The Express.
London, England, 1853-11-26 00:00:00

THE SPANISH CORTES.

The Spanish Cortes were opened on the 19th by
commission. The Senate adjourned till Monday, but
the Congress proceeded to the election of its officers.
Senor Martinez de la Rosa was elected president by
a majority of 100.

ZDe Court.

WINDSOR, Noy. 25.

• - -
The Queen and Prince, the Royal Family, and
=went into private mourning for eight weeks on
iay lest, the 22nd inst., for the late Queen of Portugal,
loft amein to her Majesty and his Royal Highness.
The Queen held a Court and Pnvy Council at three
leak& this afternoon. The Privy Council was attended by
Frame Albert; Berl Granville, Lord President; the Enl
MI Aberdeen, First Lord of the Treasury ; the Earl of Cla-
eawalm, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs ; the Duke
a Newcastle, Secretary of State fur the Colonies; Sir
James Graham, First Lord of the Admiralty; Mr. Sidney
Herbert, Secretary-at-War; Sir William Molesworth, Chief
Oinnoiseioner of Works and Public Buildings ; Lord Ernest
ViceiChamberlain jefileia•ing for the Lord Chamber-

lain) ;'and the Marquis of.Abereort7, Groom of the Stole to
Prince Albert. At the Council, Parliament was ordered
to be further prorogued from Tuesday next, the 29th inst.,
until the 3rd of January, 18.54. Mr. C. Cherille was Clerk
of the Council in Waiting.
At the Court the Right Hon. Sir Henry Williams Wynn
was presented to the Queen at an audience by the Earl of
Clarendon, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, on his
return from his mission to the court of Denmark.
The Hon. William Temple was presented to her Ma
jest by the Earl of Clarendon, on his return from Naples.
The Earl of Aberdeen bad en audience of the Queen.
Captain 8. B. Lakeman, Commandant Wsterkloof Rea-
gers (Cape of Good Hope). was presented to tto. Queen by
the Duke of Newcastle, Secretary of State for the Coifl
ales, and received the honour of knighthood from hue
Majesty.
Earl Granville had an audience of the Queen.
The Right Hon. Charles Pelham Villiers, Judge Ads,.
este-General, had an audience of the Queen, and sub-
mitted to bar Majesty the proceedings of some courts
martial.

Lard de Tablet' and the lion. Mortimer Sackville West
were the Lord and Groom in Waiting.
The Earl of Clarendon arrived at the Castle yesterday on
a visit to the Queen, and left to-day after the Council.
The Earl of Aberdeen remains on a visit.
The Hake of Newcastle, the Earl of Aberdeen, Earl
Granville, the Marquis of Abercoru, Sir J. Graham, Sir W.
Molesworth, Lord Ernest Bruce, the Right Hon. Sidney
Herbert, Sir H. Wynn, the lion. W. Temple, the Right
lion. C. P. Villiers, Mr. C. Greville, and Captain Lake-
man, travelled front London to attend the Council by a
special train on the Great Western Railway, and arrived at
the Castle shortly before three o'clock. The same w)ble-
men and gentlemen, with the exception of the Earl of
Aberdeen, left the Castle at half-past five o'clock, together
with the Earl of Clarendon, and returned to town by the
special train.

The Commissioners for Inquiring into the State of the
Corporation for the City of London, held a meeting yester-
day at the Privy Council-office, in Downing-street. The

CoMmissioners Present were the Right ITL. H. labo;
chore, the Right Hon. Sir John Patteson, and G. Cornewall
Lewis, Esq.
Despatches were sent from the Colonial-office yesterday to
the Governors of the North American Provinces.

COURT MOURNING.

Last night's Gazette contains the following notification :
Lord Chamberlain's Office, Nov. 25.
Orders for the Court's going into mourning on Sunday
next the 27th inst., for her late Majesty the Queen of Por-
tugal sad the Algarve', viz. :
The ladies to wear black silk, fringed or plain linen,
white gloves, necklaces, and ear-rings, back or white shoes,
fans and tippets.
The gentlemen to wear black full-trimmed, fringed or
plain listen, black swords and buckles.
The Court to change the mourning on Sunday the 11th
of December next, viz.:
The ladies to wear black silk or velvet, coloured ribbons,
fans and tippet', or plain white, or white and gold, or white
and silver stuffs, with black ribbons.
The gentlemen to wear black coats, and black or plain
white, or white and gold, or white and silver stuff waist-
coats, full-trimmed, coloured swords and buckles.
And on Sunday, the 18th December next, the Court to
go out of mourning.

TILE COMING BREVET.—The military public have
been put on the thorns of expectation by the rumour
of a coming brevet. Let us express a hope that we
shall this time have no brevet injustice done by the
Horse Guards. On a former occasion a military
officer, well known for his services as a reformer,
was most pointedly punished for his political votes
by omission from the list of those on whom a com-
plimentary promotion was conferred. Though his
name stood at the top of a list of 140 officers who
were named for promotion, these 140 juniors were
promoted over his head. This was too bad in old
tory days; let us trust that nothing like it will be
repeated at the present time. We will add, by
way of explanation to our non-military readers,
that the case we refer to is that of Colonel Perronnet
Thompson, late M.P., the author of that " Cora Law
Catechism" which furnished all the arguments
afterwards used so successfully by the advocates of
Free Trade. Because the veteran colonel is a scholar,
a logician, an author, a musician, and a radical
reformer, because he (with Mr. C. P. Villiers) may
be called the author of the An ti-Corn-law agitation, the
Horse Guards may think he don't deserve a place at
the Brevet, bat we (at the risk of offending the
colonel) must thus publicly express on public grounds
a strong hope that when a compliment (wholly with-
out pecuniary profit) is being paid to his military
companions in the public service, Colonel Perronnet
Thompson will not again be punished by a com-
mander-in-chief because he has adopted the popular
side in politics.