The Express.
London, England, 1856-02-07 00:00:00

RONAN STATES.

(MOM OVZ OWN 00111SPONDINT.)
ROME, Z. 31.
The prospect of peace, so recently flashed over the
•Continent with simultaneous rapidity by the tele-
, graphic wires of the various states interested in the
question, has not failed to produce the greatest satire
faction throughout the clams desirous of seeing the
present order of things maintained in the ecclesiaatioal
' dominions and the other Italian states subject to
despotic rule. Every one engaged in commercial un-
dertakings is likewise delighted at the probability of
Pews bringing back more flourishing times than the
present ; and in Romeespecially, where the very
existence of great numbers of speculators. to say
nothing of the fine arts, depends upon the coa-
-1 course of peaceful travellers, the issue of the
proposed negotiations is looked for with the
I greatest anxiety. Amongst those, however,
who aspire to the political regeneration of Italy
as an object of higher importance than the
' material and temporary prosperity or the industrious
clams, or the consolidation of ecclesiastical authority
in the centre, and the maintenance of Hoofbeat°
sway in the south of the Italian peninsula, the sue-
I pension of hostilities is looked upon as a seal placed
for the present upon the hopes of ,the liberals, and a
final hindrance to the desired political modifications j
which a continuation of the war might have produced
throughout the continent, but more especially I
on the volcanic soil of Italy. The status floe forms
the senimuns &Nem of the rulers of this country,
as it constitutes the incubus of those intelligent ,
minds which sigh after political development and
rational liberty more in harmony with the spirit of
the age than the institutions hitherto rented by the
Papal government, and therefore change would be
as hatetul to the one party as delightful to the other.
Ileum arise the different feeliogs with which the
probabilities of peace are regarded in Italy.
Meanwhile the Carnival war is proceeding most
vigorously in the Corso, and the beauty of the wea-
ther encourages the fair sex to add to the gaiety
of the some in every possible variety of
costume. The prohibition of masks is beginning
to be evaded by the adoption of head-dramas of sash
singular construction, by some of the revellers, that
the gendarmes stationed at the Pines del Popolo,
where the carriages enter, occasionally insist upon the
wearies uncovering, to show whether their features
are in any way obnoxious to the police authorities.
This evening the first public ball at which people will
be allowed to come with mules actually on their
face is to take place at the Argentina Theatre, and
the result will prove bow far the Director of Police
has been judicious in relaxing the severity of the late
mulations. The French military authorities are
taking no part in the Carnival this year, the Swiss
and Roman regiments being exclusively on duty in
the Como.

The Pope is amusing himself, as usual during Car-
nival, by visiting various religions establishments,
monasteries and nunneries. On the Nth inst. his
Holiness honoured the English College and the Pio
College with his presence, Dr. Morris receiving him
at the first establishment and Dr. English at the
second. The Pope read the inscription in honour of
forty Catholic missionaries noceseively sent from the
Eoglisheollege to preach and convert their protestant
brethren at home, and received with affable compla-
cency a chosen deputation of British neophytes, re-
cently arrived ..into the bosom of Holy Mother
Church," some of them university men, representing
in their persons the reviving Romanis= of Ozford.

COLLISION OFF