The Press. — London, England, 1858-10-30 00:00:00

1058 THE PRESS, OCTOBER 30, 1858. ferent from that which would arise from accepting the history of Rome, or any Pagan nation, as the test of national greatness. TEE DESTRUCTION BY FIRE of the Australian steamship Eastern city, and the extraordinary pre servation of 230 souls, was advised at Lloyd's y. ster. day. The vessel, one of the Black Ball line of Australian passenger ships running from Liverpool, lett the Mersey for Melbourne on the 10th of July, having on board 180 passengers, 47 men, officers and crew, and upwards of 1,600 tons of general cargo. The ship made a success!ul run to the Equator, and all went well for a rapid voyage, when on the after noon of the 23rd of August it was discovered that a fire had broken out in the forehold. Every effort failed in extinguishing it, and preparations were made for provisioning and launching the boats. The sea, how ever, was very high, and had the passengers been driven to put off in the boats there is little doubt that theirs would have been a terrible fate. But happily:the transport ship Merchantman, Captain G. F. Brown, from London, with troops for Calcutta, observed the signals of the burning ship, and at once bore down to her aid. With the exception of one man, M'Lean, a steerage passenger, the whole of the passengers and crew of the Eastern City were taken off, and in about four or five hours after they had left the entire ship was in one mass of fire ; the masts went over board, and she was a blazing wreck. The unfortu nate man who perished was a native of Skye ; he had been ill for some days, and was below in his berth when the fire was first discovered, and he is supposed to have been suffocated. TO CORRESPONDENTS. Advertisements sent from the country must be accompanied by remittance or a reference fur payment in town. It is impossible to acknowle Ige the mass of letters we receive Their insertion is often delayed owing to a press of matter and when omitted, it is frequently from reasons quite inde pendent of the merits of the communication. Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated by the name and address of tho writer, not necessarily for publics tion, but as a guarantee of his good faith. Communications should always be legibly written, and on one side of the paper only. If long it increases the difficulty of finding space for them. TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION ebt vrtos: (STAMPED) Per Annum .. Half Yearly.. Quarterly .. PAYABLE IN ADVANCE. .. £1 6 0 .. 0 13 0 .. G 6 6 Subscribers are requested to send their orders through News Agents; if direct to the Office, accompanied by a remittance. Advertisements also must have a reference or remittance. Money Orders to be made payable to Mr. ALFUED IvE, 110, Strand, London. C'bt 43rTg611. SECOND EDITION. SATURDAY AFTERNOON. LATEST INTELLIGENCE. INDIA AND CHINA. The India mail has arrived wit'► advises from Calcutta to the 23rd of September, and from Hong Kong to the 12th of September. The state of affairs bad undergone no material improvement.' The strength of the rebels is reported to be on the increase, and the occasional defeats which they suffer do not appear to intimidate them. In Behar Oomer Singh had been proclaimed King of Shahabad, and other rebels had been rewarded with distin guished honours. Sir Colin Campbell was making arrangements to commence active operations against them. In Luckuow severe skirmishes had taken place, and in one of them our artillery bad been a good deal cut up. The Canton liver is again free, but we have nothing satisfactory to report of the state of matters in the city. TREATY WITH JAPAN. Letters from Hong Kong, dated the 12th of Sep tember, state that Lord Elgin had returned from Japan, with a Treaty nearly identical with the one lately concluded by that country with the United States. It stipulates for the opening of five Ports within a year after its ratification. Cotton and woollen fabrics are only to pay a duty of five per cent. on importation; while the majority of other articles will be charged twenty per cent. The negotiators from Pekin, appointed to fix the Chinese Tariff, had not arrived. THE BRIGHT BANQUET at Birmingham last night passed off with great éclat, and elicited from the hon. gentleman a second speech almost exclusively directed to our foreign policy. Mr. Bright began his speech by reference to an alleged difference of sentiment between his constituents and himself in matters of foreign policy, and he proceeded to demonstrate that the views which he and his friends held in this re spect were not novel nor unpatriotic, and were asso ciated with the names of many of the most eminent statesmen that bad ever presided over the adminis trative councils of England. He illustrated the latter assertion by a reference to the declared opinions