The Express. — London, England, 1847-09-30 00:00:00

charge of those duties which arc now nominally per formed, in the City, by ward inquests—in the other parishes of the metropolis, by officers, under different titles, connected with the vestries. Practically, how ever, and even with the extended powers and simple forms of procedure conferred by the late Nuisance Re moval Act, it is not, generally, till some public-spirited person takes up the nuisance on his own account, that the parochial artillery is brought to bear upon it. In habitants of the more respectable quarters of the metropolis know nothing of the abominations that poison their poorer neighbours. The poor man sen sibly feels the immediate annoyance ot' the nuisance, but little dreams of its more serious and remote effects. This ignorance is shared by all alike, except medical and scientific men, whose duty, or whose hu manity, leads them into the filthiest parts of London. The decomposing refuse of our cesspools and sewers gives rise to three distinct gaseous products, each of which has its fatal influences, if the human system be exposed to it, in a condensed form. These products are, sulpharetted hydrogen, hydrosulphuret of ammonia, and nitrogen. The air containing these exhalations has been collected, and its vapour con densed by cold, and other agents. A residuum has been obtained, which has been proved by ex periments to produce every variety and type of fever in healthy animals. In the form in which these poisons are usually breathed—that is, largely diluted with air— they produce only languor and depression. But when the poison is less diluted, or given off in more con centrated forms, it produces fevers, choleras, dysen twice, and other epidemics. Sometimes, as when issuing from freshly-stirred cesspools, or newly opened graves, it kills as instantaneously as prussic acid. All parochial or local action on the sources of these poisonous exhalations is most active when least wanted, and least active when most wanted. For example, first-class streets are ecavengered once a week ; second-class, once a fortnight ; third-class, once a month ; and worst class never. This, it is obvious, is an exact inversion of the proper order. Those streets that are never cleansed are precisely those which should be cleansed daily. Oar columns of yesterday contain a painful illus tration of the neglect or insufficiency of oar present machinery for the suppression of nuisances. Christ. church workhouse, in the Whitechapel union, is situated in a neighbourhood polluted with nuisances of the most pernicious kind. Several children in that workhouse died last week from disease attri buted by the surgeon entirely to the poisonous ex halations from these places. An inquest was held on one of these poor little victims on Tuesday. The surgeon ascribed her death to the effects of an atmo sphere loaded with the effluvia from a manufactory of manure from night-soil and bullock's blood. These odoriferous compounds are exposed to the influences of sun and wind in the open air. A description of two such establishments, from Dr. HECTOR GAIN'S instructive lecture on the Unhealthiness of London, and the necessity of remedial measures," will enable our readers to apprehend how sufficient such causes may be to produce such effects. As an instance of one of the nuisances existing in London, I may refer to a nightman's yard in Ty/own-street, Church street, Shoreditch. In passing through this wretched quarter of London, where destitution and misery are only equalled by the intense filthiness which is painfully and per petually present, summer and winter, I stumbled on this revolting spectacle. Mountains of filth, dust, dirt, and ashes, mixed with decaying animal and vegetable matter and manure, were classified and piled up as high as the houses, and covered a very large space of ground. The continual additions which are daily made to this enormous accumula tion, and the sifting and sorting of it, cause the loose par ticles en the surface to be wafted by each wind over this wretched locality, to be deposited in the streets and houses, and inhaled by the inhabitants. In Edinburgh all this refuse is daily removed three miles from the outskirts of the town, and the sale of it supplies the municipal body with [ands not only sufficient for the perfect cleansing of the town, but affords them a profit of several thousands of pounds - sterling. • On the western aids otSpitalfields workhouse, and entered boa a died dolled QlllllllllAiffeet, is a nightinaks yard, on a . ardlisr sole lbw 1110,04 described. A heap of dung, and terse of every ilowlptioa, about the size of a pretty large house, lies pled to the left of the yard ; to the right, is an artificial pond, into which the contents of cesspools are thrown. The contents are allowed to desiccate in the open air; and they are frequently stirred for that purpose. The odour which was given off when the contents were raked up, to give me an auurance that there was nothing so very bad in the alleged nuisance, drove me from the place with the utmost speed I was master of. On two sides of this horrid collection of excremental matter. was a patent manure ma nufactory. To the tight, in this yard, was a large accumula tion of dung, de.; but, to the left, there was an extensive layer of a compost of blood, ashes, and nitric acid, which gave out the most horrid, offensive, and disgusting concen tration of putrescent odours it has ever been my lot to be the victim of. The whole place presented a most foul end filthy aspect, and an example of the enormous outrages which are perpetrated in London against society. It is a =tins fact, that the parties who had charge of these two premises were each dead to the foulness of their own most pestilential nui sances. The nightman's servant accused the eternises of the manure manufacturer as the source of perpetual foul smells, but thought his yard free from any particular cause of com plaint; while the servant of the patent manure manufacturer diligently and emmestly averted the perfect freedom of his master'e yard from foul exhalations; but considered that the raking up of the drying night soil, on the other side of the wall, was ' quite awful, and enough to kill anybody." The jury, in pronouncing their verdict in Wednes day's case, expressed their surprise that such a nuisance as the manure manufactory should be allowed to exist. They might have reserved their wonder. There are whole districts of London in which these sources of disease and death stand by scores, pell-mell with the dense and miserable life they do so much to embitter and shorten. It is remarkable how little one is affected by the most weighty considerations, if at all remote, in competition with the most trivial, if immediate. A shilling in the pound added to a rate is a palpable and duiagreeable fact, against which it is idle to set the annual saving of 20,000 lives and a million of money. Such calculations of the gain to life and pocket from efficient sanitary regulation do not appear more exaggerated to the ignorant, than they seem under rated to those who have studied the subject. It is to be hoped that the number of the latter is increasing daily. Only by their increase can the dead weight of parochial ignorance and selfishess be overcome. A vrw days ago a person, of the name of DARBY, was indicted at the Central Criminal Court for obtain. ing money under false pretences. It appeared that the prisoner had induced the