The Express.
London, England, 1850-12-28 00:00:00

TO THE 111DITOE OP THE EXPRESS.

Slll,—lncomparably u our friend Mr. Punch has
delineated the " coming event" and struggle for elbow room,
I think I can offer an improvement on II " double- bedded
cheat of drawers," in suggesting the plan of " state rooms '
similar to these with which all are so familiar who have
paid their 301. or 401. for • trip across the.A.tianuc.
The great object on board ship is to gain the utmost
amount of comfort in the smallest possible apace, and few '
would believe, till they measured their rooms, how many
very comfortable sleeping berths • adddlingvized house
would aflard, and I don't see why house state rooms should
he so very much more objectionab'e than ship state rooms,
but, on the contrary, I believe they would be found much
more satisfactory. 'Eve', we will say, one common sired
room, 18 feet long, would afford from eight to tea berths
(upper and lower), a long table in the middle of the room,
with &seen for each lodger, and camp stools, and pegs, and
two or three looking.glaases, and jugs, basins, and tumblers,
would conipri*e all the revisits*. No one intoxicated should
be allow d to enter the house ; no beverage allowed but hot
coffee; and, as on board ship, • steward should be within
cell during the night. A state rooms proprietor might also
insist upon satisfiedm as to respectability, and prepayment
for a night ticket (numbered). Ventilation might be secured
is any extent by renwial of glam panes and substitution of
finely perforated z:nc. In first-rate state rooms few would
object to pay 3s. 6d. per night; second clan ditto, Iv 6d. ;
third elate, Is. 6d. • fourth class, 9i. to Is. These last would
• he like the rough ;teenage berths is the emigrant ships; and
for the rut, I can give no better advice than for parties
I liking the idea, and wishing to speculate, to go down to the
; doeks, look about them, and consult an experienced ship
carpenter. T.

THE RECENT COLLISION ON THE EASTERN COUN-
TIES RAILWAY.-Our pollee »port contains the committal
of William Lloyd, engineer of the Norwich express train on
the night of the accident, for trial on a charge of violating
the precautionary rules of the sompany by too rapid driving.
Yesterday James Hofield. driver of the Enfield down train,
was apprehended and taken before Mr. W. Cotton, one of
the county magistrates of Biwa, and after evidence of inns.
tious driving had bun remised, committed to Ilford Gaol,
bail having been refused. It was in this the fleet collision
imputed to liotteld, that so muck Wary wu done to the
pewiengera.
COMMISSIONS SIGNED BY THE LORD LIEUTENANT
- " •

or BOILIBINTIIHIII.—Captain W. F. Knetebball to be
Lieittenan•-Coluithl ; Lieutenant J. G. Mogg to be Captain ;
Garnet J. B. Paget to be Lieutenant ; As4ftint-flargeoa F.
Cram to be fiergene; W. IL Brew, Gam, to be Arnaud.,
Bargees, to the North Beaune{ Geilmeat of Yeomanry
Garal7.—Gaatife.,,

THE
MANUFACTURING DISTRICTS.

MANCHESTER, Du. 27.
AMUSEMENTS.-PRIVATE
THEATRICALS.

We hale the usual round of Christmas entertain-
ments—the theatre his its pantomime for the juveniles, the
Free Trade Hall its canoed& for the lovers of music (the
unrivalled Jullien being the caterer), with no end of tu-
I parties, soirées„ dtc , to say nothing of the lees public parties
given at the mechanics' and literary inst'totions which
not only every large town, but Unseat every village in the
manufacturing districts, Gan now bout of. So far as I hays
been able to learn, the working people, after another year of
good trade, have not bean less able or disposed to indulge in
the usual seasonable hospitalities and enjoyments ais Christ.
nue than they were last year. I had the plea.ure of forward-
ing you some account at this period last year of the interesting
reasions between minimum and workuople which charac-
terised the neighbourhood, and we do not appear to be going
back in this particular.,But what willeome of jour readers say
to factory operatives being indulged in the luxury of private"
theatricals ? We hear of them at Windsor Castle and Wo-

been Abbey as expensive indulgences for royalty, aced for the
favourites of fortune who move in tee higher circles of
society; but the workpeople of Messrs. John and Thomas
Ribber; cotton spinners and manufacturers at Hyde, were
not only permitted to enjoy a similar privilege on Saturday
evening last—they went even a step beyond this : they had
anew drew& produced expressly for the occasion, the author
being a member of their employers' family. A friend has
written me an account of the event, entering into soma other
interesting particulars connected with Messrs. Hibbert and
their workpeople, which I thiuk will be read with so much
interest, that I quote it ent:re. He says:

