The Express. — London, England, 1853-12-29 00:00:00

Znt Orpreoo. -. -.-- TO CORRESPONDENTS. A A..w 1 r nt hatmork"essulrilte Sir nor r••••nitar• hir pat.:Abed awry Turriay ad Ynby a4tu, is uu:e Orr p.d.t. douruandrom tamale , ' for "The Rageors." tandem h:.eSq Wre•. add Vot ter Orr. N. rofartrwolran, by Tho wok o• ti e day of pab3adire. 111011 WATTS AT CONDOM BRIDGE . Ton Dat—tlbbiabs. ..111bwaren, lb. 21e. To.r..simm—>kisg. 3s*. LONDON, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2% lr is now four-and forty years since. in our diead Of NArut.t.u,'i Oriental delusions about our Indian Empire, we established a permanent and resident mission at the Court of Teheran, the modern capital of Persia. We established it for the avowed purpose of excluding from Central Asia the influence of any European power entertaining jealous or hostile designs against our supremacy in British India, then far distant from the Indus and the Sutlej. Though thus established to protect our own interests, we made the mission a charge, not on the revenues of England, but on those of India ; and from lsou to 1t.31 its annual expense to our Indian fellow-subjects has been 12,0001. In that period it has, consequently, cost them the enormous sum of :48,0001. To say that this expenditure has been of no service. either to India or England, is as assertion that might possibly be contested; se we will neither say that, nor argue that the people of India have any separate interests in Persia from the people of England. But where their interests are common, the expense ought at least to have been equally shared ; and had that been the case, the cost of our diplomacy in Persia would, it is very certain, have been long ago overhauled by the Imperial Par liament; whereas, paid by India, is has never attracted the slightest attention. In some small and petty matters, such as the set tlement of the boundary line between Persia and Turkey, or the negotiation of a commercial treaty with a country with which we have no direct trade, our Persian Mission may have been useful. But in its greater objects it has signally failed. It has not prevented the growth and the extension of an Euro pean influence in Central Asia hostile to our power in India, for Russia is all-powerful in the court of the SHAH; it has not preserved friendship and amity between England and Persia, for now, for the second time, we are threatened with Persian hostilities; it has not been able to keep Petah. and Turkey on' good terms—a matter of first-rate importance to us,—for again, at the bidding of Rae- Persia has marched every man and every gun it can muster to join in the Rur sian attack on the very existence of the Ottoman Empire; it has not restrained the progress of Persia towards the East, for Herat—which, as a key to Affghanistsn from the west, we insisted, in 1838, the SHAH ►huld retire from—is now subetantially a Per sisn town. In short, after spending the sum of 628,0001. on a Persian mission, we now rind ourselves with so little influence in Persia, that it has recalled its Minister from London without deigning to give the English Government any explanation of the reasons; it has declared war against Turkey without condescending to tell our Minister at 'Teheran; and, to crown the whole, it has mast a mission of its own to Cabal to induce our old enemy Dosr Al.►ttultLu and the Affghan chiefs, who are orthodox Mussulmeo, to unite with heterodox Nlussulman power in hostilities against the SULTAN, the inheritor of the Caliphate and the head of the faith of the Crescent. It is not therefore in Persia that we get money's-worth for the vast sum ear diplomacy has cost India. Though there is something humiliat:og to state aaft in spending half-a-million sterling and wasting so moth ability to establish irtitience in Persia, and then to be unceremoniously treated in this way, there is nothing very serious or shaming to our selves in boding that, after the lapse of almost half a centary,we have no power or author it y over the SHAH ; though, without doubt, the advauce of even a Per sian army, 20,000 strong, against the Asian pro vinces of Turkey, is (if true) a serious diversion in favour of Russia. Happily, however, it is one that must increase and augment, as it ought also to ex pedite, the obligation of England to abate in Europe the power, and punish the audacity, of Russia. For it is in Europe, in the Black Sea and the Baltic—before Sebastopol and Cronstadt—that these Asian difficul ties can beat be solved, and the eastward progress of Russia effectually checked. It is only by per mitting Russia to go on unmolested in Europe that we shall ever have to encounter her arms in Asia ; and it is by acting against Odessa and St. Petersburg, not by Persian missions, that we shall best protect India. No doubt, however, Russia has made considerable progress in Central Asia since she was pulled up for a season, in 1838, by the explanations then demanded by the British Government. She has, it would seem, pressed forward across the desert which sepa rates the Caspian from the Sea of Aral, sad there building a small steamer, astonished the Tartars by steam navigation on the Oxus, en rerae for Khiva. But for a while only; for, like most Russian marine enterprises, this also failed, the steamer having been wrecked. Russia has, it is also said, advanced a land expedition to Khiva; and its Khan is now described as being very little better than a Russian vassal— s fact, if fact it be, which a ministerial journal assures us " cannot be tolerated." For our part, we see no great danger in all this, provided England plays a worthy part in Europe and a ra tional ono in India. In 1838, we got alarmed at a not dissimilar state of things; but we had not then, it must be recollected, any power at all over those passes by which only India can be invaded from the west, and we had a formidable independent military state, where we had little influence, !4 . .) watch in the Puojaub. But now we are at the months of the Khyber, the Kohat, and the Bolan Passes ; sow there is no RUNJEET SINGu to dis pa•.s the passage of our troops through the Panjaub ; now the Lower Indus as well u the Sutlej is ours; now, therefore, we have only to conciliate the Affghans and to win the affections of oar new subjects, the Sikhs, the Beloochees, and the Hill Tribes. Then we shall be impregnable on the north-west—may Ica•:e Central Asia to its fate, and do without any mission in Persia. Since boar MAHOMED'S return to Cabal, his conduct and that of the Affghan Chiefs generally towards the Indian Government, which had wronged them so cruelly, has been of an exemplary and even a generous character. For, with abundant oppor tunities, he has never once exhibited the least hostility himself, nor has he ever given the slightest encouragement or the least support to the Hill Tribes that resist our insane determination to make them pay