The Express.
London, England, 1860-11-14 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

(mow out own

PARIS, TU DAY EVMMO.

The only "latest news" in the Pays and Patric
is a contradiction of • statement made by the
Corriere Mercantile of Genoa and other journals
that diplomatic relations are on the point of being
broken off between France and Rome, and that the
French army of occupation is expecting to receive
the order to leave. The terms of this contradic-
tion, however, are so cold as to countenance the
opinion that the French government expects the
Pope to go. The expression that "so long as he
stops in Rome he will find the most respect/sal
protection from the French arms," which I find in
both journals, implies that he may very likely not
stay long.
A Turin letter of Nov. 11 says that the Chevalier
Nigro is coming to Paris on • special milision, and
that in all probability he will remain here in his
old post of minister, it being thought that diplo-
matic relations between France and Piedmont,
which were broken off, will shortly be resumed.
Notwithstanding the extremely bumptious tone
of the French journals, which treat the prolonged
sojourn of the French troops in Syria as a matter
of course, I hear from a pretty good source that
the powers intend to bold the Emperor to his
treaty obligation to evacuate within six months of
the time of his landing.
There has been another fall in the Bourse. The
Rents is now only just above 70fr., and lower than
it was when Count Persigny's famous speech was
pronounced. I hear that the measure taken by the
Bank of France, which is theimtensible reason for the
fall, was caused not so much by the rise of discount
at the Bank of England as by Rothschild baring
suddenly withdrawn fifty millions of frames which '
lie had iu the bank. The Route closed• at 70fr.
be. for cash, and 70fr. 100. fur account, with a fall
of 10c. and lbc. Mobilise fell °fr. 250. The
Eastern Railway fell Mr., and the other lines were
• trifle lower.

I serious accident has occurred on the Southern
Railway between Toulouse and Get& An express
from Bordeaux ran into a third-eleas train at the
Villedalgue station, and killed two passengers,
while several others were wounded.

There are floods in the department of the
Haremlt, owing to ►erj hea►y rains ; all the coun-
try between Merbonne and Gotta is under water.
M. de Vatimesnil, a parliamentary ►eteran who
was Minister of Public Instruction under the re-
storation, and a member of M. de Martignac's
cabinet in 1848, is just dead. He was a strong
legitimist, and never took office either under
Louis Philippe, the republic), or the empire. He
was an eminent ad►ocate as well as a states-
man, and his opinions on difficult points of law
are constantly cited as authority.

The Swedish Chamber of Nobles, through one of
I its members, It. Teremeder, has written to M. Vegeaxi a
I letter in Italian, announcing the sending of six rifled cannon
1 end of a sum of 7,5001.,the result of subscriptions in Sweden
in favour of AN outrancliiiminent of Southern Italy. The
following ia an extract from the letter:—" The Swedish
nation, lovirg liberty more than the light of the son, and
having reoeutly celeliratad the 300th annivenery of the
birth of Gustavus Wass, that man who, with a handful of
brave men, when our national independence seemolannihilated
wilier foreign tyranny, raised the standar:lot liberty, as your
Garibaldi now does—this nation, we say, entertains the
warmest sympathy fur the aspirations of the Italian people
for independence and union."

•
Tme ASSAULT Cerf 4 AT Bumx.—The inquiry in-
stituted by the Court of Discipline (Disciplinarki, I) into
the cuuduct of M. Midler, the Prim:unlit of Bonn, in the
ease of Captain Macdouald, has terminated. The investi•
ptiou was ordered by the superior legal authorities, in con.
eepumes of the ostopiande omit of the isiteniperaie Lin-
eage used by M. Muller while acting as public proseputer
the char4e of assault. The Court of Discipline
does not review the fade of the caw, only the MM.
duct of the judicial functionary, as far se it is im•
palmed. M. Midler, in explanation, stated that the terms
he wad he did net and, to litallialtowt is am!. he
even to ell English travellers, but ugly to tr 'rho by
their usisheliaviour frequently provoked collisions with the
authorities. But, as a question (4 demeanour and coodeet,
the superior judges have decided that M. Minus's violent
language was uabeeoluingt his judicial fusuitime, end have
therefore visited bhu with a reprimand. The trump
jaw nob Collira.b tbu relrot+ that the eusa has been innde
the subjuvt of formal reprc•cubitmua to the Pru..itiui go-
?crewcut.