prosecutor to discount a bill for 851., accepted by one TERRY, by means of certain statements as to the character and responsi bility of the acceptor, which were in fact untrue. To prove the guilty knowledge of DARBY, that his representation' were false, the counsel for the prose cution tend in evidence the examination of the de fendant hi , taken in the Court of Bankruptcy, in which he ad that TERRY was his brother-in law, andlarse not, as alleged to the discounter of the bill, a West India merchant, but a person in poor cir cumstances. The solicitor, who had opposed the defendant in the Court of B ankruptcy, stated that the examination in that court had been conducted with a view to the establishment of the charge of misdemeanor, which it was now l)t forward to support. On an objection being taken to the admission of this evidence, the Recorder rejected it, on the ground that "it wee contrary to natural justice and to the principle s of the law of England, that a man who was in the peaks of the defendant should be compelled to MIRO! gin- tions without any caution, purly framed with a view to prefer a criminal c ha rge against him.? Accordingly the prisoner was acquitted. With all our respect for the law of evidence, we cannot but think that when a criminal charge is clearly brought home to a defendant—when judge, itiry, and spectators are satisfied of his guilt beyond a doubt—it is, on the whole, desirable that the verdict should, if possible, correspond to the universal per suasion. " Natural justice" is but a vague term for the acquittal of the guilty, and "the principles of the law of Eng l an d " are e v en more uncertain _ _ and indefinite than atnre or justice. The Recorde - that the , o f - • is fully lustified in asserting ttia, dicta of various judges, in which alone " the principles" to which he refers are to be found, have introduced into the doc trine of evidence, in the department of admissions and confessions, a collection of blundering refine ments and clumsy s ubtleties which would have de lighted MARTINUS S CRIBLERUS, or the philosophers of ',sputa. Thus it has been held, that if a prose• cutor or constable tells a thief that what he says will be used against him at his trial, a subsequent con fession may be given in evidence; bat if he is told that his statement will be used for or against him, it must be excluded, on the ground that a hope of benefit was held out to him. Of late, we believe the judges have been disposed to retrace their steps in some degree, or, at least, to carry their ingenious prudishness, in shuttin ears to confessions, no farther ; bat the doctr ines which have already been N 7 N THE EXPRESS, THURSDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 30, 1847. laid down on the subject can only be exceeded in oddity by the wonderful lucubration of the Queen's Bench, for the last twelve years, in the department of parish law. The English method of dealing with confessions is singularly different from that which prevails in all countries which have founded their jurisprudence on Roman law. In France, the accused is rigorously examined both in the preliminary proceedings and at his trial, and in Germany even his confession is sifted and tested by the most rigorous cross-examination, so that after a prisoner has been hammed and tormented into an admission he is not unfrequently teased into a retractation of it. It is assumed throughout the continent that a confession is almost indispensable to complete the evidence of guilt, and accordingly it is a principal object of judicial tribunals to obtain it. In England, on the contrary, con fessions are carefully discouraged. Prisoners are warned of the consequences, are allowed to withdraw a plea of not guilty, and are secure against the pro duction of any admission which they may have made under undue influence either of hope or fear. In applying this rule, we have fallen into errors of excess and pedantry, but we have little doubt that the English system is, on the whole, sounder than that of the continent. The almost ostentatious fairness of our mode of dealing with persons accused of crime, the anxiety which is shown to avoid any undue advantage over them, and the national custom of allowing them, like foxes, sufficient " law," have all tended powerfu ll y to create' the universal sympathy and confidence with which the administration of criminal justice is regarded when the decision is against the prisoner. It is, however, not unim portant to secure our criminal law against the corre sponding defect of which it is justly accused, of favouring the guilty by straining the rules devised for the protection of the innocent. The abolition of grand juries, and consequently of criminal pleading, would deprive the guilty of one main chance of escape which they now possess ; but it is not less necessary to check the niggling and so phistical minuteness which leads to the rejection of evidence substantially bearing upon the issue. The judges have, we think, in some cases, dealt with con fessions in this hypercritical spirit, but we are not aware that any of them have gone so far as the Recorder in the decision which we have mentioned above. _ _ . . . . We are not concerned to refute his objection to the admission of DARBY'S examination as inconsistent with "natural justice." As a late learned baron, much given to convicting prisoners, remarked, in answer to an oratorical defendant : "We have nothing to do with justice—we sit here to administer the law." If Muer was legally liable to conviction, natural justice would certainly not have been greatly outraged 'by his punishment. It is more material to consider " the principles of the law of England " under which the evidence was excluded. One of the meat unde niable principles or propositions of that law is, we believe, that a judge has no right to reject evidence which he has a right to admit ; and we are at a Ices to understand how he was precluded from receiving the examination iu bankruptcy. The counsel for the crown tendered the best evidence, namely, the official copy of statements made by the defendant relating to the subject matter of the indictment. The object of the parties who, by their questions, led the de fendant to make the statements was wholly Immate rial. The Recorder was bound to presume, in the proceedings of a court acting within its own jurisdic tion, emma rite en? acts, that no undue hopes or fears were held out to the examinant, and that cautions were given, if cautions were, as they are not, indis pensable. What is the meaning of the well-known rule, that answers in Chancery or evidence in any court may be brought against the person who utters them, if it is in the power of a judge to reject them because they were extracted with some ulterior view? Even the ordinary caution to a witness not to crimi nate himself by his answer involves an admission that he may so criminate himself, or, in other words, that the answer, even if the caution is omitted, may be given in evidence against the witness on any subsequent occasion. It was never suggested that the meaning of such a caution was, as the Re corder would interpret it, that it made the subsequent statements of the witness admissible in evidence against him. His doctrine indeed, as far as it has any . foundation at all, is wholly misapplied. The " principle of law " of which he seems to be thinking, relates not to the impunity of a prisoner, but to the protection of a witness. Even assuming, as