tribute to us. On the contrary, he has conducted himself like a friendly and well-disposed neighbour. It may perhaps be over-sanguine to expect that we can now establish a firm and cordial alliance with the Host and his Chiefs; but, if we co•sld, such an alli ance might be well worth some sacs ifices, even the restoration of Peshawur, on our pat t. In 1838 Pe aks% ur was not ours to restore to Affghan, and when Host Misnomer) then pressed for its restora tion as evidence of our sincerity, he in effect asked us to join him in a war against ROLIZZI SLNGU— a proposition quite inadmissible. But now Pesha-1 wur is ours, and to our loss; for as a source of revenue it is worthless, and to our troops its cli mate is destructive. What impression the Persian ambassador SIKERZA WULLER KUAN —recently sent to Cabul—then made en DosT Mailman, is not yet known; but it is scarcely passible for Swi ne< s so devoted as the Affghans to join Sheeahs so &tested by them as the Persians, in enmity against the SCI.TAN of TCRKET. That, however, was pro ! bably only a minor object of the mission ; its greater aim being in all likelihood to excite Affghanistan against the Indian Government ; and to frustrate any hostility in that quarter is evidently a duty of the Indian Government. For, with the Affghans friendly, India must always be as free from invasion as Eng ! land itself; and with a little pecuniary assistance from us, they ,would quickly set to work to rescue i Herat from Persian dominance, and so recall Persian arraisii from the western to the eastern part of the Empire of Ina. Instead, however, of conciliating the Hill Tribes, the Indian Government is engaged in sending a great military force, accompanied by a host of civilians, to erect a fort in the Kohat Piss, not to keep invading' armies out of India, but to keep the Affreedees in check. But what is it the Affreedees rise against? What is it they will not submit to ? Simply Tribute. They have always been exempt from taxation. To tax so poor a people is to half-starve them ; and therefore they resist to despera tion. Abandon this monstrous determination to force money out of the Atfreedees, and they will be as peaceable, as well-disposed, and as easily governed as the Beloochees, or any other Hill people. But such an expedient the needy Indian Government never thinks of; but prefers to go on spending, in • I expeditions, in forts, and in cost of collection, money • enough to convert the Madras Presidency into a garden. public securities in the Bank. The former amounted in one week to no less than 2,367,242/. ; the latter to 1.421,6911. Now, if we deduct 500,0001., the ordi nary receipt of public deposits per week at this MOM we shall have a sum of 1,800,0001. which the Government has acquired in the books of the Bank nobody keows how. At the same time the books of the Bank show a great increase in its stock of public securities, which, it is well known, from the price of , the article and the daily-watched dealings of parties on the Stock Exchange, were never purchased in the public market. The Times, however, as if it had been let into the secret, has twice within some days exulted at the Government being prepared to meet all its engagements at the beginning of the year, and has known very well " that the Bank has taken of the Government a large quantity of Exchequer Bills and thus lessened the prospect of any considerable amount being suddenly thrown on the market." The same operation tended to keep up the price of Ex chequer Bills, and probably to keep up the price of other public funds. It operated, too, in another way. Such a quantity of Exchequer Bills in the Bank, accompanied by such a large addition to the public deposits, and a very considerable increase in the Bank reserve -341,7971. announced last week, and 409,067/. an nounced the week before—made an easy money market. There has been, in fact, within the month, a creation of currency, including under the term Bank Notes and Exchequer Bills, to the amount of at least 1,500,000/., if not double that sum, which is one great source of the ease of our money market, and of the comparatively high price of the funds. But that this cosy money market is the same as a I sound money market nobody will readily believe. The latter is the consequence of the paper nosed being no greater than the transactions to be completed in a given time ; the former, in this case, is the consequence of the issue of paper ohich relates to no commercial transactions whatever, which con es:as the wants of the Government, which is, in het, the substitution of a new debt for the debt that Kr. GLADSTONE pretended to pay off. The ease is temporary, the permanent difficulties are not one 'jot lessened. The soundness of trade cannot be doubted; but with Government and authorised Banks interfering with the money market, and influencing it on principles that are certainly not commercial, it cannot be considered in a sound con dition, and persons engaged in trade may soon find special caution and foresight indispensable. IN the City intelligence of the Tisnrs of yesterday it was written, concerning the money market of Tuesday, "Although the strength of quotations was alleged to have been imputed by the news about the Conference, there is little reason to attribute it to anything but the sound state of the money market, since scarcely anyone seems to entertain a hope with regard to further negotiations." Passing over the slap given in the last part of the sentence to the diplomatists of the party which the Tomes for the present supports, it strikes all persons acquainted with the principles of funding and of money with astonishment to find a journal with a reputation above that of Mr. FEAKOIN O'Corncoa's late paper _ _ asserting that the high and steady price of the funds is due to the sound state of the money market. In the same article it is remarked that in " the foreign exchanges the rate upon Hamburg " wes a shade lower, which is quite in accordance with our own City intelligence; and shows that gold, which accord ing to a statement of the Twice is already 0.90 per cent. dearer in Hamburg than in London, is going or must go to Hamburg. With the fact described in the Times, with the other fact equally notorious, that very large sums will yet have to be sent abroad to buy corn, with the Bank minimum rate of interest at 5 per cent., and scarcely any dis count to be obtained at a much lower rate, only a comparatively few persons consider the money market in a sound state; and at the rest are surprised that to its condition the present high price of the public securities is attributed. Public men who think only of public credit, are accustomed to regard the high price of the public funds u a decisive test of national prosperity; but private men know that it is merely a test of the security of the public debt. In the United States, which as a rule may be said