The Express.
London, England, 1867-04-22 00:00:00

AUSTRALIA.

MELBOURNE, MARCH 27.

The new tariff bill has passed the legislature.

The Intercolonial Postal Conference has resolved
to support the Panama route, the Galle and Torres
Straits routes being considered prejudicial to Vic-
toria.

The shipments of gold during the month amount
to 111,750 ounces for England, and 54,500 ounces
for Guile and India.

CHINA.
HONG KONG, APRIL 1.
_

Grey shirtings, 4 catty, 3.50 dois. Water
twist 16-24, 1.80 dol. Tea unchanged. Total
export, 114,000,000 lbs. Exchange on London,
bankers' bills, 4s. 41d.

§HANGIIA.E, Memo' 26.

Tea: Congou, nothing doing. Silk improving.
Export to date, 40,000 bales. Exchange on Lon-
don, bankers' bills, ss. 10d.

AMERICA.
NEW YORK, Aram 20, 6 P.X.
The Senate has adjourned.
The Canadian mail steamer Nova Scotian, from
Liverpool, arrived at Portland (Maine) to-day.
Closing prices :—Gold closed firm at 139. Ster-
ling exchange on London, 109. 5-20 United States
Bonds, 110; Illinois, 1121, ; Erie, 56. Cotton:
Middling Upland, 25. Petroleum, refined, 26.

DESPATCH OF THE INDIA AND AUSTRALIAN MAILS.
--Botrrusairrmr, Aram 20.—The Peninsular and Oriental
Company's steamship Tanjore, Captain Brooks, sailed this
afternoon with mails for Gibraltar, the Mediterranean,
Eppt, Aden, Ceylon, India, China, Australia, and New
Ze4and. She took out 50 first and 20 second class pee
sengers, and on freight a general cargo, including gold
coin, 500/. ; silver coin, 100/. ; bar silver, 49,300/. ; dollars,
4,0001. ; and gold thread, jewellery, watches, and dia-
monds, 40201.
The Suaday Gazette states that during the last
few weeks orders for 40,000 breech-loading muskets have
been received by the manufacturers in this country from
the French government. Large numbers have been deli-
vered, and the remainder are being completed with the
utmost expedition.

ROME, Aran. 15.
Friday last, April 12, the anniversary of the
double event of the miraculous preservation of the
Holy Father from breaking his neck by the falling
of a floor at St. Agnese, and of his return from
Gaeta in 1850, was naturally a very high day
indeed in Rome. The programme for the after-
noon and evening was divided into three parts ;
' part the first consisting of a solemn thanksgiving
funxione at the church of St. Agnese, fuori la porta
Pa ; part the second, of a review at the Praetorian
camp, in front of the recently constructed Caserrna
Maceso ; and part the third, of a grand illumina-
tion of the whole city. Time being of no particular
value to any Roman, and apparently least of all to
the Holy Father, it was impossible to ascertain
within an hour or two at what time any one of these
events would begin or leave off. In consequence
most of the visitors in Rome spent a very hot
morning in making feverish inquiries as to the hour
at which the Holy Father might be expected any-
where ; and finally, in pleasing uncertainty as to
what particular spectacle they were about to attend
at, started in the heat of the day in the direction
of the church of Santa Agnese.
The Holy Father, on the other hand, in these
hot and exciting times, wisely bent upon taking
things coolly, but perhaps just a thought regardless
of the feelings of the crowd of foreigners and
natives whom he was keeping waiting, exposed to
the broiling sun and dust, for spaces varying from
two to three hours, after his usual early dinner,
followed by a cigar and coffee in the summer casino
in his private garden, issued from the Vatican soon
after 5 p.m., and getting into his state coach drove
off in the direction of the Porta Pia, arriving at
the church of St. Agnese about a quarter before 6.
An hour or so previously, many persons having
either lost all patience or faith in the coming of
the Holy Father to St. Agnese at all, had repaired
in hot haste to the Praetorian camp, in order at
all events to make sure of being in time for the
review ; and there again losing patience (for the
Pope did not arrive on the ground till close upon
7 p.m.), finally returned to their homes and cold
dinners in a desperate frame of mind, without wit-
nessing either spectacle. Persons who were
doubtful adherents of the papacy before were
of course at once in favour of the instant
abolishment of the temporal and spiritual
power alike, and those who were decidedly not
fond of the Pope previously indulged in the most
unmeasured invectives against the sacred person of
the &masa Poatefice. On a full stomach, and with
something for his money at the close, even dust and
heat may be endured—with impatience of couree-'--
by the irritable Briton ; but deprive him, at one
stroke, of his comfort, his food, and his spectacle,
and the Anglo• Roman sightseer is a desperate ani-
mal to encounter.

