The Express.
London, England, 1850-05-24 00:00:00

UNITED STATES.

ANTI SLAVERY IN MASSACHUSETTS.
We hinted, when reporting, some weeks back, the
alleged triumphant reception of Mr. Webster at Bre-
ton, that his visit appeared to indicate a conscious-
ness on his part that the coarse he was pursuing in
the senate was such as would likely lead his con-
stituents to all for an explanation at his hands.. It
appears that our suspicion was well-f.unded.
Mr. Mason hu introduced a bill into Congress' to
modify the law uit now 'tends, for enforcing the
delivery of fugitive slaves; and to this bill Mr. Web-
ster has volunteered his support. The first of a series
of letters on this subject, signed "An Old Whig,"
has appeared in the Boston papers, and
created a great sensation. It is from the
pen of Mr. Franklin Dexter, a Boston barrister of
high standing, and a leading whig. Mr. Horace
Mann, who suooseded John Quincy Adams ua repre-
sentative of Massachusetts in Congress, has also
published en address to his constituents on the sub-
ject of Mr. Webster's support of Mr. Mason's
bill. Mr. Mann is well-known in England
as for many years the accomplished secretary
of the Massachusetts Board of Education—
an appointment which he resigned on his election to
Congress. He is highly esteemed by his country-
men on account of his integrity as a private gentle-
man, and his purity as a public man. It is believed
in Boston that Mr.Webstees position will be seriously
endangered by two such assailants. A third attack
upon him, on the same score, was daily looked for
from Mr. Winthrop the whig member of Congress
for Boston.

NATIONAL TEMPERANCE SOClETY.—Yesterday
evening the annual modem of the friends and supporters of
this society was held at St. Martin's Hall, Long-sere, Mr.
Benjamin Botch in the chair. Afar • Mw preliminary re-
marks by the adman, the secretary read the report. This
document dated that the pest year had been one of the most
trying and &Mesh In the history of the society, bat by a »-
dudes in the number of ageseses, sad by the striate* see-
namy la every i ;messedaditure, they had sasiatolaed
thole pukka s * debt. Daring the year a
vast saber of lectures had bees delivered by the sodety's
Ism ead seissisearies, six eeriness had been leashed is
Landes on its tseludf, and 16 addresses had been delivered by
rowels Matron to audiences of the same am. Six lugs meet-
ings bed been held in ilaster-bell. The expenditure attending
these neetimie hod exceeded 260 L, but the society had Ma
empty resemmemsd hy the mesh of these assemblies. The
nos el beer in tits Greeewich Hoopla' Schools having been
dieseatiaask the emmittes had presented • memerlal to
the governon of Christ's Hospital, praying them to intro-
duce the sem reform ia that inairaden. They had also
memorialised the Congregational Daiwa and the Wesleyan
Conferees, at their late meetings, bet the subject bad not
been dimmed by either of those bodies, An e&rt had also
been seedy, though without 111001116, to obtain the signature
of the jedges to • document expremlag their 'Mina as to the
canneries Wiesen dries king and aims*. The two twine of 1901.
each, offered by Mr. J. Baton, of Bristol, for the best mays
ea juvenile depravity, and on the use sod abuse of alsohol
In health, is Meese, had been adjudged—the former to the
Rey- S. Wotth7, the latter to Dr. W. B. Carpenter.
Prises of smaller aliment had also been offered by the
committee for essays by workbag men en the emblem of
temperas/se. The balsam.shest showed that the lissome of
the society for the year 1849 mouated to 842 L, and the ex-
penditure to 7601-, imbediog • loss of 1601. whisk bad
ben immured by the publiestion of the society's paper.
The liabilities emeeded the helmets is hand by epwarde of
COL The meet* was he. addsessed by Bev. Dr. Burns,
Rev. W. Wows, Mr. J. 8. Beeklegham, Ms. L.
slorrortni sad other alergymes sad gentlemen. and
resolutious In eccordeass •with the Mises of W. misty were
wirtdi AT BT. GEORGE'S HOSPlTAL.—Yesterday
morning the Immo in this establishment were slanged by
the outbreak of a gm which wee attended with great
damage. It otiginette in whet was called the crying
room, when • large quantity of lima had been lett ea
Hues, and in one of the ',meats snail* it the dames were
'PrisdinE forneidl7. Messengers were sent for the firemen
ead engines, several of which speedily arrived. when with
the whims afforded by the domestic* end pollee, the fire
was extinguished, but not until the property of the drying
room had been consumed. It was hand necessary to to-
mom the patients from Oxford ward to another pert of the
building. The lire °deeded through placing the linen too
near the stove of the drying room.