The Express.
London, England, 1862-10-06 00:00:00

ARRIVAL OF THE AtTI3'FRALASIA.N.

The Royal Mail steamship Australasian, Cap-
tain Cook, which sailed from New York on the 24th
and called off Cape Race on the 27th September,
arrived in the Mersey about 11 o'clock yesterday
morning.

The following highly-important proclamation in
reference to slavery has been issued by President
Lincoln :

" By THE PRESIDENT OP TEE UNITED STATES OP
AMERICA.
"PROCLAMATION.

"WASHINGTON. Sin 72.

"I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United
States of America, and Commander-in-Chief of the
Army and Navy thereof, do hereby proclaim and
declare that hereafter, as heretofore, the war
will be prosecuted for the object of practically
restoring the constitutional relations between
the United States and the people thereof, in
which states that relation is, or may be, suspended
or disturbed ; that it is my purpose, upon the
next meeting of Congress, to again recommend
the adoption of a practical measure tendering
pecuniary aid to the free acceptance or rejection of
all the slave states, so called, the people whereof
may not then be in rebellion against the United
States, and which states may then have volun-
tarily adopted, or thereafter may voluntarily
adopt, the immetl;.ate or gradual abolishment
of slavery within their respective limits ; and
that the efforts to colonise persons of Afri-
can descent, with their consent, upon the
continent or elsewher3, with the previously
obtained consent of the governments existing there,
will be cont;nued ; that on the Ist day of January,
in the year of our Lord 1863, all persons held as
slaves within any state, or any designated part of a
state, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion
against the United States, shall be thenceforward and
for ever free; and the executive government of the
U nited States, including the military and naval autho-
rity thereof, will recognise and maintain the freedom
of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress
such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they
may make for their actual freedom ; that the exe-
cutive will on the Ist day of January aforesaid, by
proclamation, designate the states and parts of
states, if any, in which the people thereof respec-
tively shall then be in rebellion against the United
States ; and the fact that any state, or the people
thereof, shall on that day be in good faith repre-
sented in the Congress of the United States by
members chosen thereto at elections wherein a ma-
jority of the qualified voters of such state shall
have participated, shall, in the absence of strong
countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive
evidence that such state and the people thereof
have not been in rebellion against the United States.
" That attention is hereby called to an act of
Congress, entitled An Act to make an additional
Article of War,' approved March 13, 1862, and
which act is in the word and figure following :

"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Represents•
fives of the United States of America in Congress usem-
bled, that hereafter the following shall be promulgated sa
an additional article of war for the government of the army
of the United States, and shall be obeyed and observed as
such

" Article.—All OffiColl or persons in the military or
naval mince of the United States are prohibited from em-
ploying any of the forces under their respective commands
for the purpose of returning fugitives from service or labour
who may have moved from any persons to whom such ser-
vice or labour is claimed to be due, and any officer who
shall be found guilty by • court-martial of violating this
article shall be dismissed from the service.'
"Section 2.—And be it further enacted that this act
shall take effect from and after its passage.
"Also to the ninth and tenth sections of an act
entitled An act to suppress insurrection, to punish
treason and rebellion, to seize and confiscate pro-
perty of rebels, and for other purposes,' approved
July 17, 1862, and which sections are in the words
and figures following :

"Section B.—And be it further enacted that all slaves of
persons who shall hereafter be engaged in rebellion against
the government of the United States, or who shall in any
way give aid or comfort thereto, escaping from such persons
and taking refuge within the lines of the army, and all
slaves captured from such persons, or deserted by them, and
coming under the control of the government of the United
States, and all slaves of such persons found on (or being
within) any place occupied by rebel forces, and afterwards
occupied by the forces of the United States, shall be deemed
captures of war, and shall be for ever free of their servitude,
and not again held as slaves. _ .

"Section 10.—And be it further enacted that no slave
escaping into any state, territory, or the district of
Columbia, from any of the states, shall be delivered up,
or in any way impeded or hindered of his liberty, except
for crime or some offence against the laws, unless the per.
son claiming said fugitive shall first make oath that the
person to whom the labour or service of such fugitive is
alleged to be due is his lawful owner, and has not been in
arms against the United States in the present rebellion, nor
in any wa► given aid and oomfort thereto ; and no person
engaged in the military or naval service of the United
States shall, under any pretence whatever, assume to
decide on the validity of the claim of any person to the
service or labour of any other person, or surrender up any
person to the claimant, on pain of being dismissed from the
service.

"And I do hereby enjoin upon and order all per-
sons engaged in the military and naval service of
the United States to observe, obey, and enforce
within their respective sphere of service the act
and sections above recited.
"And the executive will in due time seeotamend
that all citizens of the United States who shall have
remained loyal thereto throughout the rebellion
shall, upon the restoration of the constitutional
relation between the United States and their
respective states and people (if the relation shall
have been suspended or disturbed), be compen-
sated for all losses by acts of the United States, in-
cluding the loss of slaves.
"In witness whereof I have hereunto set my
hand, and caused the seal of the United States to
be affixed. "AMIABLY LINCOLN.

"Done at the City of Washington, this 22nd day
of September, in the year of our Lord 1862, and
of the Independence of the United States the 87th.
" By the President,
" WILLIAM H. BZWARD, Secretary of State."

The Federal government Lad already commenced
the carrying out of the emancipation policy, u the
following correspondence shows :

To the Hon. E. M. Stone:in, Secretary of Wiz, Washington.
Cairo Sept. 18.

General Grant is sending here a large lot of negro women
and children, and directs me to ask you what to do with
them. Partiea in Chicago and other cities wish them for
servants. Will I be allowed to turn them over to respon-
sible committees to be so employed I If so, cen I transport
them at government expect*?
J. Y. Turn.;
Brigadier-General, Commanding District of Cairo.
To Brigadier-General Tuttle, Commanding.
Washington, Sept. 18, 6 p.m.
_ . .

Yon are authorised to turn over to responsible committee.
mss Tomes ead obildren, who will take them in sharp