The Express.
London, England, 1864-02-26 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 26, 1864.

Colonel SYKES most cruelly threw a ehe at of
figures upon Sir Jourr's alarming rhetede, awd
while actually understating the number of our
iron-clada built or building, showed that "there
" was some foundation for the statement that we
" really are in a condition now—with our vessels
" afloat, our vessels ready to be manned, and our
" means to man them—to meet the combined
" navies of the world."

The SECRETARY of the ADMIRALTY would, per-
haps, have preferred to rise immediately after Sir
JOHN WALSH'S peroration. Colonel SYKES'S blaze
of triumph was less favourable to the effect of a calm
official statement than the slumbering three-deckers
and the hundred iron-clads. But Lord CLARENCE
PAGET possesses in perfection the art of conciliating
opposite extremes, by agreeing at once with neither
and with both. Sir JOHN WALSH had made it
tolerably easy for bim to show that we were not
going too fast, and Colonel SYKES that we were
not going too slow. And be did so with a success
which would have been greater, perhaps, were
not the House in an obstinately bad temper this
year and disposed to be irritated by the blandish-
ments which it once enjoyed. We cannot prof
at a first glance to investigate the details of this
full and interesting statement. There are cer-
tainly many points in it, both as to the construc-
tion of the new classes of ships and the armamenta
they are to carry, open to criticism, as the desultory
discussion indicated last night. We would rather
for the moment discharge the more grateful part
of the duty of journalists who neither praise nor
blame by rote.
To begin with; there is a manifest improvement in
the keeping of the accounts of the Department ;
and for this it appears, by the SECRETARY'S hand-
some acknowledgments, the country has to thank
the honest exertions of Mr. STANSFELD. English-
men look upon the administration of the Navy
as a matter of almost private and personal interest.,
and simplicity of accounts they are willing to in-
terpret as a pledge of good faith and of careful
economy. The reduction in men and boyr, it
appears, is more nominal than real. What re-
duction in men there is has been going on for
several mouths, and it may be explUned partly by
the process of weeding which the full supply of good
men has permitted, and partly by the diminished
complements of the iron-clads. The reduction in
boys is explained by the removal of second-class
boys to the drill ships, retaining only first-class bop
in the sea-going ships. Lord CLARENCE PAuET
suggestee, however, that there was a danger of
divorcing the Navy altogether from the merchant
service by training too large a number of boys in
the Navy. This objection strikes us as
somewhat fanciful. The SE. RETARY has an
excellent account t, give of the Naval
Reserve, as a most valuable, orderly, and
respectable body of seamen ; and be pi J.
mixes to concede to the officers a reduction
in the number of the days of drill. An official
school of naval architecture is at length to be
established. Six iron-clad gunboats are to be con-
structed on the twin-screw principle. The posi-
tion of the engineers iu sea•going ships is to be
improved, and the wages of all sea-going artificers
to be increased. Artificers are becoming every
year a more important part of the pt. esonn, 1 of the
Navy. Perhaps the most gratifying promise of all
was the one which the Secarrssi of the ADMI-
RALTY characteristically reserved for the last words
of his long statement, and that is an increase
of pay (as recommended, we suppose, by the com-
mittee which sat last year) for the officers and petty
officers of the Navy. Give the country efficiency
and economy in administration, and it will never
grudge decent pay to the gallant men who insin-
tain the honour of the flag.

LATEST INTELLWENOE.

•
(Wren's nun Wt.)
ACCEPTANCE OF THE CONFERENCE BY
FRANCE.
DRESDEN, Frs. 26.
The official Dreedner Journal of to-day publishes
a telegram from Paris announcing that the French
government has accepted the English proposal for
a conference.

