The Express.
London, England, 1846-11-23 00:00:00

awe 4radtitsn of party, no person possessed of any political
tortaggli could believe thet either the British or the Portu-
guese nition would tolerate so dangerous and so useless a
proceeding.
The military intelligence which I sun able to send
amounts to the mt re fact that nod ostilities have taken place
between the two principal corps ornde, and it ia probable
that some time will elopes before a move is made on either

side.
•On the frontiers of °aids the Spanish government is col-
lecting ammunition and provisions in very large quantities.
There is a provisional junta established, in the Queen's
name, at Vigo; and in conjunction with this fact must be
cited another of very considerable importance. The Baron
Canal, who, with 1,100 men, is hemmed in at Chaves, has
applied to the Spanish authorities for permission to cross the
frontier, and to proceed with his force to Valence, where he
will be at once able to get into the relief the movement part
at Oporto and in the north. The answer of the Spanish
government to this application hall not been received,
hit there cannot be a question al to the character of such an
interference, if the request be granted, and recollecting the
jealousy which all classes here entertain of the Spaniards, al-
though the immediate result may benefit the Queen's cause,
the consequences may prove very serious. All these various
items of military news, though not altogether insignificant,
fall far short in interest of that which I have to communicate
with respect to the financial and commercial affairs of Lis-
bon. By a decroe published in the Diorio do Gooerno of
yesterday, dated the 14th of November, the Queen, acting
in conformity to the power which she has assumed of per-
sonally directing the affairs of the kingdom, orders that the
notes of the Bank of Lisbon be accepted as a legal tender for
the full amount which they purport to bear, and the
penalty attached to the infraction of this decree is a fine of
from 131. to 1301., at the will of the judge, before whom the
offender is tried, and also the punishment of civil degrada-
tion, a sentence which involves the possibility of being sent
on a trip to Angola; or, as a milder discipline, of being
chained to a convict and sent to the galleys. A very pleasant
prospect is thus opened to those gentlemen and others who
refuse to confide in the honour of a bankrupt company ; for
such I do not think it can be questioned is the actual position
of the Bank of Lisbon. To add to the character fur truth,
honour, and sagacity, which the framer of this edict must be
allowed to claim, the sth article expressly gives its retro-

active effect.
It may be necessary to explain that the notes of the Bank
of Lisbon have recently been circulated at a discount of
twenty per cent., and even then few would take them in
payment. In connexion with the bank there is another
speculatiro concern termed the Company of Confidence, one
of the principal operations of which consisted in buying up
the claims of the government officials and pensioners (who,
owing to the state of the treasury, were in arrear), at an
enormous discount, and then offering to lend money to the
government, a considerable portion of which loan being paid
in these claims, which were allowed for to the full amount.
One or two of such operations might be tolerably successful,
but at length the Company of Confidence lost its credit, as
might naturally be expected, and the only resource to am
it from bankruptcy was to amalgamate it with the
Bank of Lisbon, which accordingly was done at •
meeting held on the 10th of this month, an account
of which appears in the Diane of the next day.
The effect of this ill.judged and utterly impracticable
decree will be to paralvse to a still greater degree the com-
merce and financial affairs of Portugal, for there are few
who will enter upon transactions which involve a certain
loss of one-fifth of the capital employed ; and although there
are some merchants and traders in this place who would
scorn to avail themselves of such a decree to escape a just
payment, there are not a few who will gladly evade by its
means the satisfaction in full of their debts.
The disfavor and general apprehension with which this
decree has been received by the Lisbon commercial and mer-
cantile world suffice to prove how extremely impolitic it is,
and it cannot fail to occur to the most unreflecting reader that
the personage whose sole act it purports to be, and by
whose single will it has been promulgated, is utterly
incapable of appreciating the extreme gravity of the crisis to
which her decree will give rise, or, on the other hand, of
judging properly the motives of those by whom this danger-
ous step has been devised and recommended. It is one of the
mi-fortunes incidental to the regal position that the per-
sonages occupying it are wholly dependent on the good sense
and sagacity of their counsellors for the estimation in which
they are held by their subjects. In the present case, it is
greatly to be feared that rashness and ignorance constitute
the characteristics of her Majesty's advisers, and it is to that
cause so many of the recent dilemmas are to be attributed.
To pass to other subjects. Ever since the Septembrist party
took arms and assumed their present menacing attitude,
their political organs in Lisbon have been suppressed : in
ander to obviate somewhat the inconvenience of being with-
out an.y. means of communicating their ideas and the alleged
state of affairs to their partisans, they have adopted the plan
dprinting desultory secret bulletins, which are privately cir-
culated in the capital and elsewhere. Three of these pap< rs
(the latest issued) have come into my possession, numbered
respectively 23, 24, and 2.5, and bearing date 11th, 13th, and
15th November. Of course the statements which they con-
tain must be taken cum grano sails, but in so far as public
documents are concerned, the decrees of the " Provisional
Junta of the Supreme Government" may be accepted as
genuine. The bulletin of the 13th Nov. contains amongst
its official notices a decree which, after premising that the
great mass of the Portuguese nation had recognised the
Supreme Junta and acknowledged its authority whilst even
the capital was only partially possessed by the Queen's go-
vernment, ordains and commands in the name of Donna
Maria IT. that the following regulations be observed :
I. That all loans made to the actual government of Lisbon are null
sad void.-2. That the parties concerned therein shall be considered
and deemed to be mutually engaged with the government of Lisbon in
keeping the Queen under coercion, and in oppressing the people.-
3. That all the employes of the Treasury shall, under severe penaLies,
resist the disbursement of the public monies, and that they inset
transmit all monies received by them to the central treasuries of the
districts occupied by. or in the power of the Junta.
This decree is signed by Jose Passos, vice president, and
three other members of the Junta.
The same sheet asserts that the island of St. Michael pro-
nounced on the 30th of October in favour of Das Antas—a
very questionable piece of news. Desertions from both
armies to the opposite party's forces are said to be very fre-
quent. Balancing these statements against each other, as
they are to be found in the Diario and the Buletin, the re-
spective numbers will remain in states quo.
The last of these Boletins asserts that the Duke of Pal-
media has requested the Queen to erase his name from the
list of councillors of state, an act which this nobleman must
be presumed to have committed with the express view of
marking his entire dissent from the measures taken by the
court. Amongst the floating intelligence which will bear
sifting, but which, nevertheless, contains some truth, may be
mentioned a report, that the Queen has received remittances
from Spain of 00,0001. and of 17,0001.
If money has reached the palace of Necessidades from this
source it is most assuredly not from the Spanish treasury
that the disbursement has been made, hut from another
quarter, in which the occasional value of a few thousands
dispensed judiciously, during political crises, has more than
once been experienced. It deserves a memorandum that
Gonzales Bravo is at present in Lisbon: he was accompanied
as far as Cadiz by Costa Cabral ; but it is said that the Por-
tuguese ambassador at Madrid was given to understand that,
if he attempted to enter the dominions of his royal mistress
he would be at once placed under coercion, and compelled
to return to his post, on which Senor Cabral abstained from
proceeding further than Cadiz. His brother is said to he
here. The Duke of Terceira still remains a prisoner at the
Fox, near Oporto. The Royal Tar, on her outward passage,
touched both at Vigo Bay and Oporto. At the former place
21 officers of the Portuguese army embarked on board of
her in order to return to L'sbon. At Oporto Gen. Prim and
two aides-de-camp landed, with what intention, or whether
to join the Das Antos party, was not known.
Much stress his been placed on the appearance of a II iguelite
party in the field, but it is most probable that those who use
this standard to call the peasants out and to induce them to
take part in the movement only seek their own self-aggran-
disement, and have not any intention of reinstating their
former chief, or even entertain a desire for his appearance
during the present struggle.
Two o'clock, p.m.—The English merchants resident at
Lisbon have presented a strong remonstrance, through their
consul, on the subject of the Bank of Lisbon decree. They
avow their intentions to close their establishments ; and if
this threat be carried into effect, the result will be to deprive
the government of a great part of almost the only source of
revenue yet remaining to it, namely, the customs, which
yields 7001. a day, and of which more than half is paid on
• I
British goods. ll*
to a

