The Express.
London, England, 1868-09-17 00:00:00

ante Orsirtoo.

Tate Repirtwo,
_A CHAVitilit3 Plht.—Arrart DARR: A
TALE OF LONDON LOB. Mr. Yining, Mersa. Walter Lacy,
Deanna Murray, Montague, More, to.; Mateo Xaratccand
Led, req.—And MASTER JO.._ BIRTHDAY.

• QUEEN'S THEATRE, LONG-ACHE.
Manager, Kr. W. 'H. Liston.
Tam Emma, M 7, TONKIN'S TROUBLES. Yr. L.
Etr"*l" MUJII hloatagae.—Aad THE LANCASHIRE LABS.Norm being. Brooch, Blephaym, Wyndham, Clayton, aad
8 Emery; Madame Bodice, Motague, aad Nally M 00,..

Tn Evninso. SWIRLY EIZETICT—THE WILD OF TEM
CLOTH OF GOLD. —And ILUIELLOI AT ANT PRIM

ERTTANNLL.
Tam Immo, WEDDED AND LOST; OR, THE PERILS
('F A BRIDE. lgrarrs. Raysaids. Maritsa Pitt. Re. ; Mea-
d MOM Headerscia, Pawner. Barak 60.-Mr. H. Rickards ; Mr.
C Wo.diaaa.—Aad THE CORSICAN BROIHEI($.

NIGH WATTS AT LONDON BRIDOIL
T —Morning, 2h. 13m. Afternoon. 2h. 33m.
T..-51.1.50w —Morning, Lb. 57m. .Aftontoon. 3h. Yuen.

NOTICE.
F. 1.10•11 of MIMI, Newsom, and Diem, an rearm!
natal 1.1 o'cioek for insertion wee eirsalas. Pries

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LOS .V DON, THURSDA Y, SEPT. 17.

A LATE PANIC.

EItYBODY knows the last sensation topic. It
i". the depravity of boys, which is understood to
ft tercel, matured, or whatever else you please,
by penny storybooks about " Claude du Val,"
Turpin," and the " Boy Pirate." If throe
1..0e1;" are not put down, boy-nature will be
cl.,,rged for good and all. In fact, it is changed
nlready. The boys are coining up in mass, forgers,
icurderers, burglar", and anything else to which
tlif old legal maxim, svi idol (I t eel/ 1, can
IN)f.i.ibly apply. Let society prepare ! Boys are
01; }1.,. way.

I:..:ders with inenwries arc aware that there is a
:Li:A periodicity libmit sneial panics. Every
•,v, and then the " angels- are " bid to turn
• the poles of lf 4rt twice ten degrees and

11;,,i1.." so that we are to expect very different
i.sl weather. It was not so very long ago
ue were informed that murder, not to
-41fishness, came natural to a girl of six-
tefn at least this version of what was said
1..111 M ith:n the limits of fair caricature. Yet
girLA continue to charm us at home and
abroad, and not even in fancy do we see blood on
the little boot against which nestles the croquet-ball
on the lawn, or on the suivez-nwi-jemie-honina of
the damsel in St. Paul's-churchyard. And, the
girls having survived criticism, and continued to
'harm us with their innocent kindness, we propose
to continue to trust the boys.

