The Express. — London, England, 1853-10-25 00:00:00

0&.‘ 4 1 - 4117.p. TO CORRESPONDENTS. • Pared galN , :b • i • We En pre.." ean!aiatntr t 4. sus. t• "0 sata.." publAatd tv.iy luiday and Er.day wen, is ones ams The Ls* me," L..n erx. ass Evg mfr. ortooute • • •di.ni e.k for" br 4 tamp trite. 1.. I:ouvitn•-•trect, TIN titled' on tla. • dal ./1 . DIOR WATS& AT LONDON BRIDGE. TWO* DAT-41.11411C w. {r....... . Z. la 'AMU 1.11.110110 , 11-4,1011111. IL. ...Aftern tir, t“ 3 1.. LONDO.Y. IMLAY, OCT( ABER 23. 'lint affair at Lagos,—of which M. gave full parti culars yester.l.l .—reises a new quest;on of seinelittle importance'wta to the character ant! the pocket et this country ;—a questiou which, it is to be booed, Lord CLAKENIJON 'Ala take into his serious consideration. It is, whether uar cruisers on the Western Coast of Africa are to be permitted to interfere with arms in such quarry!4 ail-1 disputes of the negro tribes as they may chat - ,,, .o meddle with? So long as a.nter ferenee was par: and parcel of our general Slave Tr.ede system. ::s excuse WAS mixed up with the larger questi rt of the Stale Trade. Thus, when Captain I)::sitas destroyed Senhor Fenno lILANCO . 4 slave hart aeoons the river Gallium., the release of several hundred.. of unhappy beings therein con fined, and the check thereby given to the Spanish Slave Trade, were held to justify the excess of authority he ventured en. Subsequently. an innumerable series of treaties with the petty chiefs all along the coast hare been formed which give our cruisers the right of forcibly suppressing the Slave Trade in their territories. The policy or the impoliey of these arrnngemeots is not, however, the present point. Our interference is !raw going much further than anything the treaties corer, for at Lagoa our cruisers are obviously taking part in the barbarous and bloody politics of the place,—are actively engaged in its dis putes and qu ureic, —aod are by their meddling exas perating local pissious, augmenting the horrors of war, and doing ii:eparable injury to trade in one of the lik, hest -pots for a great commerce on the West (toast of Africa. Therefore it is we ask whether this new feature in the African proceedings of our navy has been sanctioned by her MAJESTY'S Government ? The Slave Trade is "extinct"—we use the language of the Commons' Committee of last session—su far as Brasil is concerned, and the recla mation.. of the British Government to the Court of Spain. have produced at least its temporary cessation on Cuban n-connt—at Lague, the scene of these dis turbances, the traffic is entirely destroyed. It is eery natural, then, to want to know whether our cruisers are now charged with the superintendence of the general peace of Western Africa—whether they have been concerted from a police for special into a police for general purposes—are they instructed to arrange all its questions of disputed native rights, to decide all points of controverted succession, to place the partisans in whose favour they may decide on the throoes they adjudicate about, to support them against all opposition, and to guarantee the inherit ance to their children ? Is this now the duty—are these, now, the instructions of our African cruisers? If they are, let us, at least, know the fut. Our reputation and our taxation, ton, are involved in the matter, and we ought not, therefore, to be kept in ignorance. Could a power ful and a civilised nation like England, by good ad vice, occasional assistance, and friendly superinten dence, preserve the Western Coast of Africa in peace and tranquillity, it would be a noble, as well as a profitable, policy to do so. But all experience proves its impossil.ility. Ity interfering actively we do more harm than good; by terminating a present, we lay the certain seeds of a future crisis in the affairs of these barbarous and crafty Chiefs; and as our ships cannot always be present to enforce the policy they Inaugurate, there is no permanent pressure on the forces opposed thereto. Of the truth of all this we can have no better example or more suggestive illus tration than what has jut occurred at Lagos. It Is not yet twelve months since our cruisers deposed one Sovereign at Lagos and set up another- The depend chief was said to be a slave dealer, to be friendly to the King of DAIIONI!, with whom our Foreign-office has an old standing quarrel and to be hostile to Abeeokuta, to which it furnishes munitions of a ar. For these grave offences, and because he would not sign a treaty to which he objected, the Chief Kosoeo was dethroned by force and with considerable loss of English life. In his stead, the Chief ATAKOI was set up; and as the reputation, the capacity, and the popularity of KO‘ioKo were depre ciated in the reports and despatches sent home, so the character, the abilities, and the influence of ATAKOI were lauded and praised. To a British King of LAGOS, a British Consul was sent out, and British Missionaries went. Thus, to all appearance, British civilisation had a great opportunity at Lagos. But unfortunately British civilisation, as it is termed, is frequently opposed on the Western Coast of Africa to British trade. So, when our mer chants got to Lagos, they found the missionaries had appropriated to themselves all the water-side frontage, and were in other respects by no means friendly. The consequence was that, under the pro-British KING, the Lagos people had not the profit they had under the anti-British KlNG—and the loss of profit is acutely felt by all Negroes, in whom the commercial spirit is especially strong. The Slave Trade was gone, and it was not replaced by lawful trade. The British KING, too, was afflicted by the vice of drunkenness. Rely ing on British support, he neglected the welfare of his people, became desperately unpopular—in short, his MAJESTY disappointed all our expectations. His chiefs rebelled; the British cruiser on the station interfered ; King Kosoueo re-appeared on the scene ; so did Commodore BRUCE: and the end of all—so far as the news goes—seems to have been, a general conflagration and • general massacre, the Negro KING'S death by poison, and • new war of succession. In this struggle fur a negro crown,—unless