The Express.
London, England, 1867-03-15 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING, MARCH 15, 1867.

that, having paid twenty millions for the abolition
of slavery in our own West India islands, we were
bound to arrest its propagation among our
neighbours. There was much to be said on
this side of the case some years ago,
but now that slaveholding is abolished throughout
the American Union, , that Brasil is gradually
effacing the stain of slavery, that Portugal has
declared for its abolition, and that even Spain is
professing a desire to close at some not too remote
period the era of slave-dealing governors in
Cuba, it is perhaps time to consider the mainte-
nance of our African squadron as a question of
humanity to our officers and seamen employed
upon that service. Our efforts in that direction
have coat us thousands of valuable lives, all the
risks and difficulties attending the right of search
when that right was in full operation under treaty,
whilst the severities of the service have been
absurdly twravated by the singular habit of
sending the slowest tubs to chase the fastest craft
in the world, when they are not sweltering and
rolling long dismal weeks at anchor off the mouths
of suspected rivers, or in some " likely " bight
or bay. And the saddest joke of the affair is that
since the brigs of the famous Daring and Contest
class were replaced by steamers, the chances of
prize money have diminished, and the prospects
of slave owners might have brightened but for the
circumstances to which we have referred. It may be
reasonably doubted whether the slave trade might
not have been more efficiently arrested by opera-
tions in Cuban or Brazilian waters, instead of on
the West African coast.

The public will be delighted to hear that
Captain COV7PER COLES is at last to have
his opportunity, and they will be not a little
gratified with Lord HENRY LENNOX'S assurance
that the cost of shipbuilding will this year
exceed the cost of repairing old and use-
less ships, and that the Sea Lords are be-
coming unsentimental enough to sell without
remorse, by auction, some of those noble and
impossible old hulls which have been so long
sleeping on their own shadows, and, as we
say of hunters during a long frost, eating
their (figure) heads off. Altogether, the present
Admiralty, it may be cheerfully admitted, seem
to be awake to the necessity of retrenchment,
wherever it can be sincerely and safely effected,
and of presenting to Parliament and the country
a clear, intelligible balance-sheet, showing plainly
how the money goes and what we get for it.

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.
(THIS DAY.)

press, and the circumstances show that mail et
them must have been mere pecuniary sperailitiiies.
The public interests suffer by the present position of the
lueartion, and constantly the reporter must either destroy
the value of his account by suppressing much which the
public have a most legitimate interest in knowing, or he
must ran the risk of legal penalties. Criminal proceed-
ings the Telegraph would abolish altogether. This elsea
of indictments are universally undertaken from vindictive
motives or strategical considerations, and all the legiti-
mate advantages which are supposed to attend them can
be secured by civil procedure.

MEETING OF THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY.
(THIS DAY.)

This afternoon a meeting of the conservative
members of parliament was held at Lord Derby's official
residence, 10, Downing-street. The time named in the
circular summoning the meeting wee 2 o'clock, but mem-
bers began to arrive some little time before that hour.
Amongst the earliest comers were—Mr. Hart Dyke, Sir
W. Ileatheote, Mr. Banks Stanhope, Admiral Waicot,
Hon. Mr. Dutton, Mr. Beresford Hope, Mr. Disraeli, Sir
J. Trollope, Mr. Beecroft, Mr. Vance, Mr. Percy
Wyndham, Mr. Hubbard, Sir Brook Bridges, Mr.
Bailie (Inverness), Sir J. Pakington, Mr. Selwyn,
Mr. Baggallay, Hon. Algernon Egerton, Mr. Hartley,
Lord J. Manners, Sir J. Walsh, Lord Robert Mon-
tagu, Mr. Baring, Sir J. Kerslake, Lord H. Lennox,
Mr. Powell, Lord Cranborne, Sir J. Hay, Lord Colville,
Mr. Surtees, Mr. Mowbray, Sir M. W. Ridley, Mr. C.
Bentinck , Mr. Lowther, Mr. B. Woodd, Mr. Corry, &c.

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

THE ITALIAN ELECTIONS.

We have received from our Florence correspond-
ent (says the Temps) a telegram which modifies to
some extent his opinion as to the result of the
Italian elections. It appears from the most recent
information, that the returns are pretty equally
balanced between the supporters and the opponents
of the government.

(annex's nuaGiums.)
AUSTRIA.
VIENNA, MARCH 15.

The Diets of Bohemia, Moravia, and Carniola
have been summoned to meet on the Gth
It is believed that the Reichsrath will assemble on
the 28th April.
The lkbatte of this morning publishes a semi-
official article contradicting the warlike rumours
lately current, and stating that the question of the
&mien fortresses may be considered as settled.
The Minister of Finance will very shortly pro-
ceed to Pesth for the settlement of different finan-
cial questions.
The negotiations at Florence for the conclusion
of an Austro-Italian commercial treaty are steadily
progressing.

Several voluminous documents in reference to
this question were received yesterday from the
Italian capital.

THE EMPRESS OF MEXICO.
TRIESTE, MARCH 15.
A change for the worse has taken place in the
condition of the Empress Charlotte.

MEXICO.

ST. IiAZAIRE, MARCH 15.

The Transatlantic Company's steamship Nou-
veau Monde arrived here this morning from Vera
Cruz, with 747 French soldiers, 411 million dollars
in specie for the French government, and 8 millions
on private account.

THE BOMBAY MAIL.
ALEXANDRIA, Maim 13.
The Ripon left at 2 p.m., and the Euxine at 5
p.m., to-day.
The former may be expected at Marseilles on the
19th, and the latter at Southampton about the
27th inst.

liiinifficiont palliatives against the influences which have
peNaducted Fenianism, and suggests that as Fenianism is an
essentially social manufacture, it should be met by allow-
ing economic laws to act with all their rigour. " This," it
says, "would be a more humane remedy than fusillades,
and a more efficacious one than the theoretical concessions
of parliamentarism ; but it would still be traninillity
purchased at the cost of the depopulation of certain dis-
tricts in Ireland."