The Express.
London, England, 1855-04-03 00:00:00

THE WAR.

RUSSIAN PREPARATIONS.
A letter from Odessa of the 16th of Much appears
in the New Afloatle Gatette.
"The cavalry corps concentrated around Odom,
=dor the orders of General &babelski, is exolerii
composed of dragoons, to the number, it is sail.
12,000 men. It has received orders to proceed lin:.
mediately to the Crimea, and 11 part of the corps
Iskjosterdey. The seventh army corps, stationed
at moat in 13elearabia, will also leave for the
Crimetu The troops remaining in Bessarabia will
be placed under the orders of General Luders, who
Will fix his headquarters at Bender.
"According to reports received at Vienna and there
held worthy of credit. Sebastopol is provisioned for
three months. The garrison is only 12,000 strong,
but may sadly be reinforced, whilst the bulk of
the army, wider the immediate command of General
Osten Saeken, numbers 40,000 men at the Belbek.
The Bosnians have cut down all the trees in the
district behind Inkermann, and behind the trunks
they have, during the winter, constructed entrench-
ments and batteries in excellent positions. Prince
Gortehakoff intends, it is said, to operate from Pere-
kop and Simpherepol against Bupatoria at the head
of 60,000 men."
The following appeared in the Invalids Busse of
the 23rd ult.:
" In order to complete the telegraphic despatch
from Sebastopol, relative to the erection of a new
redoubt in front of the Borniloff bastion, during the
sight between March 10 and 11, A.D.C. General
Baron Osten-Sat:ken announces, under date of March
14, that notwithstanding the heavy fire of the
besiegers, the work. are being successfully carried
en in the new fortification.
" The fire of the enemy's artillery does us scarcely
any harm; thus, for instance, on the 11th of March
lest no less than 60 bombs fell on one of our bastions,
and yet only one man was wounded.
" The galleries of the besiegers' mine, which we
discover, are constantly destroyed with unvarying
'MOM

"Nothing remarkable has occurred in :the neigh-
bourhood of Eupatoria. According to the statement
of the prisoners, the Turks had about 1,000 men killed
and as many wounded in the affair of Feb. 17."

FRANCE.

rDIIST OP THY DAILY NEWS.)
PARIS. MONDAY EVINING.

M. Drouyn de Lhuys left for Vienna this morning,
having previously sent a circular to the Corps Diplo-
matique in Paris, informing them that by order of
the Emperor he was going to assist at the Con-
ferences, and that the business of the Foreign-office
would be conducted during his absence by M. Thou-
venal (the Director-General). This announcement
seems to indicate that M. Drouyn de Lhuys will be
but a short time away, because in the case of any
long absence of a Minister from his post, it is usual
for the Emperor to nominate another as Minister ad
interim. M. Drouyn de Lhnys will probably reach
Vienna on Wednesday. The Conferences may be
then resumed almost immediately, and the belief en-
tertained in ministerial circles here is that by the
Bth of April—six days hence—♦ome decisive result
will be known.

The Pays says :
It is presumable that tha Freneh Minister for Foreign
Affairs is preparea to declare in the Conference the last
wurd of the Western Powers; that is to say, the extreme
limit of the conosmions which may be granted to Russia
upon the third point of the guarantees exacted from her.
l'lso labours of the Canvas are about then to enter upon
limirmost important phase, sad the most decisive. Public
Zilldwill reader this justice to the Allied Powers, that
yronet spare the most serious efforts in order to make
tbe °maidens foe the re-establishment of peace more as-

captable to Rurfa. But it the governmeit of the Csar is
set inspired by the "'Waage, if it answers by conclusions
et non content to the conciliatory intentions of Francs,
England, and Austria, it will plain itself is a very grave
situation, from which terrible alumina may follow to
Russia. Is cue of the rupture of the Costume's, the
events of the war, of a war long, energetic, and decisive,
us alone dictate the conditions to which the aggrusor
'mat submit.

Various periods have been assigned for the dura-
tion of their Imperial Majesties' visit to England.
A week is the period now mentioned at Court, but of
course the arrangements may be modified from day to
day by circumstances.
M. Ducat, the Minister of Marine, is suffering
from an acute nervous fever which renders him in-
capable of attending to business. For the last few
days M. Abattucci has signed the papers urgently
necessary in the marine department.
The long-expected bill for putting a tax upon
horses and carriages in Paris has been presented to
the Corps Lorislatif. The tax will only affect horses
and carriages used for what are commonly styled
purposes of pleasure. It is calculated that there will
be 10,000 horses liable to the tax (30fr. each), and
7,000 carriages, which will be charged 60fr. for a
carriage drawn by two horses, and 40fr. for a one-
horse carriage. The expected revenue to be derived
from the new impost is 620,000 fr.
At the Bourse the settlement was completed at very
firm quotations. The speculators for the fall were
very generally obliged to carry over their accounts,
and the considerable decline in Consols produced no
sensible effect upon the market. The Rente was
moreover supported by a very marked movement in
railway shares. The Three per Cents. closed at
70fr. 100., with a rise of 200. Northern and Lyons
and Mediterranean Railways rose from 10fr. to 12fr.

Eastern and Southern, 7fr; 600. each. Orleans, 6fr.
Austrian Railways rose lb. 25c. The Stollberg
Mines improved 10fr., the explanations given at a
rural meeting of shareholders yesterday having
somewhat allayed the panic.
I have seen a proof of a pamphlet to appear to-
morrow, entitled "Ls Timbre et l'Exposition Uni-
verselle," by M. Louis Ballet, in which the attention
of government is called to a question materially
affecting the interests of exhibitors. By a law of 6
Prairial, year VIL, every printed prospectus is
liable to a stamp duty. This law was allowed
to sleep for nearly twenty years, and till very
recently commercial circulars, price-currents, &c.,
were habitually sent by post or delivered at private
houses without molestation. Now, however, the
letter of the act is rigorously carried out, and any
printed paper whatever, beyond a mere card with
came, profession, and address, is seized (if not duly
stamped), and a prosecution ensues. The pam-
phlet shows that the cost of the stamp is
in many eases 600 per cent. more than the cost of
printing, and that there are formalities to be com-
plied with which foreigners will find extremely ha-
mming, and argues that, as a measure of interna-
tional hospitality, the law should at least be sus-
pended during the Exhibition.