The Press. — London, England, 1854-09-23 00:00:00

SEPTEMRER 23, 1854. have served either ten or fifteen years, and have been sent home on long or short furlough). "Neither the calling out of the first and second classes (of reserves), or of men dismissed after serving their full time, nor the four levies within two years of ten men in lien of the ordinary five or seven per one 'housand souls, have sufficed to fill up the enormous wear and tear of lives caused to Russia by the exercise of her protectorate rights. The owners of serfs are the greatest sufferers (three•fourths of the recruits beingol this class). They lose an immense capital, and so does the State. Supposing that each levy produces 200,000 recruits ( that is, for both circles), and valuing each serf at an average of 500 silver roubles—this gives the immense sum of one hundred millions of roubles in silver; and if this be multiplied four times (for the four levies within two years), the gross amount will be four hundred millions ; to which must be added upwards of ten silver roubles, paid by those furnishing recruits, for the equipment of each man. " This vast sum is but a fraction of the losses to the country occasioned by the holy attempt to place the Porte's subjects of the Greek faith under the exclusive protection of Russia. Most welcome, therefore, are the contributions which the Minister of Finance receives now and then from different classes of the people, and which are notified in published tables. Three of these donations of 5,400, 3,975, and 4,000 silver roubles, contributed by the Department of Domains, have just been made known." Swedish journals state that the value of the cannon and stores taken at Bomarsund amounts to about 100,0001.; that of the fortifications destroyed there, and at Hango-Udd, must be estimated at several millions of roubles. The Russian Government has engaged three em ployes of the Brunswick telegraphic department for a term of six years, to assist in establishing telegraphic lines in Russia. It is added that the central office of all lines in use, and projected, meets in an apartment immediately under the Emperor's working cabinet in the winter palace. All despatches are first and forth with laid before his Majesty before they are trans. mitted to their destination, official or private ; those of the diplomatic corps, in cipher, are copied and handed over to the deciphering-office. Accounts from Petersburg, dated the 14th, state that the whole second division of the Guards, the second brigade of artillery of the Guards, and the Hussar regiment of the Guard has been inspected by the Emperor, and marched to share in the campaign of the south. DENMARK. On the 26th of July the King of Denmark signed I the law regulating the constitution of the Danish monarchy, as regarding the public affairs common to the whole empire. The following are the most important regulations :—The King has the supreme power in all common affairs of the realm, under such restrictions as are regulated by the present law. For these common affairs the Council of the Realm is instituted. This council is at present composed of twenty members, all chosen by the King—viz., twelve for Denmark, three for Schleswig, four for Holstein, and one for Lauenberg. For the future the numbers are to he fifty—twenty chosen by the King ; of the other thirty the Danish Diet has to elect eighteen ; the Estates of Schleswig, five ; those of Holstein, six ; those of Lauenberg, one; these elections to be regu lated by separate laws. The Council of the Realm is to meet on the Ist of September this year, and henceforth at least every second year ; the debates are not public, but reports will be published in German and Danish. No taxes common for the whole monarchy can be imposed, altered, or taken off, nor new loans contracted, without the consent of this council. In regard to other common affairs it has only a consultative voice. The common budget, with the public accounts, is to be laid before it before ob taining the sanction of the King. The report of the Royal Danish Railway was adopted at a meeting at Flensburg on the 14th inst. The completion of the important section connecting thr Baltic and the North Sea was announced, and it was stated that the entire line, including the Rends burg branch, which forms the junction with the Kiel and Altona and other lines, will be open early in October, the whole undertaking being thus brought into activity at a much earlier date than had been anticipated. A lease of the line to the contractors, Messrs. Peto, Brassey, and Betts, for fourteen years, at a minimum dividend of six per cent. on the capital of 540,0001. (secured by a deposit of 100,0001.), with an equal division of all surplus profits, and a reserved power to the company to terminate the agreement in five or ten years, was also submitted and agreed to. SWEDEN AND NORWAY. - - Within the la.st few days some more very decided warlike steps have been taken by the Swedish Go vernment. The commanding officer of the Gotha regiment of artillery has received orders to place the same on the war footing, and Major Landgreen, of the Engineers, has been appointed commandant of the fortress of Carlsten, which