The Express.
London, England, 1857-05-01 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING, MAY 1, 1857.

philosophy, sagely declares that "fa wonder ttl
knowledge begins, in wonderittaila and admiration
fills up the interepacc." Applying thirdphorios
with a slight change to the rase before al, we may
say of Mr. Biowx's connexion with the Royal
British Bank that impudence it began, in impu-
dence it ends, and hocus-pocus tills up the inter-
epees." He opens his account with lat. 45., be
clues it with an unsecured debt e/ 63,00 W., sad
all that intervenes is nothing but the legerdemain,
of the ledger—s mighty mane of discount and
double entry, of imaginary meets and delusive pro-
mises ; when nothing is (leer except the one per-
petual purpose, to borrow without paying ; nothing
tangible except the cash that is always going
out of the Bank till into the ever.gaping pocket
of this model Bank Director.

The story kites in February,lBs3. In that month
Mr. HIIIIPILIET Baowir characteristicallyecenmenoed

hie career as a director, w ith the three nearly
contemporaneous operations of opening an &mom
by a eash payment of 181. 4s. ; taking up the 20
shares neccessry foe his qualification by a note of
load far 1,0001., which was of course never paid; and
electing a small loan on his own account for 2,0001.
This MU in Feb., 1853. By the 2nd of May that
year a MICOIS63II of similar small loans had brought
the total debt to 9,0001., and having once reached
this paint it went on at a rapidly accelerating ratio.
By the end of 1854 it had reached some 30,000!. In
May, 1855, CAMERON, on his return to the Bank
after a three months' illness, found that it had been
incensed to upwards of 74,0001. In November,
1865, it had reached its maximum, and then stood at
77,8081. At this point even CAMERON thought it
time to interfere. On the 26th November, 1833, he

writes b the AIM that mmething must at me be
does—H an krasaiehr sediment is indhpensable "
—" at least a word= Cl tba entstanding debt must
be impolitely paid is cord "—mese Cl the this
stortpied (but maks Imre& nor registered, sad
Iltsidise. es at assessol well know, utterly
1/I.lldles as issollits). snot be " *elected for
ode The Isltst viols sp with three categorical
Mash s-0 I. To provide hemediately additional
eamaitg. 2. To provide he the percent of peat-
dm 16 and overdraws hams% MUGU 3. To
repose for the liquidslion Is las Wolin year of
fie sivasess on ocorrsolibls sesseidss of 21,0791."
Pion* down& then one ma tits MI as oddi-
ties'sl essositios to give, who la so isms of pay-
ing sost4se bills but by other bile 0101 mmer worth-
ies% and wimps convertible merithe we at that
ti pigged to at lad their full vales as ether
peedim, Pleasant, and, of course, bowels It is
line* see bow Mr. Beown bean eg wing ditti-
es/dm which would at once have crushed an indi-
Admit of lees genuine and elastic impedence.
We dad him telling CANZIIOX, in reply, that he
enesidere himself really a much injured mss
He is on the verge of bankruptcy, and ke
moat understand their thus preening kiss.
" Have yea ever done this," he asks, " with peer
previous friends—the originaton of your Cat debt
—with 14•0azoort, MoLuss, Miran; Out:.
num, Owerrez r Ho mos peat peril in the mucus
they are pursuing—set, indeed, in the state of the
accounts and depceita : not a bit of it. " I never,"
he writes, "feel any over anxiety on this score.
I an. always wore afraid Met sow. day SOW eti
UM would eriu in um skareholier's sailed as to

mat transactions aflame hind or smother (mark the
eepheetisee), end Mat *wiry may lead to sufficient
to ask for w ineootilation by de altarelioldera.
_ _

Thew are tho Mediae o-rind. Now, ores

my saying so : you aro seeking tkeee cerybreekerel
se certain as I ineloonlee tAis wry ktter to you."
Notwithstanding this skilhil application of dark
hints and retantous inoeodoe*—the instincts of

sheer self-preurvation were too strong even he the
Bank parlour el the Royal British, and in March,
1666, the &end Director, whose little account then
ausustsd to sous 70,00 W. of unsecured debt, is told
that "a line is drawn," and that his future farms
will sot be honoured. Even this explicit announce-

TO ma ammo or rromßir)
WHITIRALL, Arm. 30.

