The Press. — London, England, 1854-09-09 00:00:00

(the latter of the artillery), Lieutenant Pischtshchon lin, Lieutenant Agafnoff (sub.), Ensign Perimiloffshi, Ensign Standewitsch, of Engineers, Ensign Lubinoff, and Ensign Lunieff, of the Engineers, all of whom partook of the comforts of the ward-room mess, with the two ladies, wives of two of the said officers. The Russian-Fins messed on the starboard side of the lower deck, and the Russians on the port side. The Russian Fins are, generally speaking, fine, tall, well-made, muscular, soldierliko-looking men. Many of the Russians are also well made men, and are evidently soldiers of some standing, being well be haved, disciplined, and well set up. There appears all but a deadly hatred of the Russian-Fins against the Russians, and nothing can induce them either to mess or associate together. The prisoners and crew have had repeated attacks of diarrheas, but, from the system adopted by the surgeon of the ship of continually visiting them, day and night, with his assistant, and by carefully watch ing such cases, the epidemic was restrained, and only a few deaths occurred among the prisoners. Further batches of Russian prisoners have also arrived in the St. Vincent and Termagant, which reached the Downs and Spithead respectively on Wednesday. The scale of victualling the Russian prisoners of war is to be two-thirds of A.B. allowance, except in bread : that article of food is to be served out to them in full allowance, viz., lib. of biscuit, or lilb. of soft bread. Their articles of weekly food will be as follows : —Biscuit or soft bread, sugar, tea or choco late, oatmeal, mustard, pepper, vinegar, fresh meat daily (when it can be procured), or fresh vegetables, salt pork or salt beef, peas, flour, suet, and currants or raisins, when fresh meat cannot be obtained. They express themselves highly satisfied with their rations, and declare they eat more meat in one week where they now are than they could obtain in one month when they were at home. Stores of every description for the purposes of cleanliness, such as washtubs, soap, towels, &c., will be liberally served out to each mess ; also mess-traps for use. Nineteen wounded Russian prisoners have been sent to Helsingfors to be exchanged against the captives of the Valorous. CHANCES OF THE SEBASTOPOL EXPEDITION This great expedition, whose magnitude will exceed that of any other in history, is not like the petty enterprises to which the world has been accustomed in late years. Se bastopol is likely to prove very different from St. Jean d'Ulloa or St. Jean dAcre, from Ghuznee or Moultan. Ultimate victory is indeed certain ; for engineers report that the place, though strong, is not impregnable ; and, even if it were, a strict blockade by land and sea would compel the garrison to yield from famine. Such fortresses as Valetta or Gibraltar, with their 5,(1X) or 6,000 men, may be pro• visioned for years ; but such a course is impossible in the case of an army of 70,000 men defending a range of posi tions of large extent, and enclosing the population of a large naval town and the crews of an imprisoned fleet. At least 100,000 souls are encircled by the fortifications of Sebastopol, and what is known of the resources and the commissariat of Russia does not lead us to suppose that the Government can have supplied the sustenance of such a host for more than a few short months. Supposing, then, the Russians too weak to keep the field, or to preserve open their communications with the main land and with Kertch, we may assume the difficulties of the confined garrison to be almost overwhelming. But, on the other hand, it will not do to despise the enemy, and to rush into enterprises with out contemplating the events that may arise. Everything leads to the belief that this great fortress of the Russian power, on which all the skill and resources of the empire have been employed for forty years, which holds Turkey and Cir cassia under a spell, and guards and threatens the mouths of theiDanube, the Don, and the Kuban, will be defended to the last. Every one who has approached the place speaks of the fortifications which are continually rising, and of the alacrity with which the garrison turns out, and the town is lighted up at the smallest alarm. During many months the land defences have proceeded at a rapid rate, the skill of the Russian engineers is beyond a doubt, and now the evacuation of the principalities will allow the Czar to in crease the forces which will defend this important spot. The best troops of the empire were stationed on the Aus trian frontiers to guard it from the troops of Francis Joseph, or, in turn, to invade hie dominions. Now that all danger of attack from the side of Germany is past, all these will be available for service in the south, and the ap proaching frosts of winter in the Baltic will set free the legions who garrison Riga, Revel, and the adjacent coasts. A general move to the southern seat of war is practicable, and another month may see the forces in the Crimea greatly strengthened, and the whole power of the Czar brought to bear upon this single point. Among the best soldiers of Russia are the members of the military colonies in the south, and these will be doubtless employed in the cam paign