The Express.
London, England, 1853-11-24 00:00:00

TO THZ ZDITOR OF VIZ DAILY NEWF.

Sia,—l concur in every word that you say as to
the creation of this scandalous monopoly.
It may be remarked, as an excuse, that to encou-
rage any body of men to embark in iron speculations
in the Madras presidency extensive privileges were
necessary.
I do not believe it; but let ue assume they were;
surely, in that case, the East India Company ought
to have thrown the speculation open to general com-
petition ? Whereas they have secretly and clandes-
tinely granted the monopoly to a private company.
That they have any legal power to give it a right
of pre-emption of iron ore raised by natives on their
own lands is preposterously absurd. The crown
itself, if in full possession of India, would have no
each power, and the grant is manifestly illegal.
But the attention of parliament must, and will, be
called to the case.—l am, Sir, your obedient servant,
Nov. 23. M. P.

LATEST FROM ABROAD.

PORTUGAL

PROCLAMATION OF THE REGENT.
SOUTHAMPTON, WZDNISDAT NIGHT.

The mail steamer City of London has arrived, with
the Peninsular mails. Her data are—Gibraltar,
Nov. 14; Lisbon, 19.
The Queen of Portugal was to be buried on the
19th. The son she gave birth to is deal. The
Portuguese men-ot Tear at Lisbon had been firing
every three minutes, night and day, since the
Queen's death.

The City of London embarked at Ca&i: the Prince
and Princess De Joinville and suite for Lisbon,
and on arrival at that port the princess dreamt of
the death of her royal sister having occurred but a
few hours before. The royal party were subse-
quently escorted to the hones of the Duchess of
Braganca.

The King Consort had assumed the regency, and
had issued the following proclamation :
Porteguese,--Ged has been pleased to call to his
Glory to-day, at half-put eleven o'clock in the fore-
noon, the Queen Lady Dona Maria the Second, my
much-loved and highly-prized spouse—a severe loss,
which plunges me and my dear children in the deepest
grief, and fills the sensitive and faithful Portuguese
nation with mourning.

u In these sorrowful circumstances, obliged to fulfil
those 'awed duties imposed upon me by the law of the
7th of April, 1846, confirmed by the additional act to
theconstitutional:charter of the monarchy,' take upon
myself the exercise of the regency of these king-
doms, and, in conformity to the said constitutional

charter, I swear to maintain the Roman catholic
apostolic religion, the integrity of the kingdom, and
to observe and cause to be observed the political con-
stitution of the Portuguese nation and other laws of
the kingdom, and provide for the general good of the
nation to the utmost of my power.
" I also swear to preserve fidelity to the Kiog, Lord
Don Pedro VIII. my above all much loved, and highly
prized son, and to resign the government to him
immediately on his attaining his majority."
The government is triumphing in the municipal
elections.
Exchange, M.

At Lisbon and Vigo there is no relaxation of
quarantine. At Gibraltar there is no quarantine
with clean bills of health.

RUSSIA AND TURKEY.

VIENNA, Nov. 19.
Travellers arriving at Vienna report that military
executions are of daily occurrence at Bucharest. It
is expected that the Turks will shortly evacuate the
islands in front of Turtukai and Rustchuk, as the
Danube is recovering its accustomed height, and they
will soon be nearly covered with water.

ODESSA, Nov. 8.

The Rumian tear steamer Senikale has gone down
near Yalta, in the Black Sea. The men were saved.

RUSSIA AND TURKEY.

The following items of news are extracted from
the Vienna journals of the 19th :—" The greater
part of the Russian troops who are encamped round
Budeschti and Negojachti, have, it is said, received
orders to march towards Little Wallachia. Near
Turnnl, on the 15th, the Turks attempted a surprise,
but were driven back by a detachment of Cossacks.
The affair does not appear to have been important, u
there is no mention oflcilled or wounded on either aide.
A letter from Bucharest states that Prince Gortscha-
koff intended to sesame the offensive about the 15th.
It is known that the Prince had positive instructions
to remain on the defensive ; but, on the Bth of this
month, he received from St. Petersburg orders to
commence war, and to prosecute it with energy. The
Wallachian soldiers are incorporated by companies in
the Russian army. Strong columns are in march
towards Kalaradsch and Giurgewo. Every day there
are slight skirmishes and combats of advanced Rasta.
In the late affairs several of the staff were killed.
Cholera, fevers, and pleurisies prevail, and sick are
constantly arriving at Bucharest. No Turkish pri-
soners have reached that place."
The Wanderer of Vienna states from sassy, 11th :
" All the Russian troops have left our town. The
corps of Osten-Sacken is not expected until about the
10th December ; for even by forced marches he could
not, and with the greatest difficulty, arrive in lees
than 35 days. 'Die Russians have enlisted men in
their service in our city. They had forcibly enrolled
in their ranks a number of Jews, but on the following
day they released them, after compelling the pay-
ment of a considerable sum of money."
The same journal quotes a letter ftom Bu-
charest of the 10th, stating that the son of Prince
Vogorides, residing at Bucharest, has been sent to
St. Petersburg in chains, Prins Oortsehakoff having
intercepted letters from him to Omer Pacha, contain-
ing particulars concerning the movements of the
Russian troops. It is said that six Boyards have
been transported to Siberia, for having had secret
correspondence with the Turks.
The Oat. Deutsche Peat of Vienna states, from the
frontiers of Sera* 14th, that the Pacha of Belgrade
has made strong representations to the Servian
government, in order to induce it to send away the
Russian Consul-General, but that hitherto the Ser-
vian government has maintained strict neutrality. It
is said the French Consul at Belgrade supports the
demands of the Pacha.

