The Press. — London, England, 1854-01-07 00:00:00

FRANCE. The new year has been inaugurated in Paris by a variety of Court receptions and fetes signalised by even more than the customary imperial magnificence. On Sunday a grand levee was held at the Tuileries, attended by all the Ministers, the grand function aries of State, the judges of the courts of law, the cardinals and bishops, canons, marshals, generals, and superior officers of the National Guard, and the members of the diplomatic corps, all in costume of ceremony. The reception was held in the throne. room, where the Emperor and Empress stood under the rich canopy. When the diplomatic presentations were made, the Emperor addressed the representa tives of foreign powers in substance as follows I sincerely hope to be able to maintain the relations of amity which now subsist between my Government and the Sovereigns whose representatives you are ; " and, turning to the Ottoinan Ambassador, he added, " My good wishes, my sympathies, and my efforts are in favour of your Sovereign, and you will be good enough to communicate what I say to him." He then bowed to the ambassadors, and the ceremony proceeded. On the following evening, Monday, there was a " reception " for ladies, which is stated to have been the most brilliant ever remembered since the Restora tion. The Court " mantle " made its appearance for the first tune on this occasion, and added greatly to the effect. There were at least 2,000 persons pre sent, belonging to various nations, and exhibiting a great variety of the richest uniform; and costumes. After the presentations were finished, which occupied necessarily a considerable time, the assembly re tired to the Hall of the Marshals, where the Em peror joined them subsequently, and walked through the crowd, addressing familiarly all persons known to him. The Emperor and the Empress, it is said, occa sionally walk out in Paris in a sort of incognito. They last week visited, altogether en bourgeois, a well-known jeweller's shop in the Rue de la raiz. They were quite unattended; but a certain number of police-agents were seen to hover about in the immediate neighbourhood. The grooms of the Emperor on Tuesday tried under the windows of the Tuileries two splendid sledges, each drawn by a pair of horses. • The Moniteur on the jour d'an announced the no mination of eight general officers and fourteen colonels on the list of the Etat Major-General, and the distribution of a great number of crosses and military medals. The hitherto stanch advocate of Russia, the Assemblie, whose columns are said to be inspired by the Princess Lieven, has given symptoms of a com plete change of tone. On Tuesday it said:— " This struggle may shake the world, and we see it com mence with the deepest grief. We cannot, however, dis simulate the regret we feel at seeing a great power, which has for so long a time given proofs of moderation, which has always avoided separating its interests from those of Europe, and which appeared to be a barrier and resisting force against the revolution, now allow itself to he hurried into a course of policy producing such deplorable conse quences." The Nord of the 28th returns thanks, in the name of the cotton-manufacturers, to the Emperor for liming determined to maintain the present system of duties on cotton thread. At Rouen and at Lisle the decree in the Moniteur removing certain restric tions from raw cotton only was received with great joy, and several houses were illuminated. A decision of the Minister of the Interior, pub lished in the Moniteur, orders that certain tele graphic offices, including those of Paris, Lyons, Bordeaux, and Marseilles, are to remain open during the night for the reception and transmission of despatches between France and Brussels, Vienna, Berlin, and Trieste. The night charge is to be double that of the day. No arrangement has hitherto been made with regard to the night des patches for or from England. The confidential clerk of an eminent Paris stock broker committed suicide on Monday by throwing himself from the window of a fifth floor in the Fau bourg Poissonniere. It is said that the rash act was effected under the excitement caused by heavy losses at the Bourse during the last mouth. SWEDEN AND DENMARK. A treaty has been concluded between the Courts of Denmark and Sweden, by which the two powers en gage themselves, in the event of a war, to maintain an armed neutrality. Under this convention no re• strictions will be imposed on commerce. The ports of the contracting parties will still remain open to the mercantile marine of all nations, and the treaties regulating the passage of the Sound and the Belts will continue in force ; but all access to the ports of Denmark and Sweden will be denied to the ships of war of the belligerent States, be they whom