Lord CLARENDON forbids it,—our cruisers will assuredly again interfere; and English blood be spilt and English taxes be spent on Black politics. This new fight at Lagos is a fair specimen of what our inter ference in the quarrels and disputes of African Chiefs will generally lead to. Suck interferences aggra vate negro discords, injure our own commerce, and in volve us in obligations from which we get neither honour nor profit. It is clearly a matter in which, then, the Queeses Government ought to lay down some general rule, and not leave to naval in discretion the constant chance of getting to blows on the coast of Africa. WE seem now to have accomplished a period in Pular discovery. There is evidently a general feel ing that when Captain M'CLU&E and his brave com rades are safe home we are to rest from research in that direction. It is a very interesting point of time to thousands among us—apart from the sympathy which all manner of persons feel tc wards the families of the heroes who have found their graves under that everlasting ice. As for those heroes, a few words will tell their noble story—that. full of courage, they went about a great work ; and, full of the patience and cheerfulness which belong to such courage, they endured the sufferings which they voluntarily encountered. That much we all know. And from what we know, we have no doubt of the rest—that, in whatever way they met their death, they met it gal lantly —even willingly. There can be no reluctance I to meet death in men who, for a great object, place themselves in a position where they no longer, as in civilised life, command the forces of nature, but are at their mercy. Before men can place themselves deliberately in such a position, they must have so deep a oniviction of the greatness of their cause as to be always and unaff,wedly ready to lay down life, fur it; just as the patriot goes out into the battle field with his life in his hand, and the martyr's eyes shine like stars in the flame that kindles about the stake. If there is any question as to whether their conviction is sound and their enthusiasm rational —(and that is the question in more minds than choose to utter it at the present moment)—we can only say, for our own part and ou behalf of a multitude whose opinions are worthy of respect, that the adventurers were as right in judgment as in heart, and that we deliberately agree with them that it is worth the nation's while to lose even a band of heroes for such a cause. Their names and memories will not be lost. Those Polar ice.fields and mountains which have pre served for us so curiously the frames of ancient crea- tures-90111C of which would otherwise be extinct— the mighty forms which once made the earth shake and resound beneath their tread and their voice— can no less perfectly preserve the fame and memory of those giants of heroism who are sleeping their last in the frozen caves of the Pole. If the pre sent generation is pleased to Lind the great elephant, and greater beasts than the elephant, lammed in ice beside the Polar Sea, much more will a future generation, visiting that Archi pelago, perhaps, with comparative ease, exhume from its snows and its bergs, by the power of admir ing sympathy, the thoughts, impressions, and aspi rations of the men who have not returned to utter them with the living voice. It is a new kind of monument ; and, while human enterprise endures, there is no one of the shows of nature which will not be made monumental by sonic noble spirit or an ' other. Will any one say that there is a human lot more to be coveted than to be the first favourite whom Nature thus immortalises? But, say some—" The cause; what is the cause ?" The cause, as we understand it, is that of human pro gression. Such progres,ion can take place by few other means than the development of scientific knowledge. There was a time when our earth was supposed to be the one grand, only pace in the Universe—the Heavens being a firmament to roof it in, and the stars, lamps made for human use. When men found out that there was something more than this in nature, they grew wiser; and growing wiser, they grew better. Was there ever a greater contributor to the progress of his race than Ricnea, when he went to Cayenne in 1672 to measure the pendulum at the Equator, and brought away the most preg• nant single fact that human observation ever fur nished—that immortal observation, two-thirds of the results of which verified the rotation of the earth, while the remaining third led Nawros to ascertain the flattening at the Poles. To establish such bases for indestructible knowledge is to work far the highest of causes. The services of COLUMBUS and of our Polar voyagers may not have been so great u those of RICIIER and NEWTON; but that is no fault of anybody's, and it does not affect the greatness of the cause. Moreover, we do not yet know the full importance to mankind of the discovery of the western hemisphere ; and much less, of course, are we fit to estimate the value of Polar discovery. What we do know is, that man must discover and understand the globe he lives on before he can become all that he is capible of be coming. This is enough to justify our calling such a process of investigation a mouse, as it was enough to animate heroes to go out in pursuit of it. What results we may finally derive, we know not, and no living man can in sty way conjecture. We know that there is treasure buried at the root of every scientific enterprise; and that is enough. There will be eternal honour awarded to those who go so far—to the Equator or the Pole, as may be—to dig out this treasure, to cut it into the lap of a coming affe- And how quickly the ages come and pus !