Chu* morning, at a quarter after fire o'clock, her
Royal Highness the Duchess of Olosesster, aunt to
her Most Gracious Majesty, departed this life at
Gloncester-house, to the great grief of her Majesty
and of the royal family.

(1,1011 TIP COI7IIT CIRCVLAI.)

Her Midway the Queen received, at seven o'clock
=lesuieg, the nionrahl intelligence of the
the Daher of Glonstater,which event took
place without, swift
_at a teeter put five o'clock,
and wu essEd to her Majesty and the
Prises hi the Dabs of Ceiskridge.
The Ifeb of Ossisidge afterwards went to ClA-
reserisems, St. Jame* to notify the sad event to
the Dubs of Nest.
Prime Albert paid vi is in the forenoon to the
Daises el Kent at Clarence-home, and to the Duke
of °Eskridge in Bt. James's Palace. The Prime
afterweetis went to Glonersterlouee.
The Duke of Cambridge visited her Majesty in
the afternoon.
We have authority to state that, in consequence
of the death of the Duchess of Gloucester, the state
imamate at Windsor Castle will be closed until
further orders.
The theatres were closed last evening, and will
be closed on the evening of the funeral of her royal
highness.eih were present at the Jut moments of the
Duchess, the Duke of Cambridge, the Duchess of
Cambridge, the Princess Mary, and the Hee
Grand Ducker of Mecklenburgh Strflitz, virhttlia
remained at Gloucester-home during the night.
Two of the medical advisers of the Duchess were
also in attendance on her royal highness until the
time of her death.
The Duchess of Cambridge, the Princess Mary,
and the Hereditary Grand Duchese of Mecklenbnrgh
Strelita quitted Gloucester-house in the morning for
Kew.

HIE ROYAL DIONNE= PRINCE ALBERT AND
Till MANCHESTER EXHIBITION.

The following appears in the Manchester Guar-
dia's of the day :--‘` eat permitted to mks the fol-

Icons asiousorrat :L' Is caStrkestioa of the inseams')
of the occasica, sad to ceder not to diesystat the vast
rosbees who east bar suds their erreageraits,
hie Royal Highness Priam Albert has caseated to perform
the shin duties allotted to hire upon the 6th sad Oh of
May.' It will be sderstood that with thew empties, hie
Royal Riess last rarer la Stet privaey.—l sr, it,
your reran serest, T)101LOO ChIiZIOOR of
the Kaarstive Cansaltra" .

Ws Mrs already pablithal the programme of tea tow
mold for Tardy amt. We my odd that William
Atkiases, Nag., high shelf at Mollies has intlasiod hie
Mantles of joiator those devoted to met his royal high-
er' at the Cheadle Mita, when his royal highness is
sweets& to INTIVII soca after ism o'clock, by a geoid
aim, Odds will kern Load= at twisty Woks after
six as Tosday madam TM stades (a mall sae) will he
Masted se totially as paellas Fon COO* his royal
Wiliam (foe who.. ens them et the royal corteges, and
air bones, so to strive as Woodsy) will drim to Ahoy
the mat it James Watts, Faq., Natant sliest two
mats Who the preemies (as beim simagsd) snits
at the facia of Osfad-read sad Goodie-greet, ths
7tlt Dramas, oda, the commad of Colossi Botha,
will fall la mimes, sad so premed to Om Palace, the
smoothes to which they will keep, whits his royal bigh-
orn bls sibs Le. star.—Almody the represearatims of
ode*. of Druids, Terseters, Oddldlows, Lc., horn apps
to the experstica to be permitted to Vas the reed trots AO
Wats' estser; sad penisska his bets greatod. Pablia
swim, Orbs the tosmarsble visit of Or *Mt, la
1861, striklegly elbowed that des poi, it Meachernee assd
so odor arrsagooted them sods es this, sad that this weld
be no bearn, to keep ohs lie for the premiss.