he had no right to assume, that the Court of Bankruptcy had acted improperly is not cautioning DARBY, this objection amounted to a criticism of that tribunal and of its procedure, not to an objection to the admissibility of the examination. It is a principle of law that a witness cannot be compelled to injure himself in furtherance of justice to others. On the trial of a civil or criminal issue, or in the progress of an inquiry such as that which takes place into the affairs of a bankrupt, a witness is entitled to refuse to give an answer which may be used as evidence against him on any criminal charge. It is usual, but by no means indispensable, to inform him of the privilege to which he is entitled ; but the object with which the question which he may decline to answer is asked is wholly immaterial, provided that it is relevant to the matter of inquiry at the moment. It is very possible that DARBY may have made the statements respecting TERRY under a constructive compulsion to tell the truth. Thecommissioner in bank ruptcy would no doubt have withheld his certificate, if he had refused to give information as to a person with whom he had been connected in business. But this is not such a duress as to invalidate in law the evidence which it might aid in extracting. The examinant was entitled in law to say, I refuse to answer any question about TERRY which might bear upon a criminal charge against me." The court would have allowed hie privilege, and exercised its discre tion in judging of his honesty. As he preferred the course of telling the truth to the commissioner, he was not entitled afterwards to deny that it was e. The Recorder gives him the double advantage of passing his examination—as an honed man willing to give information as to his: affairs, and of being secured against the inconvenient consequences of his candour where it involves the admission of a fraud. Not sharing in any degree in the Recorder's moral indignation against the solicitor who procured the re acted evidence, we nevertheless believe the judge lieved that he was acting in accordance with law and justice. We think it right, however, to take this opportunity of calling attention to the extravagancies which some of the judges who can make law have introduced into the doctrine of confessions, in the hope that they may be startled by the improvement, even on their own refinements, which the Recorder, though he cannot make law, has on this occasion attempted in practice. IF the secure enjoyment of the railway* already completed be a concern not so much of the wealthiest as of the industrious and frugal members of the middle classes, it is also of the highest importance to the working men of this country that no vexatious acts on the part of the state, or uiconsiderete popular out cry, should check the reasonable progress of works of this kind. To the labourers, artisans, and mechanics of England, the construction of railways and of the implements for their service, has opened a fund of employment, the closing of which would soon be felt in quarters and in ways that heedless declaimers against the railway system little think of. When it is remembered that, up to this time (or within about seventeen years), there have been expended upon making railways something near 100 million. of pounds sterling in the wages of labour, and in the machinery and stock which the artisan has been paid for making, independently of the sums given for land or otherwise spent—lnds pendently, too, of the wages of men engaged in work ing them—it will be seen that the healthy progress of a liminess which now expends at least seven millions annually on British labour, is of far more moment to our working men—to that useful portion of society in short, which includes the poorer and the middle classes—than to any fancied party of capitalists, whom alone it is usual to speak of as having anything to care for in this matter. Theoperationof making railways, in fact, if welook at the effect of the prooees on the working poor, is to provide largely for their support in the way of a voluntary rate, contributed by those who have some money, for the employment of hundreds of thousands who would otherwise have none—with this ' advantage, meanwhile, to distinguish it from compul sory levies for the aid of indigence, that here the em ployment is fruitful, and the assistance is afforded by means that rather elevate than degrade those who are so benefited. At the present moment, when certain parties are loony demaediag the steivege of all further runway expeedittixe, it is importsnkto keep this side of the gass eies aserly , in view. 'Mee whe would abruptly cut oft the sitpplies by means of which vast numbers of the *taking class are now mulvly employed, nnw well be required to explain how they are pre pared to meet the destitution which must be caused by suddenly throwing the greater part of these hands out of work ; and in what manner, if the railway con- t rae t a ar e suspended, the mass of labourers, artisans, and: mechanics whom that measure would tarn out —to say nothing of the tradesmen, manufacturers, and shopkeepers who supply their consumption and the materials they handle—are to be kept throughout the coming winter ? The process is not finished by merely forbidding railwav companies to spend any more money, to make any grther calls. The mouth hitherto supplied with honest bread in this way, must still be fed ; you cannot get rid of the working men by stopping the works that employ them now. It is, therefore, worth while to inquire what would be the financial gain to the country,of converting a large class of its inhabitants from labourers into paupers at the present juncture :—in other words, of throwing them for subsistence upon the nation at large, to be kept in idleness, instead of letting them continue to draw the support of industry, from the means of cer tain persons who are willing to spend their money in giving them employment. This alternative must be proved likely to amend the state of the country, before the stoppage of railway expenditure can be regarded as a wholesome relief in its present diffi culties. With this view of the subject—perhaps the most important of all, and to all, in times like ours—we shall for the present conclude. Already our examina tion of this matter has taken up a consider die space ; yet it has by no means exhausted the list of topics that belong to a full view of the question ; sad %ass we have treated have been merely discussed in a summary way : from which details of the matters of fact crowding to be presented in evidence, and all nicer ramifications of argument, were necessarily ex cluded. We have only pretended to give outlines of the general figure of a matter which has been too often treated with the inconsiderate haste of ignorance, and at times with the mischievous arta of malice. It will be seen, at least, on a mere survey of the various essential points raised for consideration in these no tices of ours, that the subject is not quite so simple and trivial as to be despatched in a few ex porte sen tences ; that the interests at stake are too serious to be a safe object for rash experiments. Let us recapitulate some of the principal results of our inquiry. As far as the public are concerned, it appears that to them, in any sense implying default, the railway system owes nothing, and has given much: that they travel more cheaply, faster, and in every other respect are better treated than they