The Express.
London, England, 1852-05-04 00:00:00

TILE PENINSULAR MAIL.

The Oriental Company's steam-packet Madrid,
Captain John Weeks, arrived at Southampton lust
night, and landed her mails under the charge of Lieu
James Inglis, ILN., Admiralty agent. Her dates
arc: Gibraltar, April 24; Cadiz, 23; Lisbon, 29;
Oporto, 30; and Vigo, 30. She brings news
that the Janus and .Intelope, with a party of
men from the Vengeance, were 6 tupluyed at Cape
Spartel saving government stores w.e.licd ashore
from the wreck of the ship Calpe, at Lisbon.
The only Portuguese topic of interest is the
Queen's favourable reception in the provinces.
Exchange .51; discount of Lisbon Bunk notes two
per cent.
The Madrid passed H.M.S. Dragon, steering for
the Tagus, having a water-logged vessel full of timber
in tow, supposed to be the Oilinerston.
Our correspondent writes :

LISBON, Apun. 29.

In the present month there have been cancelled
and burnt papers to the am,mnt of 408,838,781 roil. ; billets
created at various antecedt ut periods for various amounts,
and some titulow admisUble in the purchase of national pro-
perty ; also billets created by the present ministry, those of
J one 9, 18.51, amounting to 342,200.000 rein.; and utherv, of
6th August, 1031,amounting to 309,815,0110; also certificates
of capitalisation and other paper of credit belonging to the
external debt, amounting to 1,940/. 3n. 4d.; also Lows of the
Bank of Lisbon to the amount of 37,148,111/0 rein.; all this
is merely a deceptive proceeding; it would sound like a
redemption of permanent debt in the ears of many, but it is
merely the cancelling and burning of obligations paid ; that
in, money borrowed upon the growing revenue. But tho
funded debt goes on not only unredeemed even in part, and
irredeemable, hut increasing, to I inf,rmed you when I
sent the estimates. _ .

Movement in the wino market at Oporto for the month
of March.—Manifested and entered into store 11,716 pipes
of all denominations. Exported to the ports of Europe
1,856 pipes of wine, of the first quality, and 3 pip.. of
brandy ; to ports out of Europe 7 pipes of wine of the first
quality, and 653 pipes of wine, and 25 pipes of Geropiga,
both of the second quality ; to ports of the kingdom 20
pipes of wine, of the first quality, and I.i pipes of brandy ;
! despatched for consumption; 7 pipes of wine of the first
quality, 1,116 pipes of wine, and 4 pipes of (icropiga, both
of the second quality, and 10 pipes of brandy to supply
waste, leakage, and for flavouring: 791 pipes of all deno-
minations. The sales for the mouth being 3,720 pipes of all
kinds, including the fractumal parts.
Vessels coming from the brazils are in future to be sub-
jected to a quarantine of only five days when they arrive
in ballast, or with a cargo not susceptible of infection, pro-
vided tint no deaths or sickness shall have taken place on
board during the voyage.
It is said that Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas have
asked and obtained leave from the government of Portugal
to reside in this country. The celebrated General Maneilla
has arrived in Lisbon, and intends to make it his future
residence.

On the 23rd tho Albim and Indefatigable sailed to the
north ; on the 24th the French stemutr of war Veloco
came in for coals, on her way to Newfoundlat.d ; and on the
26th the Amazons, Brazilian steamer of war, put into the
Tagus for coals, on her way to Rio de Janeiro.

GERMANY.

THE ZOLLVEREIN.

BEIZLIN, APRIL 30.

The business of the conference hero cannot as yet
be said to have commenced. Since the formality of
inauguration and the dinner with the king, only ono
meeting has been held, last Monday, when the pre-
sident merely communicated some proposals for the
forms of procedure, and the commissions s, after a
little irrelevant conversation, returned to their lodg-
ings. To-morrow another meeting will take place,
and probably pass off with as scanty re-
sults. The commissioners are in an awkward
position, and no one likes to come out
first with his declarations. The Prussian govern-
ment has demanded a declaration whether the docu-
ments circulating in the papers as minutes of the
Darmstadt conference are authentic and complete,
and, in such case, how far they have been ratified.
Should the reply be in the affirmative, the Prussian
government will, nevertheless, not at once break off
the negotiations, but give the southern states as
much time as possible for quarrelling with each
other and receding from their coalition ; if,
however, they remain firm, and especially
if they urge the obligatory force of the
Darmstadt convention, or the Vienna protocol, as a
bar to their accepting Prussian proposals, then
Prussia will cut the matter short. As long as they
do not obtrude their agreements with each other as
an obstacle to free negotiation, Prussia will ignore
the matter, and give them leisure to think better
of their hastysteps. In the meantime, the Prussian go-
vernment has offered a demonstration of its intention
to make a move in opposition to the protectionist sys-
tem, on which the southern states found their ope-
rations. The Prussian Minister of trade, on receiv-
ing lately a deputation of protectionist Silesian
members of the chambers, replied, that the
government's aim was, to reconcile its regard for the
interests of home industry with the justclaims of the
home consumer, and that, therefore, the promise of
maintaining all the rates of the present tariff could
not be given. Ile said this with reference, especially
to iron, having convinced himself, that the
prosperity and progress of home production
would not suffer from a reduction of the
present high rates of import duty as well on pig as
on bar iron; because, since the government had
reduced the mine tax, and the railroads had so mate-
riallycheapened transport, thereby greatly reducing
the cost of coals, the German iron-masters would,
under a very moderate protection, be able to bear
foreign competition, if they continued to adopt the
improvements elsewhere made in the manufacturing
process, as it was for the general interest that they
should do, and which they would the sooner do if the
tariff were reduced. It is rumoured that Prussia
will propose reducing the duty on pig iron from 20s.
to ss. per ton; and the duty on bar iron from 90a. to
60s. the ton; this latter reduction being prompted
by the desire to revive the importation of bar iron,
which, since the raising of the duty in P 442, has of
Into very much declined, whereby the exchequer
loses a valuable source of income.

The general free-trade union of East and West
Prussia has held a meeting at Elbing, and voted an
energetic address to the ministry, of which I will
send a translation by the next post.

SPAIN.

The opposition journaisbaie resolved to suspend
their publication for three months, from the 4th of
May, the eve of the day on which the new law of
the press comes into operation.