The Press. — London, England, 1856-10-18 00:00:00

A RUSSIAN MERCHANT ON TRADE AND COMMERCE. AMONG the feasts at Moscow by which the late coro nation of the Czar was celebrated, was one given by M. Basile Kokoreff to the deputations of peasants and merchants, assembled from the princpal cities of Russia. M. Kokoreff was formerly a peasant, but is now one of the wealthiest merchants in Russia, and has made himself singularly popular throughout the empire by his profuse generosity and enthusiastic patriotism. The last occasion upon which his name was brought prom;nently before English readers was in connection with a grand banquet given by him at Moscow to the soldiers and sailors returning from the defence of Sebastopol. At the late dinner to the merchants he delivered a speech sufficiently remark able to repay translation : It is not long since (he said) that at this very place, Moscow, the heart o the Russian nationality, the Musco vites feted the welcomed and heroic defenders of Sebasto pol. We were then expecting peace, and were consoling ourselves with the hope of soon profiting by its happy re sults. To-day peace is no longer a hope, it is a reality ; and now again, in the same city of Moscow, we are cele brating, heart and soul, the holy coronation of our beloved monarch, the author of the peace and so many other bless ings. Here also are united the representatives of the whole nation, as well as you also gentlemen, the delegates of our bourgeoisie. Let us, therefore, manifest in unison the sentiments which we feel at the advent of these recent blessings. Our gracious sovereign has been pleased to order that our children shall henceforth frequent without any restriction the University course. He has ordered the revision of the relations between Government and commerce ; and the revision of the tariff, which cannot fail to quicken our industry. All our relations with foreign nations are rendered easier. His Majesty has also been pleased to authorise the foundation of an Industrial Society, under the direct patronage of the li&r to the throne. Happy the people and grand its future when its princes apply themselves betimes to the sacred duty of learning its wants and studying the means of satisfying them! Lastly, in the midst of all these events, the " Society of Navigation and Commerce for the South," has been established, the aim of which is to expedite our relations with Europe, and to facilitate our exports and imports. Russia has always been able to confess her faults as well as recognise her merits. Let us, therefore, frankly declare, gentlemen, that, in point of commerce and industry, we are, in many respects, rather behind. Our merit, at present consists in the desire to improve ourselves by intelligent practice. It is a fact that in the industrial life of a people, certain and complete success is less easily obtained by the theoretical precepts of books than by a continuous contact with other peoples. By this contact we acquire experience, ideas, taste, and establish new relations which are sure to be maintained because they rest upon common interests—the only stable securities for treaties of peace. In order to arrive at this end, the surest means is facility and rapidity of communi cation with foreign nations. The question of steamboats and railways is at present a question of human interest, because it is by their means that nations can be united in a community of interests and in feelings of fraternity. In regard to commerce, there exists amongst us the most contradictory opinions. Some still speak of a Chinese wall ; others of free trade. But be certain, gentlemen, that such questions are never resolved by extremes: their true definitions can only result from an international ex change of ideas. When by means of steam we shall be able to unite ourselves more closely with foreign mer chants, more expert than we are in point of industry, and exchange with them our ideas, then we shall arrive at the exact and true definition of the very principles of com merce—a definition which is deeply interesting to the whole of Europe. It will then happen that we shall see here in Moscow, the centre of the internal commerce of Russia, as well as in the other cities and ports of the empire, representatives of the principal commercial houses of Europe. We shall then be able to learn every day here in Moscow, and at a fixed hour, the progress of business in Paris, London, and other places, and be able, when we are assembled as now, with the glass in our hands, to learn by telegraph the health of our children, who may be placed in foreign countries in Russian houses of commerce. When I review in mind all the pregnant consequences which must infallibly result to nations from their union, by means of commerce— a union based on common interests—l cannot refrain from proposing to you, gentlemen, to drink at once and unanimously the follow ing toast :— . "l'o European commerce, to foreign mer chants, our elder brethren in industry, and to my honour able colleagues the merchants of Russia." The speech was received by the company with loud and repeated " hurrahs." MAILS TO AUSTRALIA. TowAnns the close of last session an intimation was given by the Government that they had ac cepted a contract for the monthly conveyance of the mails to Australia, by a route which was con sidered to be the shortest in point of time, and which presented the greatest facilities of transit in every respect. Since then no - public announcement has been made of the name of the