The Express. — 1866-05-26 (London, England)

WINDSOR OABTLR. MI 26. To-clay is the anniversary of the birth of tbe Princess Helena. The Queen drove out yesterday afternoon in a oarriageand-four, accompanied by the Princess Helena, and attended by the Dowager-Duchess of Athele. Her Majesty went out in the grounds this morning, with Princess Helena. Princess Louise, Princess Beatrice, and Prinoe Arthur walked and drove. Prince Edward of Bose Weimar dined with the Queen and the royal family yesterday.  fighting. It has been asserted that policemen were in attendance at the Ludgate-hill station to facilitate the departure of the train bound on ita unholy errand ; that the vast resources of the railway company were placed at the disposal of the travellers ; and that porters, officials, and station-master vied with each other in assiduity and civil forethought. It is also said that other policemen were murderously attacked an hour or two later, by the very people their brethren had been employed to protect. We commend this grave anomaly to the attention of the proper authorities. There is high authority as to the fate of a house dividedagainst itself, and if one set of constabulary are encouraged in aidlniexpeditions which include attempts on the lives of another set, far-seeing people will look for the gradual extermination of the force. The circumstances under which officers of the law were made accomplices in outraging it, will doubtless be made matter for inquiry in the proper quarter; but it is on the non-infliction rather than the infliction of injuries that the lovers of order are chiefly to be congratulated. The last rag of superstition is surely destroyed when two candidates for the championship are openly convicted of either dishonesty or cowardice ; and when a costly prize-fight resolves itself into some innocent grimacing and attitudinising between two halfnaked men. Thursday's exhibition seems to have been something between male tableaux vivant* and a circus sparring - match ; and in neither phase was either amusing or exciting enough to be remunerative to those who had sat up half the night, to bravo the chances of maltreatment and robbery, besides disbursing largely for the privilege of being present. No punishment was inflicted, no blood shed, and neither skill nor courage was displayed. But it must be remembered that although stakes were withdrawn and bets declared to be void, this ludicrous fiasco has still an eminently practical side. It is more than probable that several hundreds of pounds were netted by its promoters and their decoy-ducks, who have consequently every reason to be satisfied with the ingenuousness of their dupes. If, as is stated, the railway company shares the sum received for the sale of tickets with the pugilists or their representatives, and if two pounds were paid by each of the five hundred spectators, the result would be, apart from incidental extortions which were both numerous and profitable, that some five hundred pounds were divided among the pugilists and their accomplices. The whole moral of the Prize-ring is comprised in this simple fact. It is maintained for gain, and gain only. The people who profit by its displays are dishonest, cowardly, cruel, brutal, and mean, and without one of the redeeming qualities they have been weakly credited with. The dastardly onslaught made last Thursday on the handful of unarmed men who presumed to do their duty, coupled with the pitiful behaviour of those expected to fight, has brought this truth home even to the hoodwinked dupes whose credulity has been hitherto traded on successfully, and in this ignoble fashion has the finishing stroke been given to an already expiring sham.