BELGIUM.—BRUSSELS, Nov. 19.—The Empress
Dowager of tke Brazils arrived last Tuesday at Ostend, on
board the English steamer the Duke of Cornwall. Her Im-
perial Majesty left immediately for Germany. A report
generally prevailed here yesterday, that the Queen of Por-
tugal had arrived at Ostend. The cause of the mistake is
now apparent. The discussion of the reply to the King's
speech still continues. It is certain, however, that the mi-
nistry and the conservatives will carry the day.

Nov. 21.—The discussion of the reply to the King's
speech terminated yesterday evening, by a vote in favour of
ministers. M. Roper, one of the leaders of the opposition,
had brought forward an amendment, recommending that the
civil power should hold itself independent of clerical influ-
ence. This amendment the government considered as an indi-
rect attempt to throw blame on their proceedings with re-
gard to the Bishop of Tourney and the town council of that
place ; and, accordingly staked their ministerial existence on
the rejection of it. After a debate which lasted several days,
the division took place last evening, when there appeared—.
for the amendment, 31; against it, 52: majority for minis-
ters, 18. This is a larger majority than the government pos-
-1 seemed last session. Don Henry of Spain has left for Paris.

HOLLAND.—TOE HAGUE, Nov. 20.—The Arn-
heim papers state that the Roman Catholic clergyman of
Groenlo, who was charged with an attempt to murder a
woman with whom he held criminal intercourse, has been
found guilty and sentenced to be hanged at Arnheim. It is
thought, however, that his sentence will be commuted by
the king into imprisonment for life and bard-labour. The
canals and watercourses about Kampen are already covered
with ice, but not of sufficient thickness to interrupt the
steam-boat communication between that town and Amster-
dam. A few days ago the factory of Heer Star, situated at
Geidrof, near Bois-le-due, was totally destroyed by fire.
Large quantities of woollens, yarns, and cloths, were con-
sumed.—The latest ship arrivals in Dutch ports from Eng-
land, are the Stad Kampen and the Rosetta, from Hull; the
Earl Talbot, from Newcastle; the Vrouw Hendrika, the
Jonge Johanna, and the William, from London ; the
Martina Johanna, from Liverpool ; and the Ouse, from
Newhaven

ITALY.—ROME, Nov. s.—The Pope has fixed his
residence at Monte-Cavallo. The much talked-of Renzi has
been obliged to fly from Rimini to Rome ; he is now an
object of hatred and contempt to his former friends. It is
reported that, to save himself, he had in the last days of Ore-