The Press. — London, England, 1856-08-09 00:00:00

FOREIGN MISCELLANEA. SEVERAL ANECDOTES connected with the late coup d'etat in Spain are about. The following is stated as authentic : The day on which the last Council of Ministers was held, when Espartero presented his resignation to the Queen, the two Marshals happened to meet on the staircase of the Palace u one was quitting it and the other entering. " I fully expected what has happened," said Espartero. "So did I, " was the reply. " Some day a fearful responsibility will be exacted of you for what has occurred," said Espartem. "It is you, " answered O'Donnell, who are responsible for what has taken place for the last two years (forgetting that he, O'Donnell, was his colleague the whole of that time ). Now I have the upper hand, and I will and shall conquer, or I will lay Madrid in ruins (arrasare a Madrid), and if I am driven to extremity I will cairy off the Queen by force, if necessary, and deposit her in a plisce of safety." LORD WESTXORLA.ND, in his late congratulatory address to the King of the Belgians, to deliver which the noble earl was specially commissioned by the Queen, said : The tender attachment of the Queen to her beloved uncle, and the high estimation in which your Majesty has ever been held in England since your early connection with my country, must increase and enhance the admiration and satisfaction with which her Britannic Majesty and her sub. jects view the results of your Majesty's wise and beneficent course in the prosperity and independence of your king dom, the contentment of your people, and the attachment universally shown to your person. These blessings are justly due to the monarch who has, in perilous times, con• ducted in safety the oountry which, under a constitution securing freedom without licence and the well•regulated liberty of all classes, is a pattern of good government, order, and loyalty. The speech has created a most favorable impression in Belgium. GENERAL WALKER, who is the head and heart of the Nicaraguan buccaneers, and who has just obtained his election as President of Nicarazua, is described by the New York papers as a young man a little over 32 years of age, very thin and wiry in form, most industrious, capable of sustaining extra ordinary physical fatigue, and possessed of an un bounded ambition. His head is more than usually high, somewhat large in proportion to his body ; his forehead is broad and smooth, and so developed in the reflective faculties that a phrenologist would he apt to pronounce him an idealist. His face is thin, his nose slightly aquiline, his mouth is well formed, expressing great firmness, and his lips have that compression peculiar to those who are very fastidious and systematic. His eyes are rather small, and placed low down from his brow. He speaks with much deliberation, is particular in bis choice of woris, and in his manner very diffident. No person (says the New York Tribune) would suspect in his half-bashful, half-shrinking manner the desperate courage of which he is possessed, nor suppose that his small hands and delicate fingers had so often fought their way with the butt-end of a pistol through a crowd of enemies. AN UNHAPPY DELIVERY occurred the other day at the Custom-house at Dover. Mme. Augustine R—, a pretty blonde of from twenty to twenty-five years of age, embarked from Calais. Her invalid appearance excited the interest of the passengers, who felt great anxiety lest sea sickness should bring on a crisis which evidently could not long be deferred. She crossed the Straits, however, safely, and upon landing was placed in an arm-chair, and salts were held to her nose, while an occasional groan went to the heart of all her travelling companions. On the wharf a Custom-house officer observed the disembarkation, and seemed to feel a warm interest in the pretty Frenchwoman. He approached and offered his as sistance, informing her that he had come knowledge of medicine ; and, though the lady assured him that she felt much better, and begged to be carried imme diately to an hotel, he protested that it could not be done without danger, and by his philanthropic autho rity she was taken to an apartment of the Custom house, and a midwife sent for. As the officer had foreseen, after begging to be released for a quarter of an hour, she was safely delivered of 2 pelertnes, 15 scarfs, 17 pieces of lace, 12 pairs of silk stockings, 38 pieces of cotton, 6 reticules, and 48 Lyons handker chiefs. AUSTRIA is making considerable efforts to increase her squadron in the Mediterranean, and indeed her navy generally. The first line•of-battle ship (90 guns) which she ever thought of possessing was pnt on the stocks at Pols a few days back, under the name of the Emperor, and is to have a screw propeller, with an 800-horse power. Two other ships of the line of the same dimensions are likewise to be imme diately commenced, and, according to orders sent from Vienna, are to be urged on as rapidly as pos sible. Independently of these first-rate vessels, two screw frigates, the Adria and the Danube, are being terminated in the yards of Moggia, as well as a screw corvette at Venice. At the same time the armament of a screw despatch-boat, the Prince Eugene, is nearly completed ; while, to complete these measures, two maritime arsenals, one at Fiume, and the other at Lussin, are at once to be