The Express. — London, England, 1853-09-12 00:00:00

14 Twrort;5.5* TO COItIaisPONDENTS. A Yieooall - ----------------------- the I , arse ey Mate. ••ti.... tn.." i. puld shed t 'try lueedey end Ve.day night, an time for pn.t. Admen" Nu ambit. wild 6.r "The Kamm,* London Evening ppm. mast be et the Office, la, lieemestv-etreet, by Two ficio‘k on the day of publication. man WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE. TII 14 LIAT —Vetoing, blik. Pat_ At f OMNI, ner. TO. MUM.'" —Moir Mag. 111. ma Altern.• , n, VAL 3sol. LONDON, MOND.II; S'EPTEMBER 12. THE Bank accounts published in the Ga:elle on Friday, to the end of the week before last, show the condition of the Bank to have bteome worse than we had anticipated, and afford a complete explanation of its conduct in raising the rate of discount. Its cos• tourers borrowed from it in that week 713,119/., and took hem it their deposits to the extent of 110,0431. The deposits of its great customer, the Government, were only increased by 99,913/., the Bank having appropriated 231,406/. of the 351,3191. paid in on account of the revenue to cancelling deficiency bills and lessening to that amount the Government secu rities in its possession. The public, wanting their own capital, had withdrawn 328,8301. of that which they had lent to the Bank on its promises to pay, or the circulation had decreased so much, while the bullion in the Bank had become less by 462,8301. The reserve had decreased 132,4901., and its liabili ties were augmented by the sum of 344,9801., while its securities were only increased 1,8971. The sum of 343,0831. was placed, under the head of " Rest," to the credit of the Bank proprietary, being required to pay the dividends. The Bank then experienced in the week a very brisk demand for money, and a con siderable diminution in its loanable resources. Hence. on good banking and mercantile principles, it demanded a higher rate of interest for the loans its customers required. Its conduct needs neither defence nor further explanation ; it followed the market that was exhibited in its own day-book and ledger. The subjects which need elucidation are the circumstances which have brought the money market into this condition and its future prospects, and to elucidate them we must go back a year or two. Throughout 1852 money was very abundant. At the beginning of the year the Bank minimum rate of disoount was 24 per cent., and on the 22nd of April it was lowered to 2, at which low rate it con tinued till January, 1853. But such was the abun dance of money that very little was borrowed from the Bank at the low rate of 2 per cent. The rate of discount in Lombard-street was still lower, from 11 to 2, and in many cases the discount brokers refused to take money on call, because they could not lend it. Towards the end of the year money became dearer. The banking article of the Emu:mist of Nov. 27, said the " demand for money has increased, and the terms arc higher." On Dec. 11 it stated " there continues to be a good demand for money, and first-class bills are discounted at 11 to 2." Oa the 18th it said "from bills being sent up from the country to be discounted and other facts it appears that the demand for money in most of the seats of manufactures is also good. The Bank of England is getting bills to discount." The demand therefore had come from the country and gone from Lombard-street to the Bank. Money, which had been a "drug" through the summer, before the end of the year was borrowed from the Bank at 2 per per cent., its minimum rate of discount. By the 24th of December " the demand for money had in creased," and " the terms had become more stria. gent." On January 6, following the market, the Bank raised its minimum rate to 21 per cent. The demand increasing, on January 20 it raised the rate to 3 per cent., on June 2 to 31 per cent, and on Sept. 1 to 4 per cent. This rapid and continuous rise in the rate of discount—which we beg our readers will bear in mind is not the rate of interest on loans for long periods, based on landed or other security, but the rate of interest which the mercantile classes must pay on loans for short periods—beg= before the end of 1852, and has continued to the present time. The source of the rise, and the date at which it began, are very important. Not only was there a demand amongst the mercantile classes, the ship_ owners and traders in London, for money, but bills were largely sent up from the seats of our manufac tures to be discounted. The demand all through the year has come from the same classes and the same places. About the period when it began, insurances had been effected at LLovo's on 4,000,0001. to come from Australia. It has continued and increased, although that and a much larger sum —.upwards of 10,500,0001.—came in from Australia before Sept. 1, and although upwards of 4,000,000 i came in, in the past seven months of the year, from other quarters. But the rate of discount remained low all thselleb . lB62, though gold then to the extent of 16,000,0001. came in. Under the exactly similar circumstance of a great influx of gold, the rate of discount has both remained low and risen rapidly and continuously. By that circumstance, therefore, however great may be its influence, we cannot ex plain the present rise. In the very lest month of the year the Bank raised its rate to 3 per cent. Till the beginning of May the insurrection in China excited but little interest in this country, and could have bad no influence whatever on the large rise in the rat e of discount, I per cent., which took place in the beginning of the year. Till the middle of May the dispute between Russia and Turkey was not heard of, and that too though much has been made of both these circum stances could not have caused a rise in the rate of discount for mercantile bills, which actually began in 1852. In the course of trade itself we shall find the explanation of the difficulties is to money which trade has had to encounter. Our mercantile readers will be well aware, to bor row the language of a trade circular, that " the year 1852 contrasted very favourably in a commercial point of view with 1851. Oa the Ist of January, 1832, we had to record a continuous and heavy fall in produce in 1831, involving as a consequence seve ral mercantile failures, which, together with the ap prehension of political disasters, had given a severe shock to anOdence and credit. We have now to dwell on a constant and active demand for all our chief articles of manufacture, and for those of general consumption, as the result of the full employment of the population at high wages." Very elaborate pa pers were written, wo recollect, after the beginning of 1852, "on the mercantile losses of 1831." The shock given to confidence and credit in 1831 was not immediately restored. Enterprise was comparatively slack in the beginning of 1832 ; the imports of most articles declined, particularly in the early months of 1852, as the following specimens will show : 116 M. lv. ring wmes • nth.. Whole year. ..84. 