The Express.
London, England, 1866-03-09 00:00:00

DECLARATION OF 00IINT VON BIS-

MAROK.
BERLIN, fiLisca &

Count von Bismarck has forwarded a reply to
the recent address of some members of the Hol-
stein nobility, in which he says :—" I have already
previously stated that I consider the union of the
Duchies with the Prussian monarchy to be the
most advantageous solution possible. Respect for
the signatariee of the idrreas encouraged the King's
government to make fresh endeavours to obtain
the consent of Austria to this solution, and to
satisfy the claims of Prussia, which will be =W-
I tained under any circumstances, in such a manner
as to restore the administrative unity of the
Duchies and guarantee their prosperity."

AUSTRIA.
VIENNA, MAus S.

It is stated that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
has been authorised to make a fresh treaty with
the Mexican Government for the completion of
the Austrian Volunteer Corps for Mexico.

Several distinguished Austrian generals are, it is
said, about to proceed to various German capitals.
These journeys are supposed to be undertaken for
political motives.

AUSTRIA AND CROATIA.
AGRLM, MARCH 8.

To-day the committee appointed to examine I
the question of the union between Hungary and
Croatia submitted to the Croatian Diet the follow-
ing resolution :—"The Diet, while regretting that
the Emperor does not wish that Croatia should
continue to maintain her separate administration,
resolves to send a deputation of twelve of its mem-
bers to the Hungarian Diet, at Pesth, which will
then represent Hungary, Croatia, and Transyl-
vania, andwill settle all questions common to them
and the other Austrian provinces."

BELGIUM.
BRUSSELS, MAIM 8.

To-day the King received at the Palace the
deputation appointed to present to the Duke of
Brabant the Order of the Golden Fleece.

The—
ceremony took place with the same military
honours as on the occasion of the recent investi-
ture of his Majesty with the Order of the Garter.

CALCUTTA, CHINA, AND AUSTRALIAN MAILS.—
ALEXANDRIA, MARCH B.—The China left at six p.m. yester
day, and the Tanjore at seven a.m. to-day. The former
may be expected at Marseilles on the 13th, and the latter
at Southampton on the 21st init.
THE EISTRDDFOD AT laasrriuirxo.—The sight
betide was not lively. The president and his supporters
mustered strong on the platform. On the floor the one or
two front benches were pretty well filled, but their oc-
cupants were for the most part Saxons, who came there
from curiosity, not from enthusiasm ; and all the middle
and back benches, where should have been the true en-
thusiasts—the Welsh people—were nearly empty. The
president, I am run, showed a national spirit which was
admirable. He addressed us Saxons in our own language,
and called us " the English branch of the descendants of
the ancient Britons." We received the compliment with
the impassive dulness which is the characteristic of our
nature ; sad the lively Celtic nature, which 'build have
made up for the dulness of ours, was absent. A lady
who sat by me, and who wee the wife, I found, of a
distinguished bard on the platform, told me, with emotion
in her look and voice, how dear were those solemnities to
the heart of her people, how deep was the interest
which was aroused by them. I believe her, but still the
whole performance, on that particular morning, was in-
curably lifeless. The recitation of the prize compositions
began : piens of verse and prose is the Welsh language,
an away on punctuality being, if I remember ri.tht, one of
them; a poem on the march of Havelock, another. This
west on for some time. Then Dr. Vaughan—the well-
known Nonconformist minister, a Welshman, end • good
purlot--eddreesed us in English. His speech was •
powerful owe, and he succeeded, I confine, in sending •
faint thrill through our front benches ; but it was the old
familiar thrill which we have all of us felt • thousand
times in Saxon chapels and meeting-halls, and had nothing
herdic about it. I stepped out, and in the duet I cam*
emu an acquaintance fresh from London and the paths-
=eatery session. In • moment the spell of the Celtic
genius was forgotten, the Philiatioism of our Saxon nature
made itself felt ; and my friend and I walked up and down
by the roaring waves, talking not of orates zed bards, and
triads and ellipse, but of the sewage question, and the
glories of our local self-govenzarent, and the mysterious
perfections of the Metropolitan Board of Worlat—Corn.
kill Magazine for March.
A WONDERFUL Httr.J.er.—l bad just been order-
ing our men not to waste their atomonition, and to fire
only when they saw the person of a Yankee completely ex-
posed, when cline at bawl I heard the dull thud of a bullet
striking home, and turning round saw one of oar soldiers, a
pllent young fellow whom I knew will, throw up hie arms
and fall heavily to the ground. Dismounting at once, I
hastened to hie side ; but fording that the ball had struck
him right ia the middle of the forehead, I regarded him as
a corpse, and deemed all farther ssaistance wholly unne-
cessary. Not many minutes bad elapsed, however, before
the apparently dead man begun to move, and when the
surgeon, who had already arrived, poured some brandy
down his throat, to our infinite amazement be opened his
eves. A few hours later, miraculous to relate, when the
bleeding from the wound had ceased, he had recovered
eufficieatly from the severe shock to return to his poet el
duty. According to the urgent's statement, the ball,
civilities obliquely, had glanced, peeve between cuticle and
skull, all around the heed, enlarging at last from the very
place it had first watered !—" Memoirs of the Confederate
Wer,"in Blackwood's Magazine for Much.