The Press. — London, England, 1856-11-01 00:00:00

1046 TO CORRESPONDENTS. It is impossible to acknowledge the mass of letters we receive Their insertion is often delayed owing to a press of matter and when omitted, it is frequently from reasons quite indo pendent of the meritrof the communication. We cannot undertake toreturn communications of which we do not avail ourselves. Ccrnmunications should always belegiblywritten, and on one side of the paper only. If I cug it increases the difficulty of finding space for them. Whateveris intended fori nsertion must be authenticated by the name and address of the writer, not necessarilyfor publica tion, butts t guarantee of his good faith. Advertisements sent from the country must be accompanied by a remittance or a reference for payment in town. TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION IOR Ebe Prers: (STAMPED.) Per Annum .. Half•Yeatly • • Quarterly • • Payable in advance. .. 11 8 0 .. 9 13 0 .. 0 6 6 Subscribers are requested to send their Orders through the News Agent; if direct to the Office. accompanied by a remit tance. Advertisements also must have a reference or remittance honer Orders to be made payable to Mr. ALFRED LYE, 110, Strad London. Vbx :IP rtgg+ LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1856 POSTSCRIPT Despatches from Naples, Oct. 29, states the Am bassadors were ready to depart on the 28th. M. Brenier has, it is said, consented to delay, upon concessions proposed. Another telegraph says they are expected at Marseilles on the Ist. General Lanza replaces General Gaeta as governor of Naples. Considerable military precautions con tinue to be adopted. The city was tranquil, but trade dull. A despatch from Calais, Thursday night, announces that four steamers of the Russian squadron from Kiel have been signalled. They would be in harbour yesterday morning. The official order has arrived by telegraph to have a supply of coal ready for them. These steamers are a portion of the Russian squadron en route for the Mediterranean. Intelligence from Teheran, Oct. 6, states the English expedition to the Persian Gulf has caused great alarm there. The Persian troops of the army of Afghanistan have been sent to occupy the country around Herat. A letter from Montenegro of the 18th, in the Ger man Journal of Frankfort, says :—" Prince Danilo has received from the Ru , -sian Consul the assurance that Russia and France have taken Montenegro under their protection." KING OTHO OF GREECE. The Paris Univers publishes the following letter, addressed to it by the Abbe Care, of Nanby : Monsieur,—With respect to assertions frequently made in the public journals relative to the religion of King Otho, I have to affirm positively that it is absolutely false that lie has changed his religions belief in order to reign in Greece. His Majesty remains a believing and practical Roman Catholic, and it is for that reason that serious reproaches have been made against him by his fanatical subjects. During two years I saw him piously attend mass every Sunday and fete•day at Athens, and receive the communion at Easter in the royal chapel. His chaplain, the Rev. M. Arnett, is a Bavarian priest of distinguised merit, who has been attached to his Majesty since his first arrival in Greece. If, therefore. King Otho is using his influence, as is stated, to induce his brother to follow his example, we must. believe that Prince Adalbert will remain II good Catholic, and not dishonour himself by apostasy, in order to obtain the Crown of Greece. General Sir Alexander Woodford, G.C.8., it is stated, will be the new Lieutenant Governor of Chel sea Hospital, General Sir Edward Blakeney who now fills that office, succeeding to the Governorship vacant by the death of Sir Colin Halkett. Sir Alex • ander Woodford, in addition to various brilliant military services rendered to the State, held for several years the Governorship of Gibraltar, besides that of other of our most important colonies, and well deserves the mark of roJal favour about to be bestowed on him. The official appointment of Major-General Sir R. Dacres, K.C.13., to command the Royal Artillery in Ireland, was promulgated in general orders at Wool wich on Thursday : and Colonel St. George is ap pointed Colonel on the staff to command the Royal Artillery at Malta. A cociisioiioccnrred at the Greenwich station on Thursday night between two pas.enger trains. Seven persons were seriously injured, and are now lying in St. Thomas's Hospital. No lives were lost. The trial of Mr. Robson comes on to-day at the Central Criminal Court. THE PRESS. SIR ROBERT PEEL ON RUSSIA. THE OFFICERS OF THE STAFFORDSHIRE MILITIA were entertained at a county banquet last week at the Shire-ball, Stafford. The Earl of Harrowby presided, and the Hon. Colonel Talbot, the Earl of Dartmouth, Viscount Sandon, General Sir Harry Smith, Sir Robert Peel, Bart., M.P., &c. &c., were present. Iu the course of the evening the usual toasts were drunk and replied to with great enthu siasm, the health of Sir Harry Smith being very warmly received. The Earl of: Lichfield then pro posed " Her Majesty's Ministers," coupling with the toast the names of LordiHarrowby and Sir Robert Peel : He should be very glad if the l►on. baronet would re spond to the toast, for he should be very sorry, and