11131. 1 413_. 14.1174 4,3 1 4,7 4,174, 4,21:13,323 4%177 1,327,7110 ;Immo 3,06.3,491 71,61 . 1 2,417, L3i4,4'4 3,/019,P3 ii . 1,131 373. 1.1111,41:1 1,474,041 Aviv %anti. 4,4144,131 5.44511 .71111,201 , 4,412,445 7,1.32,t1il 6,11.41.444 `21.292 44,112,241 71,k64,111 6 1 1,41,0 0 ', AO. .1, 0 19, , ,51 11.10t,(35 411311,71 eneca, Wlw.,t, qrs. .es.mi Plow cwt& 1.11,110 Mesa, cwt.. *KM Mb. taw, lb.. TAW* , o.. ..arollarel, tuts. 4 : 1: : 7r boor Imaanufac 141,374.11 C do it wu with the majority of the imports. The comparative want of ,access and lose of confidence in Is3l, o.tcketl business very much in the early pert of 1%32, and in the autumn only, as confidence was restored, as credit was re-established, as new hopes were excited, did enterprise begin to extend. The rate of discount was accordingly very low in 1832, because enterprise was slack, and it began to rise as enterprise became active and trade was rapidly ex tended. The demands of trade were the cause of the rise in the rate of interest. The extract from the circular mentions " the heavy fall in (colonial) produce" in 1831, but the general characteristic of that year was low and de lelining prices. The curtailment of imports in the early part of 1852 led to better prices and larger imports towards the latter end of the year. At the commencement of the present year the six weeks average price of wheat was 435. 4d., while at the com tuencement of 1 e 32 it wu37e.4d. It had risen, therefore, 6s. in the year, and the increase in the price of food, carrying with it, as the rule, an increase in the price of most other things, was not without influence in in creasing the value of money towards the close of the year. The average price of wheat at present is 51s. 7d., and all kinds of grain and flour have risen in pro portion. Wages are from 10 to 1.5 per cent. higher than at the begiuning of tho year. Butter is 10s. per cwt. dearer; meat is dearer, and most other things have risen in price since 1852. The rise in prices towards the end of that year, which then made money more valuable, has continued all through this year, and has contributed to the general and large rise in the rate of discount. But the most important element of the rise is that large increase of business which began in 18.52, after confidence bad been restored, and of which we laid— from the Trade Tables evidence—before our readers on Thursday last. The imports and the exports of 1853 are greatly in excess of 1832 or 1851, or any pre vious year. following are specimens of the excess of imports in 1853 our 1852: _ Imported insane months. 1512. 1533. Ount No. 12,722 17,836 Sheep No. 62,528 85.079 Cocos lbs. 4,324,785 4,544,833 Cuffm lbs. 26,826,108 30,106,051 Wheat qn. 1,327.790 2,755,527 Floor cwts. 2,417,453 2,9.5.5,989 Flag ewts. 628,289 709,672 Hides Poutoss elms. 200,040 726,829 Butter cwht. 167,699 201,799 Cheese cwt.. 147,234 183,999 Flax and linseed qrs. 272,282 326,780 Silk (total) 9,1 3,778,233 5,031,5-56 Tobacco (total) lbs. 7,131,882 10,070,115 Wins gals. 3,379.361 5,700,781 Cotton cwts. 6,374,778 6,866,629 Wool lbs. 39,395,6.52 62,471,480 For all this increase of imports it was necessary to pay, and as they came neither precisely from the same places to which our greatly increased exports were sent, nor were imported by the self-same per sons as sent abroad our exports, there was necessarily payment in gold between the countries, or borrow ing and lending between individuals, till time adjusts the payments. Though capital was abundant in 1852, and was considerably increased in that year, it was not in creased, and could not be increased in as equal ratio to the great demand for it that has occurred in 1853. The wonderful extension of trade in this year, and the great demand consequently of the mercantile classes on the limited capital of the country, is the main reason why they have to pay a high price, or a high rate of discount for the supply. This is a brief in explanation outline of the circumstances which have brought the money market from the condition of great cheapness which prevailed in 1832, to the present condition of dearness. The important ques tion of the future prospects of the money market shall be hereafter considered. Tim gaol authorities of Birmingham appear, in the treatment of their prisoners, to hare taken for their guidance the maxims of Miss Lucy Lockit : Thus when a good housewife arcs a rat In her trap in the morning taken, With pleasure her heart goes pit-apat In revenge for t►e loos of her bacon ; And she throws, sho throne him to dog or cat, To be worried, crushed, and shaken. But, though the termagant of the "Beggars' Opera" could threaten Macheath with this kind of prison discipline, her feelings as a woman prevented her from carrying her threat into execution. No such soft relentings have come over the Lockit family of Birmingham. They have thrown their trapped rats to their dogs and cats, and th• it dogs and cats have worried the poor wretches to most frightful purpose. When we last commented on the Birmingham atrocities, we alluded to the similarity which existed between them and the cruelties which in 1730 led to the bringing of BAMBRIDGE, litrocims, and Acrort to trial on a charge of murdering the prisoners under their care. Now, as then, a perseverance in the imposition of excessive labour, privation of neces- I sary food, and painful manacling of the limbs, have produced death—by suicide or otherwise. The gaol at Birmingham, it is true, appears to have been kept clean and properly ventilated; the fmtid squalor— the most revolting feature, to nerves delicately attem pered,—of the London cases of last century, is wanting. But though the humanity of the age