The Express.
London, England, 1858-10-11 00:00:00

G, OCTOBER 11, 1858.

.:.--

lIXPRESS FROM PARIS.

Pzow orx owx

PARIS, SyNDAT EYINITO.
THE DISPUTE BETWEEN FRANCE AND

PORTUGAL.

Intelligent* has been received that immediately
on the arrival of the Austerlitz and Donawerth
before Lisbon, which event, as stated in my letter of
yesterday, occurred on Sept. 3, Admiral Leveed
convened a council on board the latter vessel, which
was attended by the Marquis de Lisle, the French
Minister, the captains of the three French ships
stationed in the Tagus, and the captain of the
Charles Georges. The Nord of Brussels, while
echoing the general impression that the matter is
likely to be arranged, says that the French govern-
ment is resolved to brook no delay, and that Admiral
Invaud has orders in certain contingencies to bring
away the Charles Georges and the French Ambas-
sador and his suite at the same time.
The Paris Pros.a of this evening, less fero-
cious, says it " knows" that the French Admiral
has received no other mission than to take on board
M. de Lisle, in case Portugal should refuse the satis-
faction which France asks for. The cabinet of
Lisboa, this journal adds, has offered to submit the
difficulty to the arbitration of a third power, but
this proposal has not been accepted by the French
government. I should not be surprised if this
paragraph in the Praise should turn out to be a cor-
rect index to the present state of this very awkward
business. When the rash step of sending the two
French men-of-war was determined upon, it was
expected that France would carry the matter with
a high hand. Now the consciousness of being in
the wrong box is gradually becoming strong in the
French foreign office. Count Walewaki, imme-
diately on has return to Paris from Etiollee yesterday,
had an interview with the Portuguese minister,which
I have good reason to believe was not satisfactory.
The argumentative article raising an infinity of
questions, which appeared in the Pays, was, I have
scarcely any doubt, a 000 sequence of what passed at
this interview. New, as it won't do to send two
ships of the line to Lisbon without any result what-
ever, and as war is out of the question, nothing is
more likely than that if Portugal should not yield
the ships may simply come away with the ambassa-
dor, and then all the rumours of their having been
sent to make a hostile demonstration will be contra-
dieted. We know by many modern instances that
a mere diplomatic rupture is not a very serious
affair—indeed often little more than a matter of
form, not altering substantially the pre-existing
relations between two countries.

Whatever may ultimately be decided Sa regard
to the international law which should regulate this
question, the arguments urged and the facts ad-
mitted by the official advocates of the French govern-
ment go further perhaps than any others hitherto
made public to prove that the thing which we are
told Louis Napoleon will not suffer to be called
anything elsethan the " immigration of free blacks,"
is in reality the slave trade. It is admitted by the
Coltstittstionnet that there were on board of the
Charles Georges when it was seited by the Portu-
guese authorities " things (objets) which the decree
of December 10, 1836, considered as indications of
traffic in slaves." But it is apologetically
urged, " these things are as uwful for
ships transporting free labourers." Is not
this argument, coupled with all that we know,
fearfully suggestive of the fact that the condition on
board ship of the " free labourers " cannot differ ma-
terially from that of slaves ? It is urged against the
position now taken by the Portuguese government,
that the following circular, issued by the governor-
general of Mozambique on December 19, 1857, con-
clusively admitted that the French system of trans-
porting negroes to the colonies is different from the
slave trade :

There have lately arrived in ports of tb,s procaine some
French ships coming from the Isle of Reunioa, tarnished
with regular papers, and 'lariat cm board a delegate of the
French administration, with written instructions as to the
course tube pursued after tbehiring of the Degrees, meditating
forth that the said ships are authorised by their government
to recruit colonists and take than to the said island, in con-
formity with the law of the French empire of 1852, which
governs this matter. It may happen that ships so legally
authorisrd may teach at some port in your district to proceed
to recruit and embark whitest& In such a ease these
easels may ohm have on board articles which the decree of
December 10, 1836, ccesiders es indications of traffic 41
slang. From en inconsiderete application of the provisions
of that decree to vessels circumstanced as above, merlons em-
bereavement might result, fur it might be that such vessels
had no other object than te.plui on board their colonists se-
cording to written instructions 10•111 the French administra-
tion, and witA the mints came, of as Portuguese seethe-
I call especial attention to the words underlined
in the above document, brought forward in justifi-
cation of the French proceedings, because it is now
admitted on all hands that the Charles Georges had
not any papers from the Portuguese authorities, but
merely from the black chief or sheik who had, in
fact, purveyed the negroes for the French captain.
I subjoin a copy of the "free contract" under
which most of the negroea found on board the
Charles Georges ware carried away :

It is agreed and understood that you hire yourself far be
years to go to the Isle of Bourbon in the ship ---,
Captain . You are hired at the rate of two piastres
per month during the whole period alpine engagement. A.
loon as the engagement shall be terminated, you will be
free, ether to remain in Bombes, or to vetoes to year
country. The present contrast le made and pared at the
court of the Sheik of the Medium tribe, In the presence of
the Sheik Ali, of the agents All Kent°, Sidi-Sidi, the inter-
preter of the ship, and the cepa* and Mem& by vitalism
in the presence of the above-hired labourers, after having
Leven read by the interpreter.