were before railways were. As far as the state is concerned, we have seen that whatever it has granted they have fairly purchased and honestly paid for ; that it declines the useful province they have oc cupied ; and that its late attempts to act in it were in the nature of a punishment in return for past good done, and of an impediment in the way of future good. That there is no visible necessity for taking the conduct of the machine out of the hands of its framers ; and that, did the necessity exist, there is no reason to conclude that a transfer into the hands of the state would produce any improvement ; while for the latter to interfere at discretion by fits and starts, without wholly undertaking the charge, could only mischievously perplex its movements. That by the system which the government of this country has de hberately chosen, it has been agreed that these works should be made by private means, the owners of which were induced so to employ them by ex pectations of profiting thereby ; that their profits, hitherto, have been made on a scale of charges and of service better than the compact with the state enjoined, better than the people of this nation ever enjoyed before; that, such being the case, the promoters are fairly entitled to the full reward of their enterprise; and that the nation has no right to demand the forfeiture of their profits merely because it may desire to have still more conveniences, and to pay still less for them. And it may be added that such an act of injustice, if com mitted, would, as all wrong-doing will, result in the end to the detriment of those who might think to gain by it ; that the material, to say nothing of moral, effects of destroying the security on which private men have made this venture, with infinite advantage to the state, would ultimately be to paralyse the body that committed the wrong. As for the railway interest, such as it now is, it appears that it is by no means the monster that some persons have taken pleasure in de *cting, but a body from whose activity has proceeded the most valuable material boon that this nation has received in the present century, and against which no authentic proof of malfeasance has yet been produced ; that it is governed by , men of reputable station, not wholly engrossed in its gains, but intimately connected with many other great national interests, and, from this and other causes, sensibly alive to popular influences; unlikely to jeopardise their characters by sordid or rookies§ woduct ; and, as late years, especially, have shown, quite as eager to promote the public objects of the system as to look after the dividends of the share holders. That in such hands the public interests run no risk of being overlooked ; and that, were any such default to take place, the public are quite able to procure sufficient redress, without calliag upon other influence than their own combined powers, and the existing laws for the regulation of railways. Finally, we have seen that a pretty large section of the public itself is now concerned in the three hundred millions' worth of property thus created: that, if its revenues are forcibly seized upon, or seri ously maimed, the chief weight of this injury will fall upon persons of moderate or narrow means, invested by a class deserving of protection rather than severity, on the good faith of the legislature; and that, should the interference of the state by such acts create a dis trust of its safety, or in other ways impede the further progress of the system, not only will a stop be put to a process by which the nation is sure to gain, whoever else may win or lose—a process which, if private capital is frightened out of con tinuing it, will come to a stand-still, the state itself being neither able nor willing to take it up—not only will this happen, we say, but a source of profitable employment, directly medal to this country, of the workmen of this country, will be dried up ; and the capital, which has of late been a maintenance to the labouring classes, of some seven or eight millions a year, will be apt to flow into other, and perhaps into foreign channels, barren at good to England. The sum of these considerations, we think, is obvi ous. There is no adequate ground for state inter ference, or for confiscation of property, in this matter. The kind of interference lately proposed, tending to rsecute rather than to improve, may therefore fairly be deprecated. Lastly :to lay a rash hand on the present outlay of capital in useful works, will be a questionable, if not dangerous, measure. Such is the conclusion to which a deliberate examination of the points we have briefly toached upon, will be apt to lead an impartial judgment. On many of these heads we have rather given hints than attempted a thorough exposition,— which, however, there will be no difficulty in under taking hereafter for any of the matters too briefly handled, should a more detailed inquiry be needed. Our present design has been simply to lay down some well considered positions on a subject which the press has been apt to dispose of in a very random fashion, and which appeared to deserve on every account a more serious treatment. This we hope has now in some measure been accomplished. The nomination of Marshal Soillt to the honorary dignity of Marshal-General of France has already ex cited the remarks of the oppoeitioa against the en croachments of the royal prerogative, and ridicule at the grotesque attempts of the monarchy of July to ape the forms of the ancien regime, whilst it cannot grasp at the power. The royal ordonnance announcing the new I dignity of the ex-president of the council is followed in the Moniteur, as we stated yesterday, by a sort of apologetic, explanatory note, vidicating two prece dents on which it is implied the present measure rests—those of Turenne and Villa». It is, how ever, advanced against this that precedents which date before the revolution have in this case no force, be cause the royal will, or motu preprio, was then unre stricted, whereas at present the sovereign acts within limits prescribed by the constitution. It is contended that the charter confers no power on the crown to create a new military dignity. It is insinuated that the present is an attempt, characterised by a sort of cunning with which a certain personage is endowed, to create a high military position. which cannot be in the course of nature long occupied by an octo genarian, and which will fall very conveniently and naturally in a few years on the Duke de Nemours. The following, from the Slick, may be taken as a fair sample of the irony with which the opposition papers treat the nomination of the new marshal : fn presence of such an act, must one laugh or feel indig nant I Is it • plaything thrown to Marshal Souk to amnia his second infancy, or a measure calculated with the double object of satisfying the demands of an old servant of the sys tem, and of establishing a new dignity for the purpose of hereafter investing one of the King's eons with it? Let us leave its puerile side, and examine this ordinance seriously. First, is it legal ? It seems to us that the dignity of marshal was created by a decree making part of the constitutions of the empire, and that in creating another superior to it, there is insolence in dispensing with the co operation of the legislative power. In nominating a mar s hal. genera: u: we armies, die government 'nag not ou:y e.evatea! a man to the summit of military honours, but has caused , to be displaced from the first rank all those who believed they had attained it. Why this exception ? Why this title which the empire knew not? Why these comparisons which falsify history ? After having lowered, degraded all the institutions, all the recompenses which the preceding age left to ours, could not the government respect at least our old military glory Turenne was the first captain of the old monarchy; the esteem of the world has even placed him above the grand Conde. Does Marshal Soult believe himself equal to Turcnne ? 