The Express.
London, England, 1852-07-13 00:00:00

ALGIERS.

Accounts from Algiers, to the sth instant, are as
follows :

A telegraphic despatch, dated Oran, 4th, announces that I
General de Montauban writes, from his camp at Kiss, that
the envoy of the Emperor of Morocco, Abdel-Sadok, was
then in his (the general's) tent, and that everything had
been arranged between them. The affairs in the eastern
province had t then as favourable a turn as those in the
western. General MaeMahon had returned to Constantine
on the 2nd. On the 26th ult. the column encamped at
Chetirfa, in the territory of the Mehatts, and found the
country abandoned. During tho 27th and the 2Sth the
houses and olive grounds were destroyed. The column
afterwards descended into the plain of the Oued-el-Keliir
1 with one hundred men of the rear-retard, who, conducted
with the greatest care and precision by General Hoe-
, quet, dispersed some Arabs who had assembled,
without any loss in killed, and having only nine
of his men wounded. When once the column bad entered
the country of the Oulad-Aidouns it met with no more re-
sistance, and reached Constantine by the upper gorges of
the Oued-el-liebir. General MacMahon, who has con-
' ducted this campaign with great still and perseverance,
sums up its results as follows: The expedition has bad the
effect of impressing on a number of tribes the uselessness
of contending against the French troops, and the ne-
cessity of their making their submission, which they have
done. Among this number is the large tribe of the Oulad-
Aidouns, ono fraetion only of which, the Nefredias, has
abandoned its territory. The Deni-Meslems, the Ileni-bcn-
Aids, and the Beni-Ferguens have joined the French, and
the other tribes will be obliged to follow their example, as
all their communications are cut off by those who have

THE AUSTRALIAN GOLD FIELDS.

PRYAR'S CREEK.
The following letter appeared in the Geelong Ad-
vertiser, end is mated to be furnished by a very respectable
curreqxcodent
" A month's sojourn on Fryar's Creek has given me a
deep insight into the morale of the diggings, and opened
up scenes that I could nut have anticipated during the rosy
days when the weeders of Ballarat first flushed uur imagi-
nations with the prospect of vest fields of illimitable wealth.
At Ballarat, there was peace, unity, and security, but at
Fryar'e Creek these desirable qualities are reversed, wed
quarrels, dimensions, bloodshed, and danger of the direst
description reign supremo. The government is palsied,
whilst the iliglon runs on a career of unchecked crime and
rapine, or at the most is checked by an occasional
pistol shot, or similar act of summary justice, responded
to by a groan, and the effect mend, steel next morning by
blood steins, when a few observations are bandied shout
from tent to tent that a man was shot, and no more ix beard
of the matter. A surgeon is called in to attend a wounded
man, no questions are asked, the fee is paid, and if the
man die, lie is disposed of. I speak from experience, and
fearlessly say that ire retiring to rest the same precautions
are necessary, and are had recoune to, es though one were
in the beart of au enemy's country, and feared a midnight
onslaught—guns awl pistols arc loaded—sentinels up.
pointed fur the nightly watch, and intruders at their peril
aro warned to stand off; and if wild justice be occasionally
executed, the evil cannot ho imputed to those who
stand in defence of selves and their hard-earned
treasures, but to the necessity of the time, suet
the laxity of the ruling powers. Such a state of things
cannot endure long. If the ordinary routiuo of justice
be unequal to the emergency, resort will be had to that
which is commensurate to the occasion—that resort is u ter-
rible one---hut it is now coolly asked by many, whether it
would not be better to establi.le a Lynch law than to allow
thieves a plenary impunity. It is a epostion now, 'whether
Lynch law would not be better then no law at all?
Whether the henest man shall take the law into his own
hands, and •promptly enforce it ? Or whether the thief
shall prey upon him with impunity ? It is fearful to con-
template such a state of society, it society it can be called,
where every baud is broken asunder, and every man is
thrown back upon himself fur protection, with only his
physical force to defend hint; and in such a state of affairs,
Clod foe bid that I should advocate the establishment cal
a Lyne'l law, except from dire necessity, still 1 cannot
abut my eyes to the tact that something must be done,
and that something be done elfie eciously, or like and
property will not be worth a farthing purchase. The
life, limbs, and property of an honest men must not be left
at the mercy of a band of robbers ; crime must nut be
allowed full swing and permitted to culminate because a
government is powerless, or the usual routine of law
fettered. New phases of society demand new measures;
great evils, strong remedies; and audacious crimes prompt
repression; and that it is thought can be best administered
on the spot where the crime is committed, and in the pre-
sence of those who have been maltreated. So far is the
necess.ty of Lynch law kit, that I am satisfied if it were
propounded by any influential man on the diggings, it
would be hailed with aeclamicion. The inhabitants of towns
cannot conceive the feeling of danger prevalent here ; it is
not a Um', but a consciousnees of uncertainty, and an indig-
notion of the audacity with which thefts are planned and
executed. Men have been stopped aud rifled on the high
road at mid-day, and 1, standing with three other men,
saw a man seized, his arms pinioned, and his pockets
emptied, without during to assist him; so numerous were
the associates of the thieves retching him. Now I ask you
to imagine such a scene perpetrated before you, what would
your feelings be? When such union for ill exists, surely it
es time that union for good should take place to counter.
balance it. Better a Judge Lynch than Turpiniem : better
the wildest justice than a thief's millennium; better that
the individual robber should occasionally suffer a severer
punishment than the crime might deserve, than that the
honest community should be continually robbed, and life
and property be subjected to the tender mercies of mere,
whose glory it is to rob industry, that they may live in
drunkenness and debauchery, mad turn justice into mockery
and contempt. Better Lynch than nothing. The yield
in this locality is greatly diminished, the water is ex-
hausted, the heat oppressive, bad eyes and sore flesh preva-
lent, and numbers of people arc daily leaving for town."