he knew that most of the gentlemen present felt as he did, if they did not hear from him something about the Emperor of Russia, with whom he had been on such very intimate terms lately. He believed that all present would like to know how the Emperor of Russia looked, and whether he had had enough of us. The Earl of HARROWBY said : He confessed that to him it was matter of great curiosity to know whether the Emperor of Russia thought he had had enough of us, because the knowledge of that fact would of course have great effect on the conduct of public affairs. The Emperor had not done all that we could have wished, and we had been obliged to show somewhat of a bold front, which he hoped would not be thrown away upon him. Although peace had been established the time had not come for us to throw aside our arms entirely ; but, on the contrary, we must be prepared for any emergency which might arise. Sir B. I'EEL said that he did not know that he could with propriety refuse compliance with the re quest which had been made, and he would endeavour to make a few observations on what he had wit nessed in Russia:— He need not say, then, that the noble representative of England at the Court of Russia discharged the duty im posed upon him in the manner that was expected of him, and in a manner, too, which far exceeded the way in which other embassies discharged their duties, and that he clearly enhanced the character of this conntry in the eyes of the Russian Court. Besides, in Earl Granville Go vernment had one who, though carrying courtesy to its utmost limits, was not anxious to impress the Russian Court, as another ambassador did, that a different feeling prevailed towards Russia from what was really the case. He had had the opportunity of conversing with Todtleben, the distinguished engineer and a highly honourable man ; and he had seen Gortschakoff, Menschi koff, and a number of other distinguished personages, whose names were almost unpronounceable ; but of these and their doings, and other matters connected with Russia and the coronation, they had been told in better language than lie could possibly find by Mr. Russell, the correspon dent of the Times. He had seen assembled in Russia 120,000 of the finest infantry in the world. Those troops in stature and appearance exceeded anything he had ever before witnessed, and he had been over the whole of Europe, yet he had no doubt that the pluck of the English army would be a match for them. He had visited the fortress of Cronstadt, and there was but one opinion, from the Grand Duke Constantine down to the youngest " middy " on board the Vladimir, that had the energy of the commander equalled the pluck of the British navy,—that fortress at the present moment would be crum bled in the dust. Sir Charles Napier had been through the whole of the fleet and fortress, and he gave it as his opinion thatit was impossible to destroy the fortress. It was certainly very clear at this moment that it was impossible to attack Cronstadt with success now, but when the war commenced the case was very different, and if the man who commanded the fleet at Copenhagen had commanded the Baltic fleet, or if a man possessed of the spirit and capacity of a Nelson had commanded that fleet, he had not the slightest doubt that as the fortress at Copenhagen yielded so would Cronstadt have fallen. He doubted the continuance of peace : They would perhaps allow him to say that, although peace had been concluded, there was much to prevent them from relying on a continuance of peace. They were on the edge of a volcano, which might break forth at any time ; and among the causes for disquietude were Naples and the Danubian principalities. Had the war continued there was no doubt that the resources of Russia would have been inadequate to cope with the resources of France and England, and that a most effectual blow would have been dealt that power, fr.un which it would have taken her a lung time to recover. But peace had been made, and it was to be hoped that it would continue. SATURDAY, impossible to destroy the fortress. It was certainly very clear at this moment that it was impossible to attack Cron stadt with success now ; but when the war commenced the c the was very different, and if the man who commanded the fleet at Copenhagen had commanded the Baltic fleet, or if a man possessed of the spirit and capacity of a Nelson had commanded that fleet, he had not the slightest doubt that as the fortress of Copenhagen yielded so would Cronstadt have fallen." You appear, sir, not to know that there were two com manders in the Baltic fleet, viz., myself and my respected colleague Admiral Parseval, a man whose courage and judgment will bear criticism—even from you. But let that pass. lam quite willing to take his responsibility on my shoulders, as we agreed on everything as regards Cron stadt. Like myself, Admiral Parseval may, in your estima tion, have been wanting in energy and spirit; but we cut both afford to bear the imputation from you. As regards myself, if the Grand Duke Constantine told you what you state, he told me a very different story. His Imperial Highness went over with me the plan of the south of Cronstadt, and he himself showed nut the total impossibility of succeeding against Cronstadt by ships. If you formed your judgment