to be a more rising coun try than even England itself, a greater profit is made on investments than here, and the rate of interest is uniformly higher. At present money on call rules at 7 per cent. in New York, and the rate of discount is between 9 and 10. In accordance with this state of the money market and with the prosperity of the States, the Government Six per Cent. Loan of 1847, which is in progress of being paid off, the security for the payment both of principal and interest being undoubted. is in the American market 120. While our Three per Cents. sell for 94, the American Six per Cents., instead of selling for 188, sell for 120 ; the high rate of profit on investments, and the high rate of interest (in free countries the test of prosperity), keep the United States stock so much under the market price of the English funds, both being an equally safe investment. The high price of our own funds is not, therefore, a subject for congratulation, except as it is a sure proof that no dread exists of national disturbance or revolution. If the public must now be congratulated on the interest of money in the fends being little more than 3 per cent. in connexion with the soundness of the money market when it is 5, what ought to have been said last year at this time? The Bank minimum rate of discount was then 2 per cent., and the best bills were discounted at that or a somewhat lower figure. The price of Consols was then 1001. Then the money market was considered to be in a sound state. Trade could borrow at a low rate of discount, and it was making large profits; now, when profits are reduced, it cannot borrow under S per cent. Consols, instead of falling to 60, or even to 40, which is nearer the tariff of their value, with money at 5 per cent., if they would fetch only 100/. when it was at 2, are at 94, or only 41. lower now, than they were at this time last year. The security continues the same, or if anything it is less firm than before there was any question of a quarrel with Russia, yet Consols are 94, with money at 5, and they were 100 with money at 2. What is really to be inferred from this is, that the security of trade investments has become less, or profit greater, and therefore precarious, or both, and that in either cue lending money is not thought to be so safe now in comparison to investing it in public securities as it was supposed to be at this time last year. There is a manifest contradiction then in representing the present high price of the funds, the Three per Cents. being 94, with money at 5 per cent., as the consequence of a sound state of the money market. There is reason to apprehend the reverse, and the statement of the Times would not have been noticed were it not connected with a subject of great public importance on which a suggestion or two must be published. It will be seen in the City reports both of the Times and Daily News that the Paris funds came yesterday per cent. better than the day before. The price in Paris, therefore, of public securities has some in fluence over the price of such securities in England. That the Government of France uses its power and its purse to keep up the price of its securities beyond their market value seems certain, and that for a time it is and will be successful is beyond a doubt. Thus the acts of the Government of France are a more I prominent cause for the present high price of our funds in comparison to the interest of money than a sound money market. An easy money market has I more to do with it than a sound money market, and to this end our Government can work, and we think has been working. as well as the Government of the Emresoa. -- ----- Every person «ho attends to the subject has noticed the extraordinary increase of the public deposits in the week ending December 10, announced on the 17th, and the equally extraordinary increase of THE EXPRESS, THURSDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 29, 1853. LATEST FROM ABROAD. SWEDEN AND NORWAY. BTOCIIOLX, Dn. 16. King Oscar has invited the Diet to nominate a small number of its members possessing its entire confidence, to whom, a 9 a secret committee, the go- vernment may make an important communication. It is believed that the government wishes in this unostentatt us manner to bring some momentous facts connected with foreign affairs to the knowledge of the Diet. The King hu re-organised the higher departments of the military and naval administration, with a view to securing greater unity and efficiency in the event of hostilities. 13ERLIN, Dsc. 24. Diplomatic negotiations are pending between the governments of Sweden and Denmark, having for their object the conclusion of a league, offecsive and defensive, between the two slates. Sweden is arming by sea and land, and Denmark will immediately fortify her coasts, and place Copenhagen in a state of defence. FRANCE. PARIS, NV F.DX Eft DA Y. At the Bourse to-day the Three per Cent. Rentes closed for money at 74; the Four-and-a-Half per Cents. at 101 ; and Bank Shares at 2,840. After the rally of yesterday, the French Three per Cents. show a fall of 60c., and the Four-and-a-Half per Cents. of per cent. THE WAR. RUSSIA AND TURKEY. It was yesterday confidently stated that orders had been sent to Constantinople, directing the Eng lish and French fleets to enter the Black Sea. contradicts the late rumour of dissensions between Great Britain and France, which, it was asserted, bad paralysed the action of the fleets in the Bosphorus. The ambassadors of France and England at Constaotioople, says the Conagitutionnel, have the same instructions, and the line of conduct to be adopted after the battle of Sinope was agreed upon by Lord Rcdcliffe and General Baraguay d'Hilliers. Of the victories claimed by the Russians in Asia nothing was known at Constantinople on the 16th inst., and we still owe all our information or misin formation on this subject to Russian bulletins. Yes terday we printed the despatch forwarded by Gene ral Beboutoff to PrinceWoronzoff.giving a lengthened account of the battle of Basch-Kadyk Lar ; a des patch data from Tiflis—the head quarters of Prince Woronzoff, has been also published by a contempo rary, which being of course founded on General Be boaters report,and not being more authentic, cannot add to our knowledge of the event. All these Rus sian accounts of battles do full justice, although indirectly, to the courage of the Turks, and show that the sons of Ottoman are still a brave and war- I like race. It is, however, very desirable that authentic intelligence respecting the movements of Abdi Pacha should soon arrive, as the engagements at Aehalzich and Basch-Kadyk-Lar appear to par take far more of a decisive character than those of which we have hitherto received accounts from both cam A ps. s the quarrel first engaged in between Russia and Turkey is gradually involving other powers, and neutrality is becoming more and more difficult, especially to maritime states, alliances and prepara tions, ostensibly of a defensive character, begin to be made by nations and governments, which at first sight would seem to lie far enough out of the ex pected fray. Scandinavia is mentioned in connexion with the Russian quarrel, and our correspondence from Stockholm and Copenhagen points to a movement which cannot fail to engage the attention of the people as well as the government of this country. The correspondent of a contemporary, writing from Stockholm on the 10th, six days before the date of our latest letters, says :—" Stockholm is in a great state of excitement to day, caused by the arrival of a Russian courier with a note commanding Sweden to close her ports to English and French vessels and subjects. 