' This is the contract under which negro lads of 13
and 14 years of age were taken away from Porte-
gums territory, and the French government pretends
that the fact of a delegate of the Minister of Marine
—in fact, a governmeet clerk from the Isle of
Reunion—being on board is &conclusive justification
of each proceeding, and a fact which must protect
the French flag in all waters from any let, hindrance,
or inquiry. Truly this is a bad case.

PARIS, SATCRDAT IVIXTRO.

There is a very general belief that the Portu-
guese difficulty will shortly be settled, but I cannot
trace It to anything more substantial than the con-
, tident opinion of the French journals that France
is altogether in the right, and that Portugal must
' give way. The language of the government prints
on the subject is extremely arrogant.
I learn by telegraph that the Donawerth aad
Austerlitz actually arrived in the Tagus on Sept. 3.
The Emperor has made a present to the Empree's
mother, Madame de Montijo, of the splendid AM,
non in the Champs Elyeeee, bought of the Marquis
de Lauristoe. The value of this property. greatly
augmented by improvements, is now not leas than
four millions of franca.
The marriage of the Duke of Malakoff is &dal-
dwelt, fixed to take plum in the Imperial Chapel of
St. Cloud on Tuesday next, at lalf-past nine iu the
evening. Their Mamaties will therefore attend the
ceremony on the very day of their return from
Rheims. It is said that the Doke, with his bride,
will leave Paris immediately after the marriage by
a night traM for Dieppe, and that they will embark
for England from that port the next day.

By • decree in the Mositeur the exemption from
navigation does granted until the 30th ult., by
varionidecrees, to ?easels bringing cargoes of oorn,
flour, ries, potatoes, and poles, is extended to the
30th September, 1859. This is a complement to
the decree, which appeared the other day, prolong-
ing for a like period the suspension of the sliding
scale.

The Bourse opened with animation, but became
heavy at the close. The Route for account fell 10c.,
closing at 73.70. Mobilier fell 11.25. There was
but little change in railways.

SPAIN.

MADRID, Ocr. 9.
The progreasists of Saragossa have chosen an elec-
toral committee favourable to the government.
A powder magazine has exploded at Barcelona,
and wounded several people.

THE UNITED STATER.

(lIT IZMIR AND rums xaomerro rsz.seasrn.)
(PROs OUR OWN OORRISPONDRNI..)
LIVERPOOL, MONDAY.
The steamer Vigo, from New York, 26th Sept.,
arrived this morning. She brings 147 passengers
and 406,531 dollars in specie.

LIVERPOOL, SUNDAY.
The royal mail steam ship Persia, Captain Judkins,
which sailed from New York on the 29th ultimo, ar-
rived here at an early hour this morning, bringing
171 passengers and 853,438 dollars in specie.
The screw steam ship Prince Albert, from Galway,
arrived out at Halifax on the 28th ultimo. On the
17th she broke two of the flanges of her screw, and
proceeded under canvas the remainder of the voyage.
On the 22nd she encountered a terrific hurricane, and
lost some of her sails and a life-beat.

The screw steam ship City of Washington, hence,
arrived st New York on the 28th ultimo.

Yellow fever oontinued its ravages in New Orleans.
The deaths for the week numbered 446.

A Boston telegram of the 28th says : " Captain
Townsend, of the slave brig Echo, after a further
examination this morning, was remanded for a
further hearing before the United States Circuit
Court, which meets Oct. 15, when the question of
jurisdiction will be argued. He was also admitted
to bail in 5,000 dole. on a complaint of misdemeanour,
under an act of 1818, preferred by the district
attorney."
The steam ship Moses Taylor had arrived at New
York, bringing the Californian and Pacific mails
and 1,570,924 dole. in treasure. The news from San
Francisco is to the 6th ult. The receipts of mer-
chandise during the previous fortnight had been
quite scanty, and in consequence the amount of trade
was by no means important. The gold ahipmeets
for the month of August by steamers were 3,826,624
dollars against 3,623,834 dollars in August, 1857,
and 3,880,263 dollars in the same month of 1856.
The receipts of gold during the two weeks preced-
ing the 6th of September had fallen off considerably,
while the promised supplies from Fraser River had
not yet made their appearance. The late election
in California resulted in the success of the candi-
dates of the administration wing of the democratic
George Penn Johnston, Clerk of the Circuit Court,
editor of the National, and an administration demo-
crat, fought a desperate duel on Angel Island on the
21st of August with W. J. Ferguson, state senator,
from Sacramento, and anti-Lecompton democrat.
They exchanged four shots ; and on the last fire,
Ferguson had his thigh broken.
The accounts from the gold fields on Fraser River
are very encouraging. The miners are baldly em-
ployed, and gathering from five to fifty dollars worth
of dust per day. The Indians were somewhat
troublesome, and several white persons had been
killed by them. The governor had sent an agent
among the savages, who had patched up a sort of
truce, but apprehensions prevailed that the Indians
contemplated a general uprising against the intrusive
miners. The Governor of the British possessions,
though even*, to the outrages committed by the
Indians, is altogether opposed to the American
settlers assuming the right to ctiastise their foes
whenever they deem the provocation sufficient to
justify their so doing.