out any affectation of remorse or attempt at
remorse or attempt at extenuation, confessed
that he came to Paris with the intention of
taking the Emperor's life under the circum-
stances described by the prosecution. When
asked whether he had not formed his plan in
concert with Mazzini, he said, " Naturally so."
He explained that he called upon Prince Murat's
secretary for the purpose of putting the police off
the scent, and that he had a good excuse for doing
so because his father had rendered services to King
Murat. It was a mistake in the indictment to say
that Mazzini gave him money when he first came to
Paris last spring, because he then paid his expenses
from his patrimony, but he admitted that Ma-
rini gave him 1,300 fr. at Lugano, when he
was coming to Paris the second time, with
his three accomplices, and that Mazzini afterwards
sent him 2,000 fr. and I,ooofr. to Paris in Bank
notes. He asserted that four of the bombe were
sent to him directly from London, and that the six
others were given him in Lugano by a friend of
whose name he would not mention. He
only brought eight to France, and he left two at
Lugano with a friend whose name be also refused
to mention. The first revolvers sent to him were
too big to be carried in the pocket conveniently,
and he therefore had them changed. When asked
why he charged the bombs on the day of his
arrest, lie answered, somewhat dramatically, "be-
cause the hour approached."
Trabucco's examination began by his being
asked whether he understood what Greco had said,
and whether he admitted the truth of it. He
" Yes, it is all true." On being asked wby
lie joined the plot, he made a speech with great
animation, the substance of which was that being
unable to get his living in Italy by his profession
as a player on the horn, and being in great distress
and utterly without money, he met with Greco,
who relieved him, and proposed to him to
join in the plot That he, Trabuoco,
was a patriot who had fought for his dear General
Garibaldi ; and that his head being heated by all
that the journals said of the brigandage in the
Neapolitan States, which was fostered by Rome
under the protection of a French army, he was
moved by pity for the widows and orpha.a made
by brigandage. He was opposed to war, and pro-
feved to be a particularly humane man—(much
laughter) ; but lie, being in distress, and his bead
being beatol by the journals, as he said before, be
did, when Greco showed him a bomb and said,
"This is justice," rejoin, "That's true ;" and he
consented to come to Paris and join the plot.
I will send you additional particulars by the next
post.

. ~.

E.YTRAGADINARY CHARGE OF PIRACY
AGAINST THREE SAILORS.

LIVERPOOL, THMODAT.

•
Yesteetlay, Warren Quinsey (alias Wilson), and
George Patrick (alias Kelly), sailors. were brought before
Mr. Raffles. at the poliwoourt, under • warrant, charged
with piracy. On the 16th of November last. the schooner
Joseph L. Gerity sailed from ltittamoras for New York,
where she was owned. She bad • crew of six men, and was
nailer the command of Capt. Nicholas ; her cargo was cot-
ton, valued at 60,000 dole., and there were six passengers on
board, including the two present prisoners. Oa the
night of the 17th, the passengers, who were said to
be Confederates, rose upon the crew and seized the vessel,
tuning the captain and crew adrift in an open boat. The
steward offered some resist race and was said to have been
murdered. Command of the vessel was then taken by the
prisoner Oniony, who held • master's certificate ; and the
name of the ship was changed to the Eureka. The *easel
was then taken back to the Rio Grande, and the Southern
States collector at Brownsville furnished her with a register
corresponding with the vessel's tonnage, her proposed
and the cotton on board. The Eureka then sailed for
but oo her arrival there the authorities refused to
recognise the Confederate flag, which had been hoisted. The
British ensign was then substituted, and the schooner
entered the port, where she was disposed of, with cargo, for
70,000 dollars. Subsequently a portion of the cotton was
shipped on board a British vessel for Lives pool, and three
of the " penengers " came over here in her. In consequence
of a vessel arriving at Belize with intelligence of what had
taken place, the remainder of the pirates decamped from
there, and the authorities offend 600 dollars for the capture
of the rMgleaders. Captain Nicholas and his crew, after
being tossed about for some time, also arrived at
Belize, but their late passengers had all got clear away.
Captain Nicholas, however, suspecting that some of them
had made their way to Liverpool. followed and arrived at
Liverpool a few days since. Armed with warrants granted
by Sir George Grey, under the English and United
States extradition treaty, he put the case in the hands of
Detective Carlisle, who apprehended the prisoners in an
eating-house in Park-lane, where a quantity of property
from the Joseph L. Gerity was deposited. The prisoners
offered no renitence, although they wore belts with sr.
barrelled revolvers is them when arrested. Yesterday
afternoon Carlisle, assisted by Detective Lees, apprehended
the third man. James Teruo, who had come over
to England. He was lodging in a disreptuable house,
and, like the other prisoners, had a revolver in his posses-
sion. He said he and the other men who had taken part in
the affair were engaged by a Major Hogg, at Wilmington,
and that they received their instructions from him to act on
behalf of the Confederate States. The three prisoners were
brought before the magistrates at the police court to-day,
when the solicitor eked for • remand on the ground that he
had only received his instructions • shod time previously.
A remand was therefore granted until 11 o'clock to-morrow
(Friday).

WEATHER REPORT.-(THIS DAY.)

FRIDAY, FINILVART 16, 8 A.M.

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