1 shays had the extraordinary happiness of saving France, exhausted, invaded, and of preserving to her the greater partof her conquests by his victory of Denairi. Is Marshal Soult very sure of haring saved France at Tou louse, and of having preserved her in 1815 from the disasters of invasion ? We will not, however, discuss the military re nown of Marshal Soult. Our readers know how far we have carried respect for his labours and for hie age; but since we are provoked we must tell the truth. To-day we will confine ourselves to asking this simple question: If Marshal Soult had not disowned the Emperor, and carried a wax-midis, under the Restoration ; if he had not covered by a cowardly complaisance, royal irresponsibility under the present rule, and with ministries the most different ; if, in short, there only remained the useful, the honoured part of his career, would it have entered the idea of the government to bestow upon him an extraordinary title, and would there have been found a soldier in the army, a citizen in the country,. who would have dared to say that Marshal Soult deserved to be elevated to a rank of fortune and honour which had been occupied neither by Marshal Davoust, nor Marshal Lannes, nor the intrepid Ney, nor Messena, the greatest of all It is in vain that the government,through its organ of the press, affects to treat at one time with silent contempt, and at another with ridicule, the reform movement now in progress throughout France. Not withstanding all the repression and discouragement which the government is so easily enabled VI exercise, public opinion is too strong for it, and finds exprea- Ilion in spite of it. The reform demonstrations accord ingly continue. On Sunday last a meeting of 750 persons was held in the tennis-court at Meaux, to record their protest against the present system. Among these were three members of Councils General, a president of a Board of Trade, six councillors of the arrondissement, and seven members of the Chamber of Deputies, among whom were MM. (Millen Barrot, George and Oscar Lafayette, and Ferdinand and Jules de Lasteyrie. The Duke d'Aumale left St. Cloud on Monday morning for Toulon, where he will embark on Satur day next for Algiers. He is accompanied by his aide-de-camp, Baron Jamie, member of the Chamber of Deputies, the Marquis Beaufort d'Hautpoul and the chief of the staff, Donleet,as officers of ordonnance. The Duchess d'Aumale and her children will join his royal highness at Algiers in November. The Conserrateur (a new journal, understood to be published under the auspices of the cabinet, and occu pying the place of the defunct Epoque) carries out the article lately published by the Daute, and says that the difference between Austria and Rome on the Ferrara question has been adjusted. Austria, through Count Lutzow, her ambassador at Rome, agrees to limit her occupation to the citadel, and to withdraw her soldiers from the guard-houses and barracks in the city of Ferrara, which are to be surrendered to the pontifical troops. It is admitted that the temporary occupation of these was a measure dictated only by the necessity of protecting the Austrian garrison in the citadel. The commander of the Austrian troops is, however, to be accommodated with quarters in the ancient convents of Santa Catterina, Santo Benedetto, and Santo Domenico, situate outside the citadel. This arrangement, which has been concluded at Rome, only awaits a formal ratification at Vienfia to be carried in to execution. The Madrid mails of the 2.5 th have been received, but their contents are unimportant. Farther advice have been received from different parts interest. Italy, but they include no events of consider able The Piedmontese Gazette of the 24th inst. says, that the Prince of Canino, after his expulsion from Venice, passed through Ancona en route to Rome, where he wished to address the people, but was informed that the inhabitants of Ancona needed no such stimulus to their loyalty, and the address was declined. Letters from Leghorn of the 20th inst., quoted also by the Turin Journal, say that a reactionary plot, in Which the police were supposed to be implicated, had been detected there. The superintendents of the po libe suddenly abandoned their poets with the purpose of opening the prisons and giving arms to the pri soners. Ihe carbineers and civic guard were called out, and several individuals were arrested. The Duke of Lucca and the hereditary prince, who lately quitted their duchy, were received on the 18th at Modena, by the sovereign of that principality. The government of Parma had decided on sending two companies to the Tuscan frontier. It was reported in that city that 3,000 Austrians were expected to arrive there. _ . . A letter from Florence of the 16th instant an nounces a fact of some importance in the present rela tion of the Italian states. On the evening of the 11th the Chevalier Jules Martini, secretary of the Grand Duke, left for Turin, charged with an extraordinary minion to King Charles Albert. Hitherto Tuscany has been represented at the court of Turin by the Austrian minister there. This gives the measure above-mentioned a certain significancy. It is to the kingdom of Naples, however, that all eyes are directed at present. There the two great principles are in direct and open struggle. No one, save the blind and infatuated despot who presides over the destinies of that country, doubts that the re form of the vast system of abuse and corruption which eats into the vitals of the state is the only effectual remedy for the existing evils, and the only exp edient by which the general excitement and irritation can be allayed. The means of preventing intelligence of the real condition of the country from reaching the rest of Europe, to which the Neapolitan government has resorted , do not pre vent us from making certain inferences from its own public acts. Thus, when we find in the Giornale del R. dells due Sicilie that in spite of the alleged suc cesses of the royal troops, reinforcements consisting of moveable columns, infantry, cavalry, and light ar tillery, are daily sent into the Abruzzi, the Capitanate, and tke province of Molis, which include the entire extent of the kingdom from the frontier of the ponti fical states to the heel of the boot, the whole of the vast tract between the Adriatic and the Appenines, it is not very difficult to infer the truth of the reports brought by individual travellers that the entire king dom is in a state of insurrection. The report of the conflict between the troops under General Nunziante and the insurgents under Romeo, which has arrived, says that 300 of the royal troops were killed or wounded, among whom were fourteen officers. The victory was claimed by the insurgents, who were immediately afterwards strongly reinforced, the chief towns on the coast of, the Adriatic having declared for them. After the battle at Gerace, Romeo is reported to have proposed to General Nunziante an exchange of prisoners, to which the general replied that the application was too late, all the prisoners having been immediately shot, by order of the king. The consequence was, that the royalist prisoners taken by the. insurgents were ordered to be shot. As to the rest, the following letter addressed to the Constaulionnel by an intelligent correspondent, writing from the very theatre of these events, on the 18th, affords a lively, and, according to all appear. ance, a just, picture of the situation of the country. It is dated NAPLES, SEPT. 18.