has restricted the means of the Birmingham torture-masters, the ingenuity of cruelty has, as one of SILAKBPRABE'S characters says, "gone far with little." We do not ask to have the modern BAMBRIDOEB and HUOOINSES arraigned at the bar of a court of justice; to make them suffer will not diminish or undo the suffering they have occasioned to others. Besides, the glorious uncertainty of the law would in all probability ren der such a mode of proceeding illusory. But we do expect to hear that every individual whom the Com missioners shall declare guilty of participation in the Birmingham cruelties has been dismissed with disgrace from his employment, and declared incapable of ever hereafter serving, in the meanest capacity, in any gaol, hulks, or house of correction. Also: the revelations made in the courts of justice and before the Parliamentary Committee, relative to the fearful secrets of the London prisons in 1730, gave the first impetus to the labours of a series of philanthropists whose effcrts were directed to ame liorate prison discipline, and impart to it • more practically useful character. It is to be hoped that the Birmingham disclosures may, in like manner, be made the basis of further improvements in the ex istieg system. • Our expectations on this score are more than usually sanguine. Lord PALMERSTON'S prompt and practical rebuke to the " hush-up" tendencies of the Birmingham Visiting Justices has so far been admi rably followed up by the Commissioners. To all of these gentlemen, and especially to Mr. WELBBY, the admiration and thanks of the public are due. In the language of a local journal (which appears to have the fear of the Justices before its eyes) the "impar tial though rigid" impartiality of the Commissioners has elicited, and is cliciti:.g, the truth. The task of Captain WILLIAMS and his colleagues, in so far as the mere ascertainment of truth is concerned, is nearly accomplished ; let us hope that their recom mendation of measures to prevent the recurrence of such atrocities may be equally effective and credit ab e to their sagacity. "Nearly accomplislud," we have said of the task of inquiry. Mr. ACSIIN sod his nnderstrappers already stand coavietcd by their own reluctant con fessions quite as much as by the testimony of others. It only remains to complete the investigation by ascertaining the rest extent of the complicity of the Visit ii.giusticeb in the horrible proceedings of the Bir mingham gaol. Their attempts to hush up the THE EXPRESS, MONDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 12, 1858. case were enough to stamp them with the character of " accessories titer the fact." But, if Mr. AUSTIN and others may be believed, they were also " awes ' series before the fact." A strong case has been made out to show that Mr. AUSTIN succeeded in having Captain MacoNoctits, to whom he owed his first appointment, turned out, and himself ap pointed successor, by underhand flattery of—we use a mild term—the stern disciplinarian pro pensities of the Justices. Mr. AUSTIN persuaded those gentlemen that he would deal more rigor ously with the prisoners than his principal and prede cessor in office had done. lie avers that he and a Mr. Luc KCOCK (a V isiting Justice) made a tour of gaols to pick up lessons in severity wherever they could find them. This, if true, gives to the breaches of law in the gaol of Birmingham the character of systematic, premeditated departures from it by the Justices, of whom AUSTIN was merely the willing tool or instrument. Mr. AUSTIN, moreover, owns that one of the Justices, passing through the prison, observed, that the gruel of one of the prisoners ought to be weakened; and that he (AUSTIN), with his wonted lickspittlo promptitude, took the hint, and forthwith caused two-thirds of water to be added to the gruel. No thing like this has been heard of since the skilligales disclosures of the inquiry into the Andover work house management. The case against the Visiting Justices is not (as yet) so strong as that against Mr. AUSTIN and his bull-dogs. The Justices have yet to give their own account of their conduct to the Com missioners. We suspend our judgment as to their previous complicity till they have been heard : their attempt to screen the offenders from exposure is already placed beyond a doubt. Hero seems the place to remark, that the abuses in Birming ham gaol do not appear to be confined to that institution. AUSTIN states that it was at Leicester gaol he was taught to evade the law by omitting to record the punishment of prisoners by privation of food. We certainly are not prepared to believe the authorities of Leicester gaol guilty, on the simple unsupported averment of Mr. AUSTIN. The way in which he has been made to wriggle out of some of his stories against Capt. MACONOCUIE renders it impossible to lend credence to his solitary testimony. But the matter ought to be inquired into: the innate savagery of some men may have found vent in other gaols besides that of Birming ham. It was in the neighbouring gaol of Coventry that the Chaplain some year or two ago undertook to illustrate the nature of future punishment to a condemned criminal by holding the wretched crea ture's hand in the flame of a candle. It is clear from the Birmingham proceedings that our system of prison discipline is wretchedly defec tive in the points of superintendence and control. Were there no means of detecting the complicity of the Visiting Justices (assuming tho statements of Mr. AUSTIN and other witnesses on that head to be true) in the ordinary working of the system: no means of detecting the culpable neglect of duty of the Visiting Justices (on the assumption that that is the utmost limit of their offence)? What is the use of our well-paid Inspectors of Prisons if such abuses as have been proved to exist at Birmingham can be carried on without their knowledge or suspicion ? It is net enough to make laws and regulations if no care is taken to enforce obedience to them. Lord PALMERSTON will do well to carryon the work he has so well begun, by call ing on the Prison Inspector in whose district Bir min2ham is situated for an explanation of his official blindness. RUSSIA AND TURKEY. The probability that the Czar will admit Reschid Pasha's modifications of the Vienna note is daily diminishir g. Private communications from St. Petersburg state that M. Meyendorics