The Express.
London, England, 1866-01-17 00:00:00

MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS.

The Timer condemns the French intervention in Mexico
as altogether • mistake, and as • trouble which must
harass the Emperor Napoleon's reflective hours. At home
and abroad people are constantly dinning it into his ears.
The American government pursue him with remonstrances,
and it is well undentood that Id. Fould and the
economic section of the imperial cabinet are as per-
severing as the liberals in their hostility to the
*steep:is', while the very ultramontanes have with-
drawn their countenance from the Mexican empire.
For the mistake he has made there is nothing whatever to
compensate him. Were he to withdraw his support, it is
meet probable that the Emperor Maximilian would soon
return to Europe. and the Emperor Napoleon would have
to acknowledge that • scheme upon which he had lavished
thousands of French lives and millions of French money
had ignominiously failed, and that the French arms h►d
been compelled to recoil from before a contemptible
enemy. It is a painful dilemma.
Entertaining much doubt es to the regularity of Captain
Wake's proceedings which led to the loss of the Bulldog,
the Timu nevertheless considers his fault, if it be one, is
so entirely on the right aide, that few of his countrymen
oil join in the "severe reprimand" which the court-
fast tial has felt it its duty to administer. The courage
which he showed in encountering, with • sloop of six guns,
so many ships and batteries, of which the collective force
must have greatly overmatched his own armament, and the
humanity which led him to save the crew of the Voldrogue
in his own boats when he WAI himself in • position of the
utmost difficulty, are worthy of the best days of our navy.
He erred, indeed, as a diplomatist, but he more than
repaired his error in his proper capacity of a naval officer.
The Daily News thinks that in some respects the Fenian
conspiracy offers fewer ground, of apprehension for Ireland
than the orange organisation. The latter is of home
growth ; it has its room deep in the soil. The former le an
exotic ; it is the result of the most gigantic effort made
by the leaders of the viler portion of the democratic
party in the United States to inflame and trade in the
Irish hatred of England. Fenianiam is, in its main
opting, essentially an agrarian movement. So far as it is
not a mere trading speculation on the part of the men who
conduct it, it is an organisation on a large scale, and for all
Ireland, of those outrages against which, as the deeds of
individuals, the Preservation of Peace Act was designed.
There is some appropriateness, therefore, in the employ•
ment of the measure for its repression. But the motives
appealed to prove what are the desires felt ; and even from
Fenianiam a• argument may be constructed in favour of the
revision, in the interest alike of owner and occupier, of the
land system of Ireland.

The Daily News maintsios that Sir Charles Darling is
blamed by some writers here for not doing that which
the mother country itself would certainly not have
attempted. Is it oontended that any English government
would be prepa•ed to impose the will of the Upper
House of Victoria upon the colonists against the pro.
tests of the Assembly ° If Sir Charles Darling had
dismissed his mioisters, as his critics here tell him
he should have done, while they had a large majority in
the Assembly, be would have done his utmost to commit
the crown on the side of the council and against the coun-
try. The result would have been either that he would
have been recalled and his policy disavowed, or we should
have adopted his measures only to have found out after a
short time that ws had not the power to sustain him. Sir
Charles Darling has well understood the public opinion of
England.
The Post attaches importunes to the reverses which the
Spanish arms are reputed to have sustained in Chilian
waters. It takes a long time to send out reicforesment•,
and distance and clrenmstouseas rodeo. Spain to something
' like an equality with her enemy. Moreover, nothing cam-
' mends real practical sympathy so much as "nooses, and
some of the South American and even North American
states may soon begin to sympathise with Chili in a very
practical way indeed.

sbe court.

OSBORNE. JAN. 16.

Her Majesty drove ont yesterday afternoon in a
carriage and four, aocompanied by Princess Helens, Princess
Leiningen, and Princess Hermann of Hohenlohe.
Lord Alfred Paget attended on horseback.

A Cabinet Council was held yesterday at the
official residence of the First Lord of the
Treasury in Downing-street. The ministers pre-
sent were—Earl Russell, the Lord Chancellor,
Earl Granville, the Duke of Argyll, Sir George
Grey, the Earl of Clarendon, the Right Hon.
Edward Cardwell, Earl de Grey, the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, the Duke of Somerset, the Right
Hon. T. Milner Gibson, Lord Stanley of Alderley,
and the Right Hon. C. P. Villiers.

His Excellency the Belgian Minister, accompanied by the
Count de Lannoy, had an interview with Earl Russell, at
the official residence of the First Lord of the Treasury,
in Downing-street, yesterday.
Despatches were received yesterday at the Colonial•oflice
from the Governors of Newfoundland and Heligoland
Despatch.' were sent to the Governors of the West India
Islands, British Columbia, and Vancouver's Island.

The marriage of the Princess Helena will, we
understand, take place on the 9th of June, according to
present arrangements. The bridesmaids will be two
daughters of dukes, namely, Lady Caroline Cordon Len-
nox (daughter of the Duke of Richmond) and Lady Mar-
garet Scott (daughter of the Duke of Racetench) ; two
daughters of marquises—Lady Alberta Hamilton (daughter
of the Marquis of Abercore) and Lady Laura Phipps
(daughter of the Marquis of Normanby) ; two daughters
of earls—Lady Muriel Campbell (daughter of the Earl of
Cawdor) and Lady Fanny Fitz willbim (daughter of Earl
Fitzwilliam) ; two sisters of earls—Lady Alexandrine Mur-
ray (sister of the Earl of Dunmore) and Lady Ernestine
Edgecumbe (dater of the Earl of Mount Edgecumbe).
The Duchess of Cambridge, attended by Lady
Geraldine Somerset and Colonel Home Piumee, arrived at
Sandringham House yesterday afternoon. on a visit to her
Royal Higlinem the Princess of Wales.

The Duke of Cambridge left town yesterday
evening •n • visit to General Hall at Weston Colville,
near Newmarket, where his royal highness will meet the
Prime of Wales and a select party for shooting.
His Serene Higlinees Prince Christian of Slew
wig-Holstein, attended by Caant Raatzan, arrived in
England yesterday, on a visit to her Maj sty at Osborne,
where it is expected the PtiON will remain chute( the pre-
sent month.