The Express.
London, England, 1864-01-11 00:00:00

SPAIN.

MADRID, Jill. 9.

Marshal Narvaez declared to-day in the Senate
that he had always considered that Gibraltar be-
longed to Spain, and regretted that Spain had not
long since claimed it.
Some changes are expected in the Ministry on
account of the constitutional question.
The journals announce the arrival in Madrid of
representatives from the foreign holders of the
Passive Debt.

THE DANCrBIAN MONASTIC PROPERTY.
CONISTARTIITOPLF, JAL 10.

In addition to the Porte, the British,

Austrian,

Prussian, and Russian Legations, bays protested
against the vote of the Moldo-Wallachian Chambers,
confiscating the property of the Danubian mo-
nasteries.

STEAMERS DUE AT LIVERPOOL THIS WEIL.—
Than are three steamer. due at Liverpool this week with
mails f rem the United States end Canada. The stammer
Edinburgh with New York dates to Jaanary 2nd, may be
expected to reach Queenstown is the course of Wadi:leads
mat, and the Montreal steamer Jun from
Maine, on the same day, rill no doubt arrive at Londonderry
late to-morrow (Tuesclav) or early on Wednesday morning.
The Cunard steamer Asia from Beaton on January 6th, and
Halifax Seh, may be looked for at Quesastown on Saturday
=arguinEg.
TH DIREANDMENT OP CAPTAIN SHIEARD
OgEoßteß CETEESE SQOAIMOI.—In a private letter reeelved
at Port:mouth from the Kangaroo, one of the vessels 0011 I•
peeing the Anglo-Mimeos squadron under the eonansed of
Capita Shined Osborn, we have the following portico-
him :—" The Mame government wished, to supersede
Captain Osborn, and make him subordinate to the loaf
maadarine ; bet he explained to them that by so doing they
would oblige hi= to rssi,m as L would be bombing the
promises he wads to the loses government la taking ser-
vice ander any but the kiwis' governmest, so they have den
=mined to do within= on altogether, giving up all the
I ships, and settling all demands up to September ant
year (1864)."

Longstrest's predicament in the mountain*
is curious, and to him, no doubt, exoeedingly
perplexing. After his unsuccessful assault on the
works at Knoxville he retreated northward, sou to
get into communication with Lynchburg by railroad*
On the goad, and particularly at Beans station, he
had one or two hard fights, and has lost a
quantity of his baggage, but he seems to have made
good his retreat to the borders of Virginia, and at
the last accounts was entrenching himself in that
neighbourhood, with the apparent intention of
holding his ground until the spring. Since then,
however, an incident has occurred which promises to
increase his difficulties immensely, and in fact se-
riously imperil his whole force. General Averill,
with 3,000 cavalry and two batteries of light artil-
lery, bas achieved another of those extraordinary
"raids" for which the Federala have now made
tleoleakres famous—an exploit which, if possible,
outdoes.Kilpstriek's ride round Lee's army, and
Gtierson's gallop through Hiasissippi. He has made
his way through the lines of Western Virginia in
the most terrible weather, and cut the Virginia and
Tennessee railroad behind Longstreet, destroyed the
track far several miles, and a large amount of the
rolling stock and other property belonging to the
government, and succeeded in making his way back,
eluding large bodies of cavalry and infantry massed
on all the roads in order to intercept him. This of
course leaves Longstreet en air, at least for some
weeks ; and if we are to believe the telegraphic
summary of the contents of the Richmond papers
forwarded yesterday from Fortress Monroe, they
all speak in very lugubrious strains as to the
effect that this will have on his position. It is not
likely that he has any accumulation of supplies,
and has probably been living on such stores as
reached him from day to day ; the region in which
he finds himself bad been stripped by Burnside
before be reached it, and now that his communi-
cations with Lynchburg are cut, it is hard to see
what he can do, except abandon his baggage and
heavy artillery, and make his way homeward in
light order' and as rapidly as he can. "What
Longstreet bee accomplished in East Tennessee,"
says the Richmond Eactminer, "may be summed up
in one word—nothing !"

