The Express.
London, England, 1849-12-08 00:00:00

ITALY.

ROMAN STATES.—Letters from Rom', of the
30th ult., anncunce thatGencral Baregaay n
bad gone to Partici.
The human government mitnission has passed the
following decree, dates Rome, 26th ult.:
Art. 1. Oa thy Ist Deeembrr next the tax on !Wading
corn (tana:del Macinato) is re estab'ished in aL the pro-
vinces or the state in latch it was fornwrly in vigour.—
Art 2. Oa the thy above-mentioned all bakers, mlitufac
turers of vermiren, ft inr-dealers, and millers, shall declare
the quantity of [tour they have in tiler pmsessim, in ordsr
to pay the tax on them.—Art 3. Th r present tsws and regu-
lations on the tax in question pravisinally remain in force.

NAPLES.—Our correspondent writes on the 29th
ult., that the king was about to retire for the winter
to Gaeta, the Pope remaining at Perini.
It having been fiend that some Italians attended
the English church at N“ples, the police sett spits to
arrest them. Tney were not present, however, on the
particular day selected for the attendance of the
police. A late edict commands the people to pray,
"in the name of the Holy Spirit, the king, and the
Pope."
The prefect of police had waited on tie king, to
state that it would be dangeroac to go cia with the'
state trials. At Palermo, fresh tx.cutions and arrests
had taken place.
SARDINIA.—The R.a,r9uneeto of Tu:in' of the
3rd, announces that Silvio PePien, the celebrated
author, has come forward as a candidate at the next
elections of Piedmont, having hitherto kept aloof
from all political affairs.

GERMANY.
We bare received the lollowiug important letters
from our correspondent at Vienna. They have been
delayed in their roue by the heavy snow which has
fallen in Central and Smith Germany.
VIENNA, Nov 30.
The snow continuer. Immense heaps encumber all
the streets and equate re. The fall seems to have been
general threughoat Central Europe. The North rail-
road is buried in many places by deep drif e, and
communication with Prague and Berlin completely
cut off. The quantity of vessels on the Danube
frozen up is immense. The reflection is an br.lliant
as to make night look like a clouded day. Even with
a feeble, muffled talon, one can read a paper quite
plain by the snowlight. The immense pile of St.
Stephens, lifting itse:f all black out of the white (its,
has a singular effect. All those count lets boats along
the Danube moat, that a few days ego were bright and
laughing with fruit and sunshine, look dismal
in their beenowed ice-locked perspective. The portara
ho stand at the doors of the great, with a muff on
each hand by ;nay of cuff, and a prodigious tippet of
fur by way of collar, with their three-cornered laced
hats, tall maces bussed with silver, levied in gigantic
coats, seem the only members of the community
ready armed at all points, to hold out ageing: this
sudden onslaught of winter.
The arrival cif Stadion was reported here, but it is
not true. The ex-minister is still at Grafen-berg
roving, as the manner is, with bare bead, open collar,
and io straw shoes, looking not a whit less crazy than
all the rest.
Public attention is at present much occupied with
the moropoly of the Danube Steam Company. The
Austria,'. Bruck's organ, having published an ela-
brate eulogy of the company, together with the text
of the grant, by which the mo: °poly was said to be
renewed in 1846 until 1880, in order to prove the
legal right to exclusive navigation, it appears that
only foreign (frenade) competition is shut out, and al
free field left open tot ative enterprise. The company
cenatrue frond as alienus, and applying to all outside'
their circle. The courts will probably have to try,
within no very distant period, whether the latter
interpretation is tenable. But, sitting this aside, it
is held that the company's exclusive privilege can
only extend to the sort of steamers employed by them,
and by no means to beats constructed on the screw
principle, or any other newly-.inventrd system.
Convention between Austria, Modena, and Parma,
concerning the establishment of a customs-union
(Zollverein) between there states:
Art. 1. Within a period as short as perible, to he deter-
mined in • diplomatic way, a sp. cial commission, consisting
of delegates of the high contracting parties, will meet in
Vienna, to negotiate concerning the establishment cf a cus-
toms union LEA exclusive object of turbid), as is hereby de-
clare, is to be the fostering of the c'mmeree ani relations
of Interco:into between tt e states concerned; with due re-
gard, however, to their reciprocal flicoil in:erests, and without
prejudice to the rights of sover‘ignty of the high contract
sag parties.
Art. 2. lithe negotiations attain the proposed end, never-
theless the above-mentioned customs-union shall b 3 consi•
dered as a trial ; and its duration limited to the the teem of
five yeses. It shall, however, be competent to the commis.
sire indicated in tte preceding article to determine, together
with other circumstances, also the mnilti in which the
custom-union is to be prolonged or renewed.
Art. 3. should the cue occur that, before or on the anival
of the period with which the above mentioned convention,
' concluded tot Modena, on Jan 23, 1948, and extended yes
terday to Parma, has to cease, the intended negotiations have
not led to the proposed result, or that the customs-anion
aimed at, has not been realised, the validity of the said con-
vention is to continue until the said customs-union be set in
effectual operation, or until another ezpreu agreement be
concluded on this subject.
Signed and sealed at Milan, on July 3, 1849, by the
respective plenipotentiaries, DE Baum, us Vow,
and WARD.
The official ;maul o contains the appointment
of General Mayerhofer as provisional governor
(Landen-rhef), and M. Gritz von Rouse, formerly
bead of the district of Zara, ministerial commissioner
of the woiwodeship of Servia and the Temesh Banat.
Puckner has prolonged the three months' term for
the sale of foreign wares at Venice till the end of
December. _

Dac. 1

I sent, in my letter of ye-terday, the text of the
couvention entered into by Austr a, with Parma and
Modena, for the formation of a customs-union. I
cannot too strongly dwell on the importance of such
a design. It is true that Modena ant Parma are
insignificant in extent and population, each contain-
ing some two thousar d square miles with about half
a million inhabitants ; but, by this extension of her
commercial territory, Austria, hitherto confined to the
Adriatic, will gain the Modenese littoral between
Tuscany and Piedmont on the Mediterranean. She
will have continuous access to this sea. The two
states which fill into her Zollverein are planted
plump across the neck of Italy, separating the Sir-
dimian territory from Tuscany and the States of the
Church, and isolating the whole peninsula,
properly so called, from the dominions of Victor
Emmanuel. The first obvious consequence is that no
Italian customs-union is possible while such an
arrangement lasts. Then the military lines of com-
munication between North and South Italy will be cut
by a double Lne of Austrian custom-houses. It is
hardly possible to conceive a more offensive impedi-
ment to the progress of Italian unity than this fence
of black and yellow striped poles and sentry boxes
extending across the Appenine from sea to sea. As