The Express.
London, England, 1868-08-05 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, WEDNESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 5, 1868.

bleb will be found there in greater abundance
than has been the case sinoe Pope RI Nbl
the invasion organised by HENRY is
more charming country in the wort:l4 re
no finer lakes, no more pieturesq • • , ,
more graceful dells to be 1? • !tin 111
land of the shamrock. Is Vet to
had than in her seas and inland waters, or
over her bogs and mountain land' Yet,
putting aside Killarney and a few other hack-
neyed, Ishow-piaoes, it is absolately unexplored.
Books on Ireland are plentiful enough. The
hinnours of TRACEEILIAY'S "Sketch Book;" the
hearty fun of the " Little Tour," winch, partly
from its literary merits and partly from Laxca's
admirable illustrations, won the hearts of the'book
buying world some ten years ago ; the " Port-
night," of Sir Flaxen HEAD, whose painstaking
observations made the experience of that brief
period fill a bulky octavo volume ; the ingenuous
raptures of Mr. and Mrs. S. C. HALL ; and the
tribute of public journalists out of number—have
all borne testimony to the merits of the sister
country. We 'Lever yet met a visitor to Ireland
who has not come away ()harmed ; we never heard
of a tour being made through it which did not
more than satisfy expectation. For this
favoured country unites many and diverse attrac-
tions. It appeals to the sportsman, the artist,
the lover of character, the dilletante inquirer,
and the philosophic politician. It has good shoot-
ing in many parts, and better fishing in more.
Its hunts and steeplechases are proverbial for
" go" and dash. The exhibition of the Royal
Academy would be incomplete without the baffled
shrewdness, the humorous glances, the half-an-
noyed, the half -amazed, half-amused look of the can-
ventional frieze-coated Irishman Mr. NiesOLLs
paints so well. But those who wish to see this
original in the flesh should visit Ireland BOOR.
The aboriginal race, in all its native freshness, is
becoming rare ; and the artist who has studied it
most successfully, and whose reputation is based
upon its faithful portrayal, is already complain-
ing of the increasing difficulty in finding the rich
simplicity of the old costumes. Tipperary, Conne-
mara, or County Kerry, will, we are satisfied,
furnish artiste and lovers of the picturesque with
groups and " bits of character" and national
attire for some time longer ; but the pro-
fessional comment is significant, and the
sooner those who have promised them-
selves a trip to Ireland redeem their pledge
the more artistically productive will their visit be.
The phases of character to be sees there are end-
less. It is not true that every car-driver is a JOE
MILLER. It is not true that the humour of RABE-
LAIS is combined with Mr. &atm. WELLER'S
power of familiar repartee in every peasant the
tourist meets. It is not true that sayings in which
BACON'S profundity is tempered by ROCHEFOIT-
CACLD'S polish and point flow spontaneously for
the benefit of the casual visitor with a note-book.
These are travellers' tales, and every Irishman is
not funny any more than every Scotchman is pru-
dent or every Englishman phlegmatic. But there
is more humour and more genuine freshness to be
met with in Ireland than in any other country in
Europe. Exaggeration and flattery may have
distorted this simple fact, but its inherent truth re-
mains, and the observant humorist who is of a genial
turn is certain to come away from Ireland with his
memory crammed with a thousand indescri-
bably quaint and amusing reminiscences. The
Dublin playgoer who prevented a culprit being
hurled summarily from the gallery of a theatre into
its pit, by the advice " Whisht, boys' don't waste
" him—kill a fiddler wid him !" has prototypes all
over the country, and you cannot chat with a
peasant or spend an evening in a inn without ac-
quainting yourself with customs, with habits of
thought and feeling, and with turns of expression
which carry you further away from the current of
everyday ideas than months in Anglicised Switzer-
land would achieve.
Let those to whom Cbamouni and Geneva aro
hackneyed and stale, resolve to see Ireland
before they die, and to see it now. Glen-
gariff, with its noble natural harbour dotted with
hundreds of moss-grown islands, its tangled path-
ways and secret dells, its mountain barriers and
lonely wilds; or Dingle Bay, with its mountain
road, suggesting of the famous one on the
Mediterranean, its bold sea-coast scenery, and its
magnificent range of bold bluff hills ; the Gap of
Dunloe, its black valley, and its wild striking
combinations of rock and wood; MaeGillicuddy's
Reeks, the Purple Mountain, and the Eagle's
Nest are but types of the natural beau-
ties to be seen in the rest of Ireland. The
angler who visits Athlone or Ballyshannon, the
geologist who takes his hammer to Wexford or
Lough Neagh, the botanist who looks for Flora
not to be found in England or Scotland, are all
certain of their reward. In short, "the wind sits
" fair for news to go to Ireland," and the British
tourist cannot do better than avail himself of the
propitiousness of place and time.

