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

988 lortign ar,orrrspantenct. PARIS, October 16. Tne monetary and commercial crisis is, of course, the grand topic ; silver is becoming dearer than ever, and the small gold five-franc pieces (for there are two sizes, old and new) are only taken at a re duction—why, nobody can say, for the weight of gold is the same, it being only a question of thick ness versus breadth ; the " prime sur les pieces de cinq francs " placards, a week ago in the exchangers' windows, have all disappeared, in obedience to a Government order, and for the same reason the daily journals ignore all mention of the crisis. Nevertheless, the talk of it is universal, and at eight in the evening the Passage de l'Opera and its neigh bourhood is all but impassable from the crowds of actionnaires there assembled. The police, how ever, are active, and " circulez, messieurs, si'l vous plait," is even more constantly repeated than the stern " Now, then, move on," of B 79, with you in London. "Le cours de la Bourse "is all and every thing now, and you hear of nothing but the hausse or beim in the same (of late it has been the latter daily), and some terrible losses have been sustained. I know cases of almost total ruin taking place before mid-day, all from the insane gambling which goes on here. At such a juncture it is unfortunate that the Government should be unpopular, but so it is, and there is no use in disguising the fact. Certain it is that the Emperor is not looked on by the populace as he was three months ago. This arises from various causes—first, the prolonged sojourn of the Court at Biarritz was at such a time as the present decidedly injudicious; it gave grounds for imputing to the Em peror an indifference to the welfare of his Parisian subjects, which he little deserves at their hands. Next, the expenses of the Court are without doubt enormous, and a large portion are disbursed in amusements at a distance from the capital— viz., Biarritz and Compeigne : why not have them, say the Parisians, at St. Cloud, where the reflex of them would at least be shed upon us ? Lastly, the price, not merely of provisions, but of house rent, is enormous ; the one owing to a much more general failure of crops in the agricultural dis tricts here than you are aware of in England, and the vexatious octroi duties (when will that absurdity be swept away from the French system of finance ?) which at such times as the present raise the price of food to almost starvation terms; the other, to the vast improvements in the way of new streets, public buildings, &c., which have necessitated the demoli tion of thousands of artisans' houses—consequently they are turned on the world, but have not where to choose, for the rentiers keep up their terms to an unattainable height, and the poorer classes are nearly houseless in consequence. In fact, at this moment no class is so abhorred in Paris as the pro prietaires—" mod aux proprietaires," " tue ton proprie taire, je tuerai le mien," and other denunciatory lan guage, figured the other night in placards on the street comers till torn down by the police ; and my own impression is that if, as there seems too much reason to fear, any outbreak does take place ere long in Paris, it will be mainly owing to this cause. As you know, a workmen's deputation waited on the Emperor the other day, and was well received; but the evil seems beyond even his Majesty's capa city, great as that is, to remedy. As usual, the French lay all the blame on their Sovereign, just as they would if an expected singer at the Opera failed to arrive, or a fête day turned out wet. The reviews have been well attended, and very successful, but to an observer the reception of the Emperor was visibly chill. When will our allies learn to value, as he de serves, such a sovereign as Napoleon III.? The approaching conferences excite no interest here. As it is supposed to be only an ambassado rial meeting, no novelty is attached thereto; some of the Paris papers, however, are bitter in their attacks on England, the AssemWe National in particular, touching Neapolitan affairs, and the Siecle poorly defends us. The tone is certainly to the effect of England pursuing her policy, and France hers; but the language of some of the papers against England is such as any London paper would be ashamed to use with regard to our ally. The censorship of the press seems of little value after all. Paris meantime is fuller than ever of English, crowds of whom pro menade the Boulevards and Champs Elysees at all hours, dine everywhere, see everything, and dress in all kinds of marvellous costumes. Ladies' dresses are more enormous than ever, and are caricatured (or would be, rather, if susceptible of so being) in print shops. The Archbishop of Paris's remark that ladies seem to forget how narrow the gates of heaven are, is the happiest hit yet made on the subject. The Government, I learn trom good authority, are about taking measures to l ower