The Express.
London, England, 1863-07-25 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, SATURDAY EVENING, JULY 26, 1863;'''

writing itself, the evidence of what are called
experts is comparatively useless. The jury
themselves are quite as good practical judges of
such a matter as any expert, and the fact that
some of the witnemes asserted that they would
have paid a cheque signed an the deed of gift was
signed, furnished strong evidence that it was a
genuine signature. Nor did the case rest here.
Neither Mr. WHITAKER, the solicitor who prepared
the deed of gift, nor Mrs. ROLTPELL, the mother of
Waxiest, was called to corroborate his testimony
—indeed it was only after a severe struggle that
Miss SARAH Roureu„ the sister, appeared in the
witness-box. Yet it is obvious that every one
of these persons must have been intimately ao-
quainted with the old man's handwriting. It is
not surprising, therefore, that the jury should have
hesitated to affirm the validity of the deed in
question.
But there was another point in the case which
must not be overlooked. It is to be obeervcd
that by a will which appeared to be executed by
old Mr. Roureu. on the 2nd of September, 1856,
the whole of his property was left to his wife.
Under this will Withem, who ruled his
mother, had obtained complete control
over the property, and had transferred it to
various persons. But, according to his confes-
sion, this document was a forgery, and therefore
all tho-e who derive titles under it must lose the
property for which they had paid or lent money.
Waxiest Rouraufs story is that there was a w"1
executed in the year 1850, by which the Warley
Estate had been left to his brother, RICHARD
Rol-FELL. This document WILLIAM ROUPELL says
he destroyed after keeping it a long time, and
neither the proctor nor any one else could give
any account of its contents. Upon the supposition
that the deed of gift was a forgery, who would be
entitled to the Warley Estate ? if the will of 1856
was also a forgery, then the Warley Estate would
now be vested in RICHARD ROUPELL. But upon this
there are serious doubts. There can be no doubt
that the old man intended to leave the Warley
Estate to his son Wn.wix, and it is very possible
that the will of 1850, which was destroyed, lea
the estate to him. It it did, then Messrs.
France:4 would still be entitled to retain their
security.
Amid such a chaos of fabrication it is no wonder
that the jury should hesitate. Only a few years
ago the chief witness, Waxiest Rorritu, would
have been incompetent as a witness. It is clear
that in many important circumstances he has
been contradicted, and in many more he has not
been confirmed. There is no need to strain a point
in favour of a family who have shown themselvez
so eager to repair their ruined fortunes at the ex-
pense of innocent persons. It is only right that
the strictest evidence should be required of tho:et
who attempt to throw doubts upon the deeds and
documents apparently perfectly valid and genuine;
and, therefore, the jury have only acted with
iestionable caution in the course which they have
pursued.

LATEST -11fIrELLIG EN CE.

POLAND.

A communication from Stettin, of the 19th, says :

Count Wielopolski arrived here yesterday from Scar-
ped, and left to-day by ste►mer for the Isle of Rage°. Oa
pasting through Bromberg, he was received at the station
by a number of gendarmes who accompsnied him to the
refreshment-room and back to the carriage. The sub-
prefect of Thorn attended him to Snugged. On alighting
from the carriage at the lest named town the count wee
protected by four men armed with revolvers.
A letter from Kovno has the following :

The system inaugurated by General Mouravieff is now at
its height ; no man is sure of the morrow ; the least suspi-
cion or idle denunciation may cause anyone to be arrested
and sent to Siberia. Real dragonades are now being orga-
nised in the palatinate of Kovno ; strong detachments of
troops, accompanied by two or three spiel' (gener►lly libe-
rated convicts), who know the country, are overraaning
every district. On • word from these spies, the troops
carry off the landowners, moot frequently with their wives
and children. In many localities, the parishes of Wendzia-
gola and Lopiow for instance, all the landowners have been
taken away. The prisons are crowded with political off ea-
den ; there are 176 at Kovno, 182 at Rossioae, 143 at
Tanrogow, 131 at Janow, and so on. nem is no town
without • state prison. In every caw arrest is followed by
pillage, for the avowed object of the government is
to ruin the country.
Advices from Berlin state that some uneasiness
is felt in that capital respecting the public feeling
in the Polish provinces of Prussia. The Posen
Journal has received a warning for having pub-
lished the proclamation of the Polish Committee
of Paris, and that journal in its last number de-
clares that it will soon be necessary to proclaim the
state of siege in several districts of the duchy of
Posen and of Western Pramia

Nairn 110.1364
Aberdma 131.14 66
Leith
16
110.01 66
Shields 13.1101
Seerboroush 111.81 66
Greencastle lnn 16
,60.01 al
Valenti* ,30.051001
QUeen4o.ll 130.01 61'
Liverpool 6B'
Holyhead .20.01 6.1
Pembroks 60.0.601
Peommee '60.0860
Brest 130.11
L'Orkmt ,/0.12 161
Rochefort --Skid 61
Plymouth ,60086.1
Weymouth NAN 00
Portsmouth ,10.0 61
Loa
ldbm ..... ROAN 031
Dover
Time* l4llll
Heldery
Hiliffol664 12A113 66

W. WW.
W.
W.S.R.
W. N. W.
N. W.
W.
N. W.
W.N.W.

wi.W.

