The Express.
London, England, 1852-05-31 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, MAY 31.

Ova despatches in anticipation of the India mail
have brought full particulars of the first grand act of
OW new tragic drama of War in Burmeh. The forces
of the English and of their new foe met, and of course
the latter were scattered under a very shower of
deadly missiles—their batteries destroyed, their
people slain, and their guns captured. Rangoon is
in our hands, together with Materban, and the flying
Burmese have long since conveyed the news of
our prowess to their king—if the parasites of an
Asiatic despot have the courage to reveal such a
truth to their master.
On the II th of April, at haltpast 9 in the morn-
ing, the English vessels anchored off the stockades,
when the Burmese opened a tire, that was returned
with such effixt that in ten minutes the powder-
magazine of the principal stockade blew up—a
shell front the English having fallen into it.
The enemy's tire was soon silenced, and at a
quarter-past ten—that is in three-quarters of an
hour—the squadron thought further expenditure
of ammunition unnecessary, and ceased firing also.
Men were afterwards landed to burn the stockade,
which they did, and the steamers then stood up the
river. Other stockades shared the fate of the first.
Short and ineffectual attempts, on the part of the
Burmese, to stay the progress of the English
squadron, were in each case followed by a fire from
the ships that soon silenced the guns on shore. The
upper and chief defence of Rangoon received the
compliment of a complete shelling—an operation
that seems in one case to have been performed upon
• place deserted by the terrified inhabitants, but In
another instance to hare told with terrible effect.
" For forty-eight hours," says one of the officers
engaged in this throwing of shot and shell, " the
Burmese saw nothing but falling stars and meteors.
They certainly must have thought us devils, for
shells, shrapnel, carcase, and rockets were flying,
were falling all round them ; and the place actually
stinks from the dead and dying."
All this shows the inability of the Asiatics to
stand against the soldiers, and seamen, and warlike
appliances of England ; but that which follows shows
us an enemy more deadly than the Burmese, and one
beforewhom our best troops will,—it is feared,—in too
many cases be forced to succumb. That foe is thedwiers,
which had broken out among the troops on shore,
and had also made its appearance on board the
squadron. Officers and men had already fallen vic-
tims; and such as the news is it is just what was
foreseen and foretold—and just whet occurred
during the last war in the same place. The
troops of Bormah quailed under English discipline
and valour ; but both those admirable qualities availed
nothing before the deadly influences of the climate.
"This is a most beautiful country—green forests,
trees and verdure on all sides," says ow of the actors
in the warlike drama. Yes. That beautiful green
tells the story of the damp earth—the burning sun
overhead does the rest. Many a score—it may be
hundreds or even thousands should the war be
longed—of brave men will find fever and a
grave in " that most beautiful country—all verdure "
—looking so bright but being in truth so deadly to
all strangers.
Certain members of parliament were congratu-
lating themselves on the prospect of a speedy termi-
nation to the Burmese war. The news of the
defeat of the enemy and our occupation of Ran-
goon, indicates anything rather than a rapid peso..
Ungrateful as is the part of a political prophet,
we will venture to foretell that we are entangled in
long and costly hostilities; and that Burnish is—as
some time ago we wrote—if not nearly invincible, at
