The Express. — 1867-10-16 (London, England)

TOPICS.  The shocking scene on the scaffold yesterday is referred to by several of our contemporaries. The asseveration of innocence on the part of Wiggins maintained to the last will fail, in the opinion of the Herald, to convince anyone who has read and considered the evidence given at the trial.  The Trlrgroph Woltz, on the contrary, that no one will say the evidence was conclusive. One jury bad declined to charge him with murder, and the other debated very long and decided with difficulty. A profound disquietude about the right and the advantage of official homicide pervades the community, and a sight like that which yesterday made Newgate hideous, quicken/ the mind with horror, with compassion, and most terrible of all, with the whisper of human fallibility.  The Post hopes the precedent set in the can of the intended prize-fight yesterday will be followed on future similar occasions. Prize-fighting is as vile and odious as any of the brutal pastimes of the middle ages which we plume ourselves so often and so greatly upon having abandoned at the call of decency and humanity. But if it were the noblest and most elevating pursuit in the universe, so long as it is illegal, so long will it be a disgrace to the country that it should be permitted, if not winked at, by the police.  The Star suggests that many a man whose cowardice presents a remarkable contrast to Mr. Mace's daring has been less fortunate than he in obtaining relief In mo. mente of exigency. Mr. Mace's demeanour when at rested appears to have been all that it should have been. The Star is not ill satisfied that the failure of the men to meet will contribute even more than the magistrate's sensible decision to disgust the public with the prize ring, and to save incorrigible gulls—though that matters little—from future payments for the felicity of early information when fights are not coming off, and of snugly se Lting themselves with their clothes torn to ribbons by the roughs in untimely railway trains destined nowhither.  The Standard is well pleased with the result of the Bradford election. There is nothing in Mr. Miall's public career that can recommend him to the suffisges of any constituency which is not entirely swayed by the most narrow-minded radicalism.  THE ABYSSINIAN EXPEDItIoN.—The Euphrates and two other steamers—the Coromandel and the Scinde —having on board the exploring party, under the command of Colonel Blerewether, left Bombay on the 13th of September last. The Euphrates and Coromandel reached Aden on the evening of the 26th, after a bad passage, the latter vessel having lost ten mules out of 149 on board. The Scinde, having the tent equipage on board, had to put back to Bombay through stress of weather. The expedition consists of 100 rank and file 21st Bombay Native Infantry, and 40 troopers 3rd Bombay Cavalry, and the undermentioned officers :—Lieutenant-Colonel Merewether, commanding ; Lieutenant-Colonel Wilkins, chief engineer ; Lieutenant-Colonel Phstyre, quartermaster-general ; Major Bigree and Lieutenant Pottinger, quarter. master-general's department ; Captain Goodfellow, field engineer ; Lieutenant Jopp, assistant field engineer; Major Blignion, Lieutenant Hemmel, and Lieutenant Mortimer, commiesariat department ; and Dr. Martyn and Dr. Lams. define, medical officers. The party were expecting to leave Aden on the 29th for Maspowah. The principal objects are :-1. To find a suitable harbour and shore for debarks, tion, and location of some 200 steamers and transports. 2. To find a good route and post inland on the high land some 60 miles from the shore. It is probable that the landing-place will be fixed in Annesley Bay, which is some distance south of Massowan.