The Express.
London, England, 1868-07-18 00:00:00

THE ENGLISH CLIMATE AND CHARACTER.

IF it be true as has been asserted that a change
is taking place in our climate, and that we may look
for hotter summers and more moderate winters, it
becomes a curious question how far the national life
is likely to suffer. Although we cannot agree with
Mr. Itteress.EY in his enjoyment of a sharp north-
easter, we believe that a bracing but ungenial
climate has had no small influence upon our cha-
racter as a people. During such a season as
Englishmen are now enduring in London and
enjoying in the country, it is difficult to dis-
play the energy and pluck which we are
vain enough to regard as national characteristics.
Whatever work has to be done is done languidly
and on compulsion. If we are forced to exert
ourselves we probably get• out of temper; if we
have the power of choice we are well content to
lie still and indulge in day dreams. For out-door
enjoyment a summer so delightful has not been
known for years. We have had week after week
of blue skies and brilliant sunshine, of weather in
which each woodland retreat and shaded stream
has become an Eden, and the common talk about
our climate's fickleness has for once been wholly
suspended. But the heat has been excessive, and
retired East Indians are reminded of Calcutta.
Who is there bold enough to gird himself for
vigorous enterprise with the thermometer at 86 in
the shade ? Even the agricultural labourers are
" knocking off" work during the mid-day heat.
In the open fields, in confined city streets, in
shops and warehouses, it is enough if the labour
can be accomplished that is absolutely needful ;
while, in the luxurious rural nooks with which
this island abounds, the chief joy of existence is
to recline with a pleasant book under the shade
of venerable boughs. The first sharp wind
or chilly shower will wake us all up
again, and we shall be as capable as
ever of riding a hobby-horse, of making
a fortune, or of losing one. But what
if the unpalatable but wholesome tonic of cold
weather were denied us—what if the feeling of
which almost everybody is now conscious were to
become a permanent sensation ? Such a change
is not to be desired. Better far that we should con-
tinue to struggle with biting winds, to live under
clouded slriee, to rejoice in the 'sunshine as a god-
send—the more precious because of its rarity—than
that we should exchange our northern hardi-
hood and enterprise for the dreamy nerveless life
so common in warm climates.

MR. DISRAELI AT ASTLEY'S.

IN the hot months of duly and August, when
Most reasonable people would expect theatres to
be closed, the largest number of new pieces and
startliug novelties are often produced. The pre-
met tropical weather has been. singularly fruitful
.up to the present time, and the theatrical an-
nouncement; show that it is likely to be still more
New dramas are "in preparation" at the
• e, the Sawa, and the Queen's, and
-]loot of simulators have taken Astley's
,Thavire with a view of making capital out
lksiwpa's popularity. In 1839 the
preetat plitp;:er of England published
.tuuro.oWA alga Alamos, wh1c4,4414.,
414 man,* turgid language with Giurah
I h
in the thirteenth century. This tragedy is to he
I produced at Astley's with all maven/art speed,
the name of the PaillitaS being more pmminent
on the playbills than the names of the eaters.
Dering Lord Jona RIFOKLL'a period of : popu-
larity no one hit upon the happy, or. =happy,
idea of performing Don Carlos, but Mr. Diantaite
lot has been cast in a sharper generation.
I•' _ _

Ws are accustomed to speak of the Indian rail-
wey companies as if they were not subject to the
same jurisdiction as. English lines. Yet they are
as really English railways as those which have
stations in the metropolis. This has been ex-
emplified by an action for damages just
brought against the Great Indian Penin-
sular Railway Company. The case was
tried at Lewes before Mr. Justice Wuzsa.
' The jury was not called upon to assess the
damages, as these were assented to by the counsel in
the cause. They certainly appear to be very large,
if not technically excessive. Their amount is
9,754)1. The plaintiff was the widow of a barrister
practising in India, where he was killed, owing to a
collision on the Great Indian Peninsular Railway.
We supposed that the matter would not have been
compromised bad the company expected to make
better terms by defending the action. We fancy,
however, that the lives of few members of the bar
in this country would be appraised at the same
rate. This-caw proves the high opinion generally
entettained ss tp the lucrative nature of practice
it the bin