The Express.
London, England, 1861-01-02 00:00:00

RE-Mir-rums or Maxim or rot Mew=
Duct Buenos— In accordance with the prociaions of the
act of parliament, Nears. Eyre Evans, Charles Turner, W.
Inman, F. Shand. H. Seger, junr., and W. Y. Mess, retired
by rotation from the Mersey
Dock Board. Yesterday a ape-
cal meeting of the board was held for the election of mem-
bers to snowed them ; but on • motion of Mr. Denham,
secceded by Mr. Wilson, who highly eulogised the way in
which the board had conducted their business during the
pad year, the whole of the retiring members were re-elected
without oppoaition.
NELPoLITAN IILPOITS.--BOARD or TRADE, WHITE
BALI, bac. 31.—The Right Ron. the Lords of the Com-
mittee of Privy Council for Trade have received from the
Secretary of elate for Foreign Affairs a copy of a dosmtch
from her Majaaty'sCanind at Naples, enclosing • trawled=
of a Bann paldieloid in the camel journal of that city on
the 10th Inataat, providing that merchante importing
wheat sad other cereals for warehousing shall enjoy the
followin4privileges : 1. Facilities for hiring warehouses ;
2. The he of re-exponina the said grain to other Italian
ports, or to foreign countries. The parts at present autho-
rised to have such warehouse, are Naples, Ca' stellarnare,
Paolo, Piano, Cotrooe, Taranto, Brindisi, and Pescara.—
eeeate.
I Bona KENNINGTON 8..1 tarry. —Week ending
Dm 29 (Christmas Week).—Free days. 10,249 ; free
eveninp, 3,990 ; total, 14,11'9; from tU-opeafec of the
lbseent, 1,11108,421.

