The Express.
London, England, 1866-10-09 00:00:00

mg EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 9, 1866.::

politique is not impossible. The desigi • attri-
buted to " the Organization" of spoisdind Ea views
through schoolbooks and popular literature, pm-
bably does little more than Mary the Ogmmill•
sion's idea of its subtle and penetrating influence.
When we see in what apparently harmless produo-
lions the Russisii -authorities now see socialistic
tindsialnersive doctrines, it is only fair to give a
mild interpretation to their sixong epithets. The
varied ramifications which they assign to the
Organization, and its alleged connexion with the
other secret societies of Europe, may in like
manner be merely the expression of a belief in
the activity and übiquity of the revolutionary
principle.
Though there probably is much exaggeration
and some calumny in the Report of the Com-
mission, it cannot be denied that associations like
the Organization are in some sense the natural
outcome of a state of society such as that which
exists in Russia. Things there are out of joint;
the old order has been destroyed, and the new
has not taken its place. The educated classes,
shut out from active political life, are abandoned
to licentious political speculations ; the surface of
society, unsteadied by connexion with the masses
beneath, is disturbed by the casual influences of
the moment. In the general disarray, the uni-
venal unsettlement, of political ideas, moral and
religious convictions have suffered. The sanctity
of property, of marriage, of the family is denied.
A true Nihifison, as the materialist atheism im-
parted from the writings of some of the German
physiologists is named, has been widely diffused.
But the Russian Government itself has been a
worse teacher than Atheistic doctors or
political incendiaries. The ukases which
have dispossessed proprietors in the kingdom
of Poland, and in the western provinces, are little
likely to inspire respect for the rights of property ;
wholesale executions and remorseless massacres are
not fitted to instil a reverence for human life ; nor
is the rupture of family ties by exile and imprison-
ment
a convincing testimony to their sanctity.
The imperial policy in Poland, and, in a lesser
degree, in Russia itself, has had one aim, in some
particulars justifiable and beneficial, namely, to
subvert by force, employed or threatened, an
existing order. It is not strange that it should
find, from time to time, unauthorised imitators,
prone to use its weapons against itself. The most
moderate of the Russian journals not very long
since eulogized the Imperial policy as having for
its object to make all the Russians equal inter se,
and to transfer the soil from the nobles to the
peasantry ;—in other words, to organize a territorial
democracy, with the EMPEROR at its summit. Is it
very extraordinary that men should be found
who desire to add to these sweeping changes
another ; and to establish a territorial democracy,
without an Emperor at its summit ? The con-
spiracy which has been detected, and is in course
of punishment, was purely criminal. But dreams
of • socialistic communism, to be attained by vio-
lence and bloodshed, are only the too natural re-
sult of the confiscations and the executions, of
which Poland and Western Russia have been the
scene. The Imperial Government has sown the
seeds of which it now reaps the harvest.

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

(THIS DAY.)

of nations, we should only show our improvidence in
eying up to the west plat easier or later mart
igain fall into * bands of She dross. It is possible,
• the Times pentode to sag, to prewar too far on the
peeleity ariall supineness el England, and than may kes
mew of outrages perpetrated to the injury • such near
and dear neighbours, as would compel us, in spite of all
our inertness, to take up another people's cause as if it
were our own. As to the Eastern question, all we should
care for is that Egypt should not be meddled with ; for
the independence of the isthmus Europe may be =re that
we would fight tooth and nal.
The Herald thinks no one can be blind to the truth that
—whether slowly or rapidly—the Ottoman empire is
settling down upon its foundations, though it is a pure
assumption on the part of the Greeks of the kingdom that
they are necessarily to inherit the domain. Since no solu-
tion has yet been arrived at, no compact agreed upon, it
seems the obvious interest of the European powers, so ar
as they intervene at all, to attempt to heal the wounds, to
bind up the broken limb, to steady the Ottoman govern-
ment, so far as may be possible, while' it writes the last
chapters of four hundred years of a partially glorious and
a partially disastrous history for itself. As for the Greeks,
when they have consolidated a kingdom, they may, per-
haps, dream of an empire.

LATEST INTELLIGENCig.

SAXONY.

