The Express.
London, England, 1864-01-04 00:00:00

JEFFERSON DAVIS AND THSrOPS.

The following correspondence between the Pope
and President Davis is published in La franc( :
"Richmond, Sept. 23, 1863.
" Very Venerable Sovereign Pootiff,—The letters which
you have written to the clergy of New Orleans sod New
York have been conimuorcated to me, and I have read
with emotion the deep grief therein expressed for the
ruin and devutation caused by the war which is now
being waged by the United States against the States and
people which have selected me as their president, and
your orders to your clergy to exhort the per-ple to peers
and charity. I am deeply sensible of the Chrisvvi
charity which has impelled you to this reiterated appeal
to the clergy. It is fur this reason that I feel it my duty to
express persuoally, and in the name of the Confederate
States, our gratitude for such sentiments of Christian good
feeling sod love, and to assure your Holiness that the
people, threatened even on their own hearths with the most
cruel oppression sod terrible carnage, is desirous now, as it
has always been, to see the end of this impious war ; that we
have ever addressed prayers to Hessen for that issue which
your Holiness now desires ; that we desire none of our
enemy's possessions, but that we fight merely to resist the
devastation of our country and the sheddiog of our best
blood, and to force them to let us live in peace under the
protoctiou of our own institutions, sad under our law.,
which not only ensure to every oneAthe enjoyment of his
temporal rights, but also the free exercise of his religion.
" I pray your Holiness to accept, on the part of myself
and the people of the Confederate States, our sincere thanks
for your efforts in favour of peace. Hey the Lord preserve
the days of your Holiness, sod keep you under His Divine
protection.
. _

(Sighed) " JEFFERsON DAVIS,
" President of the Cuofederate States of
South America."

To this the Pope replied in the following letter:
" Illustrious and Honourable Presideat, salutation.—
We have just received, with all suitable welcome, the per.
sons sent by you to place in our hands your letter dated
23rd of September last. Not alight was the pleasure we
experienced when we learnt, from these persons and the
letter, with what feelings of joy and gratitude you were
animated, illustrious and honourable president, as soon as
you were informed of our letter to our venerable brothers
John Archbishop of New York, end John Archbishop
of New Orleans, dated the 18th of October of last
year, and in which we have with all our streagth ex-
cited and exhorted these ble brothers that in their
episcopal piety sod solicitude they should endeavour with
the most or lent zeal, and in our name, to bring about the
cad of the fatal civil war which lies broken out in those
countries, iu order that the American people may obtain
peace and concord, and dwell charitably together. It is
Particularly agreeable to us to see that you, illustrious
aid honourable President, and your people, are animated
with the same desires of peace and tranquillity which we
have in our letters inculcated upon our venerable brothers.
May it please God at the same time to make the other
peoples of tmerica and their rulers, reflecting seriously how
terrible is civil war, and what calamities it engenders, listen
to the inspirations of a calmer spirit, and adopt resolutely
the part of peace. As for us, we shall not cease to offer up
the moat fervent prayers to God Almighty that he may
pour out upon the peoples of America the spirit of peace
and charity, and that He will stop the great evils which afflict
them. We. at the same time, beseech the God of mercy
and pity to shed abroad upon you the light of his grace, and
attach you to us by a perfect friendahip.
" Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, the 3rd of December,
186:1, of our Pontificate 18.
(Signed) " Pits IX."

The annual meeting and dinner of the Romney
Labourers' Encouragement Association is flied for Than.
day neat. .od it is announced that Lord Palmerston has
consented to preside.

ebt Court.

MONDAY EVENING, JANUARY 4,

OSBORNE. JAIL 2.

LATtSI'

INTELLIGENCE.

ENGLAND AND DENMARK.-THE PRO-
POSED CONFERENCE.

What will England du in Denmark ? This seems
to be the general inquiry on the Continent The
De'bats of to-day says :—" The more England is
pressed on this point the less she seems disposed to
divulge. She knows that at this moment she may
by one false step compromise years of peace '
in the world. That which the English ca-
binet appears most to desire is the meet-
ing of a European conference which would
only be officially charged to resolve the
Dann-Germanic dispute. Austria has the same
wish, and the little German states themselves,
however convinced they may be of the absolute
right of Germany to carry off Holstein, are not
opposed to the meeting of this conference, provided
that the treaty of London, to which the Frankfort
diet has always refused to adhere, is not taken
as the basis of the deliberations. If the
French government seeks a congress, and is ready
to make some sacrifices to obtain it, here is the
opportunity. It can very well accept a conference
intended to deliberate upon one subject alone, and
leave to events—those able negotiators and impe-
rious tyrants whose combinations no one can
baffle, and whose yoke no one can reject—
the task of bringing little by little this
restricted conference to extend the circle
of its deliberations. Who can doubt that
if the representatives of all the European powers
assembled to-morrow without any other proposed
object than to prevent the Germ los from crossing the
Eider, the names of Poland, Rome, Villafranca,
Italy, Savoy, would very soon be upon the lips of
all the diplomatists present ? The most reserved,
the coldest, those who are most masters of them-
selves, would wish in vain to be silent. The goddess
Necessity would know Low to make them speak."
The Nord of to-day says that the French govern-
ment adhered to the proposition of the conference
on the condition that it did not meet at London, as
England wished, and that, moreover, it should
not be exclusively occupied with the Danish
question. The latter condition the French govern-
ment has since given up, and England Las declared
that the place of meeting is a matter of indifference.
Austria, according to the Nord, has demanded as
conditions of its participation iu the conference,
that the Germanic Confederation sends a repre-
sentative there, that the great powers admit the
possibility of a revision of the treaty of London,
and that the execution in the duchy be continued
until the complete &elution of the Schleswig-
Holstein question. The Nord continues :

We do not yet know the reception given by Prussia,
Russia, and Sweden to the propositions of the cabinet of
St. James's, but on the part of the Germanic Confederation
we must expect seriou. difficulties. It is not very probable
that the diet will consent to send a representative to a
conference which would take as its starting point an inter-
national document which has been concluded without its
participation and consent, although the interests treated of
were in a great degree its own. The same reasons make
us doubt the acceptance by the det of the .tustro-Prussiau
proposition relative to an occupation of Schleswig, unless
indeed this aeceptanco is accompanied by certain re.
strictions destined to neutralise that which the
proposition itself contains favourable to the convention of
London. In order to leave so doubt as to their true inten-
tions, the two great German powers have sent to the other
signitaries of the protocol of London a note explaining the
common proposition which they have sent to the Federal
Diet. This Dotedefliel any aggressive intention oo the part of
the two powers, and represents the eventual occupation of
SAleswig as having no other object than to secure the ful-
filment of the engagements contracted by T./enmark. "This
occupation," it is said in the note, "is no more directed
against the rights of the Kiog of Denmark than it is intended
to support those of the Duke of Augustenhurg ;" but the
majority of the Germanic Diet turas more and more to the
vide of the Duke of Augnstenburg, and • vote which was
come to in Saturday's sitting permits us to foresee almost
as a certainty that the Federal Assembly will pronounce
itself on the question of succession in favour of the Pre-
tender excluded by the London treaty.

WEATHER REPORT.-(THIS DAY.)

MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 8 A.Y.

E. U. W.
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