The Press. — London, England, 1854-04-15 00:00:00

ME In the House of Representatives, on the 28th ult., Mr. Lyon, of New York, gave notice that he should move an amendment to the General Appropriation Bill, to increase the United States navy by building twelve first-class steam-frigates. The New York Sun states that the naval expedition to Japan has been recalled, the fleet being wanted for service nearer home. John Mitchel has issued an harangue to the Irish inhabitants of New York, calling upon them to take advantage of England being involved in war to annex Canada; and the New York Herald says there is a conspiracy for that purpose Latched in New York. A terrible fire had occurred at Birmingham, Pitts burg ; 20.) families were burnt out. Several stores and extensive glassworks were also destroyed. From Havannah we learn that the British war steamer Devastation was at that port on the 10th ult. Six hundred slaves, landed at Trinidad, had been seized by order of the Cuban Government. Letters from New Orleans state that Santa Anna left the capital on the 12th ult. to take the field in person against General Alvarez, who had proclaimed against the Mexican Government, and who is said to be surrounded in his mountainous retreat, desti tute of money and provisions, and nearly deserted by his adherents. The House of Assembly of Nova Scotia, on the 29th ult., unanimously adopted an address to the Queen, expressive of their sympathy with her Majesty in the war with Russia. Mr. Howe, the Provincial Secretary, delivered an enthusiastic speech on the address amid loud cheers. INDIA AND CHINA. An overland mail has arrived, but leaving the mad behind at Malta, on account of the breakdown of the Indus steamer. Some Indian journals and newspaper correspondence have, however, been for. warded with dates from Calcutta to the oth March; Madras, 11th March ; Shanghai, 15th February ; Hong-Kong, 25th February; Singapore, 14th Match; Penang, sth March: Bombay, 14th March. The electric telegraph had been nearly eftbcted between Calcutta and Agra. Nearly 120 miles of the East Indian Railway, from Calcutta to Raneegunge, were almost completed. The carriages, •&c., for the line are not, however, expected to arrive from home before June. The other works on the line beyond Hooghly are said to be progressing favourably. The station of Umballa is, it is said, likely speedily to be abandoned, and LoCidhiatia occupied ha its stead, there being a great scarcity of water at the former place. A cases of trim. con., in which the Rev. Mr. Bellew was plaintiff, and the on. Mr. Eden defendant, has terminated in damages to the extent of 5001. being awarded. Mrs. Bellew was twenty-right years old, her seducer (or, as his counsel said, the seduced gen tleman) being only twenty three. Another case of similar complexion is to come before the Bombay Supreme Court in Jnne, in which Mr. J. R. Harlow, one of the leading merchants, is plaintiff, and Captain J. W. Henry, military secretary to the late and present Governor, is the defendant. Damages have been laid at 10,0001. The trial of Quartermaster Gillespie, of her Ma jesty's 98th Regiment, for the wilful murder of his native servant, had commenced in Calcutta. Several seizures of goods being imported into Cal cutta under false manifests. have been made. One German house thereby lost goods to the value of 5,000/. The accounts from Burmah are of the 15th of February. The dacoits were still active and trouble some, and a Burmese army was said to be marching towards Pegu. A party sent out under Major Allen to mark out the boundary near Tonghoo was attacked by the Burmese, and a detachment of the I st Ma dr a s F us iliers was despatched to punish the marauders, when Captain Geils and Lieutenant Grant, of that regiment, were wounded ; but the enemy were re pulsed with great slaughter. The most important news contained in the Chinese papers is the opening of Japan to the trade of the world within the present year. Orders, it is said, have already been forwarded to Manchester for goods suited to the Japan markets. Shanghai remained in possession of the anti-Imperialists, and was likely to continue so. Amoy was in the hands of the Em peror's troops ; but it was believed that they would be driven from it before long. The import trade of Hong-Kong and Shanghai was dull. The exports in tea were considerable. 'IU j THE Commissioners for the Affairs of India have appointed the Right Hon. T. B. Macaulay, M.P., the Right Hon. Lord Ashburton, John Shaw Lefevre, Esq., C. 8., the Rev. Henry Melvin, 8.D., principal of Haileybury College, and the Rev. Benjamin Jotted, fellow► and tutor of Balliol College, Oxford, to be a committee for the purpose of considering the best means of carrying out the clauses of the Government of India Act of last session under which admission to the College of Haileybury will hereafter be open to competition. THE PRESS. 