The Express.
London, England, 1868-04-08 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, WEDNESDAY

ultimatum previa' that the volunteers shall have Lombard-street, but this is far from being
entire pommel= of the main road from Coshes the ease. The effatory seldom ounouhts to 61.
to Portsmouth, which, as we have before ex- Protestant attacks always make the amount go up,
I planed, is the only highway connecting the main and Brother losamrs would for this Cause wish
land with the island of Pertain', and the only turn- the Protestants woull attack them oftener "if
pike-road extending the whole distance between the "it were not for the large amount of guilt they
parade-ground at Southsea and the battle-ground " incur by the innumerable falsehoods they tell."
on the northern face of the Hileha lines. That Birk pf such caprices the Brethren, like their pre-
this road may be solely available for the deosseore, pray for something substantial and look
volunteers, the COMBELNDZI-IX-Cana insists lovingly at the soil. If anyone, they say, will
upon the construction of • bridge of barges but give them • piece of land, and endow the coin-
over the water-course connecting Portsmouth and munity, this is what shall be granted in return :
Langston harbours, to divert the public traffic —" We would give them • share in all the holy
and the employment of a constabulary force "acts of the community, in our prayers and inter-
sufficient to enforce this arrangement. The "cession, and a resting place before the high
local authorities have accepted these oonditions, I " altar in the Monastery Church when their spirit
and the War-office approves the new plan, so that "is called away to the other world."
there is still reason to hope that the Volunteer
Review of 1868 will be remarkable as a great

•uooeee.

THE GOVERNMENT AND THE ELECTRIC
TELEGRAPH COMPANIES.

EVERY one wishes for increased telegraphic
facilities; no one wishes that existing interests
should be unjustly dealt with. The Hon. ROBERT
GaitorroN, as chairman of the Electric and Inter- I
national Telegraph Company, objects to the pro-
pert./ of his shareholders being transferred to the
Crown, and bases his protest upon two distinct
issues. He mays first, that the provisions of the
bill now before the country are arbitrary and
harsh, and asks whether the commercial classes
will allow the property of a public trading com-
pany to be confiscated with impunity ; and
secondly, that if the measure becomes law, mat-
ters will not be so well managed as at present and
that the message-sending public will bitterly

regret the change. The mode of arbitrating after
purchase has been decided upon by the Crown ;
the patience and faith of the early shareholders
and the gratitude due to them—the improve-
ments inaugurated, such as franked message forms
and the remittance of money by telegraph—the
intelligence supplied to country news-rooms—and
last, but not least, the " very handsome dividend
" earned for our proprietors" are all dwelt upon by
Iffr. GRIMEITON, and are all points calling for full
deliberation and discussion. The property of the
companies must be equitably acquired, and if im-
provementa can be made in the suggested mode of
purchase, by all means let them be introduced.
But the telegraphs must be worked by Govern-
ment. On every ground of common sense and
public convenience the change will be for the
general good ; and the companies only injure
their own case when "the surveillance of a
" Government department as in foreign countries "
is put forward as a bugbear to frighten people
into crying out against the bill. Our experience
of the Poet-office leads us all to believe it will
fulfil its engagements, and by improving the
working of telegraph confer another benefit upon
the country. The companies will find it vain to
struggle against the popular conviction, and had
better confine their efforts to securing fair and
reasonable terms than raise doubts and insinua-
tions which are untenable and unsound.

Tax death of the Hon. D'Aacv McGEs is a
serious loss to the dominion of Canada. He was a
man well qualified for the duties of statesmanship
in a rising country. A part of his life had been
passed in agitation, but his riper years were devoted
to the propagation of sound truths and the advocacy
of wise counsels. Aa a writer he displayed great
capacity, and his oratorical powers were alto-
gether exceptional. There are choice thoughts,
as well as fine words in his speeches. In-
deed, to his eloquence the Contederation
of Canada was partly due, and his speeches
and writings in denunciation of Fenianism
were fraught with wisdom. How far his
premature death is owing to the exasperation
caused by his systematic and powerful opposi-
tion to Fenianism, we do not yet know.
But whatever the cause, his assassination will
be deplored by all who desire the welfare of the
new dominion, and who wish that when Irishmen
leave their native land to begin a new life across the
Atlantic, they should be animated with the spirit
which Mr. MoGsz recently displayed. A few
words in a speech delivered by him at Montreal, in
1861, might be pondered with advantage by all
Irishmen who settle in America or Canada. "We
" have &country, which being the land of our choice,
" should also have our first consideration. I
" know, and you know, that I can never cease to
" regard with an affection which amounts almost
" to idolatry the land where I spent my best, my
" first years, where I obtained the partner of my
" life, and where my first-born saw the light. I
" can but regard that land even with increased
" love because she has not been prosperous. Yet
" I hold we have no right to intrude our Irish
" patriotism on this soil ; for our first duty is to
" the land where we live and have fixed our homes,
" and where, while we live, we must find the true
" sphere of our duties."

THE difficulties besetting a discharged convict
who desires to earn an honest and respectable
living are materially increased when the convict is
a woman. Mr. Tom Tar Loa's "Ticket-of-Leave
" Man," who kept the popular sympathies alive. for
so long, had at least the world of labour open to
him ; and though when his past career became
known he lost his employment and was shunned,
he was permitted to earn his bread laboriously,
but in peace, until his evil genius found him out.
But a female discharged from prison has to con-
tend against the disadvantage of sex as well as
character. Hence, perhaps, the startling and
shocking fact that "out of 4,340 women
" committed in one year to prison more than once,
" 2,419 had been about ten times imprisoned."
These wretched creatures are excluded from poor-
relief because they are able-bodied ; and are ineli-
gible for the few employments open to women,
because of their bad characters ; and a career of
crime is positively their only resource. The
" Mission to Women Discharged from Prison "
aim at establishing houses of occupation, and to
make it a condition of a ticket-of-leave that those
holding it shall labour a certain number of days
in each week. It is not intended to bestow charity,
but to provide work ; and, as there are in
London at this time 2,000 women of the
class described, with from 5,000 to 6,000
children who are sharing their poverty and learn-
ing their crime, the importance of the work can-
not be easily over-estimated.

BROTH= lONATII7B tells his troubles to the
world through the columns of the Church New.
He mourns the " impiety " of those who have con-
veiled his monastery at Norwich into a cheese
warehouse, but speaks with pride of a building
which has been converted from a large barn into a
chapel at a village near Staines. Here have been
re-established the 'monks of " our first order " who
have charge of a few destitute old men. Some dia.
tent friends imagine that he is making his fortune
out of the offertories at a church is

41b"