be
preached by the Rev. J. Hampden Gurney, M.A.. one of the
prebendaries of the Cathedral and Rector of St. Mary's,
BrEanstoa-equara.
THE FIRST VLIMEL DIRECT FROM SARAWAK.—
The Hyalmar. a Swedish vessel of 400 trek Captain G.
Barmen, hair arrived at Liverpool with a cargo of aspen
wood, sago, antimony, rattans, Ice., the first which has yet
been received direct from Sarawak. The vemel is consigned
to Masers. Hem of Liverpool, end is lytag in the Stanley
Dock.