telegraphic announcement, dated Vienna, August 26, informing his imperial master that the Ottoman minister had presumed to alter the note which had been accepted on the part of Russia, at first astounded and then enraged the Emperor. _This despatch gave only the tenor of the alterations made at Constantinople; the text of the note, with now or substituted clauses only reached St. Petersburg on the 3rd instant. Our correspondents agree in the conviction that the character of the Czar's reply to the new proposals will almost entirely depend on his judgment concern ing the heartiness of the Western powers in the cause of the Porte. No sacrifice of amour propre in the interest of Europe and peace is to be expected, no consideration even for Austria and its Emperor. The Czar refuses to believe that the Porte will venture to wage war single handed, and in this belief he is encouraged by nearly every person admitted to his confidence. He sees in the last act of the Porte the will to assert, and at once exercise that independence which is the real prize of the long-drawn contest, and which is of far grater moment than the formal construction of any diplomatic note. To admit thus practically the sovereign action of the Sultan, to allow him to decide upon the note which he is required to sign, would be, it is said, to forego all the advantages which Russia has gained by occupying the prancilitlities, and to contradict that traditional policy which may be said to be a part of the constitution of the Muscovite empire. Such, we are assured, are the considg i fations at present at St. , Petersburg. Whether they will be counterbalanced ' by others drawn from the apprehended opposition of Franco and England, or the progressive decimation of his soldiers in the principalities, a very few days I may probably show. It is not improbable that the despatches communicating the Cur's acceptance or rejection of the modifications were sent off from St. Petersburg on Saturday last to the Courts of London, Vienna, and Paris, as on that day the ordinary packet boat would leave the Russian capital. The boat would arrive at Stettin in ordinary course to morrow. The employment of expresses and the telegraph may, however, disarrange this calculation, and place us earlier in possession of the expected in telligence. Tne Brussels ladependance, which has steadily supported the Russian cause, and prophesied (or it when it could do nothing better, now undertakes to announce that "at the cabinet council held last week in Downing-street, it was resolved to abandon the Porte should it persist in its resistance." The Rus sian writer grows quite hopeful in the prospect of the Sultan's isolation, deriding the idea that the Turk will fight unaided. FRANCE. PARIS, SUNDAY EVENING. The 3foniteur contains another hesitating step to wards free trade. By a decree of tho Emperor the additional duty imposed by the decree of March 17, 1833, upon ores of all kinds imported in foreign bot toms, is suppressed provisionally so far as respects iron ore. The Minister of Finance has fixed the interest upon treasury bills at the followiwr rates from and after September 12: upon bills having from three to five months to run, 24 percent.; upon bills at from 6 to 11 months, 3 per cent. per annum; and upon bills at a year, :4 per cent. Their Majesties arrived at St. Cloud at six last night. . . A note in the Moniteur states that the Emperor when at Dieppe adopted in principle a plan submitted to him by a commission for the improvement of the port of Dieppe, the expense of which is estimated at 2,200,000 fr. The most urgent ameliorations, estimated separately at 1,300,000 fr., are to be com menced immediately, and terminated within three years. 'f he price of flour has fallen but very little at the Halle of I'aris sines the famous dec.oe fixing the price of bread below the natural rate. The price, if it wore to be settled now according to the regulating scale, would still be tlOc. the two kilogrammes, or two sous above wh a the bakers arc compelled to sell at, and there is very little probability of a sufficient decline before the 15th to prevent a rise in bread units. by the continuance of the exceptional measure. The Pays has an article on the Flu:tern question bearing very hard upon Turkey for having made alterations in the Vienna note. So far as the ex pressed views of this journal nay be taken ns an indication of the present intentions of the French go% ernment, the inclination to resist Russian aggres sion is now at low water mark. The Pays, after a great deal of uninteresting argument, says : Should the note, as adopted, not without hesitation, by Russia, be definitively r, jected by Turkey, what will he 'be result ? Europe, in that cue, will look on and wait fur events, not indeed that she will abandon Turkey to the fatal destinies towards which she seems wilfully to be about to precipitate herself, but she will only interfere when she sus the cause of European right again at stake. This much may be taken as certain— the Western Powers will not allow Russia either to take pos session of Constantinople, to conquer any portion of the Ottoman territory, or to Impose upon the Sultan conditions incompatible with his sovereignty. But if Europe is perfectly resolved to maintain in any event the complete integrity of the Ottoman empire, she will not, we may be will assured, engage herself headlong in quarrels about words and phrases. She will not needlessly engage her solidarity in pretensions without any reasonable ob ject; she wilt not betray any interests she ought to pro tect, but the better to serve those interests she will cruse her will and her supreme arbitrament to be respected for the sake of the peace of the world. The Gazette de France makes some curious revela tions to-day on the subject of the " fusion." You may remember that strenuous efforts were recently made to bring about a meeting between the Count de Chambord, and a prince of the house of Orleans. It was even reported that they had an interview at Vienna, but this was afterwards contra dicted. The Count de Chambord expressed himself perfectly ready to receive his cousin as a cadet of his royal house, but firmly refused to see him as the representative of a family pretending to have sepa rate dynastic rights. It was found that the two parties when they talked about fusion