The Express.
London, England, 1864-12-13 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 13, 1864.

" whatever mixed up in the matter." If an
" overwhelming portion" of the Belfast Protes-
tants held themselves wholly aloof from the riots,
we can only say that the turbulence of the re-
sidual minority must be of a very remarkable
description. But we are rather inclined to set
down this statement to a sudden attack
of modesty on the part of the office-bearers
of the Institution. It is sometimes found that
men who will boast loudly of what they have not
done will preserve a blushing silence on the sub-
ject of their real exploits ; and on this principle
the Orange lodges, which are never weary of pro-
claiming their unappreciated services to the cause
of peace and order, may perhaps prefer a maidenly
reticence when questioned on thoir apparent par-
ticipation in a carnival of riot and bloodshed. It
remains to be seen whether the Report of the
Commissioners and the trials of the prisoners will
not restore to the Orangemen of Ulster that
proud pre-eminence in factious demonstrations of
which their too retiring leaders seem weakly will-
ing that they should be deprived.
It is a melancholy result of persecution that it
embitters the souls of its victims, and the language
of the Orange manifesto shows that their great and
undeserved sufferings have not been without their
effect. They have put up, it seems, with too much.
"Patience has its limits, indignity cannot always
"be submitted to." The Protestants of Ireland
must no longer groan under the tyranny of those
penal laws which forbid them annually to re-conse-
crate Derry Cathedral by the display of party em-
blems, to soothe the savage breasts of their Roman
Catholic fellow-subjects by the performance of
party tunes, and generally to show their thankful.
ness for past mercies by the infliction of present
insults. The special grievance of 1864 is the im-
punity accorded to the O'Comsetc demonstration
in Dublin. Considering that the "counter-demon-
" stration," as it seems the fashion to call
it, was allowed to have its own way
in Belfast for as many days as its pro-
totype lasted hours, it might have been
thought that, on their own showing, the
Ulster malcontents were scarcely in a position to
quarrel with the supineness of the law ; and if
some English journals had not committed them-
selves to the same view, we should have said that
only an Irish partisan could suppose that the erec-
tion of a statue ought to be equally prohibited
with the burning of an effigy. If the Protestants of
Belfast like to install a figure of WUJ.IAM 111. at
the corner of every street in their town, we are
not aware that there is any law which can prevent
their doing so ; but if the Catholics of Dublin chose
to retaliate by a solemn incremation of the great
Dutchman in St. Stephen's-green, the authorities
would very properly interfere to prevent it. To
honour your own heroes is one thing, to insult
ether people's heroes is another; and the real
grievance of the Irish Orangemen is that they are
not allowed to enjoy the last-named gratification.
Time was when the consciousness of their own
freedom was quickened and intensified by the con-
temporaneous contemplation of somebody else's
chains, and it may be a useful lesson to lriah
Roman Catholic politicians to observe that the one
dream of an Orange lodge is to recover this ex-
hilarating privilege by the overthrow of a Liberal
administration.

lALTLST INTELLIGkINCE.

THE OVERLAND MAIL.

We have this morning received advices in anti-
cipation of the Overland Mail, bearing the follow-
ing dates :—Madras, Nov. 12 ; Melbourne, Oct. 20;
Adelaide, Oct. 20; Sydney, Oct. 24 ; Dunedin,
Oct. 18; Hong Kong, Nnv. 1.
INDIA.

FEARFUL HURRICANE IN THE PRESI-
DENCY OF MADRAS.

The Madras Athena 'on of November 12 contains
a letter sent to it by the government, in which the
collector of the Kiatna district describes the fearful
effects of a hurricane which had just passed over
Masulipatam. This official, writing from Masuli-
patam on Nov. 3, says :

I have to report the moat fearful caLimity to this place.
On the night of the Ist a cyclone commenced at 7 p.m., and
continued to increase in force until 12, from when it gra-
dually decreased until daylight. At 9or 10 p.m. the sea
rose and swept over the whole place, inundating the entire
town and washing away whole streets, it roses foot or so
in my house and more ; three or four feet in some others.
Every house in the cantonment is gutted, and I should
imagine four.fdths of the town ►re totally destroyed.
Not a single house has *tamped serious injury. Moat pro-
videntially there have been no deaths amongst Europeans.
Amongst the East Indian Community, Mrs. Jameson, and
Mr. and Mrs. Scott, of the Engineer's department, and Mr.
Carr have been killed. The native dead may be counted I
fear by thousands.

