The Express.
London, England, 1861-02-14 00:00:00

Thu day, In one volume, printed on be paper, excpdaltely
Illustrated, price 7. ad- dein RM.
ALL ROUND the WORLD. An Illustrated,
Record of Vol Traireh, and Adventnrea la all parte
of the Globe. rented by ages.
W. P. Anstnetre. PLO 11.. ae.
Mee ne. Fleetetreet. Look" aad all bookaeilers.

NLYILTIJOt Lava RAI= BY A LIPIIBOAT.—CARN-
boar, Wantroaa, Fos. 10.—Daring the heavy gale of this
day, the barrow Guyana, from the Clyde to Bt. -Kitt's, came
on shore, and became a wrack on the Carrig Rocks, near
Carosore, where sbe lay dismasted. The CIIIIMOTO lifeboat,
belonging to the National Lifeboat Institution, was imme-
diately launched, and, after considerable difficulty and risk,
succeeded in taking off the whole of the crew, consisting of
19 persons. The cost (:1001.) of this lifeboat establishment
was presented about two years ago to the National Lifeboat
Institution as a thank-offering by • lady resident in Dur-
ham, whose life was saved from drowning at great risk by
H. A. Hamilton, Em., of Balbriggan, on board whoee yacht
she was when the accident happened. It is probable that
the lives of the 19 poor shipwrecked sailors thus saved by
this lifeboat are owing to that occurrence, an illustration of
the inscrutable goodness of Divine Providence, which
thus often prepares • great and permanent good
through • temporary and lesser evil. The lifeboats
of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution have Leen
instrumental in rescuing the crews of the following wrecked
vessels during the heavy gales of the past few days :—Seaton
Carew lifeboat, 8 men from the brig Providence, of Wads-
worth ; also 4 men from the brig Mayflower, of Newcastle.
Radom lifeboat, 10 men from the brig Roman Empress, of
Banderland. Penmen (Anglesey) lifeboat, 4 men from the
schooner Village Maid, of Fleetwood. lthyl lifeboat, 5 men
hail the schooner William, of Liverpool. Arklow lifeboat,
5 101111 frees a vessel, name at present unknown ; Wicklow
lifeboat, 8 ass from the be* New Draper, of \Vhitehaven.
Morrie' (county Dub/in) lifeboat, 5 men from the schooner
Merger/it Ann ; also 4 men from the smack Gipsy, of
Newry. (Lenore lifeboat, 19 men from the barm.e Guyana,
of Gleagew ; ankle( • total of 76 persons saved from a
watery grave during this storm. It is also a gratifying fact,
that throughout there numerous services of the lifeboat' of
the National Lifeboat Institutioa not a single accident has
bappsned either to its boats or to their gallant crews.
LONDON AND NORTH NV IDITERN RAILWAY.—
T 1•• directors have resolved to recommend to the pro-
prietors at the meeting to be held the 22nd inst. a dividend
at the rate et 5} per cent. per swum, carrying forward a
Wanes of eland 27,0001.

LITERATURE.

Autobiography, Letters, and Literary Remains of
Mrs. (Thrale). Edited, with Notes and an
Introductory Account of her Life and Writings,
by A. HAYWARD, Esq., Q.C. Two Vole. Long-
man and Co.