A EXPEDITII

OVE:

(ma ova OWN consameenzse.)
TBN-110N, Barr. 8.
I bald you in my lag letter that the cavalry bri-
' gade had pioceeded t6tien-tsin by the left bank of
the Peiho river. Sir Jolualichal's division marched
from Tangkoo on the 306 h August,. erased the river
by the bridge of boat. at Binh°, and proceeded by
the right bank, arriving at this place on the 2nd
instant.. The distance is 36 miles, and the road
good through a perfectly level and highly culti-
' vated country. The distance by the river is greater,
owing to the great sinuosities of the stream—not
less than 60 miles, certainly. The water is in-
tensely muddy all the way up to Tien-tain ; the
banks are fringed with willow and fruit-
tress ; numerous villages are studded along
the river ; and all through the country, which
as far as the eye can reach is one vast alluvial
plain, for the must part under cultivation. Each
village is emboaomed in orchards and surrounded
by extensive vegetable gardens, beautifully kept
and carefully irrigated. The plains are covered
with various crops of grain, but the most popular, at
least the most extensively cultivated, appears to be
millet, of shich you see fields extending in one un-
broken sheet for miles. The stalk grows to a great
height, in some places to 12 or 15 feet, and the
spike is large and well filled. The consumption of
this grain must be enormous ; indeed, I believe it
forms the staple article of food. Rice does not
grow so far to the north, and is imported from the
districts bordering on the Yang-tee-Kiang river.
Enormous quantities of this grain we re sent an-
nually to Pekin by the Grand Canal, but since this
MONDE of communication has been stopped, all the
rice supplies have been sent round by junks through
the Gulf of Pechili and up the Peiho river. Our
occupation of Taku and Tien-Min must therefore
have caused a great stoppage in the trade with
the North. There is nothing at all remarkable
or picturesque in the country between the mouth
of the river and Tien-tein. It is one continuous
dead level, without a bill or even a stone to break
the monotony. But to those who bad lived for a
month amongst the mud houses and on the mud
flats of Peh-tang and Tangkoo, the change to
green fields and trees loaded with fruit, and gardens
of flowers, and vines, and vegetables, was truly re-
freshing, and many pronounced it to be the most
beautiful country they had ever beheld.
Sir Robert Napier's division arrived on the sth,
and with the exception of one wing of the 3rd
Buffs, left in the Taku Forts, the whole army is
now concentrated at Tien-Min. Our allies marched
up the left bank of the river, and were encamped on
that aide ; while the British forces have pitched
their tents on a vast grassy plain on the right '
bank, and about two miles onthe south aide of the
city. The river, though narrow, in some place. not
' more than 60 yards, is deep enough to admit vessels
of considerable size to run up with the tide. The
Granada and the Carthage, steamers of 500 and
GOO tons, have both beau brought up in safety
under the able pilotage of Captain Dew, R.N.,
who appears to be thoroughly acquainted with
all the intricacies of the navigation. The great
difficulty with such largo vessels is the sharpness of
the turns. The channel is always close to the
bank on the outer side, and in hugging this the
ship is very liable to run high and dry in the mud,
or in straining to avoid this danger and giving the
bank too wide a berth, Charybdis awaits you on the
other aide in the shape of the shallows, where you
are soon hopelessly aground. The value of the little
gunboats in such a stream cannot be over-estimated.
They puff up and down, night and day, dragging
Marge junks loaded with stores and provisions, their
tight draught of water and extreme handiness iu
stealing making them tolerably independent of the
tide, sod utterly indifferent to the turns and twist-
iugs of the river.
Tien-tsin is a large walled town, supposed to
contain 150,000 inhabitants, and totally unin-
teresting in every respect. It has no architectural
beauties, the delete are narrow and tortuous, the
houses for the most part built of wood or mud.
There are, however, some good houses, of great
extent and beautiful finish ; one of these, on the
bank of the river, furnishes quarters for the British
and French embassies and the English commander-
in-chief. It is laid out in a series of intricate court-
yards, with here and there a small garden, quanti-
ties of flowering shrubs growing in pots, green
shady creepers trailing up the walls, much baud-
some carving iu wood, fine cornices in stucco,' and
elaborately constructed furniture in the numerous
apartments, consisting chiefly of tall and very
straight-bauked arm chairs and portentowelookilig
beds, whose extreme baldness gives one a respect-
ful ides of the self-denying habits of the
Chinese aristocracy. The shops are for the
most part poor and mean, and very inferior to
those of Canton, but the shopkeeper* are apparently
no way inferior in their estimate of the length of
purse of the barbarians, and charge exorbitant
prices with the easy grace and effrontery which is
part of the natural character of the Chinese. Great
labour and much money had been expended on
the defences of this place. The old city is
surrounded by a high brick wall and fosse, but
it has long since outgrown these limits, and the
greater part of the town is now a vast suburb on the
banks of the river and of the Grand Canal which
joins the Peiho just above the old city. To protect
this, two forts had been constructed with great
care, at a bend of the river, some two miles
below Tien-tin—one on each bank. These

