The Express.
London, England, 1864-03-25 00:00:00

AY EVENING, MARCH 25,

NIhUALiGEN(III
aNitAik.

COPENHAGEN, MARCH 23.

•
Part al Frederiok has been set on fire by the
bombardment. When summoned to surrender the
iCommandant of the fortress refused. According
to the latest dates the enemy has withdrawn out of
range. Upon the arrival of the King at Sonderburg
yesterday evening his Majesty immediately visited
the troops stationed there. He returned at night
to Horup.

THE POLISH INSURRECTION.
BERLIN, Misce 24.

Intelligence from Warsaw states that the entire
general staff of the Russian army has been trans-
ferred from Warsaw to the camp near Kalisch.
General Berg is shortly to follow. On the Polish
frontier, near Inowraalaw, the Prussian troops have
diaoovered numerous bands of insurgent volun-
teers. 60 Russians were captured, and the re-
mainder succeeded in escaping to Poland.

THE ARCHDUKE MAXIMILIAN.
MLBcn 24.
The Archduke Maximilian is to embark for
Mexico on the 30th inst.

THE BANK OF FRANCE.
PARIS, ][.acs 24.

The Bank of France has reduced its rate of dis-
count for bills to 6 per cent. The rate for advances
on securities will, however, remain at 7 per cent.

;w-

THE WAR IN DENMARK.

PUN on cows coausionzirr.)
HAMBUItG, YAWL 22. •

Owing to the sudden and unexpected measure
taken by Field-Marshal von Wrangel ordering all
newspaper correspondents to be excluded from
direct intercourse with the army, the news received
to-day from the seat of war is but scanty. The
bombardment both of Dttppel and Fredericia is
being carried on with great energy, but as yet
without gaining any of the advantages anticipated,
whilst the Danes with their usual courage and skill
defend themselves most manfully. The fresh
bri-
gade of Prussians, consisting of 5,600 men, who
have not yet smelt powder, has arrived at Flens-
burg ; only 1,500 were quartered in the town,
and the rest marched on to Diippel, where they are
to relieve another corps iu the trenches. Twenty
eight siege guns are now in position and at work.
H.R.H. Prince Charles (sen.) of Prussia, Inspector-
General of the Prussian Artillery, paid a visit to
the batteries early in the morning, accompanied by
a single aide-de-camp. Asa light mist lay on the
ground and the surface of the sea, it was found dif-
ficult to point the guns with sufficient accuracy, and
it was not till 11 o'clock that the fog cleared up
enough to permit a plain view of the southern en-
trenchments Nos. 1,2, 3, and 4, and the old castle
of Sonderborg, now fitted up as military barracks.
When the guns were brought into play, the Prince,
accompanied by his aide-de-camp, as well as by
Colonel von Graberg and Colonel Colomier,
took their station on the left of the batteries
so as to be able to witness the effect of
the guns without having their view intercepted
by the smoke. On the signal being given
the first shot fired was a shell, which Wits so ele-
vated that it made quite a parabolic curve, as if
discharged from a limiter. lint it was well aimed,
and seen to fall iu Fort No. 1, where it exploded.
For three hours the cannonade was kept up, during
which the 24-pounders were directed at the eanh-
works, whilst the shot of the rifled 6-pounders was
aimed at the blockhouses and the Danish soldiers
that were visible. From the standing point of the
observers it was impossible to ascertain the extent
of the damage they inflicted, which, however, was
believed to be considerable, as after a time the
enemy's guns, which at Snit bad retuwed the
fire, were silenced one after the other, and
several detachments of soldiers were seen to
leave the fort and retreat to the rear for
shelter. Although a string wind was blowing from
the westward due allowance was made for devia-
tion on that score, and the guns were worked with
wonderful precision. A battery of 2t-pounders
was now directed on Sonderborg, distant 5,400
yards, and eight shots were fired, the first two of
which fell short and iuto the sea, but a greater ele-
vation being given the others went into the town
and burst there, the smoke of the explosion being
plainly visible. There were two ships of war lying
there with their steam up, but they did not venture
to come out, and found it more advisable to alter
their position, the iron-clad Rolf Knike going
eastward, and the other—a wooden vessel—
steaming up the Alsen Sound. Whilst the
Danes returned the fire their guns were well
served, though they did no execution among the
Prussians. At one period the Prince was in some
danger, as a piece of au exploded shell, about slbs.
in weight, passed between himself and the officers
with him, burying itself in the ground, ten paces
from them. This fragment was part of a hollow
cyliudsical shot to be loaded at the muzzle, as used
by the Danes, furnished with two rows of zinc
tetons made to fit into the grooves of their rifled
guns. From the curve of the outside it was sup-
posed to have been fired from a 24-pounder. Prince
Frederick Charles has given orders that the battery
commanded by First Lieutenant von Moziloweky,
near which his father was rtationed when the shot
exploded, be named "Battery Prince Charles."
On the following day the firing was continued wiih
spirit, but without doing much execution, though
the wind bad gone down and a calm prevailed. A
shell from a rifled six-pounder of the field artillery
was seen to strike the roof of a farm-house near the
windmill ou the rising ground behind Sonderborg—
• distance of more than 5,000 paces—and set it on
fire. By special orders from Prince Frederick
Charles the guns are not to fire any more on the
town, though it is universally believed among the
Prussians that their guns could easily destroy the
whole plate. But as uo good could be derived from
it, and as the military hospitals there are known to
be full of sick and wounded, he has resolved to spare
the town for their sake.

