The Express.
London, England, 1853-08-18 00:00:00

SLAVE TRADE TREATIES WITH SPAIN

AND PORTUGAL.
The select committee appointed to inquire into the
treaties and engagements between Great Britain, Spain,
and Portugal, respecting the slave trade, and the sums
allowed and paid by Great Britain to those governments
for their assistance or concurrence to abolish that trade;
also to inquire how far these stipulations have been carried
out by the governments of Spain and Portugal ; and were
further empowered to report the evidence taken before
them, and their observations, to the house: have corn.
pleted the inquiry into the matters referred to them, and
have unanimously agreed to a report, in which, after refer-
ring to a variet of evidence, they corn* to the conclusion
that a *US involving a shameful breach of national honour
hu bees ludo oat against those remarks.

THE WEST INDIA MAILS.

SOUTHAMPTON, WrnsRADAY.

The Parana arrived this afternoon at Southamp-
ton. Her dates are—Chagres, July 21 ; Jamaica
and Demerara, July 27 ; Trinidad, July :'6; and St.
Thomas's, August 1.
She has brought 75 passengers. Amongst her
cargo is specie to the value of 767,576 dollars.
The Parana obtained pratique immediately on her
arrival. Tho Parana has not had a single death
since she left England.
The yellow fever was on the decline in the West
Indies. At Jamaica the dissension still exists be-
tween the Governor and the House of Assembly.
The revenue is inadequate to meet the common
municipal expenditure. Fever still prevails at
Spanish Town. Several deaths had taken place
amongst the artillery force. Surinam was healthy.
Some cases of yellow fever had occurred at Do-
minica and Antigua. Barbadoes was very healthy.
Sugar was still shipping from thence.

- -
News had reached St. Thomas that an earthquake
had destroyed a great portion of the city of Cumuua,
in Venezuela, and that more than fire hundred per.
eons had been buried in the ruins.

At Demerara the weather was favourable. Planters
state that the yield of crops is indifferent.

Trade is dull.

AUSTRALIAN GOLD DIGGINGS.

GEELONG, MAY 30.