forts mounted 13 or 14 gone each, and com-
manded the approach by the river. From
these, an extensive wall of circumvallation,
strengthened by an outer ditch, and stretching
for • distance of 13 wiles, bad been ruu au as to
embrace the whole city and suburbs on both sides
of the river. It is a paltry work as a mewls of
defence, though a large sum of money must have
been expended in its construction.
Ever since our arrival negotiations have been going
on between the ambassadors and Kweiliang, the im-
perial commissioner, who was deputed from Pekin
to meet Lord Elgin, and conduct the arrangements
on the part of the Celestial Emperor. A conven-
tion, which, as I understand it, was to be a sort
of supplement to the former treaty,of Tien-taiu, was
to be signed, by which the Chinese government was
to bind itself to pay • serials sum is a further
indemnity for expenses of the war, in addition to
what was settled by the former treaty, and to agree
to certain arrangements of our troops for the win-
ter, to be made with a view of securing the fulfil-
ment of their engagements by the Chinese autho-
rities. All was supposed to be going on most
favourably. The Chinese were said to be as sub-
missive as could be desired : the convention was to
be signed to-day. Already the regiments likely to
return. to England were beginning to be spoken of,
and staff Whom; were speculating on the chanties of
eating their Christmas dinner at " the keg," or
under the paternal roof tree, when yesterday morn-
ing• we were electrified by the announcement
,that, the negetiatious were all in the air,
that the Chinese eteuutimioiler declares lie has 110
power to make a convention, that the Pekinese are

-Pr
• thar city, MO lliat Sankolinsin, the
'tartar general, Idiom t<lS supposed to be a fugitive
oii.fhe steppes of Mongolia, is at the head of an
Andra* Tung-chow, a city between this and Pekin,
prepared to dispute our passage if we attempt a
march on the capital. How much of this may be
true, in this land where lying is the normal attri-
bute of all Chinese society, Ido not pretend to
know; but this is quite certain, that this morning
the King's Dragoon Guards, Fane's Horse, the99th
Foot, Barry's Armstrong and Stirling's six-
pounder guns, two hundred Marines, and some
engineers, marched from Tien-tsin on the Pe-
kin road, as the advance guard, and that
• division of the army, under Sir J. Michel, fol-
lows in the next few days. The Commander-In-
Chief with his staff, and Lord Elgin with his suite,
start to-morrow, and if the Chinese Emperor does
not within the next few days eat very humble pie,
we shall, in the course of • week, be making our
demands in somewhat rough tones, possibly, before
the walls of the capital. This is certainly an un-
expected complication. And what it may result
in who can say ? Having owe started we must
now go on till our terms are acceded to ; and if that
does not happen, we must, I suppose, take Pekin,
and then consider what to do next. The weather
in the meantime has become exceedingly hot, and
the prospect of a week or more in bell tents,
with the thermometer at 100 degrees, is
not a very lively one. The troops are
healthy at present, despite the enormous
quantity of fruit consumed. This is certainly the
land for fruit, and just at present it is in perfection;
apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, grapes, water-
melons, can be had in any quantity and for the
merest trifle, and blocks of ice, rivalling that from
Wenham Lake in quality and infinitely cheaper,
are carried about the streets from morning to
night for sale, and eaten by the vendor and his friends
in the evening, if ho has failed to secure a purchaser
during the day. The warts displayed in the shops
are not very attractive. There are some good
furs, for which enormous prices are asked, and an
occasional bit of real old chills, or a genuine
Onamelled copper vase, tempts the connoisseur in
such articles to spend his superfluous dollars in the
chance of being able to carry them away when the
time comes for return to old England ; but most of
the contents of the shops are such goods as
are practically useful, and there appears to be
but small attention given to ornament. There are
quantities of printed calicoes from the looms of
,England, but I have seen nothing like woollen
cloth in any of the stores. The temples or joss
houses, as they are popularly called, are of consi-
derable extent, but of no beauty. They rejoice in a
collection of huge ugly images of Chinese deities,
made of wood, with grotesque faces and highly
coloured—very much in the style of the statues of
' Gog and Magog in Guildhall.
Tien-min is a great depot for salt and timber ; of
the former article there is an enormous quantity.
It is packed in large bags of matting, which are
piled one on the top of another, forming huge
mounds 30 or 40 feet high. Many acres ou the left
bask of the river are oovered with these mounds,
and the total quantity thus stored is very con-
siderable. The salt is made on the sea coast and
brought up the river in junks. The government
derives a considerable revenue from the duty levied
upon it. _ _

T

Barr. 9.

There is no more news of interest. The rebels
who were threatening Shanghai when I last wrote
have withdrawn from that neighbourhood, and
trade is going on as usual. The garrison of the
place has been strengthened by the 44th Foot sent
from Taku, and the 11th Punjaub Infantry from
Canton. Sir John Michel mambos for Pekin on
the 12th, taking with him the 2nd brigade. The
force which marched yesterday should arrive at
Tung-chow, a city twelve miles from Pekin, on the
14th, and there it will halt till joined by the 2nd
brigade. After which, operations must depend in
a great measure on the intentions of the Chinese.
The Emperor is said to be very ill at Pekin.