—those of science and natural history, if not the centuries of human life. Of the thousands of us who have this last week been poring over oar maps, adding to our former pencillings those which trace the com pletion of the North West passage, a multitude must have been struck with the names which the pencil encounters. There is Cape Clarence, and Prince Regent's Inlet, and then King William's Land, and Boothia, and Bathurst, and Dundas; and then arises Victoria Land out of the sea, to receive a new royal sunshine; and now we have not only an Albert's Land, bat Princess Royal Islands, and a Prince of Wales's Strait—all these, and a whole series of explorers' names, within the memory of those who have been studying the map this week. And since the FABIUS and their comrades were sent out by the REGENT, what western passages have been discussed and undertaken, without reference to the north! What inducements, western and eastern, have arisen, to make us unite the Atlantic and Pacific, while our northern voyagers have been blocked up out of the way of the new. which would once have been thought of more consequence to them than to anybody else ! In the interval, while they have been enjoying (as Captain M'CLURE's despatches show that they really have enjoyed) their searching expeditions---their landing upon a strange new island, with its snowy peaks, its black ravines, its mossy plains of brilliant verdure, and its gleam ing lakes, whose reedy margin was all alive with wildfowl, and where the musk oxen came down to drink—and, again, their wistful gazing to the N.E., till they had assured themselves that it was all sea to Barrow's Strait ; while they have wrought out in their seclusion the problem of four hundred years, we have been deciding that the solution is commercially—some would say practically—super seded. So fleeting are Man's occasions, and the de sires of his ignorance ! The better part, however, belongs to our Polar heroes of ministering to the desires of his knowledge, which are not fleeting, but eternal. There may be many ship-passages westwards for commerce; but there is but one North Polo for science, and no discoveries of the first order can in terfere with the value of that of the second. If FRANKLIN could return when our ships are in full sale on a tropical strait from the Atlantic, right through to the I'acific islands, he would find us, no doubt, as much more nobly eager than of old for his Polar news, as science is loftier than commerce. What is to be done next ? We suppose, and we hope, that those icy regions will now be left for awhile to their singular repose. The time will doubtless come when, by improvement in the arts, in consequence of our new accessions of science of various kinds, men may cuter those latitudes with less risk and suffering than now, and for that period it will be well to wait. For us at home so much hu been done that we can afford to pause awhile, till the risk to life is lessened. Before, a cold dense gloom shrouded that region from us, vs the glare of Sahara blinded us to the burning scenery of tropical Africa. In the latter case, art and science have so tempered the glare as to list us sec in the desert the shadow of rocks, the in springing of w and verdure of thick groves, the midst of ells, the beat. the In the Polar case, the fog of our ignorance has been so far lifted as that we can discern the towering of mountains above ice-fields and a black blue sea ; and the smoking of sulphur springs, and the browsing of cattle and the scud of the hare, where we thought there was only sea, and a glittering sea where we thought there was a dead lock of land. Much more of natural history than this we know, and some things, perhaps, higher than natural history itself. This is enough for the Pre sent Let the sorrel put forth its leaves for a course of seasons, and the torrents sleep and wake iu frost and sunshine, and the eider ducks bring out their broods, and the icebergs crash and topple unmarked by human eye or ear, while our returning heroes tell their great tale by their warm firesides, and those that shall not return are boasted of to new generations, whence fresh adventurers will surely come out to seek service in that field of con quest where men first learned to separate the ideas of blood and glory. LORD DALHOUSIE AND THE BORNEO COMMISSION. -••-- Our readers will recollect that the nomination of the Commissioners to inquire into the validity of complaints urged by our traders in the Indian Archipelago against Sir James Brooke, was referred to the Governor-Os 'eral of India. Those complaints ha beeu either frivolous must Save (prim facie) or weighty. If the former, no commission of inquiry ought to have been issued; if the latter, care ought to have been taken that the investigation was real and impartial. It was therefore incumbent upcn Lord Dalhousie to select commissioners against whom no suspicion of partiality could be raised. Yet a rumour has reached us respecting his exercise of the delicate authority to choose commissioners, to which, not withstanding all that has transpired regarding his conduct in relation to Scinde and Burmsh, we hesi tate to give belief until it is confirmed by an official report. It is said that the commissioners he has named are Sir Christopher Rawlinson and Mr. El liot, the former of whom is accused of having unduly favoured Sir James Brooke in the head-money in quiry, and the latter is a near relative of one of Sir James's most decided and influential partisans. An inquiry conducted under, and areport emanating from, such auspices cannot possibly act the quasticn at rest. It would be infinitely better to quasi the whole proceedings at once than to abuse the pablis patience by carrying them on in an illusory faskion. ALLEGED EMPLOYMENT OF "TORTUIE" IN WINCHESTIIII GAOL. _._..