The Express.
London, England, 1857-12-29 00:00:00

THE CALCUTTA MAIL.

(PROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

AND NITTIIIN TILEORAPIL)

ALEXANDRIA, Dig. 23.

The Ajdaha bu brought in from Aden the
Oalcutta mail and passengers. The Alma broke
dollen 600 miles from Aden. The dates are—Cal-
ontta, Nov. 26th ; Madras, 29th; Oalle, 2nd inst.;
Hong Hong, Nov. 14.
&render Bagh was occupied on the 16th, after
a tremendous struggle, the enemy suffering severely,
and fighting desperately.
On the 19th the Commander-in-Chief and three
a kis staff were wounded, the former only slightly.
On the 20th Lncluzow was fully relieved, and the
women and wounded were conveyed to the rear.
Oar loss consists of five officers killed and 96
wounded. •

The Clwalior contingent was still at Calpee,
divided counsels being said to be the cause of their
inaction.

The Foreigners' Pasepcet Act has pared.
It is reported that the King of Delhi's ion and
his two nephews, after being tried by military com.
saissioners, have been shot.
The steamer Elereoneee had arrived at Madre.
Leaky. General Askburnham was to leave China in
the An, and an attack on Canton was contemplated
shortly after the steamer's departure.
The Calcutta import and expert markets were
dull. Money market improving. Freights unaltered.
Exchange, 2s. 1/d. to 21. ; Madras, 2s. lid. to
21d.

Arrived at Calcutta, with troops from England,
the John Bell, Caledonia, and Victoria. The Mary
Maekertocoo, Captain Valentine, was wrecked on
the west coast of Frasier° ; muter and crew saved.
SITANGUA T.—The business done in imports well to a
moderate extent. Exports doll. Freights un-
changed. Exchange 6s. 9d. The total settlements
of bilk up to date, compared to same period last
season, show a decrease of 16,000 bales.
Homo KONG.—In opium little doing, nominal
prices from 700 dole. to 730 dole. Exchange,
as. told. to g. 11d.
SiNoaroan, Nov. 21.—Imports are in active de-
mand, with considerable sales made to arrive.
Exchange, 4s. M. to 4a. 10d.
Fire broke out on board the steamer Sarah Sands
on the 11th ultimo, which fortunately was soon put
out, and she reached the Mauritius on the 23rd ; no
lives were lost.

Tnz Ocest.crn MAILS.—The Calcutta and China
malls are expected to reach Loudon to-morrow, at
If cm., or 4 p.m. Letters and newspapers for Cal-
cutta and Madras, and for any part of the Bengal
es Madras presidencies, intended to be forwarded-by
the mail of the tad January, should be addressed
ViJ Mantillas and Bombay."

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

(1/40X 0173 OWN 00WIFOXDI7T.)

PARIS. MONDAY Emirate.
I observe in the foreign news of the Monileur an
extract from the Bouru Gazette of sienna in the
following terns:

" Vim; Deo. 22.

" Our intertmacio at Constantinople has received
orders, as is already known, to give the most cor-
dial support to M. de Lampe on the subject of the
Suez canal."

--.- --..
This citation in the official journal of a piece of I
news so contrary to the tenour of all the latest '
advice" relative to the disposition of the Austrian
government in regard to this question is
certainly important. At the same time it
would be unsafe to place implicit reliance
upon this symptom as an indication of what
is really going to be done. It may be remembered
that some few days since the German Journal of
haiskfort and the Ost.:Thatsels Post, organs of
much greater authority than the newest Gazette,
stated that instructions of a very opposite tendency
bad been given to the Austrian intornuncio, and the
French semi-official journals, while faintly affecting
to doubt whether these journals, " usually so well
informed," were so on this occasion, evidently at-
tached great importance to their statements
and lamented that Austria should have yielded
to English influence. Now it is quite con-
sistent with the habits of the Mo•ittwr to quote
even from the worst possible authority any scrap of
iotelligenco or argument, tending to support apolicy
not officially abandoned by the French government,
although it may know all the time that there is not
• weed el truth in the statement which many people
will believe from the mere fact of its appearing in
an official print. At the same time it is worthy of
remark that a Paris correspondence in the number
of the Indspendanes of Brussels received here to-day,
states that the &man for piercing the Isthmus has
actually been signed by the Sultan, with the consent
of England. The editor, however, doubts the
information of his correspondent, and leans
to the belief that Turkey will not consent to the
piercing of the Isthmus unless England gives up the ,
Isle of Perim. This is a curious introversion of
the state of the case as hitherto known. We have
beard, indeed, that Turkey is making efforts to
obtain the evacuation of Perim, and that she is even
supported by Russia, but to say that the evacuation is
insisted upon as a condition precedent to the piercing
I of the Isthmus is to represent that England is in
favour of that undertaking which, ',though (as the
French papers rightly say) it would benefit her more