When Mrs. Piozzi died in May, 1821, she was in
the eighty-second year of her existence--a good,
but certainly not an extraordinary, age. Yet this
memorable old lady lived in two distinct epochs,
and was personally acquainted with, or had read
the works of, the eminent authors of utterly dis-
similar styles of English literature. Born in the
reign of the Second George, she lasted some little
wait into that of the Fourth. For many years the
intimate friend and hostess of Dr. Johnson (she
was a middle-aged woman at the time of his death),
the companion of Burke, and Goldsmith, and Sterne,
' the model from whom, when she was fourteen
IlYears Hogarth sketched the female figure in
1" The Lady's Last Stake " (engraved as a frontis-
piece to the second of these volumes)--she never-
theless lived to write to her friends gcesipping
letters about Byron's "Cain " and Moore's "Lelia
Rookh" • about Scott's novels and " Miss God-
win's Fankenstein" ; about Henry Hunt, the
radical orator, and Mr. Hone, the fellow libeller
with the still living George Cruikshank of the
*lime Regent ; about Lord John Russell's Reform
Bill agitation, and Captain Parry's Arctic re-
searches ; about steamboats and gas lamps. Whether
it was from her living so large a piece of her life in
two centuries, or whether (which is much more
likely) from her having survived for many years
the first French Revolution—that great divider of
"the old times" from the modern—Mrs. Piozzi
seems to have united in her life an astonishing di-
versity of experiences. She began writing poetry
at the commencement of the reign of George 111.,
while the manner of Pope was in undisputed
ascendancy ; and, having passed through the
whole dreary episode of Della Crimea senti-
mentality and finery, only missed by about
fourteen or fifteen months hearing of the death of
Shelley, who contributed so largely to form the
style of poetry existing at this very moment. She
woes contemporary of Garrick and of Edmund Kean
—of Sir Joshua Reynolds and of Sir Thomas Law-
rence. No marvel that Moore, in his Diary (April
28, 1819), calls her "a wonderful old lady," and
remarks that " faces of other times steeled to
crowd over her as she sat—the Johnsons, Rey-
noldses, dm.," adding, " Though turned eighty, she
has all the quickness and intelligence of a gay
young woman." Her mental, and indeed bodily
energy was wonderful. She wrote letters to her
acquaintances up to within a couple of mouths cf
herdeath, full of spirit, vivacity, and savour ; and
punned quaintly on her leg, which had been
wounded, and which she called her "1. e. g. (elegy.)"
She celebrated her eightieth birthday on the 27th
of January, 1820, by a concert and ball at the
Kingston Rooms, Bath, at which she led
off the dancing, at two o'clock in the
morning, " with astonishing elasticity," as an
eye-witness relates. It was when she was 44 or 45
years of age, and a gay, clever, and attractive
widow, that she fell in love with her second hus-
band, Signor Piozzi, an Italian singer and player
on the "forte-piano," as she calls the instrument ;
and after being united some quarter of a century,
she survived him twelve years. Scandal even says
that at 80 years of age she had conceived so deep a
passion for a very handsome actor named Conway,
that she wished to marry him ; but though she un-
doubtedly spoke of him in terms of admiration, it
is questionable whether she ever forgot her good
sense to the extent imputed by her detractors.
The truth is, Hester Lynch Salusbury—afterwards
Thrale, afterwards Piozzi—was a lively Welsh-
woman, with a highly vital temperament, and a
great capacity for enjoyment ; and, speaking as she
felt, she no doubt often laid herself open to misin-
terpretation. The latter half of her life was
apparently happier than the first ; for though John-
son, after the death of Thrale, wrote to his widow
that she bad enjoyed with her late husband an
amount of nuptial felicity which ho (Johnson) could
not have believed had he not beheld it, Mrs. Piozzi
herself, in her autobiography, speaks to quite the
contrary effect. Mr. Hayward writes :
The mortification of not finding herself appreciated by
her husband was poignantly increueil, during the hat
years of his life, by finding another offensively preferred to
her. He was so fascinated by one of her fair friends as to
loss sight altogether of what was due to appearances or to
the feelings of his wife. The story she told the author of
" Piouiana," in proof of Johnson', want of firmness, cleeriy
refers to this lady.
" I had remarked to her that Johnson's readiness to con-
do= any moral deviation in others wee, in a man so en-
tirely before the public as lie was, nearly a proof of his own
spotless purity of coeduct. She said, ' Yee, Johnson was,
on the whole, a rigid moralist ; but he could be ductile, I
may say, servile ; and I will give you an instance. We
hail a large dinner-party at our house ; Johnson sat on one
side of me, and Burke on the other ; and in the company
there was a young female (Mn. Pioui named her), to
whom I, in my peevishness, thought Mr. Thrale super-
fluously attentive, to the neglect of me and others ; espe-
cially of myself, then near ay confinement, end dismally
low-spirited ; notwithstanding which, Mr. T. very lumen.
moniously begged of me to change place with Bonin '
who was threatened with a sore throat, arid might be injured
by sitting near the door. I had scarcely swallowed a spoon-
ful of soup when this occurred, and was so overeat by the
coarseness of the proper!, that I burst into team said
some-
thing petulant—that perhaps ere long the lady might be at
the bead of Mr. T.'s table, without displacing the mistnrs
of the house, &c., sod so left the apartment. I retired to
the drawing-room, and for an hour or two contended with
my vexation as I best could, when Johnson and Burke
came up. On seeing them, I resolved to give a jobation to
both, but fixed on Johnson for my charge, and asked him
if he had noticed what passed, what I had suffered, and
whether, allowing for the state of my nerves, I was much to
blame! He answered, Why, possibly not ; your feelings
were outraged. I said, Yes, greatly so ; and I caunot
help remarking with what blandness and composure you
witnessed the outrage. Had this transaction been toll of
others, your anger would have known no bounds ; but,
towards a man who gives good dinners, &c., you were
meekness itself ! Johnson coloured, and Burke, I thought,
looked tuella/1; but I bad not a word of answer from
either."