company whose tender had been accepted ; but it was understood that the European and Australian Company formed at Glasgow THE PRESS. were the successful competitors, and the regular service would commence in February next. The route selected is from Southampton to Alexandria, thence overland to Suez, and onward by sea by way of Aden, Point de Galle, and St. George's Sound, to Melbourne and Sydney. The time to be occupied is thirty-nine days from Suez to Melbourne, and thirty five days from Melbourne to Suez. The contracting company has been rapidly completing its arrange meets, purchasing some ships and chartering others pending the building of a fleet of their own, which is to combine the requisite qualities of speed and strength for a voyage of such length, and which they are under heavy penalties to perform in a given period. The first vessel, the Oneida, is advertised to sail to morrow morning, carrying a very large mail ; the object being to enable her to make the voyage out to Melbourne and Sydney, and return to Suez in time to take up her station as what is called an outside vessel, that is, plying regularly between Suez and Australia. The vessel in question is a magnificent screw steamer, built fifteen months ago at Greenock by the Messrs. Scott fur the Canadian trade, but im mediately atter her being launched she was taken up by the French Government for the transport service to the Crimea. Nothing can be better adapted for the purposes for which she has been selected tban this vessel. Her size, peculiarly square auxiliary rig, and powerful machinery, render her in every way equal to the severe service she will be called on to perform; while her accommodations for passengers, whether as regards her spacious and lofty saloons and roomy berths, are not surpassed by those of any vessel. It is intended that she shall take only first class passengers, and of these she can accommodate 170. The directors of the company invited a large party on Tuesday to visit the ship, and it was intended that she should make a trial trip in the course of the afternoon, hut in consequence of the necessity for expediting her coaling, and of some alteration re quired by the Government surveyors in her rudder, that part of the day's programme was laid aside, and the entertainments, beyond the examination of the ship, were confined to a dejeuner on board. The chair was taken by the chairman of the company, Mr. Ewing, of Glasgow ; the Mayor of Southampton, and about a hundred other gentlemen, were present. The usual toasts on such an occasion were pro posed and drunk with the usual enthusiasm, and everything seems to promise success to the attempt. Mr. ROWLAND Hir.i., in replying to the toast of " Her Majesty's Government," stated that the Go vernment, in entering into this contract for the con• veyance of mails to Australia, desired to consult only the best interests of the people of this country and the colonies. Their only wish was to obtain the speediest and most regular transmission of the mails between the two countries : Something had been lately said to him about the estab- lishment of the ocean penny postage, the idea of which emanated from a friend of his, Elihu Burritt ; and some remarks had been made on the fact that an ocean penny postage had been already established between the United Suites and Australia. But the fact was that, although only a penny was paid for the transmission of a letter by sea, it was still subject to an inland rate of lid. in the United States and another of 4d. in the colonies, making 81d. for the entire transmission; whereas by the mail now about to be established from this country, the whole charge would be only 6d. per letter, so that we in this country had in reality approached nearer to an ocean pency postage than the United States. Sir Henry Barkley, we believe, will leave for Mel bourne in the Oneida. RAILWAYS AND REVOLVERS IN GEORGIA. A MOST extraordinary narrative of duels and murders in a railway train in Georgia is given in Wednesday's Times by " An Eye-witness" according to the signa ture, but only an ear-witness according to fact. The incidents are said to have occurred in the train between Macon and Augusta (both in Georgia.) It appears that among the passengers in the car were A and B, two young men who had been rivals in love with a young woman who was travelling by the same train. The young men quarrelled, and a passenger called C proposed that they should fight at once : this they declined. A general discussion on duelling followed ; two passengers, strangers to the other quarrel, dis puted, and leaving the train fought a duel. The train went on, and at the next station the "Eye witness" heard by telegraph that one of them, an old man, was killed. This stimulated C again to propose a duel between the two original disputants, but this proposal resulted in a quarrel between one of them, B, and the intermeddler, C:— The cars were stopped, and B and his second and C and his companion got out. This time the conductor waited the result of the duel. B was killed; his second SATURDAY ) and the two companions came back and got into the cars, but whether the body of B was left behind, or was put in the luggage car, Ido not know. It moat likely was put in there, Sur B's father was with him. C then offered to fight B's father, but the father declined : C then stood on the platform, and holding the door of the passenger car open, addressed the passengers collec tively in a set speech, pleading his own justification, and praising