The Express.
London, England, 1861-02-07 00:00:00

HOUSE OF COMMONS.-(THIS DAY.)

This afternoon at 2 o'clock the Speaker took the
chair, and at 20 minutes past 2 proceeded in state to Buck-
ingham Palace, accompanied by the members, to present the
xddress to her Majesty.

His Excellency the Belgian Minister and Madame
Van de Weyer and family arrived in Portland-place, on
'Pleteday evening, from New Lodge, Windsor Forest, for
the season.

The Marehianesa de Chateaureuartl was safely
delivered of twills (daughters) on Tuesday evening, at her
resideoee in Wiltonerscent. Her ladyship and infants are
progressing favourably.
Viscounteas Palmerston will have assemblies on
Saturdays, the 9th and IGthinst., at Cambridge House.

. _
Viscouut Uffington left town yesterday for
Adslowa Park, Barks, for a few days.

Lord and Lady John Rumen entertained at din-
ner last evening, at their residence in Cbe3ham•phace, the
Earl of llalkeith, the Countess of Newburgh, Lord Stanley,
M.P., Mr. Montagu Villiers, Mr. George Elliot, Mr. W.
Peel, &c.

Sir George C. and Lady Theresa Lewis enter-
tained at dinner last evening, at Kent Home, the Earl
Granville, Lord and Lady Stanley of Ahlerley and the Hon.
Miss Stanley, the Right Hop. Sir Charles Wood, Baron
Marochetti, Hon. Evelyn Ashley, General Eber, Mr. Delano,
Miss Lister, &c.
Sir James Graham has arrived at his residence
in Grosvenor-place, from Netberby, Carlisle.

Sir Augustus Clifford, on the occasion of the
opening of parliament, officiated u Lord Great Chamber-
lain. The Cond..) de Paris, the Doe de Chartres, and Duke
Philip of Wirtemberg, oocupied the seat of the black rod,
and utter the ceremony honoured Sir Augustus by taking
luncheon with a select party, at his apartments in West-
Waster Palace.

Sir Benjamin Brodie and Lady Brodie have
arrived at the Queen'. Hotel, tipper Norwood.

Yesterday the marriage of Mr. E. R. Finch, on
of Mr. Chow and lady Louisa Finch, with Mime Balfour,
eldest daughter of Mr. and Lady Georgians Balfour, was
solemnised at fit. Peter's Church, FAtou-square.

• The subject of Professor Owen's third lecture at
the Royal Institution on Tuesday was the cranium of fishes.
Messrs. R. Morrison and Co., of Ousburn, New-
ceetle-on•Tvne, cut on Saturday an enormous anvil block,
weighing upwards of 34 tons, fur the Elswick Ordnance
Works. The melting of the metal occupied five hours, and
the immense mass will take three weeks to cool, when it
will be removed to its bed at Elswick.

An edict, comprising 29 articles, for the regula-
tion of the carnival now about to commence, has been issued
at Rome by Monsignore Matteueci, director-general of police,
and was published in the Official Journal of the let.
During seven days the usual horse-racing will take place,
and the use of fancy dresses will be permitted, but no
mask,. Very minute directions are given as to the sort of
comfits it will be allowed to throw. The absence of masks
will deprive the carnival of half its fun. On the other
hand the Romans are not in a very merrymaking mood, and
they feel the necessity of caution and reserve at the present
moment.

It appears that upwards of half the deputies
elected to the Italian parliament hare been furnished by
the great eapitale—Turin, Genoa, Florence, Bologna, Milan,
Naples, Modena, Parma, and Palermo.

CORRESPONDENCE RELATING TO CHINESE
APPAIRS.

Thin morning a blue-book of 280 pages, contain-
ing correspondence respecting recent events in China, was
issued from the parliamentary printing office. The more
important of these documents have been published from
time to time in the Gazette. The following despatch of
Lord John Russell to the Earl of Elgin, dated the 16th
ult., is, however, new :
" Foreign-office, January 16, 1861.

"My Lord,—l have received and laid before the Queen
your excellency's despatches to that of the 17th of Novem-
ber inclusive, reporting your proceedings at Pekin subse-
quently to the restoration of peace ; and I am to acquaint
you that her Majesty entirely appruveedof your conduct u
explained in those despatches.
"Her Majesty's government trust that the personal in-
tercourse which you have bad with the Prince Run will
have a salutary effect on the future relations between this
country and China ; and they greatly commend the measures
which you took on introducing Mr. Bruce to the prince,
to irnprees the prince with a due sense of the important
functions which that gentleman will henceforth have to die-
charge in China.
" The publication of the treaty and convention, in the
formal manner described by your excellency, was a well-
devised measure to insure the real state of the case being
generally known by the population of Pekin, so that no
question may hereafter arise as to the circumstances wider
which those engagements were concluded, or as to the na-
ture of the obligations contracted by the Emperor of China.
" Her Majesty's government further consider that you
rightly advised Mr. Bruce to defer fixing his residence at
Pekin until the spring; but there is no reason why a British
ambassador should not reside in the Chinese capital as free
from molestation, and in the enjoyment of the same honour,
privileges, and facilitie., as an ambassador of the Emperor
of Russia ; and while her Majesty's government do not an-
ticipate that any inconvenience will result from the tem-
porary delay in the establishment of the British mission
within the walla of Pekin, neither do they apprehend that
when the season arrives for Mr. Bruce's residence in the 11
capital he will be subject to any hindrance on the part of I
the Chinese authorities.

glad to take this opportunity to instruct your excel-
lency fe, eatic.7 to Kr, Wade, to Mr. Parkas, ►od to all the
gentlemen, whether belonging to your own immediate estab-
lishment or to those under the supervision of Yr. Bruce,
whets talents and exertions have been called into action
during the late e% cuts in China, her Majesty's government's
entire approval of their conduct in the several otpseities in
which your excellency has seen occasion to employ them, and
their hearty acknowledgment of the zealous and able meaner
. .

in which they appear uniformly to have executed your
ezoellency's instruction% regardless of any danger or incon-
venience to which, in doing so, they might he exposed. —I
em, kc., (Signed) "J. &Imam."