The Express.
London, England, 1861-12-27 00:00:00

EDINBURGH MERCHANT COMPANY.

On Tuesday a special meeting of the Merchant
Company of Edmbturgh was held for the purpose of trans-
mitting an address of coadolenee to her Majesty un the oc-
casion of the death of his Royal Highness the Prince Con.
/sort. Mr. C. Lau soN, muster, presided, and there was a
good attendance of members.
. .

The following address was adopted :
" May it please your Majesty,—We Tour Majesty's
most loyal and dutiful subjects, the master, assistants, and
members of the Company of Merchanta of the city of Edin-
burgh, humbly approsich your Majesty with feelings of pro.
foiled sorrow ou the evesion of the death of your Majesty's
late Consort, his Royal Highness Prince Albert, and tender
the homage of our sincere and heartfelt sympathy.
" Entertaining the highest respect and admiration for the
noble character of his Royal Highness the Prince Consort,
we desire humbly to express our condolence with your Ma-
jesty and the royal family in the irreparable losss sustained
Eby the death of a Prins who held so maul a place in the
affections of your Majesty and the royal family, and was
must truly beloved and esteemed by the whole nation.
"In his Royal Highness the Prince Consort your
Majesty's subjects recognised not only a l'rioce who was an
accomplished and generous patron of every object which
was great and good, but • husbaud and father whore private
virtues formed &Christian and happy example throughout
every circle in your Majesty's dominions.
" In common with your Majesty's subjects, we cannot at
the present moment estimate the severity with whirr this
calamity falls upon our country—its civil institutions and
social chmities—in the general advancement and prosperity
of which your Majesty's hite Consort took such an en•
bghtened and successful interest.

Our first and cornea feeling is • concern for your
Majesty and the royal family; and while we venture
to express a confident and well-grounded hope that hie
Royal llighneaa the Prince of Wales will strive to emulate
the character and virtues of the late Prince Consort, and
afford consolation and support to your Majesty, not only in
thin hour of affliction, but throughout your Majeaty's reign,
we pray that the All-Powerful Hand which iu its wisdom
has thought good to Millet this blow will at the same time
impart strength to sustain your Majesty under the present
sorrowful bereavement.

--"That Almighty lied may long preserve and guard the
lila of your Majesty to a nation which has never wavered in
its loyalty and devotion, and has so long prospered under
your wise and benignant reign, is the fervent, po..yer of your
Majesty's. must loyal and devoted subjects."

HOLYIOOD PALACI..---011 Tuesday, by the di-
rection of the Lord Chamberlain, there was placed over
the principal entranes-iloor to Holyrood Palace the
funeral achievement or " hatchment" of his late Royal
Highneas the Prince Consort, which will remain there,
according to rule, for a year from the date of the funeral.
Nothing of the hied has been formerly placed there, even on
the death of reigning sovereigns, so that the present cit rum-
stance is a sigoillisint recoznition of Holyrood Palace an one
of the royal residences. A similarachievament was on the
same day fixed over the entrance to Balmoral Castle.
Scotanion.

A PRODIGY IN THE PULPIT. —On Slllolay a lad,
'sixteen yeah of age, Master Norris, of Wrightiogton, Lan-
cashire, preached two sermons in the Primitive Methodist
Chapel. Melbourne street. The chapel was crowded to
excess on each occasion, and the large audiences listened
with breathless interest to the sweet and captivating elo-
quence of the young pulpit orator, who descanted on
his Gospel themes with an appropriateness and a telling
power that, in n lad of ouly sixteen, seemed almost marvel-
lous. The Rev. Mr. Stroud, at the close of the sealing
sermon, gave some particulani With* youthful preacher.
It appears that young Norrie is the son of a poor man, and
that the lad himself is a son of toil, having daily to travel
five miles to and from his employment. Notwithstanding
these disadvantages. he finds time to read and study, and
the result is that be speaks grammatically and reasons
logically. Ile has been engaged as a local preacher fur five
years, and is, we !uninformed, very popular in many parts
of his native lard.—Belfast Nora Letter.