THE DUCHESS OF

The death of the last of the fifteen children of
Getup 111. carries back all minds over • large
space of time, and would create a historical interest
in connexion with the death of the Duchess of
Gloucester, if there had been mach lea than there is

of personal interest attending the character of the
amiable princess who has just departed. Her birth,
and :her title by marriage, recall some association'
which it may be useful to revive, under the altered
circumstances of a new century and generation. The
discontents which existed for a time between the

father and the father-in-law of the deceased Princess
produced consequences on her life—and that of most
of her family—and on public morals and welfare,
which ought sot to be forgotten in a review of her
character sad position, and which are not yet over,

in regard to the existing generation.
George TH. married, in 1761, the Princess Char
lotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. He was not satis-
fied with pleasing himself in his own marriage, but
folly expected that his brothers would plow, not
themielves, but him, in their marriages. They did
not do so; and when he was a sober married man,
with half-it-dons children, he was excessively scan-
dalised at the discovery that the Duke of Cumber-
land had married Mrs. Horton, and the Duke of
Gloucester the Countess Dowager of Waldegrave.

There were immediate political consequences arising
from the family quarrel—the Opposition finding their
spirita and fortes at once revived; but a more per-

manent, and far more serious, consequence was, that
the Royal Marriage Act was devised by the King,
and carried through parliament with a high hand,
in the midst of protests and remonstrances from
Burke, Lords Camden and Rockingham, and others,
and many forebodings of the mischief it would cause.
Under this Act no descendant of George 11. could
marry under the age of twenty-five without
the King's consent ; nor after that age other-
wise than after applying to the Privy Cowl-
cil (in care of the Sovereign's disapprobation),
and waiting a year to see whether either House of
Parliament would address the King against the
marriage—which, in that case, could not take place.
It was too late now, happily, to overthrow the
Duke of Gloucester's marriage, which had taken
place five years before. It was declared at court in
the autumn of 1772, the same year that the Royal
Marriage Act passed. The fanaticism of the German
Queen for royal quartering'', which even exceeded
the passion of the Xing for prerogative, was ne-
cessarily mortified this time ; but both were re-
solved that it should be the last. Their children
should marry royalty, or not marry at all. They
never doubted whether they could enforce their
decision when once they had the law on their side.
Certain other, prior, and greater laws of human
nature they made no mount of.
After the birth of two daughters, the discounte-
nanced pair had a son, who remained the only one.
He was born at Rome, on the 13th of Jemmy, 1776;

and all the English in Rome were present at his
baptism, the next month. On the 25th of the fol-
lowing April was born the eleventh child of
George lll.—the Princess Mary, who was to be the'
wife of the little cousin at Rome. The event wee
signalised by a rather remarkable address presented
(on the day of the baptism) by the Lord Mayor and
Corporation of London—an addles* which contained
a sermon on laws, liberties, and the glorious Revolu-
tion, which did not seem to have much to do with
the infant Princess, and which got a very short

