The Express.
London, England, 1853-05-09 00:00:00

NAVAL.

•
PORTSMOUTH, MAY 7.—The Agamemnon, 91,
screw steamship, Captain Sir Thomas Maitland, C. 8., was
paid wages yesterday, and, with the Cruiser, 14, steam-
sloop, sailed to-day from Spithead on a cruise to Madeira.
The Dauntless, 24, screw steam frigate, Captain B. P.
Halstead, is Attaining her stores to the dockyard, and will
be paid off about Wednesday next. She has been rather
better than two years and a half in commission.
VACANCY ON TILE CAPTAIN'S OCT-PENSION.—By
the death of Captain Thomas Dench, a vacancy is occa-
sioned in the out-pension of Greenwich Hospital, worth 801.
a year.

THE PEACE CONFERENCE MOVEMENT IN THE
PROVlNCMB.—Meetings have been held in favour of arbitra-
tion and mutual disumarnents at the following ampng other
places :—Worcester, Kidderminster, Droitwich, Broms-
grove, Dudley, Hanley, Btoke-on-Trent, Bunlem, Maccles-
field, Newcastle-under-Lyn., Stourport, Walsall, Stafford,
Shrewsbury, Much Wenlock, Bridgnorth, Wolverhampton,
Willenhell, Bolton, Blackburn, Gloucester, Ash-
ton-under-Lyne, Oldham. Stockport, Wigan, Rochdale,
Preston, Canterbury, Brighton, Hastings, Leicester, New-
port, Sittingbourne, Guildford, Nottingham, Chatham,
Portsmouth, Birmingham, Dover, Southampton, Torquay,
Totnesa, Hemel Hempstead, St. Albans, Aylesbury. Hert-
ford, Northampton, Cambridge, Exeter, Bath, Stroud,
Bristol, Bradford, Barsky, Darwen, Halifax, Leeds, Lich-
field, Monmouth, Preston, Rochdale, Roes, Sowerby-
Bridge, Tamwerth, Wakefield, Wotton-under-Edge,
Sheffield, Rextenshall, Lancaster, Warrington, and Man-
chester. The meetings
•have generally been crowded, and
enthusiastic. The principal lecturers in the field have been
Mr. Henry Vincent, Ran. Henry Richard, G. W. Conder,
W. Stokes, and B. Parsons, and Messrs. Beggs, Gilpin,
Paxton, Wood, and LOl2ll.
INTERCOURSE WITH AusTitama.—The General
Screw Steam-Packet Company's new screw steam-ship
Argo left Southampton yesterday for Australia. This is
the ascceill steamer which that company has sent to Ana-
tolia hum Southampton. She is to call at the Cape de
Vied; Ma whence she will proceed far to the south, and
make foe Port Philip without touching at the Cape of Good
Hope. Her Australian ports of call will be Port Philip and
Sydney. She took out about 5,000 letters and newspapers
in ship letter bags. Amongst the passengers by the Argo
were Sir Robert Nichol, the military governor of New
South Wales, with his family, staff, and suite. The cargo
was a most miscellaneous and singular one, a considerable
portion of which belonged to the passengers. Amongst the
Argo was a number of carriages and dog-carts, and a quan-
tity of harness. Some of the carriages were in pieces; packed
in a monster case, and will be put together in Australia.
One of the dog-carts was packed in a large quantity of
oats, in conseluenee of the high price of the latter article in
the gold colonies. Capt. Hyde, the commander of the Argo,
expects to return to Southampton about November neat.
The Argo is the finest model of a ship that ever floated in
Southampton waters.
THE HOLT PLACES. The Ont. Deutsche Post
states, in conformity with advice" via Marseilles, that Pritee
Menehikoffs demand in respect to the Patriarch of Con-
stantinople has been positively refused. It is generally be-
lieved that some pasts of the question of the Holy Shrines
are already settled in favour of Rus ice. The cupola of the
church of the holy Sepulchre is to be in a mixed (Byzan-
tine-Gothic) style, according to the wish of tho court of St.
Petersburg. The non-Greeks arc to be allowed to perform
Divine service according to the rites of their &Tenn:
churches twice a week in the church of the hey Virgin,
but ni,t until the Greeks have fini,hed their devotions. The
most difficult matter, that of the definitive and formal con.
veution between the catholic' and the Greeks, is still 'tend.
lug.