- THE EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 25, 1853. TO TER EDITOR 01 TEE lIITRESE. Six,—The importance of the subject will, I hope, be a sufficient excuse for troubling you with this letter about the instrument of tort2re wed in the New Prison, Winchester. The fact that the visiting justices attempted to stale inquiry, and throw discredit ou your report of the inquest held on the debtor Jones in the (Junes, Bench Prison, will be seen on reference to the report of the Hants ichaelmas Session. How the magis trates managed to throw dust in the eyes of Lord Palmerston and his prison inspector it is impossible for me to say. The public may perhaps give a shrewd guess, and, assisted with your powerful pen in the cause of humanity, we may yet hope the investiga tion may be renewed, and the guilty parties pun ished. The following circular explains itself: [COPT OP PAINTZD CIRCULAR ] New Prison, Winchester, Oct. 18, 1851. The chaplain presents his compliments to the visiting justices, and, in reply to the remark of their chairman in the court yesterday, " that the chaplain was not tit for his office if he had nut brought the instrument of torture for the prisoners under their notice," begs to forward then a demnption of it, and the reasons for his conduct. The apparatus is a frame of leather and iron to fasten round the body of the prisoner, with iron sockets at the hips, into which are inserted iron uprights, or crutches, to he fixed higher or lower at the pleasure of the officer. The tops of the crutches are formed to take the arm-pits; sad, when used, the arms of the prisoner are raised to a cernin height, at the pleasure of the officer, and the uprights fastened to that petition. When so fastened, the arms are forced down over the iron crutches, and strapped down to the waist. Any surgeon, or any one having a knowledge of mechanics, must perceive, at once, that the operation of this apparatus would be to wrench, or dislocate entirely, or gartialiy, the shoulder joint. In the instance in which the Ilimplam saw it, it was used on a female prisoner, who had geed ease improper language. She was in a darkened Mil s M which the chaplain was attracted by her screams at trot and she was rolling on the flier, with her arms autisentirely cold, owing to the circulation being chaplain mentioned to the female turnkey L eL rror be felt at such treatment ; she offered to take it all, if he wished. He told her he bad no authority in these Matters • and afterwards appealed to the governor as to the dleitedtei nature of the thing, and the couseifuences which emit on an exposure taking place. lo this he re viled, he should be very sorry if he thought the chaplain cos about to make any representation of the matter; and **chaplain did not do so for the following reason :—A *Ma of misconduct had for a long time prevailed in the pion, in the governor employing the prisoners and Ogeolows in private work and domestic employment. The lesgwatee of the prisons bad noticed it, and the chairman of tea visiting justices had warned the governor of its ille gality and impropriety. It still went on; and, on one oemsion, when the chaplain saw a female prisoner at dress- Melting far the female turnkey he privately cautioned her to its being contrary to act of parliament and being liable ▪ king her Into trouble. Instead of wisely taking this Yet end acting upon it she carried the remarks to the gmaser, who entered a formal complaint in his journal, awl heersght it before the visiting Justices, as conduct in the ellogieln which was calculated to lower his authority in the gimes. The visiting justices very properly asked whether eneLbgractices still prevailed, and the governor said be not deny his faults, for that he had employed the Omen in that manner, but in ignorance of its bobs nalaw NI. Ile was reminded by Sir William liesthotae that he had been before cautioned by himself as to the ille gality, and no more was said on that occasion. The chaplain appealed then to the visiting justices aa to t h e impossibility of carrying on his duty under such a system ; and he was afterwards informed by a visiting justice that, on the governor prominug that sash emaduct should not be repeated, sad begging to be allowed sea more trial, he was not to be recommended to be die *lased from his office. On this subsequent exhibition of entity, the chaplain felt, then, that the dismissal of the governor must inevitably take place if brought forward; and out of pure torbearance, and Christian hope that the truths which he preached to the prisoners might also, M due time, reach the governor's heart, he did not bring for ward the matter to public notice, and alms being anxious to escape the untrue and meet unworthy imputation which had been cut upon him, of being influenced by personal motives in what he considered the discharge of his duty. The chaplain begs farther to inform the visitant justices, that the reason of his mentioning this subject to Mr. Taylor, in the court, was to express a hope that some definite scale of punishments might be laid down for the prisoners; for the inferior officers were placed in a most unjust position. with such an instrument of torture in the New Prison, their character must, more or less, suffer, if an exposure should take place. On inquiry, yesterday, after the Session., of the governor, the chaplain woe informed that the apparatus came into his keeping on taking up his office in the Bridswell ; that he had brought it into the New Prison; and had ordered it to be destroyed, but not at the direction of the visiting jus tices. Theehaplain begs to add, that although he has, for 17 years endeavoured to act with Christian feeling, and on evangelical principles, in forbearing exposure, under •hop• of amendment, which, he renrets to say, has of late been frustrated in the governor's conduct ; yet, however unplea sant or distressing a *mina may be, there is a just limit at which to:Osamu esuot egos. In conclusion, the chaplain hopes he may be encased the liberty of expressing his full conviction, that a governor mad nation, who would either receive onto custody, or alaNst to use, such an apparatus for the treatment of prisoners, or, under the circumstances of this case, introduce it into the New Prison in the list of stock ; or, omitted in that list of stock, so as to escape the cognisance of the visiting justices; and, moreover, get rid of it without sanction, on the breaking out of inquiries into Birmingham prison abuses, cannot, by say mega., b b ac tuated by Improved Chnstian principle., and must be en tirely wasting in those principles of humanity, an the one band, so necessary for the management of ertminal s , and, on the other, must fail to command tie respect of every other good officer in the prison. The Chaplain has the honour to remain very faithfully, (Signed) R. W. Watunr, Chaplain. To the Visiting Justices. I have been informed-that John Somerby, foreman to Mr. Peaks, saddle and harness maker of High street, Winchester, has frequently been sent for to the gaol to repair the straps of this instrument of torture. This I have found out since I got the cir cular. You can use it if you wish. Yours, &c., ARGUS. W inchester, Oct. 23, 1843. Micnazi.mas TERN.