The Express.
London, England, 1868-12-31 00:00:00

TO TBll IDTTOS or TSB TIMPLIBMI.

stn,—ln the money article of the Impress
of this date there is a notice of a petition filed for wind-
ing up " The London Permanent Benefit Building So-
ciety?' Allow me to state that the said society is in nowise
connected with the "London Permanent Benefit Building
Society" now carrying on business at No. 20, Great Nail-
borough-street, for which I have had the honour of bein
the secretary for more than twenty years. The register
titles of the two societies being, unfortunately, exactly
the same, the above notice in your City article is likely
to cause misapprehension and injury, to prevent whisk
I respectfully solicit the insertion of this letter in your
valuable journal, and submit the following facts :—The
society I represent, so far from being in the position of its
namesake, is in every respect in a sound and prosperous
condition, and free from all dissension or litigation. It
has paid to its members continuously for the last sixteen
years interest on their subscriptions at the rate of Si. per
cent. per annum, with occasionally small bonuses in ad-
dition, and is possessed of • considerable reserve funds
while the society's receb for the current year have ex-
ceeded 52,000/.—l am, se..
FERDINAND M. BALL, Secretary.
20, Great Marlborough-street, Dec. 30.

Lunienort IleADVEßTlCrelt.—Yesterday, on the
conclusion of the ceremony of the confirmation of the
Archbishop of Canterbury, at St. Mary-le-Bow Church, a
somewhat curious incident occurred. Mr. Francis Hart
Dyke, her Majesty's proctor. who had been officially in
attendance es principal registrar of the province of
Canterbury, had come down in his wig and gowns
but on leaving at the close of the proceedings,
desiring to go somewhere else where his official
habiliments would not be required, sent a m
to • neighbouring shop to purchase • air%
him. A suitable one having been provided her Majesty's
proctor started off without taking the. precaution to re-
move the tissue paper in which hatters pin up their wares.
The grotesque appearance excited much amusement
amongst the vast number of people who had assembled to
catch a glimpse of the new archbishop, many of whom
mistook the Queen's prootos for • gentleman who had
taken a leading part hi a bridal ceremony, and expecting
the bride to follow. It did not transpire how far the
learned gentleman_iwooseded in hie novel head gear.
AIM:MON. The fixed epithet of Avignon in
Papal ; and se the express train rushee ever its bleak and
wind-tormented plain ; the heavy dungeon walls and
hattlemented bowers of its palace fortress seem to warn
us off, and bid ns quickly leave the Babylon of exile&
impious Antichrist. Avignon, indeed,ppreeesseennt, the
bleakest, barest, greyest some upon • February morn-
ing, when the Meowed mistral is blowing, and far and
near, upon desolate hillside and sandy plain, the
scanty trees are beat sideways, the crumbling
castle turret, shiver bleached skeletons in
the dry anginal air. Yet inside the town all is not so
The Papal palace, with its terrible &Mire, its
chi painted by Simms Mean* its endless corridors
and staircases, its torture-chamber. funnel-shaped to
drown and suffocate—so rune tradition—the shneks of
wretches on the rack, is now a barrack, filled with
lively little French soldiers, whose politeness, though
sorely used, is never ruffled by the introduction of in-
quisitive visitors into their dormitories', eating-places, and
drill-grounds. And a indeed, it is to me the lines
of neat, narrow barrack beds, between which
their the red-
legged tittle menn are shaving, polishingpolishingarla
or minding their trousers, in those vaulted h
popes and essi.inals, those vast presence-chambers and
wdienee-gsllerity where Urban entertained St. Gathe-
r/6. where Bienri came, • priso,norittoa shred •t. Pal
Mouretticuitifte;wirdadalieudrr, for Islay
in
the
cheerreeless
ergs= of Rienzi. Time tal whitewash
lave swept these lurking-plum of rclurrinte very bare ;
bat the parable of the seven davits is true in mom NORM
than cue, and the ghosts that return to haunt &deodorised
eashatAd, punished espubilim are almost more ghastly
then those which have &WM been disturbed front their ola
habitation.—Cirekill Nefesiroo.
NOVIIIIAMPTON. DBO. 31.—The Hamburg sad
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