did not mean the same thing, and for the twentieth time it was announced that an attempt to effect a reconciliation between the two branches of the house of Bourbon, after touching very near to a happy conclusion, had ultimately failed. It now appears that a lead ing fusionist," having recently gone to Clare mont to renew negotiations, has met with such a rebuff, that, according to the Gazette de France, the most sanguine partisans of the fusion must abandon all hopes of seeing it effected. I would not take the Gazette's word to this entire extent. It no doubt honestly reports the facts within its own knowledge that the fusionists have just received a severe check, but the Gazette is anxious to justify its own predictions that the fusion would never do, and to lure back all the stray sheep of its party into the fold of pure legitimacy. But there are so many astute men among the royalists who are' persuaded there is not room for two Bourbon parties in France, that their ingenious efforts to unite them into one are likely to be renewed from time to time. Some of the Orleans princes would readily lend themselves to any combination which might add to their importance, but the Duchess of Orleans opposes la firm will to every proposition tending to compro mise what she considers with a settled faith as the rights of her son to impersonate the principle of constitutional monarchy. Colonel Victor de Oibelin, the last survivor of the Swiss officers present at the Tuileries on the fatal 10th of August, 1792, died yesterday week at Soleure, at the age of 83. The crown jewels of Hungary are said to have been found at Orsowa. PARIS, SATURDAY EVENING. The Mont teur announces the election of the fol lowing government candidates, as representatives to the legislative body :—M. A. Chevalier for the 3rd circumscription of the Aveyron ; M. Nogent Saint- Laurent for the Ist circumscription of the Loiret ; Count Paul de Champagny de Cadore, for the let cir cumscription of the Cotes-du-Nord ; Gen. Lebreton for the 3rd circumscription of La.Vendee; M. Godard- Desmarets for the Btb circumscription of the Nord ; Count Rodolphe d'Ornano, chamberlain to the Em peror, for the Ist circumscription of the Youne, in the place of M. Larabit, elevated to the Senate, and M. Gaultier de la Guistiere for the let circumscrip tion of the Ile et Vilaine, in the place of M. Pon gerard, appointed a receiver-general The Moniteur abstains from giving the number of votes, because the returns would show the apathy of the electors. I mentioned, yesterday, the probability that owing to the systematic abstention of the inhabitants of Orleans, the election for the Loiret would probably be void. It appears, however, that the country dis tricts made up more than the legal minimum for the circumscription. Oat of 47,782 registered electors the government brought up 19,245 to the poll. The Preue satirically observes upon these elec tions, that they strengthen the government by two additional votes in tho Corps Legislatif. General Lebreton and M. Godard Desmarets replace MM. Bouhier de l'Ecluse and de Merode, who made part of the almost imperceptible phalanx of parliamentary resistance. Thus (says the Prase) government gra vitates more and more towards its ideal, and tne pro blem of entire unanimity proposed by MM. de Morny and Porsigny in 1852 is very nearly being resolved. Such a result is not displeasing to us. We would only call to mind this incontestable principle, that in proportion as obstacles disappear responsibi lity increases. Several political arrests were made two days ago at Orleans. Amongst the persons arrested is a man who was transported in December, 1851, but subse quently pardoned. It is more than probable that theesarrests are connected with the abstentions. ' 'At the hour at which I -*rite I have not heard of the arrival of their Majesties at St. Cloud, but it was fully expected that they would leave Dieppe at two o'clock. The ball given to the Emperor and Empress on Tkanday evening at the Skein is reported to have Ole off exceedingly well. Yesterday and to-day, the grand military opera tions simulating the taking of St. Germain have been going on. The camp of Satory was divided iuto two parts, one supposed to have taken possession of the town, and the other intended to represent the attacking party,which was in the end to regain sion. The former was under the orders of Gen. Cit e : ton, the key of its position being the bridge of Chalon. The other body, which was to dislodge that just mentioned,wss under the orders of Marshal Magnan. To-day a bridge was thrown across the Seine, St. Germain was taken by storm, and the victorious and vanquished armies, the spectators being much puzzled to know which was which, Sled past on the terrace. A great many windows were broken by the rever berations of the cannon. Several English families residing at St. Germain were astonished to find soldiers billeted upon them. There has been no remarkable feature at the Bourse to-day. The want of some regular and trustworthy telegraphic communication of the prices of the Lon don Stock Exchange is greatly felt. The sudden rise at the close of the Bourse yesterday was owing to an accredited report that Consols had risen I per cent., whereas it appears by the evening papers that they fell j. The Threes to-day fell 10e. for account, and rose do. for cosh. Railways varied but little from yesterday's prices. The Normandy fusion lines were neglect d owing to a belief that the settlement of the fusion which was thought so near at had may remain some time in suspense. It appears that the surveys of the Brittany lines are not sufficiently advanced to allow of the decree in tended to unite the Western and Northern Railways into one group being drawn up. The appeal of some of the persons condemned to various tines and periods of imprisonment, for being concerned in the affair at one time absurdly called the " Vincennes plot," and afterwards known as the Ligue Federale, was concluded yesterday before the Imperial Court. The court quashed the condemn:, lion on Mazy, Sicard, Germain, and Bouquin do la Souche, as based on insufficient evidence, and ordered them to be discharged; it rejected the appeal of Jeanne (the stationer in the Passage Choiseul), Pigard, Dupatie, and Barbotte—the two former of whom were condemned to two years' imprisonment and 5001. fine, and the two latter to a y ear ' s imprison ment and 100 f. fine; and it reduced the sentence on Jamct and Salvat from eighteen and fifteen months' imprisonment to a year's. Qt'ta CHRISTINA 010 SPAIN.