The Express.
London, England, 1866-01-01 00:00:00

(azurza's;TlLEGßAx.)

The Royal Mail steamship Asia, from Boston
and Halifax, arrived at Queenstown at 1.30 p.m.
yesterday, with 15,208 dell. in specie, and 48 pas-
sengers. She landed 93 sacks of mails and six pas-
sengers, and proceeded immediately for Liverpool.
All well.

(Per the Asia, rid Rookie's Point.)
NEW YORK, Dzc. 20, Momum.

President Johnson has sent a message to the
Senate, accompanied by reports from General
Grant sod Carl Scburz, upon the condition of
the Southern States. Mr. Johnson declares that
the rebellion is suppressed, and that the people are
yielding obedience to the laws of the Federal
government with more willingness and greater
promptitude than under the circumstances could
reasonably have been anticipated. Mr. Johnson con-
tinues : " The prospect of affairs is more promising
than could well have been expected. Sectional ani-
mosity is surely and rapidly merging into a better
spirit. National representation, connected with a
proper system of taxation, will result in the har-
monious restoration of the relations of the States
to the Union."

General Grant reports that he is satisfied that
thinking men in the South accept the present situa-
tion in good faith, and regard slavery and secession
as for ever settled by the arbitrament of arms.
He recommends the presence of small garrisons,
mostly of white troops, in the interior of the South
where there are many freedmen. No force is
necessary elsewhere, except on the sea coast
and in the forts. The South desires to
return to self-government within the Union as
soon as possible, but while reconstructing,
requires government protection. The freedman's
mind is not yet disabused of the idea that he has
the right to live without care or provision for the
future, the tifect of which is idleness and accumula-
tion in camps and cities. Freedmen require for a
few years not only laws for their protection, but
the fostering care of those on whom they can rely
for counsel. He, therefore, recommends the con-
tinuation of the Freedmen's Bureau in a modified
form—that is to say, by partially incorporating it
with the military department.

The House of Representatives has passed an
amendment prohibiting the payment of the rebel
debt.
California has ratified the constitutional amend-
ment.

The government has arrested Captain Semmes.
NEW YORK, Die. 21, Evarma.
. .

Yesterday in the Senate Mr. Sumner reiterated
his remarks that President Johnson's Message was
an attempt to whitewash the South, and read ex-
tracts from letters and papers showing the South-
erners to be strongly disloyal and constantly per-
petrating outrages against freedmen.
The provisional governors of Alabama and
Georgia have been removed, and the governors
elect have assumed office.

Mr. Seward has officially announced that three-
fourths of the States having ratified the constitu
tional amendment abolishing slavery, it is now
valid as part of the Federal constitution.

A resolution has been introduced in the house,
and referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs,
declaring that the United States ought never to
recognise any government imposed upon any nation
on the American continent by European arms.
The house has adopted a resolution asking the
President for information concerning the steps
taken by Maximilian, or any European power, to
obtain from the Federal government the recognition
of the Mexican empire, and also asking what cor-
respondence or what action of the Federal govern-
ment has taken place.
In response to a request of the house for in-
formation concerning Maximilian's decree establish-
ing peonage, Mr. Seward has furnished the opinion
of Attorney-General Speed and the accompanying
correspondence, which are now in the hands of the
Committee on Foreign Affairs. Mr. Speed's opinion,
which declared that the result of the decree was to
re-establish slavery, was forwardediwith other re-
levant matter to the American Minister in Paris,
who called the attention of M. Drouyn de Lhuys
to the subject. The French government has not
yet replied.
A New York evening paper publishes a rumour
that M. Montholon, previous to Mr. Johnson's is-