—Yesterday, on the termina tion et the long vacation, the common law courts exhi bited their 'mean. Thanks to the alteration of the law and the exertions of the judges, they are almost nominal. The Court of Queen's Bench, instead of beginning term with 200 rule. for new trials in the paper, yesterday showed but five such, with 17 special cases and demurrers, and 10 rules enlarged. The arrears of the three courts are as fol lows :—Court of Queen's ;Bench, 32 ; Common Pima, 4; and Izahequor„B--totali 44. OVERLAND MAIL. INDIA--CHINA-AUSTRALIA. (DT 6LIYMEIII MID lIMOPEAX TELICIRAPIL) TRIESTE, Om 24. _ _ The steamer Bombay arrived at 11 o'clock, a.m., is 120 hours from Alexandria. The Indian mail has arrived at Alexandria, with dates from Calcutta, Sept. 20; Bombay, Sept. 28; Hong• Kong, Sept. 9 Sydney, July 28 ; Adelaide, August 8. Our Burmese acquisitions are in a state of war, being overrun by large bodies of armed men, said to exceed 14,000, who occupy fortified p -bitions, whence they attack our posts with occasional success. They arc said to be instigated by the King of Ave. Resumption of formal hostilities is considered inevi table. Colonel Mackison has been assassivatcd by an Affghan at Peshawar. Captain Parker and Ensign Bosworth hare been killed in an affair with Arabs in the Nizam country. Trade in Calcutta was good ; exchange on Lon don, 2s. ld. The revolution in China still continues. At Amoy the Imperialists have had some success ; but the patriot army has invested Kai Fang Fu, the capital of Hunan, on the Yellow River. The whole country is in a state of anarchy, and trade at a standstill. At Hong-Kong Spanish dollars Cs. Gd. The Constitutional Committee of the Legislative Council of New South Wales has recommenced the establishment of the Upper Chamber on the nominee system, and negatived the proposal to make it execu tive. Large quantities of gold continue to be found. Abbas Pacha limits the exportation of grain from Egypt to 230,000 quarters. LATEST FROM THE CONTINENT. RUSSIA AND TURKEY. BELGRADE, Our. 16. Letters from Serajewo of the 10th state that the Turks have concentrated in Bosnia a force of 13,000 men, chiefly redifs. BUCHAREST, Ocr. 11. Omer Paella has addressed a proclamation to the inhabitants of Moldo-Wallachia, informing them that in case the Ottoman army should enter the Principalities, they would have to apprehend no harm. BERLIN, Ocr. 23. According to letters from St. Petersburg, the carps (Fannie detached to serve on the Asiatic fron tier of Turkey has a strength of 70,000 men. The regular force consists of 65 battalions, 10 squadrons, and 180 guns: an irregular force of rschernomorian Cossacks and Georgians, in number about 10,000, completes the army. Important advices have been received from St. Petersburg. The Minister of Finance there had sent for four of the principal English merchants, and intimated that the Czar having under stood that the commercial letters received from their correspondents in England were couched in terms calculated to produce an uneasy feeling, and to hinder business, the Emperor was desirous of disabusing their minds of any idea that, in the " improbable event" of a war taking place, their persons and pro perty would not be held sacred. After receiving this assurance the merchants requested to know if British shipping would also be secure ; but on this point the Minister professed himself as un authorised to make any positive statement. Subse quently, however, the same parties were again called together, and the Minister informed them that the course to be pursued by the Emperor of Russia on this point would depend on the policy adopted in the same case by the government of Great Britain. AUSTRIA. VIENNA, Ocr. 23. The tendency of this Bourse is still very unfa vourable; the funds are flat, and the Exchange on London rises. Closing prices of yesterday's Five per Cent. Metalliques, 911. Exchange on London, 11.8; Bank Shares, 1,290. The Press,' states absolutely that Prince Menchikoff had left St. Petersburg to take the command of the fleet in the Black Sea. Prince Paskiewitch was to inspect the troops in Caucasus and Bessarabia. FRANCE. PARIS, MONDAY EVININO. It is said by the Patric that the fleets have entered the Dardanelles, and have anchored off the Isle of Marmora, in the sea of that name, " the anchorage at Besika being no longer practicable." This step, the same journal is careful to add, in no respect changes the situation or weakens the chance of an amicable arrangement. It is evident that the government journals have received a snot d'ordre to represent the approaching war in the East as a mere harmless affair of honour, in which England and France are to play the part of seconds, and to arrange the quarrel after the first shot fired. The Patric, Pays, and Constitutionnel, which, when left to themselves, have often advocated diametrically opposite views on this question, now harp complacently upon a single string. They use, with scarcely a verbal variation, the same argument. The affair is now, they say, in such a state that nothing can prevent a hostile meeting between Russia and Turkey. They must "go out , ' but once upon the ground, the wisdom, power, and loyalty of the Western Powers will forthwith arrange their differences, and make this local, temporary, innocuous, and in no degree alarming warfare, the foundation for an honourable and lasting peace. The doubtful attitude of Austria and Prussia forms no difficulty in the eyes of these reasoners. These powers we are told are united with France and England in a "soli darity of interests and unity of views." If they do not, like the two latter governments, think the cause of peace likely to be advanced by joining them in a demonstration of physical force, they heartily wish them well, and are equally opposed to the pre tensions &Russia. Differing about the means only, they propose the same end, and therefore—the conclu sion is as rash as the premises are doubtful—Russia is isolated in Europe, and her projects must necessarily 