Except Longatreet's force, and the corps under
Foster that is pursuing him, the armies on both
sided may now be said to have settled down into
winter quarters. Grant is occupying himself busily
in soaking railroads, in accumulating supplies, and
pushing forward other preparations for the spring
campaign. The soldiers both of his army and that
of the Potomac are enlisting almost en mane for the
war, under the stimulus of high bounties, and with
that distaste for civil life which is sure sooner or
later to come upon most men who have once
followed the drum. It is calculated, from present
appearances, that at least three-fourths will remain
in the service, and all these are, I need hardly say,
now thorough soldiers, inured to fatigue and priva-
tion, and ready for whatever tarns up. The spirits
of the whole force, both east and west, are said by per-
sons competent to judge, and not likely to deceive
themselves, to be magnificent. The doubting and
misgiving which infested so many souls amongst
the ottloers as well as amongst civilians, this time
last year, have all passed away, and 1 think there
are very few meu in the army now, as there are but
few men in the country, in whose eyes the conquest
of the South is not a foregone conclusion. I hear
of doubt nowhere : the questions of emancipation—
of negro soldiers—of confiscation—the fears about the
national debt seem now to trouble nobody any
longer. There may be another campaign people
say, or there may be two; there will pro.
bahly be some trouble in bringing about com-
plete pacification, and in settling the state
of the negro freedmen. Ent what of it t The end
is certain ; we shall conquer the South, and do the
best we can afterwards. The national debt will be
but a fleabite for such a population as ours, living
in such a country, and growing at a rate which, won-
derful so it is, still leaves us hundreds of millions
short of the number needed ,to develop the re-
sources of this great continent. If the South is
turbulent and seditious, we shall simply flood it
with free immigrants from the North, and there
will be the end of all further disturbance. The
negreea will have to labour or starve, and they will
labour better for wages than under the whip, and
a loya: population will produce more wealth from
the cotton States than the slaveowners ever
dreamed of iu their palmiest days. European pub-
licists statesmen may write and talk as lunges it
pleases them about the failure of our form of go-
vernment : ai long as the people who live under it
are not of that opinion we shall not suffer serious
injury from hostile criticism. That all the great
ends of government are better answered here than
anywhere else is proved by the devotion of the
people of the North to the republic—a devotion
unparalleled, as the events of the last two years
have shown, for both intensity and unanimity.
In what country of the world will you find, even
under the pressure of war and taxation, so few
malcontents, so few who long to live or to bring up
their children under any other sky 1 The govern-
ment shall have as many men as it wants, as much
money as it wants, and we shall never give up the
struggle as long as there is a rebel in arms any-
where on the continent.

This, or something to this effect. is what you may
bear from almost any American you choose to talk
politics with. I give it you for what it is worth. Two
year* ago people in Europe were rather apt to set
down this sort of language proceeding from Ame-
rican lips as mere gaaoonade. Whether it is so or
not, I think we are all of us better able to judge
now than we were then. I see the Times corre-
spondent at the South at last acknowledges that
the Northern dream of unity and dominion is
certainly a fact which shows itself on the battle-
field and un the march, and that the Southern pas-
sion for independence and " uiggera" may, after all,
have "to pale its ineffectual fires" before
the steadier glow of that " fell fanaticism,"
which has urged the free States into
this conflict. If he feels this in the heart of
Socessiondoei, how would he feel it bore I The fact
is, though I admit it is somewhat difficult to com-
municate the impression of it on paper, that the
remorselessness of the Northern purpose with re-
gard to the South makes itself felt in the very
bones of anybody who lives amongst the Americus,
and has any sympathy with them. It may seem
when you examine the material situation and
prospects in detail, that the war must go on, that
peace must come'soon, and the independence of the
South beackuowledged. There may ben thousand