of Sir Robert Walpole, Mr. Charles James Fox, Lord Grey, and Sir Robert Peel. He went on to show that though we had gained nothing good from these undertakings, there were results flowing from them that everyone might be expected to deplore, those results being the expenditure of 2,000,000,000/., irremoveable pauperism, and heavy taxation. He contended that th e insurrection in India and the war with China arose from a policy which attributed English glory to this system. Alluding to Cherbourg, Mr. Bright repudiated the fears which many entertained, and showed how little we could consistently condemn France for behaviour which we had ourselves so much exhibited. He wanted to inaugurate a new revolution of opinion, one in which among other changes, the great anomaly of such a rich country having to raise 7,000,000/. for its pauper population, and the unhappy condition of a portion of our women, would be deeply considered. Mr. Bright concluded by a reference to the duty which now devolved upon the advanced members of Firliatneat and the people of England, a duty dit e fortign 6orrtspontentt. Etats, Thursday. WHEN the dissension betwaen France and Portugal became known to the public, THE PRESS was able to announce (exclusively, if i mistake not) that it was in a satisfactory way of solution. The solution has been arrived at even more promptly than bad been anticipated. On Sunday last the French Govern ment received a telegraphic despatch from Lisbon stating that the Portuguese Cabinet had consented to give up the ship seized, the Charles et Georges, and to release the captain of it from custody ; and to-day the same official organ, in an explanatory article on the whole affair, confirms that statement, and adds to it that an indemnity is to be paid to the parties who suffered by the seizure. It is asserted, I see, in some London journals that Portugal only made concessions under protest : but this is positively denied by the French Government;—she yielded, in diplomatic parlance, " purely and simply." Belgium and other foreign journals have taken on themselves to declare that the indemnity, which was originally fixed at 18,0001. sterling, has been reduced by the French Government to 7,2001. This also is an error ;—that Government not having yet decided what amount it will claim. The Emperor and his Ministers are, I am assured, highly pleased at the manner in which the English Cabinet has acted in this affair—from the moment that it saw that his Majesty and his councillors had take❑ the matter to heart it advised Portugal to yield, and it has since not failed to repeat the recommendation. This, at least, is the report here. It is not impossible, from what is said in the high political circles, that the dissension between France and Portugal may be followed by one between France and Brazil. Squabb!es have already taken place be• tween the diplomatic and consular agents of France in that country and certain local authorities as to whether, under existing treaties, it is the former or the latter who are to superintend the disposal of the property of Frenchmen dying in Brazil, and as to whether the disposal is to he in accordance with French or Brazilian law. And now a graver matter has arisen. It is said that the French Government has discovered some documents in its archives which prove that, in consenting in the treaties of Vienna to accept the river Oyapoke as the boundary between its province of Guiana and the empire of Brazil, it committed a grievous mistake, the real boundary to which it was entitled being some other river farther off; and it accordingly proposes to demand the in termediate territory from Brazil. I, however,' only give you this as an on dit. The affair of the Jew child Mortara has been a standing topic of discussion iu the newspapers and of conversation in society during the whole of the past week, and the interest it excites amongst the public appears not to have diminished. It is, how ever, becoming a bore in political circles, and 1 have some reason to believe that the Government will shortly direct that nothing more shall be said about it. The Papal Court has shown a marked reluctance —it might almost be said has given a firm refusal— to comply with the recommendations which the French Cabinet has addressed to it to restore the child to his parents, and is greatly irritated at the language of the Paris poss ou the subject. It is said, also, that the Romish Church, with its usual cunning, has adopted a marvellous plan for smothering the affair: it has, either by threats, or bribes, or both, induced the parents to consent to having their child brought up as a Christian. What I said in my last on the su bj ect of an at tempted re-establishment of aristocracy as a distinct political order was correct. The Emperonhas caused the draft of a decree to be sent to the