"Among the more interesting celebrations which have
marked the present Christmas in this district may be men-
tioned the private performance of an original historical play,
by Josiah Ribbon, E•q , at Hyde, an extensive manufectur-
12.11:age near Manchester. The author is the brother of
. John and Thos. Hibbert, the extensive minutes-
t/TM, whose family have been connected with the neigh-
bourhood for some generations, and whose name it is impos-
sible to mention without bearing testimony to the almost
eternal interest they exhibit in the welfare and happiness of
their workpeople. As a proof of this it may be mentioned
that the firm about ter, years sines erected at their own sole
net a large concert hall, capable of accommodating from
MOM 600 persons, to enable them to carry forward on a
seespetent scale the musical exhibition of their workpeople.
Is addition to this they engaged the services of an eminent
musical professor of Manchester, who goes over weekly for
tbe;marpose of training the bad and chorus, consisting ex-
elusively of the workpeople of Messrs. Hibbert, and now
numbering together upwards of 120 performers. There is
also an elementary class, composed of the younger persons
employed in the mill, from which any vacancies in the band
and chorus are nitylied, and such is the honourable spirit
of emulation induced by the liberal conduct of the Mewa
Ilibbert, that the number of applications for admission is
continually increasing .beyond the means of gratification,
The only qualifications for admission are competent
musical skill, general good conduct, and puoctual at-
tendance on practising nights and at rehearsals.—
Thanks to the ex,ellent training they receive, and
to their own enthusiasm, the bend and chorus are pro-
nounced:by competent musical judges equal to anything of
the kind in the provinces. Tics ‘• Creation," the e. Messiah,"
the " Elijah." and other works of the great composers have
been produced and executed (twisted, of course, by principals
from London and Manchester) in a atyfe of excellence
worthy of those immortal works. The musical library is
already most extensive and complete, and the Messrs.
Hibbert exhibit in all things a determination to make the
excellence the performers have already attained a stepping
atone to a higher degree of merit. The public performances
are attended by most of the opulent nu:Dili. ain the neigh-
bourhood, and by the workpeople of Messrs. IlibberL
With a new also to promote the innocent end cheerful
recreation of their workpeople, the concert room is opened
weekly by the proprietors for dancing, and Mr. John
Hibbert invariably attends to see that tvrrything is con-
ducted with due propriety and decorum. In addition to
this, schools have been opened, where a sourd and strictly
secular elementary education a riven, and to which the
. .

workpeople are expected to send their children if slily wish
to remain in the service of the firm. Baths also have been
opened at a minimum charge, not only as a means of
preserving health, but in -bskislf of the truth of the
sentiment of the poet that Even from the body's
parity the mind receives a secr.t sympathetic aid."
With reference to the performance of tee play, it adds
this: " A number of gentlemen in Manchester having read
it, and formed a good opinion of its merits as an acting
play, obtained the consent of the author to produce it in
his native place. The title of the play is. ' The
Baron Fitssrdern,' the scene the ancient kingdom
of Mercia ; and the period one anterior to
the union of the Hi plarthy under one monarch.
The story opens with the extraordinary preparations naskiog
by the Baron Fit:arden to entertain the Prince of Mereia,
with whose daugbtet or supposed daughter (Eudora) the
heron is anxious to form a matrimonial alliance for his son
(Alfred)as a means of retrieving the fallen fortunes of his
house, impaired by the teal It hospitality of himself and
his predecessors,
" His steward remonstrates with him on the further extent

to willObiheexpenditure to to be carried, and predicts the
ruin of the baron if the preparations are continued. This
excites the fury of the baron, but the steward is
Relieved 1 rout his embarrassment by Ethlincla en
adopted child of the bevAt's, who had been found in
infancy at the gates of the castle, who offers him
some jewels which bad been found euspented round her
neck. They are pledged with a Jew, who recagnises among
them the private signet of the Prince of Moms. Of course
this signet, which the Jew does not fail to carry to the
Prince, is made one of the principal means of elucidating the
plot of the drams. The Prince, eighteen years prior to the
perioi at which the drvma opens, had been called to guard
his Welsh frontiers. On his Return be found his consort bad
paid the debt of nature, after giving birth to a daughter.
Her maid (Lauriso) had become the wife of a gips,' chief
(Dram), who la revenge for great injuries heaped upon his
race by the sta•e, induced her to substitute for the infant
P,iOCIMI the child of a aim woman.