answer from the King. That was the time when
the Americans were preparing their Declaration of
Independence, which wee promulgated on the 4th
of the next July; and when M. Necker was put at
the head of French finance—a time at which King
George did not want to hear anything about liberties
and revolutions, and when accordingly all manner
of people were seizing every opportunity of preach-
ing to him about them.
Daring the long course of years in which many of
the other members of the family were involved in the
penalties and perplexities of their rank, with regard to
love and marriage, it was believed that the Princess
Mary and her cousin, the Duke of Gloucester, were
Weald She was interested in his Cambridge life
(his execution being finished there); and she gloried
Is Ms receiving the General's thanks in the field,
vim b was fighting in Flanders, so early as 1704.
proved himself both a gallant and able soldier,
mid really won his rank—which rue to that of
meld-Marshal in 1816. When the young people
wire one-and-twenty the Princess Charlotte was
born; and as it soon became understood that there
would be no heir apparent if the Princess of Wales
lived, the necessity was admitted of keeping
the Duke of Gloucester single, to marry the pre-
semptive heiress of the throne, in case of no eligible
lwelen prince appearing for that function. For
twenty of their best years the Duke and the Princess
were kept waiting, during which interval (in
tie year 1806) he succeeded to his title on
bis father's death. Everybody liked and loved
dm Prima. Mary, who was • pattern of duty
sat sweetness through all the family trials she
to witness and share in; and the Duke,
'Though not a man of much political ability, was in
that part of his life • Whig, and on the generous
sad liberal side of almost every question. We are
obliged to say "almost," because he supported with
his whole force the exclusion of Dissenters from the
Universities, when he was Chancellor of the Univer-
sity of Cambridge, after the death of the Duke of
Grafton. On the anti-slavery question he was as
earnest in his own way as Wilberforce in his, and
kind and helpful in all matters of charity that came
before him. Itomilly tells us a curious thing of him
—that he volunteered, in a trite-i-tite with Sir S.
Romilly, his declaration that Queen Caroline was
innocent, and that her accusers were perjured. lie
latterly became a Tory ; but, for the greater part of
his life, the same genial spirit of liberality and per-
sonal onessomingness distinguished him and the
PI ilium' Mary. As for her, she pleased old and
young alike. Lord Eldon used to tell with delight
a joke of Queen Charlotte's—about the last person in
the world whom any one would suspect of jesting.
Her Majesty used to chime the Lord Chancellor
with flirting with her daughter Mary; and the
Chancellor used to reply that he was not Emperor,
King, or Prince, and that, moreover, he was married
already--a reply which reminds us of that repertedby
Charles Lamb of six Sootehmen, who, on somebody
wishing that Barns was present, all started forward
SI digit seats to declare that that was impossible,
buns, Burns was dead. But we must suppose
GM Km& Eldon, who really had humour in his way,
wmdiewsi tbe above as near an approach to jocularity
as weld be permitted in the presence of royalty.
In 1814, when the Prime of Orange was in Eng-
WA and his father announced his approaching
Essrisge with the Primes Charlotte, Princess Mary
Aim& bright sad happy. Lord Malmesbury re-
mit in Ns diary what her manners were like
lap Or Oho" of youth was pad, and the charm.
ler dwttlined was marked. Ile said she "was
all pribione and pleasantness I" Wing, "bur,
jogiogggig *het ; and I never saw erg
with say pelisses so meetly what she algid* am
And no One Ilying, perhaps, knew IMO 1161111111114

or more of what they really were, than the old di-
plomatist. The Prince of grange went away, and
Princes, Mary drooped. Oesrybody waa saying
that the Date of Gloucester inert be the Princess Char-

lotte's bridegroom after aIL But a few months more
put an end to the long suspense. When the
Princess Charlotte descended the great staircase at
Carlton House, after the ceremony of her marriage,
she was met at the foot with open arms by the
Princess Mary, whose face was bathed in tears. The
Duke and Duchess of Gloucester were married in a

--
few weeks—on the 23rd of July, 1816. The bride's
- •

demeanour was so interesting and affecting that it
opened the sluices of Lord Eldon's ready tears,
which ho declared ran down his cheeks: but the
Chief Justice, Lord Ellenborough, also present,
must have been in another mood. Some persons

—. .
were talking in a corner of the crowded room ; and
the Chief Jtudice called to them, in the midst of the

ceremony, " Do not make such a noise in that corner
—if you do, you shall be married yourselves." It is
rather pathetic now to think of the details of that
marriage—the crowded saloon—the royal mother and
sisters on one side the altar, and the royal brothers
on the other—the bride, though no longer young,
• "

"looking very lovely," in a remarkably airopledress;
to remember how the scene was related at every
fireside in England; and then to think that none of
the family, and probably no one who was present,
survives. No application was made to parliament
for an fulcrum of income in this cue. The bene-
volent habits of the Duke and Duchess had taught
them in a practical way the value of money ; and
they arranged *dr plan of life so as to make their
means suffice, anti leave enough for much support of
schools, and aid to Many a good cause.