OXFORD, Tuaracr.
The annual festival of the Ancient Order of
Drabls in this city took place to-day when upwards of
44)4) members of the fraternity dined together at the Town
Hall, undiu the presidency of Mr. Past Arch Thompson, who
was spoeted by the Mayor of Oxford, the ea-Mayer, the
Sheriff and ex-Hheriff, the city members, Mr. Lupton,
M.P., and tho Right hien. E. Cardwell, M.P., besides many
of the prmctpal inhabitants of the city.
The cloth having been removed,
The CHAIM!' 'I gave the usual loyal tour, which were
met enthmisatitolly received.
The next toast was "The Army, Navy, and Volunteers,"
which was drunk amidst loud cheers. The City Volunteer
Ilan& which was present, afterward' played a emindlon of
military airs.
Captain PAYNE retuned there
After giving the tout of "The Grand Lodge of Fla dand,"
Lodge lie (the Oxford Lodge), and all the Lodges lie
The &AIRMAN pro ed "The City Members," which
wet received and drunk with loud sheen.
Mr. J. H. LANGSTON, M.P., as senior member, tint pro-
ceeded to return thanks. After a few introductory Arr-
estor, he observed that as far as public affair* went with
reaped to this country, he thought they would concur with
bin that as compared with lad year the public balance wia
a very knowable one. Daring the cone of the year a
most impatient movement had taken place, namely the
volunteer movement. (Hear, hear.) However effective
our small army might have been there could be little doubt
that without the assistance of that important body which
had aprurzg up in the course of the year, our army would
not have been equal to the defence of oar shores, and ow
navy would have had to be kept close to our
notwithstanding its presence might have been required
elsewhere, because we should not have liked to have
trusted to or other sources of defence in the
event of its being sent far away from home. That
feeling of insecurity had, however, been entirely removed,
and they now experienced a confidence in the resources of
the country, which few could have experienced at the com-
mencement of the year. (Hear, hear.) When they met in
that hall last year, the unfortunate affair in China had
made it necessary to the government to equip • force in
order to obtain redrew for the insult which had hoes offered
to our fiag. Happily, our efforts had been crowned with
swear —(ew, hear)—and he trusted the Chinese autho-
rities would not be anxious to invite us again to renewed
hostilities. Theo, again, if any feeling existed that the
great army which the Emperor of the French pr-
emised were animated with a desire to invade our
si
he trusted that the treaty of commerce, which=
been so effective during the first year of its existence,
might be the means of producing • better feeling between
the two countries. (Hear, dean) He congratulated every
one who was a friend of liberty, =duke felt desirous to see
it extended over the whole world, at the events which had
recently taken place in Italy. (Cheers.) From the infer-
illation they now pooremed, lb thought it probable that in
the course of the spring it might providentially occur that
that great country might find itself united in an indepen-
dent and liberal government. (Cheers.) When he ad-
dressed then' last year he ventured to express not only •
desire but • belief that a measure to which he would not
now refer would become the law of the land. He did
nut know what might be the intentions of the government
with regard to the measures which they might bring
forward next session, but he trusted that by the
measures which they conceived were really necessary, and
which they thought they could pan, he should next year be
able to make • favourable contrast, as far as regarded the
work of the session to the par.one. ((heers.)
Mr. CARDWELL. M.P., ON new was received with load
and prolonged cheering. After some preliminary renierim
he said—ln the review which my hon. friend and colleague
has taken of the year that has just pared I generally ocoa-
cur
on
,butifb!ie will
of jpichre m me I
a will ventures. toit say a few
word,
very customary this recess to say that it was—like, I am
afraid wry, some of the trees during the past autumn—more
leaves that fruit. But, gentlemen, in the past, en in every
preceding session, we h. ad noble efforts- of
which probably no other popular assembly in :hkequis=
ever was privileged to listen to. We had high and lofty
expressions of the position of our country in the face of other
nations. We were worthy of the leading representatives of
those free and generous principles, and though I do not
think we can measure the House of Commons by one
session more than you can measure a farm by the produce
of one year when you have not had an abundant harvest—
though you cannot measure the House of Commons by the
bills pared in one session, yet I say that among those 160
bills which we passed into law there will be found many
that were the result of great labour, that were the off pig
of deep thought—and though they were not matters of
party conflict or of keen dispute, yet by the constant co-
operation of all parties, they were cared into law, and
will produce lasting results for the benefit of the whole
community. Gentlemen, I say that with your popular in-
stitutions, of which the Hour of Commons is the chief,
and that free press which, co-operating with your
other popular institutions, collects and distributers
the united intelligence of the whole of the people,
you now present the spectacle of • country in
which the character and convictioas of the whole people
are conveyed, and the general voice of intelligence prevails
in the last resort. I say that these institutions give to
your councils a weight and a force which no other trate
tins have ever given to the councils of any other nation,
and which even among yourselves never were raised pro-
bably to a height grader than they are at the present
time. (Hear, hear.) If you refer to that nami.lve of
events at which my friend and colleague has glanced, the
narrative of the events in China—a narrative which,
whether you speak of its horror* or whether you speak of
its triumphs, aiiumphs, so tinged with the colour of eastern fable
that you can scarcely believe it is dry reality
you are reading—you see there the energetic arms of
popular institutions carrying on almost at the antipodes •
great expedition with as much success as if it were carried
on within one day's distance of our arsenals and sources of
supply. (Hear, hear.) You see nothing left to admire in
the signal skill of your commanders, in the heroism of your
troops, and in the wonderful success of those arms of war-
fare which have now been tried for the first time in actual
war, and which are destined to exercise such important
effects on the result of all future coeflicta—arms of which
England, the metropolis of art and of science, is so naturally
the inistresa that you may depend upon it the main com-
mand of such weapons will ever remain with this favoured
and powerful country. (Hear, hear.) But, with your per-
mission, I will may a few words with regard to other
triumphs which thh country bas been rmitted to achieve
during the put year. First, I will refer, as my friend and
colleague referred, to that treaty which has been concluded
with Franca, and host which I sincerely trust you are des-
tined to receive sigual benefit,. (Hear, hear.) It was by a
treaty which this country concluded with • foreign power
that the mischievous espartos between England
and France was caused. You know that at the beginning
of this year the wall of protection, as impassable as the
wall that the Tartan built on the frontiers of Chisa, sur-
Traded the commerce of France, and separated England
and France, the two countries in the world most formed for
friendship and for mutual association. (Cheers.) Well,
gentlemen, by whom was that wall built' There used to
be a commercial intercourse between England and Francs ;
but the historians of the last country tell us that by •
tiirall which, with mod mischievous ingenuity and moir-
e skill for evil, our negotiator' contracted with
Godard, we succeeded in securing for onmelves the com-
merce of a comparatively small country and excluded our-
selves from the benefits of that great commercial intercourse
with France which I trust has now, by another treaty,
been open 4 to both countries. But great as undoubted)
are are the lite of oosimercial intercourse between i
and France, they sink into utter insignificance in ceozidpia
noon with those other benefits which may be ex to
follow in their wake. Can you be surpneed if the expe-
rience of the last century and the early part of
this century was hostility between France and England. the
two foremost countries in the world, when ill-contrived
legislation shut us out from the benefits of continual and
reciprocal commerce? But when you breakdown the barrier
and invite them to mutual intercourse and constant friend-
ship, you bind the two nations in the recognisances of corn.
man, neutrality, and concord ; and 1 trust the whole
Mahood world is destined to receive blessings yet me
imagined from the intercourse which is likely to take plain
between there two peat and powerful countries. (Cheer..)
My bon. friend and colleague has spoken to you of Italy,
and you have watched with interest and with delight the
conflict in which that noble people have been engaged. You
have seen the clergy and the laity, the rich and the poor,
side by side, contending to shake off the tyranny to which
they had been so long subjected ; and what does the peat
minister of Italy tell you is his aim and object ? His aim
and object are, he says, to raise his country after
the example and according to the model of Eng-
land, which be truly designates the classic mother
of liberty. (Cheers.) And you know that with respect to
Italy the conflict is not over when the strife of arms has
ceased. But the real question is, whether, when the victory
in the field is woe, they will be able to build up for them.
selves those popular institutions under which they desire
to be governed, which they have to create by their own
management arid their own exertion, but which you, by
the blessing of Providence, have derived as an inheritance
from your ancestors, ad mean to transmit unimpaired to
your
rch this posterity.
cou try"ThheoelrtlVinB&enifauccie'otfimk!Urolopar t4e(t=7.l
Now let us turn to the other side of the Atlantic. My
friend on my right has reminded you that during the past
year it was your pride and privilege to have as resi-
dent amongst you here the heir apparent to the British
throne. You watched, therefore, with special interest and
affection the visit that he paid to the colonies of the crown
and to that great Republic on the other side of the Atlantic,
I whose origin is the same, whose language and whose liters-
, true descend from us. You can appreciate better than
then the effect which that visit ham produced, and you

