The Express.
London, England, 1867-01-29 00:00:00

REMARKS.

......... .
The win,l• yesterday were strong on porthole of our eastern
an l westeni cuing, ; thin morning they are chiefly south
westerly, still ationg on our western coasts, and moderate on our
other ...ash,. Barometers are itiotendy, and about elnht-tentlts
of an inch low,r in the north of Scotland than in the south of
Temperature ;tem-rally has declined except at V &tenth.
where it has rhen sleAttly.

MILTON'S-YARD RAGGED SCHOOLS.—We are re-
quested to publish the following list of subscriptions :
Lady Farquhar (per Lord Shaftesbury), ill, ; Lady Lawley,
5/. ; Mr. S. Oaskell, 51. ; Mr. W. Alfred, If. Ix. ; M. C.
I/. Is. • Miss Buckley. IL - two Ladies, If. ; Mrs. General
Blancli.erd and nu. "Wilaciri, U. • Mrs. Buggies Brim, If. ;
Mrs. Dawkins, If. ; Mr. Smithery, 1/. ;A. B. C. 11.1 s. ;
Amelia, Ilk. ; Mr. W. Ithr. ; Miss akins, Ills. ; Mr.
Merywick, 101. • English Catholic, ; An Old Soldier,
4s. ; Anon. (stamps), 4s. ; L. K. L, 2a. 6d. ; Mr. Watts,
28. ; Edy, is ikl.
linuglis ur llosor a. —" There are," says the
Pivot," MI orders of honour. In France, 1 ; Austria, it ;
England, 7 ; Spain, 10; Prussia, 9 ; Italy. 4 ; Mexico, 4 ;
Hulk* 8 ; Belgium, 1 ; Brazil, 5 ; Hanover, 2 ; Greece,
1 ; Bavaria, 11 ; Baden, d ; Hesse, 4 ; States of the
Church, 4 ; Brunswick, 1 ; Denmark, 2 ; Portugal, 6 ;
Persia, 2 ; Turkey,: ; Tunis, 2 ; Sweden and Norway. 6;
Saxc-Royal, 4 ; Saxe-Coburg43otha, 1 ; Sandwich Islands,
1 ; San Marino. I • Wurtemberg,3 ; Anhalt, 1 ; Monaco, I ;
Nasszu,2; Oldenburg,: 1; and Holland,4. The most ancient
arc—The military orders of Calatrava, founded in Spain in
115 s ; of Saint James of the Sword, in Spain in 1170 ; and of
Alcantara, founded in Spain in 1177 ; the Dannebrog,
Denuiark. 1.219 ; Ariz, in Portugal, in 1169 ; and Saint
James of the Sword, in the same kingdom, in 1177. The
more recently created are—ln Turkey that of the Osmanli,
in 1843 ; of the Star of India, in England, in 1861 ; of the
Mexican Eagle, by the Emperor Maximilian, in ; and
Kauichanieha, in the Sandwich Island', 18.i3. There are
four orders specially established for ladies—ln Austria,
that of the Starry Cross, founded in 1768 by Eleonora
e'en:ague ; in Portugal, of Sainte Elizabeth. by John,
Prince Regent, in 1801 ; of Louisa, created in Prussia by
Frederick %Villiam, in 1814 ; and of San Carlos, in Mexico,
in 1865."

_
Tua PACIFIC Ran.aoAD.—The Pacific railroad
is making rapid progress from both ends of the route, and
the junction, it is thought, will be made in much lees
time than is generally anticipated. At the present time
we have heard it remarked by parties who are supposed
to know, possibly 1,000 miles remain to be completed, this
being the intervening distance from rail to rail. The net
earnings of the company in September were about
90,000 dole. in gold, and at this rate the net
income of the road, on seventy-three miles only,
would be nearly double the amount necessary to
pay the entire amount of interest which the
company will be under with their road completed to the
California State line. Twenty-one miles additional of the
road will probably be put in operition this month, which
carries it to a point which will largely increase the bu-iness
and earnings. A fait freight line from tho terminus of the
Union Pacific Railroad to Denver and Salt Lake City baa
been organised. Relays of horses for the line will be
stationed at proper intervals, and no efforts will be spared
in forwarding freights by this line to their destination. As
early as the fall of Iso7, we may safely predict, the dis-
tance to be travelled on the overland route other than by
railroad will be astonishingly short.—San Premiere
TIMM