1 can scarcely believe that it is true; but that a note of importance has arrived is quite true, and Russia is determined, either by threat or flattery, to get Swe den on her side, and the Swedes are in great excite ment abOut it. The royal family is greatly in favoqr of Russia, but the nation, to a man, is against her." A medical correspondent writes from Bucharest on the 12th :—The number of soldiers quartered on the town has increased within the last few days in a most oppressive degree: many householders have been compelled to find lodgings for twenty and even five and-twenty men. For the last five days it has rained upon an average seven hours per diem : traffic is impossible even on the high roads, and, as a conse quence, no waggons or carriages could pass between Bucharest and Kralove. Sickness has increased in a moat astonishing manner, and mortality at the same rate. Should this state of things continue, the Rus sians will lose one man in ten from disease alone. According to the newest estimates of the effective Russian military force in Wallachia, there are 78,000 Ream soldiers in this principality, of whom 17,000 are cavalry, and 35,000 artillery. Preparations are making for the reception of 54,000 more. A correspondent writes from Orsova on the 20th. From all that we can learn, the Russians are pre paring for operations of a decidedly aggressive cha racter, to be executed as soon as the weather will allow. For this purpose the corps of General Osten- Sacken, with which the Turks have long been threatened, is now actually on its way to reinforce Prince Gortschakors army. On the 13th,14th, and 13th, about 5,000 men marched through Jassy, making ros in all 9,000 men of this corps which had the Pruth at the last date mentioned. Ac cording to the arrangements which have been made with the local civil authorities the march of troops is to be continued until the middle of January next. Much is said about an attack on Kalafat meditated by the Russian general ; but I think Prince Gorts- chakoff will meditate a little longer yet before he leads his troops against those terrible fortifications. The Turks have a world-wide fame as defenders et fortified positions, and the entrenchments at Kalafat are acknowledged by all who have visited them to be second to none in point of engineering skill. According to investigations made at Siuope, b e y the captain and officers of her Majesty's ship Retri bution, the Turkish frigates resisted the fearful odds opposed to them for an hour and a half without flinching. The first of their losses was the Na vick frigate, whose captain, Ali Bey, being me naced with boarding by a huge three-decker, and having abandoned all hope of successful resistance, with desperate devotion blew up his vessel. At the end of the above period the destruction of the Turkish force was frightful and complete. Some of the ships were burnt by the enemy's red-hot shot ; ethers blew up; and the others, whose sides were literally beaten in by the enormous weight of the Russian metal, slipped their cables, and, with the exception of two, drifted on shore. The Russians now manned their yards, and cheered in honour of their bloody victory. Having done this, they imme diately recommenced firingtupon the helpless wrecks, from which a feeble dropping fire was still main tained with unequalled fortitude, and did not cease until they had completed the work of destruction and butchery. The support afforded to the Turks by the land batteries was ineffectual, owing partly to the lightness of their guns, and partly to their fire being intercepted by the Turkish ships. Mee. BLOOMER and The Lily have emigrated to Mount Vernon, Ohio. In the last number of her journal, she says Our husband having purchased an interest in The IVestern Home Visitor, published at Vernon, Ohio, ' and determined upon removing to that "lace forthwith, we, as a true and faithful wife, are bound to say iu the languig• of Ruth—' where thou guest I will go;' and so before another number of The Lily reaches its subscribers we shall, if all is well, have settled in our western home."—Nero lark Tribune. Zbe Court. WINDSOR, Du. 28. There was no addition to the royal dinner party yesterday. Prince Albert, with the Prince of Wales and Prince Alfred, skated in the Home Park this morning. Her Majesty was present. The gentlemen in waiting skated with his Royal High- The Earl and Connteu Granville, and Lord and Lady John Russell, have been invited, sad are esr2cted at the Castle to day. Lord John Russell left his residence, in Richmond Park, yesterday for Windsor Castle. Mr. Alexander Smith, the author of the Life D►asaa, and other poems, is a candidate for the office of Secretary to the University of Edinburgh. It is hardly needful, says the Edinburgh Guardian, which announces the fact, that we express at earnest hope that this geode men may prove the mitten ful eendidate. Mr. Smith has already manifests 1 very high poetical abilities, and we have no doubt but that his future sustain and confirm the reputation he has so rapidly achieved. HER MAJESTY'S NEW YEAR'S GIFTS.—The let of January falling on *Sunday, her Majesty's customary New. Year's gifts to the poor inhabitants of New Windsor and Clewer are to be distributed on Monday next, in the house, Windsor Castle. The gifts consist of beef and plum pudding, virying in quantity according to the family of the recipients, and El per cent. added to the subscriptions of the poor in the purchue of articles of clothing. The expense is defrayed by a grant of 1501. from the Lord Steward's de. pertinent, and a grant of 1001. from the Lord Chamberlain. The distnbation takes place in the presence of her Majesty and the royal family, and is under the management of the lion. and Rev. Gerald Wellesley, chaplain to the Queen, and a committee, consisting principally of the parochial clergy. CHARLES DICKENS'S CHRISTMAS READINGS AT EIRMINGHAY.