they may. Circular notes announcing this convention have been transmitted to the other European p °wen. THE PRESS. PRUSSIA. Fresh arrests, effected during the last few days of the past year, have proved that the conspiracy of March, 1853, was more extensive than had been sup posed. Sentence on the prisoners of that period is still deferred ; one of them has been confined for nine months ; another of them, Dr. Lindersdorff, is suffering under mental alienation. The King of Prussia went in person on the 27th ult. to pay a visit of condolence to the family of General de Radowitz. HOLLAND. M. Lightenvelt, lately Minister in Holland of affairs connected with the Roman Catholic religion, has been appointed to succeed Baron }sage' as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at the Court of France. BELGIUM. The King of the Belgians has given the royal sanc tion to the bill, voted in both chambers, authorising the Government to reduce or entirely suspend the import duties on coal. His Majesty, moreover, acting on that bill, has been pleased to decree the total suppression of those duties (fourteen francs ninety centimes per kilogramme) till further notice. ITALY. The Pope held a public consistory on the 22nd ult. in the Vatican, to perform the ceremony of conferring the cardinal's hat upon Monsignors Brunelli and Peed. The candidates, after kissing the Pope's slipper, received the Papal embrace, and afterwards those of their new colleagues. The Am brosial hymn was then sung in the Sistine Chapel, and a secret consistory held, in which the Pope pro posed several bishops. Cardinal Brunelli has since been appointed a member of the Congregation of Regular Bishops, of those of the Council, the Index, and Examination of Bishops; and Cardinal Perri has also been appointed to those of the Council, Sacred Rites, Ecclesiastical Immunities, and Regular Discipline. Prince Frederic William of Prussia arrived in the Holy City, incognito, on the 26th of December, under the title of Count de Berg. SPAIN. The Generals Sauzet and Lersundi have been dismissed from the Captain Ueneralcies of Galicia and Andalusia. The medical report issued on the 28th respecting M. de Turgot is unsatisfactory. The inflammation was complicated with gout, and he had passed an other sleepless night. It is reported that M. Turgot had received by telegraph a despatch from Paris, stating that the Emperor approved of his conduct. A Malaga letter of the 23rd states that a sad disaster occurred there that morning. There had been continued heavy rains for many days, which bad loosened the foundations of the barrack of La Mercid, a great part of which fell down. The building was occupied by two companies of the Savoy Regiment. 26 dead bodies, and 22 wounded men, mostly severely so, had been taken out of the ruins. AUSTRIA. Recent commercial letters from Vienna speak of the resumption of the loan project by the Austrian Government, which it is supposed will be accom plished by Austrian bankers alone, as those of Frankfort, London, and Paris do not seem to enter into the plan. The new loan will amount to 50,000,01 X) florins at 5 per cent., 4,000,000 of which will be employed for the payment of the due interests, and 1,000,000 tor the establishment of a lottery. Meanwhile, the Prussian Government is also said to contemplate a loan, the project of which is about to be submitted to the Chambers. All the soldiers on furlough in the Russian army have been recalled, also the reserve of the sixth i corps of infantry of the Caucasus, and the supple mentary divisions of the whole active army have been put in motion. RUSSIA AND TURKEY. The Grand Council which met on the lath ult. in Constantinople is announced to have given the Ministers authority to enter upon negotiations pre liminary to a peace, on these conditions :—" That the Danubian principalities be evacuated. That the independence and integrity of the Ottoman em pire and the sovereignty of the Sultan be perfectly secured." The Porte accordingly accepted the note of the four powers on the evening of the 20th. It is agreeable to an armistice ; insists on the evacua tion of the principalities ; consents to a congress in a neutral town, the revision of existing treaties, and to reforms tending to the amelioration of the condition of the Christians. This decision, or the intention to arrive at it, having transpired in the capital, a large body of students, excited by some of the Ulemahs, as sembled tumultuously, to present a petition against the pacific intentions of the Government. Some confusion ensued, and for a time, on the 22nd ult., disturbances were apprehended, but the outbreak was quelled; and, after the arrest of some 300 stu- SATURDAY, dents, quiet was restored. Several of the perbom arrested were afterwards ordered to be exiled to Candle. At the