—BOCLOGNE, SEPT. 11.—The Queen Christina of Spain, with her nume rous suite, arrived hero by the Princess Helena, from Folkestone, on Friday, having had a splendid passage, and expressed herself much pleased with the kind attention of the servants of the S Juth Eastern Company. The Queen left for Paris in the royal saloon carriage, which had been detained expressly for her Majesty. ITALY. The intelligence which reaches us from Austria, Italy, Naples, and the Papal States is made up of lists of political arrests, sentences, and punishments. The Official Gazette of Milan publishes a judg ment against 64 persons convicted of high treason in the insurrceion of the Gth of February. The sentence of death pronounced against twenty of these persons has been commuted to 20 years' imprison ment in a fortress. The other 44 are condemned to different periods of hard labour and other punish ments. A letter from Naples, of the 28th ult., states that 22 persons, amongst whom is the cx•Minister Rug gieri, have been condemned to death by default, for participation in the events of the 15th May, 1848 ; and that 15 other accused have been condemned to hard labour, and three others to banishment for the same affair. Thirty others were tried, but acquitted. A letter from Rome, of the 31st ult., states that, in connexion with the recent plot, two boxes con taining arms have been seized in the house of a druggist named Lefort, who has taken to flight; and that a priest named Raffsel, two brothers named Segoali, and an engineer named Rumiti, have been arrested. GERMANY. BEnuN, SEPT. B.—The Prussian Moniteur con tains a decree which authorises the free circulation in the different states of the Zollverein, of the corn received in Prussia from the 13th of September to the 31st of December. VIENNA, SEPT. s.—Tho Emperor returned last evening. This morning there was a grand council at M. Buol's, upon the receipt of despatches sent from Constantinople by M. de Bruck. GREECE. A letter from Athens, of the 26th of August, says : " The day before yesterday the ministers gave offi cial information to the Senate and Chamber of Depu ties of the resolution of the conference of London relative to the order of succession to the throne. Official reports prove the harvest this year in Greece to be ono-third less than in preceding years." The Gazette de Rile announces that the Federal Council has resolved to expel from Switzerland two Itailian refugees, named Clementi and Cassold, az cwied of having transmitted arms and uniforms into Lombardy. These refugees are stated in the decree of expulsion to be closely connected with lazzini. AMERICA. ARRIVAL OF THE AMERICA. LIVERPOOL, SUNDAY. _ Early this afternoon the Royal Mail steam-ship America, Captain Shannon, arrived at this port with the mails from the United States and the British provinces of North America. The America left Boston on the 31st ult., and Halifax early on the 2nd inst., and has brought, besides the usual mails, which were l under the charge of Lieut. Beddick., R.N., Admiralty agent, about 80 passengers and upwards of 125,000 dollars in specie on freight. Amongst the passengers brought by the America is the Earl of Elgin, Governor-General of Canada, who is accompanied by the countess and family. The Royal Mail steam-ship Europa, which sailed from hence on the 20th, arrived out at Boston on the 31st ult. I I Wm. Calder, who had been arrested at New York under the Ashburton Treaty on a charge of forgery and grand larceny, had been released. Calder had been in the employment of the British government as a surveyor in the Sappers and Miners, during which time he forged the names of the men under him to the pay-roll, and put the monies into his pocket. Ultimately he decamped to America, taking with him a number of surveyor's instruments, to the value of nearly 300 dollars. Mr. Wilson, the Mayor of Montreal, has been arrested on a charge of murder, arising out of the riots at Montreal on the occasion of Father Gavazzi's lectures in that city two or three months ago. We are happy to have it in our power to announce that by this arrival we have intelligence from New Orleans of a more favourable character with respect to the fever. The pestilence was abating in its virulence. The deaths during six weeks amounted to no less than six thousand. The British Royal Mail steamship Quito, carrying the mails between the various ports on the west coast of South America and Panama, had been totally wrecked at Huasco on the 10th ult. Very fortu nately the lose of life was small, only one person being drowned. (For Commercial Intllligence see page 4.) REMOVAL OF THE SCHOOL OF DESIGN FROM Sonsaarr-stouez.—During the last few weeks the School of Design, with its ornamental cuts, and various artistic apparatus for teaching, has been gradually removed from Somerset-house, where, in the rooms formerly occupied by the Royal Academy, it had been located from its com mencement, in 1837. The removal is now completed, and the rooms given up to the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths, and Marriages. The school is removed to Marl borough-house, and will form part of the Central School of Art of the Department of Science and Art. The several district schools already established is the metropolis, at the Mechanics Institute, Westminster, Bt. Thomas Charter house Schools, Finsbury, and about to be established in St. Martin's parish, and elsewhere, will supply the elementary instruction in art formerly given at Somerset-house, whilst the higher branches will be taught at Marlborough-house. LETTERS, &C., FOR GREECE AND TUE lONIAN iILANDS.