The Press. — London, England, 1856-03-29 00:00:00

294 verance a company was at last formed, and funds for the building and equipment of one boat to ply between Vienna and Semlin was grudgingly sub scribed, and held to be a dead loss of capital. Fur two years it remained the solitary vehicle of trans port, but it succeeded. In 1840 the boats were in creased to five, with an extension of voyage to Sins tria and Galatz. In 1850 tho number of steamers amounted n twenty-four, and five tugs, making the voyage to Trebizond, Constantinople, Smyrna, and Trieste. In 1854 there were eighty-three vessels, with 280 tugs, and in the last year the progress has been in proportion. From a disbelief of advantages, and almost a refusal to afford support, Austrian ob tuseness has sluggishly arrived at the truth ; and hence has arisen the desire of monopoly, and the working of an anti-Germanic policy. In defence or its obliquity of commercial vision, Austria advances the assumed fact of a facility of locomotion and in tercourse being accompanied by a facility of revolu tion, and avows, for that reason, having discouraged on the Danube the development of Germanic re sources. Any claim to be the protector of German interests in commercial parlance is thus entirely overthrown by its own admission. The war has summarily dispelled all illusory pretext for hin drance, and the construction of the Kustendjie Canal, in which England and France have equal interests, will give the latter an immediate voice in the affairs of the Danube; and this canal is of paramount and European importance. In order to make the undertaking complete, a free port, actual and not nominal, must be established at the mouth of the canal on the Black Sea. At the present time the grain of Wallachia is exported from Ibrailow, that of Moldavia from Galatz ; the corn 01 Bulgaria is brought to Matchin, and that portion of grain from Bessarabia that is carried to the Danube is shipped from Reni and Ismail. In spite of the vaunt of these towns being "free ports," the Russian regulations, by the treaty of Adrianople, expressly provide every impediment to river commerce. The product of one province cannot be carried for ship ment to the port of anotaer State. For instance, corn and tallow are prevented from being brought from Wallachia into Galatz, and from Moldavia into Ibrailow; and as all importation of grain is prohibited into these provinces, it follows that no corn coming from Turkey can be introduced or exported from those places, and yet they assume the title of " free ports." Ismail and Reni, therefore, Russian stations, have local privileges almost conferring a monopoly of Danube trade, nine tenths of which is of corn, besides throwing the chief supplies upon the Odes sian market. Another serious disadvantage consists in the diffi culties which fetter sailing vessels in their voyage from the Sulina mouths, up stream, to the ports for shipment of cargo. The time consumed is often not less than a month ; and then again down stream, on account of the shallows, the ships are obliged to transfer a part of their cargo to lighters, and these several obstacles occasion the waste of another month. The expenses, in consequence, are greatly increased, as can be shown by the difference upon freight, the charge being from Galatz to England 12s. per quarter, and from Ismail and the Sulina mouths Ss. per quarter, or an increase in freight charge of one third for a distance somewhat under or about a hundred miles. It may be stated on autho rity, proved and published, that the freight from Galatz to England is fifty per cent. higher than that from Odessa. It is manifest, therefore, that the for mation of a free port on the Black Sea, at the mouth of the Kustendjie Canal, where sea-going vessels may receive their shipment of grain brought down by the Danube, is absolutely necessary for the develop ment of the river trade, and for the protection of capital that may be invested in mercantile enterprises connected with those countries. Whatever blame may have been attributed to Russia for obstructing the traffic of the principalities, the share of Austria in that selfish policy is of equal delinquency, and, having possession of the territory, her Government will struggle to retain its advantages levied at Euro pean expense. Without denying that the secrecy of the Con ferences has been carefully preserved, and not listening to the idle rumours of those interested to mislead, yet a sufficiency may have been gleaned by common observation to enlighten those who are not altogether uninstructed in European tactics. It re quires no depth of perception to be sensible of the mutual approaches of France, Russia, and Sardinia; neither can the drift be misunderstood. Sardinia does not trust its hereditary foe, wary, deceitful, and unrelenting, and having the one object of suppressing Italian constitutionalism in view. That country has a right to look for extraneous aid, being certain of attack from Austril, either open or insidious. Frai.ce is the readiest ally, at hand always, and, of long standing, occupyin.; a high