which is likely to commence. That Sebastopol can be taken by a coup de main no one has asserted, and the continual embarkation of siege artillery, fascines, and pi bions announces (that the generals expect a series of engineering operations such as is necessary against any place fortified with modern skill, and defended by even average valour. Independent of the reinforcements and supplies sent by land, it is said, on respectable authority, that the enemy have been able to keep up a constant com munication between Sebastopol and the other places on the coast. It is so seldom that a vessel of the allies ap proaches the harbour, that the governor has been embol dened to run steamers to Nicolaieff, at the mouth of the THE PRESS. Bug, and to bring back stores, artillery, ammunition, and even troops. He took the masts oat of these vessels to render them less perceivable at a distance, and sent them along the coast with impunity. One of the new forts was said to have been mounted with guns conveyed in this manner. The operations in the Crimea will no doubt include a campaign in the field, andevery day will now add to the number of forces which the enemy can bring against us. This consideration alone should lead the generals to hasten ou as much as possible the commencement of the affair. If by the middle of September the army shall have embarked from Varna, the siege will probably be concluded by the end of November ; at least, that will be sufficient, even in the opinion of the most methodical engineers' This, however, is on the supposition that no diversion is made by an army from without to raise the siege. —Times Correspondent. PORT NATAL. THE last accounts from Natal are of the 21st of June, and present an exceedingly favourable picture of the progress of that colony. An extraordinary degree of activity was exhibited in the trade with the interior. Trains of waggons, laden with wool, butter, ivory, and other products, were daily making their appearance—each taking back merchandise and pro visions from the warehouses and stores. Good roads, available throughout the year, and the opening of the nearer route to the New Free State, were alone wanting to secure to the Port of Natal the monopoly of a vast interior commerce. Beautiful samples of coffee have been grown near the Umblanga. The berries are as large, clean, and full as any imported. The plants are from Bourbon seed, sown not quite three years ago. This is the first year of bearing, and yet so heavy has been the crop that several of the branches were borne down wards with the weight. The coffee plant, it is now placed beyond doubt, grows vigorously and bears well in the district, and its rapidly-increasing cultivation will, before long, tell on the market. The field of mineral wealth opening up in Namaqualand appears to be immense, and seems likely to surpass anything else in the world. In that portion of the colony there are copper-mines of almost unparalleled richness. The ores produce on the average from forty to forty-five per cent. of copper, and in some cases as high a per centage as seventy-five per cent. has been obtained. The ore appears to be obtained with the greatest ease, the mines in most instances having been hitherto worked as open quarries, and one miner and two assistants are able to extract and prepare for ship ment about one ton per day. The proprietors of the principal mines have addressed the Colonial Government with a view of obtaining such an exten sion of their leases as will make it worth their while to construct roads for the conveyance of the ore to the place of shipment. To this application the Government does not appear di-posed to listen, arguing that as the ore can be delivered in England at 131. per ton under the existing disadvantages, while its gross value may be computed at 301. to 401. per ton, the claim for better conditions than those existing is not sufficiently strong. The answer of the Governor, however, hints that the Colonial Legislature may not feel indisposed to guarantee a fixed rate of interest upon the capital employed in making a railroad to serve the mineral districts, and it is very probable that the suggestion will be adopted. THE full deduction of 14d. in the pound has been rigidly made by the Bank of England for income tax from the last half-yearly dividends, although the augmented rate had only been in force for three months (namely, from the sth of April), while the railway companies have deducted only the fair sum of 100., being at the rate of 7d. to the sth of April, and 14d. to the sth of July. The anomaly, however, appears to have been directly authorised by the Government, and, like the remarkable operation of the new Stamp Act, which has called forth the un successful expostulations of the mercantile commu nity, must be presumed to have been intended. Ultimately it will make no difference in the relative value of the funds and railway shares, since the augmented payment which has earliest taken place in the one instance will be made up at a later period in the other; but many individual and temporary interests may meanwhile be affected by it, and the absence of a uniform principle in matters of this sort must, without explanation, seem unbusiness- like. THE FIRST STONE OF ST. THOMAS'S CHURCH, Newport, Isle of Wight, was laid on Thursday, the 31st inst., by his Royal Highness Prince Albert, assisted by the Bishop of Winchester and T. W. Fleming, Esq., of Stoneham-park, Grand Master of the Provincial Lodge of Freemasons in the Isle of Wight. The day was most propitious, and the whole proceedings gave great satisfaction to a very nume rous •:,oncourse of spectators. After the ceremony, about 180 gentlemen partook of the mayor's hospi tality at the Town-hall. At the luncheon the Bursar of Queen's College, Oxford, announced, amidst loud cheers, that Newport would henceforth be a parish of itself, independent of Carisbrooke. SATURDAY, Foreign and &lonia! 