The Express.
London, England, 1861-12-18 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, WEDNESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 18, 1861.

" flee of a single principle of the public morality
"of nations. Meanwhile, we can, of course, but
"await further developments. The resolution of
" thanks which Congress has voted to Captain
" WILKEN therefore, embodies a perfectly just
" sentiment, without at all binding the policy of
" the Government, or embarrassing the Seers-
" tai7 of State in the pursuit of such a course as,
"on a full examination of the question in all its
"hearings, may seem to be dictated by right and
" the law of nations." The tone of popular
feeling, too, is inure moderate, and more friendly
to England, if we may judge from the quiet
manner in which the disastrous news of the
burning of the Harvey Birch has been received.
Had there been any strong feeling of exaspera-
tion against this country, and a general desire
for war, such an event as this would have
been likely to inflame it to an ungovernable pitch
of excitement. On the contrary, though it natu-
rally roused a feeling of strong regret and indigna-
tion, the news did not provoke any expression of
hostility towards ourselves. Finally, under the
special circumstances of the cue, the PRERIDETrem
Message itself may fairly be interpreted in a
pacific sense. Its eloquent silence is almost the
only rhetorical merit it can boast, and it has
the additional advantage of being • political
merit as well. The Penn DENT has left
himself free to be influenced by events,
and every day brings with it fresh and powerful
reasons in favour of a prompt, straightforward,
and pacific settlement of this unhappy difference.
General Scum has returned to America to pro-
mote such a settlement. Influential Americans
both in London and Paris have written to mem-
bers of the Senate and the Government, urging in
the strongest terms the importance of a speedy and
pacific solution. And there is • clause in the
Message—that referring to the British ship
Perthshire—which indirectly suggests that the
PZICSIDENT himself is in favour of yielding to the
requirements of the English Government. The
sharpest adverse criticism has failed to shake the
substantial justice of these requirements, and Mr.
Lnicooi formally states that he will support "no
" belligerent act not founded in strict right as
" sanctioned by public law."

These facts and probabilities in favour of a peace-
ful settlement will be heartily welcomed by every
patriot, by every friend of humanity and civilize-
tiou. A war between America and this
country would be the greatest calamity to the
cause of human freedom and progress that
could possibly happen. It would be the most
terrible blow that could be inflicted on those
principles of civil, commercial, and religious
liberty with which both nations are identified.
England and America are the two great nations
that enjoy full political freedom, and that purer
form of religious faith that is known as Pro-
tertantism. A war between these Powers
would produce • reaction in favour of tyranny
and superstition throughout the entire world.
Already the crowned and mitred enemies of
liberty and truth are secretly exulting at the pro-
spect of such an outbreak, and if it comes they will
enjoy • malignant triumph. Such a war would
inevitably give a new lease of life, • new term of
power to every form of oppression and wrong that
curses the civilized world. The war, under
existing circumstances, would in fact be • crime
so enormous, that its commission ought to be
impossible. We believe it may be averted, nor
shall we cease to assert this till the contrary is
proved. Those who at the present moment in-
dulge in loose and violent aasertions about the war
being inevitable are deeply culpable. Such idle
assertions are, in fact, sheer treason against
those principles, religions and political, which we
profess as a people to accept and believe. If n•
really hold the doctrines we profess, we are bound
to believe, as a first duty, in the possibility of
per•

THE HEALTH OF LORD PALMERSTON.

Reports of a serious nature were widely current
this morning rtspecting the health of Lord
Palmerston ; but we are happy to say
that on inquiry at his lordship's resi-
dence this afternoon it was ascertained that he
was " much better, and about his work as usual."
His lorthiLip experienced the first symptoms of gout
in his hands, from which it has now descended to
his feet ; but there is every hope of its speedy de-
parture. The " calls " were very numerous this
morning in Piccadilly ; among others Earl Rumell
made a personal inquiry after his lordship's health.

HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN.

OFFICIAL BULLETIN. - (THDI DAY.)

WINDSOR CASTLE, WEDNESDAY ItoAmu.
The Queen had several hours of undisturbed
sleep last night, and is calm this morning.

THE LATE PRINCE CONSORT.