the price of food, PRESS. the want of house-room seems past remedy. Great precautions are adopted against any sudden out break, of which grave apprehensions have been entertained, as there is no question that the Repub licans and Bourbonists are actively at work. Still I have little reason to doubt that they have met ten times their match in the Emperor Napoleon, and one who will stand on no ceremony with them, but triumph over all their cabals. Marshal Pelissier passed through here two days ago, en route to Lord Gough's residence, near Dublin. As to the French Embassy at Naples being re called, no message has yet been sent, nor will he, nor will any fleet go there ; the conferences are sup posed to be the new mode of adjustment, and the Impe rial Government, whatever they may think of Bomba, will not openly countenance the Muralists, nor follow up Lord John Russell's protest about the foreign troops in the Italian Legations. To do that would be to withdraw their own from Rome ; and the Papal party (I mean the Ultramontanists) here are too important to run the risk of displeasing them by such a step. In fact, either England must pursue a separate policy of her own in Italy, or Lord Pal merston must " eat dirt," to use the Oriental phrase, by doing nothing after all the braggadocio he has put forth in the Government organs in England. People, however, who remember the fate of Sicily in 1848, and Hungary in 1840, when, having been en couraged by the noble lord to revolt, were afterwards abandoned by him to their aggressors, will not much wonder now if the old story is acted over again by the same great Minister. Happening to have wit nessed with my own eyes the fates of both on those occasions, I feel little hesitation in assuring you that such will be the case at present, so far (01 it lies in the power of your Premier and his straightforward Foreign Secretary to promote it. An abdication is hinted at to-day in Neapolitan correspondence, and, as it is the usual Bourbon way of evading a difficulty, it may take place ; but my own opinion is that for the present the King is obdu rate and will hold out, backed by Russia and Austria, and that the whole thing will end in certain reforms being promised at the forthcoming conferences. Meantime, rely on it., nothing imminent is at hand. It is rumoured to day that M. de Persigny is to take a place in the Ministry here, and a new ambassador to go to London ; but I do not believe it. The change of Ministry in Spain has produced some effect, as the Paris papers would not credit its being at hand ; and the funds have again fallen. People are beginn.ng to ask what Lord John is cruising about Italy for just now, as it looks like the Minto business over again. C. H. G. BURGOS, S PAIN, OCt. 11. As I told you some weeks since, the O'Donnell Ministry, then as I conceived doomed, has at length fallen, fallen deservedly and unregretted. The new Ministry is in every respect an improvement, even supposing Narvaez not equal—as I think is very doubtful—to his post. Pidal, the Foreign Minister, is eminently fitted for that office ; and General Ler sundi is supposed one of the ablest men in Spain. To be sure, it is an odd thing putting a general at the head of a naval department, and savours of the old Russian Tchichakoff, who was both admiral and general ; but then, considering that there is almost no navy in Spain, and that not unfrequently ashore somewhere, it matters little : besides, have they not a precedent in that great soldier and sailor, Mr. Bernal Osborne, in England! What is to be done with O'Donnell it is hard to say, but a captain-generalcy is probably his destina tion. The truth is, had he not resigned, a general outbreak would have taken place which he would have been powerless to put down. It was, as I told you, brewing in the old quarter towards Cata lonia, though nearer Pampeluna and Arragon. Hence the Queen, who has not much popularity to part with, was too glad to get rid of O'Donnell and instal Narvaez, who is not a man to be trifled with, and rules everybody, Queen and all. Brigandage, which had got up a little, must hide its diminished head now, if Narvaez is what he used to be in that way. He made rapid clearances of the mina pente in Andalusia and La Mancha in old days, and will doubtless do the same thing in this quarter now. BRUSSELS, October 15. WITHOUT participating directly in the affairs that engross the public attention of Europe, and with an appearance of quietude that would not afford a pre text for particular curiosity, Bolgium nevertheless gives sign of being linked to the chain of passing events. In order to appropriate an undue shara of power, damaging to constitutional interest, the Roman ecclesiastics bestir themselves with increased energy. The success of the Austro-Papal Concordat, won by SATURDAY, Rome against the goodwill of the Austrian people, arms them with an unwise courage. It is known to them—it has been heralded in the Univers of Paris, and admitted