position in Italian regard : neither does Russia withhold sympathy in the dis favour towards Austria. These reasons are suffi ciently obvious to account for the friendly affinities that now draw together the three countries in closer THE PRESS. relationship. England is generally viewed with mis trust. The Whigs have always encouraged revolu tion and betrayed liberalism. When out of office, they have been Radicals at home and Republicans on the Continent. They favored Mazzinianism in Italy, and publicly anathematised the Emperor Napoleon, and, in short, they have done everything that mis demeanour could effect to disparage the reputation of their country. Under the evils brought about by Whig misconduct the prestige of England now labours, and the most serious of those evils is the decline of European confidence. Whig England has never held out the hand of fellowship, but it was safe to betray. Whig England has never pledged itself to a specific line of conduct, at home or abroad, that it did not desert the moment it interfered with party interests; and it is the knowledge of this supreme duplicity, gained by experience, that has engendered a continental distrust, amounting to aversion, and which in the truth isolates Great Britain from other countries. England is tolerated because fettled, but the respect, general and particular, with which the old country was honoured in the days of Wellington, is gone. It has been the work of the Whige. . . With these elements, if not discordant, certainly not in strict harmony, a peace has been constructed, yet hopes have not been fulfilled, desires have not been satisfied, and wants have been neglected; sad these omissions, however in other respects the peace may be satisfactory, will have their results. J. E. L. BRUSSELS, March 27. THE Belgians continue to vent their ill-feeling against the Emperor of the French surely not "wisely." In the shops of the " Galerie St. Hubert" the prints of the Emperor and the Empress Eugenie have been removed, and in their place have been ostentatiously displayed those descriptive of the trial, imprisonment in the Temple and execution of Louis XVI. These, again, have, been followed by others of the execution of Marie A.Utoinette and Madame Elizabeth. This was on the.day subsequent to the announcement of the birth of Prince Napoleon Eugene, and the exhibition continues. The fact is worth mention as an evidence of the feeling here. • • • • E. R. SIENA, March 24. POLITICAL assassinations again mark the presence of the republican. Lieutenant Gaetano Bordi, be longing to the staff at Parma, was poignarded on the 17th, on his way home from the theatre. He had given offence to the Liberals, and he was doomed to death by the " coltello." At Faenza a similar atrocity has been committed. When the Italian journals reported the honourable encomium of the Emperor Napoleon, in speaking of the King of Sar dinia, all Italy was made glad,—and behold how republicans testify their satisfaction ! in the north, the pi iest and the executive are already at war. The Austro-Papal Concordat has been a mutual take in—in vulgar parlance "a sell " on both sides. The first step after the bargain was taken by the priest agan Ist the press and the soldiery. Liberal jcurnals were prohi uited ; the confessional was made imperative ; and the soldiers were fed on beans and oil. The digestive organs have rebelled for supply; and the " errant" insists on being read. Sacerdotal anathema does not stop with the Wandering Jew. At Vicenza, a "padre confessore " refused absolution to a party unless he ejected from his library Guizot's "History of Civilisation," which had been lying on the table in Palazzo-Lon. What is to become of the "Inferno" and the " Divina Commedia," and Faust, with the scene on the Hartz Mountain, wherein the holy priest acts his part? And are the likenesses of the priests and cardinal in the "Judgment" of Michael Angelo, in the Sistine chapel, to be erased ? Fortu• nately, the folly of the Roman is in proportion to his iniquity ; and conceiving his power, by means of the Austro-Papal Concordat, to be supreme, he has thought fit to exercise it without loss of time, and thereby has been brought into instant collision with the military and civil executive. M. T. A. RELIGIOUS TOLERATION IN SPAIN appears to be fairly established. A Protestant clergyman, it is stated in letters from Madrid, was lately discharged from custody by order of the judge at Barcelona, although arrested for acts contrary to the circular of the Minister of Public Instruction. The judgment stated as a ground for his liberation, that religious toleration is established in Spain by the second article of the Constitution. There would seem to be, therefore, a direct conflict between the judge and the minister. SATUttDAY, 'ore* and (Colonial aintelligettre. FRANCE. The state of health of the Empress, the Prince Imperial, and Ptince Jerome, was so satisfactory that no further bulletins were issued after Monday. The official documents relative to the birth of the Prince have been published in the Moniteur. A solemn "Te Deum " for