least most troublesome and costly of conquest. The
guns are taken, and large numbers of the enemy have
have been swept into eternity by the cannon of
oar fleet. In other words, they, in the pride of their
barbarianobstinacy, havedared to meet us in delibe-
rate fight, and their audacity has been bitterly
punished. Rangoon is in the occupation of our troops;
but the towns generally are built of timber—the
natives have no costly furniture, nor gilded saloons,
and it will, therefore be impossible to raise •
reasom, or compel satisfactory compensation from
the capture of small Burmese towns. Hence it follows
that their occupation may be more barren to
us than was the conquest of Moscow to NAPOLEON. He
lingered in the north until the first warning snow
shower had fallen, and we—remaining in the low
lands of the river—shall vainly struggle against the
insidloas ague, and still more deadly cholera. Next
we may mom on to Prome,thestocksdes will be fired
andagatssamethoosandsof the Burmese may. bernas-
saered ls pitched battles we must be victorious, but
in • skirmishing warfare the native is our equal, for
the dusky skin assimilating to the colour of the jan-
gle, places the naked barbarian on an equality with
the red-clad British soldier. The poisoned arrow is
in forest warfare as fatal as the musket ball. Stock-
ades may he stormed but they can be rebuilt as fast,
if not issear, than they can be destroyed.
Rangoon, then, is ours. But there we must either
halt or sail back to Bombay. For beyond • certain
point the river is not navigable to large steamers, and
hitherto we have no flotilla. We may seize the
country boats, but our progress must be slow when
sailing up stream in the season of the monsoon. Now
granting that our general did march upon the capital
extrieate his troops from the low alluvial tracts
—slid reach the higher plains, we are not yet dis-
posed to admit that the occupation of the capital
would neceiearily terminate the war. In Burmah,
as in the Panjaub, we meet a difficult people. We
threw the Sikhs into difficulty—we were beaten by
this Afghans. Effectually to subdue the Bonuses
we meet still pursue oar suooessful plan of raising up
albs. from amongst our enemies. Oar motto is
divide the enemy and fraternise with the section now,
whether slaves or serfs. Large numbers
7swisear :Class have sought protection in our frontier
'Mega"; and more than once the Burmese go-
vernment has shown an inclination to remonstrate
Zu.net the shelter given by us to their fugitive out-
If oar barbarian enemies should take warning
from their recent fight with troops on shore, and
remain beyond reach of our artillery, they will pro-
long the war, and their eventual defeat will be due
as mach to political tact as to the gallantry of oar
soldiers.
A clever governor at the Cape would have con-
quered the Reifies, not by regiments of the line, but
by the hands of Hottentots or African tribes. So in
Burmah. If pitched battles are avoided, our troops
must not be uselessly sacrificed by exposure to
savage butchery in the jungle, or to the mias-
ma of the forests. The oppressed should be raised
against the oppressors, the thousands upon thousands
of Burmese serfs should be armed and let loose upon
the government by whom they have been injured.
Any discussion of the mode in which this new war
may be best pursued, must not, however, be per-
mitted to keep out of sight the way in which the
hostilities were brought about. On this subject it is
the duty of government to give an early and ample
explanation. Human life must not be lavished in the
verdant swamps of Burmah, nor treasure be belched
oat of the iron mouths of bombs and carronades,
without ample justitiezition. That justification we
impatiently await at the hands of ministers.