Nobody doubts what is obvious, namely, that,
in default of any system of national education,
immense numbers of the young grow up
uncared for and untaught, and then
come into collision with the law. But
it is not pretended that those new develop-
ments of boy depravity which create the panic,
occur among the wholly ignorant A boy must be
able to read before he can get much harm out of
" The Boy Pirate; " and he must be able to write
before he can forgecheques. Now, it was the opinion
of Wounsworrw, who preached national education
irg the " Excursion " before most of us were born
or thought of, that society was being enlightened
by superficial culture in a degree out of all just
proportion to its moral culture. And if that view
of the subject was plausible when he was thinking
over the Ecclesiastical Bonnets, it may now, perhaps,
bc more plausible still. But we believe that those
who will take the trouble to examine records of
crime for, say a century and a quarter back, will
not be able to arrive at the conclusion that there
are in proportion to the total number of persons
arrested and convicted more young criminals than
there used to be. A Newgate calendar of a hun-
dred years ago conveys no such impression—nay,
on the oontrary. Nor are we in any particular
specially precocious in these days. There is no
proof that the young dash into life earlier than
they did in the times of the BLACK PRINCE ; on
the contrary, perhaps, or at least the case is
doubtful. Above all, there is no reason to believe
that the majority of boy-criminals have been made
criminals by reading bad books. There are, per-
haps, few respectable circles in which there are
not sad stories that furnish a contrary indication.
Does the bad boy, a thorough black sheep, a
liar, a thief, a lewd, ungrateful scamp, never turn
up in the very " serious" household ? The an-
swer would be a commonplace. And every man
of the world could supplement it off-hand by a
down heart-breaking facts.
There is no room in the question for paradox.
Bud books are mischievous, and so is bad corn-
pauy ; and when a boy is found committing
burglary or • forgery it is a very shock-
ing thing. But there is no apparent reason
to believe that any power whatsoever has " pealed
" oblique the central globe" in regard to

the ;citing of this new generation. and that wo
are going to have a great diaproportiontiteinpour-
ing of wicked boyhood.

THE CHINKIIK 81184813 E.

_ _
Tns Chinese Embassy now at 'New York will
hardly be unsatisfied with their visit to England as
with their stay in the United States. We cannot
promise them muck popular enthusiasm, and if poli-
tical considerstiona break through the national
reserve and lead to a banquet or two, we have no
expectation of seeing our poets writing songs
in their praise and our authors leaving their homes
to harangue large audiences in their honour. All
this they have enjoyed in America. At the classic
city of Boston they were welcomed by some of
the most eminent men in the Repablio, and note-
worthy things were said in their presence. Mr.
CALEB CtialllNG, who went out to China some
ran ago as American Commissioner. made use of
remarkable language:
I take pieseare is seem les% is the bearing of en the
members of the Ikahway. sad especially of the two wawa
Nees sad their eowstrywea. what I have never failed to
my on other proper ociessioes, that the Kaneohe sad Obi.
aseestetemaes. with whoa* Wile my labia* to ems is
official contact in China, were sea"! the Welke! °stars-

lion and aoooraptiehmen, versed in the &leen* of tie
largest public attain possessed of thorough compeeheamin .
of political and Womanised qnsitimas, and Watley is ail
impale fob. ranked with the moat acoemplimbed statesman
and diplomatists of Christendom. San men wee fully
capable of rising to the height of any exigency of policy
which the progress of time and events might require their
sovereign to adopt. And I think it is easy to perceive
how at length China has advanced of her own motion to
negotiate with Christian powers; how it is that she has
become active in this respect, and no longer wave ; and
how it is that she came to select oar own honoured fellow-
citizen to initiate her own antemmen into the International
society of Europe and America.
Mr. B. W. ENISSON, on the same occasion,
pointed out the relation of China to the gathered
wisdom of the generations of mankind, supporting
the declaration of Mr. CUSIIINO that " the Chinese
" were a highly cultivated people—civilised in the
" beet sense of the Word when' our forefathers
" were half-naked barbarians in the wilds of
" Britain or Germany." Mr. EKeesoic went on
to say :
Chine, is old, not in time only, but in wisdom, which is
grey hairs to a nation—or rather, truly seen, is eternal
youth. As we know, China bad the magnet--oentaries
before Europe—and gunpowder, vaccination, canals: had
anticipated Lnimetre's nomenclature of plants ; had
codes, journals, clubs, hackney coaches, and, thirty
centuries before New York, had the custom of
new-year's calls of comity and reconciliation. Why
mention its upper arts, its pottery, indispensable to the
world, the luxury of silks, and its tea—the cordial of
nations ? But I remember she has respoctable remains of
astronomic science and historic records of forgotten time,
that have supplied important gape in the ancient history
of the Western nations, but she has philosophers who
cannot be spend. C,IfYI:CIUS has not yet gathered all his
fame.

