The Express.
London, England, 1859-08-23 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 23, lOU.

'denied, and if the marriage came to the een ot the
real Mrs. 81111211018 T or her hiands, the chances
certainly were that the fraud would be disernand,
sad that SUCTIIII2.4T would be indicted for bigamy.
The danger was greet, and demanded a desperate
remedy. Miss BANICE3 was delicate, and subject to
severe bilious attacks. It may very possibly be
that at first the attack was natural. But SmentnisT
was a man of considerable medical knowledge.
Seeing the condition of Miss BANICEB, it may very
possibly have occurred to him that by keeping up
and aggravating the vomiting and diarrhea he
might succeed in destroying his quosi-wife. To a
person of her temperament very slight doses of any
irritant poison would amply suffice for the purpose.
If the evidence produced may be believed, this was,
in fact, his very plan of action. If a man may be
judged by his conduct, it is impossible to imagine
conduct more consistent with guilt than the conduct
of SMETHURST. His useless parsimony—his constant
attendance night and day—his performing all
the functions of • nurse—his not allowing
one scrap of food to leave the room—his keeping all
the poor woman's relations out of the way—his
heartless letters to his wife, evidently showing that
he meant to return—his deliberate lying—and his
scrupulous care about the will by which poor Miss
BANKL9 was to leave him her property—have already
been sufficiently detailed. The only excuse pre-
tended for his singular conduct wu his extraordinary
affection for this poor lady, but that notion is utterly
inconsistent with almost everything he said and
did. Strange, however, as his conduct was, it was
admirably consistent with a deliberate design to
murder. When, therefore, such • design was proved
by the evidence of doctors, who declared as they looked
epos the poor woman in bed that she was dying of
slow poison ; when, moreover, that opinion wee con-
firmed by discovering antimony in the body, and
arsenic which must have been there—it is impossible
to doubt that both the judge and the jury who tried
the prisoner were bound, by their moral obligation
to protect society, to pronounce a verdict of guilty.
Nor is it credible that any Secretary of State, unless
some new and startling facts are discovered, will
venture to disturb a verdict which deserves the
rain of being not lem bonen than courageous.

A msaa ago the project of law submitted to the
Chamber by the Belgian Government for the exten-
sion of the fortifications of Antwerp was rejected by
majority of 63 to 39, with 9 votes absent. The
majority= that occasion was composed of 31 ultra-
Catholics and 22 Liberals. Of the Catholic, or
rather, Clerical party, there were many who
voted against the measure simply because it
was the masseurs of a Liberal ministry ; whilst others,
more reamed sad scrupulous, opposed the project
ostensibly s aise of excessive expenditure, or because
they were in favour of fortifying Brussels in pre-
ference to Antwerp. There were objections, also,
on the score of the " political danger" of the pro-
, jest, by which they professed to mean a violation of
the neutrality which is at once the obligation and
the privilege of Belgium ; their real antipathy to
national defence being derived from a respectable
sentiment of admiration for the institutions of the
French Empire, in which the State Church, a little
leas than paramount, is something more than
favoured and protected. Among the Liberals, the
objections which among the Clerical party
are mere disguises, were doubtless sin-
cere, whether political, economical, or local
in their character. There were Liberals of the pure
land simple Peace Party, who shrank from any ap-
pearance of calling the neutrality of Belgium in
question ; Liberals of the sound constitutional
school, who regarded with • judicious horror the
royal and courtly propehaity to strong military bud-
gets; Liberals who contended that it was bete
ter to fortify the flat country round the
capital than an extreme point of the ter-
ritory, such as Antwerp; Liberals who, having
made up their minds to he swallowed by France
some day or other, declined to put their hands
in their pockets for the purpose of de-
ferring the honour to as distant a day as
possible; and lastly, local Liberals, who considered
that the commercial interests of Antwerp itself
would be very seriously affected, and its natural
and peaceful development, obstructed by the ugly
artifices of military engineers. Already, in 1849
considerable discontent had arisen out of the con-
struction of a new line of forts in front of Antwerp
as the commencement of an entrenched camp, from

