The Press. — London, England, 1854-08-26 00:00:00

TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION TOR Ebe girtisfs: Al .. 8 0 Per Annum .. Half-Yearly .. Quarterly .. 0 13 0 :: 0 6 6 Payable in advance. Subscribers are requested to send their Orders through their News Agent; if direct to the Office, accompanied by a Remit tance. Money Orders to be made payable to Mr. Atragn 110, Strand. London. TO CORRESPONDENTS. It is impossible to acknowledge the mass of letters we receive. Their insertiOn is often delayed, owing to a press of matter ; and when omitted, it is frequently from reasons quite inde pendent of the merits of the communication. We cannot undertake to return communications of which we do not avail ourselves. Cemmunications should always be legibly written, and on one side of the paper only. If long it increases the difficulty of ilnding space for them. Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated by the came and address of the writer, not necessarily for publica tion, but as a guarantee of his good faith. Advertisements sent frome country must be accompanied by a remittance or a referenc e for payment in town. --,A it 1 Tv Xig. LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 26, 1854. POSTSCRIPT. THE WAR QUESTION. A Vienna letter published in the Silesian OaSine says : " Whilst Austria is continuing her preparations for war, Prince Gortschakoff is acting as if the whole question was at an end by the retreat of the Russians behind the Pruth, —as if, in fact, peace was about to be signed. He is getting the apartments of the Russian embassy splendidly fitted up ; and, after purchasing the equipages of his pre decessor, has ordered eight splendid Hungarian horses to be purchased for him. He has sent for his sons, and in all respects is acting as if there was no prospect of an in terruption to the diplomatic relations of Austria and Russia." The Moniteur publishes the texts of the notes ex changed at Vienna between the Minister Plenipoten tiary of France, M. de Bourqueney, and the Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs, M. Buol. They are, of course, identical in dechFation and language to those which were exchanged between the English Minister, Lord Westmoreland, and Count Buol, and of which a summary is published in another column. The moveable column, commanded by the Austrian General Manuela, and latterly organised in order to act on the frontier of Montenegro, has just been dis banded. Four thousand horses belonging to this corps have been sold. Some Vienna papers of Thursday repeat the ques tionable statement hazarded by the same journals last week, namely, that 60,000 troops had sailed from Varna on the 14th inst. for the Crimea. Three London journals were seized at the Paris Post-office for containing exaggerated accounts of the cholera in the East, calculated to excite needless alarm among friends and relatives at home. The Constitutionnel says that the last accounts from the Black Sea represent the sanitary state of the squa drons to be most satisfactory, The Globe corre spondent in Paris, writing on Thursday, says : " I am assured at the War-office, and by persons who would not, I think, purposely deceive me, that there has been great exaggeration as to the mortality in the French army of the East, in the accounts given in some of the foreign journals. It is not denied that the cholera has raged violently, but the deaths, it is asserted, are much less than half what those journals have stated. The last accounts received at the War-office are very favourable. There were few cases, and those were of a mild character. In Paris there is now very little alarm. For some days past the cases in the hospitals have averaged less than half what they were in July, and the medical men generally are of opinion that in another fort night it will ceaso to exist in an epidemic km. The accounts from the departments are also more cheering." The Emperor Napoleon visited Pau on the 21st inst., where he was received with the most enthu siastic applause. On the 22nd his Majesty reviewed the garrison, and on the following day returned to Biarritz. Letters from Madrid of the 20th state that the city was tranquil. The Union Club, presided over by the Republican Marquis D'Albaida, continued day after day to address memorials to the Govern ment, demanding individual liberty, liberty of con science, liberty of the press, freedom of labour, and THE PRESS. other democratic objects. The emigration to foreign countries still continued. To accelerate the arming of the National Guard, the Government has ordered the purchase of 10,000 muskets in Belgium. The queen went out to the Prado on the 19th for the first time since the revolution. She was received with silence. The division of Andalusia has arrived in Madrid, and been reviewed by Marshal Espartero and General O'Donnell. It afterwards