TP:E PRIVATE BUMMERS OP PARLIAMENT. —The
weakness of committees lies in their want of experience of
the rules and practice of law, of acquaintance with pre-
cedents, and of knowledge of the principles and ideas by
which committees sitting in adjoining rooms are guided.
They are in the position of a jury with a difficult case,
and no judge to preside over them. The institution of a
general committee of chairmen, excellent as it is, has
failed, owing to circumstances we have already adverted
to, adequately to meet these deficiencies. The establish-
ment of permanent paid chairmen would, looking only to
the efficiency of the tribunal, afford the best solution of
the difficulty. The house would thereby not only secure
the services of those members actually in the receipt of
salaries, but induce a further number to devote them-
selves to this class of ',mdse.'s in the hope of succeeding
to the emolument and recognised position of such
a chairmanahip. The constitutional objections, how-
ever, are so strongly felt, and the sense of the
house itself is so adverse to this scheme, that
it is needless to discuss it. The permanent element
must therefore be supplied from without. We would in-
corporate with every committee on a difficult group of
bills an assessor, not a member of the house, possessing
technical knowledge and experience of parliamentary
practice. We would have such arrangements made as
would enable these " continuous service men " to sit as
referees upon questions of engineering and of estimate (if
it be thought proper to persevere in separating these
branches from the main inquiry), before the meeting of
parliament in each year, and distribute them in the
manner suggested among different committees during the
session. The work of parliament would be greatly facili-
tated and valuable time gained for its transaction, by the
adoption of another reform—namely, that private bills
.liould be introduced in one session, but not finally dis-
posed of till the following year—Edinburuh Review, new
number.

Booes or FICTION FOR CHILDREN.—" The mind
of a child," says • wise thinker, "is like the acorn ; its
powers are folded up, they do not yet appear, but they are
all there. The memory, the judgment, the invention, the
feeling of right and wrung, are all in his mind, even of an
infant just born. One by one they awake." His imagism-
tion--one of the earbest powers teat awakens within him,
even before he has passed through the mysteries of pap
and found out that being naughty differs from being good
—must be fed. And fed it will be ; either on the make-
believe talk of his sister Mary nursing Ler doll, the idle
stories of Betsey the nursemaid when he is naughty about
" bogey" and the " black man" who carries off bad boys ;
or about the golden fairy who is to give him toffey and
gingerbread—when- be is good. By and bye, as he grows
older, his sister Mary reads to him, and at last
he learns to read for himself, the charming ad-
ventures of the " Fox and the Crow," "Billy-goat
Gruff," " Sinbad the Sailor," or " Diamonds and Pearls ;"
the delicious history of "Puss in Boots," the tragedy et
" Blue Beard," or the heroic drama of "Jack the Giant-
killer." But whichever of these,or a hundred other soch de-
lightful pages, it be, his faith is boundless. Happiest of
mortals, for a time at least, he can believe all he reads ;
with the one happy proviso that if it is not true, it ought
to be
ay, is , and , because his sister ss so. While he is
absorbed in the misfortunes of the "Tin Soldier" or the
" Ugly Duck," the breakfast bell is unheard, and dinner
unheeded ; he is feasting in Dream-land, on stirebout in
the Giant's Castle, or on those famous cheesecakes of
Queen Seheberesade, whose vital charm was pepper. Not
that he is forgetful of fact, even while in the full pursuit
of fiction. Indeed he is always burnieg for facts. He
wishes to know what glass is, where Robinson Crux* was
buried, how much gold it takes to make the inside of
• watch, why the sun sets later in June than December,
what thunder is, if the end of the rainbow touches the
ground, why firing off a cannon once made a man deaf,
what sego is, and • thousand other things, which papa,
not being • walking encyclopiedia, is nut always ready
to tell him. And whatever answer he can obtain he is
ready to believe implicitly, as long as he is dealt fairly
with. Yet, though St. George and the Dragon, Ali Baba,
and Robinson Crusoe, are in one sense as true to him as
the History of England, there are shades and degrees
of belief in his own mind both as regards the domains of
fact and fiction, which he cannot perhaps define, and of
which he is scarcely sensible, yeton which he unconsciously
acts; setting each narrative or story, tale or fable,
romance or chronicle, in its own due place, and
giving to each his own royal favour and ap-
proval as good, bad, or indifferent. A child in
good sound health is insatiably curious, his thirst for
fiction of one shape or other is quenchless ' and if he never
asks questions, and cares nothing or Jack and the
Bean-stalk," or " The Lad who went to the North Wind,"
there is • screw loose somewhere or other ; he is in a
morbid, unhealthy state of body or mind, probably of
both ; his natural growth and tastes, as • child, are be-
coming stunted and diseased ; forced into some narrow,
potty channel, where ignorance or bigotry will noon blot
out the freshness. grace, and light, that are childhood's
most precious poondoinoas.—Quarterly lteniets,new, number.