The Express.
London, England, 1861-03-28 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, THURSDAY EVENING, MARCH 28, 1881..
LATEST INTELLIGENCE.-

aloft, and to rally their comrades round it. Mr.
LOCKS KINo and Mr. BRINES have undertaken the
performance of this duty, and they both deserve
well of the country for having done so. Public
opinion has not changed, though the convenience
of cliques and coteries may have altered ; and
Parliament is, or at least professes to express con-
stitutionally the voice of public opinion. One-
third of the entire House of Commons reiterated
the other day their deliberate conviction
that the electoral qualification franchise in coun-
ties ought not to exceed 10!. in rent. It is true
that a small preponderance of votes rendered that
declaration abortive as far as legislative progress
during the present Session is concerned. But the
value of the vote of the 220 who supported Mr.
Loess limo is not to be mistaken. Their vote
stands as a protest which no juggling or jesuitry
can get rid of, against the reactionist conspiracy
to withhold popular rights. And that protest will
be repeated by numbers, we hope, still greater
when the Borough Franchise Extension Bill comes
on for a second reading. The cowardly absence
or open apostasy of certain defaulters will surprise
and dishearten no one who has watched what has
been passing for some time before their eyes. We
trust that the eyes of the constituencies, however,
will be fixed on their members with scrutinising
gaze, and that no shuffling or shirking will be
suffered to pass unnoticed.

MISSION FROM THM SOUTHERN STATES
of AMERICA TO ENGLAND AND FRANCE.

(From the New York Herald of March 16.)
The new federal government at Montgomery,
Alabama, of the seven seceded *Aeon states, has appointed
Hon. William L Yancey, of Alakerna ; Judge P. A. Rost,
of Louisiana ; and Colonel A. Dudley Mann, is special
commissioners to England and France, for the pur-
pose, first, of securing the recognition by those great
powers of the independent government of the Confederate
States ; and, secondly, to propose such southern commer-
cial reciprocities as English and French statesmen will not
be apt to decline. The lion. Thomas Butler King, of
Gowen, has also been selected by the cotton states to visit
Europe, to make arrangementa for direct trade from the
continent to the ports of the South.
Upon this important mission we understand that Mr.
King has already sailed, and that his associates will soon
follow. What will be their reception in London and in
Paris' According to the oracle of the new northern regime
at Washington, these southern commissioners will be con-
temptuously ignored abroad, as the savant re-
presentatives of • new power among the na.
time which has no actual existence, but which
is only the mere jack-olaetern of a fleeting exhalation.
But the intelligent observer of European affairs in their
relations to this continent will have discovered that
among the statesmen and politicians of England and
France the rise, expansion, and development of our
southern secession movements into an indepen-
dent confederation are more and more regiuticel,
from week to week, as momentous revolutionary
evade challenging a serious consideration. "King Cotton,"
in this matter, stands before my Lord Palmerston and his
Imperial Majesty of France, as • veritable potentate whose
demand cannot be set soda The necessities of the cottoo
mills of Manchester, when put to the teat, will supersede
the abolition love feat of the Duchess of Sutherland.

From the commercial necessities of and advantage, to
England and France, thus suggested, it is by no means
attain that these treaty commissioners from our new
southern confederacy to those powers will be as cavalierly
treated as the Montgomery ambassadors to Washington.
Os the other hand, upon the single issue between the
new high tariff bill adopted by the government at
Washington and the low tariff schedules of the southern
confederacy now in force, French and English interests will
appeal strongly in favour of the south. On English iron,
cotton and woollen manufactures, and on such French pro-
ductions as silks, laces, wines and brandies, the differences
in the duties range from 10 to 20 to 50 and 60 per cent.
between our new northern and southern tariff laws; and as
upon those imports from 10 to 60 per cent duty can be
saved by taking them into Charleston, Savannah, Mobile,
or New Orleans, instead of discharging in Borten, New
York, flulidelphis, or Baltimore, the reader will compre-
hend the fora of the argument in favour of direct European
leads with the Beath.

