The Express.
London, England, 1858-01-08 00:00:00

rirs L1174TH4N.-(THIS DAT.)

Twelve o'clock this morning the register
skewed fiat the Leviathan had advanced 4 feet
Stades et the bow, wad 3 het 4 inches et the stern.
An two o'clock the advance made wee 6 feet 2 Inch/eat the
lam end 7 het 3 inches at he Mesa.

EAST AND FAST INDIA DOCIS.-(THIS DAT)

This afternoon the usual half-yearly general
saseatta of the proprietors of the Past end Wert India Docks
WY laid at the Dock•house, Bdlitee•agoars, Mr. WILLIAM
Roc rtc Chairmen of the Board of Directors, In the chair.
The report stated that the balance in hand amounted to
17,7f01- 410. M., oat of that stun the directors riecassseaded

that the dividend for the pad half-year should be continued
at the rate of 3 per cast., tree of income tax. and that the
erne be made payable on Monday next.
The report wee unanitneealy adopted, and the dividend
bay dean&

DOCI COMPANY,-(2M18 DAT.)

This afternoon the moat half-yearly meeting of the
above company was held at the °Mass, in Fencharch-street ;
Mr.NATTIANIIL GOULD, Chairman of the Board of Direc-
tors, In the Chair.
The %Rowing waa the report :—" The directors have to
report that the number of ships sad their tonnage, which
etlwsb the Commercial Docka in the year 1867, we. as
/allows, via.:-620 wood laden, 265,313 tons; 362 corn laden,
71,936 tone; 33 vsrioualy laden, 5,7.59 tons; 46 light,
11,111 tows. Tots!, 1,081 vessels; 364,118 tot:m—
ewled* la 1866, 939 yowls; 318,622 tens. The stock of
weed goods on the premiers is large; and the
stock of grain, although small compared with the
empabilities of the company's granaries, is in excess
eflast year. The directors recommend that a dividend be
declared for the half-year of 2!. 10a. per cent. free of income-
tax upon the capital stock of the company, and that the gams
be payable on and after Monday, the 25th instant."
The following gentlemen go out of oMoe this day, via.:—
John Masterman, Esq., Peter Roll Req., James What-
sass Boaanquet, Esq , Thome Francis Wilson, Erg.,
Directors; and Wm. George Prescott, Eaq , Auditor.
The is also a vacancy for a director in the room of Edmund
Brandt, Esq., who has resigned in consequence of his btu&
mos engagements requiring him to reside in St. Petersburg.
The Cu t tsw.ty, in moving the adoption of the report, de-
clared it to be his confident conviction that the business of
the present year would exceed that of lam.
The report wee unanimously adopted, the dividend de-
clared, and the outgoing directors and auditor re-elected.
Mr. Richard Brandt was elected a director in the room of
Mr. Edmund, Brandt, resigned. Mr. John Mews was also
elected a director.

- -
The proosedisee closed with the meal compliment to the
chairman, office.* .d directors.

THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH LexocAcis.—For
our neighbours acme the channel, who do 111•011
efueiori—who rah into each other's arms when witkiXehidts
hands—who ace in despair when we me simply annoyed—
who deal in ecstasies and agonies with the most lavish pro-
digakty —have, it is strange to say, though their 'meth
strands with phrases expressive of all those superlative
sensations, • kerma,* which is not adapted, as ours la, for
the vehement and impetuous tide of passion. They hays,
hefted, a yobs which can be elegant, spintrults, dainty,
epigrammatic, and antithetical, beyond anything which we
eau attain to. The very genius of their speech is order,
precision, moneys ; their words balance each other with as
instinct of propriety foreign to our wilder syllables; even
their tragic muse marches heroically upon the stilts of rhyme.
French is the imeeiel language of sins mote, of laytrgr, of
those little gleaming arrows of talk which carry the point of
• dagger or a needle in their innocent-seeming : there is so
latitude for • tumult of half-expressed thoughts in this
well-ordered language, everything must be sharply and
early cot, distinct in conception and reties in word.
The very power of doable r tend,' fur which it is famous,
depends upon this extreme regularity and balance of speech ;
dr It Li only here that the separate meanings of which a word
Is eepeble are so distinctly yet delicately individualised.
And this completest of tongues has its own virtues and its
cm defects consequent upon its were. The greatest genius
Ye Nor world could scarcely find in It that torrent of glowing
end exuberant expreeslon, overflowing all bounds, in which
leaguers more primitive pour forth the strong parkas of
humanity, the wild human outcry of great hope or over-
irlishalli despair; but for all the emotions which are lees
than the for lively sensations, livid thought., in-
cidents o f pathos, .11 the auporficiel sentiments which stir us
with pleasure or with melancholy, but do not stir us very
deeply, there is no language equal to this langwin of points
tad epigrams—this native air el dialogue and syfiogio, this
tongue which is so happily adapted, not for sag bat for
✓ags.—Bleckwood's itarrand, Jen.: number.