has undergone a close military inspection, and been ordered to be imme diately put in a fit state to stand a siege. Besides this, orders have been given for immediately fitting out six divisions of gun-boats, three divisions of gun sloops, and two divisions of bomb-ketches. The THE PRESS. expense attending these arrangements is ordered to be charged on the credit voted by the Diet "for the maintenance of an armed neutrality." Advices from Chnstiania state that the formal opening of the Norwegian railway took place on the Ist inst. in the presence of the Ministers and chief officers of the Government, the members of the Storthing, and the principal merchants. This line is forty-two miles in length, and runs from the port of Christiania to Lake Miosem, where it connects with steamers, which extend the communication a further distance of seventy-seven miles. The cost has been 450,0001., one half of which was subscribed by English shareholders, and the other half by the Norwegian Government. The shareholders are to receive a preferential dividend of five per cent. before the Government take anything, and when the Go vernment have received four per cent. the surplus is to be equally divided. A partial working of the line is stated to have been going on since the beginning of the present year, with results that have exceeded the original estimate. Baron (Charles) von Hochscild, Swedish Envoy Extraordinary and Minister l'lenipoteutiary at Berlin, has been appointed Swedish representative to the Court of St. James's. The baron, a veteran diplo ma:ist, is brother-in-law to the present Danish Minister at London, and father-in-law to the Danish Envoy at Vienna. A telegraphic despatch gives the following intelli gence, without date . A royal message asks the Swedish Parliament for a new Ministry, and credits for two and a hallmillions banco. The Norwegian Parliament was dissolved on the 13th. GREECE. Further particulars respecting the murder of Mr. and Mrs. Leeves in Eubma have been received and will be read with interest. The Government had appointed commissioners to inquire into the circumstances of the crime, through whose agency the murderers have been arrested and confessed their guilt. The bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Leeves had been buried twenty•four hours before the arrival of the commis sioners, at which ceremony it is a positive fact that Anagnosti Papa Efstathio, the instigator and chief perpetrator oi the murders, assisted, and, according to the Greek custom, gave the corpses the last saluta tion, called the " kiss of peace !" This person is only about twenty years of age, is the son of the Greek village priest, and himself a candidate for deacon's orders. He had been brought up from his youth by the Leeves family, and frequently dined at their table, out of respect to the sacred calling of his father, although himself nothing more than a peasant. This wretch, with two accomplices, climbed into a low balcony, leaving two others to guard against surprise. The bedroom window of Mr. and Mrs. Leeves opened on this balcony, and was not secured by the outside shutter; the glass only was closed, and that not securely. There was, therefore, no difficulty in obtaining access to their room. One of them, Souras, rushed to the bed and held down Mrs. Leeves, not, however, without alarming her husband, who had time to reach the door, and seize one of two loaded muskets which he kept in the passage, and which he fired at Souras, but unfortunately the ball merely grazed his shoulder. Taking up the other gun, which it appears was merely loaded with very small shot, he attempted to re-enter the bedroom, but the light having been extinguished by the first discharge, it is supposed he must have slipped and fallen, discharging the gun without doing any injury to the assassins. He was then immediately over powered, and, after receiving several wounds from a knife, he was conducted into the other apartments, and was compelled to open the drawers and cup boards, the keys of which were found in his hand. Having thus obtained about twenty dollars, some silver spoons and forks, two watches, and other small articles, to the value altogether of about 401., they brought Mr. Leeves back to his bedroom, and there, finding that Anagnosti was recognised, they murdered them both. They then took to flight, being alarmed by the noise and firing outside, the alarm having been given to the villagers. The steward, who slept in a rcom in the court-yard, was too terrified to render his master any assistance beyond firing his gun from the window. The female servants took refuge with him. It is some slight consolation to know that this act was not caused by any motives of private dislike or revenge, Mr. Leeves and his wife being universally respected and beloved by his villagers, who were so exasperated against the mur• derers that they would have torn them in pieces if they could have got at them. Two of these wretches, Souras and Arvanitis, were returned patriots, men who had escaped from the prison of Chalcis, where they had been confined for robbery, had joined the insurgents in Thessaly, and had afterwards been amnestied. Mr. Leeves's house is on the