—The situation of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies becomes more complicated every day, notwith standing the assurances given to the contrary by the 4ournala of Naples and Sicily. In order to form &just estimate of this situation, it is necessary to enter into some particulars, I For some years back the kingdom was a scene of the most serious abuses; but things have come to such a pitch that there is no remedy possible hut in the most extensive re forms, or in a revolution. King Ferdinand, an unenlight ened man, has let corruption invade the administration, even in its minuted wheel-work. The sale of places, how ever important or obscure, is now a public fact: every office is sold to the highest bidder. The great vender of all public places is the king's confessor, Bishop Cock. One place is men. tioned, for the granting of which the bishop received 40,000 ducats. He does not disdain the smallest sums for places of minor importance. Five persons, among whom are found a coach-maker , an apothecary, and s priest, keep an open shop for this traffic. A very piquant fact is told on this subject: an individual solicited the place of professor of chemistry; the pries agreed on was I, WO ducats ; payable, one quarter tardy money. This quarter had been paid down, when an unforeseen event occurred, and frustrated all their combine. lions- The same place was solicited by another person, a relative by marriage to the Procureur-General u /a Cour de Caseation, and who had given lessons on chemistry to his majesty. The procureurienirol, who at this moment has frequent interviews with the king, informed his majesty of his protegee desire. The king, remembering the services rendered by the appLenint, took it into hie head to hays the ordinance of nomination draiinup,;,t. - .:-e ienanie, ants ;lone:, it. It is easy to conceive the disappointment of the'first applicant, who immediately claimed the money already paid down; the bishop refused,under the pretence of force majeure. A law suit ensued ; but after the summons had been sent, the poor man was made to understand that if be did not destroy the deed ho should end hie life in shg Castle of St. Elmo. rue aiTair was tia`iie,l up. About a month since a very vio lent pamphlet was spread throughout Naples in the course of a few hours ; it was thrown to the King in his carriage. The sensation was great, the greatest agitation ensued, the council of ministers was convoked, and the King issued a proclamation, in which he recapitulated the services he had rendered his people, and declared he took off a, third of the duty on salt. This concession, which was insufficient, could not appease the public mind. Disturbances broke out in Calabria and Sicily. The journals say Sicily has returned to order it is utterly false. The only certain fact is, that some Sicilian o ffi cers, brought secretly to Naples, were shot a few days since in the fort of St. Elmo. Very serious engagements have taken place in the Calabria and in the Abruzzi. Two chiefs directed the in surrection; the brothers Romeo; one has been killed, the other still resists, at the head of 5,000 men. Yesterday, three columns of troops were sent from Naples, commanded by an officer of the name of Truffiano, to the theatre of the insurrection. An engagement is said to have taken place, in which the troops had 250 men disabled. On the grand review of the Bth, the troops had their firearms loaded. The discontent—we might say irritation—is general; the least spark would suffice to create a general coettagration, and overthrow the throne of Ferdinand. The King's inconside rateness is extreme—the ministers themselves deplore it, but the excessive fit of devotion which has taken hold of him has placed the reins of government wholly in the hands of his confessor. Of all the governments of Italy, that of Naples is evidently the most in danger, and gives Austria the greatest reason for uneasiness. The French squadron is still in the Gulf; this stay, the duration of which is without a precedent, is evidently connected with the pre-occupations inspired by the political state of the kingdom. It is clear to all that a catastrophe is now imminent. The Nourelliste, a Marseilles paper, gives the fol lowing front Naples, dated the 21st, still more recent than the above: A report is current that Girgenti and Marsala are in a state of insurrection; but there is nothing positive on the subject. What is certain is, that arrests continue in Sicily, and the popular irritation is at its height. A general rising is hourly expected. The government continues to send mu nitions of war to all points. In the province of Molise all the districts of Larino hare raised the standard of revolt. In Calabria the insurrection has extended to Catanzaro, and the insurgents are said to have fortified themselves in Greece. At times divided into guerillas, at others acting in a body, they fall on the royal troops, and cause much ravage in their ranks. It is said that the Bth regiment of the line was not inclined to fight, but was compelled to do so by the colonel, and sustained great loss. The arms and uniform of the dead, which were brought to Naples, are considersb'e in number. The insurgents of Casenza, against whom General Statella had been sent, have joined the bands of Romeo. A general amnesty and a reform are spoken of ; but little credit is attached to the report. It is asserted, however, that an important labour with this laudable object has been entered upon by the prime minister, Pietracatels, with the authori sation of the King. Accounts have been received from the eastern fron tiers of Morocco, which, althoogh not as precise and certain as could be desired, are more consistent than the vague reports hitherto brought from the theatre of the operations of Abd-el-Kader. Fugitives who had escaped from the massacre of the two Arab tribes, the Ben Amers and the Hachems, and arrived at Ne mours, a town in the French colony near the frontier, are the chief sources of the present information. It will be remembered that in the course of last month these two tribes, consisting of about 1,500 persons of both sexes with their children, who had been settled within the French colony, emigrated at the instance of Abd-el-Kader, and crossing the frontiers of Mo rocco, settled down at a place not far from the city of Tara. Here they were assured of the support of the forces of Abd-el-Kader, in the event of their being attacked by those of the Emperor Abder rahman. It seems, however, that from misgivings of the promised protection of the Emir and from ap prehension of an attack from the imperial forces, this unfortunate population decided, on the 15th August, to retrace their steps eastward towards the frontier. They continued their march for three days unmo lested, but when they had nearly reached the frontier of the district of the Kabyles, they were