Yesterday arrived by the railway from Berlin an-
other special train consistiug of seventy goods
waggons, conveying a park of Prussian artillery—
four 24-pounders and eight 12-pounders—and a
large quantity of ammunition. The convoy was
forwarded to Altona on more than a huudrod and
fifty waggons, each with four horses, whilst more
than a hundred horses were required to drag the
guns.
In the German papers the Danes are accused of
having deliberately poisoned the Austrian and
Prusian soldiers on their entry into Horsens, Veile,
and Skanderborg ; but the truth now turns out to
be that they accidentally poisoned themselves, for
iu greedily ransacking the shops in those towns for
drink they actually mistook petroleum for brandy,
and gulped down vinegar for wine. At the apo-
thecaries' shops too they freely emptied the most
inviting looking bottles, and thus spirits of wine,
aqua fortis, and even spirits of turpentine, disap-
peared quickly in a wholesale manner. As neither
party understood the language of the other, remon-
strances and warnings were useless ; but it is cer-
tainly not fair to charge the Danish shopkeepers
with wilfully poisoning the enemies of their country.
The heavy convoy of ammunition that passed
through this city a few days ago on its way to the
front had a narrow escape whilst being conveyed
from Alton& by special train to Rendsburg. On
arriving at one of the stations it was found that
the friction of the wheels, increased by the super-
incumbent weight, bad been so great as to cause
partial ignition, but it was fortunately discovered
in time to prevent any serious consequences.

GERMANY.

(RON OUR ow CORIM8PO3lD1211%)
FRANKFORT, ILtacit Z.

As it becomes every day more evident that Den-
mark will now exhaust the patience ;of England, as
she did for twelve years that of Germany, by
shiftings and subterfuges, and that the negotiations
about preliminaries of conferences will be delayed
as long as she can make a show of resistance or the
last Sleswiger has not deserted, there is very little
to report on the Danish dispute. With regard to
the war, we are here almost restricted to Danish
telegrams in English papers, as the allies publish
very little, and the Prussian press has been cowed
into silence by a hint that any information re-
specting the war which might prove useful
to the enemy, would render the publisher
amenable to twenty years' imprisonment. I
may, therefore, now report on German affairs in
general, and on the continual strife between feu-
dalism and liberal aspirations in this strange
country, where liberty of the press, the right of
public meeting, and violent debates in the Cham-
bers go hand in hand with a mighty bureaucracy
in the various States.
In Prussia seven officers have received letters of
nubility for bravery against the enemy. They are
added thereby to the miserably poor nobility of the
realm, and taken out of the ranks of the people in
order to prevent the ar_uy from being infested
with a liberal element. Their new comrades
will then successfully infuse into them feudalistic
opinions, and those outrageous military ideaa,llwhich
have been the curse of Prussia since the time of the
great Elector. Yet in this country, where more than
anywhere democratic principles have spread among
the masses, and as far as they are not dangerous
even among commercial men, titles, decorations,
and stars are so little valued, that it is a common
habit to sneer at them.

In the duchy of Nassau the Duke has got entirely
into the hand, of horsedealers and mercenary scrib-
blers, and his favourite advisers are charged in
the papers with lending money out at 9 per cent.
per month. The new chambers having turned out

1164.

rely liberal, those worthies are now advising the
Dike to resort to the most arbitrary measures to
aastoy and rviw..aaase of the obnoxious members.
When the chamber meets, the same game as in
,Prnesia will be played in the duchy.
In the Electorate of Hesse shard fight is going
on in the press between the hypocritical and abso-
lutist party formerly in power, but overthrown
two yearn ago by the interference of the Diet, and
the very moderate liberals now in office. The pre-
sent ministry has come to the laudable resolution
to suppress the gambling hells, and it will refuse to
renew the contracts passed with five of them by the
previous government.
At Carlsrnhe the government, under the leader-
ship of the patriotic minister Roggenbsch, is ex-
erting itself to improve the laws and to expunge
everything which smells of absolutism. In the new
police act there is the singular enactment, that
henceforth the police shall be empowered to punish
certain misdemeanours by penalties somewhat in-
ferior to those which would be inflicted by a court
of justice, the transgressor having the option to sub-
mit or to go before the court, when, if convicted, he
will have to bear a more heavy sentence. Such
an arrangement is quite a novelty, and may mate-
rially reduce the business of the courts ' • but it is
objectionable for this reason, that regular barga;ns
might be struck by the police and transgressors as
to the terms on which they would forego their
right to plead before the court.
The committee of thirty-six, appointed hereby the
Assembly of German Deputies last winter, have
warned all German bankers not to contract • loan
with Sweden under present circumstances, when the
money could be used in a war against Germany.
They declare such an act would be treason to the
Father-land, and they threatened to hold up the
names of such bankers as engage in it to public
hatred.