The Press. — London, England, 1854-04-29 00:00:00

I APRIL 29, 1854, SETTLEMENT AND REMOVAL OF TIIE POOR. On the motion of Mr. Batnatt, a select committee has been appointed to inquire into the operation of the Act Nth and 9th Vict., c. 117, relating to the removal from England of chargeable poor persons born in Scotland, Ireland, the Isles of Man, Scilly, Jersey, or Guernsey ; and also into the operation of the Act eth and 9th Vict, c. 83, relating to the removal from Scotland of chargeable poor persons born in England, Ireland, or the Isle of Man. BRIBERY AND CORRPUTION. Leave was given on Thursday, on the motion of Mr. WALPOLE, to bring in a bill to consolidate and amend the laws relating to bribery, corrupt treating, and undue influence at elections. tortign anb golanial `,,itttiligtrat. FRANCE. • The French Government, in compliance with re quest from Nantes, Marseilles, and Bordeaux, will allow Russian merchantmen leaving the Baltie or Black Sea before May 15 for French ports to die charge their cargoes and return to Russian or neutral ports. The Moniteur denies that any requisition has been made by France and England to Prussia with a view to force her to quit her neutral attitude, and affirms that the identity of interests of the German powers is a sufficient guarantee for their common action Conferences have been held at the hotel of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, in which the English Ambassador, M. Drouyn de Lhuys, the Minister of the Marine, and Rear• Admiral Dundas, have taken part to prepare the regulation of the different ques tions relative to neutrals, to prizes, and to other points concerning the maritime laws. The Moniteur announces that a sixth squadron will he added to each of the fifty-three regiments of French cavalry. The decree augmenting the number of recruits to be raised this year from 80,000 to 140,000 men has given rise to litigation. Every young man in France, without distinction, being liable to be drawn for the army, a number of insurance societies have sprung up, who for a premium undertake to provide a substitute in the event of the party paying the premium being drawn. The insurers now object that their contract must be understood to apply only to the ordinary risk, and that now that the chances of being drawn are nearly doubled it would be mani festly unjust to hold them responsible. The ques tion has been brought before the Lille Tribunal of Commerce, which has decided against the insurers. An appeal has been entered, and the case will doubtless be carried to the court of the last resort. So great is the demand for men as substitutes in the French army that the price has increased in the departments from I,ooof. or 1,200 f. to 4,500 f. Marshal de St. Arnaud, Commander-in-Chief of the French army of the East, embarked on Thursday last, the 27th, at Marseilles, on board the steam corvette Chaptal, for Gallipoli. Prince Napoleon, who left Toulon on the 17th, arrived at Malta in the morning of the 20th. The Prince was received on landing by the authorities with all the honours due to his rank, and with every manifestation of welcome by the military a s well as by the population generally. His Imperial Highness dined with the governor, and went to the theatre in the evening, where he was the object of general curiosity. He embarked during the night of the 20th for Constantinople. Two French officers have visited Bronssa to confer with Abd-el• Kader on the means of raising a corps of Arabian cavalry to act against Russia. Abd el- Kader, it is stated, entered warmly into the plan, and was resolved on taking an active part himself in the war against the enemies of his benefactor and protector, and with this view was going immediately to Con stantinople. The bill on public instruction has been introduced into the Legislative Assembly. The following are its principal provisions :—France is to be divided into sixteen academical jurisdictions, which will be administered by a rector, assisted by as many in spectors of academies as there are departments in the circumscription. An academical council is to be established in the chief town of every jurisdiction, and a council of public instruction in the chief town of every department. The powers of these councils are to be determined by a law. After the Ist of January, 1855, the establishments of superior in. struction, charged with conferring degrees, are to form a separate division, and to be maintained by the State. Thursday, the 20th instant, was the birthday of the Emperor Napoleon, who then accomplished his 46th year. Several private and official banquets took place in Paris in honour of the day. Namik Pacha took leave of the Emperor on Wed nesday last on his departure for the East. An imperial decree, promulgating tha t convention entered into between France and Belgium on the 22nd of August, 1852, for the guarantee of . works of literature and art, has appeared in the Moniteur. Decrees approving of the fusion of the . Strasbourg and Bale and the