The typhoon extended certainly 30 miles inland, I do
not know bow much further. The Treasury has been
blown down, but the boxes are there—the records are all
destroyed. I fear the store of medicine in the dispensary
will have been spoiled—also, in the Regimental Hospital.
Pray send up a supply as soon as possible.
There is rice in the Bazaar now, and I do not anticipate
scarcity of food ; thousands, however, are homeless, and
must perish if not assisted. I wish you would get me
sanction to spend what is necessary in that way, and in
clearing ruins and burying the dead. The latter work I
am doing as fast as possible. I want sanction for 30,000
rupees-30,000—t0 ba spent if necessary. I trust it may
not be neceesary to spend so much. I have been out the
last five hours, and am dead best. _ .

The Madras government lost no time in furnish-
ing " medicines, stores, and such essentials," ar.d
it was expected that it would convene a public
meeting to devise measures for organising a relief
fund.

during the voyage. An attempt was made to
take the ship, the particulars of which, however,
I have not yet learned. By her we have an acces-
sion of 257 to our strength of road-makers, two
having died on the passage."
The general election of members of the Legisla-
tive Assembly was proceeding ; 41 out of the 78
who form the assembly bad been returned, 23 of
them only having bad seats in the last parliament.
Almost every candidate who presents himself for
parliamentary honours advocates some revision of
the tariff, and declares himself favourable to the
passing of a liberal land law, the abolition of trans-
portation, and a reform of the Upper House.
Attention Lad been called to the distress existing
in Melbourne and other parts of the colony, and a
public meeting to consider the subject had been
held and a subscription opened. The destitution is
described as chiefly arising among families "who,
through distress, death, or desertion, have been
deprived of their natural protectors."
No changes of any especial importance bad oc-
curred on the gold fields within the previous few
weeks. The tendency still was towards a great in-
crease in the amount of deep sinking, but not one
of the late rushes had assumed large proportions.
The boring rods have disclosed the existeuco of gold
in many likely-looking places, and the more widely
the search is extended the harder it seems to be to
set any limit to the branching and ramification of
these deep loads under a large tract of country,
The late mania for shares has greatly facilitated
the formation of companies, and there will
now be no want of capital for all enterprises
of the kind with any promise of success.
The continued success at the principal deep lead
companies at Ballarat will be best learned from the
returns obtained during the past quarter. Of
these, the Band of Hope Company now stands first
on the list, with a yield of 8,282 ounces, and a
payment of 24,0001. in dividends ; the Koh-i-noor
Company having washed out 6,537 ounces of gold,
and paid to its shareholders 15,6001. during that
time, these payments being in all cases clear of
expenses. The Great Extended is the only other
company at all approaching these in the extent of
its operations, and the quantity of gold obtained
by it was 3,036 ounces, out of the proceeds of
which the large proportion of 10,0801. was paid in
dividends. A number of the smaller companies
are also paying very well just now.
The Melbourne 11.ral says :

The increased activity in nursing matters which was
uctaced last month has continued throughout the present.
and bids fair to result in the permanent establishment of
the confidence of a larger and we dthier clam is goldfields
investments. Mining is no longer the disorganised affair
which it was five or ten yeses ago. Although there are
thousands of small co-operative parties of diggers, and
hundreds of " individual miners," the great bulk of mining
operations is conducted by companies legally crganieed and
registered under an act known as Frazer 's Limited Liability
Act. The older goldfields continue to prove that their riches
are not" worked out," miaow discoveries, or fresh develop-
ments of auriferous wealth, are reported from week to
week. Gipps Land and the Australian Alpe bid fair to
become as famous for their gold, as the European Alps are
for their snow and ice. Ballarat, Dayleaford, Sandhung,
Castlemaine, Malden, and other prominent goldfields are
yielding rich returns, ■nd are daily attracting capital to
further develop their undoubtedly rich mines. The gold-
fiekls are, as a rule, able to care for their own poor, anal du
so in a noble and ungrudging manner, which should act as
a rebuke to certain parsimonious dwellers in the metropolis.

The Argus reports that some improvement in
business was perceptible although confidence was
not re-established. An abundant and strongly-
grown clip of wool was expected, and the market
was buoyant. In the import market, the opera-
tions of the month had been scanty in the extreme.
At the close of September Lour was largely dealt in,
but the almost simultaneous arrival of considerable
cargoes of Chilian at Melbourne,Sydney, and Auck-
land, caused the price to decline rapidly. Adelaide
fell in a few days from 2V. to 24'., and foreiln
from 241. to 201. It has since slightly rallied, but
transactions have of late been confined to the satis-
faction of trade orders. In other grains there has
been little speculation. The clearances of gold
during the week ending the 22nd October have
amounted to 30,445 ounces, making the total ship-
ments since the cominencemeut of the year
1,413,929. ozs. ; of which quantity 1,233,6780z5.
were the produce of Victoria, and 180,2510z5.
transhipments from New Zealand. The shipments
made from Melbourne during the corresponding
period of last y,ar were 1,251,1300z5. of Victorian
gold, and 2.77,0900z5. of New Zealand gold, giving
a total of 1,508,2200z5.
NEW SOUTH WALES.

