The Express.
London, England, 1868-04-30 00:00:00

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A SECOND EDITION of the EXPRESS,

CONTAINCtO

The Latest Foreign Telegrams ; the Latest City ;
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and General Intelligence.

IS ru DLISHED

EVERY EVENING.

LONDON, TaURSDAY, APRIL 30.

THE 1-3:4b1511 MAY, OLD ...I.NP .NEW.

WHEN nl4lllllO. Wik, Merry England, the month
of May, on the eve of which we now stand, was
the merriest month in the year. The hearts of
the people moved sympathetically with the
reviving life of Nature; and men, women,
and children, in crowded cities pent, were
drawn from their close homes and stitlinty dwell-
ings into the freTli 6elua and the open air. The
gammons of Nature Ivan not to be withataw:, at
the semon when
Daisies pied and violets Liao,
Aud ladies'•smocks all slim whitv.
And cuckoo-hada of yellow bge,
Did paint the meadows with delight.

The heathen worship cf the goddesF. FLoi... sur-
vived innocently and gracefully in Christian Eng-
land. People went out a-Mating in those days,

Both inoete and 10-. e,
To fetch the Cowerea Bailie, and bratin4L sad bloom.
Peasants and Princes alike did honour w the
asssou. 1 /RN RY VIII., whom even Mr. Fnornt will
snit champion as ft model of rural innocence and
simplicity, rode a-hisying with his weer and
Clourt to Shooter's Hill. In ionic parts of the
opuntry these innocent and ploaeant celebrations
dial survive. The hawthorn if oser.., the " May"
pair norAlence, which not only country lads and
uses. gather, but which hulking city boys and
factory girls issue from the smoi.e and din of
4e streets to pluck and bring h.er,,, or the first
of the month, are antic and rtmeinlirencar of more
genial rites and sports. In villages, in which
something of the old life and mirth of England
still continues, wells and fountnins are dressed
with flowers. But for the nefst ieert these things
belong to the past. We read of them in poets, old
or new, in ell /ARMS, in Su Mitros,
to TEN N Y30:4, and cultivate a pleasingsentimen-
tality in tie reminiscence. But the things
themselves are gone. In the struggle
ter e..isteuee, the rural festivities and
"innocent pleasures," for which Madame DE kansi.
had so keen a distaste, have heon vanquished. The
*lt Maypole which once o'er-Imiked the Strand
o'er-looks it no loirf:cr. If is did, it could
not have survived Sir Its-osno MAT ma and
the Streets Traffic AM. 'nrapb of science
over poetry was it was re-
moved to serve as the support of Sir I,,Ase