the refuel of the authorities to indemnify proprie-
tors to the extent of their damages, or demands. Only
In 1852, public feeling began to take a new turn on
the question of national defence. The arrested decree
of the Second of December in the French Monileur
wee no secret at Brussels ; and with the exception
of an insignificant minority, every one was now or
opinion that in order to make her neutrality respected,
Belgium must be in a condition to defend herself
from a coup de main. It was also agreed that Ant-
werp should be the pivot of the national de-
fence. But here two plans were in discussion :
according to the one, the existing Spanish
enceinte was proposed to be destroyed, and thrown
back beyond the faubourgs ; according to the other,
which wu the plan of the Government of the day,
the Northern laubourgs of the town only would be
included in the new enceinte. It was variously
argued that with an entrenched camp no enceinte
was necessary ; and that, at any rate, the old
and useless fortified places should be demolished, and
the Antwerp fortifications substituted for, not added
to, them. The Ministry, however, stuck to its pro-
ject of the leaser enceinte, and the bill was rejected.
Then, es now, the Ministry was accused by the mast
violent of its adversaries at home and abroad of
acting under pressure of the KIXG, and the KING of
obeying the dictates of England! The question has
never clambered in the Chambers or in the press,
and his pined by the free and vigorous'
discussion on both sides. And it is just to
the Clerical party in Belgium to say that only •
few furious ultramontane zealots are secretly hanker
ing after • closer union with Imperialism ; the mode-
rate and rational Catholics cling as devotedly as the
Liberals to the freedom and independence of their
country.

In the recent discussion, the Liberal Ministry cer-
tainly owed a debt of gratitude to M. Gummi
Di CASSAGNAC, whom menacing prose (perhaps,
toe, the report of the creation of a new military
aimmand at Lille) cannot have failed to recommend
the project of fortifications to the common sense and
patriotism of the Chamber. The Ministers and their
leading supporters put the question boldly and broadly,
on the plainest grounds: le the national existence
of Belgium a reality or a fiction ? Are the venerable
cities of Flauders,Hainault, and Brabant willing to
coalesce in defence of the common country? Or is
Belgian independence a mere state paper to be
blown away by the first blast of M. OZANICR DC
CASSAGNAC'd thunder? Th. reply of a free legis-
lature to such an appeal es this can hardly be
doubtful ; and we for whom the iadependenos of
Belgium is a question of peace or war are not sue-
, prised to learn that the project of law for the
fortification of Antwerp is virtually affirmed ; though,
perhaps for the reasons we have suggested, by •
majority of fifteen only. The Clerical party has

We consolation—it need no )sager fear an English
invasion ; for not only is Antwerp to be metered by
au entrenched camp, bat the passage of the lialshlt is
to he "covered," and, moreover, the Due DS
MAGIVITA is to be in command no farther oft than
Lille.

HER MAJESTY'S VISIT TO ALDERSHOT?.

PORTSMOUTH, Awn= M.

Her Majesty the Queen, and his Royal Highness
the Prince CCOROII, accompanied by Prince Alfred sad other
members of the Royal Family, embarked on board the Fairy,
Commander his Saran Highness the Prince Laininges, at
Osborne this morning, at twenty mfrantes past tan o'clock,
sad ptoosedal to the Royal Merman Yazd, Gosport, on roan;
to Aldershot; As the Fairy approached Speared the
royal standard wee saluted by the Tatalgar, 91,
Captain B. G. Fa•shaws; luny, 40, Captain Caldwell;
Sidon, 22, Captain J. B. Crawford; sad the Scout, 21,
Captain J. Corbett; which varele manaed yards and damned
in parti-ocdotued bunting. Royal 'elates were %lax Bred
born the garrison, sad by the Viotory,lo4, flagship, Captain
A. Farquhar; and St. Vincent, 101, Captain T. Wilson.
Her Majesty arrived at the Clsrence-yard a few
minutes after 11 o'clock, and was received by
Admiral William Bowles, C. 8., the Commander-in-Chief;
Rear-Admiral the Hon. George Grey, superintendent of
the dockyard, Major-General the Hon. Sir James Yorke
Scarlet; K.C.8., and their respective staffe ; together with
Captain the Hon. George Fowler Beatings, C. 8., Captain
R. S. Hewlett, C. 8., and a guard of honour of the Tippe-
rary Militia Artillery, under the command of Lieutenant-
Cabrael the Berl of Donoughnsore. The Patios Consort was
\shied is an undress military uniform, and Primo, Alfred in
that of a naval cadet. Her Majesty and suite left Gosport at
• Tarter past 11 o'clock for Aldershot; sal, it Is expected,
will return to Osborne to-toerrow.

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

FRANCE.

PARIS, TUUDAT.

The Noeitswr in announcing the various nomina-
tions of the chief military commands, states that the
augmentation in the number of these commands is
in order to form a more equal division of the military
forces of the empire.

SWITZERLAND.
/MILNE AoarsT 22.

The embarkation at Naples of the fourth regiment
of Swiss troops has been effected in the best possible
order, they having previously received the whole
pay due to them. 1,689 privates and 14 officers will
be received at Marseilles by the Swiss consul.
Yesterday the French and Sardinian plenipoten-
tiaries held a conference. The King of Naples has
acted fairly towards the Swiss troops that have been
I
disbanded ; they receive a retiring pension accord-
ing to a decree of the late King.

