The Press. — London, England, 1857-02-28 00:00:00

FEBRUARY 28, 1857. foreign 6orrtsponbtutt. BEEssErs, Feb. 25. THE morning expresses from Paris convey the intelligence of the Persian differences having been brought to a termination. The original demands of England were incompatible with the common respect that a nation owes to itself, but the Whig Government, having a dread of the motion of Lord Derby, incontinently withdrew its exorbitant preten sions. It is well understood on the Continent that Lord Derby and Mr. Disraeli rule in Parliament, and that the Whig Government is gifted merely with an unhappy potentiality to yield every point, without honesty of purpose, and lacking the power of dis cretion. The Whig Government primarily insisted that the Sadrazam, Mirza Aga Khan, the favourite and confidential Minister of the Shah, should be dis missed from his post; that Mr. Murray, the British Envoy, after having made a triumphant entry into Teheran, should receive the reiterated visit of the State ofdcers—that is on two separate and distinct occasions—the sec3nd giving them the guise of petitioners forj grace—before the envoy should be called upon to return the compliment. These re quirements were too preposterous to be insisted upon, when in anticipation of the castigating anim adversions of Lord Derby. The four principal points agreed to are as follows :-1. The evacua• tion of Herat, with a stipulation to abstain from interrerence in Affghan affairs ; 2. A restitu tion to the Imaum of Muscat of the posses sions of which he had been deprived by Persia; 3. The Charge d'Affaires of her Britannic Majesty to make a formal entry into Teheran, and to receive a complimentary visit (reception d'honneur) from the Sadrazam or Grand Vizier of Persia; 4. Consuls to be appointed in such towns that the English Govern ment shall deem advisable. No treaty has as yet been signed. Since the arrival of the Count de Kis seleff at Paris, matters have taken a more conciliatory turn. He has bad long conferences with Ferouk Khan. Benda-Bassi, it is said, will not be restored to the Imaum of Muscat, neither will England ob tain satisfaction for the expenses of the war. What ever arrangements may be entered into respecting Southern and Eastern Persia are perfectly apart from the affairs of Northern Persia and those parts abutting upon the Russian frontier. Russia has a specific treaty with Persia, and will come to no col.- dial understanding with England whilst a Wliig Government remains in office. The Government of the Czar, rejecting and contemning an insincere and lip Liberalism that clings to a retrograde Austrian, Whit, and Papistical policy, seeks the rather an alliance with Conservative progress, that shall develop national resources, inspire confidence amongst nations, and promote commercial prosperity by peaceful and harmonious co-operation. It has been proved by practical demonstration that such a state of things is incompatible with the existence of a Whig Government in England. Russia is beginning to abandon her exclusive and protective system. In 1827, when the first assurance companies were established in St. Petersburg, an imperial ukase prohibited the securing of property in foreign offices. Adopting sounder views of com mercial policy, permission is now granted to make use of foreign channels, thus bringing the Russian companies in competition with those of London. The rates of assurance in St. Petersburg have been immediately lowered, and this prudent alteration has brought a large increase of business. An agency office of the Royal Insurance Company of London has been already opened. Large advances have also been made with the sanction of Government to the proprietors of gold mines in the Oural district. Nothing but a fair outlay was wanting to convert these gold mines into one of the most lucrative ad ventures of Europe. No symptom of a preparation for removal from the Danubian principalities can be discerned amongst the Austrian battalions. It is, besides, well under stood that in the event of withdrawal the army will be stationed upon the Moldo Wallachian frontiers. To prepare the statesmen of Europe for the conse quences of this hostile attitude, the Gazette of Vienna declares the protectorate of the Principalities to belong of right to the border States, to the exclusion of England (devroit etre absolument devolu aux puissances litnitrophes). Backed by a Whig Ministry, Austria dares to beard Russia, a proceed ing not in accordance with the intention of France. The firman for the convocation of the Divans " ad hoc" has been taken to Jassy by Kaboul Effendi, and to Bucharest by Kiamil Bey. A word in regard to this firman may not