—The following notice has been issued by the Postmaster-General :—" Her Majesty's Packet heretofore conveying the mails between Malta and Corfu having been withdrawn, the correspondence for the lonian Islands and Greece can no longer be forwarded by the Overlaid mat either via Southampton or via Marseilles. Letters, ikc., for the above countries are despatched from London daily (Sundays excepted), these for the lonian Islands being transmitted via Odend and Trieste, and those for Greta being forwarded to France, for conveyance by French packet via Marseilles . Newspapers fur the lonian Islands are liable toe rate of one penny half-penny each, and newspapers for Greece to a rate of one penny earn, and, unless these sums are paid in advance, the newspapers can not hereafter be forwarded. Printed books, magazines, reviews, and pamphlets, can no longer be transmitted be tween the United Kingdom and the lonian Islands at the reduced rates of postage fixed for such publications under the Colonial Book Post Regulations. They will he charge able, when sent via Trieste, with the same rates of pottage as letters." MOREHOUSE MANAOEMENT.—Mr. Brent held an inquest on Friday at the Constitution, Great James's street, Marylebone, on Martha Austin; aged live years, whose death was attributed to parochial neglect. It was sworn that the deceased being very ill, the parents des- patched a woman named White to the workhouse for medical aid. White had scarcely time .o deliver her mes sage at the workhouse gate, when the porter answered— " You can't have a medical order," and then slammed the door in her face. After remaining some time outside the gate, she returned to the child's father, and told him the result of her journey, and as he deemed all further efforts to obtain medical aid useless, he did not repeat the appli cation. The followin4 morning the child vomited a quan tity of blood, and expired. Mr. Sedgewick, part/chili, sur geon, said that deceased died from scarlatina. Ile could not say whether life would have been saved if deceased had had timely medical aid. The conduct of the porter was very bad, as an order was always given in case of illness. It was his duty to have sent the applicant to the overseer's room. Ho was informed that it was not the regular por ter, but a pauper that was on duty at the time. The coro ner summed up, and the jury returned a verdict in accor dance with the medical evidence, accompanied by the sub joined censure, which they requested the coroner to for ward to the workhouse authorities :—" The jurors regret that an order was refused st the workhouse for deceased's medical attendance; and they recommend that the poor should be treated with more civility and kinelniss. The jury further recommend that boards be placed on the walls of the workhouse, with directions instructing the poor how they should apply fir relict." A BEI= OF FERNANDO CORTEZ.—Tho Duke de Montpensier has just purchased the humble house which was inhabited by Fernando Cortex, at Castilleja de la Cuesta, near Seville. The Prince being desirous of trans mitting to posterity chat may be called a monument of Spanish national glory, is about to have the house repaired, without changing its turns, so as to leave it jus: as it was inhabited lip the illustrious Spaniard. SCARCITY IN TUE ROMAN STATES.—The journals of the South announce that the Pope has ordered Baron (hellion to purchase at Leghorn 110,000 sack, of wheat in ceder to provide for the scarcity which is now felt in the Pontifical States. Part of this quantity which has been mar rimed hr, his Holiness out of his privy purse has art ived at (rita Vecchia. LORD CL.4REIIDO.rS ANSWER NESSELRODB NOTE. _______. The first document chiming to be a Briti.h State Paper whlett has transpired eonnecto with the pending Russian and Turkish difference is given below. Although it belongs by its ° eel , sion to a past stage of the Eastern !crisis, aid although neither its main facts nor its arguments ar e new, it is a document of considerable interest, s showing the attitude assum e d by t hi s country es a leading European power, and the tune and temper of the British Cabinet in dealing with th e i nsolent and dishonest pretensions o f R uss i a . The despatch addressed by the Earl of Cl aren d on to Sir Remit. ton Seymour, our Minist er at St. Petersburg, and is intended, in the first place, to re f ute the sift'. gations and argument s em pl oye d b y C ount Nesse'. rode in his second n o t e , and th en t o i n di cate to the Russian Autocrat the vi e w s o f th e B r i t i s h cabinet re. 'pectin his extraordinary p rocee di ngs i n occupying the principalities, The d ocument now published, fu from explaining the r es e rve and secrecy hitherto successfully maintained in the Foreign - office resp ect . ing its part in this aff a ir, justifies the regrets often expressed in these columns that the British govern. ment should shrink from u publicity which not only the French but the Russian and Ottoman cabinets have sought. The notes of Count Nesselrode, of M. Drouyn de Lhuys, and of Reschid Pasha, have li ctia in circulation in this country a few days after their dates, while a note written in one of our own streets takes two months to reach the public on whw is half it is penned. nod then makes its appearance, is a somewhat questionable shape, in a Sunday paper_ the Sunday Times. THE EARL OF CLARENDON TO SIR G. U. SEYMOUR, Foreign-olßes, 16th July, MI Sir, —Baron Brunnow has communicated to me the Cir. cular despatch addressed by Count Nesseirode to the legs. doss of Russia, bearing date the 20th Ju e (2nd July), la - s 3. It would give me much pain to express to the utonish. meet and regret with which the government of her Majesty has seen the declaration contained in that despatch, that it was in consequence of the retusal of England and France to yield to the recommendation of the Russian government, and in consequence of the entry of their fleets into the waters of Turkey, that the occupation of tho principalities had taken place. The passages of the despatch containing that cxtraordi. nary assertion, are the following : " In placing this ultimatum before the Porte, we had more particularly informed the cabinets of the great powers of our intentions. We had especially appealed to Female and Great Britain net to complicate, by their ani tude, the difficulties cf the situation ; not to take marine too hastily that, on the ono hand, might have the effect of encouraging opposition on the part of the Porte, and, oa the other, might engage more deeply than had hitherto been the case, the honour and dignil of the Emperr. " On the other aide, the two maritime powers have not thought it their duty to yield to the consideration, which we have recommended to their serious attention. Taking before us the initiative, they have judged it indispensable to precede immediately, by an effictive measure, those men sures