The Express.
London, England, 1853-03-18 00:00:00

irDe Court.

Her Majesty had a dinner party last evening, at
Buckingham Pilaw. The company included the Duchess
' of Kent, the Princess Adelaide of llohenlohe, the Duke of
Norfolk, the Chevalier and Madame Busman, the Berl and
Countess of Derby, the Earl and Countess of Shaftesbury,
the BAH and Countess of Rosebery. Bui Delawarr, Lady
Fanny Howard, and Lord lenses Murray.
The Duchess of Kota visited the Duchess of Gloucester
yesterday, at her residence, Gloucester-house, Piccadilly.

A deputation on the subject of the leases to occupiers of
crown lands in the colony of Victoria, had an in t '
with the Duke of Newcastle yesterday, at the Colonial-
office. The deputation consisted of Messrs. Henry Moon,
Cecil Birch, Arthur Birch, Niel Black, A. F. Motlisar,
A.l). Lang, S. P, Winter, J. Stanley Carr, and John
Hobert Murphy (of Victoria), and Colonel Ferrar Hamil-
ton, Mt. T. Stewart Gladstone, Mr. Joseph Morrison, and
Mr. John Connell. . . .

Mr. Maaterman, M.P., and Mr. Gregsoe, M.P., had an in
terview with the Chancefloret the Ezehequer yesterday, at
his official residence in Downing-street, to present a memo-
rial for the reduction of the tea duties.
A depntatioa from Healey and Skelton had an interview
yesterday with the General Board of Health, at their
°facts, Whitehall. The deputation consisted of Messrs.
Robert Brown, Thomas Simpson, Thomas Gilman, Thomas
Pidduck, and Thomu Griffin. They were accompanied
and introduced by Mr. Ayshford Wise, M.P.
Sir Charles sod Lady Mary Wood had a dinner party on
Wednesday, at their residence in Chesham•place. The
company were the Eirl and Coulitess of Cluendon, Earl
Granville, the Lord• Advocate, the Marquis of Lansdowne,
the Count, Countess, and Miss de Flahault, Lord and Lady
Bessborough, Mr. Charteris, the Right Hon. Sidney Her-
bert, Mr. llardinge, and Mrs. H. Herbert.
The Marquis of Winchester had an interview with Vis-
count Palmerston on Wednesday, at the Home-office.
Despatches were received yesterday at the Colonial-office
from the Governor of the Falkland Islands.
Sir J. Belly John Laird, Mr. Thompson, and Mr. End-
field had an interview with Sir J. Graham at the Admi-
ralty yesterday.

DELAY OF THE NORTH MAILS.—The early morn-
ing mail from London, leaving Euatun-square by 8 o'clock,
and due in Manchester at 12.30, did nut arrive In Man-
chester with the morning papa I's and letters until about
3 p.m. It was reported that the train had gone off the
rails between London and Rugby.
THE ACuTR.tLIAN MAIL brought by the Sydney
arrived at Plymouth on Wednesday evening, about an
boar after the departure of the London mail, end, conse-
quently, it did not reach London before last evening.
THE UNITED STATES MAIL STEAMER FRANKLIN
left Cowes for New York on Weilwiday night with French
and English mails for America. She had 700 tons of cargo
on board from ncre, the largest cargo ever taken out by
any of the American packets.

FRANCE.

PARIS, THVIUDLT Evasixo.
Lord Stratford de Radcliffe had an audience of
the Emperor, to take leave previous to his departure
for Constantinople.
A convention between France and Wurtemberg
for the extradition of fugitives from justice is pub-
lished in to-day's Mon liflir.
The Three per Cents. marked a rise at the termi-
nation: of business to-day of 25c. for cull, and 10e.
for the account, being last called 80f. 95c. for the
former, and 80f. 85e. for the latter. The Four-and-
a-Half per Cents. fell 15c., closing at 103 f. 95c. for
the account, and Bank Stock at 2,740 f.
Railway shares were actively dealt in, and prices
had an advancing tendency.
The follow ing are the latest prices of other conti-
nental bourses, receivedby telegraph to-day :—Vienna
Metallique Five per Cent., 94 ; Emp., 1851, 107/ ;
Lombardo Venetian, 100!; Bank, 1,422. Berlin :
Emp. Four-and-a-Half per Cent., 103;; ditto, Three-
and-a•Half, 931 ; Banque, 1091. Frankfort : Me-
tallique Five per Cents., 861 ; ditto, Series A, 861 ;
ditto, Four-and-a-Half, 77 15-16 ; Lombardy Five
per Cents., 92 ; Spanish Three per Cents., 441 ; Bel-
gium Two-and a-Half per Cents., 574 ; ditto, Four-
and-a-Half per Cents., 991. Antwerp: Emp. Four-
and-a-Half per Cents., 994 ; ditto, Four-and-a-Half,
con. 1852, 99 ; ditto, Three per Cents., 1838, 741 ;
Antwerp Metallique Five per Cents., 851.

PARIS, WZDWIJIDAY EVENING.
The mansion in the Place Vendome lately occu-
pied by the general commanding the let military
division, and which under Louis Philippe belonged
to the inf endance generale of the civil list, is now
being sumptuously tarnished for Marshal Magnan.
He w;11 inhabit it, however, not as Commander-in-
Chief of the army of Paris, but as Grand Vencur, the
which feudal designation has just been placed on a
tablet of black marble over the entrance door.
In the last sitting of the Corps Legislatif, the
transatlantic packet question was incidentally al-
luded to. In the course of the short debate which
took place on the Colonial Postage Bill, M. Le
Conte, the reporter, in observing upon the im-
portance of dispatch in the delivery of commercial
letters, stated that colonial correspondencesent by
English packets was frequently delivered in England
48 hoar, before letters brought by the same mails
arrived in France. He suggested that government
would do well to send a steamer to bring the French
correspondence the instant it arrived in the Eng-
lish ports. He also urged the necessity of hastening
the solution of the transatlantic packet question. M.
Vintry, councillor of state, the government commis-
sary, said that the question was now under examina-
tion, a special committee under the superintendence
of the Minister of Finance, having been occupied
with it for several months past. The suggestion that
a steamer should be sent to England tor French
colonial mails would be considered; but should the
transatlantic packet service be speedily established,
the necessity for any such measure would be super.
sided.