The Express.
London, England, 1867-01-09 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 9, ' 1867.

administrative arrangements whioh the Russians
have been using for many years against them to
remind them that they were a separate people,
and they will not forget the fad now that their
masters are about to affect to regard them as
Russians.

These administrative decrees leave the question
of Polish nationality, for all practical purposes,
just where it was before. Some of our contem-
poraries are disposed to find in their promulgation
an ~ecasi,m for advising the Polish people as to
their future course. This is an office of extreme
delicacy,which no one will wisely undertake. If we
believed that any words written in an English jour-
nal could have the least influence upon the Poles,
that consideration would be but one reason the
more for preserving a perfect silence as to their
national duty. We observe that the Poles are
congratulated on the fact that their national
emancipation being absolutely impossible, a sub-
jugation so thorough as to preclude even the chance
of a popular struggle will at least establish peace
between them and the Russians. Whether this
is the destined effect of the decrees intended to
stamp out Polish nationality our children may
know ; we cannot. Such congratulations, we
venture to think, should not come from a free
people. We know neither the strength of that
sentiment of Polish nationality which has survived
so many disappointments and disasters, nor the
function that may be reserved for it in the future.
We know that it has been cherished at the cost of
sacrifices the recollection of which excites astonish-
ment and horror. No nation has a right to sum-
mull another nation to the practice of heroic duties.
On the other hand, it is not for free man to tell
the oppressed at what point they should exchange
the suggestions of patriotism for the calculations
of interest. No one of us is entitled to tell the
Poles th.it their emancipation has at length
become an absolute impossibility. Assertions
of this order approach too nearly to that affecta-
tion of omniscience with which our continental
contemporaries are in the habit of amusing them-
selves at our expense. Affirmations equally dog-
matic were made respecting Italy until the very
eve of her deliverance. We are not comparing
the situation of Poland at the present moment
with that of Italy in 1859, but it would be folly
to pretend to believe that Central and Eastern
Europe have received their final territorial and po-
litical constitution. Russia is herself an unformed
limas ; Austria is approaching to a state of chaos ;
nobody knows what the interest of Prussia may
require before another five years have passed away.
Instead of pronouncing or predicting on these sub-
jects, we shall do wiser to observe and wait, taking
care on the ono hand not to excite hopes which
we cannot gratify, and on the other not to become
the accomplices of oppression and wrong, even to
the extent of celebrating their success.

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.
(THD3 DAY.)

Per, says, is the true foreign policyct Greece. The place
among European nations which Tlerkey must speedily
surrender will the prim of that one among the Christian
nations inhabiting the &dere peninsula of Esrupe which
shows the greatest capacity for blending order and in-
dustry with political freedom, the material with the
elements of civilisation and progress. Greece has not yet
lost the race ; but assureely she has not yet won it.
Discussing a new pamphlet by Lord Reese on the
landlord and tenant question in Ireland, the Star says it
has never met with any professedly authoritative political
publication in which was to be found so much ignorance,
so much insolence, and so much presumption. Emigra-
tion is a capital thing, and so is grazing ; when cattle have
supplanted wen from the coast of Cork to the coast of
Derry, then will landlords be prosperous and Ireland
peaceful. This is, in brief, the burden of Lord Reese's
cry. Fenianisra is a myth. No Irishman in America is a
Fenian. Fellows like Stephens and Roberts only get in
their contributions because, "in a democracy men are not
free agents."

tin Court.

OSBORNE, JAN. 8.

The Queen drove out yesterday afternoon, ac-
companied by Madame Van de Weyer and Miss M`Gre.gor,
and attended by the Dowager Duchess of Athole.
Colonel Ponsonby was in attendance upon horseback.
Her Majesty drove out this morning with Princess
Christian, attended by the Dowager Duchess of Athole.
Princess Louise drove this morning, and Prince Leopold,
Princess Beatrice, and Prince Henry of Prussia, walked
in the grounds.

Prince Christian went out shooting, attended by Co-
lonel Fonsonby.
The Belgian Minister and Madame Van de Weyer bad
the honour of dining with the Queen and the Royal Family
yesterday.

The Rev. George Prothero had shoo the honour of being
invited.

Mr. G. D. Engleheart has arrived at Osborne.

A deputation from the Metropolitan Municipal Assocla•
tion for prorroting the better Local Government of the
Metropolis, consisting of Lard Ehury (president of the asso-
ciation), the Hun. A. ICinnaird, M.P. ; Mr. C. Buxton, M.P. ;
Mr. T. Hughes, M.P. ; Mr. G. Godwin, KKK ; Mr. C. T.
Pearse. M.D. ; Mr. J. C. Buckmuter (hon. secretary of
the association), Mr. A. R. Martin, Mr. S. Dunn, Mr. T.
D. Kcighley, Mr. Washington Lyon, Mr. D. J. Rearden,
M.P. ; Mr. G. Offer, Mr. KD. Rogers, Mr. G. P. Miles,
Mr. F. Edwards, jun., Mr. F. Warburton Stent, Mr. G.
Horton, Mr. W. Phillips, Dr. Hardwicke, Mr. T. liegp,
Mr. It. Ellis, Dr. Farr, Mr. J. Lord, Mr. J. J. Merriman
(solicitor to the association), the Hon. F. Byng, Mr. P.
Graham, Mr. C. T. Elt, Mr. J. M. Ludlow (counsel to the
association), Mr. James Beal, Mr. Chas. Illackshaw. and
Mr. Henry Fowler (secretary to the association), had en
interview with the Right Hon. Spencer Walpole, at the
Hone-office, yesterday.
Despatches were sent yesterday from the Colonial-office
to the Governor of the Falkland Islands.