aide of a mountain, quite unprotected, and any of the doors and windows could be easily forced open with the hand. Mrs. Leeves was a Miss Fletcher, of Man chester, a very superior and pious woman, and it is 895 understood she brought her husband 4,0001. for the purpose of improving this Eubcea estate. There is no doubt but that the whole of the island of Eubcea (Negropont) is in a very unsettled condition, and that if the Greek Government really wishes to put a stop to such crimes some very energetic steps must be taken. It is to be hoped that the whole of the perpetrators of these truly shocking murders will be tried, condemed, and executed in such a public manner as to deter others from such atrocities, and to prove that the new executive Greek Government under Mavrocordato will enforce the laws, and, as far as in them lies, rescue Greece from the deserved odium which has been attached to her name for so many years past. A private despatch from Athens, dated tho 15th, says that:— " The French commander asked leave to send 2,000 troops to Athens, but it is said the King refused, and that he even declared he would quit his residence should the Government grant the request. The Ministry remained in deliberation ; nothing has as yet been decided. M. Mavrocordato has intimated that he would follow the King." INDIA. The late mail has been barren of news, as has been usual lately. Energetic efforts are to he made to establish the elec • trio telegraph in Pegu. Major Durvernet, of the trigo. nometrieal survey, has been appointed superintendent, and it is expected that the posts will be erected by February next. After being once established from Rangoon to Prome, it will be carried across the Arracan mountains, by Chittagong, to Calcutta. At Rangoon there was great activity in the dockyard, about twenty large gun-boats being in course of building. From Central Asia we have nothing of importance to report. The Persians are said to be strengthen ing themselves at Merw, and the Russians continue to negotiate with the Herat chief, who has been complaining to Dost Mahomed that the Candahar chiefs continue to despoil him of portions of his terri tory. CHINA. The China news brought by the overland mail is of high importance. Not only had an impor tant town in the neighbourhood of Canton been taken by the insurgents, but Canton itself was senously threatened. " The town of Canton (says the Over land Friend of China of July) is now the point at all anxiety, and though not in the actual possession of rebels, it is apparently the next thing to it. As we write a letter had arrived, from which we learn that firing and fighting had been going on on the hills in the rear of the city for several hours, and every one was anxious to see what the result would be. Busi ness at a complete stand still, and all Chinese pos sessing the means moving away as fast as possible. The plans for capturing Canton appear to have been laid with much foresight and skill. All the troops that could be sent from the garrison were first at tracted to the Toong-koon district. That being effected, Ho-Aluk, the rebel leader, then moved up the river towards Fat-shan, passing with a body of three thousand picked men, it has been ascertained, within a couple of miles of the foreign factories. Fat-Khan (a rich town some ten miles above Can ton) being occupied, and the residents laid under tribute, Ho-Aluk's bands now assail the Tartar en campment at the northward of the city. Two nights ago they made an attempt to enter the city at its northern and eastern gates, and not until they bad captured two mandarins, and killed and wounded several others, did they desist from the attack. As for the provinces, it is entirely at the mercy of the Triad societies, who have taken up arms against the governing authorities, and have made themselves masters of some of the chief towns on the banks of the Canton river, thus cutting off the whole of the trade with the interior. A party of British, and one also of Americans, had visited the rebels, but both parties received insults, and were lucky in escaping with their lives. For the protection of British property at, Canton the Comus, fourteen guns, is moored off the factories, and the sloop Racehorse is to go up from this to join her there in a day or two. The Americans have the steamers Queen and John Hancock and schooner J. F. Cooper, with a couple of chop-boat►, and some four score men from the Vincennes, at Whampoa. This force is strong enough to effect anything necessary. The French corvette La Jeanne d'Arc remains at Macao, where we trust she will stay until the Portu guese corvette Dom Joao returns from Ningpo. French interests at Canton are not very great, and not likely to suffer much by the forthcoming enseute. Matters were highly unsatisfactory in the north. From Shanghae we have news by the Rarracouta, from which we gather that the affairs of the rebels were gradually growing more desperate. They had received some reinforcements in numbers, but want and sickness were making sad havoc within the walls, and dissensions were fast springing up amongst them. A return of British shipping at Shanghae, published in the North China Herald by order of her Ma-