'nitrated. This argument confuses two things essentially different. There can be little doubt that not only the Four, but the Five Powers desire peace. Apart from certain fluctuations of the money market and perturbations of commerce, which nations that would remain great must be prepared to suffer when necessary, the three despotic monarchs have much more to fear from war than France or England. Russia, though prepared to fight, would be glad to gain her ends without fighting, and Prussia and Austria would much rather see Russia arrange the present difficulty by diplomacy than be constrained to assist her by arms. In so far as the ques don is merely one of peace or war, it is true that Prussia and Austria have the same object in view as France and England. They desire pure, because war would be fraught with unfathomable perils for their sys tem of government. But if, as in all like lihood he will, the Czar, urged on by his own ambition and the fanatical spirit which he has raised among his subjects, should persevere in his aggression upon larkey, then there are no grounds for saying that the Four Powers have the same object in view. On the contrary, if war were inevitable, there is too much reason to believe—in the case of Austria more especially—that they would be forward to sacrifice Turkey rather than offend their autocratic neighbour. It is said, and with too much appearance of truth to be agreeable to English earn, that the professions of neutra lity hitherto made by Austria are conditional upon the maintenance of an observant and passive attitude by the combined fleets. Now it is an anxious question whether the statesmen in whose bands not only the honour, but, in the most vulgar sense of the word, the interests of the civil ised portion of Europe arc at this moment intrusted, are following the right course. It may even be asked without presumption whether there is reason to think they have any defined plan of action at all? Unless diplomacy has precious secrets in store, which after the confessed " blunder ing" of the Vienna conference we must be sanguine indeed to anticipate, the position now assumed by the French government journals—and the policy of France and England, it has been repeatedly asserted, is one and the same—looks like that of timid waiters upon Providence, who, feeling unequal to the diffi culties of their position, hope against hope that " something may turn up." No reason able ground is suggested for the extraordi nary proposi;ion that the Eastern question win be more clay of settlement after a battle than now. The bare assertion is put forward without so much as the ghost of an argument to support it. It seems to me, I confess, that in any event the difficul ties will be enormously increased. Suppose in the first conflict Russia gains an advantage, will it be more easy, without making disgraceful concessions, Ito negotiate her out of the provinces than at this mo ment, when she is not flushed with victory ? If, on the other hand, Turkey should gain a battle it is not i clear that the Czar would pour n more troops to re trieve a first disaster, and would refuse all nego tiation till his military prestige was re-established. I f, indeed, it %%ere allowable to suppose that the Turkish army unassisted should rout the Russians com pletely, and drive them across the Pruth, then per haps France and England might openly declare for the Sultan, and intimidate Russia without any ne cessity for fighting themselves. But such a result is, according to all military opinions, highly im probable, and is certainly not contemplated. Take the only remaining alternative, that the Rus sians gain a decisive victory over the Turks, then France and England might step in and say we have nothing to do with maintaining the integrity of the Ottoman Empire, if that lallsby its own weakness it is no affair of ours, hut we intend for our own security to prevent the Czar front advancing to Constantinople. That would then happen ? Why l the annexation of the provinces to Russia would be a " fait accompli ;" Nicholas, with his vaunted " magna nimity," would, at the solicitation of the Western Powers, conclude with Turkey a treaty of peace disgraceful to her, and satisfied with having gained 1 his point for the present, would postpone his march upon Constantinople to another opportunity. If this is the calculation, and the people of England do not defeat it "the peace of the world" will be purchased upon terms which, not posterity alone, but the pre sent generation will dearly rue. There has been an important rise at the Bonnie. The Threes improved 75e. to 72fr. 65c., and many of the railways rose 10, 12, and even 15fr. The rise, in the face of the increase of interest in treasury bills, was attributed to the language of the govern ment journals. The Putrie contradicts the statement that a Russian officer had been killed by a cannon shot from the Turkish side of the Danube. Marshal Jerome Bonaparte continues to be in a critical state. lie has had a relapse since he was last said to be better. The last bulletin says he is again going on well. The Morning Post formally announced yesterday that :—" The Emperor of the French having com missioned three officers to proceed to Naples to be present at the grand reviews to be held there—and to represent the French army, as Count Montebello represented it here, and General Guyon at Olmutz— King Ferdinand, apparently for no other reason, than that one of the officers had, a few years ago, written some political memoirs of a liberal tendency, determined on not receiving these officers : and on their arrival at Naples the police ordered the packet which bore them to go into quarantine, on pretence that there were English goods on board, and that, therefore, it would be necessary to subject passengers and cargo to qua rantine, in order to avoid the cholera. This was a mere pretext for hindering the officers front being ' present at tho reviews. The gentlemen who repre sented the French army naturally felt grossly in ' suited at the proposition to lock them up in a lazaretto, and returned at once to France. The French government thereupon made the strongest remonstrances, and it now appears