The Patrie professes to know that Krajowa, the
capital of Lesser Wallachia, has been taken by the
Turks, after a smart nnggaaggeemeet between Ismael
Pacha's troops and theeßussian General Fischbach,
and that Omer Pacha was about to deploy 40,000
men on the left bank of the Danube, and to fortify
himself in the strongest manner in the triangle com-
prised between Kalafat, Krajowa, and NaracaL If
this be true, and it is not improbable, it is strange
that we do not hear of it from other quarters, as the
Patrie bases its announcement on letters received

from Vienna. It will be disgraceful if, with tele-
graphic communication within eighteen hours of the
seat of war, we receive important news in the old-
fashioned way of correspondence.
According to letters from Constantinople of the
9th inst., a diuiaion of the Turkish and Egyptian
squadron, composed of the Egyptian sip of
the line Fayoum. the Turkish ship of the line
Penmen, and the frigates Fadoullah and Biriead,
had driven off a Russian division proceeding to land
suppling at Poti. The Russian ships had escaped in
consequence of a thick fog. This squadron kept a
strict watch on the coast of the Black Sea, from
Trebizond to Redont %midi, in which district the
army of Abdi Pasha is operating. A Turkish garrison
had been stationed in fort St. Nicholas, which was
placed in an excellent state of defence. According to
the Preen of Vienna, the Turks have 24,000 men
near Batoum under the command of &Um Paella,
and 46,000 on the frontier of Georgia under Abdi
Pasha.

The Vienna Frew has a private letter from
Bucharest, in which we read: " Yesterday and to-
day, the 11th and 12th, there must have been sharp
fighting in the neighbourhood of Oltenitza, as wag-
gon loads of wounded men were brought in along that
road. Some of the wounded men, to whom I spoke,
told me that the Turks had been beaten ; but here
people are not so sure that the victory was on the
side of the Russians, as Prince Gortschakoff sends
courier after courier to Osten-Sacken and Ludera to
urge them to advance u speedily as possible. Several
Russian staff officers, severely wounded, have just
been brought in. The city is in considerable com-
motion."

The bulletin of Prince Gortachakoff plainly asserts
that no battle took place before the removal of the
Turks from Great Wallachia, and the Cronatadt
Gazette tends to confirm the statement, but speaks of
I encounters of outposts, after the battle of Oltenitza
of the 4th, which it says were kept up day and night,
and filled the hospitals with wounded much more
rapidly than such engagements are wont to do. In
fact, it plainly appears from the casual notices of army

surgeons and travellers that the "skirmishes," as
they are called, which have taken place at Krngowa
and elsewhere, have been much more extensive and
serious than the manner of their announcement would
indicate. A Bucharest correspondent, writing on the
10th, says that the wounded were coming in at each
and all of the 24 hours. The Turkish troops in the
first line are chiefly Arabs, whose dark visages and
sharp eyes very much aggravate the Russians. The
behaviour of the Turkish soldiery is said to be such
as could only be expected from the best disciplined
tiltreduction of the fort of Nioolai, or Shefkatil,
of which we have now published both the Turkish
and Russian narratives, has inspired the warlike
tribes of the neighbourhood with a respectful regard
and • fellow-feeling for the Turks. The maim of
Laristan, which the Czar had well armed and
equipped, under the impression that Russian
ascendancy in that quarter was asserted for ever,
have just gone over to the Turks.
Notwithstanding that the difficult position of Turkey
demands that no portion of Ottoman public feeling
shall remain unimproved, the government persist in
refusing to give the present war a religious charac-
ter. When the war was declared the Scheik-ul-
Islam contented himself with certifying, by a fetwa,
that it was not contrary to the Koran, and the
standard of the Prophet was not exhibited, as used
invariably to be done. The latest Constantinople
letters state that in the mosques the war has been
proclaimed as the struggle of justice against oppres-
sion and tyranny, with which matters of faith have
nothing in common ; and, despite all the newspaper
talk in the West, no one in Turkey thinks of a reli-
gions war against the unbelievers.
"We are assured," says the Pattie "that the
Consul-General of Resale, at Alexandria, received
orders to quit the country. On all put occasions the
Russian agents in Egypt had remained at their posts,
but the energetic way in which the Viceroy has
adopted the cause of the Sultan, has been regarded
by the cabinet of St. Petersburg as an open rupture."
The Cologne Gazette states from Constantinople,
7th, that an association, called the Teutonic Society,
had, in the sole interest of truth, published a decla-
ration numerously signed, and addressed to all the
German papers, stating that all the reports published
in the Augsburg Gazette relative to persecutions
against the Christians in Turkey are false and un-
founded.