—In fulfilment of a promise made a year ago that be would read some of his Christmas books in aid of the new Birmingham and Midland Institute, Mr. Dickens commenced the series by reading the "Christmas Carol," in the Tewn-hall, on Tuesday evening. Notwithat•ndiog the inslemeucy of the weather, the vast ball was well filled, about seventeen hundred persons being present. Mr. Dickens's reception was of the most hearty and enthusiastic kind : be had a most sympathising audience, who caught the spirit of the speaker and the intention of the author with appreciative intelligence, and for full three hears they sat charmed by the geniality of the story and the admirable elocution of the speaker, who kept up the interest till the very last, concluding amidst great applause. This is the first time Mr. Dickens has read his books in public, and the effect was peculiar. He reads " The Cricket on the Hearth " to-night (Thursday), and to-morrow be repeats " The Christmas Carol," exclusively to the working classes, who have Mr• ady secured every plate In the hall. The proposed institute, in whose behalf these readings are given, has been arty fortunate hitherto. A tits for the building, worth from 10,000/. to 16,0001., has been granted by the corporation, nearly 10,0001. additional have been subscribed, and Mr Dickens's contribution in the shape of the proceeds of the readings, will, it is antici pated, be a handsome one. ARE CHILDREN LIABLE TO THE INCOME TAX I —*— The following correspondence has transpired on tie subject of the earnings of children living with, and maintained by, their parents : " Manchester, December 10, 1853. " Sir,—l lave the honour to acknowledge, through the ' lion. F. Lowboy, an answer to a question I deemed it pro per to put to you as to the income tax ; and I sincerely trust you will excuse me for again trespassing . on your valuable time. My reason for doing so, right hon. sir, is this—The in tended operation of the income tax is, in my humble opi nion, very imperfectly understood in this important locality, and my first note to you might not have been sufficiently explicit. The question, therefore, I would now submit, is, ' Are the incomes of children living with, and kept by, the father, liable to the tax, or are children's incomes altogether exempt from it ; but, if to be levied, in what way r —Again asking, your kind consideration for thus troubling you, I have the honour to remain, sir, your meet obedient servant, " Csauteoruita Sonoma. " Toth. Chancellor of the Exchequer, London." " Inland Re , Somerset-house, London, Dec. 23, 18,53. " Sir,— The Chancellor of the Exchequer has forwarded to the Board of Inland it your letters to him of the 27th ult. and 10th instant, requesting information as to the application of the income tax to the earnings of children residing with their parents. In reply, lem directed to state that children living with their fathers are only liable to assessment individually, if their incomes subject them to the tax. The father is in the same position, and is only liable for his own profits, if they amount to a sum on which the duty is chargeable.—l am, sir, your obedient servant, " THOMAS Kzoott ' " Mr. Christopher Burgess." SUICIDE OF A CITY SOLlClTOR.—Yesterday, Mr. Payne held an inquest on the body of Mr. James Hurst, aged 75, an old inhabitant of Milk-street, and for many can solicitor to the St. Ann's Suciety. On Monday night I last the deceased went to bed in good health, but rather de pressed in spirits. Ooe of his servants went to his room at a quarter before 7 o'clock on Tuesday morning for some' , keys, but he did not speak to her. At halt-past 9 another servant went up to his room, as was customary, to call him for breakfast, and found her master suspended by a cord from his neck round the bedpost. He was quite dead. He had spent part of Christmas-day with his son, and he was observed to shake hands in an unusual way with his eon's wife and grandchildren, saying, " God bless you all." He then abruptly left the house. It seemed he had lately been in the habit of talking a good deal to himself ; and on one occasion was overheard saying " If it is to be the case, it must be so." On Friday last he went up to a person of whom he had but a very slight knowledge, shook him cor dially by the hand, and asked him to give him 1001. The jury returned a verdict of "Temporary insanity." NON-SAILING OF TUE AMERICAN STEAMER.—The United States mail steamship Baltic, Capt. Comstock, which was to base sailed yesterday forenovn from the bleney, with the bi-weekly mails fur New York, was de tained. Owing to the north-east wind having cut off the tide she was unable to Isar, the Huskisson Dock, bet will be ready for sea this (Thursday) morning, and is expected tonal about ton o'clock, a.m. FRANCE. .-- • - PARIS, TUESDAY Evexixo. The government,journals, thkeonstitutiontiel and Pays, both contain paragraphs"thidently proceeding , from the seine official source, and intended as a con tradiction of the statement of a London journal that Admiral.Dundas's desire to put to sea:after the battle I of Sinope had been thwarted by General Baraguay d'Hilliers exclusively. The Canstitutionnel says:— "Some journals have commented in their own way on the inaction hitherto displayed by the two fleets in the Bosphorus, end have attempted to show that there was a want of accord between France and England. What we can reply is, that the two am bassadors at Constantinople had identical instruc tions, and that the line of conduct to be observed after the combat at Sinope was adopted in common between Lord Radcliffe and General Baraguay d'Hil hers." The paragraph of the Pays on this subject is to the same effect as that of the Constitution nel, although not in the same welds. The subject has lost some of its interest now that the recent positive instructions sent out by the two governments will relieve the ambassadors ! from the responsibility of exercising a discretion. It may be observed, however, that although their former instructions were identical, it does not follow that they may not have differed about the construc tion of them. It may well be that the ultimate de cision was taken in common, and yet that the objec tion to let the fleets move, proceeded in the first instance and more particularly from the French ambassador. There has been great excitement to-day in conse quence of the last news from Constantinople to which many people seem to attach greater importance than reasonably belongs to it. The report, supposing it to be true, amounts only at the utmost to this, that the Porte does not insist upon the evacuation of the Principalities as a preliminary to negotiation. I mentioned to you several days ago that the Turks in Paris did not suppose that the Sultan would reply to the Vienna note of Dec. 5 by an absolute refusal, but I at the same time expressi d a confident opinion that it would not consent to the required armistice. Bearing in mind the great amount of pressure that must have bees put up-in the Sultan by the ambassa dors in pursuance of a policy now—as we have good reason to believe