which we only announced as purely eventual, since we made the carrying of them into effect depend on the final resolutions of the Porte, and because, at the very mo_ ment when I write, the execution thereof has not yet begun . They immediately sent their fl e ets into the wa t ers o f Con_ stantinople. They already occupy the seas and ports of the Ottoman dominion, at the gates of the Dardanelles. lip tkat advanced attitude the two powers have placed us Ude!' the weight of a threatening demonstration, which, as ws had predicted to them, may add to the crisia new compli. cations. "In presence of the refusal of the Porte, supported by the manifestations of Franca and England, it heroines more than ever impossible for us to modify the resolutions that the Emperor has made dependent on them. In come. quence, his Imperial Majesty has scat to the corps of oar troops stationed at this moment in Bessarabia the order to pass the frontier, and to cccupy the Principalities." I may observe, in the first place, with reference to the first of these passages, that the despatch of Count de Nes. selrode, addressed under date of the Ist of June to the Baron Brunnow, had not been brought to the knowledge ef the government of her Majesty before the Bth of June, and. consequently, the orders forwarded a week previauly to Admiral Dundee to repair to the environs of the Darda nelles had not been issued, as pretended in the circular of the Count de Nesselrode, after the considerations were made known to the British government. But had it even been different, and had the orders Lot been issued, it was still impossible for the government of her Majesty to think that the menace to occupy the Principalities would not be carried into effect in consequence of the adherence on the pert of the Porte to the rejection of those clauses which a few days before it had rejected without hesitation. Consequently, on the Bth of June, the government of her Majesty could not but consider the occupation of :he Principalities as inevitable, and they think that the cabinet of St. Petersburg will not now pretend that the note of Count de Nesselrode to lteschid Pasha, contained mere:, a simple menace, which it was never seriously proposed to carry into effect. It is a fact, moreover, that the note of the Count de Nesselrode, of the date of the 31st May, con taining the communication of the hostile intentions of Russia, would suffice of itself to authorise the government of her Majesty to take measures for the protection of Turkey. I will endeavour now to establish at what period, sad on what motives the British fleet was sent into the waters of Turkey. The Prince Menchikoff, acting, as we mast believe, by order of his government, has declared in his note of the sth May, of which a copy was received in Lon don on the 18th of the same month, that all forth( r delay to adopt his propositions relative to the Greek church would be considered by him " only as a want of respect towards his government, which would impose on him the most painful obligations." And accordingly, in his note of the 11th May, of which a copy was received in London on the 30th of the same month, the Prince Menchilcolf said, that in case of an un satisfactory decision by the Porte, " If the principles which formed the basis (of the articles under discussion) are re jeeted—if by a systematic opposition the Sublime Porte per site in withholding itself from an intimate and direct under standing, he must consider his mission 13 terminated, interrupt his relations with the cabinet of his Majesty the Sultan, and cast upon the responsibility of his ministers all the oosuiequences which may result therefrom " And, in . , fine, in kis note dated the 15th of May, received in London on the let of June, Prince Menchikoff concludes with thew wends:—" It remains for the sagacity of your highness to weigh the incalculable consequences and the great cals. mities which may result, and which will fall with all their weight on the responsibility of the ministers of his Maks/ the Sultan." On one hand, these reiterated menaces towards a polar whose independence Russia herself had declared her deur mination to maintain—these menaces, say we—addressed with the intention of sustaining the demands so little con formable to the assurances given to the government of her Majesty; and, on the other hand, the great armaments, mi litary and naval,which during months were carried forward on the very frontiers of Turkey, left no longer any doubt in the minds of the government of her Majesty upon the im minent danger in which the Sultan was upon the point of being placed. They deeply regretted that that &tiger re sulted from the acts of the Russian government, which was a contracting party to the treaty of ISt' ; but as the go vernment of her Majesty entertains now as firmly as in 1841 the principles laid down in that treaty, and as they think that the maintenance of the peace of Europe is en gaged in the conservation of the Ottoman empire, they have felt that it was time for them to be ready (in the in terest of peace keel') to protect the Sultan. On learning. then, the sudden departure of Prince Manchikoff, they took the determination to place the British fleet, which at . - that time had not quitted Malta, at the disposition of her Majesty's ambassador at Constantinople. On the Ist of June the government addressed to Lord Stratford de Redchtle a despatch authorising him, upon certain specified occurrences, to send for the fleet, which, in such case would sail for whatever place might be ia dicated for it. On the 2nd of June they forwarded to Admiral Dentists instructions that ho should repair in , ' mediately to the neighbourhood of efie Dardanelles, and place himself in communication with her Majesty's am- bassador. The evening before we received a copy of the note of Prince Menchikoff, dated the 18th May, in which he an nounced that his mission had terminated, and that the re fusal of the guarantee demanded " would henceforth impose on the imperial government the necessity of finding it in her own proper force." On the 2nd of June I brought to the knowledge of Baron Brunaow the measure taken by her majes•y's governrokni That measure doubt not have been communicated by him at St. Petersburg before the ith or Bth, and, consequently , t could not have the least influence on the decision taken by