The Express.
London, England, 1847-07-05 00:00:00

Francisco, her father-in-law, and the Infanta Josef',
his daughter. The circumstance excited many com-
ments in political circles.
One of the opposition journals mentions that a dis-
solution of the codes will probably take place. It
was intimated by M. &meth, the pope's legate, that
his Holiness would give the next cardinal's hat to a
Spanish bishop.
El Heraklo says that some capitalists have offered
to advance two millions sterling to relieve the mone-
tary crisis. The contract between the bank of San
Fernando and the government had been terminated,
and all its advances to the government were about to
be repaid.

MADRID, Jeri! 28.
The scandal occasioned by, the connexion imputed to
Don Francisco de Paula with a secret society, seems
likely to terminate in the expulsion of his royal high-
ness from the court. The peculiar situation of the
Queen renders more regrettable the necessity of dis-
missing from her society a near relative, who ought
naturally to supply the place of a father towards her.
But Don Fiancisco has neither the sense nor the dig-
nity corresponding to such an elevated responsibility.
If the reports, which I hear from good authorities, are
true, doubts may be raised concerning the sanity of
this royal individual. lam told that he informed the
Queen himself that he belonged to a secret society,
one of whose sworn objects was to take her Majesty's
life. The consummate folly of such an avowal can be
only equalled by the criminality of its truth ; unless,
indeed, we make the charitable supposition that the
only object of Don Francisco in becoming a
member of this society, which bears the precious
title of the " Avengers of Aliband," was to watch
and control its operations for the protection of the
Queen's life. But the Queen's safety, one would
imagine, would have been best secured by the instant
destruction of any conspiracy which threatened it.
Meanwhile, it is hardly worth while discussing so
hideous a sally of senile imbecility.
The political chief of Tarragona has informed the
government, in a despatch of the 23rd, that the main
body of the Carlist bands was overtaken on the 22nd
by the column of Don Fulgencio Smith at the bridge
of Armentara. An obstinate engagement took place
which resulted in a complete dispersion of the rebels.
These were pursued to hlontagat, and left upon the
field 21 dead, some wounded, a prisoner, and various
arms.

CONSTANTINOPLE, JUNK 17.