A SOUND SLLY.PER.—An adroit burglary had
been effected at Dundeswick. Nome villains effected an
entrance late the house of Mr. Jonathan Renton, farmer,
and besidis ransacking the drawers, &e., succeeded in taking
Mr. Renton's troasers from under kit pillow while he was
asleep, and easistying them of their content., oonalting of
451. eld. Though Mr. Renton, his wife, and child,
were la the bed, fr ander the pillow of which his trou-
sers were taken, it seems that not one of them we. du.
turbe.l Five pound. reward has been offered for informa-
tion respecting the hurelers.—/weds Mercury.
°MUT °Kinser Docus.—On Thursday the new
Dock at Ureat Ortumby was opened with the formalities
usual on such oceiciion.. Meveral vessels at one time en-
tared and began to thieharve and Wt., in cargoes. The
number of persons present upon the quay of the docks at
the moment of opening yea. eariouly estimated at from
Ave to six thou. ind, and the scene wan one of the Fayed
which Grimsby ht l doyley...l for year.. Ain,,04,, the
coulEasy is the town sad surveying the wires we ob.crren
the Earl of Yarborough, and a select circle of fiend., gad
sagiaeseing and ennaereial vasasgen.—ilail Pecker.

FRANCE. •
PARIS, SAW' Reign.
The Mani:ear contains tikda followink iii-
niarkable declaration : • \
Some foreign journals endea rto gen- credit foe the
report that the northern powers, Ia the peevisbm of cer-
tain eventualities, would be ready to renew the coalition
of 151.5, and that they have determined beforehand the
limits beyond which 1. ranee would not be permitted to
modify her goverment This report is false ; the eventu-
alities which are the pretext for it have no probability.
Nothing indicates the necessity fur any chanre whatever in
our institutions. France enieys the most complete tran
quillity. All the powers keep up the most amicable
relations with her, and they have never toads lam pro
tension than at present te interkre with oar internal
regime. They know that France would, in cam of need,
mum her rights to be respected, as she respects those et
other imbues', but them rights are neither threatened see
disputed. Let fallen panics rely as formerly on foreign
intervention to cause the triumph of their pretensions over
the national will; they will Had that these old tactics
will have no other result but to make thorn still more
odious to the country.
Thus the official organ of the government declares
that the eventuality of establishing the hereditary
empire by an appeal to the people is not by any
means probable. I said the hereditary empire, be-
came tt,e note attributed to M. de Nesseirode, which
has been published, admits that the assumption of
the imperial dignity for life might be tolerated.
Tile note of the Moniteur also says that nothing foe
the moment indicates the necessity even of maki
Louis Napoleon emperor for life. We know what is
meant by the " necessity" here spoken of, as it was
defined by the speech at the Tuileries on the
29th of Nlarch to bo a conspiracy, whether
emanating from the royalists at socialists. But
small as is the net result of this note, it is made
still smaller by the notorious practice of the present
government to use these semi-official paragraphs for
the purpose of throwing dust in the eyes of people,
and lulling those parties whose vigilance might cross
its designs into a false security. How many times
were the reports of coup d'ogtair contradicted by semi-
official paragraphs before Dee. 2 ? But when an oath
itself was spontaneously renewed at the moment
when its violation was contemplated, what faith can
be placed in the assurances of the Moniteur I Some
persons have noticed the absence of the word eon-
muaiqed at the close, is lessening the authority of
the note. But this seems a captious objection ; and
and the note must evidently be regarded as fully
official _ _ _

A paper of Athens, in the service of Russia, called
the Sleek, has published an important document,
purporting to be a firman of the Sultan concerning
the privileges of the Christian sects at the holy
places, addressed to Has Pasha, governor of Jera's
salem. This must not be confounded with the treaty
signed by the Porte with M. de Lavalette, the French
ambassador. The firman published by the Sleek is,
in fact, an order to the pasha to preserve the 'tutu
quo, and is evidently intended to reassure the Greek
schismatics and their protector, Russia, by proving
that no privilege whatever has been gained by the
Latins in consequence of the French negotiations.
Atter stating that the pretention of the Latins to
perform their ceremonies exclusively in different
chapels of the church of the Holy Sepulchre, in
the church or the Virgin's nativity, and other
holy places, was quite inadmissible, the firman
goes on to say : " The rights granted to
the Greeks, subjects of my puissant empire,
and confirmed by mo in virtue of imperial
decrees, of which the maintenance and preser-
vation are one of the chief objects of my royal
solicitude, having been sole-mei ap roved by me, it
is not permitted to any one to aedertake any act what-
ever contrary to the present,dssidoo." This shows that
the French ambassador at Constantinople has been
completely bamboozled ; and that while he thought
to be achieving great concessions fee the Latins, and
great triumphs for French, did not
succeed in changing theN jot. This
discovery has been a heavy Meer to the pride of the
government; and possibly sonsloeliollll complica-
tion may arise out of the double Armen of the Porte.
We may, therefore, look forward to fiercer scuffles
than ever in the holy places between the Greeks and
Franciscans; and perhaps a French squadron may
appear nff Jaffa to maintain the rights of the latter.
lo that case Russia would come to the noose of the
Greeks, and a pretty quarrel might mow is which
the Ottoman empire might allegather ihapper.
The Petrie says ea t_Jiis Moss'
Our correspondent at thisolpie meths of our em-
Mael Meting displeased at the term et the Oman which
regedeM certain privileges of the salsatethe worship at
Jerusalem. Oa this *abject it has hew theerved to as, that
the lireasio het a eesesq•s•es of the imegeseat esa-
eluded by the lympis de Lathiethe Omer et the oar
lies. Their midis being MGM upset a sew basis, it be-
rme seemary able to regulate that of the Otesk ssbhe
mdse. If, however, there is any posed thr embity i tons
last art a subject of diseatisfaction for Frerre, who was the
organ of Christianity, we are assured that the ethithe
Porte, acting with its accustomed loyalty, will attend le mg
just reclamation on our part. Fresh negotaiillem have ban
opened. It will be becoming to await the brae of them
with confldenee and with moderation.

