The Express.
London, England, 1861-04-27 00:00:00

AMERICA.

On the 13th, Mr. Lint*ln made the following
reply to the commissioners from the Virginia State
Convention :

ToHon. Messrs. Preston,Stuart, and Randolph.—Gentle-
men,—As • committee of the Virginia Convention, now
in session, you present me • preamble and resolujon in
these words : ' Whereas, in the opinion of this Convention,
the uncertainty which prevails in the public mind as to the
policy which the federal executions intends to pursue
tovrarde the seceded States, is extremely injurious to the
industrial sod commercial interests of the country, tends to
keep up an excitement which is unfavourable to the ad-
justment of the pending difficulties, and threatens a dis-
turbance°, the public pesos : therefore, resolved—That •
eommittsie of three delegates be appointed to wait on the
President of the United States, present to him this pre.
amble, and respectfully ask him to communicate to this
Convention the policy which the federal executive intends
to pursue in roped to the confederate States."
In answer I have to my that having, at the beginning of
my official term, expremsd my intended policy as plainly as
I was able, it is with deep . regret and mortification I now
learn there is great and injurious uncertainty in the public
mind as to what that policy is, and what course I intend to
pursue. Not having es yet seen occasion to change, it is
now my purpose to pursue the course marked out in the
inaugural address. I commend a careful consideration of
the whole document as the best expression I can give to my
purpose. As I then and therein said, I now repeat, " the
power confided in me will be used to hold, occupy, and pos-
sess property and places belonging to the government, and
to collect the duties and imposta ; but beyond what is neces-
sary for theseobjecte there will be no invasion, no using o:
force against or among the people anywhere." By the words
" property and places belonging to the government," I
chie3), aline to the military posts and property which
were in possession of the government when it came into my
bards. But if, as now appears to be true, in pursuit of •
purpose to drive the United States authority from then
time, an naprovoked assault has been made upon Fort
See, I shall hold myself at liberty to repossess it, if I
en, like places which had been seined before the govern-
ment was devolved upon me ; and in any event I shall, to
the beet of my ability, repel force by force. In use it
proves true that Fort Sumpter has been assaulted, as Is re-
ported, I shall, perhare, cause the United States mails
to be withdrawn from all the States which claim to have
seceded, believing that the commencement of actual war
against the government justifies and possibly denim& It I
scarcely need to say that I consider the military posts and
property situated within the States which claim to have
seceded as yet belonging to the government of the United
States as much as they did before the supposed secession.
Whatever else I may do for the purpose, I shall not attempt
to collect the duties and imposts by any armed invasion of
any part of the country ; not meaning by this, however,
that t may not land • force deemed necessary to relieve •
fort upon the bonier of the country. From the fact that I
have quoted a part of the inaugural address, it must not be
inferred that I repudiate any other part, the whole of which
I reaffirm, except so far as what I now say of the mails, may
be regarded as • modification.

The first application of the treaty between the
United States and Austria for the extradition of criminals
ban lately taken place at Vienna, where an American,
named Mush, a clerk in a mercantile bowie, who had am-
' heuled 20,000 dollars, was arrested. His employers, hay-
ing learoW that he had sailed for Europe, sent off in per-
mit a legal gentleman named Col, who traced Marsh to
Spain, but as there is no treaty of extradition between the
United States and that country, be determined to follow
Marsh wherever he went, hoping that he would at last go
to some country where his arrest could be effected. Mr.
Col thus travelled through Spain, Portugal, and Italy, fol-
lowing Marsh, like his shadow, until he came to Nana,
where he hail him arrested. As the treaty leaves the
amused the option of being tried in Austria, or seat back to
America, Mr. Col had taken the precaution of bringing with
him proofs of the forgeries by which Marsh had long con-
coaled his crime, but they were not required, as the pri
sooer chose to return to his own country. A sum of 800
dollars and 200 Napoleons in gold were found in his poma-
des.

STREET RAILWAYS IN THE METROPOLIS. —A stair
of surveyors end employes connected with the scheme of
laying down railways in the thoroughfares of London were
yesterday engaged in taking measurements, and making the
requisite arrangements, with the design of forming a line
from Hackney to Shoreditch, which it is maid will be corn-
menoed forthwith. A line from the upper p►rt of lalington
to St. Luke'', one from the Bank end of Itoorgatestrest
towards Finsbury, and one along the Lambeth-road to Ken-
nington-park., ars also oaatemplatad.