The Express.
London, England, 1868-06-18 00:00:00

AMERICAN LECTURERS.

LHOrUlt/NO in America seems to be often un-
profitable to the commercial partner. The lecturer
is safe, but the speculator who undertakes him is
frequently out of pocket. Even in the West Where
the chances aro supposed to be delightful this is
becoming the case. Pearls and jewels may drop
from the lips of certain popular men, but the
committees and associations and enterprising. HAS-
IMO at wboeeriak the visit is !nada get none of them,
on the contrary, are not unseldom poorer. A
Chicago contemporary gives the history for a
season of a course of lectures in one of the large
towns of the North-west, where the rearm was
much more successful than in other towns in the
same &ate. The lectures, it appears, of Mr.
WEwnaiL PHILLIPS, Mr. 001701 T, Miss ANNA
DICKINSON. and Mr. SIMMER, paid tolerably well.
Mr. PHILLIPS gave a perfectly familiar speech
on public afikirs, " a lecture which would
" have been universally voted dull and
" worthless but for the orator's great name
" and fine oratorical manner;" Miss Diem-

sou " made a common-place harangue in favour of
" female suffrage set off indeed by hor style, not
" oratorical, but pretty-young-womanish, and
" yet a weak discourse, more suitable on the bps
" of a smart school girl than of a public lecturer."
Mr. GOUOH " had the attractions of a comic actor, in
" large measure it is true." Mr. Suisun alone
gave something now, it being his first, tear
in the West.. Of the other lecturers, Mr.
GREELEY made a speech on public airs, of no
interest except that it came from HORACE GREELEY.
He failed to draw a paying' audience, and declined
to receive more money than the association could
pay him without loss. Mr. EssEEsox gave •
lecture which delighted and instructed those who
went to hear it, but there was a loss which
the distingushed essayist divided with the associa-
tion. A well-known English lecturer left his em-
ployers 50 dollars the worse. Mr. TILTON made a
speech on female suffrage, a topic he had disguised
by using the title of " The American Woman,"
" and carried off some forty dollars more than was
" paid to hear him." The sum given him for his
lecture was twenty-two pounds, in addition to his
travelling expenses. The Chicago Tribune thinks
the prices too high, and calls upon the "
Asso-
ciated Lyceums" to tolerate such a state of
things no longer. Things, in short, look as though
the Western field had been mown very close.

TnE Archbishop of DUBLIN has just published
" A Household Book of English Poetry," which.
is remarkable for the number of fine poems it con-
tains that are not found in collections, and are.
quite unknown to the general public. Mr. PAL-
HEAVE'S " Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyric."
comprises probably within a brief compass the
richest selection of lyric poetry in the languUgo,
but Archbishop TRENCH has judged truly in
thinking that that exquisite little volume does not
interfere with the object he had in view, sines
"my scheme," he says, "is at once broader and
" narrower ; broader in that I limit myself
"to no one particular class of poetry
" and embrace the living and the dead
" alike ; narrower in that I make no attempt to be
" exhaustive, or to give more than a very few
" samples even of the best and greatest of our
" poets." Students of English poetry who are
familiar not only with the thoroughfares of song
trodden by our great masters, but with the retired
bye-ways frequented by the minor poets, will
acknowledge, we think, that this volume of Arch-
bishop Talittn's is the result of comprehensive
knowledge and of refined taste. The book will
form a companion volume to lir. PALORAVE'B,
and the two volumes are a remarkable
proof, if indeed proof be needed, of the wealth of
our poetic literature. At the same time it must be
remembered that the noblest poetry we possess is
by its nature excluded from both collections. The
works of the old dramatists which Woubsworrru
called the garden of English literature cannot be
represented here, and Siumarxmix himself, like his
stalwart compeer BEN JoNsox, only finds adinis-
sion as a lyric poet.

The Committee of the House of Lords have
decided that the Gas Companies outside the city have no
toms slemdi to oppose the City Gas Bill, which will now,
therefore, pass as an unopposed bill and thus settle, as far
as the City Companies are concerned, a matter which has
for three sessions occupied the attention of putliament.

Colonel Milward, of the Royal Art Wry, who
was sent home in charge of despatches and the presents to
the Queen by General Sir R. Napier, Commander-in-
Chief of the Abyssinian Expedition, arrived at his residence,
on Plumstead-common, on Saturday last.

Brigadier-General Little, C. 8., commanding the
cavalry in Ireland, mad* his inspection of the 14th King's
Hussars in the Curragh on Monday. The general a:-
premed himself much pleased with the appearance of the
regiment, the precision with which it manoeuvred, and
the lint-rate condition of the horses. Re afterwards
visited the barracks at Newbridge,)usd made tiluOisual
inspection of the roomnstables, hospitals, schools, remount
horses, recruits, and regimental and trogp.kaoks, the
whole of which appeared to give the general eatire gals-
faction.

The annual Volunteer Review by the Lord-
Lieutenant of the county of Kent, Viacount Sydney,
G.C.8., will be held this year cm this 4th of July, on
Woolwich Common. The Secretary of State for War
has given hie eanctica to her If ajesey's beeps, takingpart
in it, and the whole will be order thegoonusand at Major-
Gen. F.. C. Wards, C. 8., the emataadant of the purl-
goo. There are upwards of keel enlisters hi the
county, and it is expected that ► large throe Will ensemble
on the occasion. .

As is known, a seientifie oommisaion bare been
charged by the Minister of RAMC, Instmetiou la ?ranee
to proceed to the extreme Beat, to studY the:solar eellpso
of the 18th August next. The Ziaiterr imp:maces

that the place of -observation selected • bylPianoe in the
peninsula of Malacca has been explored and prepared with
care, and that the King of Siam his manifeitid the Inten-
tion of being present at the labours of the common.
Independently of this expedition, the Aoadtaity. of tleienees
has nominated an astrononser for the earn, peewee to go
to Masulipatans to act in concert with others mat from
England.

The Ent?'lcte states that Crosti, of the Opkra
Comique ham been engaged by Mr. Maple*ma, fee Mae
Majesty's Theatre.

THE Fria CIFIIRCH OF BOOTLAXD ruE
essuust.—Enteratsom WzosalDaY.The ABB
Thee
Church of Scotland Comminion, compete* suirabets
of the last General Amestably. resolved yeetee4ey. hp 90 to
34, to petition for the total dieendowaest d Itg *Wen

bodies in Ireland.

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