The Express.
London, England, 1853-07-13 00:00:00

upon society after serving their time of imprison-
ment. A large proportion of the crimes in France
&re committed by criminals who have atoned
for their offences, at the galleys, and prisons, and
arc dismissed without having any chance of getting
an honest living. A prisoner on leaving a gaol finds
every avenue to honest labour closed against him-
His character is blasted, and he has no resource now
but to return to his old habits, with his experience
increased by communion with companion. in gaol,
with his passions aroused by the punishment
he has received, and with his determination
to fight the battle out with society, since
society has outlawed him. He therefore re-
mains in the land to be a curse to it. If he is
transported, on the contrary, not only is the mother-
country benefited by his absence, and the colony to
which he is banished enriched by the amount of his
labour, but he himself is placed within the reach of
social influences which he could never feel in the
mother-country. _

With the distinct proviso, then, that no colony
which has declared itself averse to the recep-
tion of convicts should be bound to receive
them, there can be no serious objection to the
limited measure of transportation contemplated
by the Bill. Western Australia is able and
willing, according to the statement of the
Litt' OUNCE:II.OR, to absorb from 800 to 1,000
of our convicts annually. The mother-country,
the colony, and the convicts themselves, will
be equally benefited by the arrangement which
admits of the transportation of the latter. One good
feature of the Bill is its tendency to do away
with the uncertainty which hangs over the amount
of punishment to be inflicted for various crimes.
Nothing tends so much to diminish the fear that
should operate as a restraint upon crime as a'general
opinion of the utter absence of certainty with regard
to the penalty incurred by the criminal. The in-
cipient thief, who is told that a sentence of seven
years' transportation may be interpreted occasion-
ally to mean two years' imprisonment, speculates
on the chance, of getting off with the minor
penalty, and loses half his fear of the law
in the consciousness of its uncertainty. The limits-

tion of the punishment in question to all those cri-
minals who, under the existing law, render them-'
selves liable to transportation to fourteen years and
upwards, will establish a definiteness in the admi-
nistration of the law which will prove of great use
in the repression of crime. Altogether, the Bill is a
step in our penal legislation, although we should have
been glad to have it perfected by a proper definition
of the "penal servitude" to which those who have
rendered themselves liable, under the old law, to
transportation for periods of less than 14 years, will
in future be sentenced.

LATEST FROM THE CONTINENT.
RUSSIA AND TURKEY.
VIENNA, JOLT 9.
The Earl of Westmoreland pays frequent and long
visits to the hotel of the Russian ambassador. The
French and Turkish ministers attend many of the
conferences held there.

KALISCII, JOLT 9.

Orders are given that to-morrow the imperial
manifesto be read from the pulpit in all the
churches in the kingdom of Poland. The lame ad-
dress is also to be read at divine service to the 65,000
troops encamped at Ponvmski.

CONSTANTINOPLE, re.. 27.

The Hospodars of Moldavia and Wallachia have
transmitted to the Porte copies of a proclamation in
draft which Prince Gortechakoff has notified that he
shall disseminate upon entering the principalities.
They demand instructions. An officer in the confi-
dence of the Grand Vizier has left for Jassy.
As a precaution against surprise the Porte sus-
pends the permission under which merchant vessels
coming from the Black Sea now enter the Bosphorus
by night.
" " • '

. -
The founders of the new bank have contracted with
the government a loan of .50,000,000 piastres.

MOLDAVIA.

The letters received at Vienna from Moldavia bear
the imperial stamp, the Russians having taken pos-
session of the Post-office.

BELGRADE, JULY 4.

The excitement here is increasing, being stimu-
lated by the active and übiquitous emissaries otßue-
sia. The government hesitates to fulfil its treaty
obligations to the Porte while a Russian army is on
the other side of the Danube.

BERNE, JULY 9.

The federal government proposes to send a diplo-
matic representative of the fourth class to London.
To-day the grand fele of the federal rifle shooters
is celebrated at Lucerne. The city is crowded, a
Legs proportion of the visitors being English.

The government hu requested of the Frankfort
Diet a prolongation of the term allowed for revising
the constitution, being resolved to make one more at-
tempt to adjust the claims of the knightly re-
monstrant.

RUSSIA AND TURKEY.

A telegraphic despatch of doubtful origin hu
reached London via Paris, received from Vienna,
announcing that " the Ambassadors of France, Eng-
land, and Austria, at Constantinople, on learning
the passage of the Pruth by the Russians, had an
sadism)e of the Sultan for the purpose of praying him
not to cause the fleets to enter the Dardanelles ; and
that the Sultan, having acceded to their prayer,
limited himself to protesting against the violation of
his territory."
The Journal de Franefort, which has the reputa-
tion of being an organ of the Russian government,
has in its number of the 6th inst. an article on the
Eastern question, in which it pretends to know that
Austria proposes that the Porte shall address to Rus-
sia a note, binding itself to maintain all the privi-
leges and immunities of the Greek church, and that
Russia in her turn shall send a note, declaring that
she will not make an abusive exercise of this con-
cession against the integrity of the Ottoman empire.
Many of the German papers abandon themselves to
veculations concerning the form in which the Romeo-
Turkish difference may be settled. But the difficulty
lies not here. _ _ _

A letter from Constantinople states that the Pacha
of Egypt has written a kind and respectful letter to
the Grand Vizier, Mustapha Pitch*, father of Veley
Puha, Ambassador in Paris, with whom he is on the
most friendly terms, announcing that the Egyptian
fleet was ready to sail to transport the contingent de-
manded by the Sultan. Tho soldiers of the garrisons
on the sea coast were embarking, and those from the
interior of the country .were on their way. It was
calculated that in about 15 or 20 days the fleet and
troops would arrive in the Bosphorus. Foreign ofti-
tiers at Aleppo bad tendered their services to the'
Porte • among them were Poles, liungarians, and
wen English.
The National Gazette of Prussia announces in a
letter from Stettin, 6th inst.:—" The corps of guards
and Russian grenadiers have entered the camp of
Rainozelo. the manifesto of the Emperor Nicholas
was read to them, in which the war against Turkey
is represented as a holy war in favour of the Greek
religion. The cadets have entered the camp of
Peterhof." As to the Baltic fleet, the same journal
states that the following arrangements have been
made—the Russian Baltic fleet is composed of three
divisions, one under the white flag is in the Baltic,
another with the red flag is near Cronstadt, and tho
third, under the blue flag. is in that port where all
the war stamen are also at anchor."