than any other power, she is understood to have
hitherto opposed. Is it possible that there can have
been within the last two or three days a sudden
diplomatic convulsion, and that Austria, find-
ing that England will not, upon reflection, counte-
nance her designs to obtain undue advantages for,
herself on the Danube, has turned round and joined
France upon the question of the Isthmal ?
I am told that the Congress of Paris will meet to-
, morrow, to enchange ratifications of the treaty set-
ding the Bessarabian frontier.
The Tribunal of Commerce has given judgment
to-day in a law suit which has been some time
pending between the proprietors and managers of
the Press*. The decision of the court is complex,
and in its details quite devoid of interest to English
readers. It holds that all parties are a good deal in
the wrong, and therefore will give little satisfac-
tion to any of them. M. Millaud, who bought the
greater part of the shares in the journal from M. E.

de Girardin for an immense sum of money, is ac-
knowledged to have a right to exercise the functions
of editor ; but his pretensions to get rid of M•
Rouy, the manager, are overruled. The only really
important part of the judgment is that which rejects
in tole the ridiculous demand made by M. Millaud
for 200,000 fr. damages against M. Rouy for having
suffered the article of M. Peyrat, which led to the
suspension of the Freese, to pass.
The Bourse was very firm indeed at the opening,
in consequence of a rise of I per cent. in Consols, bet
the market became almost heavy at the close with-
out any assigned reason. The Rente left off for
account at 67fr. 95e., with a rise of 10c., and at
yesterday's prior, 67fr. 80c., for cash. Mobilier rose
10fr. Railways were from 2fr. 50e. to sfr. higher.
The convention between the Bank of France and
the railway companies, relative to advances. on
bonds, has become definitive by the approbation of
the council of the bank. Some modifications of de-

-----
tail were introduced by this latter body, and at once
accepted by the companies.
The Foi Breionne, legitimist provincial journal,
is to be prosecuted for " false news," and its Paris
correspondent is included in the indictment.

ITALY.

THE EARTHQUAKE LN THE KINGDOM OF

NAPLES.

(110 K OUR ORA 001

NAPLES, Dec. 21.
My bat letter bad not left Naples more than a
couple of hours when another shock, of some force,
sent the population again flying into the streets. I
was at dinner when that indefinable kind of feeling
came over me which is usually produced by an
earthquake, and the entire floor of the room seemed
to swell up beneath my feet. Then came that horrid
creaking of the timbers which I have heard before;
but I had become so far accustomed to these sensa-
tions that I finished my dinner before going out of
my house. In the town the same kind of scenes
were to be witnessed ea I have already described.
Carriages were drawing up for the night, and people
were bivouacking on the ground, whilst the images
of the Madonna were very brilliantly illuminated.
During the night another shock was felt. On Sun-
day morning, at 10 o'clock, we were alarmed by
another; indeed, the ground appears to be in a per-
manent state of vibration, but as the centre of action
is so far distant, I believe little fear is to be enter-
tained for Naples. In the provinces, however,
the diauters have been most awful, and
even the mations reporter of them in the official
journal says, " My.pen falls horrorstruck from my
-band." I briefly give the reports which were pub-
lished on Saturday evening. At Bari no farther
injury was done than to the barracks of the gen-
darmes. The population, overwhelmed with fear,
spent the night in the open. air. In Iticigliano ten
houses had fallen ; five or six persons had been dug
out—two had been killed. In another place a man
and a child had their legs broken. The houses tipd
churches in many other communes were split Mb
top to bottom, and the cupola of St. Oregano fell in.
The second shock was everywhere most fearful.
Despatches from Potent& my that the shocks still
continued there • and on the first night at Salerno
they were perpetual. On Saturday morning at six
and ten, a.m., two other shocks had been felt. Later