Mr. lititulvon.t.ms, who we may expect to be
eanguine, compared certain aspects of China and
the tinted States, such as the divinion of the
country into subordinate sovereignties, the deriva-
tion of all power from the people, universal repro-
bation of distinctions of caste, general regard for
popular education, and government by laws rather
than the traditions or will of a monarchy. Mr.
BUELINOHARE, in fact, has almost persuaded him-
self that we have everything to learn from
China :

We have to learn from them to respect old age ; we
have to learn from them sobriety ; we have to learn from
them good manners; we have to learn from them habits
of scholarship; we have to learn from them how to
cultivate fish ; we have to learn from them much in re-
lation to agriculture, much of the effects of heat and
cold and light and shade upon plants ; how to irrigate,
how to manure the land. Indeed, it would be a most
profitable employment for some man of observing powers,
iCsome scientific man should go to China and record the
/acts he finds there. The Chinese may not be able to give
him the reasons why they do this thing, or why they du
that thing, but he would find that through long age of
experience they had at last attained the right way. Ido
not know of a field so wide and unreaped fur a scientific
man. and I trust that the grtateet living naturalist, Pro-
testor Agaasiz, will neat year make an expedition to the
Chinese Empire.

Re are unable to hula out to the embassy a
prospect of this kind, but it is to be hoped that
attention will be paid them, and that they will not
be left to the tender mercies of those who are
always waiting to turn strangers, and strangers
who are foreigners especially, to account.

- -
GAMEKEEPERS' FEES.

•• VAILi" to servants, their extent and cost, is
an old grievance in. England. Itemours and
Boomer n, Ai/visors and STEELS, all entered their
protests against it, and the complaints of the ex-
turvegant expectations of gamekeepers which find
utterance now are simple echoes of those pub-
lished lung before this generation was born.
•' Which of these men em I to pay for my din-
" ner ?" sardonically asked a last century guest
on passing through a retinue of menials ostenta-
tiously watching his departure; and the increasing
expenditure of the present age, when everything is
conducted on a more lavish scale than formerly,
has, ae a matter of course, affected servants' tips.
But a recent correspondent of the Times surely
out-heroded Herod when Le spoke of " paper"—
in other words five-pound notes—being demanded
as a right by keepers at the conclusion of a good
day's sport. The gentleman who underwent this
experience would have acted wisely had be
kept it to himself, for the inference is that he is
very young, very foolish, and very rich—a com-
bination not favourable to the successful advocacy
of social reforms. It is only the genus " plunger "
which is liable to such attempts at extortion; and
no sensible sportsman, be his rank or wealth what
it may, would dream of laying down a fixed
tariff fur hie gifts. That civility, atten-
tion, and extra labour merit their reward
none but curmudgeons will deny; but an
honorarium is one thing and a hard and fast line
of payment another, and it would be a sad stain
upon the hospitality of England were any confu-
sion to arise between the two. What host would
care to preserve covers or to rent moors if his
friends had to pay for shooting over them at so
much a day ? What guest would feel the
same pleasure in accepting an invitation
if he knew he would be regarded as a
mere trade customer by the man or men wait-
ing for his pay ? The essence of country house
life, and et least one great charm of sport, is the
knowledge that healthy amusement is freely given
and shared in by host and guests. Gamekeepers'
tips ought never to come into question at all.
Their extent should be determined by the inclina-
tion and the pocket of the man shooting ; and to
enforce fixed rules would be to make that irk-
tome and unpopulur which should be spontaneous
and agreeable.

GAS v. CANDLES.

Tun notion that the air of • lighted apartment
is more contaminated by gas than by candle;
rooms to be altogether untenable. Much ha;
been made of the presence of sulphur in gas al
constituting a peculiar impurity likely to i.i-
juriously affect moat things animate or inanima'o,
from a human being to the binding of a book.
The fact of its aosversks, daring oonibisetion,