In the corps legidatif to-day the bill for a supple-
mentary creditof 360,,000fr. for the amelioration of
the So e, was discussed. M. Nouprecle com-
plained that there bad been no preliminary official
inquiry. Without opposing the bill, he would state
his opinion that it would have been better to have
employed the money in improvements, founded upon
surveys and estimates, than to make a canal which
would be of no use. M. Godelle, the councillor of
state, officially supporting the bill, said that the
Sauldre canal, now proposed to be finished, bad been
voted 611 an urgent measure by the constituent as-
sembly, without any previous surveys, it was true,
but upon the obvious necessity of the thing. The
several articles were then voted, and the bill was
carried upon a division by 187 Totes against 3.
Eleven councillor general of the Lire having
omitted to take the oath within the prescribed time,
have been struck off the list. They are MM.
Bertholon, ex-representative, now in exile; Gaston,
banished to Savoy; Eymard: Duvernay, Bertrand,
Sulkier, Regoier, Roget, Dutrait Desoyes, Saint-
Rename, ex-representative, Michel Ladiehire, and
Levrat. MM. de Lfhen, Le Bihan, Chaumont, and
Germain Bente, councillors-general in the Nord; M.
Prudhomme, ex-representative, councillor-general in
the Haut-Rhin • and M. Bigot, ex-representative
councillor-general in the Mayenne, have refused the:
oath. M. de Putoret, the well-known legitimist,
who was said by the government journals to have
taken the oath in two capacities, has caused the re-
port to be contradicted in the Auemblee.
M. Eugene Burnouf, member of the Institute, per-
petual secretary of the Academy of Inscriptions and
Belles Lettres, professor of Sanscrit at the College of
France, and inspector-general of Superior Instruction,
died yesterday.
The anadutionnel, after quoting from the Ami
de /a iteligion the paragraph respecting the bill on
public instruction, says :—" It is now certain that,
in consequence of the opposition which this bill has
encountered in various quarters, it will not be pre-
sented to the legislative body this session, and that
the question is thus adjourned till next year."
The Mottileur publishes the returns of the customs
land indirect taxes for the month of April, which
amounted to 14,244,917 f., or 4,567,797 f. more than in
the corresponding month of 1851. The receipts for
the first four months of the present year amount to
46,773,364 f., an increase on the same period of 1851
lof 10,347,119 f.

At the Bourse the Four per Cents. rose 15c., and
closed at 100 ; the Three per Cents. 10c., closing at
711. 05c. Marseilles Railway rose 15f. ; Orleans,
I If. 28c. ; Tours and Nantes and Bordeaux, 3f. 75c.
each ; Central, 21'. 50c. ; Itouen, 3f. 7.5 e. ; St. Ger-
main fell sf.
PARIS, SUNDAY EVIIININO.
The rigorous treatment of foreign newspapers by
the minister of police is really become a serious
grievance, and is the more disgraceful as tho organs
of the French government do not hesitate to direct
the grossest attacks against all neighbouring coun-
ties in which free institutions are maintained. The
Independaite Belye has been seized two days run-
ning—why no one knows. But if the Belgian paper
bad dared to write one tenth part of the abase so well
merited by the French government,which M. Grimier
de Cassagnac has written, in the defiance of all
truth, justice, and decency, of the liberal government
of Belgium. the Independanre would never have been
permitted to cross the French frontier again. A
more atrocious instance of the cowarily bulleying
system which is kept up by the French government
towards its weaker neighbours eon hardly occur than
this confiscation of the Belgian journals for allud-
, log to what goes on in the Corps Legislatif at
Paris, while the semi-official organ of the French
OVell:11111011t has the effrontery to threaten
Belem :21 with the excluijou of her manufactures,

