The Express.
London, England, 1848-12-30 00:00:00

not aotaal!y force him into it and pot peculation is hie
way. It is the state which ordains colonels of reg..
meats to be contractors for clothing, and wilt&
orders them to mount the breach of the shop,
board, to make bargains, that are not of military
competence, although they inevitably must wear
of bonus's and obligations, and what the Frenek
call 2 eta dc vine, quite irreconcileable the
character of what a colonel ought to be.
General Norma., however, has proved, that this
contact and these temptations do not befall as
officer until he has become a colonel and a stranger is
his regiment. And really, we think, this latter poet
of the arrangement shows compunction and sense, h
evinces the scrupulous care of the Horse Guards is
prevent younger officers from being contaminated by
these tailoring contracts and cabbaging propensities,
in which veterans may indulge, according to the
regulations, at once with profit and with impunity,

Tut movement now making in Birmingham by the
Freehold Land Society has the strongest claim, ea
public notice and sympathy. It is a movement to.
wards a real extension of the suffrage, Which no
amount of undue influence in parliament can thwart
or obstruct. It is a movement which, it persev, ringly
and succeaeult.y carried on, will render the Bekaa
Act of 1831, hitherto in a great measure illusory, 8,
reality.
From a letter which appears in this day's publica-
tion, it will be seen that the society has made an ad.
tional purchue of land, sufficient to qualify 270 forty
shilling free-holders. We have on other ocessions no.
time' the completion of purchases by the society, ma
may remind our readers that though it has been little
more than a year in operation,l93 allotments of free.
hold building land have already been made to
members.
The secret of the society's success is its calling tee
principle of association into play to enable poree2,4.,
of retail allotme sits of land to obtain them at whole.
sale prim s. Building land selling at is. 411.114
3s. 6d. per yard retail has been purchased by the
so-
ciety and conveyed to its members for ls. Id. per
yard. An indiv'dual purchaser would require to pay
501. or 701. for a freehold entitling him to a comity
vote ; the society has pul purchasers in puma= of
such freeholds for 201. A freehold qualification in a
county may be obtained by subscribing ls. W. a week
for five years, and some of the allotments made by
the society have already been let on building leases
for 99 years at 60 per cent. per annumon the purehue

money.
This plan, if followed out, will give numerous
county constituencies, independent county constituen-
cies, prudent county constituencies. It enables the
honest and industrious artisan to acquire the fail
rights of a citizen. It enables him to do so by the
persevering ex,rcise of economy and accumulation
with a view to secure an independence, the surest
basis of the citizen virtues. It is favourable to the
formation of resident constituencies above the Milo.
ence of organised party leaders. It enables the pm-
\dent, honest, and industrious, among the town and
village populations throughout the empire, to obtains
voice in the elections of their respective counties.
Something of the same kind that is now doing
in IForth Warwickshire has been done, though at a
greater expense, in Smith Lancashire. If the ex-
ample of the men of Birmingham be followed in the
West Riding, it will enable the real liberals there to
retrieve their ascendancy at next election, whatever
course the whig arirocracy may see fit to pursue.
And if the practicabi ity of the system be once experi-
mentally established in the manufacturing district;
it will be taken up in every county in the kinedom.
The present generation has witnessed no movement
more full of promise for the cause of liberty and good
government—more pregnant with important results
tor the future of this country.

ROME, Dsc.l9.
There will be something decisive done this evening:
of thtt the symptoms are unmistakeable. The
" triumvirs " appointed by the chambers not having
met or assumed office, the general discontent at such
indecision has brukeu out into uncontrollable active,
and a list of names is now circulating over the town
to be pre.ented by a formidable crowd this night to
the chambers, that a selection of three vigorous and
determined men may be at once made therefrom, a
triumvirate at length formed, and a national assembly
call, d for the tbth January. The names to be pm-
pentei to the chamber are those of its president Star-
binetti, the Gontalo ier of Ancona, Cameral., ths
Marquis Ouiocioli, the War Minister Cambalo, Gal-
letti, and the Commander of the Civic Guards, Gal-
lieno. All these are ready to accept and act. Poor
Prince Corsini, being over eighty years of age, could
not be expected to take up the government of the