Nawron'e teleeeope. Jae IC -111
ever now chows his sooty face

branches, indicating the escape
closely associated than any other
and soot, and chimney-pots of great cities into the
peewees of fields and woods. The QUEEN of the
May survives only in the pages of the Porr-
arazATc. The moms-dancers have danced into
the peat. But May has still its characteristic
celebrations. There are the May meetings, which
have their favourite home in Exeter-hall, useful
and interesting to those who frequent them, but
which these secular columns are not the place to
characterise. The religious world still goes a
Maying after its own fashion. But the lighter
amusements of May have not perished. They
are merely changed. They are mostly now
taking place under roofs of glass or of brick. The
flower.showl in which London delights are no
longer to be found in woods and meadows, by
hedge-rows and streams, but in Horticultural
Gardens and Crystal Pal►ces. The people
" both moete and leste " go a-Maying now
I not to Shooter's-hill, but to Muswell-hill, Ken-
sington, and Norwood ; and. so far from pluck-
ing " dowers, both branch and bloom," visitors
are very Foperly requested to keep their
fingers from them. An attempt to revive
the old custom would be speedily avenged
by the tayrmidons 6f justice. Trafalgar-
square is another great place of May-day pil-
grimage. Instead of rushing abroad to see how
Nature has painted the meadows with delight,
Society turns, catalogue in hand, into an
inconvenient and crowded suite of rooms, to ob-
serve Mr CRESW)IICS and Mr. LINNELL'S paint-
ings on canvas. The fruit and flower pieces of art
are more interesting now to the greater part of men
than those of the field and garden. Nature in
oil and water colours possesses attractions for the
many which Nature, interpreted only by herself,has
failed to exert. For the simple music of rustic
festii7als, we have Grand Opera Concerts, Tunic Sol-
fa Concerts, Concerts of the Philharmonic Society and
of the New Philharmonic Society. Instead of
rural games there are two Opera Houses. Morris
dancers have given way to ballet dancers. The
only peasants for whom regard is felt are stage-
peasants; and they are paid for amusing spectators
by the pretence of amusing themselves. This state
of things is not to be quarreled with. It must be
accepted. If it indicates loss of simplicity, it in-
dicates also growth of refinement. if cordiality
has vanished, some rudeness has gone with it.
Artificial as our amusements are, they are yet a
relief from the strife and hurry of daily life, the
absorption in business cares, the strain of the
faculties which make existence a task-work. It
is well that people who take little pleasure in the
choristers of the grove should Lind amusement in
the chorus of the Opera; that those by
whom the notes of the nightingale, the
thrush, and the blackbird are unheard or
unheeded, should be charmed by the notes
of TITIEN,, and N1L.440N. and Sims REEVES.
It is matter of congratulation that, at Norwood
and at Musaell-hill. the country should be
brought to those oho cannot go to the
country ; and that men to whom Nature, at
first hand, is a blank page, should learn to see her
beauty through the more discriminating eyes and
the interpreting hands of great artists. The com-
petition of theatres, and opera-houses, and concert-
rooms, the rivalry of the Royal Academy and the
Water Colour Society. of French and Flemish and
English artists. and of the exhibition of a single
painting or the collected works of a great modern
master. such as HOLMAN Ht-vr and GUSTAVE
Dot:►:. are signs of a varied interest and a keen
sensibility for which it is hard to find food. The
May of the 19th century differs essentially from
May in the 14th, or even in the 16th. Even
the poetry and the example of Lord JOHN Mam-
Nee., will not restore May Queens and Maypoles to
this degenerate age. But the difference is not all
fur the wore if there is loss, there is also gain.

J • from Blackwood hive accom-
panied every political change expected to disturb
the privileges of a class. Discussing the Irish Church
Establishment, it luxuriates in the talk of the
" White " revolution order. Despairing of par-
liament and of the country, Blevkwood (of May),
turns to the Crown in a way half-threatening,
half-deferential. The reader is begged to make a
special note of the fact that Queen Vicroatt does
not reign by right of hereditary possession,
but 'by a parliamentary title and nothing
more. it is as good, it is not one whit
better, than " that by which the purchaser of an
" Irish manor in the Encumbered Estates Courts
" holds his lands." There are still living princes,
it seems, who. " were the hereditary principle
" observed, would have a juster title to the ini-
" perial crown than she." But this is
not all. "Queen Vicrortils title to the
" British crown is a conditional title. It ceases to
" be a good title if the conditions be broken, of
" which the most important are deliberately
" stated in the coronation oath." The writer
goes on to affirm that the principles embodied
in the Acts of Settlement and Bill of Rights, which
form the basis of the English constitution, deter-
mine that the bare attempt to disturb the union
between Church and State, shall be visited on
the highest personage in the realm with forfeiture
of the throne. " Nor will anyone," says Blackwood,
" pretend to say that these principles apply leas
"to Ireland than to England." There is more in
the same strain—such as that the bond between the
Church and the Sovsaatnx " cannot be broken
1" except at the cost of individual as well as of
" kingly honour;" that the pound of contest
" affects the S0%1111E162( in her private sense of
" truth, not less than in her sense of public duty,"
and so forth. But nothing is meant by it, and
nobody is alarmed.

THE Assists/it-Commissioner who examined the
schools of Sussex and Surrey exposes a kind of
imposition that is not uncommonly practised upon
parents by private schoolmasters. He visited a
private school, the master of which gave a very
flourishing account of his own qualifications and
of the progress made by his pupils. He taught
them classics to such perfection, he said, that they
had no occasion to go to any university after
leaving his .ichool. The Assistant-Commissioner
had some dithculty in inducing the master to let
him examine the Lop', but the latter was quite
willing to show him their work. This " work "
was contained in " fair copy-books" garnished
with magnificent scrolls frees the pen of the
master, and consisted of exercises professing to be
done by the owner of each copy-book, in arith-
metic, mensuration, and translations from Latin,
Greek. or French. It appears, however, that this is
how the exercises are got up. A boy first works an
example ;on his slate, after which it is corrected by
the *10140,2,', and copied oat into the show copy-
book. Ten lines of Latin or Greek are translated
by the boy, and correcimai by the water before being
entered into the book. The collection is thin

THE report of the Commissioners appointed
to inquire into the revenues of the
Irish Church is likely to appear next week,
and the Government expect great things
from it. The report is said to show a large ex-
cess of revenue above the requirements for the
maintenance of the Church, but at the same time
to hint at such an application of the funds as could
be reconciled with the projects of the Government.
Lord DERBY'S apeoch on Tuesday night has given
great offence in the House of Commons, and doubts
are freely expressed u to the possibility of ministers
standing their ground as a beaten Government for
the next three months.