PRUSSIA.
BERLIN, AIJOUST 22.
His Royal Highness the Prince Regent left yes-
terday evening for Ostend.

wW ft

•E4PRESS FROM PARIS.
(Plox ova crow oomeromirr.)

PARIS, MONDAY EVENING._

I hear that several refugees—who would gladly
avail themselves of the amnesty if they were quite
sure that they might reside in France on precisely
the same footing as other citizens—hesitate to come
back on account of doubts entertained about the
construction of the Law of Public Safety. There
is a question about it in many minds, and the diffi-
culty is not met by reiterated 'martian that the
amnesty is "full and entire."

The Bourse continues in a languid state. The
Rents fell 10c. both for cash and account, closing
at 68fr. 76c. and 68fr. 86c. It had been quoted
lower—at 68fr. 70c. and 68fr. 65c. Mobilier rose
2fr. 60c. In railway shares there were very few
prices made; nominal quotations are rather lower.
M. Dolma, a well-known agent de change, wee
found drowned in the Seine on Saturday lest, near
the Asnieres bridge. As his watch and a rum of
600 fr. were found upon his person, it is not likely
that ha should have been assassinated, and u his
affairs were in a flourishing condition, and he leaves
a fortune of a million of francs, the idea of a suicide
is also almost excluded. Some accident, yet unex-
plained, probably led to his death.

The news of a ministerial modification at Vienna
has produced a great sensation. but it is not thought
very promising. M. Goluchowski, the new Minister
of the Interior, is a decided ultramontanist. M. de
Hubner, the lets ambassador at Paris, who now be-
comes Minister of Police, is notoriously a creature
of the Jesuits. The reforms to come from each
hands are likely to be small.
The Petrie, contradicting a paragraph which has
been going the rounds of the French papers for the
last two or three days, states that the Grand Duke
Ferdinand of Tuscany has not gone to Vienna ; he
is still in Paris, and the day of his departure is not
yet fixed.
The St. Maar camp is entirely broken up; not a
single tent remains on the plain, and General Son-
main, who commanded it, has returned to his resi-
dence in the Place Vend6me.

It is rumoured that the state is about to bring an
action against a private individual for the restitu-
tion of Cardinal Richelieu's head, which was cut off
when the mob broke into the chapel of the Sorbonne
at the time of the great revolution, and has hitherto
been kept as an heirloom in the family of a deputy,
into whose hands it fell.

The following is the most striking passage of an
article in the Patris upon the necessity of a
European congress :
Sordid& Dad •nutria, than, ars incompatible at Zurich.
Their plotipmentlartm drsady decline direct communication
idolise& other; they only communicate through the =edit=
of the Prated representative. So, before an ■greunent could
have bets oome to, they won't even listen say longer to each
other. This is a situation that greatly impales a manual
understaading.
France, It la true, does all she can to allay this antagonism.
She arbitrates with an authority equal to her wisdom. She
brings to the negotiations a sprit of business that un-
doubtedly would succeed were it nut confronted by the
obstinate resistance of Austria.

Great, however, se is the conciliatory disposition of France,
she nevertheites cannot go to such a length u to yield to
Austria what she cannot abandon, and whit she has the
right to consider u the fruit of her victories.
France wishes Italy to be independent ; Austria does not

lfreracs- t wishes the confederation to be Italie* ; Auntie
triable it to be Austrian.

Prams wia;.tiTiop. to udate his power by pru-
dent reforms; Austria wishes the Pope to natant subject to
Influences entlpsthatio to the French mind.
France deserts that the Deka of Tuscany and Modena
may be able loyally to become reconciled with their peoples ;
Austria desires to impose them by foroe.
France wants the fortresses of the quadrangle to be oocu-
pled by a federal army; Austria wants theirs fortresses to be
occupied as barracks by her army, that thin may remain as
• ;nemesia moan itgainat the independence of 'hay.
Notwithstanding her spirit of generous and wise comtala.
tint, we greatly fear that France herself will be unable to
Garry out her arbitration between Austria and Piedmont.

loiturse mut be had, than, to another judadtodos.
Swops alone Incompetent to Judge and solve each gnat &S-
-odds, seals serious interests.

Vo7all these reasons, the Italian question in short, se it
appears to us, can only be settled by a European congress.
Ti. sword 01 France has cut through the treat* that con-
secrated the domain of Austria in the Stales of the Penicaula.
It ta to the authority of Europe that it appertains to com-
plete the work.