The Express.
London, England, 1868-04-27 00:00:00

le PIIOLIeNIO/

EVERY EVENING.

LONDON, MONDAY, APRIL 27.

THE DEFEAT AND DEATH OF KING
THEODORE.

Tue smasement and indignation roused by the
dastardly outrage on the second son of the Qtrssw
have been partly effaced by the very different emo-
tions which the news from Abyssinia has stirred.
Magdala is taken, the prisoners aro released,
THEODORE has shunned capture by suicide.
Sir ROBERT NAPIER has fulfilled in an ho-
nourable and glorious sense the sinister prediction
of our gauche CHANCLLLOR of the EXCHEQURR. He
is turning his back upon the Abyssinian army,
having first, however, forced that army and its
King to turn their backs on him and on his
brave soldiers. The Kraus of Abyssinia has
surrendered not only his prisoners but his
life. Remembering the expressions of scep-
ticism with which the delaratious of the
government were received, when on Thursday they
intimated their belief that the expedition would
be on its return by the end of May, it is only fair
now to acknowledge that their sanguine an-
ticipations have been more than justified.
The additional twopence in the pound
of income tax will be needed ; but there is no
reason to fear further expenditure for the cost of
tho Abyssinian war. The last demand upon the
British tax-payer in redemption of the follies of a
meddling diplomacy has been made. We have for
our money not only the prisoners, but a valuable
lesson which future Foreign Secretaries will not dis-
regard. As the military preparations of the govern-
ment, both in this country and India, were much
criticised et first, it is only right to acknowledge
their thorough efficiency. Who is the British
CARNOT who has organised victory we may
leave to be disputed between England
and India, and between the several depart-
ments and their heads. Sir STAFFORD
NORTHCOTR, Sir JOHN PAYINOTON, Sir SZTILOUR
FITZOZRALD, and Sir Boxcar NAPERIL will doubt-
less find their champions. An impartial and dis-
criminating judgment will probably be a true one.
All have done their part, and all have done it
well. But the main glory will be that of Sir RORERT
Nariza. The policy avowed by the Government
was that of choosing for the command of the expe-
dition the best man they could find, and leaving
to him free discretion and full responsibility. In
one of the debates of the winter Imola* a
member of the late Government announced
that though he would not then criticise

If policy and pride alike made it impossible to
surrender his captives until the decisive defeat
of the 10th had shown him the impossibility of re-
taining them, the same motives, and that rude
sense of personal dignity which is often keenest in
savages and in monarchs, probably made the
idea of surrendering himself intolerable. Mad-
man and brute as Twzonoits was in some of
his moods, it is impossible to deny that in
his last moments there was a savage nobility which
is not unimposing. The man had a vein of courage
and dignity which in better circumstances might
have made a hero of him. He exhibited the despe-
rate valour of Macbeth.

Blow wind ! come wreck !
At least well die with harness on our back

He refused to be " the show and gaze of the time"
—to kiss the ground before the victor's feet, and to
be baited with the rabble's curse from Magdala to
Massowah. With the few devoted followers, who, of
all his army, remained with him, he fought to the
last ; and when the choice had to be made between
death and what he deemed the dishonour of cap-
tivity, it was made in a sense which Roman
virtue would have approved. Sir ROBERT NAPIER
had no alternative but to press his victory
to this consequence. If he had left Magdala
behind him unassailed, the Abyssinian people
would have held that he was afraid to attack
it. The prestige of the victory of the 10th
would have been gone. His retreat might have
been harassed. THRODORE issuing from his fortress
might have re-organised his army, certainly delay-
ing the return of the victors, and perhaps,
causing the necessity of a temporary
occupation of the country. Temporary
occupations, as we know, are apt to become
permanent. This evil has been avoided. Tesonoas
has met the doom he challenged and deserved,
but met it as a soldier should. The heart of the
nation will rejoice with the captives in their re-
lease and with the friends to whom they aro re-
stored ; and it will pay a willing homage offgrati-
tude and pride to the noble army of liberation
and its gallant chief, who have so well justified
the trust placed in them, and redeemed the honour
of England.