ANOTHER MIRACLE!—It is recounted that a deaf
and dumb lad of 16, a native of Saint-Briao, near Dimon in
Brittany, has man the Virgin, who appeared to him blazing
In beauty and surrounded by stare. The celestial visitor
opened the conversation by asking his age, to which Inquiry
be replied, " I don't know." Bbe then told him, and pro.,
oseded to recount the whole history of his life, and a variety
of other circumstances within his knowledge; she concluded
by saying, "Hereafter you shall speak like any other person ;
meet ma again to-morrow night, and I will tell you some
wonderful things." The boy came faithful to the tryst, and
the Virgin then pointed out to him three mysterious bitters
in the tail of the comet, and explained that they trymbass
prophecies of events to come. He la not, however, at liberty
to make known the things that were told him until the ex-
piration of a year from the date of the vision. The boy now
speak* and bean perfectly weIL Such is the story, which,
according to the Union Malouine et Annanaise, the natives of
the village of Saint-Brian are reedy to prove upon the hide
of any antra%
_ _

M. Thierry, the historian, is (Raying in the French
province of Putrid, engaged fa colliding matersof for a
new work.

DI. Adams, the ecalptor, is engaged upon a btuit of
the Empires Ettgeele.

" The season," says Galignani, " is bringing back
to nitie the leading actors who have been ors aemsl.—At the
Francais, we have had Le rotas d • Pierre, baleen beak
Bressant in the pliant Don, and Ls Me fait Amer, with
Regain, In perhaps Ms best part.—At the Vairdevilie, we
ham L4B Lammas Pearce*, for the retina et Weil—and at
the Lyrique they have reprodttoed Weber's 11-seieee ; and a
host of mtutioal novelties are promised at this theatre. Mos.
Oriel will appear much earlier at the loathes this season then
she has of late years. She is to appear in VerdEs Meebetto.
Mr. Harris, stage director of Covent-garden Opera, is en-
gaged by M. Gelrado to superintend the bringing ont of this

On Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, the
Uquillatore of t►e District Bank, Newcestireat-Tyns, paid
the first &tithed of be. in the pound to the depositors in the
bank. The OW dividend would =mount to about hell •
million. The persist waa made is time new Town Hall.

The Chlecionian Mercury believes that there will
hardly be, on the part of the Scottish public, a wool
opinion as to the propriety and neoassiiy deigning to account
the deputy-governor and damson of the Weenies Bank.
"In the light of the shocking revelations which we have
made during the greater part of this week, and which we
conclude to-day, it Ii difficult to believe that they would sot
be held hills to each and every shareholder who purchased
sabeeiment to the nate of their molted belanas-ahrila, and
relied on the boots fide character of their dividends of 8 and
9 per cent."
The latest reports made with reference to the
health of the Bishop of Norwich stake that It cmatkaass
gradually to improve. His lordship has ands armagements
for holding a confirmation at Norwich on the 26th last.

The Rev. H. S. Fagan, head wader of the
Grammar School, Market Bosworth, and late Fellow of
Pembroke College, Oxford, has been elected by the cliailty
trustees to the head mastership of King 'Mead Vl.'s
Grammar School, Bath, to which is annexed the rectory of
Charloom* near that city, vsoutt by the death of the Bev.
A. J. Madras. Ihe two appointments ere worth abort
1,0001. per annum.

The Rev. William Burton Criokmer, MA., of
St. Edrausd's Hall, Oxford, =rate of fk. Maryblboas, has
been appointed a mensonary chapisia LS the geiddeide
Brat& Columbia.

THE REV. ALFRED POOLE.—The NM Alfred
Poole, whale opinions oa the ash*t of the eeedeedeed have
lately made hie name familiar to the public, has ben ap-
pointed to a meetership in the Grammer School at Hazlett,
Hew:. A few days mot, when the two. wee
occupying the reading desk at evening carrier in the church,
• lad cane to the do•r and dung • atone at him, but the
mirile fell on the organ blower. The polies were called in,
but the urchin had made E.