The Press. — London, England, 1854-06-03 00:00:00

510 Before the bill left committee an important clause, drawn up by Lord LYNDHURST, was added, for the purpose of making the liability of the railway com panies as "common carriers" more clear. The clause declared " that railway companies should be liable for any injury done to horses and cattle by the negligence of their ser vants—notwithstanding any notice given by them to the contrary—to the amounts named in the clause (not ex ceeding 501. for a horse, 121. per head for horned cattle, and 50s. for a sheep or pig) ; but that they should not be liable to a greater extent unless the animals were declared to be of higher value when they were delivered to them ; and in that case the company are to be entitled to charge a higher rate of carriage." The bill was reconsidered and recommitted on Thursday, when the amendments were agreed to. BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE. A series of resolutions, designed to facilitate the transaction of business and retrench the oppor tunities for irrelevant talk in the House of Commons, were proposed on Thursday by Sir J. Pakington. The proposition emanated from a select committee of which the right hon. baronet was chairman, and did not, as he acknowledged, go by any means so far as he should himself have wished. The resolutions comprised a variety of modifications in the forms of proceeding with relation to bills, votes of supply, committees, dm., their general tendency being to diminish the number of stages during the progress of any measure or vote through the house on which debates could be interposed upon the " general question." The whole series were adopted except the last, by which the usual weekly motion made on every Friday, "that the house on rising should adjourn until Monday," was to be made a matter of course. Mr. Bright and other members objected to this deprivation of an opportunity for introducing a debate on any topic of interest, and upon the suggestion ,of Mr. Disraeli the resolution was with drawn. pa* an 601.01tial nttiligatte. FRANCE. The preparations for the Boulogne camp are already commencing, the commandant of the mili tary engineers in the district having received in structions to establish, at first, encampments for 12,000 men. The camp will be formed at Wimereux, where 1,000 huts, built of clay, and thatched with straw, are to be erected. The Government is stated to intend augmenting the cavalry force in the East by two regiments of hussars. This will raise the French cavalry in the expeditionary army to a total of 6,000. General Ilaraguay d'Hilliers, late French Ambas sador in Turkey, arrived in Paris on Tuesday. A pamphlet on the Eastern question has been sup pressed in Paris by the police authorities on the eve of publication. An imperial decree places under the protection of the Empress the salles-d'asile for young children. A central committee of twenty-three ladies is also nominated to watch over the proceedings of the sallts-d'asile, and to promote their objects. M. Pralet, captain in the French navy, and Gover nor of Senegal, has lately undertaken a successful expedition into the interior of Africa for the purpose of re-establishing iu the upper part of the river Senegal the port which formerly existed in the town of Podor, and which is to serve as a guarantee of the free navigation of the Senegal up to Bakel, and be yond that point. Podor is about sixty leagues beyond the French establishment of St. Louis, in the region of the Fouta, inhabited by the l'eulhs, an intelligent race, well armed, and living by agri culture. Some troubles have been caused in Algeria by a fanatic calling himself El A'ma, a wandering minstrel, who has excited much agitation among the Hassinet tribes. He laid a plot for capturing Captain Cerez, chief of the district, and his escort, but was taken prisoner himself in the attempt, and died after wards of his wounds. The Finance Minister has published in the Moni teur a report announcing the full success, and giving the details, of the loan for 250 million francs (10,0 i )0,0(X it. sterling). The n umber of subscribers VMS 90,224, and the subscriptions amounted to 408,315,400 francs, viz., 150,752,800 francs in Four-and-a-Half per Cent. Stock, and 308,502,600 in Three per Cent. (In consequence of this excess all the subscribers for amounts exceeding 1,000 francs were allotted only a portion of their demands.) The deposit payable on subscribing being 25,000,000 francs, and the first instalment due on the 7th of May 15,000,000 francs, the subscribers were not required to pay more than 40,000,000 francs. The payments, however, effected in Paris and the departments down to the 20th May amounted to 120,000,000 francs. Sergeant Boichot, so well known in the revolu• tionary troubles