3nttiligucce. FRANCE. The Emperor Napoleon has remained all the week at the camp near Boulogne, where he has passed his time in military exercises and reviews, and in enter taining his royal visitors, the King of the Belgians, the young King of Portugal, and Prince Albert. The Empress remains at Biarritz. The Belgian journals state that the Emperor of the French will return King Leopold's visit during the stay which the latter will make at Courtray on the 11th and 12th of the present month. The King of Portugal has arrived in Paris from Boulogne. General Bodisco, the late Russian commandant of the fortress of Bomarsund, arrived at Havre on Wed nesday with his family. One hundred surgeons have just been sent to the army in the East. The French Minister of Finance has issued a de cree giving the subscribers to the late loan of 10,000,000 i. sterling the option of paying in advance the whole of the instalments yet remaining to be li quidated, at an allowance of tour per cent. per annum discount. This decree is interpreted as affording evidence that the expenses of the war are telling sen sibly upon the resources of the French Treasury. GERMANY. The Russian replies to the notes of Austria and Prussia have been delivered almost simultaneously, —in Vienna by Prince Gortschakoff, and in Berlin, or rather at Putbus, where the King of Prussia was residing, by General Bickerdorff. Both replies con vey an " absolute refusal" to negotiate upon the terms lately offered by the Western powers. The answer to Austria is stated to have been accompanied by a reiteration of the Czar's resolve to sacrifice his last soldier and his last rouble rather than accept such propositions. In consequence of this message a Ca binet Council was held in Vienna on Wednesday last, at which the Empercr Francis Joseph presided. It was then decided that the rejection of the guarantees required by the Western powers, through Austria, does not amount to a cases belti. Austria, however, will persevere in supporting the said guarantees, as necessary for the restoration of peace, and for the maintenance of the balance of power ; and in the meantime she will await the result of the operations undertaken by the allied powers a g ainst Sebastopol. Austria, for the present, is satised with having maintained a strict neutrality. Respecting the course of Prussia there is no infor mation. A letter from Berlin in the Constitutionna states that the Emperor of Russia invites the King of Prussia to offer his mediation with a view to negotia tions for peace on the basis of the propositions of the Western powers, according to his interpretation and modification of them. The Wanderer of Vienna asserts that Prince Gortschakoff, the Russian Ambassador, has just re • newed the lease of his house in that city for the whole of the winter. Archduke Albrecht, commander of the third army corps, is recovering from an attack of cholera. The sum subscribed towards the national loan, up to Wednesday last, is 49:2,101,000. The British Ambassador at the Court of Vienna, Lord Westmoreland, gave a dinner on the Ist inst. in honour of the French General Letang, to which a great number of diplomatic and military notables were invited. The Countess of Westmoreland, accompanied by Lady Rose Fane, arrived in Vienna on the 29th ult. from England. Prince Metternioh returns to Vienna on the 20th inst. from Konigswart. The Prince continues in the best health. The new Turkish Ambassador in Prussia, Kilinal Effendi, arrived in Berlin on the Ist. A letter from Bavaria states that a pamphlet has issued from the pen of Prince Wallenstein, urging the German pow. rs to form a league against the encroachments of Russia. BELGIUM. The Indipendance says, respecting the alleged withdrawal of the Ministerial resignations : "A Brussels journal announced yesterday (2nd) that M. Brouckere and his colleagues were likely to withdraw the resignations which they have addressed to the King. This news is premature. No resolution on any part or of any kind will be taken before the King's return. ' SPAIN. Affairs in Spain appear to becoming more settled, and the capital is now tranquil, although some dis turbances followed the departure of Queen Christina. That event took place on the 28th ult., when the Queen, and her husband, the Duke of Rianzares, left the palace at a little before eight in the morning, escorted by Brigadier Garrigo and a squadron of Farnesio cavalry, and took the road towards Estremadura and Portugal. The hour fixed for leaving was six a.m., and the delay in the preparations for departure had nearly prevented it altogether. Groups were collected