Strasbourg and Wissembourg THE PRESS. Railway with the Eastern of France Railway, and that of the Dijon and Besancon Railway with the Paris and Lyons Railway, were published on Tues- day. In consequence of the failure of MM. Leroy, Cha • bral, and Co., several failures have taken place at Sedan, and among others a banking-house for a sum which is said to amount to six millions of francs. Several manufacturers have consequently been obliged to suspend their works. The Orleans journals state that 625 hectares of wood in the domanial forest of Vierzon have been totally destroyed by lire. The loss will fall not only upon the State, but upon private individuals, many por tions of the forest having been leased for felling. Another fire, destroying fourteen hectares, has oc curred in the forest of Cherbrune, in the Puy de Dome. There is too much reason to believe that these fires are the work of incendiaries. The pro vincial journals contain reports of many other incen diary fires. GERMANY. The marriage of the Emperor of Austria was cele brated with great pomp on Monday evening. The imperial bride arrived on the previous Saturday, and entered the capital on Sunday in a state procession. The nuptials were performed at half-past seven o'clock, in the Church of St. Augustine, at Vienna. Besides the Imperial Family, the Cardinal Archbishop of Prague, the Archbishop of Olmiitz, the Primate of Hungary, Cardinal Von Scitowsky, the Prince Arch bishop of Gratz, Field-Marshal Radetzky, the Ban Jellachich, Baron Hess, nearly all the chief digni taries of the empire and the diplomatic corps were present. The Czar sent General Grunwald from St. Petersburg to congratulate the Emperor; but if the relationships between the two Sovereigns had been on the old amicable footing a prince of the blood would doubtless have been entrusted with the mission. Vienna was decorated and illuminated on the mar riage evening, and much enthusiasm is said to have been displayed by the citizens. The Emperor granted an amnesty to 356 political prisoners, of whom 245 receive a full pardon ; the sentences of the others are commuted into various terms of im prisonment. All criminal suits in Galicia for trea son are quashed; also all similar suits for offences against his Majesty throughout the empire. The state of siege in Lombardy and the Venetian terri tory will be raised entirely after the Ist of May. The Emperor ordered 200,000 florins to be distributed among the poor (If the various provinces. The nuptials of the Archduchess Elizabeth, relict of Archduke Ferdinand d'Este, with his Imperial Highness the Archduke Charles Ferdinand, were privately solemnised on the 18th inst. at the Court chapel of St. Joseph. Preparations are already being made for the nup tials of Princess Louisa, a daughter of Prince Charles of Prussia, with Prince Alexis of Hesse-Philippsthal. The small palace of Monbijou, of which the King of Prussia accorded a detached wing to be converted into an English chapel, is to be fitted up as a resi dente for the young couple. The following are said to be the principal clauses of the treaty recently entered into between Austria and Prussia:— " The treaty lays down that the operations of war under taken by Austria must be concerted beforehand with Prussia, whose consent will be a necessity. This is the general rule ; but an exception is made in the following case :—Anstria is to have liberty of action, as far as she may consider advisable, in the Danubian provinces ; that is to say, that the Emperor of Austria is so far master that he is empowered, without the consent of Prussia, to make the only war that he is really likely to make in the present state of affairs, and certainly the only one that France and England could wish him to undertake ; and that, as respects Prussia, he is only to be bound to deliberate with that power with respect to ulterior operations, of which the bearing or necessity cannot at present be calculated. For this latter event, should the necessity arise, Austria is to provide an army of 150,000 men, and Prussia is to sup port her with 100,000 men." Lieutenant-General Theodore Rochus von Rochow, Prussian Envoy at St. Petersburg, died there on the 20th after a brief illness. The deceased general was universally esteemed, and his loss rill be severely felt by the Emperor of Russia and Count Nesselrode. SWITZERLAND. The Federal Gazette publishes an official report from the War Department, from which it appears that the federal army of Switzerland amounts at pre sent to 125,160 men. The Landwehr amounts to 150,I1X)0 men, forming a total of 275,000 men. The first contingent comprises men of from 21 to 20, the second from 29 to 35, and the Landwehr not exceed ing the age of 45. ITALY. Endeavonrs are making to re-establish a friendly understanding between Austria and Piedmont. Ails trig makes it a condition of renewed friendly inter course that the Piedmontese Government shall re nounce its legislative propositions respecting the possessions of the clergy, conform