Yesterday evening the Lord Chamberlain issued
his orders forth. final details connected with the burial of
the late Prince Consort. The recent precedent set at the
interment of the late Ihachees of Kent will be as closely
followed as possible ; and though, from the very huge num-
ber of attached personal friends whom the prince has left to
mourn his early loss, the funeral must necessarily be on a
scale of greater magnitude, it will not, as regards" state," be
leas strictly private. In only one important particular will it
differ from the Duchess of Kent's, and that is in there being
acarriage procession from the Castle to St. George's Chapel.
It will be recollected that the remains of the Duchess
of Kent were privately conveyed from Frogmen during the
previous night, and deposited in the chapel to await the
ceremony of the following day. This course will not be
followed at the burial of the Prince, as the body will remain
in the private apartments at Windsor till the procession
starts. From the Castle the remains will be conveyed in a
tisane drawn by eight horses, the hearse and the
housings of the horses bearing the heraldic escutcheons of
the anus of Englaud and Saxe•Cobnrg and Gotha. No
private earrisees, of course, will follow. All the in-
vited mourners, the ministers, the foreign ministers, the
chief officers of the household, and the personal friends of
the deceased Prince will be conveyed to the chapel in lb
mourning coaches. Up to last night it had not been de-
cided whether or not the ladies of the officers of the house-
bold would be invited to attend in the chapel, but it seems
to be generally understood at present that none but gen-
tlemen will take part in the ceremony. Those who are not
entitled by rank to form part of the procession will await
the arrival of the corrfge at the chapel itself. No visitors
will be admitted to the courtyard, or, indeed, at all within
the walls of the Castle during the time the funeral is
taking place.
At the chapel almost precisely the same arrangements
have been made as at the burials of the recently deceased
members of the royal family. The interior of the chapel
will be hung and carpeted over with black cloth. The body
will be received by the clergy at the door, placed at once
upon the bier, and wheeled slowly up till it is placedon the
platform, worked by machinery, by which it is lowered to
the royal vault at the proper period of the service. The
place which it will occupy in the vault his not yet been
'signed. The bodies of deceased monarchs, eased is cabs
of purple velvet, are Lid side by side on raised marble slabs
in the centre of the vault; their consorts and the other
members of the royal family are laid in their crimson velvet
coffins on the tiers of ledges at the aides.
Yesterday the inner shell end outer lead case, containing
the maim of the late Prince, were sealed down by the
amore of the Booed of Works. On the leaden coffin is a
massive silver plate, with the following inscription :

i4=triii Alberti,
Principle Consort*
Ducis Manske,
de Saxe-Coburg et Dottie Principle,
Nobiliesbni Online* Perim.!idle &patio,
Atignstimimes et Poteatimieme Vietorue Regime
Conjagis pereerieniml,
Obiet die decimo quarto Decembris MDCCCLXL,
Anno mtetis sue XLUI."

The outer state coffin will not be ready before Saturday
next. This will be an exceedingly rich and elaborate case.
At the head will be fastened a massive silver gilt clown in
high relief. This is the crown the Prince was entitled to
bear as Prisms Consort, and much resembles that of the
Imperial House of Austria. In the centre of the coffin
will be another massive silver gilt plate with the inscription
we have already given. At the foot will be the Etter and
Insignia of the Garter, ale) in silver gilt. On the coffin,
during and after the interment, two heraldic crowns will
be laid—that of his Royal Highness as Prince Consort and
his crown as Duke of Saxe-Coburg aud Gotha.
" The Queen, if we are rightly informed," observes the
Times, " shows herself at this =preen, crisis of her life
worthy of her high station. As if her own experience and '
penetration led her to divine what no one at such an hoar !
could obtrude upon her, the Queen has declared that the
present is a time which will not admit of mournful in.
mike, and that it is her duty to attend without delay '
to public business. With • feeling which sal be
readily andentood and appreciated, the Quest had more
especially en herself the task of mastering those subjects
in which the late Priuce Consort took an interest, believing
it to be the beet mode of showing devotion to his
memory. We may therefore hope that even those
matters of national concern in which the Prince's judgeseat
and good taste were particularly useful will not suffer so
sloth as was feared by his loss. If anything could increase
the respect which the bereaved family now command, it
would be the devotion with which ell its members have
endeavoured to aid arid comfort the Queen in her affliction.
We believe the Prince of Wales has not fallen short of his
Niter, the Princess Alice, in this respect, and
that he has already taken his place by his
mother's side, as her stay and support is her
distress. We have, indeed, as • people, every reason to
hope that this good beginning may be followed by a
career equally meritorious, and that, as the Queen has,
within a few hours of his father's death endeavoured to
associate him with her in the arduous work of the British
monarchy, the Prince may feel all the solemnity of his
positive, and fit himself for the part to which he is dee-
Used. It most be obvious that for the Prince of Wales
the period of nonage is past. Though legally a minor until
November, 1162, his royal highness is nearly as old as his
father was at his marriage, and more than two years older
then his mother was when she ascended the throne. If
we add to this that lie has been specially edumted
to wear the British STOWS, to which he has been heir ap•
parent from his birth, and that he has had opportunities of
eosin the world which were denied to his paresis, not to
speak of their predecessors of the house of Hanover, the
Priam ought now to sbow the faculties which will make a
good king. It is, no doubt, a sudden change which has
poem swot him. But a few days ago he was a youth at
the saiversity, without a thought of public life, and now
be finds himself on the steps of the throne so its first
friend am! cou•mallor. From being restraided even
beyond what is wend at has age I') the are of
a pntdeat father, he buds himself to Kane extent
the head of his family—at any rate, its eldest male repre-
sentative, and in 801:00 seine the guide of his younger
brothon sad simile& The deetioy fur one so young is, in-
deed, • great at., Dot it is at the MINI time weighted with
the heaviest owes. To bear these oases the Prince must
sow snake up his mind, if he wWer to gale the affect on
sad esteem of the country. The animal goodwill is not t obe
elsteheed without some mcrifices, and the Primo has before
him, as it the fable, two paths—tholes of duty and pleasure.
The Lett few months will decide whether he is to
mood io popular estimation where his lets father stood
—whether iu the King who is to rule over us we are to look
for one who, ►ike his parents, will take an interest in all
that benefits his people, aid will show ability sod energy in
the study of it, or oim who will only 'cosies the cameo.
tional respect which bekogs to his rook and odic*. &posed
to loopy temptation, his royal highness must resolve to
earn public applause by teddies all that will draw him from
the suds of a mother and • Queen who requires his help,
and from the service of • nation which needs every coon.
sellor it can find."

