The Express. — 1866-12-22 (London, England)

THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH. —llia Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh returned to Sandringhamhouse last evening. Earl and Countess Cowley left Paris on Thursday morning for England. They will be absent about six weeks. The Dean of Westminster will preach in aid of the funds of the London Diocesan Board of Educaon tomorrow morning, at Grosvenor Chapel, South Auntestreet. Service commences at H. The death is announced of Mr. Jasper Parrott, of Dandridge, formerly M.P. for Totnes, at the age of 86. At a meeting convened yesterday at 145, Cheapside, to consider the communication from the Board of Trade in reference to a new minute of Customs requiring additional specifications (to that of quantity and value) for woollen and worsted goods exported, it was resolved to adjourn until after the holidays in order to give an opportunity for a larger representation of the wholesale houses, the present being found an inconvenient time, owing to their being almost slithout exception engaged in taking stock. An order from the Board of Admiralty Waft issued, yesterday, conveying their lordships' pleasure that the offices under their control shall be closed from the evening of to-day until Wednesday morning. We (Army and Nary Gct:ette) are informed that Sir Daniel Gooch and Mr. Watkin, M.P., have made an offer to take from the Admiralty, at a cost of 100,0004., the iron ballast with which some of our admirals and captains superintendent have paved her Majesty's dockyards, and which is now familiarly known under the name of " Mr. Seeley's pigs." The iron is said to be of a very fine cold blast quality. Mr. Oakley, the Reid Professor, has at last delivered his inaugural address at Edinburgh. Mr. G. A. Macfarrell will give six lectures on Harmony at the Royal Institution, early in the year that is to come. We (.4 the nu tint ) are glad to learn that nearly half the sum, 2,0(0., that will be required for the new Architectural Museum in Bowling-street, Westminster, has been subscribed. The buildings must be ready for occupation in May next. Pictures intended for the General Exhibition of Water-colour Drawings at the Egyptian Hall must be sent to the Gallery on the 7th and Bth of January next, between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. The Exhibition will open to the public on the 4th of February next. Count de Bisnia.rck's physicians have advised repose for him in a southern climate, and letters state that he will shortly pass through I'aris on his way to the south of France. A telegraphic despatch has announced the sudden death at Turin of Senator Cassinns, formerly minister in Italy. The journals of that city now state that the deceased gentleman committed suicide by shooting himself with a revolver. Domestic griefs had for some time past affected his intellect. The rise in the Seine has continued. The landing-places of the Quai d'Orsay, the Louvre, la Tournelle, and Iterey are covaed. The weir opposite the Mint is submerged. The yellowish colour of the river indicates that its affluents, and particularly the Marne, have risen. The Marquis de In ltochejaquelein, who lies dangerously ill at his chateau of i'ecq, near Saint-Germain,haa had the last sacraments adniinistered to him. Fort ltawlings, just below Vicksburg, is to be dem-4idied by order of General Grant. It took 2,000 men 60 days to eiect the works. A new island is forming in the Missouri river, opposite St. Joseph, and two citizens have built a shanty on it, in order to secure the first claim to Kitty when the government places it in the market. The United States government has decided to send to the Paris Exhibition a large delegation of the north western Indians. They will take with them their wigwams, war and agricultural implements, and every variety of  skin. The Daily News bears that our government has at length admitted that the Spanish government has no right to treat the crew of the Tornado, a ship on a lawful voyage, seised on the suspicion of being a Chilian privateer, as prisoners of war, much less to chain them up, and that it has been determined to require that the case of the ship shall be speedily settled, and, unless the suspicions of the Spanish government canand, be made good, that that government shall make due apology and be called upon for indemnification. It is a matter for complaint that three months should have been allowed to elapse before this was done. A third article in the Daily News treats of the measures of restriction recommended by the international sanitary conference on cholera. American politics, the French budget, and the proposed memorial to the memory of the late Bishop Cotton are the topics dwelt on by the Post. The Herald informs us that the Lord Advocate will lay before parliament next session a number of bills affecting the jurisprudence, civil and criminal, of Scotland. They are designed to facilitate the reception and record of iev dente, at a great saving to suitors, and to reduce the cost of prosecutions by a system of double pleading. The Telegraph at length confesses that the game is over in Mexico. The Napoleonic error was based on the anticipation that the Confederate cause would be successful ; that mistake spoiled the whole plan. But nine out of every ten statesmen in Europe, and ninety-nine out of every hundred Englishmen of the so-called better classes, participated in the blunder. The best thing now left to France is a successful and timely retreat, and Napoleon 111. has a virtue that Napoleon I. never possessed—he knows when he is beaten, and he is not too prou d to confess himself at fault. The Star says that after the brief respite of holiday recreation the season of political contention will begin, and specially refers to the demonstration of the London and provincial reform societies which is to take place on the Monday after the meeting of parliament.