The Express.
London, England, 1865-05-20 00:00:00

The Prussian government has proposed to Auts..
tria that an amnesty be granted to those persons in
the duchies wbo were arrested for having signed a
petition to the Emperor Napoleon.
An order has been issued to the Prussian oommis-
I 'loner in the duchies to take into consideration the
complaints of the Danish population in North
Sleswig, and to institute a special inquiry into the
subject.
The Anatrian commissioner baa been invited to
take part in the inquiry.

BELGIUM AND THE ZOLLVZREIN.
MAT 19.

The National Zetinsig of today says :—" The
negotiations for a oommereial treaty between the
Zollverein and Btiginta were concluded yesterday.
An understanding ben loin arrived at on the prin-
cipal points, and the treaty will doubtless be signed
very shortly."

grA• , • • IL - 3tAT

The Gazelto di Torino of to-day denies the
rumour that Count Bevel had gone to Borne on a
political miaeioif, mid states that the object of his
journey to that city is solely connected with his
family affairs.

THE WORK OF CONSOLIDATION IN
1011100.

The Meuse a Liege journal, publishes a letter
from a Belgiln officer respecting the expedition
into Michoacan of the Belgian regiment Empress
Charlotte. This letter is said to have produced a
very painful impression in Belgium. It seems
that in the hamlet of Zitacuaro the house,
of those who bad favoured the rebels bad already
been burned and razed to the ground on the 22nd
Much. Nevertheless the Belgian column waawell
received there, •and after replenishing its
stores it set out on ita march. On the
26th of March it surrounded the pueblo of
Bacon, which had been represented as the refuge
of bandits. "A terrible scene then took place,"
says the Belgian officer's letter. "Some hovels
were set on fire to show a light ; in less than an
hour fifty-seven men, that is, the entire male popu-
lation of the hamlet, were arrested, the women and
children being allowed their liberty. The raimio
effected, the houses without a single exception were
set on lire. By five o'clock in the morning the
column bad returned to Zitacuare, and a council of
war was held. Three bandits were condemned to
ten years in the mines, and the other fifty-four
were shot at one o'clock in the day."
The Paris Siecle in commenting on the above
mays :—" It is not by such executions as these
that the new Mexican government 'will be con-
solidated. They provoke bloody reprisals, sad the
correspondence of the Meuse informs na that a
soldier who had stopped behind for ten minutes
was caught in a lazzo by four Indians, and fright-
fully mutilated. What is more than ever desirable,
now that detachments of the Mexican Anstro-
Belgian army are traversing the country,
is to aim the soldiers of France return,
and no longer mix themselves up in the affairs of
that country, for which we have already made so
many sacrifices in men and money, and which may
yet cost us so many more. It ought to be the long
and tithadous work of the ]Lexica et .V.oveehuatut to
assure its authority in all parts of an immense ter-
ritory, without roads, without means of communi-
cation, broken by ravines and mountains, covered
with inaccessible forests, and the population of
which in certain places is only half civilised."