the happy delivery of the Empress was chanted in Notre Dame on Sunday, in presence of all the great officers of State, and of the superior officers of the National Guard and Army. The great question of freedom of election has been decided by the Court of Cessation this week. The question was whether electoral bulletins could be distributed without the permission of the prefects. On Wednesday the Court gave judgment, and pro nounced in favour of the Government, ruling that the electors are not entitled to know the names of any candidates, except such as the Government ►nay choose to tell them ; and that the act of giving a piece of paper with a mere name upon it, by one elector to another, is a penal offence. The Moniteur of Tuesday publishes the following paragraph on the present condition of the French army in the Crimea in reply to the statement of the Times correspondent:— In its impression of March 22, the Times, on the faith of its French correspondent, represents our Crimean army as in want of provisions, clothes, everything, and as aban doned by the Government of the Emperor, who is sup posed to have no longer any solicitude for his brave troops. The Times goes so far as to say that our soldiers are so. reduced as to go about and pick up for their subsistence the spoiled biscuit and the broken victuals thrown away by the English soldiers. With regard to this last assertion we shall observe that, if the scarcity should make itself felt in our camps, our allies would hasten to sham their resources with us, as we ourselves aid with them; sad that the generous offer they recently made us at Constan tinople of placing their medical stores at oar disposal is a sufficient proof for us of what they would do in the Crimea if we in reality were in want of provisions. But the Times, we have no doubt, will regret that it was not better in formed when it learns that the French army is provisions d in such a manner as to receive fresh bread every day, that it has in store flour for three months in advance, and that the greater part of our troops receive rations of fresh vege tables sent out to them in great quantities from Constan tinople. As for the clothes, it may be affirmed that never at any period were the wants of an army soaniply supplied each soldier in the Crimea has received, in addition to Ais regimentals, a complete winter suit, consisting of a woollen felt cap, a short cloak with a hood, a pair of Bulgarian gaiters, a woollen or flannel belt, a pair of worsted stockings, a pair of wooden shoes, and a pair of gloves. It iA true that, notwithstanding the care of which it has incessantly been the object, our army has been for some time visited with sickness, which seems to spare our allies, more for tunate than ourselves. But if one considers that our troops are encamped around Sebastopol, on the very theat e of the struggle—that is to say on a ground which, having served as a tomb for so many victims, is far from offering those conditions of healthiness which the English army rinds at Balaklava—it will be understood that the present inferiority of our sanitary state may be the consequence of unavoidable circumstances, and that this cannot be attri buted to a want of solicitude. Let us add that they have now succeeded in improving this condition, and doubtless before long they will have completely mastered it. We may hope for this happy result with the return of the fine season, and from the measures adopted for combating the disease, especially from the considerable drafts sent away to Constantinople, and from the establishment at this latter place of new barrack ambulances, roomy and web ventilated. AUSTRIA. The reduction of the Austrian army by 200i,000 men has been decided on, upon the proposition of M. Bruck, Finance Minister, as tho only means of saving the State from a great monetary crisis. The reduction will be extended to every branch of the army. The serious disagreements between Church and State promise to come to a head when the episcopal synod commences its sittings. The Austrian Go vernment does not dispute the right of the Pope to convoke a synod of Austrian bishops, and to direct his Internuncio at Vienna to preside over it, 80 long as spiritual matters solely are discussed, but it claims the right to place one of its own archbishops in the chair when any question concerning the State as well as the Church is brought under discussion. Count Buol was expected at Vienna by the first week in April. PRUSSIA. The. revelations connected with the Potsdam despatch robberies have been the only matters of any interest during the week at Berlin. An explanatory article in the New I Prussian Gazette of Tuesday characterises the accusations brought against General Gerlach and Baron Manteuffel as abominable fate!- hoods: they were the victims of robbery; and "it is too. much," concludes the Gazette, "to be first robbed and then suspected." The investigation Is still taking plaze, and one result obtained is that the statement ,that the French and English embassies obtained possession of some of the stolen papers Is utterly unfounded.