what he called the noble and honourable institu tion of duelling, and challenging any one or every one who said aught against him. He then ended by saying—. As for that young woman, the blood that had been shed lay on her head ; that he had never seen her before, did not know her or care to know her, that her conduct showed her to be no better than a common strumpet, and that as such he should denounce her whenever and wherever he might afterwards meet her, and offered to fight any one who had some pretensions to respectability who would take her part and defend her character; he then retired into the smoking car, but not before the young woman had replied in most violent language, telling him she would not rest until she found some one to kill him. She appealed to the passengers for some one to fight C, but they all declined, while C continued to abuse her, and to defy any one to take her part : Shortly after this we arrived at a station where there were refreshments, and nearly all the passengers got out. Here, before the train started again, a young man of twenty-five or under, who all the way from Macon had been seated in the smoking car, came into the passenger car, and as he entered he recognised and accosted the young woman ; and, after being made acquainted by her with the insult and defiance to her, he at once offered to take her part, and was joyfully accepted. This young man's father was also in the cars. No sooner, then, were the cars fairly under way than she sent the young man into the smoking car, and the duel between him and Q was speedily arranged; but as the train was much behind time the conductor refused to stop, and it was therefore agreed to fight in the smoking car. They fought with Monte Christo pistols, or pistols that make no report, for, after a few momenta of breathless silence, nothing was heard but the young man's death cry. About this time the little boy, son of the old man who was first killed, awoke, and the young woman took him wish her into the private room that is in the corner of all pa,senger cars in that country upon a long line, and there she divulged to him the secret of his father's death, and pointed out C as having killed him. Being on the seat next the room, with my head against the wooden parti tion, I heard enough of her story to know what she told him. The cries and lamentations of the child were most distressing, and in the midst of them he kept calling C the murderer of his father and also of his mother, who he said would die, and declaring that he would denounce him when he got to Augusta, and would tell his parent. who, he was sure, would avenge his father's death. This continued so long that it roused the anger of C, who sent. his companion to undeceive and quiet the boy ; he went, therefore, to the boy, and endeavoured to explain to him that C had nothing to do with his father's death, but that the woman herself was the cause of it. He told his story fairly, but did not pacify the child, who either did not un derstand him or did not believe him, for he redoubled his cries and repeated he threats, whereupon the man took the boy from the woman, and carried him upon the plat form of the car, and there be threatened to kill him if he did not hash and keep quiet. It was thought he did this to frighten the boy, but the woman, who could see them from her position, cried out in a tone of alarm that the man was in earnest, for the boy would not cease. At length came a cry from the child of " Save me, save me !" when a tall, middle-aged man, who till this time had remained still and had not spoken, rose up, and throwing off his cloak, saying, " I will save the child," stepped forward to the platform, where, in an impressive tone and speech, he expostulated with the man and prevailed upon him to deliver up the boy. He then took the boy, and carried him back, and gave him to the woman in the small room. For a short time there was silence, but soon the cries and threats of the boy were recommenced, then C's com panion, who had retired into the smoking car, came out, went into the small room, snatched the boy from the woman. carried him on to the platform, deliberately mur dered him, and threw the body off from the car ; the sudden silence of the child, the sound of his body falling down, had such effect upon me that, so soon as my mind could realise the murder as a fact, I became unconscious ; in which state I remained, perhaps, ten minutes; for when I returned to a clear perception of things I found the cars were stopped, and, on inquiry, I learnt that B's father and the stranger who had saved the child at first had challenged and gone out to fight with C and Ins .com panion, and that the conductor had stopped the tram for that purpose, and was waiting the result. C and his com panion alone came back ; the other two were killed. C was finally seized and shut up in a car by himself. The " Eye witness " who sends this account adds:— I know none of the parties by name, nor any of my fellow•passengers, and this is not surprising, for family names are seldom used when travelling in that country. Neither have I seen any account of this affair in the Gorgia papers, so that I am ignorant of what became of C, who was secured, or of his companion who was left behind; but, if I may judge from the silence of the papers, I should say they were not brought to justice. In Augusta I heard a person say that these were not un- common incidents, and that scarcely a week passed with out some fatal encounter on that road. 990