that its action was not merely confined to this, but that the Emperor Napoleon has recalled his ambassador at the court of Naples. The step is perfectly justified, and nothing will prove more beneficial to the general state of European society than the correction of the insolence of these small Italian states." RUSSIA AND TURKEY. The Vienna correspondent of the Cologne Ga:ette writes, on the 19th inst., that on the sth inst. a con siderable number of pontoons and materials for bridge building arrived at Widdin, and that since then a bridge had been built from the Turkish shore to the small island in the middle of the stream. The island, which is ordinarily inhabited by about a hun dred fishermen and their families, has now received a Turkish garrison. The Russians were marching in great force to Kalafat, opposite Widdin. Omer Pacha was at the latter fortress directing the works. The Vienna Wanderer publishes a letter from Odessa, of the Bth, according to which the declara tion of war had thrown the commercial body there into confusion. There were 200 vessels in port, all of which must leave, and freights to England had reached to the enormous price of fit. per ton. We have letters from Constantinople of the 10th. No event of importance had occurred there since the date of our previous advice, four days earlier. The army of Asia was every day receiving new reinforce ments, both of recruits and veterans of the reserve. On the 6th war steamers brought 1,600 soldiers from Beyrout and the same number from Tripoli (or Syria), in addition to 1,800 landed from Beyrout on the day before. The article in the same official Berlin paper, the Zeit, in which it is said that the Prussian position is ono of mediating neutrality, has encouraged a mul titude of reports, all pointing to a new Conference, which, it is alleged, is to be opened at Berlin. A German paper says:—Toe first cannon shot fired on the banks of the Danube has been fatal to a Russian officer. A letter from Bucharest, of the 11th says :—" Lately, Prince Oortschikoff, being at Oltenitza, sent orders to some officers of the engi neers to ascertain the depth of the Danube in the neighbourhood. The Pacha of Rustjuck, in conse quence, sent a flag of truce to warn the Russian officers that if they approached the right bank of the river, he would certainly fire on them. The warning not having been attended to, I.e directed a cannon to be tired on the party, and a major in the Russian service was killed." An extract from the St. Petersburg Jourruzl states that the British ambassador had lett that city. Private letters of later date, however, received in the city, say that this is a mistake, no such thing having occurred. Query : How happens it that such an announcement should find its way into a journal subject to such strict censorship as is the St. Peters burg Journal? The ("rondo& Gazette contains a letter from Bucharest, of the 10th, which describes the sensation produced in Wallachia by the declaration of war ou the part of Turkey Colonial produce, it is said, at onre rose in value from 30 to 40 per cent. if great movement was immediately ob aervablo in the Russian army. l'rince Meuchikoff was expected from one moment to another to assume the direc tion of affairs. At a league's distance from Bucharest a camp of 30,000 men had been established. Other camps had been formed within convenient di.tances. Not less than 180 waggons, laden with materials for wooden bridges, bed arrived near Bucharest, 11114 hordes of Cossacks pa trolled the hank of the Danube. The body of troops under General Liters, 25,000 strong, was approaching. The Boyards had made their arrangements to quit the country at the first cannon shot. he camp of the Turks near linstjuck, composed of white and green tents, was seen to rise in amphitheatre:on the Balkans,! and presented a most picturesque appearance from the left aide of the Danube. ITALY. -+- In another column will he found a report of the recall of the French Ambassador from Naples. The following is the letter of our Roman cot. respondent : MAI:, Oct. N. The Minister of Finance's promised statement cue. corning the actual deficit of the Papal exchequ er , and the finsncial result of the republican period of administration, was published in the official journal of the 11 th and 12th curfew. From May, 1011. to the end of 1830, the aanual balance was gener a ll y on the surplus side, so that at the end of that period there was an accumulated surplus of 5,331,310 scudi, 62 bedews, 4 quattrini. From 1631 to 1847, during the disastrous financial administrati cii of Gregory XVI., the state revenue and expenses assumed dif ferent proportions, and the end of 1847 showed a deficit of 17,314,034 scudi, 1 baioc, 3 quattrini,whillt was increased by the erd of 1849 to no less than 23,449,642 scudi, 5G baioc , 6 quattrini, thus swal lowing up the accumulated surplus of 1830, and leaving 18,098,101 scudi, J 1 bailees, 1 Taft rib which has been increased at the rate of atm' two millions of scudi per annum since 1849, us will be shown when the minister's financial review will be brought up to the present period. The, distress prevalent throughout the country is consequence of the failure of the corn and wine mops and the bad appearance of the olives, as well 1:4 the determined resistance everywhere experieLeed by the government tax-gativeters to the obnoxio us tax on industry, have induced the government to suspend thut tax until the middle of next year. The following notification was placarded yesterday morning, and its insertion in the Ronnie journal was considered so nylon that a second official part was printed after the foreign intelligence en purpose: Present circumstances have directed the Uoliaess of our Lord's loving cars more particularly to thc num,' u.. - s clan of his subjects employed in wiles, commerce, atd the librml professions. Rance he has autheripid us to emanate in his sovereign name the following dispositions !-1. The pay ment of arrears up to the end of 1852 of the tax on oecupa. lions (usereiza), created by ;be two laws of the We Oct. and 29th Nov., 18.50, is =wended until the end et hue, 18;3. 