W.1571r.

OVIIDLY. MONDAY.
N N.& to W.N.W., Norrs•Bairt. N.W. to &W., hash,
moderate. showers.
N. b w.. light to tea, N.N. W. to W. 9 Ws,
showers. fresh, some rain.
N. to W., moderato bourn. W. N. W. to ft S. W..
to fresh some rain. moderate to strong,
shore!".
N.Y.W. to W.&W., Sone&Eese. N.W. to &W., greet
moderato to tract. showery.

!forth-Pat= Mom Firth to Norfolk. West= Doeoot to co,
floath=alsonel and Pkvech Comte. BostivDest=-9tralt
at Dover so Nodolk.

B —Barometer corrected and reduced to der at half tide level.
Bach ten feet. of vertical elevation. casaba/ about one hundredth
of an Inch Manignor . and each ten degrees, above S!e. caus-
ing nearly three handrolths fararasn 11—Expoesti therm..
weeder in shade. D.—Dlfference of wet bulb for meporatioa and
dew poled} direction of (sus—two potato MPS of
magnetic). T.—Force (I to 12 —ceUrnated) X —Biome lee,e
dime last report. Q Quarter whence RITILLUI force (NIVE=?,
to 3:1). I.—lnitials: b.—blue sky. c.—eloods (detached).
f.—fug; ; L—lbehtning m.—rnisty dam) u--overcast
(dull); r.—rain. a.—snow; L—t.hunder. IL.=llaliageg. mow or
htigAtiodomos WI meet B.—Ma dlotorboacy (1 to 9).

EXPRESS FROM PAWS.

peon Oft ow 00111111POIDMIT.)

FARM, FIIDAY anemia.

While the war party speak of the Empress's de-1
parture for Vichy as an event of the highest im-
portance, and represent that it was resolved upon
suddenly, after the break up of the ministerial
council held at St. Cloud on Wednesday, the
France and the Nation affirm, to-night, that the
journey ban no political significance at all ; that
her Majesty had arranged long since to join the
Emperor for a few days, and that her trip would
have taken place sooner but for the death of the
Dnke of Hamilton. _ _

It seems certain that the draft of the French
answer to the Russian despatch has been sent to
Vienna and London for approval. The rumour
that this draft propounds an ultimatum produced a
serious panic at the Bourse. The Rente fluctuated
between the extreme points of 67fr. 46c. and
66fr. 60c., and closed at 66fr. 80c., with a fall of
50c. Mobilier fell 40c. The railways were not
proportionably affected. Orleans fell lfifr., but the
other lines only from 2fr. 50c. to sfr.
The warning to the Nick is the first to which M.
Boudet, the new Minister of the Interior, has put
his name. Supposing him to be personally respon-
sible for it, which is very doubtful, the achieve-
ment does little credit to his discretion. The
Sickle is warned for having suggested that • ple-
biscite would give a great majority in favour
of a war for the emancipation of Poland.
My opinion upon a plebiscite for such
a pulp:se was very crudely mated three days ago.
I thought the proposition the acme of folly. It
appeared to me that the statesmen upon whom was
cast the duty of considering whether the interests
and honour of France required her to resort to
the terrible arbitrament of the sword, would abdi-
cate their functions and their delegated responsibi-
lity if they abandoned the realms of reason for a
hypocritical appeal to that multitude whose igno-
rant and drilled voices can never be, in times of
excitement, and upon a special question, anything
but an echo of the power which affects to consult
them. But I think, no less crudely, that the imbe-
cility of the Slick's article is surpassed by K
Boudet's measure of repression in regard to
it. He pretends that in proposing • plebiscite
—" a sort of appeal to the people," as if there
was some blundering doubt in his mind whether a
plebiscite was anything else than an appeal to the
people—the Siècle has usurped the prerogatives of
the Emperor, and infringed upon the essential
bases of the constitution. What childish folly !
I The astonished Siècle replies, with unanswerable
'good faith and logic, that it never meant to ques-
tion the Emperor's constitutional right to declare
war or make peace at his pleasure ; but that it
bad in view the Emperor's right, reserved by the
constitution, to appeal to the French people (to
whom he is responsible) whenever he chooses.
The Aide Dever presumed to make an appeal
to the people against the Emperor, but
merely illustrated its own opinion of the
feeling of the country, by recommending the
Emperor to make an appeal to the people.
There was nothing unconstitutional in such a recom-
mendation. It was, as I ventured to say at the
time, a very foolish notion ; but it took no hold
upon the public mind, caused no agitation, fell
stillborn, was not thought worthy even of ridicule,
and would have been already forgotten, hsd not M.
Boudet, for incomprehensible reasons, raised it to
the dignity of a crime against the state. K Boudet's
first warning is one of the most absurd that ever
was given, and that is saying a great deal. lam
inclined to think that the greater authority, at
whose bidding M. Boudet must have acted, was
guided in this case by motives altogether foreign to
the Polish question. He wishes to inculcate the
idea that a plebiscite is • tutelary god of his
dynasty, and will not permit that such a sacred and
mysterious name should be taken in vain.
The Mexican prisoners arrived at Brest are said
to be as many as 100 officers and 350 non-com-
missioned officers and soldiers. It is intended to
send most of them to various stations in the south
of France, where the warm climate will be less
unlike what they have been accustomed to than
that of the north of France. Some of the prisoners
who have money have begged permission to reside
in Paris.

