The Express.
London, England, 1858-01-25 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS,
imp:

own good sense and simple tastes, afford every pro•
Wee that the years of leistunrand iomparndve free•
dm from care which ampear'io lie before 111141111 will
be employed in fitting limn ion and more abun-
dantly for the weighty duties which Time is ex-
pected to impose upon them, in the charge of a
nation's welfare. Both have been brought up
among boob, and in the lore of art as well as of
nature, and in healthy habits of exercise of body
and mind. It is to be confidently hoped that such
will be the character of their early married life ; and
they are an fully aware, no doubt, u other
people, that their future duties may require all the
wisdom, all the ripeness of understanding, steadiness
of will,enlargement of view., and disinterestedness of

spirit which they can bring to their task of ruling
and blessing a nation. Only one will rule the Prot-
elfin nation, but both may bless it; and a few years
of happy youth cannot be better spent than in the
study how best to elevate and ameliorate the condi-
tion of a very peculiar people, or aggregation of
peoples. The PRINCE has seen a good deal for him-
self; he knows Rome very well, and the wretched-
ness of the 'objects of the POPE. He knows Eng-
land well, and the happiness of its people under
institutions which are, in their practical working,
the freest in the world. And he has bad abundant
occasion to observe the security in which our
80YRUJON lives, and the loving loyalty on which
her regal existence reposes. He has seen much, again,
of the interior of German political life, and be is
aware of the restiveness and ineffectual discontent
which weigh upon men's hearts, and wear their
spirits, and render loyalty a task, whore constitu-
tional freedom is perpetually talked about, and never
securely obtained. He has thus gathered material
for reflection, and discovered the best aim for his
'tidies, during his period of leisure and preparation.
If he is admonished, in Germany or elsewhere, that
" Constitutional Government is on its trial," he can
relate something of its effects in the country which
has had a longer and faller experience of it than any
other; and if a doubt ever crosses his mind whether
the desires of his countrymen for Constitutional Go-
vernment, for full and genuine representative insti-
tutions, should or should not be folly gratified, let
him Nome and see how much of our political pesos
and quiet, and of our SOVEREIGN'S unparalleled
security and repass, is owing to them. The memory
of his happy days of courtship will always be asso-
ciated with the evidences he has witnessed
of our privileges in our domestic political relations;
and this marriage will be twice blessed if it tends
towards the fulfilment of the political hopes of the
best portion of the Prussian people. Pleased as the
Prussian nation are already with the alliance so
strongly confirmed this day, they will bless it more
and more hereafter if it induces a nearer resemblance
in the institutions of the two countries, and gives to
that people who arc keeping holiday with us this
day as much as they desire of the rational liberties
which they see prosper so well with us. In hoping
for this issue from the reign of the young people
who will this day join hands for their journey of life,
we are wishing for them the best blessing that
princes can enjoy—a life of sound beneficence, ani-
mated by the love of a grateful people.
We observe, with true satisfaction, that the
QUEEN has accepted a good natural opportunity
for testifying to oar national policy io regard
to the African race. The American diploma-
tists in Europe profess to be sorely per-
plexed and annoyed at having to meet the Hay-
tian and other tropical Ambassadors at various Courts.
The interest that the Americans feel in our Royal
Family will doubtless lead them to study all the de-'
tails of the wedding of oar PRINCESS ROYAL ; and
they will find that the presence of the daughter of
an African King has been commanded by her MA-
JESTY; and that arrangements have been made by
the QUEEN herself for the convenience of the aocom-
plished young Princess, whose colour does not debar
her from the chapel where no room is to be had for
some of the proudest of the land. The lesson is ad-
mirably given at a very critical time; and the people
of England will be grateful for it.

THE WEDDING
OF lin
PRINCESS ROYAL.

THIS DAY.

This morning witnessed the solemnisation of that
great aed important state ceremonial, which is des-
tined, we trust, to make happy " The eldest daughter
of England," and to cement the alliance between
two great and enlightened nations. The appearance of
the daily papers, the general tone of conversation dur-
ing the last few weeks, together with the facts which
were patent to any one who walked our west-end
streets, all showed how rapidly the interest in the
royal marriage grew, until its final culmination in
the gorgeous pageant which it is our pleasing duty
to record to-day. The hybernation of western
London, which generally maintain its torpor until
the middle of March, was this year joyously inter-
rupted by the ringing of marriage bells in the
middle of January; and premature cleaning of win-
dows, premature painting of shop fronts, premature
display of spring fashion and finery, all announced
that some great event was at hand, calcu-
lated to make the mighty heart of the
Leviathan city throb with more than its
normal intensity. Fashionable emporia hastened to
display their glittering wares, and huge defunct
hotels shook off the dust and neglect of seasons,
putting on a bright look of congratulation on the
royal marriage and of welcome for the elect of the
royal visitors.