(raom ou a

WINDSOR, TreeDAT Evsvisc,
Her Majeety the Queen continues to manifest
her greatness of mind ma this trying and afflicting ocuisioe,
and find■ much consolation in the bosom of her family, par-
ticularly from the Princess Alice, who in her endeavour to
assuage the affliction of her royal parent has displayed
much heroic fortitude and devotion throughout the whole
of her father's illness. It wu owing to the presence of Mind
of this princesa that the unexpected but opportune arrival
of the Prince of Wales took place in the night, her Royal
Highness having telegraphed for her brother without con-
sulting anyone.

It i; now certain that her Majesty will leave the Castle
to-morrow morning, at 10 o'clock, and proceed to Osborne,
where she intends to remain io seclusion k•r six week',
alter which period it is not yet determined whether she
returns to Beekingham Palace or to Windsor Castle.
. _

The Prince of Wales will occupy Frogmore Houqe, the
resideace of the Lite Duchess of Keot, until lifter the
fassnl, as his Royal Highness will be chief mourner.
Yesterday, according to the custom observed on the de-

cease el She Khoo d Ragland, the body of his late Royal
Ilighasm was dreamed in (field marshal's) uniform, and
pared is the shell, when by command of bet Majesty those
of the royal household who desired to do so were perrnittod
to take a last farewell of their royal master, and in the
evening the shell was soldered down.

The ceremony of lying in state will, it is understood, be
dispensed with, and the funeral will be conducted with es
little ceremony as was observed at the funeral of her late
Royal Highness the Dares. of Bent.
It re mid that the late Prisee's pack of barriers, and the
shooting preserves in Windsor Great Park, will be 0011.
tinned by the Prince of Wiles, so that nous of the Prime's
servants may be discharged.

A Liverpool correspondent writes that Mr. Dickens, who
had announced readings there and at Chester this week, for
which many thousand persons had obtained tickets, has put
off the readings for a whole week, on account of the general
grief fait for the loss of the Prince Consort.
Resolutions of condolence with her Majesty have been
I passed at several provincial town council meetings, and by
one or two of the vestries of metropolitan parishes.
The Corporation of Dublin has unanimously adopted
the following resolution :—" That this house, parti•
cipating in the universal feel ingot national sorrowat the death
of his Royal Highness the Prince Consort—in the bereave
meet of our beloved Queen—takes this, the earliest oppor-
tunity of expressing their deep mom of the great loss the
nation has sustained, and their loyal end respectful sym-
pathy with her Majesty under the affliction which it has
pleased the Almighty God in Rim inscrutable wisdom to visit
her."

ALBERT.
DECEMBER FOURTEWTH, 1881.
How should the Princes die

With red spur deep in maddening charger's flank,
Leading the rush that cleaves the foeman's rank,
And shouting some timrfamous battle-cry ?
Ending a pleasure day,
Joy's painted goblet fully drained, and out,
While wearied vassals coldly stand about,
And con new homage which they beg to pay
flo have the Princes died. _ _

Nobler and happier far the fate that falls
On Rim who 'end yon aged Castle walla,
Hears, an be goes, the plash of Thames's tide.
Gallant, high-natured, brave,
0, bad his lot been cast in wamor's days,
No nobler knight bad woo the minstrel's praise,
Than him for whom the half-reared harmers wave.
Or, gra.vid with gentler powers,
The sung, the pencil. and the lyre his own,
Deived be to live fair pleasures thrall alone,
None had more lightly sped the laughing hours.
Better and nobler fate
Ilia, whom we claimed but yesterday,
His, oars no more, hie, round whose sacred clay,
The death-mate pages and the heralds wait.
It was too soon to die._

Yet, might we count his years by triumphs woo,
By wise, and bold, and Christiau duties done,
It were no brief (nestles' history.
This was his princely thought ;
With all his varied wisdom to repay
Our trust and love, which on that 11644 Day
The Daughter of the lake for dowry brought.
For that he loved oar Q wan,
And, for her sake, the people of her love,
Few sad far distant names shall rank above
Hie elm, whom England's cherished names are seen.
Could them be doom tie
Twist as, who, eotrowing, own a ration's debt
And Her, our own dear Lady, who as yet
Mast atom her sudden woe with tearless eye :
When with a kind relief
Those eyes rain toms, 0 might this thought employ !
Him whom she loved we loved. We shared her joy,
And will not be denied to share her grief.
—Prods.