The Express.
London, England, 1866-01-27 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, SATURDAY EVENING, JANUARY 27, 1866.

the Court of Inquiry at Greenwich, is, we entirely
agree with the owners and commanders of the mer-
cantile marine, a case for a court analogous to
that which in a similar case of loss or damage in
the royal navy would assemble for the trial of the
surviving officers—that is, a court composed of
respectable and responsible commanders in the
mercantile marine ; men accustomed to the charge
of thousands and sometimes of millions' worth of
property, and of hundreds of human lives, under
all possible circumstances and conditions at sea ;
men whose lives are incessantly exposed to
all manner of sea rinks, and whose families and for-
tunes are dependent on the faithful and skilful
discharge of their duty to their employers, and
whose employers are dependent on the skill and
capacity of their servants for the reputation
of their ships and the safety of their
cargoes. It would be difficult, as it seems
to us, to find a court that; should present
stronger guarantees of impartiality and severity
than such a court se this, and we are at a loss to
imagine how the interests of shipowners or of ship-
masters can be at variance with those of the public
whom they serve and by whom they live.

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.
(THIS DAY.)

The Daily News notes with satisfaction the sense
of the fairness of the English mind indicated by the ap-
peals through the Tunes of Mr. Aubrey de Vera, the advo-
cate of the proposal to endow the Roman catholic clergy of
Ireland. While pleading for religious equality, that gentle.
man is unanswerable ; but when he proposes to give effect
to it by adopting the French plan of subsidising opposite
and conflicting religions, the beat and most numerous
friends of religious equality in England most separate
from him. We are a people of convictions, and
it is not for sincere oatholits who, in this country,
have given so many pledges of devotion to what they
hold as tree, to be the 6.st to invite our states.
men to set a lesson of unbelief, by basing their legislation in
religious matters on the false foundation of indifference.
The true spring of religions liberty is, not the supposition
that all religions have an equal claim to the bowies of
mankind, but respect for the human conscious, and a
recognition of the accountability of every man in his own
person to his Maker for his religious conduct. Mr. Aubrey
de Vera asks for legislation in direct opposition to the
progress of ideas in our age. The complete separation of
ehurch and state is the goal to which all civilised nations
are tending. They may advance towards it with unequal
steps, but they do advance.
The Post thinks it just possible that some miscreants in
America:who are possessed with the evil spirit of Fenianism
may have had, and still have, it in contemplation to throw
• force into the northern part of Ireland, with • view to
lay waste the country, and ruin its loyal Inhabitants ; and
it observes that as the Orangemen are now on the alert,
we are not unlikely to witness some sad scenes of rioting
and bloodshed in Ulster.

The Herald trusts that the old law against sedition will
not be forgotten in the cases of such men as Alderman
Dillon, M.P. While such speeches as that just delivered
by him before the National Association are tolerated, it is
useless to talk of suppressing Fenianism. Stephens him-
self never uttered more disloyal sentiments, and it is time
to ask the government of Ireland what steps they mean to
tate upon it.
The Star considers the proposition of Mr. de Vera in the
highest degree retrogressive, pernicious, and impracticable.
, The tendency of modern liberalism has been altogether
opposed to the continuance of the connexion between
church and state ; nor is there the slightest likelihood that
[ any true liberal would support the establishment of
another instance of that connexion. The endowment of
the Roman catholic church in Ireland would be opposed as
vigorously by the moat advanced radicals as by the stoutest
old tory who yet follows the "No Popery" banner. But
entirely apart from these considerations, there can be no
doubt whatever that the offer of an endowment would be
refused with, scorn by the Roman catholic church of
Ireland.

must have given grosad for suspicioe, bat unless there be
further evidence of Gordon's wilful connexion with the
outbreak, we most hold that he ought not to have suffered
death.

The Standard prints a long letter from Mr. Charles
Buxton, M.P.. setting forth the opinions of the gentlemen
who form the Jamaica committee. Commenting on the case
in its leading article columns, the Standard observes that
after a review of all that has been officially noted ea the
proceedings of the couit.martial, we have to bear in
mind the fact that the transaction of justice by
courts martial is seldom recorded in absolute detail.
that only abstracts are taken, and that questions put
and the answers to them are given in the briefest possible
form. The documents relevant to the case are, of course,
presented in full. They may tell for or against the accused
in the degree in which they are literally or loosely inter-
preted. With a commission sitting to examine the facts
from first to last, and give judgment upon them, most per-
sons in this country will feel inclined to hold their opinions
in suspense until they are justified, upon some basis of
authority, in laying them down at large.