founded. Sus CHARLES NAPIER is quite an object of interest at St. Petersburg. A letter in Le Nord, from St. THE PRESS. Petersburg, dated the 28th ult., says :—Sir Charles Napier intends leaving St. Petersburg shortly, but in the meantime he is the object of a curiosity which proves rather annoying to him sometimes. The other day the old seaman went to Pavlousk to hear Strauss' music and see the company, but he must soon have perceived that in proposing to himself to enjoy the rural scene in tranquillity he had reckoned without his host. No sooner had he arrived than ha found himself surrounded with a crowd of gazers, who never left him for one instant; if he began to walk, on walked the crowd ; if he sat down in any nook of the garden where he fancied he could be alone, the nook became in a twinkling the most thronged part, and groups gathered thick and dense. Sir Charles tried frequently to escape by changing the locality, but he did not succeed. Dodged from alley to alley by this curiosity so flattering to his vanity, but so annoying to him in his stroll, he fairly fled from the garden, and did not breathe freely again till he found himself a short time after in the train, which rapidly bore him away to St. Peters. burg. Even celebrity has its drawbacks, and Sir Charles Napier has experimentally convinced him- self of the fact in a letter from St. Petersburg. THE LAST ENGLISHMAN IN THE CRIMEA is said to have been one of the Land Transport Corps, who, long after the Crimea was given up and all had em barked, was found lying very drunk in one of the ditches. He was carried to the beach by six Cos sacks, and pullel off to the last ship quitting the port. So tipsy was he that he had to be hoisted on board. A Roma= MURDER has been committed in Paris. The resident office-porter of the Societe d'Emigration Frarco-Americaine, in the Faubcurg St. Martin, some months since was deserted by a girl he loved and lived with. Last Saturday even ing he brought her home with him, and in the middle of the night was met by the concierge coming down stairs, and dragging with him the naked headless body of the poor girl. He had lite rally cut her head off while she was sleeping. The concierge, horror-struck at the sight, rushed into his room for a sword. Poirier, the porter, cried out, " Arrest me if you like ; I have been revenged on a woman who has made me suffer a good deal, and I have no wish to escape." He, however, ran up stairs, jumped out of the second-floor window, and made off. The concierge hastened to summon the police. They arrived, and discovered in the bedroom a frightful scene of blood and horror. Poirier had evidently first stunned the poor girl while in bed and asleep with a blow from an iron balance, and then, holding her over a pail, with a blunt knife hacked and jagged her head off. In carrying the body out, his object was evidently to lay it in the street, though how he could have hoped to escape detection it is impossible to conceive. The police are in active search, but have as yet failed to secure him. THE PROJECT FOR COLONISING THE ISLE OF SAR DINIA is engaging the attention of those who devote their time to economic studies, and investigations are being made into the capabilities of the island. The soil of Sardinia (says the Correspondance Italienne) is adapted to every kind of culture ; the island pos sesses some good natural harbours that only require deepening; the plains are magnificent, and which only require draining to render them highly fertile. The area amounts to 2,409,606 hectares, 511,000 of which belong to the public domain. The Govern ment is busy making roads and founding schools. The island could receive a million and a half of im migrants without the slightest detriment to the oIJ inhabitants. THE RUSSIANS IN THE CRIMEA.—The last arrival from the Crimea gives the following items :—As there were a number of wooden huts in the Crimea without owners, the first person who arrived took possession of that which suited his purpose. Colonel Stamati, the Commandant of Balaklava, has issued an order prohibiting any one from touching them, unless he can prove himself to be the legitimate owner. A second order prohibits any one from touching the funeral monuments of the allied armies; and a third requests all the families of Balaklava and Kamiesch to come and prove their right to pro perty, and to proceed with the construction of botkes according to a new plan, which is to be drawn out by a committee of civil and military engineers sent from Odessa for that purpose. An order has also been published fixing the price of articles for con sumpion--a measure which bad been rendered necessary by the exorbitant demands of the foreign dealers, who are now much embarrassed by the sur veillance of the local police re established on all points. The posts placed on the roads constructed by the allies, and bearing the names of the engineers, have been all removed. The Russian clergy have just celebrated a grand mass at Balaklava, at which every one walked barefoot in sign of moitification, after which holy water was sprinkled in every direc lion. The camp of 6,000 men, which has been formed on the heights of Inkermann, will be the only military force in that part of the Crimea. S ATURLAY, MARSHAL PELISSIER AT MARSEIILES, MARSHAL PELISSIER, at the graud banquet Biven tv him at Marseilles on Sunday,it, returning, Iliaiik•lfor