The only excuse for Mr. Thrale is to be found in his
mental and bolily condition at the time. This made it
impossible for Johnson or Burke to interfere without •
downright quarrel with him, nor without making matters
worse. Highly to her credit, she did not omit any part of
her own duties because he forgot his. In March, 1781, a
few weeks before his death, she writes to Johnson :
" I am willing to show myself in Southwark, or in any
place, for my master's pleasure or advantage • bet have no
present conviction that to be re-elected would be advan-
tageous, so shattered a state as his nerves are in just now.
Do not you, however, fancy for a moment, that I shrink
from fatigue—or desire to escape from doing my duty ;
spiting one's antagonist is a reason that never ought to
operate, and never does operate with me : I are nothing
abou: • rival candidate's inuendos. I are only about my
husband's health and fame ; and if we find that be ear-
nestly wishes to be once more member for the borough—he
shall he member, if anything done or suffered by me will
help make him so."

Piozzi was the choice of her heart, and they seem
to have been happy in each other's society. Yet,—
such was the prejudice of Englishmen at that time
—the fair widow was very generally considered to
have disgraced herself by her union with a foreign
artist ; and this second marriage caused an
estrangement between the lady and her old
friend, Dr. Johnson. The Doctor may possibly
have had some thoughts of offering him-
self for a husband ; assuredly, he regarded
Mrs. Thrills with tender affection ; but he could
not brook the idea of a foreigner, and a Roman
catholic, and a "fiddler," succeeding to the place
of a substantial English brewer. 'rho correspon-
dence between the old author and the middle-aged
widow on this subject is a curious mixture of
anger and esteem. At length it came to " Sir"
and "Madam," and Johnson hurled at the lady
this bitter sentence :—" If you have abandoned
your children and your religion, God forgive your
wickedness ; if you have forfeited your fame and
your country, may your folly do no further mis-
chief." It should be remarked on this that the
eldest of the " children " was grown up, while the
youngest went abroad with her mother, and that

Mrs. Piozzi did not abandon her religion. Her
reply is admirable : _ .

