The Express.
London, England, 1868-12-24 00:00:00

CHRISTMAS.

Cnaterues, the " festive season," oomee not to
us all with a merry countenance. To some even
of the rich and the fortunate, who have homes
over their heads and plenty to eat and drink, and
all that wealth can give of human happiness, it
comes with a saddened and lonely aspect,
points to the vacant chair, listens in vain
for the silenced voice that was ono a song of
gladness in the household, and for the unreturning
footstep of the absent, looks in vain for the smile
that was a sunshine, and beckons us with a yearn-
ieg glum e to the " continuing city" of the de-
parted. To some this " festive season " comes
only to remind them with the sharpness of a pang
of the lost, the gone, the irreparable, the irre-
coverable, of everlasting separations, of final
partings, of sundered family ties, of homes now
tenanted by strangers, of all the poignancy and
bitterne,e of that isolation which is nothing
but a lift long exile. To others who have families
and friends around them at this " festive season"
Christmas, in spite of its many merry meetings
and its proverbial jollity, ueeda, it must be
confessed, all the force of its beautiful
religious associations to redeem it from
all the weary shams and conventional
hypocrisies, and vulgar nuisances that make the
latter end of December intolerable to Christians
who have passed their teens, or at any rate their
" twenties," and to whom the dismal hilarity of
street carols performed by pious cadgers, and of
Waite that make night hideous, the prodigious
display of still animal life at the butchers, the
awful joints and monstrous sacramental puddings
—worth a fortune to the doctors- of the family
dinner table, the pleasant reunions of patronising
rich and snarling poor relations, who scarcely
see each other all the rest of the year, the spas-
modic gushes of sentiment an sour and ae adulter-
ated as the champagne ; all these annual domestic
rite* and ceremonies are as unreal as the con-
ventional Christmas of the illustrated journals,
with its frost and snow, and castles and manor-
houses of the olden time, and yule logs
and all the rest of the properties and
ttpj ointments, in the face of a muggy
mid a muddy, a guzzling and a gormandising,
an overworked and grasping and joyless nine-
teenth century, English Christmas, with its
" boxes " and its bills, its stupid comfort, its dull
frolic, its surrounding misery, its noise, and its
nonsense.

There aro but two things that make this " fee-
" tive sewn " endurable to thoughtful middle-
aged people in there latter ages.—Religion and

Charity. Indeed we might

of cburchos or of loofa,

logist's point of •iew, it
gives Christmas its name,
the dignity and all
posses/lea ; for Charity
moms for that religion,
ligion itsolf in action. "

discover at this season
of that careless audio:rim

a sacted human obligation,
but an exquisite

pampered self-indulgence,
" ft clings" or its nerves,
vanity, in subscribing freely to the relief of
1 oor, and keeping distress at a decent distance
frtm its windows. But is it not better to abstain
from analysing too closely the motives of good
ut tits I' There is, after all, enough of sincere and
practical beneficence going on around and among
us to atone for all the insinoerities and unrealities
of this " festive season." Witness, for example,
the opening of the " Boys' Country Home Farm
" and Industrial School" at Bisloy, on Tuesday
lent. Can there possibly be a nobler or a truer