The manicipe,l authorities of Dresden Wire sent
an address to the King of Saxony beseeching him
to conclude peace with Prussia and send back the
Saxon troops to their homes. This step is suffi-
ciently explained by certain details published in
the Breslau Gazette on the present situation of
Saxony and its capital. According to this
journal numerous families are quitting Dresden,
where the public taxes have become too heavy for
their resources. Since the 18th of June the
country has had to pay a war contribution of
I 18,000 thalers per day to the Prussian government.
The maintenance of the Saxon army in Austria
has already entailed an expense of 3,180,000
thalers, or 30,000 thalers per day. If to all these
expenses be added the sums sent to the
soldiers in Austria by their relations, and
the deficiency of labour for agriculture through
the useless presence under their flags of the soldiers
of the reserve, it will be understood how ruinous
for Saxony is the provisional state in which she is
left by the postponement of the conclusion of
i peace with Prussia.

(num% Trzaassms.)
ITALY.
FLORENCE, OCT. F.

It is expected that the Italian troops will enter
Venice on the 15th instant, and that the plebiscite
will take place on the 21st inst.

RUSSIAN POLAND.
THORN, Ocr. 8.

Advice' received here to-day frOMCheim of the
4th inst. state that during the previous night
Bishop Kalinski, of the Greek United Church, and
most of his clergy, were arrested and conveyed out
of the town by the Russian authorities.

THE BOMBAY MAILS.
SOUTHAMPTON, Ocr. 9.

The Peninsular and Oriental Company's steam
ship Surat, Captain Jamieson, with the above
mails and 55 passengers, arrived this morning.
She brings 24 boxes of specie, value 16,8091., and
78 packages of general cargo.
The Surat experienced fine weather throughout
the passage. On the 6th inst. she spoke the com-
pany's steamer Tanjore with the outward mails of
the 4th. _ .

Her Majesty's ships Racer, Psyche, and Resist-
ance were at Malta. The Assurance left on the
21st for Syracuse. .

GIBRALTAR, Ocr. 4.

The British steamer Atlantic, ot days from
Liverpool, and the steamer Roma, 16 days from
Glasgow, arrived on the Ist.
The British barque Crouch Brothers. 110 days
from Colombo, with a cargo of coffee, and the
British ship Francis Hillyard, 114 days from
Callao, with guano, arrived on the 29th.
Very bad weather prevailed on the 28th and
29th ult.

Exchanges are quoted on London, 90 days'
date, 49; ; Paris, 8 days, sfr. 12c. ; Marseilles,
Mr. 12c. ; Madrid, to 4 dia. ; Cadiz (pay in
gold), dia. ; Seville (pay in gold), par ; Malaga,
11 to 2 dia. ; Barcelona, to prem. ; Valencia,
par ; premium on five franc pieces, 1 to 11, per
cent.

THE EMPRESS OF MEXICO.

A letter from Rome ef the 2nd, in the Solid
kublie of Lyons, says:
" The Empress et Marko is the subject of much con-
rrsstion here. Yesterday morning at 9, without having
ratepsted audience, she presented herself at the Vatican
to see the Holy Father. She was immediately received,
and it is said she presented a petition to the Pope 'mitring
his Holiness to sanction everything that her husband had
done as Emperor with respect to religious matters. The
story goes that the Pope positively refused, sad that the
Empress then declared she would not leave the Vatican
if her request were not granted. I cannot guarantee
the authenticity of all this ; but it is certain the Empress
did not quit the Vatican until 6 o'clock in the evening.
She retired to the private study of the Pope, and his Holi-
nese continued his ordinary audiences ; he afterwards
dined alone, according to etiquette, and went out for his
usual drive, leaving the Empress with her lady in wait-
ing. She at length left and dined at the Hotel de Rome,
where her Majesty is staying. In consequence of this in-
cident a rumour has got abroad that her ressonis impaired,
and we know beyond any doubt that Professor Vials, the
Pope's medical attendant, scarcely leaves her."
The Monde, a journal likely to be well informed in such
a can, observes :
" A day or two since we received a melancholy state-
ment respecting the Empress of Mexico, to which we heel-
tat.ed to give credence. Our private letters from Rome
unhappily leave no doubt on the subject. The reason of
her Majesty has given way under the shock caused by se
many hopes suddenly disappointed."
A Paris letter in the independence of Brussels an-
nounce* that Dr. Manske, so well known for his treatment
of mental diseases, has been sent for to Rome to attend to
the Empress ; and the Nord, in mentioning the rumour,
remarks that " the statement made by the Journal de
Lilge, that the Empress Charlotte will nut be able to visit
Brussels on the anniversav of the death of Queen Louise,
seems to confirm the reports in circulation."