The Press. — London, England, 1854-05-13 00:00:00

MAY 13, 1854. Owing to the financial difficulties of the day the Porte has decided to increase the circulation of its paper by 50,000,000 piastres of 10 and 20 piastre notes, not to bear interest. These notes will be re ceived in the provinces by the governors in part pay ment of taxes. The Polish emigrants at Constantinople do not doubt that the legion which they are anxious to form in Turkey will receive the sanction of the Turkish, English, and French Governments. The great diffi culty relative to the accomplishment of their hopes arises at present from want of money. RUSSIA. The Russian Government has withdrawn its exequatur from the consuls of France and England at St. Petersburg. In communicating that deter mination to the consul of her Britannic Majesty, says the Moniteur, Count de Nesselrode offered that agent his passports, whereas he announced to M. de Castillon that the Czar authorised him to continue to reside at St. Petersburg. The French Govern• went has refused to accept the benefit of the differ ence of treatment which the Russian Cabinet has endeavoured to establish between the consuls of the two allied powers, and has ordered M. de Castillon to quit his post. A letter from the Baltic of the 25th ultimo, in the Moniteur, says : " The thaw of the Neva is expected in two days. The ice has already broken up in the Gulf a little distance from Cronstadt, which will be very probably accessible at the end of the month. The approach of hostilities is strongly felt at St. Petersburg, and measures are being taken with a view to dangers wich are profoundly appre- hended, though denied. Four batteries have just been es tablished at the entrance of the Neva. The metallic reserve of the fortress was sent eight days ago to Moscow. From the 27th the command of the town will be divided between four military governors, and the state of siege will be applied in all its rigour. Many persons are leaving for the interior of the country. The departure of the Emperor for Peterhoff, where the Court was to have gone on the 27th, is adjourned. His Majesty is in such ill health that he had been obliged to countermand twice a review which he had intended to pass. The displeasure caused by the policy of Austria was every day expressed more openly. It had been affirmed in some salons that the Government was preparing to place that power, by an ultimatum, under the necessity of pronouncing for or against it. But at bottom it is with a sentiment of sadness, more in conformity with the gravity of the circumstances, that the attitude taken by the Cabinet of Vienna and the signature of the protocol of Vienna, which has cemented the understanding of Germany with the Western powers, has been seen at St. Petersburg." GREECE, A despatch from Athens dated the 2nd instant states that the Greek Chambers are dissolved. The insur rection was beaten everywhere in Epirus, in Thessaly, and also, it is said, in Macedonia. Nevertheless, the Greek Government was organising a new attempt to revolutionise, assisted by the subsidy of a million forwarded to it by the Russian Government. The Paris Moniteur has published more than one note reflecting in severe terms on the conduct of the Greek Government in favouring the insurrection in Epirus. All the representations of that Government to the effect that the German powers approved of its conduct are, the Moniteur affirms, completely false, as the various German representatives at Athens had received formal orders to express the disapprobation entertained by their respective Courts of the conduct of the Greek Government. It is credibly stated that the Austrian minister at Athens has informed the Greek Government that if it was unable to maintain order Austria wag prepared to do so. Two Austrian ships-of-war have, it is said, received orders to proceed to Prevesa, and to come to an un derstanding with the commanders of the French and English ships. It is stated in official quarters in Paris that not only the blockade but the occupation of Greece is deter mined on. The corps d'armie to be sent without delay for that object would amount to 12,000 men. It is added that the Emperor Napoleon has ad dressed an autograph letter to King Otho, couched in the strongest possible terms, and in fact command ing him to desist from taking part with Russia in the war waged by the powers to whom Greece owes her existence as a nation, and to whom she is indebted for many favours, against that power, and that if Greece persist she will have to bear the consequences of her conduct. The New Prussian Gazette says : "At last the blockade of Greece has been officially an nounced to the Greek Government, and it is said that it will commence in the course of a few days. The ambassa dors of the Western powers have officially declared to the (government that the admiral of the squadron at anchor in these waters has received orders to detain the three Russian men-of-war that were bought by the Greeks at Trieste." When Grivas was reduced to extremities