information tells us that in Potenze, a city of 15,000
souls, there is not a house which can be entered; and
those who had escaped were living in tempo-
rary barracks. The Palace of the Intendenza,
the courts of juste e, the military and civil
hospital, the barracks of the gendarmerie and of
the corps de reserve, the College of the Jesuits,
the churches, and especially the cathedral, were all
perfectly useless. On the 17th the efforts were con-
tinued for disinterring the numerous victims of the
disaster, the real number of whom was unknown.
Most afflicting, too, are the reports from other por-
tions of the Basilicata—Tito, Marsioonuovo, La-
marziana, and Brienza, "are almost entirely de-
stroyed." Tito, close to Potence, u a beautiful town-
ship, with from 8,000 to 10,000 inhabitants. In
Viggiano the damage is " immense ;" as also in Cal-
vello, Anzi, and Abriola, and "more than immense
the terror and the desolation of the inhabitants." Be-
fore I close my letter I shall have fresh reports pro-
bably to send to you. From the capital have been
sent by a steamer, medicine, beds, nurses, and what-
ever elm might bo necessary for tho relief of the
sufferers; and wood for the construction of barracks.
Four " Pearl Oepedalieri” had left with some of
those articles, and engineers had been sent to the
Principato Citeriore and the Basilicata. Occasion is
taken in the midst of all this public lamentation to
sing the praises of "religiose nostro Monaca,"
and of has "august" and " adorable " ma esty ;
"of whom it is difficult to say whether
be is a more generous King or tender
father." One or two of the prefects of the provinces
are said to have arrived in Naples to state that the
orders of the government cannot be executed for the
relief of the people, as there were no assets in the
communal treasures, which are exhausted by the
many demands made upon them. When so gigantic
au army has to be supported, the central govern-
ment mast needs suck every source dry. Whilst
waiting for further reports of the damage occasioned
by the earthquake, I may advert to the cue of the
Puglia Railway. General Sabbstelli went down
through the course of the line a month or so since,
armed with the royal authority to compel the pay-
ment of arrears on the shares, and the purchase of
others. At Avellino, I bear, 11,000 ducats were paid
up, and considerable sales made in many of the
communes. On arriving at Bari, the royal commis-
sioner was well received by the Intendente, with
whom he and his friend dined ; hut, says ray in-
formant, during dinner another rescript was re-
ceived by the Intendente in opposition to the first,
and thus the new subscribers to shares remain in an
uncertain and puzzled state as to what is to be done.
I repeat, again and again, that the projected line
would be a mine of wealth for the country, but
some sinister influence seems always to hang over
what would really tend to the benefit of the Two
Sicilies.

......
A few days since Mr. Fagan, formerly and for
many years attached to the British legation at
Naples, left this place, en route for his newly
appointed post at Buenos Ayres. Would not thu
gentleman he a fitting person to urge the claims of
the British subjects in Monte Video on the attention
of the governmentof BuenosAyrea? The idea is sug-
gested by the fact of Mr. Fagan's great success in
another similar mission at Messina in 1850. His
demand was reduced by the Neapolitan government
only one-fifth,whilst that of the French was reduced
fully four-fifths. The result was that he received
letters of thanks from the British merchants at
Messina, and very complimentary letters from the
Sicilian commission. Mr. Pepsi would therefore
be the right man in the right place in completing
such an arrangement.

DEC. 22.

I return to the disastrous subject of the earth-
quake, of which the official journal late last night
published the following distressing details. The
extreme violence of the earthquake appears to have
been confined to the provinces of Basilicata and
of Principato Citeriore. This was the centre
from which the shocks extended in radii all
around the neighbourhood, and, amongst other
places, to Naples, the very foundations of which
were shaken. The reports up to the 18th were that
in Potenza 19 bodies had already been disinterred,
and the sad labour was continuing. Three hundred
bodies had been disinterred in Pella. The corporal
of gendarmerie had been dug out alive, so had been
the judge of Saponara; Minis wife and two children
were under the ruins, and he was crushed and
maimed. In Lagonegro three shocks had been felt
in the spruce of seven hours. Almost all the build-
ings, public as well as private, were cracked, and
I three, amongst which were the Church of the Ca-
puchins and tle electric station, were falling. The
shocks were continuing up to yesterday, but were
lighter; the whole of the population were encamped
in wooden barracks thrown hastily up in a large
open plain, where they had escaped on the first
night. In the commune of Carbone 21 persons had

been killed and 19 wounded. C,asteleano was need
levelled with the ground, and 400 peeeee,
perished. The same misfortune befit see 7„
where 30 persons had perished. Mantes,Ft";
destroyed, deplores the death of one person.
other communes of Lagonegro, where the kit
generally have suffered, and, above all, the &wee
are, Marital, Laurie, Castelluccio Itotonds,
nello, Sant' Areangelo, Calyces, Sani Martino, City
nuovo, and Senile.
No information of the number of the dead is the
places has been received, and the general, and I fa;
too well founded, impression is, that many
sands have perished. Indeed, I have heard
dead, wounded, and missing calculated at AA
and I think it not at all improbable. In the en;
ral localities so severely. sainted, committees
been formed of the principal persons to relieve te
sufferings which they could not prevent. yea
Naples conveyances are continually leering
• •and • •
clothes, beds, medicines, provisions of re!
kind. _ _ .