The crisis to which 7,2 these unusual symptoms
tended developed itself at an early hour this morn-
ing, when it may be truly said that the whole town
was astir betimes to participate in the general holi-
day and rejoicing. Even the wintry min put on a
more than usual brightneee, as if to inform the world
that he meant " The Queen's weather " to desoend
as an heirloom in her family. The centre of attrao-
tion was, however, the grim old agglomeration of
bricks and mortar situated at the bottom of St.
James's-street, and which is, by a great stretch of
loyal courtesy, known and recognised as a royal
palace. Thom of the foreign participants in the
ceremony of this day who had not been in England
before must have opened their eyes a little wider
than usual when they east a glance round its
quaint and solid exterior, and compared it vrith their

reminiscences of Potsdam or the Winter Palace.
They are familiar with the palatial windows of the
Spree, and probably know a little also of those of
the Neva, and must, therefore, have been, at first,
somewhat surprised and disappointed ; but still
there is a solid value about English splendour, a
special radiance about English beauty, aad a stern
reality about English wealth and power, which
would soon improve the first impression, give gran-
deur and expansion to the old brick palace, and
make its temporary visitants perhaps congratulate
themselves in being permitted to form part of the
general picture. Besides, Sir Benjamin Hall, ably
assisted by Mr. Phipps, and both having their com-
mands executed in a workmanlike manner by
Messrs. Johnson and Jesse", the hereditary tar-
nishers of St. James's Palace, had done wonders to
make the old edifice a meet locality for the bridal
ceremony of the Princess Royal of England. Dim
and deity walls had been brightened—crimson and
gold, the royal colours, had been unsparingly laid
on, until the old house was at last made to put on a
brighter smile than it had ever worn since bluff
King Harry first spproprioted it to royal
use, and prim old Holbein decorated its
ceiling with his grotesque pencil. And, for
those amongst its occupants of this morning
who were versed in our national annals, how
many reminiscences, grave as well u gay, must
have been conjured tip as they marched sedately to
the grand music of the trumpets through its state
apartments, or took their places in the little chapel
in which the great interest of the day was concen-
trated. But many of these reminiscences must per-
force have been of a gloomy character, and our
business is with orange flowers and wedding favours,
the hoping happiness of the young, the parental
satisfaction of the mature, and the oougratulation
and rejoicing of an ever loyal and generous people.
We have, thank God, a different sort of Kings, and,
above all, of Queens, to deal with now from those we
read of in the history books, and we have neither time
nor temper to discuss anything but bride cakes, and,
following our good old national custom, to throw the
slipper after the young couple and bid them God
speed in their homeward journey.
To enable our readers the more clearly to under-
stand the ceremonial we are about to describe, we
must take them a preliminary journey through the
palace, and on to the little chapel in which
the marriage ceremony took place. At the
garden entrance a temporary colonnade or
covered way had been constructed, under which the
the royal carriages drove, and from which the royal
party entered the palace. This erection, covered
with crimson and yellow drapery, decorated with
holly, and well and cheerily lighted, formed a very
suitable point at which to commence a bridal gather-
ing. Within doors all was new, and rich, and ap-
propriate. Waiting rooms lay invitingly open to
the right and left, in which such of the court atten-
dants as were not to take put in the procession
could remain, while the more important functiona-
ries followed onward in the train of the sovereign.
In front rose the staircase, newly carpeted
crimson, its balustrades painted in royal blue and
richly gilded, the hand-rail throughout being covered
in crimson velvet. At the top on the right stood'
the beide'e boadeir, sparkling .in whits and gold, its
walls furnished with wetly mirrors, and its toilette
table draped in Huhu' lees, ad finished with regal
reagnifieence. Across the landing a pair of folding
doors thrown open disclosed the suits of state apart-
ments, the council chamber, the throne room, Queen
Anne's room, the tapestry chamber, the armoury, 11
and then the great staircase leading through the
Colour-court to the Chapel Royal, the entrance to
which was in the centre of a rather gloomy passage
running at right angles through the last named
apartment'.
The floral decorations require especial notice.
Commencing with the state entrance from the Pa-
lace gardens, on the right and left of the covered
way, beneath which the Queentuid her illutrious
guests alighted, there had been erected a screen,
composed of branches of laurel sod bay-tree, which
stood out in fine relief against the purple and
scarlet draperies with which the archway was
adorned. The whole length of this entrance was
covered with evergreen., eta in the centre of the
highest point a boss of flowers and evergreens,
ornamented with a knot, composed of the united
colours of England and Prussia, formed an appro-
priate finish. Beneath this covered way garlands
of luxuriant evergreens, with handsome pendants
formed of tendrils of ivy, were hung from pillar to
pillar throughout its whole length. The garlands
were formed with a double twist of laureatiou in
flower, alternated with golden furze, the centre coil
being composed of holly studded with berries. Over
each column the garlands were united by knots with
streamers of the *leers of England and Prussia. A
mood row of geellesis of the sus description orna-
mented the eppselle elk, sail the dew by which her
Majesty esteuellwir need Ws be set fa a frame of the
most exquisite seen M Ileteere, leaves, and
berries. The vision es bell dies had a similar
framework, es well es the sew Beale for the royal