solemnisation of Christmas work than this result
of the labours of a committee which for years past
has been engaged in rescuing the street boys of
this horribly wealthy and horribly miserable
London from destitution and crime, and train-
ing thtm up with all the affectionate
austerity of loving and anxious parents for a
career of hones' industry and self-support? Home
for the homeless, food for the starving, clothes
for the naked, fatherly and motherly love for the
orphans, a refuge for the outcast, hope for the
hopeless; surely this was one of those great
thoughts which, as the French moralist said,
" come from the heart." Pleasant is it at this
" festive season" to see a theatre full of bright
young smiles, pleasant to think of the happy boss
of the holiday-keeping children in a thousand
comfortable homes. Are not the young and the
happy the Spring amidst the Winter of a
world of sorrows ? For our own part
we know no more aiming sight at
Christmas time than those smart and
ruddy lads on leave from the training ships
who, but for the labours of such men as Mr.
WnxiAire, the secretary of the Boys' Home Insti-
tution, might have been destitute and outcast, and
desperate apprentices of crime in the slums and
dens of this monstrous capital. Whon wo see a
boy with " H.M.B. St. Vincent" on his cap, wo
salute in him a true social Evangelist, a proselyte,
and a preacher of Faith, Hope, and Charity.
Every street-boy redeemed from a future of misery
or of crime by such admirable institutions as tho
one at Bisley not only contributes, by his mere
presence and example, to the national strength
and welfare, but makes the gospel of love and
goodness something like a living truth to indivi-
duals of forlorn and suffering fellow creatures
who own no country but the workhoaer,
the gaols, and the pauper's grave. All
honour, we say, to those who " keep Christmat"
in the spirit of the founders of this Boys' Country
Home. The jollity which appeals to us from the blaz-
ing fn nts of the butchers shops, with their mighty
array of slaughtered prize bullocks, is soniewhst
sadly tempered by the thought of the honest mil-
lions who, from one year's end to another, never
know, except by some lucky accident, what it is to
taste a wholesome and a nourishing meal. The spez.-
tacle of Mr. WILLIAMS'S rescued boys, or of the
famished children sitting once a week round a
well-spread table supplied by unknown almoners,
makes Christmas a " festive season" indeed

" who dope from home have astir/Dien for
" fsthen," and adds that Dissent itself is not free
hem this " remarkable scandal." If this fresh
contribution to social wham were verified it
would certainly be " remarkable;" but we fear
the exigencies of journalism do not permit social
discoverers to exercise mush ears in framing their
inductions.

OUR 0014111111PORARIRS.
(THIB DAY.)

TKI IPIIO,OIIOIID 11V11110111UI

The first inapregnioas rewired by the Timm, on
leaguing of the proposed onabwease of He Great Powers
to settle the dispute between Turkey and Grimm, was
that suck • orafereace woeld probably wade a
good deal of time, and that it was perhaps,
not without regard to that oldest that it
had bees deigned. g however. it I. thought that
a conferinco sea throw any new light on the subjeot, or
give the powers a better opportunity of framing a pica of
commosa attics. the !lore sees no ohjeetios to it. provided
it be held as soca as poodle* make no delay in its de-
bates and regmantiasso and. above all, maim itself strictly
to the sublett before it—the quarrel between Terkel and
Chrooe—end avoid :enabling over all the visiting which
go to make op the Bailers giateltios.
The Star engem a lope that the British goverment
will not inept even the principle of a megrim until the
whole mope and limits of the proposal sr* tally beam
them.

SPAIN.
lIIADRID, D. 13.

The /Impartial state* that at some places in the
north of Spain the Carlo' ta, in the reoent election,
wilt up to vote in large bodies, oonveying banners
with the inscriptiob " Viva Carlos 1 Viva 43,1
prom 1 Viva Religion 1" The hapareial wages-
tulatts the Carbide upon resorting to this *insti-
tutional mode of representing their principles, but

deplores only that the
prompted by priests.

AUSTRIA.

should be

ANNA. Dino. 24 .

It is stated that Baron Prokesch-Osten, the
Austrian Internunoio at the Porte, has been pqr-
witted to resign his post.

NEW YONZ, Dia. EL

Awarding to Mimi. Neill Brothers' report, the
receipts at all porta for the past four days have
been 60,000 balm, egainst 43,000 same time last
week. Exports to Great BAUM, 14,000 bales,
against 17,000 same time lad week. Exports to
Frame, 9,000 bales, against 6,000 same time last
week. Exports to other foreign pods, 6,000 bales,
against 6,000 semis time lest week. Total export
for four days to all European porta, 29,000 bales,
against 27,000 same time last week. laddling
Upland, 10, laid down in limped pre steamer.
NEW ORLEANS, Duo It
Middling Upland, 10k, laid down ky smiling
vessel.

OUTWARD INDIA AND CHINA MAILS.
MALTA, Dzo. U.

The Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamer
Ripon, kola liouthealptea 12th cast, arrived at 11.30a.sit.
yesterday, aid left at 6 p.m. IS= day for Akasadria.

INDIA, CHINA, AND AUSTRALIAN
(HWY) MAILS.

MALTA, Dom 24.
The Pers, from Alexandria, arrived at Malts at
10.30 p.m. yesterday, and lame at 9 a.m. this morning for
Southampton, where she may be looked for about the 2nl
Iroximo.

Were the
Meta( as.
defamatory
, Rome,
\ pelt.
Whitt
adsoaymoat
-.altbeL
mltal
Ydod

she
iiiihndsizhar
a; di
eels time tam sue od who was tart-
lag bar Maesty* ffa dish % moving in eardety
wasmilawhilichtowwritinghoifthiswilaililirrldlLteaG:7B6.7thethowotimamisititillitotiziftwillidiliehto th2o.lll"lterellialirni.thal2
Alluding to the citsesatanee of Xt. being ea*
night at the theatre, when she was sitting with a genie-
man, who was the ady_one between Mem, she
her gratitude the that MINI is the morning at arrat
that whim the gentlemes who sat between them got out
of his place Mr. Hewett did not get into it, because if he
had then would have been a sane that would
have disgraced her before all the audience. She
continued the orwrimptedemes down to the end of Mash,
and at that time she had, ea far as he weld trace from
her letters, assumed ea a feet that if she laid the plea
she would have the msortunity of nesdang a week
in Bath with Mr. Hewett She detailed in her corns-
pendenos how the whole of the matter was to be ma-
naged. She west on to 'invite him to go to Tiverton, where
his brother-in-law resided ; that she would go on to
Bridal, where her mother and sister were staying ; that she
should COMMosiosts to kiss when it would be -connenent
for him to pun through Bridal; that she would
thou make hr Mends believe she was going on
to Landow to keep soother appointment, and that
they should speed • week together in Bath.
The month of Mardi was wonted by her for
that Journey, bar heshand being that alive, and she
ha postal oommeniention with lam. She bad two dough
ten, sad she was going on to Belk in that way. The plan
was so far carried is that she wen en to Bristol, and
Mr. Ifewethiptoosedei ea to Thorn& Mr. Hewett, how.
ever, bed MR ever of her Idiom incautiously open to his
sisteutiefeeed them, met be their brother instannutti,
theithsysemuk Lindsey,, as they t
maesedvel y asseyeil—dret to dad
cone en. end tire the began to tremble led
seine discovery had taken pleas; mil lastly, after having
mites letter after letter upon it, in came beam She
rehearsed on the Sod April, and on the illy attar she met
W Mien Hewett, with whom she had peedonely boa
en terms of the dessetsead it add heeds be
=lbat that they would he the gold
ey did. The
_found there wee some:
thing 'num and she hoes • gentleman that
ea
the flaterday maim there was to be a party at
Slim Hisweltea at whisk of mune, she expected M be
=t, eat,ft fact, the gentleman suggested that he
meth bee asthe Saturday. jibe defendant
(crying) hers told Mr. Beer that he was not stating the
truth.] Well, she spoke to that gentleman about the
party, end said she was not invited, sad for some reason
the rather expected she would not !reunited. The meet-
ing was held on the Saturday even
_ing, but she was not
there. On the following Tumday every person who was
at that party, or who had been expected to be there,
received one of those horrible letters. What lie contended
was that they showed the depravity of the woman, the
motive, and the revengeful feeling. She had said in her
Wen she believed that Miss Ella Hewett, the youngest
dentine, had more influence over her brother than anyone
of the family, and that if he were going wrong she could
always bring him right. The prosecution &sleeted this
that the moment she found her plans initiated she turned
on the person whom die thought had cut the tie asunder.
Mr. Hewett ponesed ti.at he would not renew the inti-
macy, but be again &lowed himself to be entangled by
the defendant, and fell into her bads. Her huab.ind was
still alive at that time, but she received the vials and
continued the correspondence with Mr. Hewett down to
W time the news came to England that her husband was
dead. That tie no knger restraining her, she fell even
sore ds eply than before; and circumstances occurred
between her and Mr. Hewitt which induced her to charge
Mr. Hewitt that she was with child by him, end
that he most many her in order that her shame
should not a Acting then unon • spirit of hououe,
he eunosed,M ppear,_r. Hewett mud he Wield marry he:. He,
however, immediately afterwards retracted that promise,
and her own letters would show that she had made a
charge knowing it to be entirely false, and that she
threw him off on the plea that she wasgoing to be married
to another man, and asked to have back her letters.