Tees news of the attempt to assassinate the
Duke of EDINBURGH has fallen upon the country
like a sudden blight. Fenianism, as shown up at
the Old Bailey, seemed so infinitely small and
contemptible ; its ehosen instruments appeared to
be so devoid of the qualities which go to make
conspimies permanently dangerous ; and the
alliance between pot-valiance and " the eternal
" want of pence " so unmistakable, that people had
begun to smile at the alarmists, and to believe
that the worst was offer. A rebellion led by
tipsy mechanics in a chronic state of indebtedness,
and who made plaintive• appeals to each other for
shillings, sounded a m ere squib in the ears of
English respectability. It was hoped the
foul thing had been stamped out. Men spoke, too,
of the Old Bailey trials and the royal visit
to Ireland in the same breath, as if by some
illogical process one were to aJect the result of the
other. And now, just as the triumphant recep-
tion of the Prince and Princess of WALES was
being vaunted, and just as the sanguine
were building up theories in which affection for the
persons of the Royal Family was to act as a poli-
tical panacea, this attempt to murder one of the
most popular of them occurs. In truth, it seems
unwise to hazard prophecies either as to the nature,
the duration, or the extent of Feuianism. It is but
six short weeks since Earl Mevo in the House
of Commons based a long argument upon " the
" remarkable feet that among the Irishmen be
" Australia we do not find any of thow hostile
" feelings " which have been displayed so lament-
ably at home. His lordship quoted, too, in the same
speech, " the eloquent advocacy of Mr. D'A*CT
" WORE" inCanada as • proof that the taint of Fe-
nianism was not widely spread. The Duke of EDIN-
BURGH, on his way home—sorely wounded by an
Assassin's bullet, and the murder of Mr. D'Aicr
WORE, form a sad contradiction to the views put

Tics great American showman, Rimini's, has
sold the goodwill and fixtures of his show, and
has announced his intention of retiring from a
business which he has almost raised into an art.
No man of such eminence ever withdraws from the
world without leaving many worthy and energetic
disciples behind him, and BAarrom has been pecu-
liarly successful in training a number of showmen
who carry his system into every city in Europe.
London, at the present moment, is favoured
with the presence of two gentlemen, the
proprietors of the Japanese troupe, who
have Barnumised the Strand for the benefit
of their particular speculation. Stretching
across the 'Queen's highway, at s certain level
above the heads of the horses, is a large tar-
paulin placard, fastened at one end to the Lyceum
tavern, and at the other end to the old offices of
the Globe newspaper on the opposite aide of the
way. On this flying placard is printed, in large
letters, visible from Charing-cross in one direc-
tion, and from St. Clement's Church in the
other, the single word " Japanese." How
far such a placard is an obstruction in
the principal thoroughfare of London, we
must leave the proper authorities to
determine, but the idea is copied from a well-
known advertisement of BARNUM'S. Some years-
ago, when the great showman was either
" working " JZNNY LIND, the nurse of Wash-
inzton, or the woolly horse, he nailed a huge
canvas across Broadway, on which he announced
his attractions. In due time he was summoned
before the law courts to give an account of
this obstruction, and appeared to answer
the charge in a highly characteristic
manner. " What is the penalty r' he asked
of the presiding magistrate. " The penalty," was
the answer, "is a fine of one hundred dollars a
" day." "Is there any other punishment 1 "
still inquired the great showman. " None what-
' " ever," was the reply. "No imprisonment ?"
he again asked ; and "No imprisonment " was
the answer. " Then I'll tell you what I'll do,"
responded the great showman ; " I'll take fifty
" days of this obstruction, as you call it, at a bun-
" drel dollars a day, and fifty days of three similar
" obstructions in Broadway at the same price.
" That makes twenty thousand dollars, I reckon,
" and there's the money." The advertisement
was worth it.

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.
(THIS DAY.)