at least—happily changed, it will not be surprising if some sort of complimentary concession to the conference shall have been wrung Pram the Sultan's government. But, when, in the words of one of the despatches, people talk of his " acceptance" of the Vienna proposition, it is for gotten that, beyond the proposal for an armistice, which we may assume to be refused, the only pro position made was that the Porte should say upon what terms it would make peace. The latest news leads to no presumption that these terms will imply a waiver of any of those inadmissible conditions upon which Russia has all along insisted, or that the so called acceptance will in any way neutralise the last instructions sent to the fleets. The Leonides, which left Constantinople on the 13th, has arrived at Marseilles. The Bourse has been in high spirits to day. The telegraphic despatches from Constantinople Zalready known in London), announcing that the fleets had not left on the 13th, and that the Porte was disposed to negotiate produced each an effvet that the rente, which left off yesterday at 73fr. 75c., opened at 74fr. 30c., and speedily sprung up to 74fr. 33e. But the first telegraphic despatch from London bringing Consols at 934, 4, without change from Saturday, people began to have less confidence in their own construction of the news,..and there was a ~ slight retrograde movement. The second quotation, however, reporting that Consols had risen gave a smart stimulus to the disposition to buy, and the rents ran up to 74fr. 80c., and closed at 74fr. 70c., with a rise of 95c. A report that the Moniteur of to morrow would contain an official intimation that the Porte had con sented to negotiate on the basis of the last Vienna note, added to the firmness of the market. Bank of France rose 4fr.; Credit Nlobilier, 17fr. 50c.; St. Germain Railway, 12fr. 50c.; Orleans, 201 r.; Rouen, 1 lfr. 25c. ; Rouen and Havre, 7fr. 50e.; Northern, 17fr. 50c.; Strasbourg, 16fr. 25c. ; Lyons, 15fr. ; Lyons and Mediterranean, 151 r. ; Southern, 14fr. 75c. All the hues without exception were higher. ITALY. The following telegraphic de,pateh has been re ceived from Turin : TURIN, DEC. 26. In the sitting of to-day, the Chamber of Deputies elected M. Buncompagni, the Ministerial candidate, as its president, by a majority of 74, out of 107 who voted. The candidate of the Left only got 20 votes. ' Thirteen votes were dispersed. GERMANY. BERLIN, CHRISTMAS DAY. General Radowitz died to-day at noon. His death was tranquil and without pain. He has left a very large circle of loving friends, and the whole German public has long been accustomed to regard him as one of the celebrities of the times. Joseph Von Radowits, many years the favourite adviser of the present King of Prussia, and some time his recognised minister, was burn February 6,1797, at Standen terg, among the Hire mountains. His family belonged originally to the numerous small nobility of Hungary, but his grandfather settled in Germany in the middle of the eighteenth century. His father, who had studied law at Gottingen, enjoyed in the duchy of Brunswick the title of State Councillor, a compliment paid him by Duke Charles. Joseph received his early education, partly at home and partly in a school at Altenberg, whither his family removed a few years after his birth. His mother was a Protestant, and until his fourteenth year the boy was instructed in the principles of the same confession. In 1812, however, his father, a catholic, took his education in band, and removed him to a school where his own tenets were inculcated. Being designed from an early period for a military career in the service of Westphalia, then the kingdom of Jerome Bonaparte, he was sent by his father to France, to perfect himself in the language of the new ruler. In French and Westphalian schools he also studied the art of war. At the close of his academic course, in 1812, Radowitz war found highly proficient in mathematics, upon which Bonaparte had laid great stress as a military qualification, and was ap pointed an artillery officer of Westphalia. At the battle of Leipsic he commanded a Wesphalian battery, was wounded, and taken prisoner. Previous exhibitions of bravery had procured forlhis name a place in the roll of the Legion of Honour. Upon the dissolution of the Westphalian kingdom and the return of t►e Elector of Hesse-Cassel, Radowitz entered the service of the latter, and mule with the Hessian artillery the campaign against France. His talents quickly commanded the attention of hie new superiors, and in 1815, at the age of eighteen, he was appointed first teacher of mathematics and the military sciences to the School for Cadets at Cassel. The return of peaceful times gave him opportunities for the study of philosophy and history,which he embraced with ardour. Having become profoundly ac quainted with human opinions by close study, he was now to be driven, through the laxity and vices of others, into the highly-intellectual circle of Berlin society, so favourable to the development of real talent. On the 27th of February, 1821, the Elector William 11. assumed the government of Hesse-Cassel. This Prince, faithful to the hereditary pro fligacy of his house; now took up with one Emily Orleppe, a woman of notorious morals, brought her from the garrison of Berlin, and in the face of his amiable and virtuous wife, sister of Friderick William 111., of Prussia, raised her to the diguity of Countess of lteichenbach. It was not enough that he inflicted this cruel wrong on the princess his con sort, bat he treated her with personal violence. Whoever had a word to say on behalf of the injured lady fell into dis grace. The Eleetress, hard pressed and without friends, one day asked counsel of Radowits, who, as tutor to her son, bad access to the court. The letter in which he gave her his serious advice fell into the Elector's hands, and Radowitz was immediately dismissed irom the Hessian service, in which at that time he was a captain. lie now repaired to Berlin, and entered the service of Prussia, and having the recommendation of the King's sister, speedily obtained ad vancement. He became, in the first instance, mathematical tutor to Prince Albrecht of Prussia, and was • captain on the general staff. He published two form►l works on Geo metry and one on Ricochet, during the first ten years *this new career. He was elected member of the highest military board, a professor at the military academy, and an examiner of artillery students. In 1828 he became major, and in 1830 chief of the artillery general staff. While thus ad vancing, with firm and rapid step, through the grades of his military hierarchy, he was forming a relation of a yet more important kind. A religious mystic and enthusiast, his disposition agreed exactly with that of the Crown-prince, now the King of l'russia; and this geniality of temper and habit proved of tar greater power