of France, was arrested on Thursday morning at the terminus of the Northern Railway. THE PRESS. Monday's performance of the Prophhe at the Paris Opera was cut short by a melancholy incident. One of the spectators, in a front box, drew a pistol from his pocket, placed it at his head, and blew his brains out. The performance was at once closed, and the audience quitted the house. The perpetrator of this act was a young Prussian, an officer, named Kruine, one who is said to have come to Paris for his health. GERMANY. Rumours of diplomatic movements, and surmises concerning the movements of diplomatists, have been rife in Germany during the existing complica tions. The last statement, or invention, on this sub ject is reported by the Berlin Lithographic Corre apondenz to the effect that Baron Meyendorfl; Russian Ambassador at Vienna, and Baron Budberg, acting in the same capacity at Berlin, have respec tively received leave of absence, and will go, the first to Spa Gastern, and the second to Dresden, in search of health. The Austro-Prussian treaty is assigned as the real cause of this change. A Vienna despatch of Wednesday reports that the concurrence of the Germanic Confederation in the Austro-Prussian treaty is secured. A committee has been appointed by the Frankfort Diet to prepare the document of adhesion. A decree has appeared in Vienna announcing that the carrying of articles contraband of war in Austrian vessels is prohibited, and will be punished accord ingly. Aust►ian vessels on the open sea must sub mit to search. The only Austrian port to which cap tured vessels can be taken is Trieste, but they can only be sold when condemned as lawful prizes by a competent court. The first steps to mobilising the ermy in Prussia are already taken. The religious trouble seems increasing rather than subsiding in Baden. Riots have taken place at Brezingen. News from Freiburg states that the archbishop is under close arrest, and confined to his apartments. The peoplo had to be dispersed by the military. The clergy have interdicted the use of church bells ; they no longer celebrate high mass nor chant nor permit music in the churches. The local authorities interfered about the bells and ordered them to be used as usual, and on this point the clergy have submitted. DENMARK. A coup d'itat has been effected in Copenhagen. All the Oppositionjournals are to be prosecuted. This is the intelligence conveyed by a despatch of the 31st ult. SWEDEN. Important negotiations are said to be going on be tween England and Sweden. The exchange of couriers from London to Stockholm, and vice versa, is very frequent, and the fast-approaching conclusion of some treaty of vast importance is said (in a Hamburg letter) to be quite certain. THE PENINSULA. The English and French Governments are still pushing negotiations with Spain and Portugal, in tho hope of inducing those two Governments to furnish a contingent of auxiliaries in the war in the East. As respects Portugal, there will, it is said, be no difficulty, as she is bound by treaty to furnish contingent on being called upon by England to do so—England paying the expenses. Spain is not bound by any such treaty ; and hitherto the negotiations do not appear to have led to any good result. The Madrid Government have sent down engineer: to examine and report on the state of the Langreo Railway, preparatory, as is supposed, to becoming the purchasers of the enterprise. The company formed to construct this short line has been placed in a state of liquidation. All the capital, 35 millions of reels, has been expended, and the works are still incomplete. The Duke of Rianzares, who holds shares to the amount of 25 out of the 35 millions, has made propositions for carrying on the works to completion, on acquiring the shares of the other pro prietors. RUSSIA. The Frankfort Journal announces that the Fm. peror of Russia in person will go to the Danube at the end of this month. Fresh accounts of the perturbations in the Russian capital arrive from various quarters. The Paris Patrie states : " The last letters from different Russian provinces an nounce that marked agitation prevailed both in St. Peters burg and several of the neighbouring towns. Trade was suffering intensely, and misery was on the increase. A recent fact strikingly illustrates both the fears of the Russian Government and its method of proceeding. A tradesman of the capital having failed closed his shop, situated in one of the most frequented quarters of the city. This circumstance, apparently so ordinary, excited a sensation, and the Government arrested the tradesman and transported him at once to Siberia for having failed at such a time, and thus betrayed the uneasy state of trade. The police found upon inquiry that the immediate cause of the failure was a claim