be inopportune, and, indeed, parliamentary attention should be properly directed towards it. By the provisions of this authoritative instrument the electoral lists are to be revised by gommitlees entirely composed of Government agents, THE PRESS. by governors of districts, presidents of the courts of justice, and mayors of the municipalities. This has been done with the consent of the European diplomatists; yet these same caused to be expressly inserted in the firman an injunction to restrain governmental interference ditectly or indirectly. This is not bungling, but an Anglo-Austrian Kaimakan of Moldavia and his secre taries, instruments of Austria, have busied them selves in preparing the electoral lists. Orders have been sent into the provinces to exclude all peasants —second-class voters—not belonging to " Separa tist" landlords. And the rejected will have to appeal to the very committee that directed their expulsion. Such presidents of tribunals as have declared them- serves favourable to a Moldo-Wallachian union have been deprived of their offices; and some of the Ministers have resigned temporarily, in order to become candidates for a seat in the Divan. Amongst the latter are MM. Istrati, Vogorides, and Gregorio Balchi. To say that the Ministers of Austria and England are not cognisant of this conspiracy to gag the popular voice would be an absurdity. Little respect is paid by Austria to the provisions of the Treaty of Paris—a disreputable lino of conduct that the Whig Government does not repudiate. A trespass, by implication, not permitted to Russia, may be perpetrated by others with impunity. The fact is made plain in the courteous answer of Prince Gortschakoff to Lord Clarendon on the Rol- grad matter. C. A. H. lortign nab• Cliental 3nttliigente. THE WAR WITH CHINA. Accounts from Hong Kong, of the 13th of Jan., state that a numerous Chinese fleet had attacked the English squadron, and subsequently retired in good order under the forts of Canton. Admiral Seymour had disembarked troops and burnt the greater part of the suburbs of Clinton. The Reet belonging to the Chinese rrbels had formed a junction with that of the imperialists at Whampoa. The Chinese had also made an unsuccessful attempt to retake Tea Totum Fort. The Europeans on board the steamer Thatle, in all eleven persons, had been treacherously murdered by assassins in disguise among the native passengers. The steamer was carried off, and abandoned after being dismantled. The Government of Hong Kong had increased the police force, and were taking precautionary measures against incendiarism. PERSIA. Intelligence from Bombay, of the 2nd inst., states that Mr. Murray had arrived at Bushire. The English had established their head-quarters at Bw,sorah. Intelligence direct from Bushire to the 17th of January, states that the troops were still unmolested by the enemy. An attack had been made by detach ments of cavalry and horse artillery on a depot of Persian stores and ammunition twenty-two miles from the camps, and the object attained without loss. FRANCE. The Emperor presided in person at a Council of Ministers on Saturday and Wednesday last. Conferences have taken place at the office of Foreign Affairs between Count Walewski, Dr. Kern, and M. de Hatzfeldt, upon the Neufchatel question. A Treaty of Commerce between Persia and France has been published in the Moniteur. France is placed upon the level of the most favoured nation. Her consuls to reside at Teheran, Bushire, and Tauris. The French papers continue to discuss the Persian question. The Pays maintains the existence of a convention between Russia and Persia for the cession of the Persian territory of Maku to Russia. AUSTRIA. The Emperor returns to Vienna by the 15th of March. The Imperial Court will visit Hungary in May. The question at issue between his Majesty the Emperor and the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian has been settled to the entire satisfaction of both parties. The future Governor-General of the Lom bardo-Venetian kingdom will not only bold extremely full powers, but he will be dependent on his Ma jesty alone. The Archduke will be allowed to make his propositions direct to the Emperor, instead of sending them to the Ministers, after the custom of Marshal Radetzky. The Archduke Maximilian is on his return from Trieste. The promulgation of the new organisation of the Lombardo-Venetian provinces is momentarily expected. TURKEY AND THE PRINCIPALITIES. A private letter from Vienna states that the town of Bolgrad was to be officially delivered over by the Russian authorities to the commissaries of the Mel. davian Government on 'f;sl). 