The laving is the mere choice of • seaport of ten or
fifWen millions of money upon fifty millions of their goods,
destined for the same consumers, must exert a powerful influ-
e•os Rpm the governments of France and England in favour
of the southern confederacy ; but when its commissioners

shall propose ;to rater auto still more inviting com-
mercisl reciprocities by express treaty stipulations, they
OM hardly fail of a successful hearing. Apprehensive, as
matters now stand, of earionalomes to its treasury from the
diversion of foreign imports to the South, the government
at Washington is mustering a formidable borne squadron
of war vessels for the purpose of enforcing in southern
ports our northern tariff law. To overcome this
difficulty, the Southern Commiesioners will say to Lord
Nintendo(' and Louis Napoleon, you have only to recognise
the independence of our new confederacy. Then the
blockade by the United States of our ports will be nothing
to you, until the government at Washington shall have de-
clared war splint us, and, as in that contingency, seven at
eight other southern states stand ready to Join us, you
need not have any fear of the final Woe, or of the 'aspen-
sion of the cotton culture by the narc► of hostile armies
over our plantations.

AMERICA.

SOUTHAMPTON, TaossaAT.

-----
The North German Lloyd's steamer Bremen,
Captain Wessels, from New York on the 16th, has
arrived. She brings 96 passengers, but no specie.
The Etna, from Liverpool, arrived out on the
14th inst.

The government of the southern confederacy had
appointed the Hon. William Yancey, of Alabama,
Judge Rost, of Louisiana, Colonel Mann and Mr.
Butler King, of Georgia, as special commissioners
to proceed to England and France for the purpose
of obtaining the recognition of the independence
of the confederate states, and make such com-
mercial arrangements as their joint interests may
require.

It was said that the Baltimore sympathisers with
the secession movement would be the first to offer
resistance to the Federal authority.
Captain Hill, commander of the United States
troops at Fort Brown, Texas, had agreed quietly
to surrender the fort to the secessionists.

A dispatch from Montgomery states that a bill
had been introduced to make a Court of Admiralty.
It was announced from Mexico that Mr. Mat-
thews, British minister at Mexico, had officially
recognised the Juarez government, and that the
difficulties with the British government were being
adjusted.
Advice. from Havanna were to the 9th instant.
Iluoinain w•e somowh•t improving. Money was •
little easier. Exchange on London, 60 days, 9} to
10} prem.

Fan Francis co advices were to the 2nd instant.
The news was unimportant. The state of trade
had undergone no change. Nothing important
had transpired in the Legislature.

POLAND.

WARSAW, Mims 27.
The following reforms have been proclaimed :

" The present regulations for public instruction
in Poland are abolished.

ji spec- la oommisoon for public worship and
instruction, under the direction of M. WielopoLski,
is appointed, for carrying out reforms in matters
relating to public instruction.
" National establishments of a superior class for
public instruction, and especially an academy for
legal instruction, are to be opened.
"A Council of State is to be established, com-
posed of members of the clergy, dignitaries, and
the most distinguished persons of Poland.
"The nett of petition is granted to the nation.
" The government councillors, the district coun-
cillors, and the municipalities of the larger towns
are to be elected by the inhabitants."

SPAIN.

MADRID, ?Liam 27.

It is stated that if Senor Rios Rowe raises a
discussion in the Cortes on the interior
policy of the Government, Ministerial supporters
will endeavour to bring about a formal vote of
confidence in the government.

PORTUGAL

LISBON, MAscs 27.

The Chamber of Deputies has been dissolved.
The ministry, under the presidency of the
Marquis de Loul6, will continue to direct public
affairs.

INDIA.

BOMBAY, MAACK 1.

Lord Canning returned to Calcutta on the 18th
February
The troops had advanced by three
marches into Sikim.

The country is abandoned by the poople. Colonel
Harvey, of the 43rd regiment, is dead.
The English mail of the 4th Feb. has arrived.
Government securities—Four per Ceuta., 78i ;
Fives, 94g.
CALCUTTA, FKIL 27.
Exchange and government securities are un-
altered.
Freights, 759.