The Express.
London, England, 1857-04-03 00:00:00

GERMANY.

The Germanic Diet decided last year that the
duration of the service of the federal troops should
be increased from five to six years. The Diet has,
however, just resolved that for the troops formed by
voluntary enlistment, the duration of the service
shall only be four years; but that the men shall re-
main constantly on duty, and not be allowed the
furloughs granted to other troops.

(IT zmicrazc TzLzeikria.)
(ram ova OWN COWATONDE

r, FUIDAT.

The Sultan hu arrived with the Peninsula
mails. She left Lisbon on the 29th ult. Among
her cargo is specie to the valae of 6,833/. sterling.
She has brought home the masts, yards, boats,
and other stores of the steamer Madrid, which was
wrecked on the coast of Spain.
Her Majesty's ships Miranda, Colossus, and Red-
pole were at Gibraltar. The Miranda was bound
for England. Her Majesty's ships Exmouth,
Princess Royal, and Colossus were at Lisbon.
The Sultan brings news that ths treaty of com-
merce between the Emperor of Morocco and Eng-
land bad been promulgated.
The Gibraltar Chronicle of the 25th ult. states
that the Indian mail steamer Pere, which arrived
there on the 24th ult., brought out a despatch from
the Duke of Cambridge for Major-General Sir
Robert Garrett, ordering him to proceed in the next
India mail steamer to Chins, to take command of
the expedition preparing in England to be sent out
against the Chinese. Sir Robert would be aceom•
ponied by his son, Major Garrett, Brigade-Major,
and Major Dallas, as aide-de-camp.

A report is current at Berne (says the New Zurich
Gasetto) that Sardinia has It in contemplation to enrol 6,000
Swim. - .

The Espana of Madrid says It is rumoured
that the captain of an Englieb rennet now anchored In the
Bay of Santander Is distributing to youtha devoid of expe-
rience, books advocating protestant doctrines, of which books
he has brought over a large quantity. We know not what
degree of truth there rosy be in thin rumour; but we mention
it in order that the authorities may be on their guard, and
redouble their vigilance."
Prince Gortchalcoff, the Russian Minister of
Foreign Aftiirs, and ascend Suchosenot, Minister of War,
are expected shortly at Berlin.
The Deutschland of Vienna says:—" M. Mirka-
anvilt, secretary to Prince Daniel°, of Montenegro, hes kwt
been arrested bete on the demand of the prince, tranemitted
from Paris by telegraph. Although a friend and mamas,'
of the pines, beta said to have takes away the sacerdotal
reasseents sad mad owes of the orthodox church at Cat-
tingen, which are regarded se of peetellar esnotity ; end his
object in taking them is said to be to send them to Bt.
Petersburg. Although wader arrest, be Is allowed to M-
INAS at his WAIL"

18ff.

(11011 0171

ITALY.
PIEDMONT.

TURIN, Maacti 30.

Count Cavour sent the Austrian Ambassador,
Count Pear, his passports yesterday. I imagine
Cavour suspected that the ambassador was lingering
here to give countenance to a belief that he bad
been asked by the Sardinian government to remain.
The situation is becoming daily more critical and
menacing.

THE TWO BICILIES.

