The Express.
London, England, 1863-12-30 00:00:00

THE SULTAN AND THE CONGRESS.

-.
The Monitsur of yesterday publishes the reply of
the Sultan, whom it styles Emperor of the Otto-
mans, to the Congress proposition. The following
is a translation :

I have received from the Marquis de Moustier the letter
in which your Imperial Majesty refers to the present posi-
tion of Europe, and to the necessity of assembling in Coo-
per in order to concert and to adopt proper measures for
settling the present and assuring the future.
I cordially thank your Imperial Majesty for the 'esti.
manta of sincere friendship you have displayed towards me
on this occasion, and I beg you to believe in the perfect
reciprocity of my sentimente, as well as is my most ardent
desire to prove to you the high value I attach to seeing
streegthened the bonds of that secular friendship which so
happily exists between the two empires.
Sovereign of an empire the interests and prosperity of
which depend, io great part, upon the maintenance of peace,
I shall experience a genuine satisfaction in seeing it estab-
lished upon a solid and durable foundation.
As for my personal views upon the proposition of your
Imperial Majesty, I refer you to the conversation I have
bad with your representative, and to the friendly commu-
nication I have charged my ambassador at your Majesty's
court to make to your government.
I avail myself of this occasion to renew to your Imperial
Majesty the •115112141100 of my sincere affection and inviolate
attachment.
Constantinople, the M
). ITI Dj6nazi-uliskher, 1280
(sth ber, 1863
The foregoing letter is followed by the following
document, headed, "Note containing an account
of the audience of his Majesty the Sultan, addressed
the 24th Nov., 1863, to the Minister of Foreign
Affairs, by the Marquis de Moustier."
The ambassador, in
.plecing in the Sultan's hands the
letter of the Easpitioi, feria, ands iniewn ine coatsais.

The Sultan replied :—I highly appreciate Use imperial
idea, and I sincerely thank his Majesty for his letter. I
cannot doubt the Emperor's sentiments with regard to me ;
and the entire Ottoman nation, I am sure, will be extremely
sensible of the step his Majesty bas just taken towards me.
I should be very happy to avail myself of this occasion
of making the personal acquaintance of such a sovereign as
the Emperor, for whom I have • profound friendship, and
at the same time to visit such a beautiful city as Paris ; but
if I had known beforehand the basis upon which an under-
standing was to be established it would have been perhaps
much better, as in that case I should hare acted with • full
knowledge of everything.
The ambassador immediately replied :
As the Emperor states in his letter that be bad no pre-
conceived idea he could not draw up a programme. Con-
fiding in their wisdom, he has confined himself to indicating
to all the sovereigns his allies the situation fall of danger in
which Europe is placed. It is to the Congress aloes that
it appertains to decide the points upon which an understand-
ing is to be established, and in appealing, for the peeition
and the solution of all the questions, to • general discussion
the Emperor has given • guarantee sufficient for every
interest.
The Sultan replied :
My observation concealed no sentiment of opposition.
I understand now, by the explanation which the ambas-
sador has just furnished to me, the difficulty that there
really is in knowing beforehand the points which would
form the object of the deliberations.
I accept, therefore, the invitation which the Emperor has
addressed to me ; but as my presence alone in France would
not be sufficient, I shall only undertake the journey if the
other sovereigns themselves go to Paris.
" In one word," said the Sultan in conclusion, and with
• certain emphasis, " I beg the ambassador to feel con-
vinced that if the meeting of the Congress takes place
Turkey will not be the last to be represented at it."
The ambassador having thanked the Sultan for
what he had just heard fall from his lips, his
Majesty ended by saying :

I am about to reply to the letter the ambassador has
delivered to me, sod tee Emperor will be satisfied in every
respect with my reply,

The barque Victory, of Newport, 300 tone,
laden with steam oo•l, foundered about four miles off Dim-
comb. on December 24. As she sunk she blew up, either
from confined air or gases. Her crew were picked up by •
smack, and taken to Newport. Portions of the wreck have
since been found in the Bristol Channel.
ANOTHER COLLIERY EXPLOSION.—Between the
hours of seven and eight o'doek on the morning of Satur-
day last, a fearful explosion took place at the Gin Coal.
pit, at Maeeteg, the property of the Llynvi Vale Iron
Company, when 13 or 14 person■ lost their lives by
fire-damp. The following is • hat of the bodies already
brought up when our report left—namely : William Isaac,
carpenter, left a wife and seven children ; William Elise,
lately married ; John Bevan, left a wife and three children ;
David Williams (and soot, • married man ; David flees, mar-
tied ; Morgan Thomas, single ; William Davies, single ;
Benjamin Item, single ; William Jones, single; and David
Jones, single.—Cambria Daily Leader.
_

Harr.}.—Le item have been received
from the Rev. J. Haldane Stewart, the rector of Ilillbrook,
Hants, who is travelling in the Cape of Good Hope. He
wu 900 miles inland, and intended crossing from the Cape to
Natal, visiting the Bunts and Moshah countries, with
some toissionaries and their wives. On Christmas-eve the
election of an illuminated clock at Hillbrook Church was
celebrated by the pati.bioners. It is their testimonial to the
rector, erected during his absence, in ceder to agreeably our-
prier him on his return. The clock ham oast 120/., and is
one of the &met io the neighbourhood. Its striking ceo be
beard a distance of tour miles. Mr. Thomas, the ecclesias-
tical horologist, of Southampton, who erected it, has also
put up one at Marchwood, a neighbouring church, the
striking of which is heard se immense distance along South-
ampton Water on a still night.
ARING-CllOOl RAILWAY. The government
inspector not having yet made his report to the Bard of
Trade the railway cannot be opened to the public
on Friday as expected. In the meanwhile there is
only some exterior fiaishieg work to be done, and
the interval will be employed most properly in drilling the
company's staff into the working of the hoe and signals.
The Customs Department platform at the Charing-cross
Station, to which the Customs business now carried on at
Folkestone will be triusferred, is finished and ready for