lawiza, touched compunction, leaves the princess
et Ms gates of Fezarelen Cull., where she s found, and
Imam the founding Ellalenda.
"The details of this piece of villany come out in a scene
where Draco state' his wife, and the daughter le restored to
her father. To save the quondam Princess, Eudora, from
*a scorn which would follow the dircavery of her real
montage, Draco kills her, at.d, finally, also himself. There
ia an underplot, of which the Lore of Alfred for the foundling
Et Minda forms the chief feature, but she has steadily, from
motives of gratitude to the Baron, turned a deaf ear to the
solicitationsof her lover, though 'fishy entertaining for him
an ardent attachment. The disclosure, however, which forma
the main incident of the drama, foreshadows the happy con-
summation of their hopes.
"The play has what is cot pontesed by every drama, a
moral, which is thus pointed in the concluding lines spoken
by the Prince in allusion to the late of Draco and Eudora u
he remit of bad laws :
A boon this for ruler.; and its truth
b e reproach to us, who now behold
• Imbarom law, begetting barbarous mime.
Ile it our drat resolve to wipe this blot
Item Yenta'. code. No longer let the law
Peewit* the man, whatever be his ram,
Hie country, or his creed, who breathes the air
Of our free state. Nu! kt It bid him welcome,
And yield him ample tokranoe,
As heaven cloth yield to all of us.
" Then us one or two anachronisms in the play, bat the
plot is simple and natural. The performance took place on
Saturday evening last in the carmen room, in which a stage,
I scenery, &a. had been erected, and though none of the actors
' were to the
eutinned cheering, a compliment meat justly due to the
latzinsic merits of the composition. The choruses, of which
time we three in the drama, were admirably sung, and the
esunnuneraries, of which there were a large number, and
wM were exclusir ly mill hands, performed the parts
sedised them with infinite spirit and nest. It is impouible
to ley whether the author, stimulated by the sauna of the
play on this occasion, may entrust it, to better actors
on a more eaten& d stage, but whether he due so or
not, the occasion of its production will long be
remembered in Hyde, the inhabitants of which foal a par-
donable pride in the fact that the Christmas of 1850 was
distinguished by the performance of a play written by a
townsmen, who's work was also il:ustrated by residents in
the district. Facts like these prove that the drama is yet
instinct with life, and managers sad actors have only to act
worthy of their vocation to secure a higher appreciation for
themselves and their art."

REPRESENTATION OP GLABIOROANSHIRE. A
meeting of the members of the Protectionist Club waa held
et Bridgend last week, at which reeoltvious were passed, in
1 which the club pledged themselves to support Sir U. Tyler,
1 K.C.8., in the event of a vacancy in the representation of
this county by the anticipated resignation of Earl D .
1 We t Swansea Herald) have not heard what Sir George's
opinions are in refer. nos to the leading political questions of
the day, but we believe that the gentlemen assembled on the
octagon (including some who wars not members of the club)
expressed themselves satisfied with the replies given by the
hon. gentleman to the various queries addressed to him. A
rumour having been extensively circulated in this district
that the respected member (or Swansea, J. H. Vivian, Esq ,
had been solicited by some influential parties to offer him-
self for the representation of the county, that gentleman's
friends, in the abeam of the boo. member, have suthorirsd
an announcement that no considerations would induce him to
sever the ties which have, for so many years, existed between
himself and the constituency of Swansea and its contributory
boroughs.
FATAL ACCIDENT ON LOCHLEVEN.—A very Melan-
choly occurrence took plane on the afternoon of Friday week
en Lochleven. Two boys, ono aged thirteen, the other
fourteen years, were amusing themselves by sliding on the
loe, about thirty yards from the edge of the Loch, at the
Jarale Dyke, when the ice py• way, and both were drowned.
Several skaters saw the sec-Went, but they could not render
emistance, as the lee at that spot, being oely of one night's
frost, would not bear them. The boys were seen to rise to .
the Barka several times, sad one of than had nearly
simalsd his maps. lie got on the ice, and was crawling
mhos **other boy seised hold of hie Riot and palled
filamita eon. Sash has left a widowed father and a widowed
mother to lament their lONS, sad both move la the humbler
walks of Ws. Their bodies were *gag In about as how
after the ossarreass,