The Express.
London, England, 1867-04-29 00:00:00

AL GOUNOM NEW OPER!.

The long-expected opera of Romeo and Juliet, by
M. Gounod, was produced on Saturday at the Theitre
I4yrique, Paris. The words of the opera are by MM. I. Bar-
bier and Michel Carr**. The entire story of the unfortunate
lovers is told, from the fast meeting at the ball in the
house of Capulet to the scene in the grave-yard.
The opera contains some choice airs, but as
in the case of Faust, the music is unequal.
The two last acts are very beautiful. Madame Miolan
Carvalho and M. Michot played the two principal charac-
ters, and were supported by Casaux, BarrE, Troy, Puget,
and Mdlle. Daram. There was a perfect shower of bou-
quets daring the performance, and the applause with
which the now work was received augurs for it a sumer
equal to that of POlllll.

A private letter from Paris, dated last Friday,
says:—"One thing I noticed particularly that when I
was here, a short time since, the Emperor used to ride
along the Champs Elysees very rapidly, and scarcely say
notice was taken of him. He did not seem popular. I
have had an opportunity of seeing him several times this
week, and he has invariably ridden very slowly and great
homage was paid him. His hand was in perpetual motion
returning the salutations and cheers of the populace."
The imperial Russian ships of war Askold and
Variag, lying at anchor at the Motherlank, off Ryde, com-
menced the celebration of the Easter festival of the Greek
church at 12 o'clock p.m. on Saturday by • salute of 21
guns from each ship. The religious service on board com-
menced at the same time and lasted until 2 a.m. yester-
day. To-day being the birth-day of the Emperor, the
ships " dress" in colours, and at noon fire a national salute
in honour of the day.

It is stated that arrangements have been made
whereby the diplomatic difficulties anticipated with re-
spect to the concession granted by the Chilianand Bolivian
governments to Mr. J. L. Annan, the well-known ship-
builder of Bonleaux, for the extraction of 1,500,000 tons
of guano from the Mejillones guano deposits, which are
described to contain over 10,000,000 of cubic tons, have
been avoided, and that tranquil possession hu been taken
in Mr. Arman's name. The bark Peru, shortly expected
at Bordeaux, brings the first cargo. .

. -
The West India mails, when landed at Plymouth,
will be forwarded by special train as far u Bristol.

The Rhone, which arrived at Southampton yes-
terday with the West India and Mexican mail, brought no
Australian or New Zealand mail. The West India inter-
colonial packet waited at Colon three days for the Aus-
tralian packet, and then left, the Australian packet not hav-
ing arrived at Panama. The Rhone brings deplorable news
of the Emperor Maximilian. Ho was completely hemmed in
by J murex, and it was thought impossible that he could escape
capture. The Mexicans talked of shooting him, but it was
believed that they would not adopt such an extreme
measure as that. It is certain, however, that they are
very much exasperated against him. When the inter-
colonial mail steamer was on her way to the Mexican
Gulf, there were fifteen transports at Havannah with
French troops from Vera Cruz. When the steamer re-
turned to Havannah, there were only two or three trans-
ports there ; all the rest had mailed for France. St.
Thomas has become quite healthy again, and it was ex-
pected that the Atlantic steamers will return to that
island again to trans-ship mails, cargo, and yammers.