and hissing wooden abutters. They were evidently put on
for a purpose, as proper third-clasa carriages wire always
befo ir.r..
tie
I find
outh .." ~. ie
not
. ran'
'
of a
`s South e . sys ror c
...\3lr. T. t, t,, writ' •si• th . !. ewe of
Mil don; 41, '''''+, am; ;• . -'"Dov. ** ' •.y
Penge, denies that . e railway :* is any
advantage over " a slow-goingomni:•..."

With few exceptions (he writes) the trains do not pro-
fess to aocodiplastHi.the distance tram Pepe to Atalsafsit
hill in leas than half an hour or five-and-thirty minutes.
It would not tali ntaelMote time fo teveftlitlltillk
road; amli it must be laimemberet *Ai daMa 'WO often/
five minutes over than eve minutes under the advertised
time.

Other writers suggest OU-operative societies for
the purchase of season-tickets, and all complain
bitterly of the conduct of the companies in
" putting on the screw " directly Parlia-
ment is up. Borne of the grievances, are
of old standing, and only come to light through
the general indignation caused by the directorial
raid. But it is evident that the companies
will be hoist by their own petard. They have
endeavoured to carry matters with too high a
hand, and their policy will inevitably defeat it-
self. Nothing is move needed than searching
railway reform, and it may be that the "last
" straw." added in the shape of unreasonably
augmented fares, may lead to a clean sweep of a
host of petty nuisances and burdens under which
the travelling public have groaned for years.

APORARIKS.

DAY.)
NONOPOI.V.
s. something w erf
Railway Ki So
'yes that the' derta
are so perfect and complete that they will never a
have to recur to parliament for supplementary acts. But
with what face will they then come before the legis-
latjure They 'essinet pretend that pa treatment to
which they now expose the residents along their lines is
'wane than it would ba►e been bad their Analgesia,-
tion Bill been passed, for it is certain that they would
not have been content with lower fares. They have,
however, done all the 'mischief they could to their own
caw* with the most short-sighted disregard of conse-
quences, and, in truth, these simple giants have done their
best to kill their golden geese. They have not only made
a false move by showing their temper, and so discrediting
themselves before parliament, and by causing a diminu-
tion in the number of their passengers, but them do
not exhaust their ernes. Their policy may
have the effect of reviving the question of
street railways. The legislature, consulting the wants
of the many before the pleasure of the few, will par bills
authorising the laying down of the rails, let the existing
companies oppose them as much as they please, and the
earl of the companies to increase their gains beyond lba
mat rah limit will end as snob efforts always end—in pro-
voking a competition which will diminish their income
below its old level.

The Deily News observes that the specimens it prints of
the communication it bas received on this subject are
enough to show how general and severe the inconvenience
is, and how profound the public indignation caused by the
ill-advised proceedings of the companies. Hitherto only
the suburban traveller's voice has been heard, but the
augmentation has taken effect throughout the whole
length of the Brighton line. The taxation imposed is of a
kind to which the public will certainly not submit. Mr,
Laing and Mr. Watkin may, like the famous Duke of
Newcastle, assert the right to "do what they like with
their own," but they will surely find in the end that they
cannot treat the travelling public like so many sheep.
They have surprised the public by a breach of faith, and
nothing is more certain than that they will have cause
to regret having done so.
The Herald says that the mode in which this increase
has been levied, and the particular time chosen for extort-
ing it, just after the close of the session, have tended to
produce the impression that the companies are availing
themselves of a period during which they deem the public
absolutely helpless to gratify their craving for vengeance
or extortion. It is sufficiently manifest, however, that the
public are impatient of being either bullied or jockeyed,
and the companies will get the worst of it.

