The Express.
London, England, 1867-04-05 00:00:00

THE WEST COAST OF AFRICA.

At New Calabar trade was very dull, owing to
hostilities having been resumed between the Ecricke
and New Calabar tribes. An attack was make on
the 19th February by the Ecrickes on the New
Calabar tribes, when seven of the latter were
taken prisoners, and afterwards killed, roasted,
and eaten by the Ecrickes. The consequence of
this warfare between the natives is almost a total
stoppage of trade.
At Lagos trade had much improved during the
month ; but a strong sea and current on the bar
prevented cargo being sent off to the mail steamer.
The African Steamship Company's steamer
Athenian was passed 20 miles eastward of Cape
St. Paul's on the Sth March. _ _

At Sierra Leone there was a good supply of
ginger, the crop this year exceeding that of any
previous one. The barque Royal Mint, bound from
Sherborough for Sierra Leone, struck on the Car-
penter's Rock and became a total wreck. The crew
were saved, and brought home by the Calabar.
Her Majesty's ship Bristol sailed from Sierra Leone
on the 16th of March for the south coast of Africa.
In consequence of some over-officiousness on the
part of the authorities at Teneriffe end Madeira,
the Calabar was placed in quarantine at both places,
and the officials refused to assign any reasons for
doing so.
The barque Leila Alice, bound from Liverpool to
Rio Janeiro, foundered 100 miles north of Madeira.
The crew were rescued by the schooner Medina,
bound from London to Cape Coast Castle, and
landed at Teneriffe, whence they were brought
home by the Calabar.

The Royal Mail Company's steamship Shannon,
Captain iellicoe, with the Brazil and River Plate
mails and 102 passengers, arrived at South-
ampton yesterday. She brings, specie 11,6661.
12s. 7d., also 1,094 bales cotton, 726 bags coffee,
783 roll tobacco, 96 bales ditto, and 167 packages
sundries. _ _ .

The sentence on the convict Sarah Porter, who
was found guilty at the last Cambridgeshire amuses of the
murder of her illegitimate child at Littleport, in the Isle
of Ely, and condemned to death, has been commuted by
the Secretary of State to penal servitude for life.

auxiliary forces ; our fleet, coast guard,-marines,
and ships • our revenue and expenditure and
national debt ; our local taxation, education,
science and art, and middle-clause:emulations ; our
system of life, marine, and fire insurance ; and
fmally, our institutions connected with the welfare
of our industrial and working classes—as savings
banks, Post-office savings banks, annuities and
insurances, friendly, co-operative, loan, building,
and land societies, and working men's clubs. Here
is a mass of solid useful information about the
United Kingdom and her colonies which every foreign
exhibitor can carry back to his home in the
lan-
gyage which he speaks.
The catalogue of the British section is printed
in four languages—not in four separate catalogues,
however. Each article is described in the one
catalogue in English, French, German, and Ita-
lian. This catalogue, clearly and brightly printed,
and extending to 322 pages, is priced at one franc
only. The commissioners say, by way of explana-
tion of their intention :—‘, In arranging the
British section the aim kept in view has been to
give the greatest prominence to the objects them-
selves, and not to interfere with the free action of
each individual exhibitor. It was thought prefer-
able to treat the whole of the British space as a
unity, and not to subdivide it into courts and
alleys, or to use ceilings, both for the sake of
general effect and for ventilation, cleanliness, and
the preservation of the height of the industrial
portion. A system of quiet secondary colours for
the completion of the general aspect of the space
has been adopted, whilst it was suggested
to the exhibitors to make their cases of
an unobtrusive character. In carrying out
these views, strict economy had to be practised.
The British portion, therefore, assumes somewhat
the aspect of a museum for study." The open
English courts are in marked contrast, it is true,
with the other parts of the Exhibition ; and, gene-
rally speaking, the fittings are plain, in many in-
stances plain even to ugliness. But the effect does
not strike me as museum-like, but rather as shop-
like ; for there are many exhibitors who are simply
shopkeepers ; middlemen who traffic in the market
but bring nothing to it. If methods of doing busi-
ness, cunning in the discovery of a cheap market
for purchasing and a dear market for selling, were
to be rewarded with prizes, great shopkeepers who
are not manufacturers might properly find their
place in an exhibition of industry and art. But in
this Exhibition, where there is to be no tourna-
ment of commercial cunning, I cannot we the jus-
tice of giving space to merely conspicuous shop-
keepers.
The international jury will consist of six hundred
members, divided amongst the different nations in
accordance with the proportion of space which the
preclude of each occupy in the Exhibition.
The rewards at the disposal of the international
jury for works of art are as follows :-17 grand
prises, each of the value of 2,000 f. (801.); 32 first
prizes, each of the value of 800 f. (321.) ; 44 second
prizes, each of the value of 500 f. (201.) ; 46 third
prizes, each of the value of 400 f. (161.). The re-
wards at the disposal of the international jury for
agricultural industry are as follows :—Grand prizes
and money awards of the total value of 250,000 f.
(10,00014 • 100 gold medals, each of the value of
I,ooof. (401.); 1,000 silver medals ; 3,000 bronze
medals ; 5,000 honourable mentions at the
utmost. All the medals will be of the same pattern.
Then there is a distinct order of reward in favour
of persons, establishments, or localities which by a
special organisation or special institutions have
developed a spirit of harmony among all those co-
operating in the same work, and have provided for
the material, moral, and intellectual well-being of

the workmen. These rewards consist of ten prizes
of the total value of 100,000 f. (4,0001.) and twenty
honourable mentions. One grand prize of
100,000 f. may, in addition, be awarded to the
person, establishment, or locality, distinguished
under this head by a very exceptional superiority.
A special jury will judge of the merit specified for
this order of reward, and will determine the
amount of the prizes and the form in which they
will be awarded. One of the vice-presidents of the
imperial commission will act as president of this
jury. The total number of members, including
the president, is fixed at 25. The juries