The Express.
London, England, 1861-12-19 00:00:00

PRUSSIA.

A letter from Berlin, dated Sunday, says :
" The news of the premature death of Prince
Albert has produced a feeling of the deepest grief
at Berlin. The whole country deplores his loss as a
great family disaster. The same feeling will evince
itself throughout the whole of Germany, which
never ceased to love the Prince as one of her
own sons, and to venerate him as one of the
most honest political men of this century. The
Prince, on his part, despite his sincere attachment
to his adopted country, had not forgotten his native
land, and on more than one occasion had shown his
serious solicitude for its interests. When, after a
temporary misunderstanding between the two coun-
tries, so detrimental to both, a better feeling sprang
up between Prussia and England, Prince Albert
certainly contributed greatly thereunto by his
influence. His loss is a great one, not only
for Great Britain, hut also for us. Of the heart-
rending grief of the Princess Victoria I shall not
speak ; it will be fully understood by every deli-
cate mini. The despatches received the day before
yesterday fully prepared us for the sad catastrophe.
The news of his death was received in the middle of
the night. A supplement to the National Gazette
announced it this morning to the public. It caused
quite a consternation in every class of the popula-
tion of Berlin."

THE ERUPTION OF MOUNT VESUVIUS.
A letter from Naples in the Debats says
"Torre del Greco has been almost entirely de-
stroyed, as fifty houses have been thrown down and
the others greatly damaged. General de la Mar-
mon has placed La Favorite Palace and the Royal
Casino of Portici at the disposal of the fugitives.
Traffic on the railway having been stopped by
order of the general, the steamer Amalfi makes
four voyages per day from Naples to Castellainara
to convey gratuitously the unfortunate inhabi-
tants of Torre del Greoo. The ancient Drago, a
river which had disappeared, has burst out again,
and swept down the fountain of the Dodici Can-
nuoli, which has caused an inundation in the neigh-
bourhood ; the sea has fallen back more than three
feet, and is in ebullition on the shore. The houses
which line tho high road are being propped up, and
the Neapolitan masons, with extraordinary bold-
ness, work iu the midst of a continual earthquake.
The eruption of the large crater on the summit of
Vesuvius has almost ceased ; but men of science
predict that the earthquake of La Torre is the pre-
cursor of an immense eruption. Foreigners are
arriving from all parts."

(acorn's =mama.)
FRANCE.

PARIS, DEc. 19.
The Moniteur of to-day publishes a decree open-
ing the Custom-house of Strasburg for the impor-
tation of woollen and cotton yarns of every kind
of Belgian and English manufacture.

The Custom-houses of Boulogne, Calais, Dunkirk,
Valeuciennes, Strasburg, and Chambery, are added
to the number of those which have already been
opened for the direct importation and clearing of
English and Belgian textures taxed ad valorem.

The Mositeur, in its bulletin, gives a categoric
denial to all the reports of modifications in the
French ministry.
Count Pourtalis, Prussian Minister at the Court
of the Tuileries, is dead.