by the Bien Public of Ghent—that the exaltation of the priest proper can only be secured at the expense of public liberty :—" Representative in stitutions are inimical to the Roman Catholic faith." The Belgian priest, taking the maxim of Lamartine for his device, "Dieu seul sait les secrets de Dieu," and forcing the construction, assumes by virtue of his apostolic office to be initiated into those " secrets ;" he therefore claims to have the exclusive care t o th e education of youth, and to impart such a measure of knowledge only as shall conduce to sacerdotal ad vantage. In the pastoral of the Bishop of Bruges, liberty of conscience, liberty of speech or debate, and the liberty of the press, in conjunction with toleration of " cut te " and a freedom of knowledge, are episcopally charac terised to be a " peste effroy able," and essentially inconsistent with the welfare of the Roman Catholic Church. This overt attack of the compact of 1830 left no other course open to the ministerial custo dians of public liberty and of the integrity of the constitution than to deny peremptorily the presump tuous demand for exclusive power by a part of the fabric political, and to eschew the maxims of the Austro-Pipal Concordat, that served at once as an incitement to, and a connecting link with, this clerical conspiracy. M. Vilain XIV., Minister of Foreign Affairs, a conscientious Catholic, officially resisted the papal and episcopal encroachment, and M. de Decker, a not less praiseworthy religionist, cautioned the bishops against the dangerous temerity of their unconstitutional conduct. To subvert, or to endea vour to subvert, openly and advisedly by episcopat pastoral, under the presumed sanction of Rome, the liberty of conscience, the liberty of speech, and the liberty of the press, is to nullify the principles of 1830, and for which the Roman nliramontanes re belled successfully against the Orange dynasty. Firmness and decision have been displayed by these two Ministers, especially M. Vilain XIV., against the clerical raid, at the same time carefully preserving that deferential subjection to the dignitaries and to the head of the Raman Church which is the bounden duty of those belonging to their creed. They deserve well of their Bing and country, and they have gained the respect of all. The conduct of Austria in the principalities appears ambiguous. It was determined by the treaty of Paris (Protocol XXI., April 4, 1856) that all foreign troops then in occupation of Turkish provinces should evacuate such territory in the space of six months. In Protocol XXI., April 4, the Count de Buol, the representative of Austria, expressed himself gratified at the pro mised alacrity of the allies to evacuate the Turkish ground. " Austria," he continued, " also will take care to withdraw her troops from the principalities," and he made the important addition that, as the difficulties of a withdrawal would be less than those experienced by the allies, it would necessarily be more prompt : Cette operation ne rencontrant pas lee mgmes ditticultes qne l'embarquement des armies qui se trouvent en Crimee, elle pourra a'accomplir plus promptement—et par consequent que lee troupes Autrichieunes auront evacue lee prioci pautes avANr que les armies belligirantes n'aient pu, de lour completement evacuer l'empire Ottoman. Where are they now ? Again, it wag decided that the Danubian princi• palities ("annexe au protocol 1") should preserve their national privileges, and that a reformed and interior organisation s'iould be granted, " conforms aux besoins et aux vmux des populations.' Further (Protocol No. VII., seance du 10 Mars, 1856), the Count de Buol declared advisedly and ul timately that— The principalities having received institutions conform able to the desires of the people, and which might be con sidered as the legitimate organ of the public will, comme l'organe legitime des voeux du pays ")—the question of a union might then be properly discussed—(" on pourra proceder a l'union des deux provinces avec une parfaite connaissance de cause.") Protected by Austrian jinfluence, the Kaimakan, in obedience to the Porte, has suppressed the liberty of the press, and has forbidden under severe penal ties any debate upon the question of union or any public expression of opinion thereon. The advent of Lord John Russell in Italy has been marked by arrests in Tuscany, Parma, and Modena. If taken as an omen of Whig inter ference, it is not happy. All excursion-trains from Leghorn to Florence are stopped, and the passengers by the ordinary trains are carefully watched in their ingress and egress to the stations by the agents of the secret police. Everywhere the Government gives sign of fear and doubt, and trusts for safety al , ne, not to its own troops, but to the numerous divis ons of the Austrian army concentrating on the ii to of the Po—at Borgoforte, Cremona, and Franco h to. No change has taken place or will take place m the bearing of the King of Naples. C. A. H.