2. The sbov. , tax is remitted fur the whole of the present year and for the ballot' next year. The Pro-Minister, A. 0411.1. From our residence, the 12th Oct., 1653. Corn still maintains its high price here. A lung article in the _Pieria), of Ancona, tends to demonstrate that an unnecessary panic prevails in the province of La Marcie, since the quantity of wheat housed (87,601 rubbia) is only less by one-third than the harvest of 1852; whilst no wheat has been exported, and a quantity has been and is still imported duty free. From the 22nd August to the Ist October, thiity-one vessels brbught into the port of Ancona i,719 rabbit of wheat, 465 maize, 3:30 broad beans, $3 beans. The state of the currency just now in Rome is most singular. every kind of money being at a pre mium, save notes of a hundred dollars. Silver, per cont.; gold, 4; copper and sma.l n0t,,., 14. In fact the par is only represented by hundred dollar notes. Another French general arriva here on the 10th to inspect the engineers. AUSTRALIA. lilli.LB01:1CCE, .11 t 2;. The price of geld continues very firm at 31.175. 31, with an upward tendency. There is nothing new to report this week in reference to banking alfaits. 'the arrivals of specie are again large, amounting to up. wards of :12,0001.: and it is estimated that the quan- tity of coin now in the coffers of the banks commit be under three millions sterling, or about one-sixth the amount held by the Bank of England. Our weekly summary of shipping arrivals shows a full average of the recent high amount of such arrivals, although for two days out of the seven included in the summary, vessels have been unable to enter the port, owing to the prevalence of head winds. Judging from Barfly's Shippiny List for May, it does not appear that any material falling off in the number of these arrivals will take place during the next month. From that document we learn that 38 vessels were expected to sail in all May for Melbourne, 7 for Geelong, 1 for Portland Bay, 13 for Adelaide, 23 for New Smith Woks, 3 for Western Australia, 2 for Launceston, and 4 for Hobart Town. The same difficulty x hich we had to encounter last week, of the uncertainty of actual rates in the present vet; quiet state of the wholesale markets, prevails with perhaps greater force on this occasion. Our price current must be therefore con- sidered as rather exhibiting the prices at which goods are held for, than as rates which can be realised. To add to this depressed state of the markets, many of the consignees of bonded goods have found themselves compelled within a few days to puy large sinus to government for customs duties, owing to the want of sufficient stores for the bonding of such goods. 'the holders of free goods are not much better iff—as charges for free storage have advanced to a most exorbitant price—in some cases Bs. per ton having been paid. Perhaps in no one article of El g:ish manufacture has there been so great a revolution as in the boot and shoe consignments. Parcels upon which 40 per cent. advance on invoice to arrive was refused two months back, cannot now meet with purchasers at a reduction of 13 to 25 per cent., invoice prices' Yet almost every vessel that arrives from Great Britain brings out some six or seven hundred pounds worth of these articles. Such is the effect of an over-priced and speculative market after it has had its day. The flour trade is considered firm, both ler colonial and good barrel qualities. The town mills all quote 301. per ton for fine descriptions. It is stated that large orders have been sent from Sydney to Melbourne, with limits to 255. per barrel, for fine fresh flour of United States production, ex direct ships. Teas are held for an advance of about 10s. per chest, since the fast news from China ; but the advance is not easily obtained in the present state of trade. INDIA AND THE CAPis. LLICTILIC TZLIZOILArIi.) (PROM 0011UIVN COILIIISPONDENT.) PLYMOUTH, Tuvonl. The Calcutta, mail-steamer, arrived at Ylvinouth this morning at six o'clock. Her dates are : Calcutta, Aug. 15 ; Ceylon, 24 ; Mauritius, Sept. 5 ; Cape of Good Hope, 23 ; St. Helena, 30 ; Ascension, Oct. 4 ; and St. Vincent, 12. She brings more than 80 passengers, a general cargo, and a mail. She has had a splendid and very healthy passage home, but was detained at the Cape nearly a week through the weather. Tho news from the Cape, of the aspect of affairs on the borders of the colony, is more clouded than by last mail. The orders understood to have been made for the withdrawal of 4 whole regiments have re-awak coed feelings of insecurity amongst the inhabitants of the eastern districts, while in the northern the arrival of Sir George Clerk with instructions to pre pare for the entire withdrawal of British authority from the Orange River sovereignty has excited uni versal dissatisfaction and alarm. Native chiefs are known to be discontented. The search for coal has failed. Many horned cattle have died from a disease said to be imported from Holland. A new road has been opened between Cape Town and the rich corn-growing district of Worcester; the Lieutenant-Governor has been ill, and unable to attend recent meetings of the Council. A brilliant comet was observed at the Cape on the 12th September, with a tail about 6 degrees long. The Bosphorus left for India on Aug. 22. The Sydney left for Australia ou the Pith. Four vessels of the American surveying squadron had been at the Cape. The Hydaspes had broken her screw on her outward voyage. NEGLIGENCE PUNISIIED.-011 Monday the 17th an inquest was held at the Fleece-inn, Middlesbrough, be fore J. P. Sowerby, Esq., coroner, on view of the body of John Maekleroy Clark, aged five months, the son of nose Clark, of the above place. It weir proved that the mother was very fond of the child, and that she had given the lau danum inconsequence ut its being cross. The jury came to the conclusion that the mother had been guilty of gross negligence in administering so much laudanum to the de emed, particularly atter the caution given her by the druggist, and a verdict of manslaughter was therefor , re turned by them, and the coroner made out his warrant for her committal to gaol, to take her trial at the caning ea sizes.—Yorkshire Gazette.