DR. CUMMINS ON THE OLD YEAR.
last night, Dr. Caroming delivered a lecture at
the NaMoual Scotch Church, Crown-court, Covent-garden,
his subject being "A Retrospect of the Year." Having
selected as his text the 13th chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to
tire Romans, 12th verse, "The night is far spent, the day
is at band," he proposed to inquire what were the symptoms
that the night was passing away. Dr. Arnold, be said, had
expressed his conviction that we were approaching the end
of the world, and the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland (Lord
Carlisle) that if the Book of Daniel were inspired it was
evident Mat we were on the eve of the most stupendous
events the world ever witnessed. He himself had said that
looking to the various epochs mentioned by Daniel It solOt
be gathered that the world would be at an end in 1867
or 1364 and this seemed to be plain, for Christ was
born, as they had the authority of many writers
for 'eying, in the year 4132, to which if 1560 were
added it would show that we had nearly completed the •
4 6,000 th ear spoken of by the prophet, and should be close
on 7, which was to be the period of rest. Referring to
Palmed be said that from the heights of Lebanon to the
sae, 1,800, years, there bad been nothing but dark-
ness, yet in the year 1860 it came before the world as
the pelt crisis of the East. Far different things were
'Widen* in store for that land. The Emperor of Runk I
had thole 350,000 members of the Greek church who were
looking to him, while there were looking to the Emperor of
the French 250,000 Roman eatholica. Considering the love
be had for annexation, it was not improbable that the Eldest
Son of the Chinch--a very naughty son the Pope frequently
fared him—would, at no distant time, consider that it
would be well to none: Syria to France. This annexation,
if atterppted, would lead to a general war, for it would oon-
latently be asked who was to have Palestine, which was the
1 gangway to Indira Another evidence thatthe night was passing
'away might be found in Turkey ; for in Turkey in Europe
there were now nine millions of professing Christians, while
1 there were only two-and-mhalf millions of Mahommedans.
Anothettevidence was to be found in China. Whatever
mlghhtil their judgment of the poly or principle of the
late war, they would all agree that the sword, terrible as
it was, had opened up a path for missionaries of the gospel,
and access had been secured to a capital which fora thousand
years had been pronounced unapproachable. With regard
to the United States the rev. gentleman quoted from the
New lon Obeerrer, and expressed an opinion that, under the
guidance of Mr. Lincoln, the new president, the States
would get rid of that which was a fever in the heart of
America. Another evidence of the ' g away of the
night was to be found in Italy. hen he preached at
Exeter-hall not long since, when his own church
was being enlarged, he stated his conviction that the power
of the Pope was on the eve of dissolution. Some of the
newspapers owls capital out of it, and ridiculed the idea
that the mightiest power in Europe was in danger, but
now the poor old man, the Pope, in his allocution was lift-
ing up his hands in despair, and calling upon his foes as
well as his friends for assistance. At present France ap-
to be the protector of the Pope, but they might
idepend upon it that the French army was merely in
Rome as a gaoler to the Pope, the intention being to dimmed
him of his temporalities. The Pope certainly would not
continue in Rome without temporal power, and the silence
of the Pope from Rome would be the virtual dissolution of the
whole Roman catholic system. With regard to home affairs,
the rev. doctor argued that "the day" is at hand by evidenom
gathered from the revivals in Ireland, as well as the pro-
green of religion in England and Scotland—eminent men as
well an unlettered persons being engaged in preaching in
theatres, convert-rooms, from omoibuses and cabs, and from
the corners of the streets—an well as from the general
spread of education amongst all classes of the people.