from what you saw, it shows your ignorance of naval matters, and your want of generosity in attacking the character of a man who has faithfully served his country for so many years. If the Grand Duke told you that the north of Cronstadt might have been attacked, this was quite true. But whose fault was it that it was not attacked brit that of the Board of Admiralty, which did not furnish the means by which alone it could have been successfully attacked, viz., gun and mortar boats and rockets, of which the allied fleets were altogether destitute. And sufficient means, more over, were not supplied to Admiral Dundas in the following year, so that he could no more attack it than Admiral Par- Bevel and myself could. If you have been put forward by the Admiralty to insult me you have acted an unworthy part, and if you have pat yourself forward you have acted a foolish one. You say, if Lord Nelson, who commanded the fleet at Copenhagen, or any man of spirit, had commanded the fleet at Cronstadt, it would have fallen as Copenhagen did. Now, sir, I tell you that there was no comparison between Copenhagen and Cronstadt; and neither Lord Nelson nor any other admiral, of ancient or modern times, would have touched it with the force I hadat my command.—l remain, your obedient servant, CHAS. NAPIER. LORD PALMEItSTON, it is expected, will visit Man chester in the course of next week. In anticipation of the visit a special meeting of the council is to be held on Monday for the purpose of agreeing to an address to his lordship, to be presented in the large room of the Town hall. COLONEL LAKE was entertained at a public dinner on Wednesday at Grimsby. The gallant colonel, in his return speech, alluded briefly to the sufferings of all in the defence of Kars : will not tell you that we underwent no hardships in the defence of Kars, for, perhaps, it may be considered that the constant watching by night and want of natural rest, the almost ceaseless duty and anxiety by day, and the hourly hope and expectation of suczour which never ar rived, were somewhat hard to bear; but I ask you, gentle- men, whc.t were all these compared to what the helpless women and children suffered, digging up and eagerly de• vouring the commonest roots of the ground without even waiting to wash off the mould which clung to them, and begging piteously for a morsel of bread from those who were unable to assist them ? What, I repeat, were our hardships compared to those of the half clothed—l might almost say nearly naked—soldiers, with scarcely enough food to keep body and soul tog ether, mounting sentry in all weathers, some of them staning in the snow without shoes to their feet, and still never complaining, though their ranks were daily being thinned by cholera as well as by starvation? In many of the houses of the in habitants of the town, after the surrender, six and eight dead bodies were found by the Russians, the survivors having been unable, from weakness, to carry them to their graves. For any.hing we may have undergone we have been amply rewarded by the honours conferred on us by her most gracious Majesty, and by the cordial reception we have everywhere met with from our countrymen,simi lar to that which I have this night enjoyed. The sad scenes have long since passed away, but they must live for ever in the memory of those who witnessed them. I would ask you to bestow some amount of pity on those brave soldiers who, under hardships and privations of no ordinary nature, held the place until forced by famine unwillingly to surrender, when only one day's provisions remained in store ; and I would ask you to think kindly of that enemy who received us so hospitably, and treated us with such courtesy, showing that they knew how to appreciate a defence sustained under almost overwhelming difficulties. COLONEL Turin has written to the papers stating that he has been refused a passport for Constanti nople by Lord Clarendon on the following grounds:- 1. That his statement of having resided five years in England is incorrect. 2. That his movements last year led to various misunderstandings and collision between the English and Austrian Governments. 3. That his application for a passport to Constanti nople was inconsistent with the dec'eration of his in tention to reside for the future in England. A SECOND NIGER EXPEDITION to maintain the communication with the interior of Africa, lately opened out by the successful expedition under Dr. Baikie, was this week urged upon Lord Clarendon by a deputation from the British Association for the Advancement of Science. SIR C. NAPIER AND SIR R. PEEL. SIR CHARLES NAPIER has forwarded the following letter to the morning papers:— TO SRI ROBERT PEEL, BART. Merchistoun, Oct. 29, 15.58. Sir,—ln your afte'.dinner speech at Stafford, the other day, you returned thinks for the health of her Majesty's Ministers, in doing which you stated that " You had visited the fortress d Cronatadt. and there was but one opinion—from the Grand Duke Constantine down to the youngest middy on hoard the Vladimir—that had the energy of the commander equalled the pluck of the British navy, that fortress at the present time would have been crumbled in the dust. " Sir Charles Napier had been through the whole of the fleet and fortress, and he gave it as his opinion that A was