TER EXPRESS, MONDAY

Wei pelP•lll44oflr4ol4 seams Atio era n?logtty Ipt;1
and thip liberal Seise.", innnbili, 1
'rettitrief in t: parliament and ssiteipZit ea .
The Cuestiiettiensel perialls iteeft to . this bas y.
an g heigeve to as iependetit while It
inserts at- the same moment a commutigief front the
.11oniteur, declaring that France is todjealons of her
own independence to mix herself up with the internal
affairs of Spain or any other couitry. Nothing cadhe
more diametrically opposed tkaa the minium sad
the practice of the French government ; and the pro-
djgal profusion with which it can
.utter official declara-
tions, hourly belied by as own acts and by the len-
gpage of its organs, evinces a systematic disregard of
truth, which should forearm the most credulous
with distrust. Thus no more value can be attached
to yesterday's official disavowal of imperial schemes,
than that of the day before, with regard to interfe-
rence in the domestic concerns of foreign nations.
A grosser case of such interference can scarcely oreeur
than to dictate in a minaterial organ,with wares arena*.
to an independentoountry a mune repudiated by a vast
majority of its inhabitants. Accordingly we see the
Belgian press up in arms against this insolent pre-
tension. The INdepeadase thinks it would be quite
as reasonable for England, Holland, and Prima to
insist upon the election of liberal deputies in Bel-
gium as for France to demand the triumph of the
eatholics; and quite as just for the former countries
tx
to close their territories against the Be • com-
merce in case their demands were not corn • with.
Meanwhile, the applause bestowed by t clerical
organs in Brussels upon the article of M. de Cea-
sagnac, and the flattery with which they prostrate
themselves before the government of Loa Napoleon,
is a significant symptom of the dangers whit* me-
nace the independence of Belgium, and a fresh in-
stance, if more were wanted, of the tendency of
Romaaism to denationalise a people, uproot all:
patriotie feelings, and invoke a foreign despotism.
The Princess de Lieven, whose devotion to Russia
equals her friendship for M. Guizot, is on the point
of leaving Paris for the watering places of
the Rhine. The intimacy which this female
politician has all at once struck up with the
Marchioness of Douglas, cousin of Louis Napoleon,
portends an alliance with Bonapartist ideas, which is
the more worthy of note as the princess is at the
head of an influential coterie, and assembles in her
*aims the heads of the fusionist party. A dinner
was given on Friday, by Lady Douglas, in honour of
the princess who met upon this occasion Baron
Heeckeren, fresh returned from his diplomatic mis-
sion,
and M. Achille Fould, together with several of
the ministers. The Elysee, it would seem, does not
despair of enlisting the services of this diplomatic
lady as a mediating influence with Russia and the
German courts, whose summer visits to the baths are
ever pregnant with political schemes.
MM. Paul Fabvre and Mathieu Bodet, counsel of
the Orleans family in the affair of the Con lit, have
distributed to the members of the Counsel of State a
pamphlet of observations on the question at stake,
which is headed with the following apt quotation
from the conversations of the Emperor Napoleon :
" Property means the inviolability of property in the
person of its possearee. Even I, with the numerous
armies at my disposal, could not take away a field ;
for, to violate the right of property in a single in-
stance is to violate it in all."