attacked by the troops of the Emperor, commanded by his son, and massacred with all the circumstances of savage cruelty so common in these nations. They offered for three days and three nights a desperate resistance. At length the few survivors, sinking under hunger, thirst, and fatigue, laid down their arms. The men were instantly slaughtered without resistance, the children were flung down the precipices and thrown into the ravines, and the women were distributed as booty among the conquerors. Abel•el-Kader, being informed of their danger, was on his march to their protection and defence, when ho was met by the tidings of their destruction. The Emir is reported to have been profoundly affected by this event. Notwithstanding this circumstance, there is as yet no indication of any intention on the part of Abd-el-wader to discontinue his movement against Morocco. On the contrary he is still established in the district of the Kabyles, with every present sign of unaltered purpose. Letters from Berne say that a petition is in (*arse of signature to the grand council, praying that the question of peace or war with the cantons of the league shall be submitted to decision by the votes of the entire population taken in communes. The liberal party, being sure of attaining its ends by the ordinary means prescribed by the federal constitution, repulses this project. The little doubt which re mained, depending on the decision of the cantons of St. Gall and the Grisons, is now nearly removed. I Meanwhile the cantons of the league display the greatest activity. MADRID, SEPT. 23. The ministry, although they cannot any longer blink the Cortes question, seem resolved to put off as long as possible any distinct profeabion of their intentions as to the dissolution. Twe ankles long as Lent (as they say here) have appeared upo n this subject in the semi-o ffi cial Correo, out of which it is impossible to pick the smallest hint aa the course which the government will take. But this =s pews, which arises perhaps from the continuance of internal conflict in the cabinet, can hardly last long. In a few days we shall know whether ministers intend to govern by de cree-law, to convoke or to dissolve the present Certes. The Foment° of Barcelona has published an article which has drawn much attention. It professes to give an account of the bases of a commercial treaty drawn up by Mr. 13n1wer and Senor Salamanca, but rejected by the Englishgovern went, and the eubatanee of an official note ad dressed by Mr. Bulwer to the Spanish government on Aug. 28. The leading articles of the projected treaty were them 1. English productions and manufactures, with the exception of cotton, to be admitted into Spain upon payment of a duty of fr om 25 to 28 per cent. ad valorem. Spanish produce and manufactures to be admitted into Eng land upon payment of a similar duty, with the exception of wines and spirits. 2. Upon cotton manufactures Spain might impose a duty of from 28 to 32 per cent ; and England a similar duty upon Spanish wines and spirits. Mr. Bulwer is made to say in his note that the government of her Britannic Maiesty is of opinion that it will be better for both the contracting powers to treat this subject as a domes tic question ; that is, Spain doing what appears most conve nient to her for her own interests with respect to duties, and England the same. Don Ignacio Ourrea the private secretary of Eepartero, arrived a few days ba ck, and has presented a letter from the ex-regent to the Queen, containing grateful acknowledg ments of the favours lately conferred upon him by her Mojesty, and warm assurances of his devotion to the throne of Isabel 11. Sig. Ourrea has also communicated to the ministry Esprit:tercel' acceptance of the appointment of senator of the realm. _ Rooms are said to be preparing far his reception in the new house built by Senor Cordereia the Calle Mayor. Don Antonio Cabaleiro is ap poin ted sectary of the su preme tribunal of war. Don Antonio was minister of the same tribunal, and head clerk of tho War-office. Salamanca has put forth in the Gazette of to-day a royal order in answer to the petition of the manufacturing junta of Catalonia, which begged that the decree of Aug. 1, relative to the free circulation of articles of trade in the interior of Spain might be abolished ; and, If not, that the execution of the same might be put off till tranquillity was restored. The royal order has consented to the suspension of the decree, u far as concerns the four provinces of Catalonia, until a more favourable moment occur for carrying the same into exe cution. The Eco del Comercio reports that General Rodil is going to be made senator._ The despatches from Catalonia Matt that a Carlin briga dier (Pep de 01i), and three Carliat coloneta, attempting to penetrate into Spain, have been detained on the frontier by the French authorities. 9ii:i , il;;;T;itifiarid for La Granja on Tuesday, but he is expected back to-morrow. The Faro says it was affirmed yesterday, by the friends of Salamanca, that the greater part of the plans of that minis ter had passed in the ministerial council, and were shortly to be published. Whatever truth there may be in this, certain it is that the moderado opposition has greatly increased in violence during the last two days, which is an expressive -. . - =T -- -.a - 711 sign that the liberal influences in the cabinet are in th e ascendant. The Fomento of Barcelona of the 18th says:—" Foe ta a complete security of our manufacturers, we can state with certainty that the captain-general has received to-day bea t the bases of the projected commercial treaty between 83*, and England, as well as the formal and explicit desistence of England upon this matter." CONSTANTINOPLE, SEPT. 14. Yesterday at about four o'clock in the afternoon the at., or mae.er o. sweetmeats, 61nutte,; in the Rah market of Pera, caught fire. The streets in the neighbourhood are exceedingly narrow, and the 'houses are all built of wood. In a few minutes the conflagration spread with terrific rapidity. The great heat of the last three months had rendered these wooden fabrics so highly inflammable that persons inhabiting the houses in the immediate vicinity of the place where the fire first broke out did not even make an effort to save their effects. A strong easterly wind was blowing at the time, which drove forward the flames with frightful speed. In a short time all the crumbling sheds which were huddled up together in the fish-market were in ashes. As the fire increased the wind also rose. Large pieces of blazing wood were whirled aloft into the air, whilst clouds of ashes almost rendered all attempt at extinguishing the fire impossible. The petit champ des Snorts, which is close to the fish-market, is chiefly inhabited by European merchants. During the summer months, however, they all reside with their families in the villages of the Bosphorus, or at the Prince's Islands. The houses in that neighbourhood, bei ng therefore at the time uninhabited, fell an easy preyto the flames. Before sunset the finest district of Pent was reduced to a heap of smouldering ruins. It was ter rible to hear the howling of the wind and flames Is they swept along, as if exulting in their unchecked course of destruction. In the midst of this scene of desolation the Turkish flag was flaunting from tower and battlement, bands of music were playing joyously along the shores of the Golden Horn, and cannon were thundering salutes in honour of the