The Press. — London, England, 1857-11-21 00:00:00

now being made to excite a certain portion of the population to acts of disorder. Should this succeed, Turkey and Austria wiil immediately take military possession of the provinces, with the veiw to preserve order. The Porte is so certain of the success of its agents provocateurs, that it has been decided that Omer Pacha shall take the command of a corps &observation on the Danube, and that at the first symptoms of a disturbance he is to enter the Princi palities. Austria has promised to support Omer Pacha with an imposing force, and I am sorry to say that England has consented to this arrangement. Now, supposing even that the agents should succeed in getting up a family fracas, still it is evident that, without acting directly in opposition to the Treaty of Paris, neither Austria nor Turkey, although sup ported by your Minister, who, under certain circum stances, dearly loves a " spirited foreign policy," could send troops into the Danubian provinces with out the consent of the whole of the contracting parties to that treaty. The twenty-seventh article is very clear and explicit. It is thus worded : Si le repos interieur des Principautes se trouvait menace ou compromis, la Sublime Porte s'entendra avec les autres puissances contractantes sur les n►esures it prendre pour maintenir ou retablir l'ordre legal. Une intervention armee ne pourra avoir lieu sans un accord prealable entre ces puissances. The Porte, feigning to believe in the reports of its agents, has sent a circular to its ambassadors at the different Western Courts, in which a detailed account is given of certain irregularities in the last elections, and of gross acts of illegality committed. This circular is dated Sept. 23rd. That the Porte should strain every nerve to prevent the union of the provinces might have been expected, but that her cause should be pleaded by an eminent French ex- Minister has surprised every one. That statesman is, I believe, M. Guizot, and his semi-official document against the union appears in the Itttlhpendance Beige. I think it hardly worth while to contradict the report that France is now on the Danubian ques tion in an isolated position. I can state positively that France, Russia, Prussia, and Sardinia are agreed ss to the line of policy to be adopted on the meeting of the Congress. Great hopes are entertained that at the meeting of Parliament Lord Palmerston may be called on to explain the views of the British Cabinet as to the Itoumans ; not that it is expected to obtain any satis factory answer from his lordship, who, in all pro bability, will, with a diplomatic key, lock up his mouth, not to be opened till the meeting of the Congress, but in order to elicit the opinions of the different parties in Parliament, and thus strengthen the hands of certain members of the Congress. You will very soon be inundated with articles on illegalities, Sm. &c., taken from the Constantinople paper La Presse d'Oricnt, a journal written in French, and which has been lately purchased for 200,000 francs by an Anglo• Austrian Company. The financial embarrassments of Austria daily increase. The number of old and respectable firms who have suspended payment is almost incredible. A private letter says, " In the memory of man a like panic has never been witnessed." The manufacturers of Bohemia are in a most deplorable condition. The Emperor will return t 9 Paris from Compeigne on the 26th. The ambassadors of Russia, Prussia, and England, and Count Walewski, who were at the same time at Compeigne, had many diplomatic meetings, at which the Emperor frequently assisted. All the visitors have already taken their leave. The number of subscribers to the Exchange was, on the Nth, as follows :—To the Stcck Exchange, 2,890; merchants, Is 2. The pay of the first is 150 francs per year; for the latter, 75 francs. Thus a revenue has been derived of more than 450,000 francs, and this is independent of the daily payment of casual visitors. It is said that next year the entrance for stock speculators will be raised to 200 francs, and for merchants to 100 francs. The casual entrance will be 30 sous. . The Grand Duchess Helena of Russia will not visit Paris this winter; she will remain in Geneva until the spring. .From all appearances, we shall have a :Rowe wmter. Snow has already fallen on the heights of Marseilles, and in the neighbourhood of Montpellier. Lt is now said that Prince Napoleon will not leave Paris for Alexandria this winter. BUCHAREST, Oct. 27. Tiii Divans of ➢loldavia and Wallachia have de clared the first and foremost wish of their populations to be, " Union of the Principalities under an heredi tary prince selected from one of the reigning houses of Europe." Against this possible desire of these countries the Ottoman Porte took care to protest THE PRESS, NOVEMBER 21, 1857. beforehand, in his last circular to the European I Courts ; and since tben the Commissioners of Austria and Turkey at Bucharest have declared the Divans rebellious and revolutionary for thus fulfilling the behests of the Congress of Paris and the firman of the Sultan. The poor Moldo-Wallachians are at their wits' ends. It is rumoured that the Anglo- Austrian alliance is bringing forth its fruits, and that the wishes of the Principalities will be quietly burked at Vienna and London. Here we can hardly credit such an act on the part of Lord Pahnerston, the champion of independence and the supporter of constitutional principles. Certain it is that Austria blusters more than ever, Russia throws cold• water on anything un orthodox, while the English representative joins in the demand of his colleagues, that the Divans, having said their say, should now apply themselves to the reform of their internal administration, and supply the Commissioners with the materials and report which they were sent hero to collect and frame. The Divans in vain protest that they cannot define the form or extent of their administration and its powers, until assured of the regime under which they are to be administered, as each and every department must necessarily be adapted to suit the circumstance of a union of the provinces under one head—varying greatly in the case of a foreign prince from that of an indigenous one, but differing totally where the regime of the Hospodars or the abuses of the present are to be continued. The Commissioners pooh-pooh the idea, and leave the Divans to their choice—either to frame laws for any eventuality and without any basis, or to run the risk of being declared contumacious and rebellious. If the Divans remain firm, and request a solution to their wishes as to their future form of government before proceeding further, you will find the foregoing anathema launched against them—foremost in