6ourt aula lastion. THE Queen and Prince Consort, accompanied by the Prince of Wales and junior members of the Royal Family, left Buckingham Palace for Windsor on Wednesday. Her Majesty will remain at the Castle until the conclusion of the Easter holidays. ON Monday and Tuesday last the customary bounties were paid to aged and meritorious poor at the Almonry, in Whitehall, under the direction of the Lord Bishop of Oxford, Lord High Almoner, and the Rev. Dr. Jelf, Sub• Almoner. The annual charities incidental to Maundy Thursday were distributed to thirty five aged men and a corresponding number of aged women, with the usual formalities, in the Royal Chapel at Whitehall. THE Queen held a Court on Tuesday at Bucking ham Palace, for the reception of the address from the Corporation of the city of London. CABINET COUNCILS , were held at the Foreign-office on Saturday and Wednesday last. THE Queen will hold a Privy Council this day (Saturday) at Windsor Castle. THE DUCHESS OF KENT arrived at her residence at Frogmore on Wednesday from tool,. THE Loan CHANCELLOR will receive the judges, Queen's counsel, &c., on Wednesday next, the first day of Easter tetra. at his residence in Upper Brook street, at twelve o'clock. His Highness Prince Gohlam Mahomed and the Prince Feroze Shah, his son, and suite,have removed to Edwards' private hotel, in George-street, Hanover square, where asuite of apartments has been engaged for them. THE Hon. Mr. BlnareoEri, the American Minister at Madrid, has arrived in town, at the Brunswick Hotel, jermyn-street, en route for the United States. VISCOUNT PAVENSET, an attache to the British embassy at Constantinople, arrived at Marseilles on the 7th. A PUBLIC DINNER is to be given to the Earl of Beauchamp at the Shire-hall, Worcester, on Saturday next, the 22nd inst., on which occasion the Right Hdn. Sir John Pakington, Bart., M.P., has consented to preside. THE DUKE OF PORTLAND, who has been suffering from indisposition at Harcourt-house, Cavendish square, is now convalescent. THE Right lion. B. Disraeli and Mrs Disraelihave left town for Hughenden Manor, Bucks. THE Duke and Duchess of Northumberland have left Rome for Paris, en route to London. VISCOUNT AND VISCOUNTESS PALMF.RSTON gave their usual political dinner on Saturday evening, in Carlton-gardens. After the banquet the noble vis countess had an evening party. THE suggestion of a public monument in Belfast to the memory of the late gallant Marquis of London derry has already met with practical favour and en couragement from several distinguished friends of the veteran soldier and statesman in Ireland. V, tuna an Omni. THE WAR AND THE SECRET CORRESPONDENCE. AT a meeting on the Eastern question held last week in Store-street a very numerous audience attended, and addresses, vehemently inculpating the Govern ment, were made by Mr. Urquhart, Mr. Coniugham, and other speakers. Resolutions of corresponding tenor were adopted and embodied in an address to the Secretary for Foreign Affairs. Saturday last being appointed for that purpose, a deputation waited upon the Earl of Clarendon, and read the document to his lordship. It ran as follows : My Lord,—We have been desired, by a crowded meeting of our fellow-countrymen, to present to your lordship a copy of the fol lowing resolutions, then agreed to:— " 1. That this meeting, having considered the recently-published 'secret and contidential' correspondence between England and Russia on the Turkish question, perceives with shame and regret that the British Government has for at leasttwelve months past, been cognisant of the Czar's designa upon the Turkish empire— risked our amity with France by corresponding on so grave a quest on of European policy to the exclusion of the French Government—and permitted the Czar to conclude the corresport dance with the record of his satisfaction et the good understand mg established between himself and the British Government as to the disposal of the Ottoman aominionp. "2. That this meeting views with alarm the project of gar risoning Turkey with British troops; and is of opinion that there can be no defence of Turkey save by attacking the terri tory of Russia, and that by taking the defensive both the British troops and the Ottoman empire are exposed to hazard." In presenting these resolutions, we naturally revert to the interview we had with your lordship on the 21st of October last. On that occasion your lordship promised to protect the integrity and independence of the Ottoman empire, but declined to give us any assurance that the British fleet should not be used against the Turks. My lord, in a matter involving, to a most serious extent, the honour of our country, the lives of our fellow-subjects, and an amount of taxation which can be cheerfully !supported only under a sense of its being efficiently applied, we cannot rest upon such grounds as these. We have watched the progress of events with deep anxiety. We have observed that the forces of Turkey are strong in the exist ratio of their distance from the gest of British diplomacy that the Turkish army on the Danube has alone been able to cope with that of Russia: while the _pregame of the allied fleets has had the effect of paralysing that of Turkey, instead of being Sa~vie~r, used to attack the territory of Russia. Nor have we witnessed without alarm the choice of the present *morellt for interfering with tie religious questions, the improper interference of Russia with which is the ostensible group