;t,t Court.

OSBORNE. JAR'. I&

Her Majesty walked and drove in the grounds
yesterday morning with Princess Helena, Princess Beatrios,
and Prince Christian.
Her Majesty was attended by the Dowager Ducham of
Athol*.
In the afternoon her Majesty drove with Princess Helens,
again attended by the Dowager Dachas of Athol*.
Prince Christian rode on horseback, attended by Colonel
the Hon. A. Hanlinge. _ .

The Right lion. G. J. Goachen, Sir C. Wyke, and Mr.
Gooch, Clerk of the Council and Registrar of the Duchy
of Lancaster, arrived from London this morning.
Mr. Gooch having given up the seals of the Duchy of
Lancaster to her Majesty (Lord Clarendon being prevented
by indisposition from attending), her Majesty delivered
them to the Right Hon. G. J. Goschen, who took the
oath appointed, which was administered by Mr. Gooch.
Sir Charles Wyke had an &Idiom*, end kissed bands on
being appointed her Majesty's minister to Hanover.

A deputation from the Metropolitan Board of Work',
consisting of Sir John Thwaites (Chairman of the Board),
Mr. Tito, AL P. (Deputy Chairman of the Thames Embank-
went Committee), Mr. Miller, M.P. ; Mr. Doulton, M.P. ;
Mr. Freeman (Deputy Chairman of the Main Drainage
Committee), Mr. Le Breton (Deputy Chairmen of the
General Purposes and Building Act Committee), Mr. Phil-
lips (Deputy Chairman of the Streets Committee), Mr. Carp-
mael, Mr. Newton, and Mr. John Pollard (Clerk of the
Board), had an interview with the Bight Hon. Sir George
Grey, at the Home-office, yesterday.
Despatches were sent from the Colonial-ofike yesterday to
the Governors of Gibraltar, Malta, the Mauritius, Ceylon,
Hong Kong, Labuan, the Australian Colonies, New Zealand,
the Cape of Good Hope, and Natal.

His Royal Highness the Field Marshal Com-
manding-in-Chief will hold a levee at 1 o'clock on
Saturday, the 3rd of February.

The Prince of Wales, attended by Major G. M.
Grey, and accompanied by hie Gr►ce the Draw of Suther-
land, Lord Vane, Lord Shrewsbury, Lord Sefton, the
Marquis of Stafford, Lord Chneirenor, Lord Belsrsve, and
the Hon. H. L. Bourke, left Lino:shall-home yesterday
morning. and paid a visit to the works of the London and
North Western Railway at Crewe. _ _

His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales has
consented to become the patron of the Dorset County
Hospital.

At a dance given on Thursday evening by the
Duke and Duchess of Sutherland at Lillashall House, the
Prince of Wales led off the first quadrille with the Duchess
of Sutherland, and the Primes' of Wales and the duke
were partners. Ms Prinoses of Wales wore a white lace
skirt and blank silk bodice, and for a heed•drrs a boudoir
of diamonds. The Ditcher of Sutherland had on a white
satin dress, with a lam tunic, and a boudoir of diamonds
for a head-dress. His Royal Highness the Prince of
Wales wore the insignia of the Garter, as did also the
Duke of Sutherland and the Earl of Sefton. Supper was
served in the dining-room at about 12 o'clock, and the
dancing continued till about half-past 2, terminating with a
capital Sir Roger de Gormley. _ _ _

The Earl and Counteea of Derby will arrive in
town on Tuesday next from Kmowahly Park, for the Beason.

The Earl De Grey has arrived at his residence
in Carlton•gardens from Hall.

The Right Hon. Sir Robert and Lady Emily
Pool leave WhitehaM-gardeu to-day for Drayton Manor,
Stiffoidrhire.

The Duke and Duchess of Wellington left Apeley
House yesterday for Strathfieldmaye. Hants.

Captain Wake, R.N., of the Bulldog, is the
brother of Mr. Wake, C.B, who was distinguished for his
heroic defence of Arrah during the Indian mutiny. Both
brothers are now on a visit to their mother, Lady Wake,
sister to the Bishop of London, at Weston-super-Mare.