207 A letter from Beyrout, of the 6th, states that Sir Henry Bulwer, the Commissary of the English Go. verment for the question of the Principalities, had arrived in that city the evening before from Constan tinople. Sir Henry is, it is said, charged with a private mission in Syria. Rafaat Paella, Minister of War, had died suddenly at Constantinople. GREECE. Letters from Atlieioit,he 14th state that the Senate has rejected the arrangement relative to the financial commission of the three protecting powers, and compelled M. Rangubo publicly to disavow the document. AMERICA. The dates from New York reach to the 14th inst. The political intelligence is unimportant, beyond the rumour that the Clarendon-Dallas Central Ame rican Treaty would be rejected. Mr. Buchanan's Cabinet was not yet formed. ELECTORAL INEQUALITIES. LETTER IX. TO THE EDITOR OF "THE PRESS." Sir,—The debate on Mr. Locke King's motion to extend the county suffrage induces me again to en deavour to direct attention to the real nature of our electoral inequalities, for in that debate the speakers on both sides seemed carefully to avoid allusion to the real point wherein consists the injustice done to the counties. The truth is, there is no very great inequality in the distribution of the franchise between town and county. The town population of England is about seven millions, that of the counties about nine and a half millions; the number of town voters is 482,387, and of county voters 418,785. Now, although this inverts the just proportion, it does not do so to such an extent as to justify organic change; but, when we find out that the nine and a half millions are repre sented in Parliament by only 144 members, while the seven millions have 319 members, we demonstrate a case of injustice which no platitudes about the sys tem of compromise on which our constitution is based, and the necessary anomalies it involves, can excuse, and which twenty-four years' prescription cannot consecrate. It is, therefore, not an increase of county voters but an increase of county members which the cause of justice requires. Now, Mr. Locke King's proposal does not meet the case; he prescribes for a cold in the head when the patient is suffering from starva tion, and his prescription, being of a drastic nature, rather tends to aggravate the malady, for if you in crease the number of voters and don't increase what they vote for, you simply diminish the value of the individual votes, without giving the interest they represent the smallest additional influence. An elector co-operates in the government cf the country only by helping to elect a member, and once his vote is given his political functions are at an end ; so that, suppose you were to give the county popula tion universal suffrage, keeping the town franchise as it still is, so long as you do not give them additional members of Parliament, and put them in that respect on a par with the town, you do not advance a single step in the direction of substantial justice. I observe that one of the speakers stated that a uniformity of suffrage would abolish the distinction between burghs and counties, and lead to the splitting up of the country into electoral districts, and he seemed to think that so terrible a result was sufficient to negative any such proposal. But, making due allowance, as I pointed oat in a previous letter, for the exceptional case of the metropolitan districts, I would like to know what is the principle on which the objection to electoral districts is founded. It would seem to me to be for the interest of the country at large (not meaning thereby merely the Whigs) that the antagonism between town and county interests should be put an end to; and cer tainly, if the people by the theory of the Constitution are entitled to equal privileges, it is an absolute con tradiction that a set of men simply because they livo in a town should have twice the political power that the same number would have if they lived in the country. The question simply comes to this,—Are we in the nineteenth century to have a new privileged class to lord it over the rest of the country ? Is the feudal system, which we thought we had happily got. rid of, to be reproduced in the form of an oligarchy of towns? and is there never to be in reality what the Constitution proclaims in theory, equal justice among all classes of the community ?—I am, ttc., J. A. G: THE EARL OF HAREWOOD, after three weeks' suffering, died on Sunday last. LADY YARDE BULLER, wife of Sir John Yarde Buller, Bart., M.P., died, we regret to say, on Friday week. The deceased laxly was eldest daughter of Mr. Thomas Wilson Patten, and sister of Mr. John Wilson Patten, M.P. for Lancashire, and married Sir John, Jan. 24, 1823.