" July 4,17814.
"Sir,—l have this morning received from you so rough
• letter in reply to one which was both tenderly and re-
spectfully written, that lam forced to desire the coaclu-
mon of • cor eapoodenee which I can bear to continue no
longer. The birth of my second husband is not meaner
than that of my first ; his sentiments are not meaner; his
profession is not meaner, awl his superiority in what he
mamma acknowledged by all mankind. It is want of for-
tune, then, that is ignonutnous ; the character of the man
I have chosen has uo other claim to such an epithet. The
nslkgion to which he has been always a zealous adherent
will, I hope, teach him to forgive insults lie has not de.
nerved ; mine will, I hope, enable me to bear them at once
with dignity and patience. To hear that 1 have forfeited
my fame is indeed the greatest insult I ever yet received.
My fame is as unsullied as snow, or I should think it un-
worthy of him who must henceforth protect it.
" I write by the coach the more speedily and effectually
to prevent your °ming hither. Perhaps by any fame (and
I hope it is so) you mean only that celebrity which is •
consideration of a much lower kind. I care for that only
I as it may give pleasure to my husband and his friends-
" Farewell, dear sir, and accept my hest wishes. You
have always commanded my esteem, and long enjoyed the
fruits of • friendship never infringed by one harsh expres-
sion on my part during twenty years of familiar talk. Never
did I oppose your will, or control your wish; nor can your
unmerited severity itself lessen my regard ; but till you
have changed your opinion of Mr. howl,let us converse no
more. God bless you."
On such grounds, a woman is a match for the
most intellectual of men—tapeciall, when she is in
the right. But Mrs. Pk= was not wanting in
ability on purely literary grounds. She was a
linguist and a scholar—not, perhaps, very pro-
found, but accomplished to an extent which ap-
pears to have satisfied Johnson. He once told her
that she had as much sense as any woman he knew,
and more wit. Miss Seward describes her conversa-
tion as "that bright wine of the intellect which
has no lees." Madame D'Arblay says, " she was
a most wonderful character for talents and eccen-
tricity, for wit, genius, generosity, spirit, and
powers of entertainment." We must beg leave,
however, to suggest the omission of the words
"wit" and "genius" from this characterisation.
Mrs. Piozzi certainly did not possess genius, nor
can her vivacity and cultivated smartness be called
wit, when we can apply no higher term to the
writings of Pope or Swift. She was, iu fact, one
of those delightful, educated gossips of whom
the eighteenth century was prodigal. The
race is now extinct, and we shall not have
the same intimate knowledge of the emi-
nent men of the present day that we possess of
Johnson and his companions. Perhaps we ought
not to complain, for the age has gained iu earnest-
ness and intensity from the absence of this amusing
habit of talking and trifling ; but it is not to be
denied that the talkers and triflers did good service
in their way.
The most amusing characteristic of Mrs. Piozzi
was the extreme altitude of her high toryism. She
remarks in one cif her letters that the Devil " has
a good assistant in Mr. Hone "—poor, honest, suf-
fenng, simple-natured " Every Day Book " Hone ;
and adds, that he "is surely well paid for his
work "—meaning by his Satanic Majesty. She
contemplates with apparent pleasure the stopping
of Henry Hunt's voice "by a rope." She speaks
of "the grand knavery of these Russells and
Burdetts ;" adding, that "Sin in Milton
acted as they do, precisely." This is a com-
plimentary allusion to our present Foreign Secre-
tary. In her work on ' British Synonymy "1
she talks of the "disgraceful conduct" of the
French nation, in the " fatal year" 1793,
"towards the good House of Bourbon." And she
characterises Mrs. Shelley's extraordinary romance
as a marvel of impiety. All this is droll enough ;
but many of her letters are full of anecdote and
point. In one, dated Jan. 23, 1818, a passage
occurs which we commend to Dr. Cumming
" Faber says, you know, that the world is to end
in 1886." Another prophecy by the same writer is
alluded to in a subsequent letter, and may perhaps
be interpreted by believers into a prefigurement of
Napoleon 111. :
All seem disposed to liberate Buonaparte. The dashing
people, because he will make a dash ; and they will like to
see the old firework, after a pause, burst out in • new
wheel, or throw up a showy serpent for us to stare at.
The grave folks expect him to fulfil Faber's new prediction
of great thins yet to be accomplished by the Frantic Em-
peror, awl cosnider the sovereigns as very fruitlessly
employed in eodeavourini to shut the Temple of Janus.
The Rev. G. S. }slier here alluded to was it
writer on Prophecy, who died as recently as tho
year 1854.
The volumes which we now dismiss contain abun-
dance of entertaining matter, together with some
that is purely trivial, and not very clear ; but we
cannot compliment Mr. Haywanl on the way in
which he has put his materials together. The
arrangement is loose and confused, and the reader,
is often perplexed instead of being helped.