A correspondence followed about these unfortunate let-
ters ; and eventually suspecting that they would not be
returned, and expressing the greatest possible irritation
and exasperation against him and all his family,
within two days the second batch of letters came out.
Evidence was then given in corroboration of Mr. Beer's
statement. It was proved that the defendant had been
on the most intimate terms with the Hewetts. Miss Ella
Hewett had received letters from Mrs. Lindsay. In one of
them defeeditnt denied o having written those din Hui
letters, and did not know who did so. She cried for help.
as she was not guilty of what she was &ceased. and hoped
she (Ella) would lute: cede with her brother." When asked
if she hail had • child, Miss Hewett sternly replied, °lt is
en abominable falsehood." She then told the court that
the defendant went to Bristol on the 21st March, and she
raid them a visit before she left. Her brother Thomas had
left the same morning for Tiverton. The letter produced
masked Ruth March was in defendant's handwnting. It
was addressed K.K.. to be left at the Plymouth post-
office until called for." The contents were : My dear
Torn, I need eat tell you I in sorry to hear vou are ill. I
know I am. lam go to Bristol on Saturday afternoon
by three o'clock train. If anything should prevent your
leaving for Cove to-morrow, pan my window at eleven
o'clock on Saturday morning My address will be Mrs.
Kemp 's, Terminus House, Bristo Station, Bristol ; and
yourlettevs would be quite safe." Her brother returned
en the 26th March. Her eldest sister, Mary, wrote to
Mrs. Bow to bring him back, as she had discovered some
letters from Mrs. Lindsay, inducing him to elope with
her. In consequence of what passed between her eldest
deter and brother those letters were destroyed. Another
letter produced was in defendant's handwriting.
MI letter wet dated Wednesday evening. Ter-
mien Hen", and contained such pemages as " Oh, Toro.
I hope I dial die before you do, if your heed be not pa-
lmed on my arm when you am taken. I begin to fancy
the love you have taught me bores you st tunes. It is
too much for on. You, dear Tom, make love like a
looteinian ; I like a Spanish woman. With two such
opposite natures, shall we ever be happy together long at
• time? I wish, Tom, you were more like a Spaniard
aid I more like a Sootehman. Tom, you can give me
the place I am constantly sighing for by merely writing."
Other letters were produced which Miss Hewett identified
as being in Mrs. Lindsay's handwriting. These were for
the most part sent to Mr. Hewett, and in them Mrs.
Utley =reseed her suffering at not hearing from him.
An waning epistle was read having reference to the night
when she was at the theatre, and said it was well for
both of them that Mr. Hewett, when the little man left
his place, did not slip into his seat or she should certainly
have put her arms around his neck or leaned her had on
his shoulder.
Miss E. Hewett said she had known the defendant about
13 years, and the first time she went with her to a public
assembly was three years and • half ago. Had been six
times with her since. Her mother, sister, brother, and
herself live at Osborne House. Her brother partly main-
tained her. Believed the anonymous letter sent to
•• Squire Row" to be in the handwriting of defendant.
It was after the summons was issued that her brother told
her he had burnt his own letter, received from Mrs.
Lindsay. Had no knowledge that her brother intended
to get married to defendant in November last. Heard
that her brother bad received • writ, which he supposed
was for breach of promise. Asked him if he had ever
give" Mn. Lindsay • promise of marriage, and he
replied no. Never observed her brother pay any atten-
tion to defendant. Knew that Mr. Bundle (Mr. Beer's
partner) had seen Mrs. Lindsay, end told her that law
=lrwould be taken against her if she did not re-
a, brother told her that defendant had denied
to Mr. Randle having written the letters
Williams North Bow, of Cove, Tiverten, stated he re-
ceived as anonymous Mtn: or the 22nd September, in
which an action wee laid again hi sister-in-law. He
deeded he was the real prosecutor in the ease, or that he
elandr told anybody he was tletminiaed to carry ma the Gass
M expiate.
hin rlee Warne, 4, Chsltaihmt-place, and
cassia Rani lismten, were eximined gemming cer-
tain anonym= semisenkations which Wf received
having raiment to the character of Mies-Eft Hewett ;
but the boa* after a warn arir = the point, de-
cided that the Lien to which mined having been
burnt, me verbal IMAMS OS Is entente could be
admitted valise they were fin sonambsd in some way
with the daimileaL
The Bendy at 6 o'clock, adjourned the further hearing
until Wednesday.

