The Express.
London, England, 1861-09-19 00:00:00

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THE EXPRESS, THURSDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 19, 1861.

Some foreign sycophants and some domestic
courtiers were fain to protest against the sacritios
of a dynasty and a court, and to lament that a
Duchy should sink to the condition of a province.
But the good sense and public spirit of the gentle
but constant Tuscans were proof against all blandish-
ments and threats. They were content that the
birthplace of DANTE and MA. 111AVELLII should be
still the fairest of European cities, the central
jewel in the Crown of Italy. For they knew that
nothing could take from Florence her supremacy
'in all that mumbles and enchaidn the world.
Well might the welcome of his affectionate, gentle,
and devoted Tuscans shake the heart of a Soldier-
K is.: with tenderness, for it was at once a royal
awl a national acknowledgment of willing sacri-
fices and noble compensations !
The King of Prir.v touched the national chord
most happily when, at the opening of the Exhi-
bition, he spoke of it an a sign and symbol of the
desire fur the unity of Italy. Not only is it the
sign ; it is the realization of unity. The most
inane of all the fictions of the reactionary party
,
been the talk about " Piedmontizing " Italy.
The truth is, that Piedmont is ltalianized. What
was CIALDINI.S army at (!astelfidardo and
Gaeta, and t: AKIIIALIHN army in Sicily and on the
Volturno f What is the army that suppresses
brigandage on the frontier of the Roman States,
holds Austria in check, and garrisons Tuscany,
the Romagna, and Piedmont itself f It is a
Tuscan, a Itoraagnol, a Venetian, a Sicilian, at
leant as much as a Piedmontese army. It is
true that in their Northern comrades the soldiers
of the South and Centre find a normal pattern
and example of disciplined courage, patience, and
activity. At this moment the Tuscan capital is
garrisoned by the National f:uartl of Palermo.
Even so the life blood of Italian patriotism circu-
lates through the whole national frame.

The Exhibition which has just been opened at
Florence will bring together citizens from all guar-
ten of the Peninsula. Merchants and bankers,
capitalist., manufacturers, producers, inventors,
artists, soldiers, men of letters, of science, of
thought, of action, poets, politicians, and even
clergy, will meet as Italian citizens, in the presence
as it were, and in the company of those immortal
and inspiring memories which to genius and virtue
make all Florence holy ground. Grand Dukes
and Bourbon Kings may well gnash their teeth at
such a mating as this.

etc er urt.

BALMORAL, Sununu 17.

The Queen, accompanied by Princess Helena,
sad attended by Lady Churchill, took A drive yesterday
afteranoe.

The Prince Consort, with Prince Alfred, Prince Louis of
Hose, and the Duke of Newcastle, had the Balmoral
Wal4 driven foe deer.

The Earl mid Coanteen Rummell and Viscount Amberley
bed the honour of being invited to dinner.
_ _

The Counter Ronal was presented to the Queen, on
Earl Russell's elevation to the Peerage.

Doepatehee •ere received yeetcrday at the Colonial.
°Moe fi"tii the Governor of ComoLt.

ITALY.

The Princes Royal of Italy are expected at
Ancona on the 26th inst., whence they will pro-
ceed, about the end of the month, by Porliguo and
Terri to Perugia and from Perugia to Florence, to
visit the Italian Exhibition.

The Provincial Council of Milan has voted a sum
of 5,000 franca for a monument in commemoration
of the battle of Magenta.
The "Minister of Foreign Affairs" of the ex-
King of Naples has replied (from Rome) to Baron
Rieman's circular relative to the insurrectionary
bands in the Neapolitan provinces, by a memoran-
dum, in which the baron's statements are declared
to be a tissue of untruths. The document tenni-
,
mites in these words :
Has such an epoch of destruction, ruin, and murder ever
existed under the government of the Bourbons? Boos the
but half century show a uunilwr of capital executions
approaching that of the persons shot in a single day by the
Pieihnontese The times of Attila are thrown into the
shade by those of Piedmont. The brutal force of the most
monstrous conquest aims at subjecting the intelligence of a
nation which upholds itadignity, which struggles to shake off
the yoke of a tyranny introduced under the mask of liberty,
and afterwards developed with the ferocity of the aasasain.
The people of the Two Micilies, rich in all social resources,
proud of those gtuituies who were the glory of Italy, a
people numbering about ten millions of souls, possessing
great and powerful cities, could not, cannot, and oever will
become a province of Piedmont, deprived of everything
which constitutes the grandeur of nations. The people of
the Two SIMMS, therefore, combat spontaneously, and
hitherto without any impulse from without, in order to re-
cover their former greatueas ; they claim the return of that
splendour imparted to their country by the immortal
Charles who raised it from the state of a province to a
kingdom • they demand the preservation of the religion of
their fathers in all its purity, of which intrigues, cowardice,
sod treason have sought to deprive them.
A treaty of commerce, based on principles of
free trade and tho most complete reciprocity, is un-
derstood to be in course of negotiation between the
guvernmenta of France and Italy.

NAVAL AND MILITARY.