It is arranged that the division on the first
of Mr. GLensroites resolutions shall take place
to-night.

THE local postal arrangements of America seem
to be strangely behind the time. Fourteen letters
were recently posted in various parts of New York
to an address within five minutes walk of the
post-office, and the time occupied in delivering
them ranged from 14 hours 55 minutes to 18
hours 51 minutes. Other experiments have been
itried. Eleven letters were posted from one of the
suburbs of Brooklyn to an address in the E.C.
district of that city, and the time of transit ranged
from 19 hours to 25 hours 10 minutes. "The
" way t How not to do it' is," says the reformer
who exposes this abuse, "one of the official secrets
"of the New York post-office ;" and instances are
adduced of routine and red-tape which would do
credit to the worst days of administrative obstruc-
tiveness hero. " They manage these things
" better in England " is actually the cry, and
the permanence of the official appointments
is put forward in explanation of the
difference. In America a system in itself
faulty is administered by men who are appointed
by each PRESIDENT in turn, and the result is 118
"if the officers of a navy of first-class ships,
"from admiral to boatswain, were removed every
" four years." Our native authority is bitterly
satirical upon "the sluggish American mind," and
suggests that it might be well to borrow help even
from the "effete nationalities of Europe," and to
see if a few smart English clerks could not put
the New York post-office arrangements upon a
proper footing. A statement from MtERAT'S
" Handbook," that a well sealed and carefully
directed penny-post letter is the safest and most
expeditious London messenger, is quoted, and a
contrast drawn between the hourly deliveries from
our pillar-boxes and the days of delay there.
Altogether, the dwellers in old England may plume
themselves upon their superiority to young
America in one great essential to advancement
and civilisation.

SUPPOSING the late Abyssinian captives to have
left immediately for home after their liberation,
they may be looked for in about a month from the
present time. They were set free on the 10th
inst., and were then 400 miles from the sea. The
mail packets that pass the Abyssinian coast every
week reach Southampton in 23 days.

gin &flirt.

OSBORNE, Arm. 29.

The Queen drove out yesterday afternoon,
accompanied by Princess Christian, sad attended by Lady
Augusta Stanley, and called on Lady Cowell.
Prince Adalbert of Prussia 'hilted her Majesty and
remained to luncheon.

His royal highness was attended by Captain Von Saint
Paul and Captain• Lieutenant Count Francis Waldersee,
aides-de-camp to his royal highness.
His royal highness was received on landing at Osborne-
pier by Prince Christian and Major-General F. H. Seymour,
Equerry in Waiting to her Majesty.
The Queen walked in the grounds this morning, acoom-
panied by Princess Louise.
The other members of the royal family also went out.
The Earl of Tankerville (Lord Steward) arrived at
Osborne to-day, and presented an address to her Majesty
from the House of Lords relative to the late attempt upon
the life of the Duke of Edinburgh.

The Prince of Wales rode out yesterday. attended by
Major Grey.
The Princess of Wales drove out, attended by the Hon.
Mrs. Stonor.

In the evening their royal highnesses went to the
Queen's Theatre.
Despatches were received yesterday at the Colonial.
office from the Governor-General of Canada, the Governors
of the West India Islands, Malta, Bermuda, and New
Zealand. Despatches were sent to the Governor-General
of Canada.

Last evening, on the occasion of Mr. J. L. Toole's
benefit at the New Queen's Theatre, their Royal High.
news the Prince and Princess of Wales honoured the
performances with their presence. Their royal higlineases
were received with extraordinary enthusiasm.

