The Express.
London, England, 1868-08-29 00:00:00

THE WEEKLY PRESS.

Commenting upon the Abergele catastrophe,
the Saturday Review contends that as long as goods trains
and passenger trains are on the same line together we may
=pert some other strange and mom unforeseen accident.
A mechanical and physical impossibility for a collision is
the only thing to be depended on ; and towards this re-
sult the separation of the passenger traffic and the goods
traffic is the only step which can be depended upon as
even approaching to a certainty against danger. Short
of this one cardinal revolution in our railways, all else is
not much better than a makeshift and a stop-
gap, or, to speak plainly, a mockery and delusion.
A perusal of the report of the Marriage Law Commission
will, says the London Review, satisfy the hesitating
betchelor, as well as the sorrowing husband, how various
are the ways in which their single blessedness may be des-
troyed and their ruin effected. In England, the road to
matrimony is fairly direct; and when the parties are of the
same religion marriage can be celebrated in Ireland
as easily as anywhere else ; but so far as Scotland
is concerned, the commissioners' report really con-
firms the oft-repeated statement that it is almost impos-
sible to say who are and who are not married in that
part of the United Kingdom. A mere enumeration of
the Scotch modes of marriage is enough, without any ad-
vocacy, to condemn them as disgraceful to any state of
civilisation, and leaves but one feeling, that of surprise,
that such a state of things should have been tolerated so
long as it has been. It would, however, be short-sighted
policy to attempt any emendation of the Scotch marriage
law by itself without making an effort to place the
marriage law of the three kingdoms upon ono basis. This
the commissioners propose to effect by having marriage

recognised as • merely civil contract which the parties
may accompany by any religious ceremony they please.
The London liana, admits that there may be objections
to this plan, but observes that until the report of the com-
missioners shall have attained a wider circulation and
discussion than it has yet received, it is impassible to say
what difficulties these suggestions may meet with,
especially from the Roman catholic clergy.
Speaking generally, the Zrootiner does not believe that
the character of the representatives or of the constituencies
will be substantially changed by the operation of the new
franchisee. Our contemporary, however, draws attention
to an attempt which is being made to abuse the new fran-
chise in order to swell the list of tory voters. Despairing
of being able to show any =Detentel increase of patinas
among the householders, tory agent.] have been for the
last three weeks busily at work getting notices of claims
signed and sent in by young men living with their
parents or their employers,upon the impudent pretence
that so much is reckoned or their board and lodging, and
that each has a bedroom of his own. It is perfectly clear
that such claims are wholly unsustainable under the terms
of the Reform Act; that they are preferred in a spirit of
faction and of fraud, and that they will be rejected in
every instance where the attention of the revising bar-
rister is called to them, and the claimants or their wit-
nesses are subjected to question upon oath.
Anticipating the possibility of a struggle at no remote
period between Prussia and France, the Spectator enters
into a comparison of their relative strength, and without
attempting to predict, should the great fight come off, to
which side victory will incline, yet ventures to say with
confidence that North Germany has serious reason to
think deeply before she abandons the hope of peace with
France.

MADAME RACHEL AND HER WARES.

There is nothing new in the business of
and vending cosmetics. As we have en another owes.
remarked, Mrs. Turner, in King James's time, did a pro-
fitable business in the very . same line. The Vicar of
Wakefield had occasion to interfere with his wife and
daughters when engaged in concocting some mese of
face-weak. The curious in such matters might trace an
unbroken suocereion of the vendors and ammeters of
perennial beauty from the days of Poppies to the time of
the Empress Engfaie Nor is it likely, nor
would it perhaps be desirable, to attempt to
prohibit the trade carried on by the " Arabian
Perfumer to the Queen," especially se the law
or pubbc. polls., is unable to ppaat a atop to ler more nefa-
rious traders in a worm than this. t
Earo do
Levison justice, she is open enough inkier dealings.
body may proms a tariff and price-current of the curious
Bend-i&ted wares. It is before us at this moment, and
there is no secret about the matter. The prices is en-
sconced, es they. say, in plain figures—the wholesale price
and the retail price. Each separate box, pot, or packet of
trails is to be bad at the price of one sovereign each, or
W. the doses • except the choicer salves and powders,
which are just the price. If there ars
who can be made to believe in the virtues of Pre
water which distil+ sparingly in the form of dew from
magnetic rock in the interior of the Sahara, witioh is
brought to Morocco en swift dromedaries, and the sole
right of impwUng which, at an enormous outlay, has been
purchased by Moderns Rachel," why--arreedde mis-
ter-es—it k a matter for *beta or their husbands, parents,
or guardians. OY, if women Can be realist Use
and idiotic enough to " the Royal Arabisn Toilet
of Beauty, as a by Madams BacW foe the Sultana
of Turkey, from 100 to 1,000 gain
" Arabian fumi-
gated oils for Bridal Chamber Lamps," „Jordan water,
ea 20 guineas pea bottle," " Souvenirs de Ma:sage,
at one hundred guineas," and " Bridal Toilet
Caine* arranSt two hundred guineas," and " IRo
Bridal Bath at 184. pas dozen cakes
goods are bought sold in open market. We do not
even go to the extent of seying that all this sort of thing
doe* the purchasers much harm except in pocket. Paint
and enamel do not enter largely into the Levison catalogue
and Be eight pages of nastiness. We can quite believe
that five pounds expended in barley-meal, lard, and a
shilling's worth of colouring matter, together with plen-
tiful use of the parish pump, comprise the materials of the
women's stock-in-trade. There se something—there ix
very much—in the plea that if women, old or young,
want to be beautified, " repaired," and " finished," they
must pay the price demanded by the painter, varnisher,
sad decorator, or leave it alone. Venus was always a
mercenary dame, and Corinth was proverbial for high
figures in venal charms.—Saturday Review.