made by a nobleman for a sum of money due to him. This nobleman was fined SATURDAY, 15,000 roubles, and ordered to leave St. Petersburg and reside on his property." In Riga the vast merchant quarter of the city has been levelled by the military authorities, in appre hension of the landing of hostile forces. It is stated further that all the working part of the citizens, even women, children, and old men, were set to work and made to dig trenches, and throw up mounds of earth at the gates of the city. The port of Wyborg has also been declared in a state of siege. Great activity is displ a y e d i n strengthening the citadel, which is not very strong. Some hundreds of persons belonging to the town were forced to dig trenches and aid in raising the fortifications. Fears seem to be entertained of a landing, Wyborg being only eighteen miles from St. Petersburg. The Russian Government has prohibited the ex port of cattle from the southern provinces of the empire. The annual wool fair will, hcwever, be held as usual at Warsaw during the current month. TURKEY. General Baragnay d'Hillers has been temporarily replaced as French envoy at the Porte by M. Bene detti, the chargé d'affaires. M. Benedetti is an honourable and clever functionary, enjoying the esteem of all who are acquainted with him. Lord Napier, the new secretary to the British em bassy, arrived at Constantinople on the 16th ult. Lord Stratford de Redchfle, British Ambassador, has been suffering from a severe attack of gout. GREECE. The ultimatum sent by the British and French Governments to King Otho produced consider. able agitation in Athens. At first we are told his Hellenic Majesty was indignant at the restraint offered to his free action, and threatened to retire into the interior, and even to place himself at the head of the insurgent population. Wiser councils, however, seem to have prevailed, under the influence probably of the announcement that a first contingent of French troops, 8,000 strong, under General Furey, had landed at the Pirteus, and were followed by the arrival of fresh transports bringing more soldiers, both English and French. The Greek Ministry, pledged friends to Russia, thereupon resigned, the Greek ships in harbour were taken possession of by the French, and after some brief resistance the King yielded to the representations of the ambassadors of the two powers, helped, it is said, by the mediation of the representative of Prussia, and consented to sign a treaty of complete neutrality. One of the terms of this treaty, according to the Dibats, im ported that, while King Otho accepted the ultima tum, .the two powers were to cease or forego the occupation of the Pincus. The English and French Ambassadors have sincepresented the list of a new Cabinet, with Mavrocordato at its head, which his Majesty has promised also to accept. The Czar has made a splendid present to King Otho. The corvette Ariadne, 12 guns, and the brig Orphei, 6 guns, were, by order of Baron Meyendorfi, given to the Greek Government, with everything on board. The French Government announces in the Moni teur that it has received very satisfactory intelligence from Epirus and Macedonia. In Epirus all the vil lages which the flellenes had coerced into insurrec tion had submitted to Fuad Effendi. Admiral de Tinan has captured four Greek pirates at Nicaria, carried them to Rhodes, and delivered them over to justice. THE CAPE. News from the Cape of Good Hope to April 21 has arrived by the Indiana mail steamer. Few public events had occurred since the previous despatches. The attention of the inhabitants has been chiefly occupied with the elections for their first Parliament, which was to assemble for the despatch of business between the 23rd and 341 th of June. General Jack son left Graham's Town on the 23rd March for British CafFraria, where, with Governor Cathcart, he intended to undertake a tour of inspection. Governor Cathcart was expected to arrive in Cape Town during April, en route for England. The abandonment of the Orange River sovereignty has been carried into full effect. The troops have been withdrawn into the colony, and the fort at Blomfontein left guarded by burghers, under the government of the yolks Raad. Copper ore of excellent quality continues to be raised in Momahnaland. Gold is still found on the norther frontier, but in small quantities. His Excellency the Governor of Mauritius was about to leave that colony for England, on account of ill health. INDIA. The arrival of the full despatches brought by the last overland mail enables us to add a few items of interest to the brief telegraphic sum mar y in news given our last PRESS. The Indian Government has sent home a scheme to the Court of Dir ectors for the establishment of a Presidency College in Calcutta, which will in reality I