There is no country in the world which offers so
many facilities for national education as Turkey. Schools
are attached to every mosque throughout the empire, with
lands and funded property for their support. The number
of pupils in these establishments has hitherto been very
limited, and entirely out of proportion with the revenues at
their disposal. It is unnecessary to say that the system of
education pursued in these schools is of the most defective
kind. The studies of the pupils are entirely confined to the
Koran, or to some distorted remnants of the astronomical
and medical sciences, which flourished amongst the Arabs.
Hatred of the infidel and contempt for his acquirements, are
the result of the lectures on the sacred writings ; and as for
the rest, horeecopes are studied se the rules for men's
actions, and charms as the panacea for the evils to
which their natures are exposed. The Turkish government
have determined on the gradual reform of these schools. An
ordinance has been issued by a committee of public instruc-
tion, containing a plan of the studies to be pursued, with
rules for the admission of the pupils and the discipline to
which they are to be subjected. And parents and guardiaae,
es well as masters of slaves, will be punished if they preveut
their children from taking advantage of the instruction gra-
tuitously offered them by the government. The different
schools have been classified for the admission of pupils
according to their acquirements, and the normal school
and the university which are now being built at Con-
stantinople will complete the system of education de-
termined on by the government. There are in the
neighbourhood of Constantinople, a medical, • military,
and a naval school, all under the direction of European
professors. These schools have had considerable success.
French is the only European language taught in them, and
is exclusively employed as the methum of instruction. A
professor of English, however, will be appointed to the
usiversity which is being built at Constantinople. All this
has been done for the rising generation, but little or nothing
for the instruction of those who are past the age of school-
boys. Something of the kind has however been begun, not
by the sultan or his ministers, but by the Englishmen who
are employed in the government works in the neighbourhood
of Constantinople. Between the Seven Towers and St.
Stephano, a village on the Marmora, there are manufactories
of different kinds, all under the direction of English en-
gineers. In this district, which stretches along the sea
oust, there reside from sixty to seventy English
workmen with their families. It is wonderful the
effect which their example has already produced upon the
people of the surrounding neighbourhood. The fields
are better tilled, the houses better built, and the whole place
wears an appearance of bustle and activity which is most un-
oriental. They have made Masrekeny, a village midway be-
tween the Seven Towers and SeStephano, their head-quarters.
Here they have established a Mechanics' Institution, which
numbers already more than a hundred members, amnncst
whom, besides Europeans of different nations, are Turks,
Greeks, and Armenians. The Sultan, when the circum-
stance was explained to him, at once perceived the benefits
which such an establishment could not fail to confer not only
upon the immediate neighbourhood, but by the force of ex-
ample upon the empire at large. He therefore made
the members a present of a house, and promised to
take the institution under his particular protection.
A reading-room has already been opened, and the founda-
tion of a library begun. The most competent amongst
the members have been chosen to lecture upon mathematics,
the mechanical arts, and other branches of useful knowldge.
A few days ago we were present at the inauguration of the
" Oriental Mecbaalcs' Institution," as it is called. It was
certainly with no small feeling of satisfaction that for the
first time during twelve long years of absence from home,
we found ourselves in the midst of so large an assem-
blage of Englishmen. And noble specimens they and
their families are of the race—their blue-eyed, fair-
haired daughters, their chubby rosy-cheeked children,
and their comely matrons. The gratification of that
moment was worth a much longer exile. It is very
probable, from the interest which the Sultan and his
ministers have taken in the establishment of the Mechanics
Institution at Macrekeny, that similar societies will be formed
in the other great towns in Turkey.
The Porte have given Mehemet All, the viceroy of Egypt,
permission to go to the baths of Lucca. It is not probable
that he will visit either France or England. In the early
part of the week the treaty, regulating the line of frontier
between Turkey and Persia, was signed here, by the l'orte,
the Persian envoy, and the representatives of England and
France.
M. de Behr, the Belgian minister, has demanded from the
Porte the punishment of an Armenian banker, by whom he
was insulted, • few days since, on the quay at Buyukedere.
It is said that he threatens to demand his passports if satis-
faction be not accorded.
Per., one of the moat matter-of-fact, prosaic little towns
in Europe, has become the scene of an event as full of tear-
ful interest and dramatic excitement as any to be found in
the pages of George Sand or Jules Junin. As for ourselves,
we can only relate the simple facts, without the /frac dui
drapery and other artistic additions which they might re-
ceive from abler hands. Mademoiselle Marie was the
daughter of a wealthy French tradesman. She was pos-
sessed of accomplishments superior to her station, and of
beauty rare even here, where loveliness in woman is so
common. Like Emma in the ballad, she had many suitors,
and on one her affections finally settled. He was, however,
anything but " the pride of swains "—a shallow-hearted,
worthless creature, the life and soul of the greasy fre-
quenters of the oifis and wine-shops, for whose amuse-
ment he would often read the letters which, during
their courtship, he received from the poor girl
The father and mother of Marie were naturally
opposed to her marrying such a scamp, but, with the per-
versity of her sex, this only caused her to love him the more.
Amongst the many who sued for her hand there was one
particularly favoured by the parents, and who, notwithstand-
ing the repulses which he received from the girl, still conti-
nued his attentions. This man and Marie's lover met and
fought, and a lawsuit followed, when the most shameful reve..
llamas were made. On the trial Marie's lover showed his true
character, and she could shut her eyes no linger to his
defects. In parting with the illusion which she had so
long cherished, her heart broke, and from that day forth
she pined away. Her parents, who ought to have comforted
her in her sorrow, loaded her with reproaches, and even
subjected her to cruel persecutions. She wee weary of lite ,
and, though she felt that death was coming to her relief,
she thought his approach too slow. The suitor favoured by
her parents still continued his addressee, but without success.
That Marie Amid marry him, her father and mother were ,
determined, either because he was wealthy, or because they
thought it might remove any slur thrown on the girl's cha-
racter by the events of the trial. As, however, she showed
no symptoms of yielding, it was agreed on by these cruel
people that he should woo her <1 in Mirabeau. With the
parents' consent, therefore, he concealed himself in Marie's
sleeping room, and when the dying
.girl retired there at
night, he effected her min, and then withdrew. So far, the
plot succeeded. But when the mother came in the morning
to rouse her victim, Marie was dead. Though Marie felt
she had not long to live, she could not endure her dishonour,
even for so short a period. Fearful of some such catastrophe,
she had already possessed herself of arsenic, and when her
ravisher left her, she swallowed the poison, and so put an
end to her sorrows and her shame.
The foregoing circumstance is at the present moment the
to subject of an inquiry at, the French embassy, but the result
een has not yet transpired.
the

BELGIUM.—BRUPBELB, JUNE 29.—1 t appears h,
an official document just published, that during the first live
months of 1847, there were imported into this country
66,400,000 kilogrammes of wheat, rye, barley, oats, and vie.,
being, strange to say, 36,300,000 kilos, less than the quantity
imported during the corresponding months of 1846. This
fact is set forth by several jeurnah as a proof that COMMIT•
cial speculation was not active enough during the former
months of scarcity, and that that inactivity ought to have
been remedied by the renewed activity of government, in