defiled under the balcony of the Queen. . All the royal councillors have been placed on the retired list—their services being no longer required, in consequence of the establishment of the consul tative and auxiliary Juntas. By a royal decree, the Treasnry is directed to re imburse the tines which have been imposed on editors of newspapers since the 2nd of April, 1852. Accounts from Alexandria have been received to the 17th. The Sultan's firman had been published, and there had been general rejoicings at the accession of Said Pacha. The Pacha left Alexandria on the 14th for investiture at Constantinople. Letters from Damascus to the 10th instant state that an armed insurrection of the Mussulman popu lation had broken out ; but it was quelled by the use of artillery. A band of Caucasian mountaineers, commanded by a son of Schamyl, have made a razzia into the province of Tiflis. They have sacked several places, put some people to death, and carried off a general's wife and a Princess Orbelian, her sister. The news caused a panic at Tiflis. Athens advices mention that General Kalergis, who had retired to the Pincus on the King declining to confirm the execution of a Ministers' proposition for incorporating all the irregular troops into the army, had returned to the capital, and been present at a Cabinet Council. The foundry at the United; Sates navy-yard in Washington city has been totally destroyed by Ste, occasioned by an explosion while the workmen were engaged in casting a steam-engine cylinder. During the past week the Coastguard men at Exmouth, on the Devonshire coast, have been prac tising with long-range guns, under the command of Lieutenant Bailey, R.N. The distance averaged about 1,2(X) yards. The works at the new Cattle Market in Islington, which is intended to supersede that of Smithfield, are proceeding with as much vigour as is consistent with the nature and importance of such an under taking, and with an eye to their completion at an early period, namely, in the month of November next. Accounts have been received in Aberdeen from Captain Penny, of the Lady Franklin, that his expe dition to Davis' Straits, in furtherance of a project of a resident whale fishery, has been most successful. He is now at Orkney, with the Lady Franklin full of boiled oil, and the Sophia is expected to follow, also a bumper ship. In Scotland an important geological discovery has lately been made. Zore-More, a large mountain near Applecross, on the west coast, on being acci dentally excavated, presented a substratum of pure lime, within five feet of the surface; and, on prose cuting the discovery by a further excavation, it was ascertained that the whole mountain, except an average surface of twenty feet, consists of lime fit for burning or agricultural purposes. The bill appears to have been at one time a stupendous limestone rock, which has been submitted to the action of intense heat. On the summit of the mountain vol canic remains, vitrified stone, and lava have been found. Adhesive postage stamps are now in general use in most of the British colonies and possessions, as well as in the chief commercial countries. At the Cape of Good Hope the form of the penny stamp is triangular, with a seated figure of Hope and the Anchor in the centre, and the words, " Postage — One Penny—Cape of Good Hope," round the sides of the triangle. At Port Phillip there is on the stamp a three-quarter length figure of the Queen, with sceptre and royal robes, and the words, " Victoria — One Penny," above and below. In Van Diemen's Land the stamp is octagonal, a small bust of the Queen, and the words, " Victoria--Fourpence," on a riband round the inner circle. France has various postage stamps of 40 centimes and upwards, the colour red, and a female head of Liberty in the centre of a small circle. The Belgian stamps are black or red, enclosing a medallion portrait of the King, with the words, " Postes--dix cents.," above and below. The United States stamps are " one cent," blue, and " three cents," red, with the busts of Fra nklin and Wash ington respectively in the centre of the oval. In SATURDAY, India the postage stamps have just been brought into use. Those first issued were coloured red, and no more colouring matter than would answer the purpose being obtainable there, they were of necessity called in and indigo, of which the supply is not likely to fail, made use of. About ten millions of stamps were first prepared in Bengal before the new system of cheap postage could be brought into operation. Newspapers are to be charged the two-ounce rate, or 3a. each, but this, it is anticipated, may be reduced one-half, after reference to the home authorities. Two million and a half of stamps have been for warded to the Madras post-office for immediate dis tribution as a preliminary measure, and the other presidencies were also liberally supplied. THE HARVEST. CARMARTHENSILIRE.