The Express.
London, England, 1868-02-05 00:00:00

LIFEBOAT SERVICES.—During the storms
01 the peat year the National Lifeboat Institution son-
tribsded to the easing of LORI lives from various shipwrecks
• meals from destraction. The Institution aka a:peened
Sums in the same period on Its lifeboat ratablirunieuts, in
addition to granting for rewards.
The Committee et the institution earnestly appeal to the
public for assistance to enable them to meet the oossinuel
heavy demands on Ndr 186 Lifeboat Establishments.
Contributions will be tbanktully received by the London and
eountri banker% and by the Secretary, Richard Lewin Esq., at
the Institution, 14, Johnntreet, Adelpid, Leaden.

PARIS KIIIIBITION, FIRST CLASS STLYZR WIDAL, 1607.
GOLD CHAINS.—JOHN BROODEN
begs
to cull the attention of the public to the FORM of AA
VOICE which he delivers with Gold Chains purchased
Lat
snanufactery :i d.
To workmanship of we pattern chain, 24 Inches long 2 10 0
To (15) carat gold. weighing 2 ow., at g 2 12► id. per
cnuae, Mint price

T0ta1...,
171,Dn this system. the QUALITY, WEIGHT, wd VALUE of
the gold are accurately defined, and guaranteed to the purchasers.
John Brogilen looking fora fair remuneration on the workman
shiV . which is .harged according to the intricacy or sinipli-
day of the pattern.
Manufactory, 16, Henrietta-street, Covent-garden. London.
_

REAKFAST.-EPPS'S COCOA

cite erpreois•

TO OUZIMPOND)LNITS.
eivalleemeata Intended for &pre's," London Zeroing
=
must be at the °Mee. 10, Bouveriwatreet, b 7 Two
on tits day of publication.

HANN AHEM.
TIT! Ewmtio, THE BROKEN-HEARTED CLUR.—A WIFE
WELL WON. Yana &Ahern, buckstaee, Howe, Kendal,
Beakl. Weaibereby, ate. ; and Mai Roberteoa.—Alter
:rib 'AN UTTER PKWYERSION OY THY BRIGAND.

MINCH:3BIr
This Emma. THE OoLLsav BAWK. Hr. and Mrs. Dion
Boaciesult.—After which TIM 8 ritJihTS OF LONDON. Mr.
Wising, Messrs. Murray, Shore, Neville, Forrester, Mellon, etc.
Misses Sliworthy, Harsett, Rachel banger, sad Ars. Addle.

is.
tats EVENING. OLD SALT. Mr. Emery and Ws Nally Moore.
...After which THE CALIPH OP BAGDAD. Miura Thorne
and James; Mesdames Ada Svanborough, Johnstone, Harland,
Holt, dc.—Awl COAL ANL) COE&

HOLBORN.
Tint. EVENING, THE FLYING SCUD. Kamm Atkin., Trice,
Garden, Arthur, Westland. dd Wilatott ; Mesdames Ilenr►dc,
Goodall, Lennox, and Saunders—Conclude with VALENTINE
AND ORSON. Male. Montero, Little Rowena. Gm.

BI ITA N NIA.
THIN Eresnts, MINDS DOWN.—DOINI QVTXOTE. Ifrs. S.
Lane, 4t Mimeo Edwin and Booth : Pantondluhta Ileum Duane.
Louis, Newham, and CU:toren!, Mdlle. Stephan and Wu Rose
Nathan.—To conclude with fHU MAI= FLOWFA.

HIGH WATIIR AT LONDON BMW&
tm DAY —Moraine. 101. 670..--Aftemooe.lll. She.
TO-golchoW—Moneng, Oh. tes..--Afterpoon, Oh. two.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY L.