They lived together eighteen years—the Duke
dying in November, 1834. It surprised no one that
his wife proved herself the most assiduous and ad-
mirable of nurses during her husband's decline.
After his death, she lived in as much retirement as
her rank admitted, doing good where she could, and
universally beloved. She saw the last of her imme-
diate relatives drop from her side, and herself left
the survivor of that long family train that used to
look so royal and so graceful when returning
the admiring salutations of the public on the
terrace at Windsor. All that long series of
heart-histories was closed. The wretched avowed
marriages, and the wretched, or happy, or charmed
secret marriages, and the mere formal state maw
Timm, which took place in eonaequenee of the Princes
Charlotte's decease, were alike dissolved by death.
What a world of misery could this survivor have
told of, arising from the law-made incompatibi-
lity between royalty and the natural provision for
the domestic affections. The elaborate and public
preparation required by the Marriage Act in her
own case, by which her marriage was made an act
of the state, was painful enough ; bat her lot, with
its one steady affection, long in suspense and late
gratified, was a happy one in comparison, perhaps,
with that of any other member of the family ; and
many a painful meditation must she have had on
that piece of enforced legislation of her father's
early and headstrong years. Those various love
stories are hidden now in the grave ; and she who
was the depositary of so many of them has followed
them thither. There, then, let them rest.
But the lesson they yield should not be
neglected. There was a strong hope that when
our young Queen Victoria, who was at full
liberty, as Sovereign, to please herself in
marriage, had made her choice, this wretched and
demoralising Marriage Act, always reprobated by
the wisest and best men of the time, would be re-
pealed. There were then none left of the last gene-
ration who could be pointed at, or in any way
affected, by such a repeal ; and it was thought that
it would be wise to do the thing before there was a

new generation to introduce difficulty into the cas.
The opportunity has almost been allowed to slip from
us. The royal children have ceased to be children, at
least the elder ones. Meantime, there is, as we all know,
a strong and growing popular distrust, in our own
country and in others, of the close dynastic con-
nexions which are multiplying by means of the per-
petual intermarriages of a very few families. The
political difficulties recently, and indeed constantly,
experienced from the complication of family interests,
involving almost every throne in Europe, are a mat-
ter of universal feeling and conversation. There is
no chance for the physical and intellectual welfare
of coming generations when marriages take place
among blood relations ; and there is no chance foe
morality and happiness when, under legal or state
compulsion, young people love in one direction and
marry in another. No evils that could possibly arise
from marriages out of the royal pale can fbr a
moment compare with the inevitable results of a royal
marriage law like ours, perpetuated through other
generations than the unhappy one that is gone.
Royalty will have quite difficulties enough to con-
tend with, all through Europe, in corning times,
without the perils consequent on this law. Its ope-
ration will expose all the intermarried royal families
in Europe to criticism and ultimate rejection by
peoples who will not be governed by a coterie of
persons diseased in body through narrow intermar-
riage, enfeebled in mind,—strong only in their
prejudices, and large only in their self-esteem
and in their requirements. There is yet time to
save the thrones of Europe—or at least the royal
palaces of England—from the consequences of a col-
lision between the great natural laws ordained by
Providence, and the narrow and mischievous arti-
ficial law ordained by a wilful King of England.
That King is in his grave, and the last of his
children is now gone to join him there. Let
the time be laid hold of to bury his evil
work in the tomb which is now to be
sealed over him and his for ever; and the act will
be gratefully acknowledged by a long line of future
princes and princesses, who will be spared the bitter
suffering of those who have gone before. It can
never be, as was said by wise men 80 years ago, that
royal personages who are declared of age at eighteen
will have no will of their own, in such a matter as
marriage, at five-and-twenty. Marriage is too
solemn and sacred a matter to be so treated as a
piece of state polities : and the ordinance which is
holy in the freedom of private life may be trusted
with the domestic welfare of prince and peasant
alike.