The young Earl of Eldon, who has just come of
age, has given 200/. to the Devon County Hospital, 2001.
to the Small Benefices Fund, sod 1,0001. to the Building
Fund of the Dorset County School

Yesterday, by request, Commodore M‘Vickar, of
the New York Yacht Club, waited on the Duchess
Dowager of Somerset, and there met his Excellency the
Turkish Ambassador and Mr. Milner Gibson, M.P.

Senhor Don Luiz Mascarenhas d'Apiy, of the
Portuguese royal navy, and at present serving on board
her Majesty's ship Bellerophon, gave a magnificent ball to
the nobility and gentry of the Isle of Wight, at the Town-
Judi of Ryde, bat week.

The concluding lecture of the Christmas course
at the Royal Institution was delivered yesterday after-
noon by Dr. Tyndall, in consequence of the sudden illness
of Dr. Frankland, by whom the previous lectures had been
delivered. The " Chemistry of the Gases" was the general
subject of the course of lectures this year, and in treating
of it Dr. Frankland sno:essively explained, and illus-
trated by numerous experiments, the properties of most of
the known gases, comprising hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen,
carbonic acid, carbonic oxide, marsh gas, oleflant gas,
nitrous oxide, hydrochloric acid, chlorine, ammoniac:al
gas, and phosphoretted hydrogen. The last lecture, yes-
terday, was on the effects of heat on gases, and Dr. Tyn-
dall, though taking up the subject at a short notice, with
the aid of Mr. Macleod, the very able assistant of Dr.
Frankland, proceeded to explain and illustrate the various
actions of heat on aeriform bodies with as much readiness
as if it formed part of one of his own lectures.

At a meeting of the National Association,
Dublin, yesterday, the church question was fully con-
sidered; and a letter from Dr. O'Hea, Bishop of Rees,
who, it is said, represents the general opinion of the
catholic bishops on the subject, declared very emphatically
for the secularisation of the revenues of the establishment;
and a resolution was unanimously adopted in support of
the principle of voluntaryism. Bishop O'Hea repudiates
the suggestion of the catholic clergy sharing the revenues.

At Christmas there were to be seen in the open
air, at Bonehurch, at the back of the Isle of Wight, broad
beans in full bloom, and green peas in flower and pod ; also
a great many strawberries in Bower and fruiting, large new
potatoes, and heliotrope in bloom.
The Poole Herald states that the South
Western Railway Company have bought up the shares of
the Ringwood and Christchurch proprietors, and that the
Christchurch and Bournemouth extension will be com-
pleted in six months.

It is reported that Marshal Bazaine, on his
return to Paris, is to be appointed to the command of the
army of Lyons.
We read in the Siicie :—" M. Jules Favre is said
to have the intention of coming forward as a candidate for
the vacant seat in the French Academy. That politician
is, sa is well known, not only a master in the oratorical
art, but an elegant poet and a distinguished writer. A
place ham consequently long been marked out for him by
the side of his eminent ronfreres MM. Berryer and Bufaure.
From • political point of view every shade of opinion would
thus be represented in the Academy."
The late M. de Larochejaquelin was above the
middle height, of a robust and portly presenee, full, round
face, with an open brow and flowing hair, a voice loud and
ringing, and an impassioned gesticulation which sometimes
reminded one of the tribune of revolutionary times. He
has left • widow and four children—a son and three
daughters. His eldest daughter entered • few years ago
the Convent of the Sacre•Creur ; the others are married.

A communication from Saxony states that the
wits of the war to that kingdom will ►mount to eighty
millions end a half of franc, without reckoning the
enormous losses suffered by trade and commerce.

An engineer of Trente, M. Garollo, has invented
anew needle gun, which fires fifteen shots • minute. The
gun is 4ft. long, weighs nibs., and carries a ball 5,1 litres
in diameter.

A capitalist of Berne named Schweizer has just
committed suicide in consequence of some unfortunate
speculations in which he had squandered money entrusted
to his safe keeping. On learning that a warrant for his
arrest had been issued he blew out his brains.

Several continental papers give curious statistics
of assassination. The proportion of murderers is, in Eng-
land, 1 in 678,000 souls ; Hull and, 1 in 163,000 ;
lin 100,000 ; Austria, lin 77,000. France is left out of
the calculation.

A correspondent of the Courrier du Bas-Rhin,
writing from Frankfort, states that a few evenings ago
Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice was being played, and
when in the trial scene the judge asked Shylock what he
claimed from his debtor, and the latter replied, " A pound
of flesh," a man in the gallery cried out, " and eight
cigars." The Frankfort people applauded this allusion to
the Prussian bill of fare during the war ; the Prussians
present lost their temper ; • row ensued, and the police
cleared the house.

We read in Gaiignani :—" An accident unat-
tended with serious consequences occurred to Mies Menken
the evening before last, during her performance at the
Galiti Theatre, in the Pirates de /a Savant. At the
moment when she is carried over the mountains, bound
like Mazeppa, to the back of a horse, the anim►l in making
the ascent lost its footing and slipped with her on to the
stage. An exclam►tion of terror burst forth among the
audience, and the curtain was at once lowered. Miss
Menken, however, almost immediately appeared at the
footlights to show that she was unhurt, and the perfor-
mance was shortly afterwards resumed."