ECHO:S.—The publisher of the Echos* has just
issued, in the form of a handsomely-bound album, the
first of the series of cartoon, which have appeared in that
periodical. The pictures—for they are something mere
than :ketches—are elaborately worked out in illustration of
the feminine follies of the day.
An interest' volume is about to be published
by Mersa • natter lb. Mk of " Bographic:a
Sketches," by Wee Me/deem. Anew( the Kir
people derskt
iaarers.Prodeseee M% L
Min Clarions Breda, Ileatoei
Jahn W Bala=
Wordsworth. 4Ddirdainesytornriforaany, Mrs. Jounce
us, and Welke lemur. Other notable people
Ina with are the Deism of YATTahopeemlrritizr Lord
Vtrat, Lend Polowilen, , the
ist=a=l Lady Byron.
DAL —The
DMA of Weitiskrisre win peace at the 10 me. service.

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it,. . • —z A tru:,..,,,,,, .
jot
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ai
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" : V • 1I I* II lTVAlltygly.OP LIBEL
and lie mere
~,,11 the 2...5. and • • t.
)fr 4,4 1
is the
~.; 4 1. . ' . iTillt3 DAY.) - IA
4,
_.11140:
~...,
..7 y uodooy, of oureadoe.
tame, that gives a .1 now, irreltbe @bingo* ern '• j •• • _
..• t A eTh°•' '4 ' • was sammeeed Wen
the charm it still Christmas-time is one of hearty •es for the , magistaates, at the Guildhall, ter hones
(via:IIIIUTIM'S AO2l/010 •--..... lawfully sad a udicaaaaly published • wortaia &dam
ity is but another happiness of the long-deemoded,, richly-endowed
TM= AND ORNICE. Iliad ea cos llamas lola Hawaii, Albania II
n, or rather it is that re- pair. Fapknorie. Asorear memeas amps bar with
--...-- 001f8TANTINOPLII, Dec. 2t. ffehrag a label as Ilia Lydia Hewett.
Doubtless a cynic might young
CLERGYMEN'S DAUGHTERS. Hobart Pooh& has informed the authorities of me' !''''', hi °Mine tebeesPn.eeel Ow shafts as
meson a vast amount see wishes aa ewer
—4,---. gyve that be has received instructions of a peace- num to Ilienlilia Lydiaßeweet,wilishesestitotada ieoriminating abuse of
ration which is nothing IT is not very long 'Once an acute social critic fel character from his government- He requested NS milt admit that es• of Neirmrs busily bad W,
form of maned sad discovered that " meet" of the lady respondents the commander of the French war steamer Le ought to Cre=a. with 1161 414111411119 1
aav~, that fee a mry Meg e
we, miring a relief to ft, in the Divorce Court were the wives of civil ongl- Forbin, and an Austrian renal, to convey the abs Lad feeed tbs fall at Mr. Newer; met die bail
neers. Another journalist, not less observant, F.noeis to Athens, then to be brought before the °led" iltiteirrh"gesaerst feather atm., messRitirdsers:
111, an aespaid satisfaction to its
freely to the relief of the now announces that most of the young pen? proper authorities for but at that tinie,lssieg. the w.its et an whowae