---
To-day, 42 military and 64 marine engineene
leave for Potensa and Salerno, taking with WI
wood for barracks and canvas for tents, for five
most be many thousands who have not a root
their heads. On the night of the 12th ix*
cargoes of grain were sent off, besides q••
of everything that was needed for sickness, or
sustenance of the sufferers, followed by nurses,
pone, priests, and sisters of charity. Ido not
lieve that one•tenth part of the disaster hu
been narrated, for the full extent of it is sot kali
and the government fears to excite the people
much. In these painful circumstances it is only •
to say that the authorities have acted with
promptitude in relieving distress and eheckin
attempts at disorder. Such attempts have
made in Naples, both on Wednesday and Sat.
night, but the gendarmerie have suppressed
It is a part of the history of this tad tale, that
on Saturday all were " playing on the sarthq
in the lottery, on the following day it was
that the blood of St. Januarius was boiling, sai
procession was got up immediately. Shocks
felt in Naples even up to yesterday, but a change
the weather has given another direction to 4
thoughts of the people, and they are more trance,
Still, when science is at a loss to explain the laic;
which these awful phenomena are directed, and
action of the air therefrom appears to be germ'
by caprice, we are always in painful doubt as to"
future.
Five per Cents., 1141; exchange on London, k

PIEDMONT.

(mow coos OW

TURIN, Dre. X
The statement I lately ventured to make to FA
about the reduction of the Austrian army has he
fully ooufirmed by the reports of the German papa
themselves. The German Journal of Iraai,
asserts that next year's conscription in Austria si
not fall short by a single man of the number rie
last year. And with regard to Lombardy and Vete
the official journals there, in publishing the del
rregulations for the annui:
l levy, not only indicates
reduction, but declare that the government will no
rigorously enforce the law, and the contingent, r:
is termed, will be rather greater than tis
which has been usual for some years past. lb
Military Gazette of Vienna, however, exya
minutely of what the aforesaid reduction h t
consist; repeating just what I stated to y oath
the army is to be replaced on a peso establisher:
and that many temporary leaves of abeam ars en
granted.
Here, with us, the new chamber slowly gets e
with the work of verifying the electoral tetanal
say it gets on slowly, beanie the contested elects
are very numerous, and in the case of each dd.'
the spirit by which the two great parties in ;
Chambers are animated, is more or less appealed:
the debates, therefore, are animated and le
but the votes have all proved in favour
the liberals. Notwithstanding this, it n
be said that all these discussions hide
have been no more than ^ light skirted

and reconnoitring affairs; the first serious
will certainly take place next Tuesday, on
day a report is to be presented by certain de. •
upon elections in which the intrigues of the p •
faction were carried on to a scandalous extent.
With regard to foreign affairs, our governm
still much occupied with the affair of the Cog •
and now sees the necessity of assuming a
resolute attitude, since it is convinced that the
mission of Prizes at Naples ham not acted is
case, of its own mere motion ; and it is very d.
ful, therefore, whether the judgment on the a.
will be in accordance with the decision already
nounced. Count Cavour, having instituted
time ago a Commission formed of respectable j
and politicians, to whom matters of international
should be referred, has lost no time in submit
the ease of the Cagliari to their examination.
soon as he shall have obtained their opinion epee
I think he will not delay one moment in &tenni
by what measures to resist the violence of the
of Naples.
I learn from a good quarter, and have no b
tion in telling you, that King Victor Emmanuel
with his own hand, and out of his own head, era
a letter to Pius IX. I believe I may also state
the terms in which it is expressed are as boa•
and reverent as the spirit and purpose of the le
are resolute and firm. Tho King comp;
to his Holiness of the conduct which
been almost generally displayed by the Piedmoc
cloy—conduct full of party spirit, passion,
intngne. Victor Emmanuel hopes, therefore, •
the Pope, being informed of these thine, will
hesitate to intervene with hie authority to
the clergy to perceive the error of their ways
return to the modesty, simlicity, and charity i 4
evangelical disposition. Otherwise he (the ):
as chief of the state, and as the main guardian
protector of the peace, liberties, and prooperin
his people, will be obliged to provide arms
doings by the menus which the mutilations
plies. This letter, you will observe, is of a peg
character, and one which goes beyond the acme
tional forms and modes of procedure; neveetbes
it is one which possesses an extreme importance 11
• cannot fail to produce some result. A