Thanks to the fleetness of my steed, at the I
sacrifice of my dinner and by the practice of an
extraordinary amount of patience, 1 was, I believe,
one of the few persons in Rome who were enabled
to witness both the Pope's visit to St. Agnese and
the ilubsequent review. Of the religious ceremony
at Sr Agnese I shall say nothing, but will pass at
once to the review, which was a spectacle of very
peculiar interest.
At the north-eastern angle of the city, halfway
between the Porta Pia and Porta San Lorenzo, the
Aurelian wall bulges out so as to enclose an open
square—the former site of the Prattorian camp of
Imperial Rome, corresponding to our London bar-
racks of the Life Guards. In this square, each
side of which may measure about 500 yards, was
drawn up in four long thin lines that heterogeneous
body of mercenaries which the Pope is pleased
to call his army. In the front line were
ranged as many companies of the Caociatori,
Esteri and Indigini (to be distinguished respectively
by their blue and red trousers) as are now doing
garrison duty in Rome ; in the second, two file
deep, the two battalions of Zouaves, minus the
two companies on detached duty at Viterbo ; in
the third, the red-legged, black-striped heroes of
the Antibes Legion ; and in the fourth, the Gen-
darmeria-a-cavallo (very giants of men), the artil-
lery, and on the left wing the Papal dragoons. In
number the whole force on the ground can hardly
have amounted to 4,500 men, thus falling con-
siderably short of the total reached on the occasion
of the Carnival review in the Villa Borghese. From
the thinned appearance of the ranks, it was evident
that desertion had been steadily doing its work.
Of the single battalion of Cacciatori Esteri, who
are mostly Swiss, and receive a bounty of 40 acudi
(81.) on enlisting, not less than 200 men are shut
up at this moment for desertion in the great prison
of Termini. That this piece of information is
literally exact I have no doubt whatsoever, as it
was extracted from a gendarme so devoted, to his
Papa-Re, that he declared himself willing to die
any death for his Sovereign, who was, as he ex-
pressed it, " as sweet to him as the bread that he
ate."

Of the Zonaves, Tam informed on the very best
authority—that of one of their own superior offi-
cers—that officers and men alike, finding their
position here disagreeable and anomalous to the
last degree, are animated with a desire to return
speedily to their homes. In short, the whole corps
is longing for dissolution in any sense in which the
individual members of it will not be called upon to
lay down their lives.

Riding on to the ground, as it was my misfortune
to do, when the troops and the assembled multi-
tude were on the tip-toe of impatient expectation
of the arrival of the Holy Father, I immediately
became painfully aware that all eyes were centered
on myself and steed, who found ourselves effec-
tually hemmed in on every side by serried and
bristling bayonets. In itself the position was
awkward enough, but when the playful Romanana
jusentiu began to jeer and hoot audibly in the hope
of goading my horse to strange and uncontrollable
antics, I wished devoutly, like Robinson as he rode
his unmanageable steed by the side of the Grand
Duke at the Review, that the earth would open '
and swallow me, and entered fully for the first,
and I hope the last time of my life, into the feel-
ings of the inevitable dog at the Derby.
At a few minutes before 7 p.m., BalG-strude—
l% sort of military John the Baptist, who is sent on
to make the paths straight for the Vicar of Christ—
spurred in hot haste on to the ground, announcing
the immediate coming of the Holy Father. A few
minutes later coal black steeds, drawing the state-
coach, conveying the Pope and his monsignori,
appeared in sight, and the troops instantly dropped
upon their knees. Getting out of his carriage, at
the red velvet canopied dais erected for the mos-

The Mentoriat Dipiontatique publishes the fol-
lowing telegraphic despatch :

Berlin, 19th.—I can affirm to you in a positive manner
that, whatever solution may intervene, Prussia will not
evacuate Luxemburg. She is even taking measures to
fix herself there, and to enlarge the parks of artillery.
A word of direction, in the sense of non-evacuation, has
been given to the semi-official press. The meeting of the
Chamber is impatiently looked for. The Wield Correa.
partdenee declares that evacuation would be equivalent to
abdication.
The Memorial adds :

The latest information we receive from Berlin does not
confirm the pacific impressions previously communicated
to us by our correspondents. According to the most
accredited rumours Prussia has not yet made any serious
concession on the question of the evacuation of Luxem-
burg ; and it is even added that the conditions she would
append to that step would be worse than the occupation
itself.

The Indipendance Beige has the following :
Nothing has yet occurred to confirm the rumour that
certain efforts made by England to bring about an under-
standing in the Luxemburg affair had failed at Berlin.
We, however, have to call attention to the existence of
such a report, and to the very unfavourable impression it
has produced. One symptom which cannot possibly be
interpreted in ► pacific sense is, that the North &rola*
GazeUe, the official organ of Count Bismarck, is bei,in-
ning to denounce the armaments of France, just as it did
last year those of Austria. The ministerial journal at the
name time protests against the statements recently made
by some °igen' of the press relative to the alleged danger
which the independence of Holland is incurring from the
ambition of Prussia. We are thus far only acquainted
with the article in question by an allusion to it in a tele-
graphic summary, and are unable to say to what journals
reference is made, but the probability is, the Ihibats and
its observations on the Dutch question are meant.

The Opinion Nationale says there appears to be
little chance of any arrangement in the Luxemburg
affair, in consequence of the determination of
Prussia not to make the slightest concession.