Council on the 18th the Minister of Finance is reported to have spoken at much length, and represented matters as being very unsatisfactory. He stated that the amount already expended in military preparations had exceeded the sum of 4,000,0001. This had been collected on the antici. paled revenues and taxes of the corning year, and therefore, in case Namik Pacha failed in negotiating a loan, a national loan must be raised. This pro position caused great enthusiasm, and several mem bers immediately proposed that all the employi's, according to their rank, should give up a portion of the pay received from Government. The Minister of War afterwards stated that the standing army of the Government has been raised to 400,000 men, and that 100,000 men were on their way to the capital: with such forces he was of opinion that war must turn in favour of the Sultan's cause. The Capudan Pacha gave, in his turn, a list of the Turkish fleet, and declared that in the spring the officers and men would be all prepared to take re venge for the Sinope misfortune. Her Majesty's ship Caradoc reached Marseilles on Monday, having sailed from Constantinople on the 25th ult. with despatches from Lord Stratford. She brings word that up to the date of her leaving the combined fleets had not been able to avail them selves of their instructions to enter the Black Sea, but it was supposed that, should the weather moderate, they would sail in on an early day in January. Lord Stratford de Bedcliffe, on the 15th ult., gave a grand entertainment to the whole of the corps diplomatique, and on the 17th the British residents of Constantinople were invited by his lordship to an en tertainment on a large scale. Upwards of forty covers were laid, and the Queen's health was pro posed by the ambassador, and drunk with acclama• tions, the band playing " God save the Queen." Two firmans have been sent to Servia. One guaranteed all the Servian privileges, the other declared all the Turco-Russian treaties null and void, but that Setvie might demand the protection of all the powers. There is no recent intelligence from the armies on either side. Heavy snow had fallen around Bucha rest and throughout the principalities, by which all military operations were brought to a complete stand-still. Accounts have been received from Erzeroum of the retreat of the Turkish army to its winter quar ters. The sieges of Ahaltchiek and Alexandroi.ol had been raised. On crossing the Turkish frontier, the Russians, with 30,000 men, fell upon the van guard of the Turkish army, and did much mischief. The Bashihozouks disbanded, and created the greatest confusion ; their commanders, ♦ - ely and Ahmet Pachas, exerted themselves most strenuously to keep them in order, but it was useless. The num ber of killed and wounded is not considerable, but the Turks, if they had acted with energy, might, it is ►tated, have annihilated the Russians, who were in ferior in numbers. The correspondent of the Ost. Deutsche Post writes from Constantinople that orders have been sent to Asia to raise fresh troops for the Caucasian fumy. The squadron which was destroyed at Sinope had accomplished its task, having landed2o,ooo muskets, 40 cannon, and 500,000 cartridges on the Caucasian coast, and left five Turkish officers with the Cir cassians. A Russian man-of-war schooner, driven by stress of weather into the Bosphorus, was captured by Colonel Moustafa Bey, Commandant of the fortress of Anadole-Kavak. The Russian captain, before falling into the hands of the Turks, threw his guns and ammunition into the sea, in the hope of being taken for a merchant vessel ; but her papers and her name, Aloupka (a village belonging to Prince Woron zoff), betrayed her. The Aloupka was commanded by Captain Davidoff, three officers, and thirty sailors, all made prisoners. She now bears the Ottoman flag, and will be got ready for active service. The German journals notice the passage of Count de Reiset, on his way from Paris to St. Petersburg with the official announcement that the Black Sea is to be entered by the combined fleets. The severity of the season will prevent the Count from ar riving in the Russian capital before the Bth or oth, so that the reply of Russia to the announcement cannot well be known, even by telegraph, before the 15th or 10th. M. de Brunnow, at London, and M. de Kisseleff, at Paris, have already received their in structions, it is reported, as to their conduct in case the united fleets are to enter the Black Sea. As soon as that event is officially declared, both, it is said, are to take their departure. The New Prussian Gazette of the 20th ult. con firms the account of the Emperor of Russia having ordered that all the forces in his empire shall be placed on a war footing. This measure, it adds, will bring up the nominal strength of the Mogen I