The dispute between Victoria and New South
Walea on the question of harder Cllstolll.l seems as
far from adjustment as ever. New South Wales has
reveled from her position of seizing dutiable goods
found in Victorian vessels on the Murray, but
customs-houses and officers still guard her side of
the river. The Melbourne government have adopted
a course which bears the aspect of reprisal, and now,
at some half-dozen stations south of the Murray
there are " coast-waiters" and other otlizials to pre-
vent the entry of dutiable guols from tae sister
colony.

Business during C.:, mouth hid Lieu very dull
at Sydney, "but thiA," says the ~udacy 11.
"is generally the season of the year when there is
little doing. The new clip will shortly come to hand,
and orders for the inters r will have to ba executed ;
we may, therefore, expect a general improvement
iu trade. The principal transactions during the
month have beau in flour, sugars, teas, and
beers ; but in other articles of daily consumption
there has not been much doing, aud prices show
litth, if any, alteration. The failures that have
taken place in Melbourne have caused large parcels
of goods to be forwarded to this colony for
and this has checked any advance in those goods of
which stocks were light. Ou the other hand we
have done a steady trade with the neighbouring
colonies of New Zealand and Queensland."

to be eminently satisfactory. The South Au>tra-
lian government intend to charter a steamer for
the conveyance of reinforcements and stores to
North Australia. In addition to the passengers
sho will carry 50 tone of cargo and 400 sheep. By
sending this last portion of her freight an oppor-
tunity will be given to the settlers of at once testing
the question of woolgrowing in North Australia.
Bishop Patteson's Melanesian mission party
were savagely attacked at a village of Santa Cruz
Island by the natives. Two young men were
killed and one wounded. The bishop escaped
unhurt.

NEW ZEALAND.

THREATENED RISING.-RESIGNATION
OF THE MINISTRY.

The hopes of permanent peace with the natives
of New Zealand have been abruptly dispelled. A
number of the disaffected Maories built a large pa
in the Tauranga district, and stopped the surveyors
who were employed in measuring the confiscated
lauds at To Puna, which is on the highway to
the Waikato district. A force of 300 men,
under Colonel Warre, was despatched against
two rebel pas at Matabani and Mataitawa, in the
Taranaki province, which they captured and
destroyed. The only casualty to our force was
one private wounded ; the rebels had one man
killed. Two hundred Maori prisoners, who had
been captured at Rangirira, escaped (as was stated
in a postscript to our last advices from New Zea-
land) from Kawau, an island near Auckland, on
the 12th September. Captain Strange and a party
of the 14th Regiment had been sent after them ;
but at the date of the latest advices it seemed
that they had entrenched themselves in a strong
pa. To add to the complications disputes have
arisen between Governor Grey and his re-
sponsible advisers, which have led to the latter
resigning their offices, but their resignation was not
accepted. "The immediate cause of the rtviguation"
(says the Otago rinks of Oct. 18) "is understood to
have been twofold—viz., owing to opinions ex-
pressed by his Excellencytbat the ministry favoured
the prolongation of the war ; and secondly, owing
to the refusal of the ministry to be responsible for
a proclamation prepared by his Excellency, and
which he would neither abandon nor publish on his
own authority. Its substance is described as an
entire concession to the Maoris. It asks from the
rebels merely a formal submission, and a renuncia-
tion of only so much land as the Governor and Gene-
ral may decide. it does not require them to
give up their arms. Tho ministry agreed to
accept it provided that a stipulation as to giving
up arms was added, and that Sir George Grey
would undertake to require at least sufficient land
to enable the colony to keep faith with the
military settlers. Sir George Grey refused both
requests, and the resignation of the ministry
followed. Cp to this time it seems neither side
resorted to the obviously proper course of desiring
a meeting of the Assembly. Now, however, it is
said the ministry have given that advice, and are
willing to hold office until the legislature meets,
provided his Excellency desires them to do so."

A second edition of the Auckland Gerald of Oct.
Bth, states that the escaped rebels at Omaha com-
pelled the settlers to supply food, and ordered
them to quit their farm.. Further outrages were
feared.

The Otago Times reports that gold fields on all
sides are improving. " Large quantities of the j re-
cious metal are being obtained, fresh ground is
being opened up, mining is being carried ou on a
large scale, and no one seems to deny that there
are ample inducements to justify a considerable
accession to the wining population."