Council of State proposing the restoration of what is called a " Conseil du Sceau," a " Board of Titles," charged to advise on the proposed grant ot' new titles, to register them when conferred, and to decide any doubts which exist or may be raised as to th e va li d i ty of existing titles. Evidently, the real object of this board will be to execute the law which was passed some months ago to put down the practice of " usurping titles," which has prevailed to an immense extent in this country, and thereby to form a real bona fide order of nobility. The grant of new titles by the Emperor as a reward to his personal friends, and to those persons who may render important services either to him or the State, will follow as a matter of course. These titles will be, as I have already informed you, dukes, counts, and barons; but there will be none of marquis, the first Emperor having rejected that one when he re-established titles, and Moliere and other dramatic writers having succeeded in casting E a certain degree of ridicul e on it. I hear doubts ex t tiressed by some persons as to the prudence of the Imperial project. The preju dices of the French are, they say, strong against any thing of the kind, and it is opposed, they add, to the fundamental principles of the French codes, which prohibit anything like privilege, and effectually to destroy privilege make the equal division, or nearly so, of landed estates or personal property of a parent amongst all his children compulsory. But, on the other hand, some of the wisest men in France hold that the absence ot a regular aristocracy is one of the greatest evils under which the country has to labour. They hold, also, that the excessive division and subdivision of real and personal possessions which have been going on for upwards of sixty years, and which are increasing every year, ought, both fur economic and political reasons, to be diminished; and they think that the re-establishment of an aris tocracy is the first step to be taken towards amending those evils Some months back a great outcry was raised against the Emperor for having resulved to inclose a large portion of the Tuileries gardens for his own private use ; and I myself, I remember, ventured in your columns to express doubts that the measure was a wise one. But truth requires the confession, that the inelosure which is now nearly completed has been turned to such account, as to add greatly to the beauty of the gardens. Formerly, as all your readers know, the part of the grounds nearest the palace was nothing but deserts of gravel and par terries—the latter filled with sickly shrubs and flowers, and formed with that mathematical square ness which is hateful to behold. Now a sort of lawn has been laid out, and it is ornamented with beds of flowers, and clumps of shrubs and winding walks. The green grass is refreshing to the eye, and, if the expression may be allowed, forms an admirable con- necting link between the weather stained old palace and the fine trees that face it. To English residents in particular the new arrangement is full of charm, because it is like what they were ; accustomed to see in front of country mansions at home. I hear that the Government contemplates appoint. ing four grand dignitaries, and eight smaller ones, to watch over the manner in which the departmental prefects discharge their duties. Considering that every prefect of the empire is within speaking dis tance of the central Government by telegraph, and within a few hours' ride of it by rail, the utility of these functionaries may be doubted ; and it is certain that the nomination of them will bo disagreeable to the prefects. But in France it appears to be thought that there can never be too many place• holders. The departure of the Emperor and Empress for Compiegne, which was to have taken place last Sun day, has been postponed to Tuesday or Wednesday next. Some intention was entertained of giving LIP the visit altogether, owing, it is whispered, to the Imperial Exchequer being, from the heavy drain made on it by the " progresses" to Cherbourg and Brittany, rather low ; but the Empress pouted a little at such an idea, and so the Emperor, ever anxious to please her Majesty, gave orders that the visit sho uld take place. It may now be considered irrevocable,. as invitations have been issued, and as a regiment o f the Guard is to be sent off to-morrow to do duty at the Palace during their Majesties' stay. Some doubt prevails as to the length to which the visit will ex+ tend, some of the Palace authorities thinking that it will be a month, whilst the Guard have only received orders to remain a fortnight. Whatever the length, grand w ill be the hunts, and splendid the in - d oor festivities ; but, contrary to custom, they will not be adorned by the presence of any member of any roydi family of Europe. ...,