The Express.
London, England, 1853-09-07 00:00:00

SPAIN.

The Madrid journals of the 30th ult. have arrived.
The royal council was about to examine the question
submitted to it by government as to whether the
Bank of Ban Fernando should be authorised to issue
notes for double the amount of its capital—that is to
say, for 240,000,000 reale. The bank, says the
Ife;aldo, has solicited permission from the govern-
ment to issue notes of lees than 500 reals, but not
less than 200 (Mfr.). The Minister of the Interior,
thinking that there were some irregularities in a
contract entered into by the Bravo Marino ministry
with the firm of &Weill° and Co. for the service
between Midis and the Canaries, submitted the mat-
ter to the royal council. The council reported that the
contract ought to be declared valid, and the oouncil of
ministers has just taken a decision to that effect. A
letter says that the attention of the eosoeil has been
called to the faot that the Popes nuncio has ex-
ceeded the limits fixed in the concordat, relative to
the sale of a certain part of the property of the
clergy, by remedies to sales without having con-
ferred with the Mhusters of Foreign Affairs, and of
Grace and Justice. The letter adds that M. Calderon
de la Bares, the new Minister of Foreign Affairs, was
shortly expected—the business of his department
imperatively required his presence.

ITALY.

PIEDMONT.

The oflicial journal of Turin promulgates the law
by which the King's government is authorised to
carry into execution the convention between the
Minister of Finance and the Transatlantic Company
at Genoa, for establishing a regular line of steam
communication between Genoa and North and South
America.

The municipality of Genoa have declared that the
six millions of francs voted by them for the railway
to Switzerland across the Alps will only be paid if
the line by Luckmonier be adopted.

ROMAN STATES.

ROME, AUGUST 31.
Very unsatisfactory accounts are continually arriv-
ing from the provinces of disturbances arising from
the scarcity of crops. and consequent high price of
bread. At Tolentino, in La Marca, the Austrian com-
mandant adopted a somewhat unusual mode of satis-
fying the hanger of the people, by giving them a
bellyful of dry blows instead of bread. After a great
deal of clamour in the market-place, the noisy and
hungry crowds were delighted to behold the Austrians
advance on the Piazza, escorting several carts, which
they never doubted were full of loaves. To their
dismay, however, they perceived that the vehicles
were merely freighted with the benches and other
apparatus generally used by the Austrians in
their periodical administrations of the bastinado,
and sure enough the nearest and noisiest
of the vociferating multitude were grimly seized by
the imperial soldiers, and subjected then and there
to a few dozen blows, which had the instantaneous
effect of dissipating the demonstrations of discontent,
if not that of satisfying the appetites of the assem-
bled people.
In other districts public discontent has been more
ferociously displayed. At Terni the gonfokniere, or
principal municipal dignitary, has been stabbed to
death. At Ravenna the delegate, Monsignor Rossi,
hes been threatened and fired at, and so much
alarmed that he has written to the Cardinal Seer's-
bay of State, requesting immediate leave of absence,
which having been granted, he is expected in Rome
forthwith. Here also the inhabitants of the Tres-
tem,* quarter have been expressing their indignation
in their usual pungent manner, a retail breadseller
having fallen victim to their knives in a dispute
about the relative size and price of his loaves.
the last number of the Jesuit's periodical, the
" Civilta Catholics." of the 20th inst., states that
having been chosen as one of the two Italian journals
fixed upon by Dr. Newman's committee for an-
pouncing the results of his collection throughout the
catholic world for defraying the expenses of bisection
I against Dr. Aehilli, it joyfully accepts the mission,
regretting only to be unable to report the whole of
Father Newman's affectionate address. With all its
euthanasia for the cause of the church, and in spite
of its being the head-quarters of Roman catholicism,
it a from the account of subscriptions pub-
that Italy only contributed the meagre sum of
183 L Os. 9d. out of the entire amount of 12,9321.
furnished by the catholic world.
It is expected that the Sacred Consults Tribunal
will have some difficulty in establishing the charge
of " Public Massacre " brought against the prisoners
now under examination. The Judge, Cecchini, is
chili engaged in pumping the impunitario, or
Kin s evidence, as we should term Signor Catenacci ;
but if the only proof of the others' guilt is founded
upon hie statements, it will be hardly strong
enough to warrant the application of capital
punishment, the penalty required by the law
LO oases such as the present. It appears that no
light is thrown upon. the affair by the discovery of
papers in the of the prisoners, as most of
them succeededin datroying whatever might
have compromised them, except in the case of
the Advocate Petroni. Thirty-five letters from
Mazzini and other republican leaders were found in
his house, but as they were written in cypher no
'Dense has hitherto been elicited from them. The ad-
vocate himself has been interrogated more than once,
and does not attempt to deny his correspondence with
Mazzini, nor that he was his agent in Rome, but he
states that the young men who have been arrested
had formed no plan of action, and are not to be
thought so deeply implicated in Manila's projects as
would at first appear. The prisoners are scattered in
various places of confinement, nor is it allowed for
their friends and relations to know where. AU that
has been obtained in their favour is for their friends
to send linen to the police office, which the police
agents distribute to the parties for whom it is des-
tined. Their fare is of that miserable description
given to inmates of the ',egrets, and is not allawed to
be improved by the offerings of their friends.
The arrest of the priest Don Raphael Straniazzi
(not Scarpene) has determined such other ecclesias-
tics as were concerned in the plot to take to flight
without delay. Amongst these is a monk of the
Maddalena convent, who, having obtained permission
from the general of hie order to fix his great seal
upon a certificate guaranteeing the authenticity of a
certain relic of St. Canullo, fixed it also upon a pass-
port for England in his own name, the police autho-
rities here always requiring ecclesiastics to produce
the authorisation of their superiors before ragging
their passports for foreign countries. He then in-
vented a pretext for staying out all night, stating to
the general that he had to watch by the bedside of a
dying man, all which his worthy superior firmly be-
lieved until the following day, when the priest sent to
relieve him could not find the house or person indicated.
Not coming to dinner was a proof that something
was wrong, and the general, on making inquiries
at the police office, found sure enough that his monk
had presented hie passport in due form, and had left
for Civita Vecchia the day before.
By a somewhat singular coincidence the celebrated
American steam yacht North Star, Captain Vander-
bilt, with about eighty persons aboard, arrived in
the port of Civita Vecchia, with the intention on the
part of the owner and hie family of paying a visit to
Rome, just at the period when the discovery of the
au-considered Mazzinian plot had thrown the
government of his Holiness into a paroxysm
of suspicion and terror. The police authorities
staggered by the imposing appearance of the vessel,
and the number of the crew, set the whole down as
a sympathisiog expedition, and refused permission
to land; so that, after two or three days' useless
negotiating, the North Star proceeded to Naples,