than the diversity of the dog.nss, which, as Protestant and Catholic, the one and the other held. The acquaintance here spoken of began in the year 1821, when Radowits first met the crown-prince at Berlin, whither he had come (torn Huse upon some military business. In 1824 Radowits spent several months at Sans- Souci, as tutor to Prince t Albrecht, when their social and re ligious ellnities had full play, and from this time the influ ence of this singular man over the prince may be dated. Resembling Frederick-William in the sensitiveness of his nature, disposed, like him, to undervalue the present, in his reverence for a romantic put, and ever forming some ideal remote from the practical life of man, Radowitz had, a• th e same time, a resolute will, great penetration, and unbeiffiel • courage—all qualities in which his royal companion :e l and, lamentably deficient. His intercourse with society d i sclosed - are ts the stronger part of his . nature. In business affairs ' council, at the Diet, it might be difficult to detect his secret policy, or the system of principles (rout which he stirte e d or at which he aimed ; but his opinions on the matter im mediately in hand were always expressed eh arly, deed, in a somewhat defiant tone. In 1828 Radowitz mar ried the Countess Maria Voss, daughter of the ambassador. News" of 1831 He Wall now, despite of his origin, a recognised member of the court, and without any of the cares or reepensibilitl t s of office, shared all its counsels. His .• Recent Dealogu e e Church and State" are taken from actual couversat i l with Gerlach, General von der Groben, the late Coutit Brandenberg, and °the rs, of the old school. liadowitrs ideas of reforming the Pr ossia of twenty years age, be found in his pamphlets and in articles contributed by the e,4 l k beesi a d o ofns then that him to she ...Berlin Political Weekly historical " Nous ne Teutons pas la contre-revolution, l e ' contraire de la revolution," he once wrote ; by which we are to understand that he regerded the revolution se a mass of abstractions existing only in the world of imagination, Radowitz nrete. existing, wished to fur be the improved contr a b r: c n o n 1 1 p t r h o this , Something and e 0 e xi s s i t c. 4 h T e he reg r a r r o d e c i d netil t D he it ta his o representative system which he wished to see arise in Prussia, not as something created, but organieally grown. The notion of the counter-revolution he looked upon as a mere negative principle. necessarily barren, and, therefore, unfit to be the inspiring idea „f any state sman. But to return to the Life of Itedowi.z. in the year 1829 he published two Meeks, remarkable for the contrast of their subjects. The first of these was Iconograpy of the Saints," containing historic notices of all the representations of th e saints which have come down to posterity in pictures, coins, and other memorials ; with remarks on the meaning of the emblems, attitudes, and other characteristics with which they have been invested. The other work was called "The Theatre of War in Turkey," being an application of strate getieal principles to the topographical features of the country between the Danube and the Balkan. In 1836 Radowitz was named Military Plenipotentiary of Prussia at the Ger manic Diet. This appointment, a kind of honourable banish ment, he owed to the influence of his opponents at court and in the ministry, men who distrusted his opinions and feared his increasing ascendancy over the mind of the crown prince. In 1840, the prospect of war with France upon the accession of M. Thiers led to the recall of It edowitz to Berlin, whence he was shortly after sent with General von der Groben to Vienna, to stir up the government of Austria to the defence of Germany. The war never came, but Radowitz brought about a series of reforms, which greatly contributed to the efficiency of the federal army, and also did more than any other man towards promoting the erection of the existing fortresses of Ulm and Rattail, and the extension and greater strengthening eif Mayence and Luxembourg. la his conference with Metternich he warned him that a tho rough reform of the Blind was necessary, sod received from the Austrian a premise that, as soon as the impending danger should have passed over, ho would concert means with Prussia to that end. Security returned, and Austria, fearful that her heterogeneous monarchy would an to pieces, was glad to find in the smaller gevei nmenta the greatest disinclination tea change. ltaelowez now endeavoured to carry out, by his influence in Prussia, several reforms cal culated on the cautious scale already indicated. lle was the author of the proposition for abolishing the censorship in Prussia, which was debated in the cabinet, and declined out of regard for the decrees of the Build. Several alterations of the old oppressive laws were, however, introduced by l ate decrees of February, 23, 1813. In 1847 the present king called Radowitz from Frankfort, and commissioned him to draw up a memorial upon the reconstitution of the Confe deration. This was done, and the memorial was handed to the king, Nor. 20 of the same year. The next day Redo write went to Vienna, to make good his views with Prince Metternich. A second journey was undertaken to Vienna in the following March, when the revolution broke out. The memorandum propos d a compacter organisation of the federal army, a supreme judicial court fur all Germany, one criminal law, one commercial and bankruptcy code, one customs union, oce railway and post-office system, free trade in all provisions, abolition of river-tolls and of the censure, and, finally, the publication of the proceedings of the Bund. The outbreak of the revolution made all these proposed reforms seem insignificant and far below the ne• cessities of the case : probably by this thiso they are mea sured by a different standard. To execute them, Radowitz considered it of the first importance to obtain the hearty good-will of Austria if Anglia would take them up, Prussia would fall back into her old position ; if not, she would with regret, but without fear, pursue them by means of special treaties of the nature of the Zollverein. Swiss affairs and the troubles in Italy delayed the meeting of the Congress which had been celled by Austria to discuss these subjects, until the revolution of March placed the settlement of such questions beyond the power of cabinets. In April, 1818, Radowitz retired from the Prussian service in consequence of the outbreak and the changed state of affairs. In the elections to the National Assembly, which was to meet at Frankfort, he was returned for Arnsberg in Westphalia. He took his seat in the As sembly, hoping that the public spirit of Germany would put an end to the revolution by accepting the new power it had given to the representatives of the nation, as the basis of those tangible reforms which