the field per fidious Albion. If the Divans succumb, the popula tions will find their wishes shelved. A sort of hubble-bubble piece of replatrage cooked up, com prising all the old abuses with a few novelties—a sort of administration that is neither fish, flesh, fowl, nor yet good red-herring, but a strong incentive to revolution, and a stepping-stone to dear and well beloved Austria, which holds a finger ready to pull the chestnuts out of the fire. The Divans have already incurred the displeasure of the High European Commission—as it loves to be styled—by not forwarding to them copies of all their proceedino. These powers are indebted to the reports of their friends or of the papers for what passes in the Assemblies—nit one of their dragomans being able to st,!nograph or make an abridged report of the sittings of the Divans. Meantime, the Commission has formed itself into sections to get up Justice, Finance, Education, dcz. ; and I do believe that this chapter of their protocols will not fall much short of some of the others in eliciting the mirth of the searching spirits of the House of Commons, when the herculean labours of our Commission are laid upon the table. Va!eat res lathers, si me Palma negate macrum, donate reducit opimum. The acts of the other Commissions connected with the Danube will also have to be strictly scrutinised by those who do not wish to see us made the tools and laughing-stocks of continental powers. Austria, after having succeeded in packing the River Com mission, has also managed to pass resolutions affecting the navigation of the Danube that render the freedom of passage perfectly illusory. Vessels are to be boarded and searched ad libitum, their cargoes entered for a given port, and a strict prohi bition against shipping any from and to intermediate ports on the Danube. In short, the so-called coast ing trade of the stream and the passenger traffic is to be confined to riverain States, or, in other words, to remain a monopoly of the Danubian Austrian Steam Navigation Company. This is but one speci men of Austrian free-navigation ideas, and probably does not belong to " the impediments, of whatever nature they may be," that the River Commission was ordered to remove in Art. xvii. Prot. 16 of the Congress of Paris. The Porte is said to have already attached his signature to this act of the River Com mission, which Austria is no doubt anxious to have signed, sealed, and delivered at any price. Surely this undue haste is not in accordance with the spirit if it be with the letter of the Treaty of Paris. Your columns may yet induce our rulers to pause ere they commit themselves by a participation in such a discreditable transaction. INDIA. CAPTURE OF DELHI AND RELIEF OF LUCKNOW. THE full details brought by the last mail, though describing superb military achievements which re flect everlasting honour and glory upon the British arms, scarcely promise us results from them as im portant as their fame will be imperishable. The little army at Delhi and the brigade at Cawnpore, both opposed to antagonists whose power at one period appeared as irresistible as it was remorseless, have both, by an indefatigable energy which was insensible of fatigue, and by an indomitable and undaunted determination which overcame every im pediment, prevailed over every disadvantage with desperate valour, the one to cut its way to Luck now, the other to storm the walls and capture the city of Delhi. Such great deeds, performed by forces numerically weak, and to all appearance ruinously disproportioned to the work to be achieved, reflect the greater honour, it is true, upon the men engaged, but the very cause of this additional glory robs them of :the fruit of their labours, and turns what with adequate forces would have been a conquest into a comparatively barren victory. In war there is ever a complement to a conquest, in the shape of active pursuit and the destruction in detail of the defeated masses of the enemy, in order to render that con quest complete. Neither at Delhi nor at Lucknow have our generals, from shear inadequacy of force, been enabled to follow up the defeated enemy effec tively. "I warn your readers most earnestly," writes the Times correspondent, " not to believe that the revolt is over. The fall of Delhi is im portant to our prestige, and may be injurious to the morale of the rebel forces, but the physical strength of the revolt is almost unimpaired. The greater number of the mutineers in Delhi must have escaped. There is no cavalry to send after them, and natives under all circumstances outmarch troops led by Europeans. The force in Delhi has been much reduced, and cannot be very speedily rein forced. The battle-field will probably be transferred to Dude." And again of Cawnpore and of the magnificient march of Havelock to Lucknow :—" He has saved the Europeans imprisoned there," he writes " but he is too weak-banded to effect more. It is doubtful even if he will succeed in reaching Cawnpore. He is hemmed in by a force which can not number less than 30,000 men, with all the communications in their hands, an amazing number of cannon, plenty of provisions, and the sympathy of the Muss ulman population. There are no troops to send to his aid, and he designs, it is said, to leave a small garrison in Lucknow, and cut his way with the remainder back to Cawnpore. In truth, notwithstanding the fall of Delhi, all we can hope to do is to maintain our ground until the English reinforcements arrive." Here again, as at Delhi, is another of the most glorious achievements of this terrible war com pletely neutralised by the inadequate forces with which our generals had to contend against a wily, numerous, and well-appointed enemy. It is the old Crimean story over again. Our troops, whose actions surpass those fabulous deeds of the heroes of an tiquity, are pitted against an enemy twenty times more numerous ; and because they are always de feated by the valour and daring of a handful of brave men, the inference is hastily drawn that this result is inevitable on every occasion. That there must exist a limit when daring cannot compensate for inequality of force is obvious. That limit was touched at Inkermann ; let us hope that it may not be passed in India. The most important point, then, in relation to this existing state of affairs up to the dates of this mail (Lucknow, 4th October, Delhi, 3rd October) is the arrival of reinforcements from England. Notwithstanding the confident assumptions of the Ministerial journals eight weeks since that the " army of reli of " from England was then probably landing at Calcutta 400 men a day, literally not a single private soldier of that army from England had arrived in any part of India up to the latest dates. Generals Windham and Mansfield, and 1125