to the wishes of 389 Austria with respect to the reception and treatment of refugees, and enact a restrictive press law. The Piednumtese Gazette of the 20th publishes a decree ordering a levy of 12,000 men from the class of 1853. A bill for the establishment of a telegraphic line from Alessandria to Novara passed the Pied montese Chamber on the 21st. The Tuscan Monitore of the 19th publishes a decree for the organisation of a battalion of sharp shooters in the Tuscan army. It is to consist of 047 men, officers included. The Augsburg Gazette states that her Royal High ness the Regent of Parma becomes more popular from day to day. The possessions of charitable in stitutions, and even of individuals, which had been most unjustly seized by the Government, have been restored, and an indemnification for the loss will be given. The decree of the late Sovereign, in virtue of which every subject was to have subscribed 40 per cent. of his income to the forced loan, has been abolished, and the unlimited power of issuing Exche quer Bills has been taken from the Finance Depart ment. A loan of 2,400,000 lire (Bd.) will be raised on the dompins of the Crown and the private posses sions of the Ducal Family. The shares will be for 511) and 1,000 lire, the whole loan to be paid off in four years, at the rate of 600,000 lire per annum. The royal establishment has also been greatly re duced. The King of Naples is said to have been greatly incensed by the language held by the Bishop of Nancy at the marriage of Prince Joachim Murat, the eldest son of Prince Lucien. The prelate on that occasion said :—" Songez, mon prince, que roes ites peut-ette appal a porter en jour ens couronne." Marquis Antonini, the Neapolitan Minister at Paris, was instructed to demand an explanation of such ex pressions, which were the more significant as falling from the an/nosier of the Emperor. The reply that M. Drouyn de Lhuys was instructed to give was to the effect that the French Government could not be answerable for any expressions used by a dignitary of the Church in the performance in private of &family religious ceremony. SPAIN. The Madrid Gazette has published a decree which may be considered as the reply to the note lately sent in by Lord Howden:— " It prohibits the equipment, supply, and reception in any Spanish port of privateers under the Russian flag. It forbids all, shipowners, and captains or masters of Spanish merchant vessels, to accept letters of marque from any power whatsoever, or to afford to ships bearing such let. ters any assistance beyond what humanity may demand in cases of fire or shipwreck. It announces that the transport of merchandise of all kinds may be safely effected under Spanish colours, with the exception of materials of war and despatches or written communications, excepting also to places blockaded by the belligerent parties, the Spanish Government repudiating the responsibility of all injury or damage that may be received in the infraction of such blockades.' A negotiation for a loan, amounting to twenty-two millions of reale, has been concluded between the Spanish Government and two capitalists, to whom the revenues of the Philippine Islands have been given as security. PORTUGAL. No application has yet been made to the Cortes regarding the young King's projected voyage to Eng land, France, and Belgium, but the affair appeared to be settled, and his Majesty is to be accompanied by the Duke of Terceira and Viscount Correira. TURKEY. Accounts that Odessa had been bombarded by the combined fleets, and that Silistris was closely in vested and partially burnt by the Russians, were re ceived vl4 Vienna some days since. The statements were given most circumstantially, the very number of houses, 1,325, destroyed in Odessa being an nounced to a unit. Subsequent information, how ever, shows that neither report had the slightest foundation. The only account of engagements that appears authentic is one to which the Moniteur has given official corroboration, stating that on the lath inst. a sharp encounter took place before Kalafat between the Russian and Turkish forces. The Rus sians were driven bark as far as Maglovitz with a loss of nearly 500 men. The Turks had fourteen men killed and thirty-three wounded. The last intelligence from the seat of war is to the effeet that the Russians had not crossed Trojan's Wall, but were strengthening themselves in the Do brudacha, and that Omer Paeha had made a retro grade movement in order to concentrate his forces. A telegraphic despatch published in the Austrian Lloyd adds to the statement that all the Russian forces were retiring from Kalafat, and that Prince Paskiewitsch had issued orders fur the evacuation of Lesser Wallachia. Constantinople letters of the 17th announce that 1,638 English troops, comprising the 33rd and 41st Regiments, had arrived in the Himalaya, and were quartered in the new barracks at Scutari. The British declaration of war had been posted up by order of Lord Stratford. Two palaces have been