had, up to that time, becu at tempted in vain. He spoke and voted with the extreme right, desiring to see the thirty-nine cove reignties formed into one true state, of which, since the Austro-Germanic provinces were members of an extra-Germanic monarchy, Prussia must be the head. The statement of principles drawn up by the Radowitz party on the 30th September, 1848, bears the signatures of Vincke, Detwold, Count Sch werin, and thirty other deputies. In the Assembly, Redo witz was a frequent speaker ; although no orator, his words always had great weight. Meissner the poet has described, as sitting in the St. Paul's church, a dark, severe-looking man, never speaking to his neighbour, but brooding over the cause in hand until the division, when his powerful voice would be heard with " Sitzenbleiben," or " Auf stehen," according as he wished his party to vote for or against. On the 27th of May, 1849, having, doubtless, the miserable end of the Vienna and Berlin parliaments in prospect, he demanded that a committee of five members should be appointed to confer with the authorities of the City of Frankfort, and learn what military fore • had been provided to protect the National Assembly from molesta tion ; and, in the event of an unsatisfactory answer, to apply to the nearest government for a sultkient guard. Such a proceeding on the part of a king's companion argues some degree of boldness. The melancholy end of thu As- Nelibly, upon which Germany had built so many end great hopes, is too well known. To the last, Radowitz was faithful to the principles which had always guided him: to the last he sought the unity of Germany by a voluntary aerangement between the governments and peoples. When his hopes in the Assembly had been frustrated, he returned to Berlin by desire of the king, and became rho author of the scheme called the Union. In accordance with this, a kind of federal body was formed of about eighteen states, the princes of which met in a congress, while the people were represeated in a parliament which was convoked at Erfurt. A constitution was formed, and the princes were summoned to Berlin to adopt it. Redo wit! could not per ceive that the princes were bound to adopt the constitution voted at Erfurt. Delays and hesitation took place ; and when, as was to be expected, Austria opposed with growing strength the establishmect of a league against her, the so vereigns of the Union states found that their conduct bad lost them the confidence of the people. As the crisis ap proached, it was felt that Radowitz was bound to come for ward and assume the responsibility of his r sets measures. He accordingly entered the cabinet in 18.50. The Prussian army was mobilised, and the Landwehr called out troops occupied the Etappen-atraase through Hasse-Cassel, in which Austria had intervened. Shots were actually exchanged be tween Austria and Prunes, when the king gave way, and sacrificed, with expressions doubtless of sincere regret, his minister and friend. Radowitz has been assailed in this country as an impracticable and rash man. It is, however, clear from the foregoing narrative that he understood the wants of his country ; and although the revolution struck the ground from under his feet, and compelled him to work , upon a new basis, it ishy no means certain that, had his high / vented policy of placing Prussia at the bead of the German n movement for practical and constitutional reform been car ried out, that country might have defied the Emperor of .5, Angela, to whose chariot it is now bound. of LIABILITY OF THE PILOT SERVICE.—IMPORTANT Isrouruv.—An inquiry was held on Tuesday before Joseph Pollock, EN., judge of the county court at Liverpool, at the suit of the Liverpool Dock Trust against Messrs. Brawn, Shipley, and Co., owners or agents of the Collins line of American steam vessels, to recover damages for injuries sustained by the Bell Buoy, situate at the mouth of the Mersey, which was struck by the steamer Baltic, while en tering that river on the 14th April last. It appeared that on the morning of the above date, the vessel was coming in at the rate of 12 knots an hour, in charge of a pilot, who mistook the lights, and although a proper look-out had been kept, the buoy was not discovered until too close to avoid a collision. Several parties connected with the port. were examined for the purpose of showing that the vessel was going too quick, and that the captain should have in terfered with the pilot when he must have known he was acting wrongfully. For the defence it was urged that the owners could not be considered responsible, as the law com pelled them to take a pilot, and defined very clearly the duties both of the pilot and of the captain. The accident had arisen from a want of judgment upon the part of the pilot, who stated in his affidavit that he mistook the lights and considered he had passed the buoy, mail he heard the man sing out, when it was too late to avert a collision. The speed was not greater than usual on a clear evening, and the captain stated in evidence, that during his last voyage he went at the same speed, and under the tame circumstances. Decision was deferred until the 9th of January. SOUTH AUSTRALIAN PARLIAMENT BILL.—The bill for establishing a parliament in South Australia, passed its third reading on Thursday in the Legislative Council. On the question for the third reading being put, Mr. Dutton moved that the bill be read that day two months. A long discussion ensued, which ended in a division, when the third reading was carried by a majority of four. This majority would probably have been increased to eight had the whole of the members been present. Yesterday, Mr. Dutton moved " That an address be presented to his excellency the , lieutenant governor, praying that as soon as the current business of the present session shall be concluded, he will dissolve the council, in order that the opinion of the coo , nists may be takes on the proposed parliament bill." This motion was lost by a majority of seven. — Adelaide (Marco% , Oct. 1. SOUTH EASTERN RAlLWAT.—Traffic for the week s ending Dec. 24, 1853, 14,1451.75. 4d. ; ditto Dec• 25, 1852, l 14,1411.85. 7d. Increase in 1853, 3/. 181. 9d. THE E The ell t h e .20th in the en of the ?P - . provision ai s poliio bad ma' Court, d, &claret', loos seen der, "hi jurors po alleged an' Wa y the 001111110 1 of the pl gent rue L iv e be , Ho wdee Madrid, r vernm is feared governm Sir 'Lobe or that f The eet Blane 6, plies to t being ri obtain ri The to presenter From classes of to a deg This unt poorer el peculiar lately bet Open and iuhabitan dependeo this city, affluent c lower arc distress, • that the cessation less tha tion thi fortunate usual cot physical of crime the prcs subject t us to call in fact tl dress to were, it surprise , graph i drunker difgract Governs Chrome authorit comm that adopts the p( 11 a gen mail, to Mc bel pal eta