The exhibition of the Society of Female Artists
is nnw open at the Gallery of the New Society of Painters
in Water Colours, Pall•mall. The principal new feature
is the exhibition of a number of works by French ladies.
This is liberal, but the new debutantes will be found
formidable rivals. French female artists have long
enjoyed advantages which we are only beginning to
concede to female students in England, as for instance the
recent admission for the first time of a female student at
the Royal Academy.
THE MEDICAL PROFEMION.—A London cony-
'pendent of the Dublin Erening Mail says :—"The execu-
tive committee of the general medical council have declined
to register the licentiates of the King and Queen's College
of Plivaicians in Ireland as doctors of medicine. Their
legal advisers in this matter are understood to be Sir Hugh
Cairns and Mr. Holbhuuse, who have expressed the opinion
that the licentiates of the Irish College of Physicians are
not, as such, doctors of medicine, and that, even if they
were, they could not be registered under the Medical Act,
as the title is not mentiontd in schedule A. These same
lawyers, on a former omaision, advised the executive com-
mittee to register the licentiates in midwifery of the Irish
College of Surgeons and Physicians, on the express ground
that these beelines were included in schedule

ROYAL GENERAL THEATRICAL FUND.—YeAtorday
being Ash Wednesday the members of the Royal General
Theatrical Fund held their annual meeting io the saloon of
the Lyceum Theatre, Mr. Buckrioue iu the chair. Accord-
ing to the report. which was read by the secretary, Mr.
Culleotard, It appeared that the society'. income for the
past year amounted to 1,3661. 16s. 2d., including a legacy
of 1001. Sew Three per Cents., which, after the deductiou
of legacy duty, yielded 831. 18.. Gd., bequeathed by the late
Albert Smith, and the expenditure to 903/. 19s. 3d., of
which sum as much as 790/. lls. 11d. was paid to an.
nuitents, and 10/. to defray the funeral expenses of a de-
-1 ceased member. The belauce on the year was 462/. 16.. Ild.
The total stock invested was 11,123/. Gs. 9d. ; there was
340/. la 7d. on deposit at Coutta's, and a further sum of
771. in the hands of the treasurer. It was also stated
'that under the will of the late Sydney Lady
Morgan the fund was, according to the decision
of Vice-Chancellor Stuart, entitled to a legacy of 2101. Mr.
Weatherby, nee of the auditors, having borne testimony
to the accuracy of the accounts, the report was, on the
motion of Mr. Lewis, seconded by Mr. Worrell, unani-
mously adopted ; and the directors having been appointed
for the ensuing year, the customary votes of thanks were
accorded to the honorary physician (Dr. Hastings), the
honorary solicitor (Mr. Jerwood), and the proprietor and
lessee of the theatre, Mr. Arnold and Madame Celeste, for
the gratuitous use of the salons and committee room.
TOWER HAMLETS AVIATION FOR THE EQUALI-
RATION OF THE POOR RATEE.—A committee meeting of
this arosiation was held in the vestry of Christ
Church, St. George's East, yesterday. Present, Rev.
G. H. MOW, (in the chair), Rev. B. C. Sanger, W.
J. Grundy, J. H. Carr, and B. Charles, jun., Esq., R. S.
Williams, Seq., churchwarden of Christ Church, So. At
the meeting a discussion arose as to the best means of car-
rying out the second resolution pared at the Beaumont
Institution, January 30:—" That the Tower Hamlets
Association be requested to renew their efforts to obtain an
equalised rate in the metropolitan districts, and a mitiga-
tion of the evils attendant upon the laws of settlement and
removal." Eventually the Rev. G. 11. submitted a
petition to be sent to the House of Commons, which was
unanimously agreed to by the committee, and ordered to be
printed and circulated in the Tower Hamlets, together with
an appeal to the ratepayer of this heavily taxed district for
signatures and subscriptions to enable the society to carry
out their objects successfully. The late severe weather sod
the ptmed inefficiency of the Poor-law Board show the tr-
y for immediate action on the part of those who are
mails to feel that the present state of the law is both unjust
and oppressive.