The Express.
London, England, 1858-08-04 00:00:00

SOUTH AMERICAN MAIL.

(mom ova OWN oosassrossiorr.)
SOUTHAMPTON. WIDNIODAT Mosxmo.

The Avon has arrived with the South American
mail. She left Rio on the 10th July, and Lisbon
on the 31st. She has brought home 124 pas-
sengers. Amongst her cargo is specie to the
value of 84,4681., and precious stones to the
value of 42,8161. Her Majesty's ship
was at Rio, the Syren wu at Port Frio, the
Mada-
gescartsP was at Monte Video, the Harrier was en
route from Bahia to Rio. The United States 601=
frigate St. Lawrence was at Rio. The Royal
steamer Tyne left St. Vincent for the Brazils on the
21st ult. The Peninsular mail steamer Tagus
reached Lisbon on the 31st ult.
From Rio we learn that the news of the new loan
having been effected gave great satisfaction and had
a favourable effect upon exchange.
The stock of coffee is reduced. Supplies have
entirely ceased. Prices are ruling high. The share
market is inert. Exchange, 26 and 261. Discounts
unaltered,

From Buenos Ayres we learn that Fazes, the
Foreign Secretary, has resigned in consequence of
ill health, and Mitre has been appointed to succeed
him.

The deficiency in the national revenue this year
is about 9,000,000 dollars, and the government has
resolved upon creating public funds to meet the
deficiency.
The Legislative Chambers have ahewn indepen-
dence. The foreign relations look warlike, and the
mediation of England, France, United States, Sar-
dinia, and Prussia, is talked of.

THE UNITED STATES.

(71011 ora owx

NEW YORK, JaLT 21.

The gold discoveries in the British possessions are
creating a good deal of excitement amongst persons
interested in California, as they ire likely to draw
off a large portion of her population, and cause con-
siderable depreciation of property in San Francisco
and other large towns. In a moral point of view
they will undoubtedly be a benefit, however, as they
will attract large numbers of that class of the popu-
lation which in new states so often rouse the ven-
geance of Judge Lynch. As far as British territory
is concerned I think there can be no question that
the movement will prove a great misfortune. It will
certainly people the remote and somewhat inac-
cessible territory which the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany Jias so long kept locked up, much more
rapidly than the ordinary course of emigration,
but it will people it in a manner which no friend of
order and good government can desire. There is a
general feeling, even in this country, that progress
in Canada under British auspices is a much healthier
one than ours ; that Canadian prosperity is much
healthier and more solid, and that it is accompanied
by less license, and more general respect for law.
If the North-Western territory, however, be filled,
as gold discoveries are very likely to fill it, with a
horde of adventurers from all parts of the Union, of
the worst habits and worst antecedents, averse
to ordinary labour, greedy of sudden gains, and
impatient to the last degree of legal restraint, the
colony will certainly he no gainer by the change.
No one who has watched the course of
events in California can help feeling that
the gold discoveries there, much as they have
added to the material resources of the country,
have had a decidedly deleterious influence upon the
national character. They have made quiet industry
at home, and above all agricultural industry, abso-
lutely intolerable to the great mass of young men,
and have given terrible activity to habits of reckless
speculation. The national temperament is restless
and excitable at all times, but the sudden successes of
gold diggers made steady and moderate gains in any
walk of life seem paltry and contemptible, and cer-
tainly did much to; develop the fever which brought
on the collapse of last autumn. If left to the opera-
tion of ordinary influences, the immense unexplored
region west of Canada would at no very distant day
have teemed with a wealthy and valuable popula-
tion ; but with " digging " to begin with it is impos-
sible not to apprehend its conversion into a theatre
of great disorder, partly owing to the cha-
racter of the miners, and partly to the fact
that while the majority of them will be American
citizens of the worst kind, with all the high notions
of their prerogative which that class of persons is
sure to hold, the laws will have to be enforced, order
maintained, by the ever obnoxious British govern-
ment. Difficulties too, it is feared, may thus arise
which may bring the two governments into collision.
The tide of emigration has already begun to set in
with considerable violence. Lams numbers of per.
sons leave this port by every Californian steamer
bound for Fraser River.