The Express.
London, England, 1866-11-23 00:00:00

3IISCELLANEOUS TOPICS.

The dinner to Mr. Version, the finance minister of Vic-
toria, is treated as a subject well worthy of notice by seve-
ral of our contemporaries. The Herald, bowever,is anxious
that this courtesy to Mr. Verdun should not be understood
in the colony al signifying in any degree a change in the
opinion of our Colonial-office with regard to the late
proceedings of the Victoria m'nistry of which Mr.
Verdon is a member. It cannot be intended, it says,
that Mr. Verdon should be lilted and honoured, and Sir
Charles Darling scolded and punished for one and the same
policy. if Mr. Verdon has been made a Commander or
the Bath, the Victorian public should understand that it
is not because the ministry of which he was a member
violated the Queen's laws and nearly bred a revolution.
The Daily News gives an outline of the scheme of Mr.
Henwood, a naval architect, by which the hulls of all our
wooden ships that are still in good order may be converted
into effective iron-clads. The plan, it appears, has been
considered by very distinguished practical shipbuilders
among others by Mr. Watts, the late chief constructor of
the navy, and by Messrs. Napier, of Glasgow, who agree
in regarding it as perfectly practicable and useful, but the
Admiralty has rejected it.
The Post continues to maintain that public meet-
ings which are so largely attended as to render
discussion impossible, are illegal and unoonsti.
tutional, and it demurs to the uncertain language
used by Lord John Manners in reply to the
t application addressed to him for permission for the mem-
bers of the several trades' unions to assemble in the mall
I of St. James's-park. After a warning against the inex-
petUency of holding their monster meeting, the applicants
are told that they must accept the responsibility for what-
. ever may take place. What does this mean? asks the

The Princes. of Wales, with Prince Albert Victor and
Prince George, attended by the Hon. Mrs. Stonor and
General Knollys, arrived at Marlborough-house, yesterday
morning, from Windsor Castle.
A deputation from the Associated Chambers of Com-
merce of the United Kingdom, consisting of Mr. Sampson
S. Lloyd, of Birmingham, the chairman ; Messrs. Jacob
Bhreus, of Bradford ; H. J. Atkinson (ca-mayor), of Hull,
Joseph Wrigley, jun., and Wright Mellor, of Hudders-
field ; William Hirst, of Leeds ; C. Alhusen, of Newcastle-
upon-Tyne ; H. J. Harding, of Birmingham ; Charles At-
kinson, of Sheffield ; William Morris, of Halifax George
Maunder and L. Ash, of Wakefield ; and T. B. Simpson;
parliamentary agent, had an interview yesterday at the
Foreign-office with Lord Stanley and the Right Hon. Sir
I Stafford Northcote, on the following subjects :—The cora-
mereal intercourse of this country with Russia ; the pro-
posed incorporation of the Hance Towns with Prussia ;
I the laws regulating commerce and banking ; and the com-
pulsory registration of partnerships. The deputation was
introduced by Mr. Norwood, M.P.
The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council eat yester-
day. The lords present were Lord Westbury, Sir E. V.
Williams, Sir J. Cols :le, and Sir Laurence Peel.
Despatches were received yesterday at the Colonial-
office from the Governor of Malta. Despatches were sent
Ito the Governor of Canada.

TIfE QCF.EN'S VISIT TO WOLVERIIAMPTON.—The
Queen will go to Wolverhampton in seiudstate, accom-
panied not only by the Princess and Prince Christian and
Princess Louise, but also the Prime Minister or the Home
Secretary, or both. The arrangements of the journey will
be made by the Lord Steward, including the luncheon for
her Majesty at the Great Western ltailway Station. A
guard of honour will be sent from the War-office, and the
royal equerries and two maids of honour will attend upon
the Queen and the members of her family mentioned. It
is her Majesty's wish that as many of her subjects
as desire to do so may have an opportunity of see
fine her ; and she has expressed her readiness to
enter Wolverhampton by one route from the railway
station and la ave it by another, so that such a wish on the
j art of her subjects may be gratified. Yesterday, the town
council met twice, and the Earl of Lichfield was present
on both occasions. His lordship will take the management
of the military, who will be aided by the yeomanry and
the volunteers of Staffordshire and the adjoining counties.

The people are all enthusialm, and have already arranged
to illuminate in the evening. Two long lines of streets
have been determined upo : for the route of procession on
the entering and leaving of the royal party r :pectively
The mayor will give a (I: ner immediately after the in.
iniguration ; and the council were arranging for the erec-
tion of seats near the statue to accommodate 3,300 per-
sons and for popular amusements in the after part of the
day as this was written.
. . . . .

The Princess of \Vales, with Prince Albert Victor
and Prince George, attended by the Hon. Mrs. Stonor and
General Knollvs, arrived at Marlborough House yesterday
morning fr m, Windsor Castle.
The Princess Mary of Cambridge and the Prince
de Teck were visited by his Majesty the King of the Bel-
gians immediately on their sa.ival at the Hotel de Belle
Vue, Brussels.

His Excellency the Prusaian Ambassador and
the Countess Berzistortf and family have not arrived at the
Pi assian Embassy on Carlton House-terrace as stated, but
will leave St. Leonards-on-Sea on Tuesday next for the
einha t•Fy.
The Earl and Countess of Derby entertained

Lord Strathnairn, Lord and Lady IC.as, Lord and Lady
Cecilia Bingham, Lord Stanley, the Right Hon. S;.• Hugh
Cairns, Hon. Geo. Barrington, and Colonel Hon. Welling-
ton P. Talbot at dinner last evening at their residence in
St. James's-square.

A marriage has been arranged (says the Stant-

ford Mercurp) between Lady Victoria Cecil (youngest
daughter of the Marquis of Exeter) and the lion. W. C.
Evans Freke, of Glaston Hall, Rutland, and a brother of
Lord Carbery. It is said the wedding Rill take place
in the second week in De-ember. Mr. Freke is a widower,
having married in I RIO Sophia, sister of the last Earl of
Harborough, and widow of Sir Thomas Wnichcote, sixth
baronet. She died in The lion. F. J. Evans Freke,
an elder broth-r, married a sister of Lady Burghley.

Tho Count de Flahault is considerably better,
and will shortly leave town for Paris.

We (Tiers) have reason to believe that there is
no foundation for the rnmonr that it is intended to raise
Sir Fitzroy Kelly and Sir Hugh Cairns to the peerage.

At the beginning of next year the Patriot at

the Britixh Standard will be merged into the English In-
d•prndrnl.

The Emperor went out the day before yesterday
with a shooting party. The number of pieces killed were
1,033, of which the Emperor brought down 193, the Duke I
of Magenta 161, the Prince de la Moskowa 160, Marshal
Niel 115, M. Fould and M. de Warn 92 each, M. Jamin
91, General Bourbaki 62, the Marquis de Chaaseloup-
Laubat 33, and M. Abatucci 31.
A Moscow letter says :—" In the streets elegant
equipages rise high over the bustle of national droekies,
while on the pavement ladies whose toilettes
would be pronounced unexceptionable on the futi.
dious banks of the Seine, jostle against creatures in
uncouth dresses, out after some Siberian pattern. Smith's-
bridge is the point where the double character of this
strange metropolis is most patent to the eye. There Europe
and Asia meet bodily. The funniest display of this contact
of two quarters of the world I have seen was in the person
of an old bearded boor, a savage in appearance, but engaged
in no less civilised trade than the hawking of newspapers
I should not be astonished to lean that this Caliban in the
service of the press was a Tartar from the Crimea, honestly
earning his crust in circulating the news of the day."