NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE Queen, having left Linden two hours after noon on Wednes- day, is now enjoying the entire seclusion of Balmoral. The " pro- gress" was as uneventful as the most loyal could desire, although from London to York her Majesty travelled over new ground. There was nothing of novelty in the loyal demonstrations of the previously unvisited portion of her subjects, except on the part of an ingenious siinire near Darlington, who conceived the idea of mustering his hounds to enjoy a sight of the Sovereign in common with their two-legged fellow subjects.
Once fairly out of the Metropolis, the rapidity of the Royal movements—the train which bore the Queen appearing and disap- pearing with the noiseless swiftness of the swallow's flight—con- trasts wonderfully with the lumbering advances of sovereigns in old times, which set whole counties in commotion, and placed their in- habitants on short commons for weeks after the purveyors and hungry courtiers had departed. But one incident in London carries the mind back to the beginning of the seventeenth century. It is recorded of gentle King Jamie, that on one of his journies to Theo- bald's, his coach was overturned, and stuck fast in the mire at the turning of King's gate out of Holborn : and, to avoid the risk of a Similar contretemps, the loyal authorities of St. Pancras had this -week to shut up the portion of the New Road between Easton Square and King's Cross, as unsafe,—thereby compelling her Ma- jesty to find her way to the railway station through nameless and uncouth by-streets. Civilization has carried into the innermost re- cesses of the Highlands roads as good and safe as any in the vi- cinity of the Metropolis ; but in some parts of London streets are still to be found as ill-conditioned as they were in the year of grace 1620. In the olden time, the sheriff of each county mustered his retain- ers to escort majesty through his jurisdiction ; and right stately was the solemnity with which each sheriff, at the outmost limits of his jurisdiction, transferred the important charge to his neigh- bouring dignitary. In our day, the chairmen of railways with their superintendents of engines appear to have succeeded to these functions of the sheriffs. The ceremony of transferring the care of the royal person from the authorities of the Great Northern to those of the North of England, is as imposing as the same Ceremony could be in the hands of sheriffs of the olden time.
There are some changes so marvellous that they are long in ceasing to be novelties. Notwithstanding our familiarity with the speed of railway travelling, and the rapid transmission of news by electric telegraph, it is still with a sense of wonder that one reads at breakfast on a Friday morning, how the Queen, who was in London after noon on Wednesday, enjoyed an airing in the streets of Edinburgh, and conferred the honour of knighthood on its Pro- vost, on Thursday before dinner. But this is in keeping with the other marvels of the year of the Great Industrial Exhibition.