—The corn harvest has been coin. menced in numerous instances in this locality during the past week, although the nature of the weather has been extremely variable and uncertain. In nearly every case the yield is uncommonly good, especially with regard to oats and wheat.--JoursaI.—CLEvELAND.—We have had some heavy showers during the last fortnight, but fortu nately, not being:accompanied with wind, the corn has not been much beaten down. It is acknowledged on all bands that the standing crops never presented a more promising appearance than they do at this mopient. no time has there been a greater breadth of wheat sown.—Yorkehtre Gazette.—PEßßYstmac.--Ilervest 'has commenced in the southern parts of the county, and crops are abundant. Some injury has, however, been caused by the late rains, the straw in many fields being much laid. Barley and oats appear to have suffered most. There are good reports of turnips.—Derbyshire Courier.--klaatesnutE.—Wneat cutting has become pretty general this week; still there are many fields which are yet far from ripe, and, unless very line warm weather sets in at once, it will be late before all the wheat can be secured. The quality is very good.—lndependent.—REnEroaPsuutp.—We have had a showery week, but, except on Thursday morning, when the rain fell frequently in smart storm?, the progress of the harvest has been butlittle retarded ; op the whole the week has been favourable, and no damage has been done by the moisture. As to the quality of the gritin, it is reported to be first-rate, and heavy. The harvest is likely to be a protracted one, aika considerable portion of the wheat crop in this district will not be fit for the sickle this nine or ten days.—Hereford Times.--TAFFOILDSHiez.—During the week a good deal of rain has fallen, and the temperature has been low. We do not hear that the grain crops have, at present, suffered, though, of course, warm, bright, dry weather is now very desirable for ripening the grain and gathering it. Reaping has partially commenced, and the prospect of good crops is, on the whole, cheering ; and nothing but a very long continuance of wet can prevent, according to human probability, an abundant harvest. — Advertiser. WESTIWORLAND.—The harvest has com menced in this district. The grain crops generally are very good, and probably the green crops never were better. _ Fein harvest has corn menced in the neighbourhood of Whitebaven, but owing to the late unsettled state of the weather little progress has been made in reaping. The crops, which are most abun dant, are ripening fast in every direction, and the Irish reapers are coming over in hundreds from Belfast. — Carlisle JournaI.—YORKSHIRE, EAST RIDING.—The very heavy and drenching showers of rain which have lately fallen in the East Riding have had considerable effect upon the crops, many of them being thereby completely laid. About Sutton and the neighbourhood the damage is more particularly apparent. Indeed all parts of the East Riding are suffering more or less from the same lamentable cause. —Hell Packet. THE GOVERNMENT concluded on Wednesday the usual navy contract for hemp. The total advertised for was about 1,600 tons, but, owing to the number of offers, 1,992 tons were taken. MR. J. BlicitaiN has joined the staff of the army in Turkey as assistant photographer. A REGATTA, under the title of "The Royal Prin cess's," came off on Wednesday afternoon amongst the operatives engaged at the Royal Princess's Theatre, for various prizes, subscribed by Mr. C. Kean and some of the chief members of his corps diciniatigui. — The course was from Putney-bridge to Mortlake Pier. THE LORD AND LADY MAYORESS left the Mansion house on Saturday evening and proceeded by special train to Stafford ; the mayor of which place bad invited his lordship to be present at a banquet to be given on Tuesday. The Mayor of Bradford also entertained the Lord Mayor yesterday (Friday), the mayors and magistrates of the West Riding being invited to meet his lordship on the occasion. The Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress then proceed on a tour to the Lakes, and intend returning by way of Sheffield; the Master of the Cutlers' Association having invited his lordship to their annual feast. THE KING OF BAVARIA has decreed that no children aged leas than ten years at least, and who have not re• ceived elementary and religious instruction, shall be em ployed in manufactories; that they shall not be occupied more than nine hours a day, and that of them three shall be passed at sch ; that the children shall be continnally under surveillance) and that, if possible, the two sexes shall be kept separate. THE SWEDISH PARLIAMENT has granted the enormous sums of 225,000 rd. for a new lunatic asylum for Stock holm, and 150,000 rd. for the improvement of those in Vadatena, Gottenburg, and Henatiaand.