great feast of Bairam. After the long fast of Hamann the Turks generally give way to a religious excitement, and all their old fanatical prejudices arc alive. They seemed to regard the misfortune which had fallen on Pera as a mark of the wrath of Allah for the °Mount Nopachas appeared with parties of troops to assist in extinguishing the flames, and there were no Turkish firemen with their pumps and axes—all were busied with the festival of Bairam, either heedless of, or exulting in, the ruin which had fallen upon the infidel. No less than 300 houses have been burnt, and some of them the handsomest in Pere. The walls of the new English embassy were blackened by the I smoke and ashes which filled the air, and the pro. testant chapel, which stood close to the garden wall lof the palace, was burnt. The loss of property is es. timated at several millions of piastres. It is feared I that it will be long before Pere recovers from the mis fortunes of this year. The failures of European cam. mercial houses had naturally produced their effects here • trade during the last three weeks has been pa ralysed, and the most gloomy forebodings prevail amongst mercantile men. It is rarely that misfor tunes come alone, especially in Constantinople; what the panic in the commercial world had begun, fires have come to consummate. In 1830, when Peru was burned down, the plague was railing amongst its in habitants; nor is sickness wanting now, for an epi demic of a dangerous nature prevails here at this moment. PHILADELPHIA, Sere 14. Since my feat there his been very little transpiring in our transatlantic political world worth noting. The probabilities respecting the presidency are about as they were at that date, with the exception of an increase of prudence on the part of General Taylor in his numerou letters, and a more decided coldness towards him by the leading arhi,g press. Nothing, however, as to the candidate of either party can ►e fairly guessed at until the action of the steal congress, which may introduce a dozen new issues with'which to dazzle, gull, and humbug the dear people. The news from Mexico, which you will receive by the steamer of to-morrow front Boston, is very interesting and momentous. Whether the Mexicans will hang Santa Anna, and still make a fight for their betrayed capital and country, remains to be seen. If Paredes were there, I should be in clined to think that something of this kind might be attempted. One of the many rumours accompanying this news is that the congress, hastily summoned by Santa Anna, had elected Gen. Scott president of Mexico, and invested him with full powers to negotiate and conclude a peace with Mr. Trist. This would be a charming and appropriate finale to the war. The full season of business is just commencing in the three great northern cities, New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, and the influx of merchants and strangers from the south and west is perfectly tremendous. The business this year, in all departments of trade, is greater than it has been for many years. BELGIUM.—BRCSSELS, SEPT. 27.—Great festivi ties arc going on in the capital; yet notwithstanding all the festive display and the great gaiety which prevails, the state of public affairs causes a good deal of anxiety, for the large failure. in England and Scotland cannot fail to be sensibly felt here. _ --• Letters from Hamburg also announce that never since the revolution has the ell been in such a state as it is at this moment. The arrival of every courier from England is looked forward to with evident alarm, for the disasters which have befallen the commerce of Great Britain, sod those which are expected here, cannot fail to produce a most fatal reaction on the principal cities of the continent, sad above all upon such a place as Hamburg, whose commercial interests are so nearly allied to those of England. HOLLAND.—Th HAGUE, SEPT. 27.—YesW. &y, aocording to a royal command of the llth of this month, all -ths churches of the different religions communities were meted ' for the purpose of returning thanks to Almighty God for the abundant harvest. The command was warmly responded to, and all the places of worship were filled to overflowing by persons who devotedly thanked God for his put men* , and exprersed thelr asenrance of his continued favour d protection. AMERICA AND MEXICO. To the important intelligenoe from America and Mexico, which appeared Mint evening's Express, we append some furt particulars. A letter from Petersburg, Sept. 13, says: By the steamer Telegraph, at New Orleans, we ham accounts from the Brazes to the 1 instant. General Taylor has hatted orders from government withdrawing all the troops from his column that can safely be spared. The Ohio and Indiana regiments, under General Lane, left on the 13th, and the Massachusetts regiment, under Cusniel, was ordered to Brazos Island, there to embark immediately for Vera Cruz. Dean's battery will accompany General Cashing. Hays's Texan Rangers embark for the same desti nation. General Taylor will then have remaining, between Bruns and Buena Vista, 5,568 men. A letter from Ceralvo mentions the safety of Taylor end his detachment, which it was supposed had been cot elf. Their escape was miraculous; thirty were attacked and captured by Mexicans near Ceralvo, bat were retaken. Several deaths from yellow fever had occurred at Bruce Captain Fairfax, of the Virginia Regiment, died at Saltine at the 14th. The interments in New Orleans from yellow fever during forty-eight hours ending 6th hurt., were 123; deaths at Charity Hospital, 41. A letter from Vera Cruz of the 27th of Aug. in the WashinFton Union states that Major Lally had ar rived with his train, after much fighting and offer ing, and some loss. At Jalapa he himself was wounded in the wrist, and by a lance in the temple, from which we judge there had been some close work. No reinforcements from Perote had yet reached him, and the guerWas were still around lum, harrassing Lis small command terribly. Indeed, a fight took place in the streets after his arrival, between the American patrol and a small party of guerillas, resulting as usual, although the latter was the larger party. Rs had, however, fortified himself, and was waiting for reinforcements. Four manuscript letters in the Spanish language had been found in the trunk of General Paredes, and forwarded to the war department at Washingtst They may possibly shed some light upon the designs and movements of the Mexican exile. An express had arrived from Alvarado to Com. Perry, with information that the guerillas bad at tacked that place the night before, and killed a surgeon and two marines in that town. The steamers Petrita and Scorpion were immediately despatched to reinforce those in possession of the place. News from Chihuahua to the 3rd of July, state that everything was quiet there. The persons and property of American citizens generally were respected, though none were per mitted to leave the city except neutrals, who could bring away their means by paying a duty of 6 per cent. Governor Armijo, on his way to Albuquerque to visit his family, was arrested at Chihuahua, and kept within the limits of that city. He is said to have expressed great satisfaction at the result of the battle of Sacramento. No merchandise of any de scription was suffered to come into New Mexico by southern route. In New Mexico the territorial election was to take place on the first or second Monday of August. ....l ' l ''r - '~~ 5