M. Dupia, the elder, has taken the oath of
fidelity to Louis Napoleon, as councillor-general for
his department, the Nievre.
The Union announces that M. de Fallon intends
to lead henceforth a life of retirement on his estate
in the Maine-et-Loiret, and to occupy himself only
with private studies.
The letter of General Leflo appears to-day in the
Conatifishonnef. It seems that the government is
less thasnidled with its tone than with that of the
other expatriated generals ; and it swears by no
means impossible that the ex-questor will be allowed
to retain his pay.
The journey of the President to the south is put
off till September. In the meantime he will shortly
remove from the Elyse(' to fix his residence for the
summer at the palace of St. Cloud, which has been
during the last throe month pretty frequently the
object of his drives.
No papers will appear to-morrow in consequence of
the feast of Pentecost.
The Oboorratoor Bilge has been seized again this
morning.
The elan-frigates Oomer, Sane, and Descartes,
left Tenon ea the 25th to join the squadron of evo-
lution l the Mena waters. M. de la Itonciere-le-
Noury, emitted principal staff officer of the 'qua-
kes, basins ent in the Goren. The Charlemagne,
expand balk keen the Levant, will meet the squa-
dron at Alikeen the course et next month.
M. de Foinpremx has refund the oath as coun-
cillor ironed awl manksipeteenneillor in the Loiret.
The egoism Mame plaid yesterday denote a
sore esmalissabie esenswelel ONlstiorstion during
the moth el April than hen boom nom in say month
kr ommy past. The receipts yips import% for
amounted to 14,245,060 f., while in
Ape% 861, they were bet 9,667,000 fr.; and in
April, 1850, only 8,990,000 fr. This large increase
ernes in great part from the sugar duties, amounting
to more than 3 millions; but the improvement upon
meet other articles is not less marked. The increase
in cotton is from 44,330 metrical quintals to 74,334;
in wool, from 7,604 to 15,096; in raw silk, from 420
to 945; in cabinet makers' wood, from 2,397 to 5,151;
in cochineal, from 7,708 to 10,969; in indigo, from
395 to 644; in pit coal, from 170,061 tons to 214,918.
In other merchandise, of secondary importance the la-
crosse isfor the most part in a corresponding proportion.
Cast iron, sinc, and flax are exceptions to the general
movement These important materials are princi-
pally supplied by Belgium, and it has been conjec-
tured that the expection of changes in the tariff
upon the expiration of the commercial treaty in
August next, may be the cause of the comparatively
small importation. It is, however, more probable
that the deficiency is attributable to simple commer-
cial fluctuations for the quantity imported during
the last four months is at least equal to the imports
of the corresponding period of 1861.
The export returns are in general equally ratisfac-
, tory. The principle articles in which a hailing off is
perceptible are " modes," machines, and corn. The
unusually large exportations of all sorts of grain in
the early part of the year entliciently accounts for
the reaction in this particular. But in all the staples
' of French manufacturing exportation, linens, cotton.,
and woollens (cloth, however, excepted), the increase
is remarkable, and such as to prove the existence of
great industrial activity. In wines, brandies, madder,
skins, prepared and manufactured, porcelain, books,
soap, salt, glass, and crystal, the augmentation is
very sensible. In silks and refined sugars there is a
slight diminution. The navigation returns outwards
and inwards show an increase of 71.000 tons, of
which 26,000 is the proportion attained by the
French flag, a proportion exceeding its average share
in a general movement.

ITALY.
ROMAN STATES.
TUE CASE OF EDWARD MURRAY.
ROME, May 24.
We have as yet no official communication from the
government of his holiness with respect to the course
it intends to pursue in the case of of Mr. Edward
Murray, but from private sources it may be inferred,
with tolerable certainty, that his trial has not been
conducted with such strict regularity as to warrant
his sentence being carried into execution, even unto
death in spite of the remonstrances of the British
government and the petition for mercy addressed to
the Pope by British subjects in Rome.
I mentioned in my last that Murray had been sent
out of Rome, u was supposed, for execution, and
that he had got as far as Spoleto, in company with
his fellow prisoners. Ito arrived at Ancona on the
evening of the 16th, and the British consul in that
city, Mr. Moore, applied to sec him on the following
morning, but the authorities answered that their
instruction* were so rigid that they could not comply
with his request, assuring him, however, that all
proper attention should be paid to the comforts of
the prisoner consistent with his strick confinement.
The nature of the sentence has not been intimated at
Ancona, but Mr. Moore is, of course, perfectly well
acquainted with it, and should the extreme
penalty be threatened, it is probable that he
would, under the present circumstances, op-
pose, it an far as lays in his power, by • vi-
gorous protest. On the return to Ancona
of Moirsignor Amici, the, papal commissary
extraordinary for the province of La Marca, Mr.
Moore will press his claim for a personal interview
with Murray, as that reverend prelate will doubtless

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