ADMIRALTY, SEPT. 18. Arroarntarrs.
Commander D'Arey L. Punta, to the Medea, commissiooed.
Paymasters C. T. Thome, to the Hawke ; T. Hocking",
to the Formidable ; If. S. Collins, to the Donegal; L. Mu-
tennan, to the Coruwallis.
M.isters C. C. Scott, to the Indus, for the Satellite ; C.
B. Ryail, to the Indus. for the Styx.
Second Masters J. C. Thomas and C. I'. Hodges, to the
Jackal.

Chief Engineer J. 11. Keane (promoted), to the Asia, as
supernumerary acting engineer; G. M. Dooley, transferred
front the Fisgard to the Asia, as supernumerary acting
se,ond-clies assistant.eugineer ; J. Potts (additional), of the
Arrogant, for the Handy, vice Hawkins.

CHATHAM, Sm. Is.
Orders 'ere this morning received from the
Horse Guards for the 31st and 33rd companies of Royal
Engineers to be held in ruathuess to embark for the Ifediter-
raiieen on the 2erth inst. Both companies have been aug-
mented to their full complement from the depot companies
now at headquarters. The two companies wiU embark at
Portsmouth on board the screw steamer Himalaya. The
34th company of Royal En under the command of
Lieutenant K. 11. Vetch, will embark for Bermuda, where
it relieves the Stith company, which returns to this garrison
on the completion of its period of foreign service.
The recent experiments made with the 12. pounder Arm-
strong guns having demonstrated that the use of primers
may he dispensed with, a rew vent-piece for this descrip-
tion of ordnance has been approved and will he brought into
general use. The old pattern vent-pieces are to be returned
into store in order that the vents may be altered to the
dimensions required.

PORTSMOUTH, Sem.. lg.
The Vigilant, 5, screw gun-vessel, was taken into
the ship basin to-day to he masted and rigged for the first-
class steam ordinary.
Experiments have been resumed to-day to test the resist.
leg power of Mr. Jones's sloping armour. The target, which
placed at an angle of about 45 degrees, was built on the
deck of a small vessel called the Griper, and was moored in
the shallow water off Southsea Gude. The at moor plates
are 44 and 5 inches thick, and were placed on timbers and
iron knees, so constructed as to be of the greatest
possible strength. The Stork, gunboat, attached to the
Excellent, gunnery ship, was moored at a short range
(two hundred yards, we believe), and the armament
used was a 100-pounder Armstrong gun. The result of the
experiments was in Mr. Jones's favour, so far as regards
the resistance offered by the target. There is still, how•
ever, the important question to be decided by naval archi-
tects, as to the practicability of buiblieg a ship with a
broadside at such an angle as kr. Jones purposes.
The troops of this garrison, with the Royal Marines Light
Infantry, were brigaded on Stadium Common this afternoon
by Major-General Lord William Paulet, commanding the
south western district. The customary evolutions were
gone through, and a great concourse of people assembled to
witness the spectacle. Fortunately no accident occurred,
although several persons bad a narrow escape of being killed
by a ramrod which was shot from a rifle while the troops
were in line (parallel with a line of spectators), and which
bore the mark of the 2nd battalion of the 18th Regiment.

EDUCATION AND COMPETITION FOR COMMIS.
SIONS WITHOUT PURCHASE.

Two head masters of schools thus comment on
the memorandum from the Honigfunds, dated August 26 :
"In this memorandum it is stated that henceforth all
candidates for commissions without purchase shall be re.
quired to pass through the Royal Military College.' We do
not know what the reasons for this change may be, but we
think there are very serious reasons against it.
" It is not evident tol us why schools and schoolmasters
in general should he precluded from educating boys for the
chances of this distinction. We ourselves have been in the
habit of sending pupils into the various fields of public com-
petition, which are now happily open at the universities and
else where ; and, as our names are not published here, we
may add that we have done this with a fair amount of suc-
cess. It is natural that we should regret any now restric-
tions on this liberty of education.
" We do not wish to discuss the relative merits of gene-
ral and profelaional education, except so far as to say this,
that we think it no disadvantage to the (metal body of
regimental officers that they are drawn'from various schools,
and, in fact, prepared for the service in the midst of asso-
ciations with those who are destined for other professions.
" It is above all in the interest of parents twat we write. One
of them writes to one of us thus :—' A. will have to leave at
Chi-names, 11362, as I intended ; and I shall be obliged to
pay from IfAX. to 200/. per annum for two years at Sand-
hurst. B. will leave to leave a year sooner also. This hard
memorandum will entail on me an expense of nearly WM
C. went up from --and passed a good examination ; his
position iu the army proves him to be a zealous and intelli-
gent officer ; and it is bard that you are no longer to have
the privilege of thus serving the army by educating its
cadets.'

"The contemplated change appears torus to make mere
wealth a condition of that which is held out as tho reward
of intellectual awl moral excellence. Many of our boot
regimental officers are the sons of clergymen, and we all
know that the clergy are not usually rich. Rut, inde-
pendently of wealth, there may be many MUMMA why a
parent may wish to have his boy educated within the in-
fluences of home, till he is ready to enter the examination
which is to determine his professional position.
" It may, indeed, be said that Sandhurst will infallibly
produce the best candidates for the examination. If this
be the case, there can be no need to exclude other schools
from what may be thought, but may not prove to be, a
hopeless competition with the Royal Military College. In
such a competition we ourselves are quite willing to take
our chance."