(non oils owe coanssres........,
NAPLES, Attics 26.
The report that a speedy arrangement between
this government and those of England and France
might be expected circulates widely in some quar-
ters. I must, however, confer that the grounds for
such an expectation appear to me to be very insuffi-
cient. Surely the execution of the Argentine treaty
cannot be alleged as a basis for conciliation—an
act which commute@ the punishment of condemned
prisoners into transportation to a foreign country—
a punishment unknown to the law, and which em-
braces within the circle of its operations many
who have never been subjected to any trial. Am-
nesty, we all know, there has been none, except
tho thieves' amnesty; and even had there been one so
full as to have comprehended all the political pri-
soners;it would have been an act so little affecting the
condition of the country, that one is un-
willing to believe that it could have been
accepted as satisfactory. What, then, are
the grounds of the belief lam at a loss to say,
except it be the promise of some attempts to
develop the resources of the country—attempts
which are here regarded with the usual incredulity.
Indeed the Neapolitans have continually before them
so many abortions of projects and promises that they
pat no faith in any new designs, pointing to four or
five unfinished works as types of what may be ex-
pected. All who benefit by these paper ameliora-
tions are commissioners and engineers, and other
employee. A vast deal of talk, and a vast
ance of activity, and a vast sum of money
and then nothing more is thought of the subjec2lF
may mention as cases in point the Porto Giulio,
which was one of the abortions of last year, the
Strada Maria Teresa, the steads from the Fosse dei
Grano, and the Bazaar dells Quereia, where a shut
has been: shut up four years with a view to theee=s
pletion of the bazaar—works become now as deeds,
the faith of the Neapolitans in the sincerity and
sympathy of the British government.
I am sorry to say that daily reports prove that
foreign intervention instead of doing good has added
to the sufferings of the people. lam far, however,
from regarding this fact as an argument against in-
tervention, but rather against the mode chosen.
The political prisoners in Montesarchio are
treated with increased severity, and, spite of the
assertion of some royalist hirelings in the German
papers, wear their chains.
The police generally are more arbitrary than ever,
and I hear continually of excesses which appear to
be of almost incredible occurrence in a civilised and
a Christian country. In the Prefettura there have
been confined for many weeks, on suspicion, from
forty to fifty individuals, and I am not aware
that they have ever been liberated. Take the his-
tory of one as a specimen of the usual treatment.
He went to Rome on business ; returned with a clean
passport ; was sent for by the prefect, and examined
as to the motives of his journey; hi@ answers ap-
peared to give satisfaction, but the next day he was
arrested and lodged in the prisons of the prefecture.
His family made great exertions to obtain his release ;
the answer is, that one of these days he will be let
out. They redouble their efforts, and bring to bear
all the influence they have, and again are told that
it would have been better for him if they bad re-
mained quiet. And so he remained two months,
dependent on his family for the very bed he lay
upon and every morsel of bread he put into his
mouth. For all that I know to the contrary,
that man may be there still. I know worse, far
worse, cases still than these ; the kingdom of the Two
Sicilies is full of them, and if an amnesty were
granted to-morrow morning, and no checks upon
arbitrary power impoud, the prisons would be as
full as they are now in a short time. It is idle,
therefore, to talk as some of our statesmen do of a
full amnesty and a change in the system of adminis-
tering public affairs as the great wants of the
country. No; the great want is this : a guarantee
for the due execution of the admirable laws whkis
the Neapolitans have long possessed, but which have
long been virtually annulled or set aside.
Whilst speaking of the administration of affairs I
may mention a curious circular lately issued by the
Minister of Finance to his employes. It is strongly
illustrative of the character of Neapolitan employes,
and the character may be applied to most public
officers. The circular complains of their inactivity
and thefts, and mile them .• ladri." And the com-
plaint will continue to be made so long as loyalty to
the King is regarded as the sole passport to office,
and so long as the dependent position of the govern-
ment makes it chary of interfering to correct the
license of its supporters.
Amongst the many projects on the lapis has been
the railroad through the Abruzzi, and the first por-
tion of the caution money has been already paid up.
One of the meet valuable parts of the grant was
resumed by government, that is, the branch line to
('eprano,which will be connected ultimately with the
Frascati line leading on to Rome. The entire con-
cession, however, failed last December, in conse-
quence of the non-payment of the second sum of
caution money. Baron di Kiwis has therefore again
applied to his Majesty for a renewal of the conces-
Rion, which request has been granted, with an exten-
sion of time for six months. The branch line to '
Ceprano, under the auspices of government, is pro-
gressing.
A Tunis vessel of war came into port on Monday
last, and brought with it an envoy to this govern-
ment. lie was to dine with his Majesty yesterday,
which is considered a rare and special honour.
The French frigate Audacieuse is on the point of
leaving for Sicily, and the Malacca will, I believe,
leave us again on Saturday on another cruise.
A telegraphic despatch from London arrived on
Sunday ordering the immediate sale of the effects of
the late Sir William Temple. The Baron Brenier's
effects' are also being sold off, and the two facts to-
gether have lad to the conclusion that there is no
prospect of a speedy termination of diplomatic diffi-
culties ; and unless such a termination cube arrived
at with honour to England and a prospect of benc-
fittinF this people it is far better that things should
remain as they are.
It is the fashion, during Lent more particularly, to
send missions round the country to preach and con-
fess. A priest of one of these missions was preaching
this week on Monte Calvario, in the open air, and
inveighing in the strongest terms against the pro-
testants, to whom he attributed every vice. It was
very natural that he should do so, for he was only
adopting the tone of the government, whose scribes
have this winter connected assassination and Pro-
testantism together. I allude to a pamphlet which
has been freely circulated in Naples this winter, and
which pamphlet new lies on my table.
The Andacicuse has just left.
Five per Cents., 1001. Exchange on London, 540.

The Nice journals state that ace bathing com-
menced in that sunny town on the 24th of March.
THE GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OF RU4Bl4.—At
one of the recent sitting*. of the Geographical Society of
Russia, M. Mourevielf, who presided iu the absence of the
Grand Puke Constantine, gummed up the principal geo-
graphical kboure of the Russians in Upper Asia. Among
them may be mentioned the exploration of the Amur by
MM. Rochkoff end Pechtehonvolf ; the rumination, in the
point of view of natural science, of lake Baikal, the volley of
the Manytch,and the fisheries of the Caspian Sea, by the era.
demician Baer; and lastly, the exploting of the great valleys
of the Angra and the Nertcha by MM. Orloff end °meekest.
The last named savant promisee to furnish information rela-
tive to the southern part of eastern !=ifirhieh be
the more valuable that hitherto the cal knowledge
of that part his been but vague. The Geographical
of St. Petersburg keep, up the beat relations with that of
Peril; it Mut pat named M. ionised, honorary member,
end MM. Alfred Maury and Melte Brun, corresponding
nissabas.