His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge
honoured M. and Madame Van de Weyer with his MD.
posy at dinner last evening. The following were invited
to meet his royal highness:—His Exoellency the French
Ambassador, the Duke and Duchene of Cleveland and Hon.
Miss Primrose, Lord and Lady Foley, Lord and Lady Eger-
ton of Tattoo, the Belgian Minister and Baroness Du Jar-
din, the Right Hon. Galles:erne Hardy and Mrs. G. Hardy,
Genera Francis Seymour, Colonel Philip Smith, and Mrs.
Ralph Vivian.

Ills Excellency the Prussian Ambassador and
the Countess Helmstedt have issued invitations for a party
on Saturday next to meet his Royal Highness Prince Adal-
bed of Proud'.

The Earl and Countess of hialmesbury enter-
tained the Duke and Guam of Marlborough, the Duke
of Richmond, the Marquis of Bath, the Earl of Morley,
the Earl and Countess of Tankerville, Viscount and Via.
mutes& Barrington and Hon. Miss Barrington, Colonel
Charles Leslie, M.P., Mr. Raillie Cochrane, ?LP., and
Mrs. Cochrane, and Miss Gorges at dinner last evening at
their residence in Stratford-place.

The Archbishop of York and Dirs. Thomson re-
oeived at dinner, at their residence in Grosvenor-place, on
Tuesday evening, the Earl and Counter of Carnarron,
the Earl and Countoss Stanhope, Mr. and Lady Bose
Weigall, Hon. Edward Stanhope, Mr. W. H. Gladstone,
M.P., Captain Lane Pox, and a select party.

The marriage of Mr. Charles Allsapp, eldest son
of Mr. Henry Allsopp, of Hindlip Ha% Worcester, to
Georgians Millicent, eldest daughter of Mr. C. B. Palmer-
Morewood, of Alfreton Park, Derby, took place at
Alfreton, yesterday, in the presence of a large company of
friends of both families.

THE WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT AND THE ASSAD-
BINATION or run Hos. Ns. hi'Dsz.—The following
despatch has been received by the T:oltod Stites consul in
this city :—" Department of State, Washington, April 8,
1888.-11a*Deneral W. W. Amrill, Milted Bioko Oso-
sol•Goneral, 8.N.A.P., Newereg.-81r,—Yeor telegram,
dated the 7th of April, anawassieg the aseasubsatima of
the Hon. Thomas D'Arcy IlVios, ILP. has been received.
The intelligence of this horrible trot It the °ameba of
, =regret here, and it is earnestly that the perpe-
of that and Wawa* will be brought
rpsedily to patios. am, air, your obedient wreak
F. W. HERAILIP, fieemtary."—Mostred Dolly
News, April H.

itIIBSIAIt

N N
I DAY.)

Amoklist to the leealide Rums, Russia is show-
ing her anxiety for the preservation of peace by
her activity in making preparations for war.
In its issue of April 24, we find the following :
We have before u the repeal of the work done in the
amens' et es. Pelembarg tee the year 1867. The activity
displayed is four-feld more thee la preesdisg years. In
the mimes of 1887 the arsenal has cost 310 41b. Gannon of
the new pattern, and shoat 100 of the sib. calibre cannon.
It has moreover coaverted 100 old guns of 12Th.. each into
tided breech-loader, for the defines of fortresses. This
extraordinary emotivity has sot prevented the improvement
and conetreetlon of brass guns of large calibre. Besides
the artillery arsenal at St. Petersburg timers exists •
foundry at Brunk, la which workmen lime been
employed night sad day during 1807.

II - .
~ ;---.. , • R .., • .If.„ . ---.:' I
3-:he-t 1. -el4l ` '•• .wi words 'My • POklt
among • leaves . t • . Isom,. the his 1_ .• ts ,
eof a pracadnismore .ilisistai•Commisstlister mad. to tni ‘ --" . :1
her with the smoke, late the very pieces thus engrossed in ' show _
I groat cities into the copybook, and although each boy knew the RUSSIAN' A
s. The Qt: sax of the English translation by heart, be could aph eon- Aocoittiag to the Lao
pages of the POST- 'true it, and knew nothing of the grammar. The big her anxiety for the
ceis have danced into master declined to let the 0001111/111101MIV examine a__ activity is moth
dill its characteristic the boys in mathematics or arithmetic, although ''''
In ita issue of April 24,
May meetings, which their copybooks were full of excellent specimens we have were u the
they,
1 X•zeter-hall. useful of Owes subjecta. aromas' at t. Pesembera to