It is the impression of the Star that, na the present tone
of the public mind, and considering the sort of general
reaction in favour of strong and centralised systems
which has been lately setting in, such occurrences will
tend to make the public regard with greater favour than
hitherto the notion of a British railway system brought
directly under State control.

v
'O N N E DVS.
1,!. i(TIOS DAY.)
l
‘7 ItIFLEW OUILD.
The tollbw• me of the speeches delivered
the bnoqn In the Fest-halle, on the Ist of
!gust :

Mr. Faeai, of Stuttgart, in proposing a toast to the
Fatherland, said : - Germans ! whoever like me has
for the first time trodden this German Austrian
land must be possessed by this on, sentiment —and
is this noble land not to I. German ? This land which
bean throughout the impress Of German labour and
German culture is not to be German ? My friends, if we
had it not we must have it. (Bravo.) And now, after
having it for a thousand years, to tear it sway, as some
people design, is neither patriotic, nor German, nor logical.
It is self-murder. (Applause.) My friends, it is not owing to
those who promoted the events of 1866 that we are enabled
to celebrate this festival with joy and pleasure, or indeed
that this city of Vienna exists at all. It was in-
tended to have a garrison from the Abruzzi here.
But you have now a garrison with which I hope you
am more satisfied. Men who have German names, but
who are not worthy to bear them, have adjured strangers
to come and strike this German Austria in the heart. I
think we have touched its heart—not " with blood and
steel," bat with brotherly love and sincere affection,
which shall endure for ever. (Loud applause.) It is
impossible In this place not to remember Metternich and
his policy. Where is Metternich now ? But, my friends,
there is a statesman who has undertaken to sot bounds to
the German nation—to prescribe how far its heart
shall extend, how far brother shall stand by
the side of brother. That man exists, and his
pokey weighs upon us with its iron power. But as
Austrians and Germans have triumphed over the policy of
Metternich, Germans and Austrians by uniting from the
Baltic to the Adriatic will triumph over the policy which
has brought ruin to (Jemmy, to the people, and to
freedom at once. (Much applause.) My friends, let us
give a thundering " hoch" to Fatherland which shall be
born again to freedom, to unity, and to greatness.
Professor Wumauza, of Musbruck, said—According
to the tenor of the treaty of Prague Austria no longer be-
longs to G elmany. The rifles of Bavaria, Swabia, Franconia,
the Rhineland, Westphalia, and Saxony stand, according
to the letter—verily the letter that kills—no longer on
German soil here. Has it then come to this, that the
German nation has own to a non-German soil to celebrate
a national festival? Has the:German nation sent its children
abroad to the foreigner in order to see its children of
every stock in unity with one another? (Applause.) No,
it cannot be so. There is not one of you who does not
believe, feel, and know that he treads the sacred
soil of the German motherland, that here he
breathes German air, and drinks from German foun-
tains. (Applause.) Let me tell you on behalf of
the great majority of my Tyrolese brethren that we place
our fortunes with confidence under the tutelary protection
of the fundamental laws of the empire. (Great applause.)
And numerous as we are here, gentlemen, we are but a
mall deputation from the mass who have remained at
home, and who sympathise with us. The cock crow of a
new era has been heard in our valleys; the dawn of a new
Aurora already gilds the summits of our mountains, from
which it will illumine the verdant plains that sweep from
their base. (Applause.) I drink a toast to the constitu-
tion of Austria, the offspring of German thought. (Long
and enthusiastic applause.)

(THROUGH REUTER'. AGENCY.)
HUNGARY.
Auourr 5.

In to-day's sitting of the Lower House of the
Hungarian Diet the Army Reorganisation Bill was
adopted in principle by 233 against 43 votes, after
a debate which lasted five days.
The prorogation of the Diet will take place
about the middle of August.

NTEM
•IS D
4 -
IT.WIY I
e Times,
eim of the Ita
'bey • ter themselvo