PRIVATE Enterr2oBB.—A circular has been
sent from the Home-Office to the governors of the different
gaols, laying down the following rules with respect to
private executions:-1. For the sake of uniformity, it is
recommended that executions Mould take place at the
hour of 8 a.m. on the first day after the intervention of
three Sundays from the day on which sentence is passed.
2. The mode of execution, and the ceremonies attending
it, to be the same as heretofore in use. 3. A black Hag
to be hoisted at the moment of execution upon a staff
placed on an elevated and conspicuous part of the prison,
mil to remain displayed for one hour. 4. The bell of the
prison, or, if an arrangement can be made for that ',ar-
mee, the bell of the parish or other neighbouring church,
to be tolled for fifteen minutes before and fifteen minutes
after the execution.
NATIONAL EXHIBITION OF WORKS OF ART AT
Lana, 1868.—Return of admialionsday, Auguet 28,
by season tiekets, 1,600 ; by payment of 24. 641. each,
1,732; total, 3,332.

change.
The Pays, thereby assuming for itself the autho-
rity which the public inclines to concedo to 3t.
Paul de Cassagnac's new red ribbon, says it feels e
its duty to contradict the rumours current at ti'
Bourse yesterday that the Emperor was unwell,
and to state that his health was never Dior •
making I flourishing•

Advice!, from Cagliari state that the powder-
magazine there 1163 blown up. Several persons were
killed and a considerable number injured. The eumai u;
the disinter is not known.
In seizing the Loaterne, the list of subscriber.
appears also to have been taken possession of. Among
these, says the IMbals, is • certain number of public
functionaries and government clerks.
The Gazette do Midi publishes a letter from
Nimes announcing the death of M. Snuier, tether of the
young man who received a stab at the electoral me,ttlis
inz
in that place. Upwards of 6,000 persons attemle 1

funeral.
Madame Victor Hugo before her death espr
e.,....4
a desire to be buried at Villequier, in the rants tomb with
her daughter, Leopoldine, who died twenty-fire year, 3-'
Victor Hugo and his two sons Charles and Francis will .1,!.
company her remains to the French frontier, where till
will bid the deceased a solemn farewell.
DANOBROtta AcelpgrrT TO M. DE MoNI4-
irmaintr.—A telegrams from Maids*, in the depotnier
of the Doube, Mateo that the life of hf. de Youtalembert
bas been placed in danger by a carriage accident. 110p..1
are entertained that be will recover. The count's sert.i.ot

was killed.
MUSDirt OF A plugs.—lle Italian journal dr.
Nee Surieea has the following:—" A telegram 211601111
that the venerable Cure of Bardonneche has been murder.'
in his bed. The whole house wail in disorder. The i •
dal authorities immediately proceeded to an inrestißit,":.
but nothing baa been discovered tut to the perpetraor 41
the mime."
8110C111,10 MURDER lit/ P1111.4.—A dreadO
murder has been committed in a house in the Imp.'
Bab lone, in Para. A room was tenanted byte
brothers of the name of Dimo, both men under 30 year' .:
age. They are sons of a certain Greek merch3nt i•
Heeler Khan, who died it few years ago, leaving hoar
in comfortable circumstances. Ile family,
.er.
were litigious • the property left them war in arioj,
manners frittered away ; and the brothers Div.
against whom character nothing otherwise "
hitherto been advanced, became Involved in .1,1,...
Amongst their debts was one of 1,000 kre•
upon which a certain Turk had recovered judgccent, 13
which be had transferred to one Nicholas Anthot"'"l°--
los, formerly a Greek merchant, but of late practiimg ''''
a quasi-advocate and know d'ofeires in the kral tir,"
Consular Court. Anthonoco ,ulos had pur,uoi the ride!'
brother, StephanoDimo, for tM debt, andhad him artestot
on account of it, though he was momentarily at libeftr, ,
on the ground of ill-health. On Wedira7 erem
last the two brothers Dime were seen issuing
the home in which theodged, carrying IrMr"
them a large bong the land suspecting that thev
furtively removin their effects, step_poll them. Resislaw'
was oforod, the =Midis were coiled, and the boo ire
opened,gaze intowhien,t,
thteocolireseounstenbaof
the
untioinortoufnathtnn
poulos was found doubled up in it, with • P4l
through the neck. and tho head nearly' severed f t .
Dime had invited Anthersocopoular toff their loging,
debt.
draw up an arrangement for the settlement of the
body. Both brothers veere arresbxl. t appears thin e,
and, when there, Stephan° ,dlot him from behind With l
pistol, and they afterwards both mutilated teabody 0
order to force it into the boa. The murdered tea"'
a wife and children. strhohowolm!