On Friday last the Rev. Edward Montague
Hare, clerk, N. L., was instituted to the rectory of Little
Dunham, in Norfolk, on the presentation of the Rev.
Hush James Hare, clerk, and George Copeman, Esq. . _

There was a very crowded audience at the weekly
meeting of the members of the Royal Institution yesterday
evening, to hear Mr. Baker give an account of his explora-
tion of the sources of the Nile. His narrative waa for the
most part a repetition of the paper recently read by him at
the Geographical Society, but it entered more fully into
some personal detail.

At the Princess's on Monday, Never too Late to
Mend will attain its hundredth night of representation.

We (Post) understand that a five-act historical
play has just been written and printed privately by Mr.
Martin Tupper, with a view to its representation in the
spring. The subject is, The Life and Death of Balogh.
It is said to offer extraordinary opportunities for specta-
cular display.
_ _

An official inspection made by H. B. Farnall,
0.8., the Poor-law Board Commissioner, on Thursday, of
the casual wards of the Stepney Union, disclosed a moat
debasing and inhuman treatment of the houseless, power
fully described in this morning's Times. The certificate of
the guardians for these wards has been withdrawn, and
the expense incurred by the four parishes of the "union''
for housing the poor will not be refunded out of the gene-
ral rate.

Dr. Jeaffreeon, late medical officer to the Lon-
don Fever Hospital, says he believes that any endeavour to
improve the healthiness of the dwellings of the poor will be
io many respects futile till we have a larger staff of medical
officers and inspectors, who sh►ll be independent and able
to enforce the carrying out of their recommendations by the
vestries, subject in case of dispute to a government depart-
ment, under which the medical officers of health should
hold their appointments. With such an arrangement and
more summary legal powers l►ndlords could be forced to
keep their houses in tenantable repair, and would fled them
closed as unfit for human habitation, if they continued pes-
tilential.

The will mile of " Fitzgerald r. Fitzgerald " is
proceeding at Dublin. Thursday was almost entirely occu-
pied with the examination of the deceased baronet's solici-
tor, after which Dr. Corrigan was examined as to his
sanity. He has given his opinion that the testator was of
sound mind, though remarkable for dirty habits.

The Dublin Gazette of yesterday contains pro-
clamations subjecting to the provisions of the Peace Preser-
vation Act, the counties of Sligo and Carlow, the barony of
Ardagb, in the county of Longford, and the parishes of
Dram, St. Peter's, and Kiltoon, in the barony of Athlone,
county Roscommon.

The Emperor Napoleon will personally take part
in the Universal Exhibition of 1867. His Majesty will
appear in the list of exhibitors whose production' will
specially interest the working-classes, and intends 'ending
specimen of habitations for artisans and mechanics, which
will unite cheapness of construction with sanitary comfort
The henses are to be erected within the park of the Exhi-
bition.

The Duke of Coburg will shortly leave for the
Caucasus, having received an invitation from the Grand
Duke Michael, the governor there, who is his brotherin-
law,

The usual Academia of Languages was held on
the 15th at the Propaganda, Rome—speeches in every
possible tongue, to the number of 30, varied with some
excellent dramatic music of a sacred character, were de-
livered. The English language was rather unfortunately
represented by a young Highlander, whose strong Scottish
accent occasioned some laughter,

A letter from Rome of the 20th saye :—" Onr
eminent Scottish sculptor, Lawrence hf'Deinald, has just
been stabbed on the staircase of Mr. Watson, with whom
he wee to ►ave spent the evening. He had remarked on
quitting the restaurant where be dined that three suspicious
scoundrels followed him, but he had paid no attention to
the incident. On reaching the second floor of Mr. W►tson's
reiiidence he was suddenly seised, dragged down, and n
stiletto driven into his neck just between the jugular vein
and the carotid artery. His shouts for help brought the
servants with lights, whereupon the 'emetics were seared
off end dec►mpd. Happily a physician was one al Mr.
Watson's guests, and immediately dremed the wound,
which it is hoped will rot prove fatal.

The Ls Marche Spring Meeting is definitireli
fixed to wine off on the 25th of February, and will be cow
Vaned on the 4th and 25th of March ; the Great Militia,
will be run on the 21st of May. The Vincennes Steeple.
chase will take place on the 11th and 18th Much sad the
20th of May.
The rinderpeet has broken out at Somerton and
laminator. in Somerutehire.

Nairn
Aberdeen
Leith
A rdroessn
Oreemmatie .
Valauds
Cape Clear
Liverpool
Holyhead
Penance
Bred
L'Orient
Rochefort
Plymouth
Weymouth
Portsmouth
London
Yarmouth
Scarborough
Shields
Heider

WOO
30.06
*ll
80.111
1111.22
30.26