There were thirteen children born from the mar-
doge of Omens 111. with Queen Charlotte —George, Prince
of Wales, afterwards George IV. • Frederick, Duke of York ;
William, Duke of Clarence, afterwards William IV.; FA-
ward, Duke of Kant ; Ernest, Duke of Cumberland, after-
weeds King of Hanothr• Augustus, Duke of Soarer; and
Adolphus, Dubs of Cambridge. Of the six daughter. three
died unmarried, and three were married. The names in the
order of birth Mani thus:—The Prisms Royal, Char-
lotte Augusta, who was mania to the Kieg of
Wortmatmarg; the Princes. Aureate, wb. died unmarried ;
the Prisons Elizabeth, who was married to the Priam of
Home Hombre; the Princess Nary, the lady jut dead,
who was nuirried to her muds the Dub of 1310001/AIR; ad,
lady, the Primaries Sophia lad And* both of whom
died unmarried. With es copious a ram One we.
anger of a disputed methadon or of a vacant throne. It is
depict, however, how few in number an the reprowrata-
tirall of this DUZSMOUS family in the preeset gemeradoe.
QIINZ Victoria, the Kiser eflianomer, and the three diadem
of as late Dabs of Cambridge are, eri believe, now the may
omnivore.

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS.-(THIS DAY.)

Their lordships met shortly after two o'clockizz.44 to
04ring
following royal coma'asioners took their Irate
Infer, the throne, via the Lord Chainellor, the Duke of
Spier err, Earl (inmate, and the Earl of Hu.
rorowatll'. Viscount Evereley took the oaths and his kV.
TM wail lord was introdac:d by Viscounts Combennere and
TcrIiegREIIINTATION OF THE SPEAKER.
_ .

sisissel; iii;;E:emm at the Usher of the Black
Bad, WNW maw if lbe iwwee bra appeared at the tar
axe ate the Leal Canshkenere hd taken their seats.
Nr. EVELYN DENISON ma:—My lordn 1 have to
acquaint your lerdshim that, be .balsa to her Majesty.
command', and in the excretes el k& wadeabled privaersa,
her Mejeety's faithful Commas haw grooeeded to the eleo:
tion of • speaker and that their shale. has fallen upon me,
kaLesseti with my own wirastldsew, I Dow Puked
Ow a amalgam.
IrilleaLOßD CtrCELLON—dis. Telkinlyn Denbo"
we eme eimendell her Pd~euremes:inm.l bert awn
=bee le Wimp lbe Ls
Comm lama mpeasil Ilor
Mtty fay approves of sad gins her mass In their
The SPEAKER—I bow in all humility to bee WV:
will ad Aware, end it now t:comes duty be
by humble petition, on Whey of the Ownnswas thabilgitell
Kppriivdom tro all their &octant and nadeadandasetet
especielly to Peed= of
arrest of themtl!lvvt and their 1111611%
tree same to her Majesty whenever occsaion rq riplus;
and that her Majesty will be pleased to put th• rsmip
vowel:de coustruction on all their acts and words.
The LORD CHANCELLOR—Mr. Spetker, w hrve k
better in ceousand to my that her Majestymeet readily
confirms all the rigida andmivilages which have brenhitherte
granted to har hutMul Commons, either by her Majesty or
any of hear royal predecessors.
The Commons then withdrew, after which some of their
lordships took the usual oaths, and the house adjourned.