SE NJ ri Ts which involve a great private anxiety
are not in themselves fit topics for public com-
ment. But private affairs are in some cases inex-
tricably interwoven with public interests, and the
scrupulousness which would respect the sensitive-
ness of kinsmen and friends must occasionally
give way to considerations of wider interest. The
mysterious disappearance of the Rev. BENJAMIN
Speer is 110 t a matter for curious speculation or
for piquant writing. So long as reticence could
spare ally private sentiment we have observed it.
But the reasons for silence are now outweighed by
graver reasons in favour of open speech and dis-
cussion. The fact that a man, in the very
heart and centre of London, can suddenly disap-
pear as completely as if the earth had opened and
swallowed him up, and that all traces of
hint may fur weeks be irretrievably lost—
never, perhaps, to be discovered—is of the highest
public importance. A destructive gale, an erup-
tion of Mount Vesuvius, a French press law, a
Clerkenwell outrage, are not more serious.
Whether the disappearance of the missing gentle-
man be voluntary or violent, whether it be the
deliberate purpose of a sane mind or the impulse
of one suddenly visited with the most fearful of
human calamities, is, in this connexion, a matter
of secondary interest. The fact that every effort
male t, trace him has proved fruitless, that the
eagerness of private solicitude and the resources
of civil inquiry have been in vain, is the must
alarming feature of the case.
The story, so far as is known, has lately
been brought before the public in a connected
form. on Wednesday, the Bth of January,
Mr. S VEK E left the Chard station, in Somerset-
shire, on the South Western line, in order to be
present at the marriage on the following day
of a friend in London. He intended apparently to
have returned home immediately after the marriage,
for he to iok a return ticket, and ordered hisgroomto
be in waitiegforhimattheChard stationlontheeven-
big of that day. On arriving in London, he drove to
the house of his brother in-law in Ecclesten-aquare,
dismissed his cab, and after a few minutes' con-
versation with ono of the servants, who had been
brought up in his parish, went out, telling the
footman that he was going to buy a new hat, to
call at half-past six upon a young man whom he
hail apprenticed in London, and to dine out at
seven. Ho bought a hat in Warwick-street, and
left the shop at half-past five o'clock, requesting
that the hat might be sent home at a quarter to
seven; repeating here, too, that he was going out to
dine. From that hour to thiahe hasbeenlostaightof.
No trace of him can be found after he left
the hatter's shop. At half-past seven his old hat,
bearing the marks of ill-usage, was picked up by a
workman in Itirdeat,m-walk. These two hours
contain the undisclosed secret of his fate. What
then betel is matter of pure conjecture. The sup-
position of Mr. SPEW: E'S voluntary absence is beset
with many difficulties. It is scarcely possible to
believe that a visit so natural should have been
made the occasion fur carrying out a previously-
contrived plan of di appearance. On this hypothesis
the purchase of the return-ticket at Chard, the
notification of the groom to be in waiting for him
there on the following day, the full statement of
his arrangements for the evening to the servant in'
Eccleston-square, and the instructions to the hatter in
Warwick- street, 11 mild be so many cunningly-devised
blinds. A man who desired for any reason to convey
the ideathathe had been made away with, and under
cover of it to evade search and escape from Eng-
land, might adopt these expedients, and might
crown them by injuring and throwing away a
part of his dress, in order that its discovery'
might heighten the mystery of his disappearance.
But the character of Mr. SPEER opposes insupera-
ble obstacles to the entertainment of this sup-
position. There is not any greater probability in
the idea that between half-past five and half-past
seven—or rather a quarter to seven, the time
which he had fixed for his return home—
an access of madness should have come
upon him. "In perfect health, of an even/y-
-" balanced mind, high religious character, and of
" a singularly cheerful and amiable disposition,
" he was about the last man," say his friends,
" one would have imagined could come to harm,
" physically or morally ; and being the only
" member of his family residing with his parents,
" and knowing how heavily recent bereavements
" have pressed upon them, it is incredible that he
" should not have communicated with his family
"if he had the power to do so." On the other
hand, the supposition of murder in the public
thoroughfares of the West-end of London, or of
violent abduction and forced concealment in
some villanous haunt of the city, are equally
improbable. The outrages which have been com-
mitted with impunity during the winter have pre-
pared the public mind for much that not very
long ago would have seemed incredible. A century
ago, when the press-gang was in fell swing, and