I of all your proceedings. Such an interference at such s time appears to us likely to pro duce the worst possible results. What—we ask ourselves — would have been the condition of England if Roman Catholic emancipation had been granted, not to the demands of the Irish people, but to the threbte of a foreign Government? The Minis terial Reform Bill, a very moderate measure, not at all calcu lated to convulse the nation, is postponed on the ground of our being In a state of war; what, then, we argue, must be the effects of a change in the religious laws of a divided people when forced upon thew by a foreign power? Our fears are further aggravated by the statement that the army now being sent out is to be concentrated iu the interior of Turkey, where it can be of no use except to assist the fleet in coercing the inhabitants. We think, therefore, that we should not be deemed guilty of intrusion or unreasonable distrust if we call upon your lordship to inform us whether the troops now sent to Turkey are really intended to make war upon Russia ? Lord Clarendon seemed taken by surprise at this address : , " Really, gentlemen," he said, " I don't know what reply 1 can make to such an address. I hesitate to receive at all resolutions so offensive to the Government, both in matter and manner ; so offensively reflecting even on the honesty arid good sense of the Go vernment. I have wade repeated explanations of these matters in the place where the British people expect to receive such explanations—that is, in Parliament." Mr. Collett said it seemed to them that to have listened at all to the proposals of Russia was to accede to them. His Lordship rejoined, the country had evidently come to a different conclusion, and was quite satisfied. Mr. Wilks remarked that the fact of these resolutions having been adopted by so large a meeting indicated some amount of dissatisfaction, and entitled them to some re- gard. Lord Clarendon said the resolutions of public meetings were not usually couched in language so offensive. He had no reply to make. At this intimation the committee, prevented from defending the terms of their resolutions, bowed and retired. LORD WATERPARK has issued his address to the Lichfield electors in the Liberal interest. At pre sent there is no appearance of opposition. LORD HARRIS, the recently appointed Governor of Madras, arrived at Alexandria from Trieste on the 81st ult., and went on to Cairo. A COURT OF DIRECTORS was held at the East India house on Wednesday, when Major James Oliphant was chosen chairman, and Elliot Macnaghten, Esq., deputy chairman, of the East India Company. THE three new directors of the East India Com pany, appointed by the Crown under the act of 1853, are—Major-General Sir George Pollock, G.C.8., of Cabul fame ; Sir Frederick Currie, Bart., late of the Bengal civil service, and J. P. Willoughby, Esq., late of the Bombay civil service. Tits EARL O ELGIN, K.T., will probably succeed the late Rear-Admiral James Erskine Wemyss as Lord Lieutenant of Fitesbire. LIEUT.-GENERAL SIR HUGH DALRYMPLE ROSS, K.C.B. (Deputy Adjutant-General of the Royal Artil lery), is appointed Leut. General of ihe Ordnance, a place which had been abolished, but which is now revived in consequence of the requirements of the war. EDWARD ROMILLY, ESQ., who has been one of the Commissioners of the Audit Board since 1836 has been appointed Chairman of that Board, in succession to Sir William L. Herries, resigned. A RETURN of the amount of freight money received at Greenwich Hospital between February, 1852, and March last show a a gross receipt of 9,0981. His. fld , of which 1,0261.195. Bd. was public treasure, and 8,672/. Os. 3d. private treasure. THE amount paid on account of the packet service in the year ended to June last Was 895,2751. The amount chargeable to the packet service was 801,4551., and 81,1001. " otherwise chargeable," in addition to which 12,7201. was paid as salaries of Admiralty agents on board the several contract packets. ANOTHER of the unrivalled fleet of screw-steamers belonging to the General Steam Navigation Com pany, the Prince, of 2,700 tons, 300. horse power, 295 feet long, 43 feet 4 inches broad, and 334 feet deep, was launched on Tuesday from the gigantic establishment of Messrs. Mare and Co., of Blackwall. THE gross amount received by the National Debt Commissioners from August, 1817 to November last, and accredited on account of savings banks and friendly societies, including interest, was 68,885,2831. 12s. 10d. TIME exists at present a rupture between a por tion of the factory operatives at Stockport and their employers, which it is feared may lead to a second partial turn-out. The employers announced their in tention to withdraw the advance of ten per cent. con ceded at the conclusion of the strike some months ago, and to return to the rate of wages paid in May last. THE monument of the great railway engineer, Mr. George Stephenson, executed in marble by Mr. E. H. Baily, was uncovered on Monday lastin the Great Hall of the Euston station. It is a fine work of art, and forms an appropriate ornament to the building in which it stands. The cost of this statuehas been met by public subscription. •