he found he must cut his way through the Turks. But he had 100 wounded with him, and these, of course, would fall into the hands of the Sultan's troops. He, therefore, preferred to kill them himself beforehand. THE PRESS. He administered to them all the last sacrament, and then gave orders to shoot them every one. This was done in the evening of the 10th of April. On the following night he got through, and escaped with his handful of followers to the Agrapha hills, but inces santly pursued by the Turks, utterly destitute. He is now, it is said, on the eve of returning to Greece. The Greek Archipelago is at present swarming with piratical vessels, fitted out, of course, from the islands and ports of Greece. PERSIA. The policy of the Shah appears to have become hostile to Russia. He claims the restitution of the ancient provinces, and is putting in motion an army of 30,000 men. UNITED STATES. The Arctic has brought New York advices to the 30th ult. The Gadsden treaty with Mexico, granting 10,000,000 dole. to Santa Anna for a new boundary, has been passed by the Senate. A dreadful conflagration occurred in Broadway, New York, on the 25th ult. After raging for some time, the building in which it occurred suddenly fell, crushing fourteen persons to death, and desperately wounding and burning thirteen more. On the 27th the city and neighbourhood were visited by a tornado. Several lives were lost by the falling of houses and upsetting of boats. The calorie-ship Ericsson was off Jersey city at the time, returning from her trial trip, where she suddenly careened from the force of the wind, tilled with water and sank, the guests and crew barely escaping with their lives in the boats which put off to render assistance. The tops of her paddle-boxes and bowsprit were left just above water, and it was expected she would be raised. INDIA AND CHINA. The overland mail reached Alexandria on the 4th, and Trieste on Tuesday last, with advices from Calcutta to the Bth; Madras, 10th nit.; Shanghai, 15th March ; Manilla, 21st March ; Hong-Kong, 27th March; Singapore, 4th April; and Bombay, 14th April. Burmah continues in a disturbed state. The electric telegraph between Agra and Calcutta, a distance of 800 miles, is completed. The Russian fleet left Manila on the 18th March for Batas ia. From China we learn only that the Imperial forces had been defeated, and the troops of the Tartar general, Kang Chung, had deserted their colours. AUSTRALIA. The sales of Crown lands in South Australia, for the current year only, have reached the sum of 200,0001., with every prospect that by the beginning of 1854 these sales will touch close upon 800,0001. This conclusive evidence of the rapid and bond fide settle ment of our province cannot fail to satisfy the most sceptical that its prosperity is proceeding and in creasing on the most sure of all grounds, namely, a freehold interest in its soil. There can be nothing ephemeral in those investments in land. The result is that upwards of 70,0001. is to be added to the sums already destined to promote emigration from England to Adelaide.—dustratian and New Zealand Gazette. TilE proposed " resolutions " relating to Exchequer Bonds and Exchequer Bills were printed on Tuesday. In addition to the 2,000,0001. Exchequer Bonds of series A, already taken up, the Chancellor proposes to raise a further sum of 2,000,0001. Three and-a-half per Cent. Exchequer Bonds, to be paid off at par on the Bth of May, 1859, and to be issued " at any prices and on any terms of subscription determined upon by the commissioners." Mr. Gladstone obviously means to have money for this series of 2,000,0001. bonds, excluding subscriptions in Exche quer Bills. Of Exchequer Bonds falling payabie in 1800, a sum of 48,5001. is proposed to be issued " at , a price not less than 981. per cent., to be paid in Ex chequer Bills at par or in money at 1001. ls. for every 1001. so subscribed." Government also propose to make a further issue of Exchequer Bills to the amount of 2,000,0001., and, in the event of the bonds not being fully taken up, Exchequer Bills will be issued to make up the deficiency. A PUBLIC FESTIVAL has been proposed to celebrate the union which at present exists between two countries which have been occupied during a large portion of the history of both in cutting each other's throats. It is suggested that a certain number of dis . tingished individuals holding public appointments in France, and connected with the arts, sciences, manu factures, and commerce in that country, should be in vited to the festival. The principal features of the entertainment prepared for the guests, as at present proposed, are a banquet in Guildhall, a public file at the Crystal Palace, and a festival on the river Thames. The funds are to be obtained by subscription and from the sale of tickets issued at a price to be fixed by a committee. THE CHOLERA has entirely disappeared from Edin burgh ; and, although it lingers in Glasgow and Fal kirk, seems greatly to have abated even there. THE WAR. 439 THE BOMBARDMENT OF