The Express.
London, England, 1868-08-22 00:00:00

MADAME RACHEL AND HER CLIENT.

Tea intense interest taken in the RACHEL case
was proved by the state of the crowded court
during the days on which it was being tried. It
is seldom, indeed, that in Old Bailey tribunal
wears such an ariatooratio air, or is so filled with
ladies of fashion. From first to last there was not to
be seen an ill-dressed person in court, and the
persistency with which barristers, witnesses, and
strangers kept their places and waited on
into thenight was remarkable. On both day& a
placard announcing the court to be full was hung
in the street outside, while policemen assured all
applicants that there was no chance of their gain-
ing admission. There was not much to see.
Madame RACHEL in the dock and Mrs. 13URRA-
HAILE in the witness-box, presented, it is true,
a striking contrast. The former was strangely
unlike the anticipations her name conjures
up. Apparently her belief in the advantages
of face-enamelling had not led her to subject her
own to the prove s. She looked ill but not worn,
and had either surprising self-command, or
was, until the summing up, unaffected by
the proceedings. Dark hair combed back and
surmounted by a Spanish veil ; a broad massive
face with powerful jaws and firmly set mouth;
small, shrewd eyes which were fixed on Mrs.
ROBRADAILE in the composed intense way affected
by professed mesmerists, provoked attention to
Madame RACHEL. A common-place elderly woman,
who is determined to sit out the proceedings
affecting her so seriously with dogged endurance,
and who is supremely indifferent to the attention
she excites, was the impression convcyedby a second
glance into the dock; and as she sat there, immova-
ble, quiet, and sullen, it was impossible to avoid re-
cognising in her a woman of powerful physical
organisation and strong will. Her age was stated to
be 43 ; it might be supposed that 60 was nearer the
mark. Her client ham the remains of con-
siderable beauty. That face has been of
the pretty vacuous kind, which in youth
makes the feeblest remark pass unchal-
lenged ; and it now seems to protest appealingly
against time and the encroachments of middle
age. The pathetic simplicity which prompted the
offer to prove to the cross-examining counsel on
Thursday that " every hair on her head" was Mrs.
BOBRADAILE'S own ; the assurance that it was
not dyed save by " a little aurioomons wash," pro-
duced roars of laughter in court, and the poor lady
seemed to cut but a sorry figure during her severe
examination. Still she was emphatically what
lawyers call a " bad witness." Her memory failed
her whenever Mr. DIGBY SEYmorn approached
what may be termed dangerous ground; and before
she retired from the witness-box she made every
one in court believe in her intense vanity, weak-
ness, and folly, which were the very points her
counsel were endeavouring to prove. But the
feeling of every eyewitness was that there was no
caw, and when the summing up pointed with un-
mistakable dearness to this conclusion, opinions
were confidently expressed that no jury could
convict. The court remained as crowded up to
the last moment aa it was when the trial was
in active progress ; and it was remarked that
the arm-chair in which Madame RACHEL sat while
in the dock was sent for, as if she herself antici-
pated a long interval of suspense in the waiting-
room below. The discharge of a jury is always an
unsatisfactory termination to a trial, and the
weary people who had waited for the verdict would
undoubtedly have preferred the case to have been
decided finally. Who " WILLIAM" is, if he exists
at all ; why Lord RANELAGH visited Madame
RACHEL ; and what was the faith in which Mrs.
IlcsusAn.m.x's letters were written, are mysteries
still unsolved, and which few will be disposed to
re-open. The one clear moral both for ladle, and
noblemen is to remember the Scriptural adage
concerning pitch, and to avoid women of Madame
RACHEL'S profession and all their works.

PECULIABITIES OF THE INCOME TAX.

Ir the returns relating to property and income
which have just been issued cannot be accepted as
reliable evidence of the progress made bythe country
in these respects, they possibly approximate to the
truth, and have, therefore, to some extent, a rela-
tive value. A little incredulity ia, for instance,
excusable when we are told that in the year ended
in April last the total number of persons in Great
Britain assessed under Schedule D, whose in-
comes varied from 9001. to 1,000/. • year,
was only 1,036, or less by 74 than the number
returned for the previous year, and that of the
same class under schedule B the number was only
297, or one lees than in the year 1866. It is, too,
somewhat remarkable that while, according to
these returns, there were 176,871 persons in the
receipt of incomes varying from 1001. to 2001.
a year, there were only 67,045 under assessment
who bad less than 1001. Prom the former class
there is a remarkable fall to the class receiving
from 2001. to 3001., which numbered only 51,603,
and the decline continues natal the 1,0001.
scale is reached, when there is an equally
remarkable increase, the number of persons whose
incomes fluctuate between 1,0001. and 2,0001. per
annum, being returned at 8,123. There is another
striking peculiarity in the returns for 1867
as compared with those for the previous year.
While in 1868 there were 133 persons receiving an-
nual incomes of 50,0001. and upwards, the amount
charged to the tax being over thirteen millions
sterling, last year the number of these fortunate
persons had dwindled down to only 63, and their
incomes amounted to scarcely more than five mil-
lions and a half, while their contributions to the
State were reduced from 223,0131. to 92,8821. Of
course these discrepancies are not explained in the
returns, and we have no explanation to offer. On
the whole, the statement now presented for the
information of Parliament cannot be considered
quite satisfactory. Whether the fact is attribut-
able to a less gent rcus impulse of the public con-
science, or to diminished vigilance on the part of
the Income-tax Commissioners, or to a contrac-
tion instead of expansion of the laws of na-
tural development in trade and commerce,
does not appear, but it is remarkable that
while in 18E6 the amount of income
charged with tax was 114,831,13 W., and the
amount of tax charged upon the several classes
was 1,914,0391., in 1867 the former item was repre-
sented at only 105,529,169/. and the latter at
1,758,6881. ; whereas the aggregate number of

parsons in each class had increased during the
same period from 347,110 to 363,951. The
largest contributors to the State under at hr title
D w^te persons whose incumei were tom,
but aid not exceed 200!. a year. Their " off,r-
-" inga" amounted to 252,0891., while the snetlet•
wero those in the class ranging from I,ooa/. to
2,“:0/., whose united contributi a,v ;Linewited to
15,881/. The returns under schedule E exhibit very
slight improvement; and the returns showing the
nott amount of property and income tax under all
' the rchedules from Ato E also show an increase, the
amount for the year ended in April, 18G6, being
5,386,983/., while in 1867 it was 5,532,777/. It is
Patti/Jar:tory to observe that, notwithstanding the
disturbed condition of Ireland, the returns in the
aggregate exhibit an increase.

THE RUMOURED DESIGN TO ASBAB3f-
NATE THE QUEEN.

Wo are happy to be able to state on authority
that.- at noon to-day nothing whatever
had been received at the Foreign-office
in relation , to an alleged intention to
assassinate the Queen at Lucerne, or the arrest
of any person suspected of any design against
her Majesty. We have reason to believe that
at the Home-office n. 1140 there is the same negative
testimony to tin• baselessness of this di,rinietint;