The affair of M. Didier, a government member
of the Corps Legislatif, who, being provoked by a
libel in the Figaro upon a lady under his protection,
took the law into his own hands, and committed a
ferocious assault upon M. de Villemessant, was
sentenced to a fine of 500 fr. and two months'
imprisonment, came on to-day before the Court of
Appeal. The judgment is confirmed, with the
single variation that the imprisonment is reduced
to one month.

As a proof that Frecch ironmasters are now
well able to compete with their English and Bel-
gian rivals, the Paris correspondent of a Bayonne
journal states that in recent competitions for sup-
plying 25,000 tons of rails to the Northern Rail-
way and 50,000 tons to the Eastern, both con-
tracts were awarded to ironmasters in the Moselle
at 180 fr. The lowest tender from Belgium was
1901 r.
The Daily News is seised.

At a meeting of the council of the Acclimatiza-
tion Society of Victoria, at which Sir Henry Barkly was
present, it was stated that the Tasmanian government were
about to make further attempts to introduce maroon into
that colony. Information was received also that some deer
and birds for the society had been shipped from Calcutta
and some sparrows and partridges from Ceylon, five pairs
of goldfinches had arrived from Europe, some black swans
and kangaroos had been sent by the society to Calcutta,
and one pair of Wombats to London.
The number of " warnings " given already in
Prussia amounts to 57, eight of which, being the second
warning. addressed to the same paper, expose it to iostaot
suppression. It ought to be borne in mind these aria are
served not by judges but by the police officials—a class re-
movable at will, and entirely in the hands of the government.
THE CHRIETIANS IN TURKEY. —The Levant
Herald set's:—" Whatever may be the fact sa to the
alleged decrease of the Mussulman, as compared with the
Christian population of the empire, there can be no doubt
about ►nother fact which is pregnant with much more solid
hope for the enemies of the present government—namely,
that, agriculture alone excepted, the whole of the industries
and the trade of the empire are yearly passing more and
more into Christian and foreign heeds. If there be say
truth in the axiom of political economy that commerce
the chest agent of a nation's enrichment, and consequently
of its strength, this very obvicus fact is fraught with far
more real danger to blussulman supremacy than any mere
disturbance in the balance of population, however consider-
able or however brought about. The significance of the
enormous increase in both the import sod export trades of
the county during the past thirty years Is therefore nearly
all one way it ww;;:ates a vast advance in the commercial
energy aid wealth of the Christians, and, relatively, a cor-
responding decline in both the rialtos and power of the demi-
omit race."

Passeorrs roe RUM/. Earl Russell, her
Majesty's Secretary of Stasi for Foreign Affairs, has re-
ceived from her Majesty's ootssul-general at Odom •
despatch, dated the Ist instant, Mistier that the Governer
of Odeon had requested him to give public ootiee to British
subject.' that they will Dot be allowed to land at Wear or
to e•trr the Aussie') dominions unless they ars provided
with passports duly wised at some Russian minim or coo.
salsas abroad.—Oar stk.

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.-(THIS DAY.)

The Bevan mimed the house et 12 o'clock, took
his peat at the cloth's table, and await: t the presence of 40
members to make a boom.
_

77t twenty mii;uteep•; 12 the SPFAX Ea took the chair,
exactly 40 members prcr,..rt, the greater portion of
them being member, of the goer. °lnept.

THE FISHERIES (IRELAND) BILL.
On the consideration of the Lord.' amendment. to this
bill,
Mr. BAGWELL said before these Ameadmenta were put
seriatim it would be well to bear what the effect of the
Lords' amendment. would be. _ .

Siclt, PEEL then proceeded to date that the other
house had made many alterations in the bill which would
materially interfere with the intentions of that house.
[Left sitting.]