ODESSA. Letters have been received from the Black Sea fleet communicating the details of the attack upon Odessa. From various correspondents of the morning journals we collect the following narrative of the affair. On the 17th of April (the French official declaration of war having arrived) both fleets sailed for Odessa, before which place they anchored on the afternoon of the 20th. An explanation was demanded of Ge neral Osten•Sacken, the military governor, as to his reasons for outraging a flag of truce, always held sa cred by all nations pretending to civilisation. The general returned an unsatisfactory answer, declaring that he did not tire upon the boat, but upon the Furious, which, not heeding the signals had, he un truly stated, steamed up the bay for the pur pose of examining it. Upon this the admirals sent in a demand for the delivery of all the shipping in the port, and, in the event of no answer arriving before sunset on the 21st, declared that they would punish this outrage on the law of nations. On the morning of the 22nd the steamers of the combined fleets accordingly attacked the imperial Mole. Odessa has often been compared in general aspect to Brighton, but the line of cliffs on which the town stands has a slight curve inwards, forming a shallow bay, with a radius of some three miles. These cliffs face the north-east, and towards the north sink into low sandy mounds and flat endless steppes. Stretch ing out from below them, at the lower end of the town, runs a long fortified mole, at the end of which is a lighthouse. This is called the Quarantine Mole, and shelters a great crowd of ships of all nations. Their crews are never permitted to go into the town, but are imprisoned within a small walled-in and strictly-guarded quarantine district at the foot of the cliffs. Under pretence of preserving themselves from disease the Russians have made the quarantine a hateful political tyranny. At the time of the attack this mercantile prison was very crowded, and on the morning of the 22nd each vessel had her colours at the mast-head, as if appealing for succour and pro testing against cannon balls intended for the Rus sians. The attacking force had orders to give this mole as wide a berth as possible, in order to be out of reach of its tire, and so to avoid the necessity of returning the fire and injuring any of the neutrals within. The following steamers constituted the attacking force. English : Terrible, 21; Retribution, 22; Tiger, 16; Furious, 16 ; Sampson, 6 ; and a detachment of rocket-boats under Commander Dixon. French: Mogador, 24; Descartes, 16; Vauban 16. The sailing fleet remained in the offing mere spectators of the affray. The steamers entered in two divisions. The first consisted of the Sampson, Furious, Vauban, and Mogador. The Sampson tired the first shot at the Imperial Mole, which was immediately returned. The action continued about two hours without cessation. At seven a.m. the second division received the signal to stand in. The Retribution led the way. The Russians had laid down a " lump," that is, an old vessel anchored to mark the distance their guns would carry. The allied division went within this mark, and therefore exposed themselves to loss from the shot of the enemy. At first, however, their shot did not reach our ships, although they suffered severely under our fire. The moles enclosed a mass of Russian ships of all sorts anti some large stores and barracks. They showed a formidable array of embrasures, more than seventy being counted, and there was a battery between them at the foot of the cliff. From the large ships, about three and a half miles off, the attack presented a most curious sight. When within about 2,000 yards each steamer delivered the fire of her enormous guns, then wheeled round in a circle of about half a mile in diameter, each taking up the fire in succession. Thus they kept wheeling and twisting about like so many waltzers, without ever touching or getting into scrapes. The guns in the mole anwered steadily, and in the course of an hour the Vauban came towards the fleets on tire from red hot shot, and riddled in several places. Happily the fire was got under, and she returned to her post. For a long time the terrific fire from the steamers did not silence the mole. At length it became slow, though regular, answering about once every two minutes, and towards one o'clock a shed at the back of the tongue battery caught fire, and in a few minutes the whole of that part blew up. The steamers continued plying the ships with shot and shell, and they were on fire and sinking throughout the mole, when sud denly, from behind some sheds on the low sandy shore near them, a battery of six horse artillery guns opened out upon the rocket-boats, which where at the moment within musket shot. Happily, nobody was hurt, though a perfect shower of balls fell around them, knocking the oars about and ploughing up the water all around them. Upon this the rocket boats and steamers opened upon them, and soon sent them scampering. A few minutes after the sheds