THE CHURCH•BATB ABOLITIONISTS AND THE
COMING SESSION.

Yesterday we inserted an address to their sup-
porters from the Committee of Laymen, and to-day we may
call attention to some resolutions of the Executive COM.
mitten of the " Liberation Society," which may be regarded
as in the nature of • reponse. That bad y points to the
that last session no fewer than 610,87 T persons petitioned
for the entire abolition of church rates, while only 197,687
prayed for their coetiatmeoe, notwithstanding months of
exertion to get up petitioms. A repetition of the demon-
stration is regarded as " superfluous," and the anti-rate
party are requested to reserve their energies for other mea-
sures. The following, from an article in the Liberator,
shows the spirit in which the struggle will be entered
upon :
" The abolitionist* have before them a great opportunity.
If they only Just carry the measure through the lower
house, as was done last session, they will !We not only
valuable time but political prestige, end will expose them-
selves to future risk of the most serious kind. But, if it
be carried with a high head, as under present circum-
stances it ought to be, the House of Commons will regard
the question as virtually settled, let the final issue corm
when it may. It must be made palpable to the lead dis-
cerning politician that the idea of perpetuating church
rates, of throwing upon them all the voluntarily-erected
district churches—of contracting the present powers of
parishioners, and of so fastening upon them the exaction
that resistance will be useless— is one which may be
banished to the region of political drama, or be added to
the catalogue of bygone political follies. Two
months of wise and strenuous exertion, in every
quarter, and on the part of every man who
has the moms of the good cause at heart, will practically
effect what should be felt to be the great work of the volun-
taries for this new year 1861. We make our appeal to them
in remembrance of what they have already done. Lest year
they did all that they were urged to do, and did it
thoroughly. Dissenters, indeed, have never yet been beaten
when once they have solemnly resolved to conquer. Let
them so resolve now, and then we are certain that they
will perform es well as vow. They have not onl • good
cause, but a good practical messum. They are y
united in spirit and aim. They have the experience of many
years of agitation. They have some approach to good
and general organization. They have larger funds than are
likely to be at the command of those who are arrayed
against them. They have an unquenchable ardour, and
they have the stimulating recollection of many previous vic-
tories. Lot them now fly to their allotted labour, and dick
to it till it be crowned with glorious mows."

ROYAL FRZI HOSPITAL, GLAY'B-LYN-1101.D. -
The Dumber of patieuts relieved et thin hospital daring the
week midi% Dec. 29,1860, was 1,679 ; of which 496 were
new Mel

TnE Psarserrox or MICHAHIIOI.—" In short,
all the Improvements for our convenience and comfort, dating
from a state of barbarity to one of high civilisation, are but the
cumulative results of Inventive lwnnity: and In no instance is
this mere clearly seen than in the history of those beautiful in-
motions which have from time to time been brought to bear
upon the science of Horology. Trace its hidory from the time
of the Romans with their clepsydra or water-clock, and Alfred
with his candles, from hour-glare' and aran-dida down to that
miracle of ingenuity ' The Watch.' and see how improvernenthas
rocceeded improvement, until at Lest those now manufactured
by Henson, of Ludgate-hill, London, have beau characterldkally
described as 'the perfection of mechardmis.'^—Standard. Ben-
ton's lUustrated Pamphlet, post free for two 'temps, is dewily-
tire of every construction of watch now made. Watches rte by
pest to as parts of the glob.--(Atreettessesat)