country.
The most extensively-signed addresses are daily
pouring in from the. provincial towns calling for a
national assembly to determine the new constitution
of the Roman states. Forli, the central borough of
the legations, is the place where deputies meet from
Bologna, Fay enza, Rimini, Pesaro, Ancona, and
Macerate. The popular clubs show great unanimity
as yet in unison with that of Rome.
In the midst of this elaboration of a new order of
secular government, the commission appointed to
superintend the redecoration of all the churches (ac'
cording to my previous despatch) has met and is act-
ing. It is composed of the sculptor Tenerani, the
painter Min rdi, the architect Canino, the archeolo-
gist Visconti.
The cell where Tasso lived, at St. Onofrio, on the
Jar iculum, hiss been restored to its old condition by a
number of amateurs, and is now the object of nume-
rous pilgrimages.
We have absolutely nothing from Gaeta, and the
curiosity to learn news from that quarter is nearly
' extinct. The Bavarian minister's exceeding clever-
' ness in carryi..g off Pio Nono has, in point of
fa
' been the death-blow of the Pope's temporal power,
and Gaeta may be considered its sepulchre.
To quoque littocibus nostris. Emote nm;
.F.tersam me' less Maack Caeca, dediati:
AiSRID Ili
Half-past 3 o'clock.—The drams are beating all
the town.

UNITED STATES.—Our attention has beendrawn
to the following n in a Mobile journal :
Royal Mill Steam-oecket °mousey, No. Si, Moorptselmei
London, 9th Nov., 1646. Col. 8 Grath' Fisher, Re., Mobile. VI,"
flir,—l am instructed to mquatot you with reference, to past etc,
view' between the deputation from Mobile and the directors of the
aonspany, that it has beta decided that the arr.auterseats ntitj
intim Mobile Point fee Ship Wand, eta rendezvous for the Refel
on
the shall be coo 94 by steamer leaving &Minor
tea on the 2nd of January, 1649. yourobedient servant, CUP'
eau, &N., fleareeary.
It will be perceived by the preceding letter, handed
Fi t
•hOOO so
for publication I y our esteemed fellow-citisen, S. G. t
KN., that the arrangements entered into by himself and 1:1%
Levert, have passed through all the forms required, so
finally received the sanctitn of the Lord' of the Admire*.
The commencement undsr the arrangement will be. Me
steamer leaving Southampton on the 2nd primmer
which will stop at M bile Point instead of, as herr
tofore, at Ship Island. We have to congratulate our Mb"
citizens on the consummation oPthis admirable arrange:inset
which may he attended wit. results so beneficial to out ray.
We indulge with pride and pleasure in the sue estful mimics
dour friends Messrs. Levert and Fisher. They hare sr
quitted themselves with honour and credit, and deems the
grateful thanks of the community. Every neceasary ar'
rangement should be immediately commenced to
emesa do
• eapectations raised and secure the advantages to b
as well so to satisfy the foreign parties to the oontrsee,
, the change will be as much to their benefit 'seam Tho
convenience and comforts of the rendezvous, and the ravy
interchange of all that can be desired to make it meet ratty
factor' to all parties, ars first in order and require pros*.

THE GOLD MINES OF CALIFORNIA.
The following report bus been furnished to th.
Cabinet at WukinßWe by Colonel Mason, and hag stratif
*Metal, will be reed with the more interest :
" Head-qaarters, Monterey, California, Aug. 17, 141
" Sir,—l here the honour to inform you that, scam,
by Lieut. W. T. Sherman, 3rd Artillery, A, A 6,
=gal. I started on the 12th of June last to make s tool
throslik the northern pert of California. We reached e's
Frandsen" ea the 20th, and found that all, or nearly all, its
male inhabitant- had gone to the mines. The town, whi
II
a few months before we so busy and thriving, wwarthen
most &netted. ANSI the, whole route. is
werees VWOisit
Idle, fields of wheat were open to cattle and hon,
vacan and farms going to wage.
"On the sth we arrived is the neghbourbood of th•
mines, and proceeded 25 miles up the Amnion OS
to a past on it now known as the LOUT Mina, el
Mermen Diggings. The bill tides were thickly IWO
with canvas tents and bush exbours; acs was fo64'
and several boarding shanties in operati The day E. „,
iat"1018 hot. yet *boot 200 men were at work in the Nu
are of the ea, washing for gold—some with tin
nn
pus, war_
with claw woven Indica baskets, Ductile greater pfd or 8 feet
hea
machine known as the cradle. This is on rockers, 6
et
ion,, open at the foot, and at its head bas a coarse Fete,
sieve; the bottom is rounded with mall sleets nursed
Four men are required to work this machine ; one digs •'
tt
11
ground in the bank close by the stream ano milk*
to the cradle sad empties it oa the ategr ; a third FT"