A correspondent says :—I am just returned from
the Eureka diggings at Ballarat, where some few have
been doing " heavy stroke.." My last sinking was on a
new flat nearly opposite the commissioner's camp, which
was turning out very well—generally two ounces to the
tub ; and but for the autumnal rains, many hundreds of
pounds, troy, would have been taken out. However, one
day's rain turned some 700 or 800 diggers out of their rich
holes. I remained down in mine so long, that I only es-
caped being drowned by the activity of my mate in drawing
me up, for as I ascended the water followed me within a
foot of the surface, and thus my only prize since I have
been at Ballarat escaped from me just when I had made
sure of some pounds weight of gold. So thick did it lay in
one gutter in the pipeclay that I could see it glisten in the
hole, and when it arrived at the washing place it resembled
currants in a plum pudding. This hole was 32 feet deep.
and up to the moment o f the rains was as dry as any cellar.
One fact is becoming daily more apparent, that no fresh gold
fields are being found out, and that the old and once prolific
ones, such as Ballarat,Golden Point, Eureka, Bendigo,White
Horse Gully, Eagle Hawk Gully, Mount Alexander, &c.,
are daily becoming exhausted, and unless some new fields
ate discovered, some great crash will occur, I am certain,
with emigration at such an increase. At Ballarat it is
scarcely possible to live, unless good wages at gold digging
be got. When 1 left, a few days since, flour was at 101.
and 111. the 200 lbs. ; sugar, 10d. to Is. per lb. ; meat, Gd.,
and likely soon to be Is. per lb. ; tea, 3s. and 3s. Gd.
per lb. ; coffee, 45. per lb. ; potatoes, the only vegetable
come-at-able, 101. and Is. per lb. ; onions, ls. per lb. ; and
everything high in proportion. To support a family at
such prices a digger should get his 3 oz. per week ; yet
I will venture to say not one out of ten gets an ounce. It
is calculated there are from seven to ten thousand diggers at
Ballarat, many of them living in a very distressed state
with only a canvas dwelling to protect them from the rain;
and winds that continue at this season for weeks incessantly.
I got so invalided from dysentery, that had I remained up
tare Served° 1 called in told me I should never see Gee-
long again, for no healing comforts are to be got there, and
with the best constructed tent wet and wind will find a
way in. I sincerely pity hundreds, who, like myself, have
had to endure hardships that would make the heart ache.
Surely by this time some accounts must have reached home,
giving a correct picture of the state of the colony. In
Melbourne there is a regular town of tents, called Canvas
Town, and a friend writes me that women and childen are
dying in dozens daily, acorn fever, &c., brought on by the
damp and poverty that is suffered by hundreds who have
been deluded out by shilling book writers and false news-
paper accounts. In Geelong things are little better
nature has done everything for the place, the autho-
rities scarcely scything—no sewerage, no water, roads
overshoe deep in mud, and every here and there dead horses,
sheep, and dogs, the latter by dozens, since the prevalence of
the distemper. Medical men boast of snaking their 701.
per day, boa storekeepers make double that sum by buy-
ing up flour, sugar, potatoes, and other necessaries as soon
as they are landed from vessels, and storing them till prices
run at riot as they well can. For instance, a fortnight since
a man, a sideman/ convict, who is possessed of a large ca-
pital, bought up every bag of sugar he could get, and
when every oae wanted and no one could supply,
he poured out his stock and sold it at exorbi-
tant prices. This is the game daily amongst some dozen
merchants, as they call themselves. True it is that
carpenters get from 20s. to 30s. per day, and blacksmiths
and others even more, but as some with families have told
me little can be saved, with house rent so high and neces-
saries so dear. A two-roomed house, with an apology for
a kitchen, lets for 31. 10s. per week, water 10s. and 12s.
per load, and wood 31. per load. A friend of mine has
just taken a house, consisting of a small shop, dismal
parlour, and one bed-room with no fireplace, for which he
is to pay as much as a house would bring in one of the
fashionable squares is London. Let the yield of
gold continue small for three months, as it has been lately,
and some strange scenes will be witnessed in this town
and Melbourne, where matters are even more anomalous
than in Geelong.
The various constituencies are about to elect 14 members.
The aspirants for Geelong are a Mr. Carr, auctioneer, who
has made all his money within three years by land specula-
tions, and the present mayor, Mr. J. Cowie, saddler, also a
lucky land dealer. I attended a meeting of the People's
Association a night or two since at the Theatre, and to de-
scribe fully the noise, confusion, and interruption would
fill pages. Stich a gathering of the truly great unwashed
was likely to create a scene. Dead cats and dogs were
thrown about ; howling, screeching, and every term that
could be offensive, were applied to the would-be members.
The days of nomination and polling, I expect, will bring
forth another bear-garden scene. The Irish abound in this
place to an extraordinary extent ; many are doing well,
although to sign their names would be a pursle to most of
them.

Boots and shoes bring high prices here, and will repay
any one to send ont a quantity of thick lace-up boots, midi
as navvies wear. Horse rugs and blankets are in great
demand. I believe if I had some thousands of the former
I could sell them readily at high prices. Canvass, also, is
scarce. Bottled beer is scarcely to be had for money ; poor
thin beer is bringing 65. and 7s. the bottle—a fortune might
almost be made by a large stock just now. Butter is re-
tailed at 6s. and 65. 6d. the lb., which cost in Limerick,
when I was there, about 6d. in the barrel.
The winter in these latitudes appears very strange com-
pared to the ones in England. Duriag the night it is cold
to an extreme, yet as the sun breaks out all cold is dis_
pelled, and a warm sunny day is the result. I have known
it to freeze throughout the night, and the thermometer at
midday to be 110 in the sun and 96 in the shade.

I often see new "chums" from England, with very
awkward and useless tools brought eut front thence. What
a digger wants is a pair of high mud boots, and a pair of
navvy's lace-up boots, a good square tent, two American
shovels, one puddling spade strong in the back, a strong
iron bucket or two, miners' picks with short handles, iron
wedges and beetle rings for splitting slabs, some good rope
about 80 ft. long for windlass, a pump, iron bedstead, crow-
bar and American axe. Tin dishes for washing gold, &a.,
can be better got here, as can the cradle and tubs. Let the
clothing be moleskin coat and trousers or worsted cords, as
the most lasting. Broadcloth is at a great discount ten
miles round any diggings.
Had I 500 f. capital here, I could do wonders, for this I.
essentially a land where money makes money.