into a pungent gas, lmovm to everyone who has
stench a sulphur-tipped Welter match, the
.per/-
Able gradual alteration of this gas into oil of
vitriol, and the cumulative influence of the latter
corrosive agent on the various Metes in a
dwelling-hones, have been held up as onions dis-
advantages to those who should desire the con-
venience and comfort of gas-light. But till the
other day no one seems to have thought of ascer-
taining the actual amount of contamination
communicated to the air of a room well lighted by
gee. In a lecture recently published, Dr. OWING,
assuming, for the moment, a specimen of gas to
have an accidentally high degree of impurity and
the sulphur in it to be completely burnt at the jet,
ends by simple calculation that the absurdly small
quantity of one half-millionth part of sulphurous
gas may possibly be present in the adjacent air.
Moreover, scarcely a particle of this gas, he says,
gets converted into oil of vitriol--'-osetainly not
more than the ammonia, ordinarily occurring in
the air, will convert into a trace of a harmless sub-
stance, sulphate of ammonia. It would appear,
therefore, that the inconveniences associated with
the employment of gas, such as the daokening of
silvered surfaces, and the overheating of rooms,
are duo to escapes from faulty fittings and abeam
of ventilation, rather than to any inherent quality
of the gnu its~lt, -
PILIVAIIE BILL COMMITTEES.

Ws get a glimpse, through a return which was
issued this morning, of one side of parliamentary
life, which in the eyes of some people effectualledis-
enchanta the other. No public duty can, perhaps,
be more tedious than attendance on a private bill
committee. The only break in its weariness is in
the squabbling. Still, there may be public-
spirited men with a taste for it. Perhaps Mr.
Ayrton, who has served during the present Par-
liament on no less than 23 of those tribunals, did
not feel the hardship so much as some would have
done. His only companion at that figure is Mr.
Fordyce ; then come Mr. Yorke, who served
on 22 committee.; Mr. Kinnaird, at 19,
Mr. Childers and Mr. Howes, 18; Mr. Dent, Mr.
Miller, and Lord R. Montagu, 17 ; Mr. Stacpoole,
Mr. Bonham-Carter, and Mr. Waldegrave Leslie,
16 ; Mr. Powell, Mr. Read, and Mr. °cachou, 15;
Sir J. Ferguson, Mr. Hunt, and Sir C.O'Loghlen,
14 ; Mr. &•later-Booth, Mr. Whitbread, General
Dunne, and Mr. Graves, 13; Mr. Barley, Mr.
Bruce, Mr. Cardwell, Mr. Clive, Mr. Dunlop,
Lord Hotham. Mr. Pollard-Urquhart, Mr.
H. Russell, and Mr. Woodd, 12. The fa-
vourite members for Select Committers last
Session appear to have been Mr. Ooschon, who
was appointed to serve on 6 at one and the s:►me
time ; Mr. Ayrton, Mr. Howes, and Sir C.
O'Loghlen, who were nominated for 5 ; and Mr.
Bouverie, Mr. Childers, Mr. Graves, Sir
C. Lanyon, Mr. Powell, and Mr. Read,
who were appointed on 4. Three private-bill
committees had the advantage of Mr. J. Stuart
Mill's attendance, but the hen. gentleman does
not appear to have sat on any select committee.
L'prards of 150 members warped eetninittees alto-
gether, and this not to all cases on account of ago,
for Lord Atuberley, The O'Donoghue, Sir R. Pal-
mer, Mr. Platt, and Lord Stanley, were among
the number.

OUR CONTEMPORARIF.S.
(TlllB DAY.)

ANEllealf PoLtrICI.

Comparing the almost too tranquil scene which
our own constituencies present with the passionate eon-

trovoreice to he witnessed in the United States, and giving
some illustrations of the extravagance in the Republic, the
Ti wr obeerves that, in the midst of all this nonsense and
violence. there is a large and powerful class in the United
States as sensible in their ways, and as decorous in their
language, as any in this country. It is the outside, the
froth and the foam, that we see and hear. It is not by
these speakers and writers, or by their arts and methods,
that the United States are really governed, their legislators
and rulers really chosen, and their policy dictated. Else
that mighty fabric had been a wreck long ago. The Ame-
ricans du but celebrate their carnival and perform a mas-
querade in their political elections.
The Daily Nests thinks the victory of the republicans in
the state of Maine is probably indicative of the total result
of the autumn elections. American politicians look with
some anxiety to the Maine elections. Vermont, which
votes first, is known beforehand to be overwhelmingly re-
publican, but Maine is divided. Nevertheless, it is clear
that every inch of General Grant's progress to Washing-
ton will have to be fought.