his health, said, with reference to the Frqnch array and the war : Never, in fact, did an army give a ft ner xatnple of courage, constancy, self-denial, and devotion und er suc h severe trials. It is to these soldiers, uniteel with our br ave and faithful allies, and guided by the Emperor, whos e sagacious preparations insured the success, that Franco and Europe are indebted for a glorious peeace. Other toasts having been drunti, and the list exhausted, Marshal Peli4sier, fiuding that no allu sion had been made to the allies, rose and said : Gentlemen,—l did expect that. somebody would have proposed a toast to our brave alt.ies, but nothing to that effect having been offered, I mu.at say that we have acted like egotists. Your silence corsrpels me to recal to your recollection the firmness and the valour of the Bi,tish arwy, which showed us how to conquer or to die, the con• stant spitit of concord and confraternity of which it gave us so many proofs, as well as the eagerness with which the Sardinian army, but recently created, joined our ranks, and the noble courage with which it fought. I am confident, gentlemen, that these observations will find an echo in your hearts, and I consequently propose to you " The health of the gracious Queen of Great Britain,' and another toast, " The King of Sardinia." The toasts having been enthusiastically honoured, the Marshal shortly after retired. MAJOR GENERAL WINDHAM ON THE OPERATIONS IN THE CRIMEA. MAJOR-GENERAL WINDHAX, daring his ♦isit to Nor wich, made some interesting remarks on the spirit manifested by our allies in the Crimea, and the con duct of Marshal Pelissier on the occasion of the assault on the Mamelon As chief of the staff (observed the gallant officer), and having landed early and served without intermission through, the whole campaign, I think I know the tone, the feelings. the discipline, and the habits of the French soldiers &s -well as any individual in the British army. I know no thing whatever of their navy, but I know that my Mend,. Harry Keppel, one of the best and kindest little fellows in. the British navy—a man who served faithfully with me in the trenches, and was never absent on any occasion when he thought he had a chance of getting his head knocked off with a round•shot—has always told me that he had na fault %hatever to find in his communications with the French navy, and therefore I can find none. As far as regards the French army, I really believe that they behaved as well as any men could possibly behave to us. lam not going to say that there never was je►lousy, either on their side or on ours, but I say that when we were in difficulties they would always come to the rescue, and they welt Itnew, and honestly acknowledged, that if they had any difficulties to encounter they were very glad to see a battalion of red. coats come up to their support. I knew all the superior officers, many of them with considerable intimacy, and N. may say the same of the great Marshal, who in fact, towNsia the latter end of the war, commanded the two armies. Throughout the whole of the war their conduct was such, that I must say I never served with a body of men with whom I was more delighted. General Windham here related a characteristic anecdote of Marshal Felissier I well remember when it became a question that the Mamelon should be captured—that was upon the Bth of June, 1855, and it was the first real advance that we meal towards the town, because previously to the Bth of Junewo. were in reality the besieged party, and not the besirom. I very well remember it being reported to me that narwhal Pell abler called a council of war, and told his own officers that he came there to ask their opinions, but not so follow them. When that distinguished officer heard all that they had got to say, and many of them said a great deal against an attack upon the lila:melon, he asked our General of Engineers, Sir Harry Jones, for his opinion.. Sir Harry Jones' reply was simply this—" Lord Raglan, orders me tai say that when you are ready to attack the Mamelon, he it ready to attack the Quarries." The answer of General Pelissier to that was—" Voila ce que j'appelle parler." I think, therefore, that we may fairly assume that he was not inclined to prop up his officers against oars. With respect to their opinion of the result of the Redan failures, General Windham said : I have never heard any officer of their service reproach us; on the contrary, I have always beard them speak to military terms of our assault just as they talked of their. assaults, they knowing perfectly well it was a critical opt ration. Their minds were bent upon the Malakoff. and. they looked to that alone. I think I can say with great truth that I have never beard from the mouth of any single officer of standing in the French service one solitary disrespectful remark relative to our own army, and I think. we may fairly say that they have not shown any disrespect: whatever towards us. Al ENORMOUS NIMBLE OF FORGED FRENCH NOTES FOR 100 f. are now in circulation. The discovevy was made in Paris on Monday in a parcel of eighty eight notes, eighty-seven of which were found to be forged. The forgeries were so ingeniously executed that several of the most experienced clerks in the Bank were unable to detect them. The affair is so serious that orders have been given at the Government offices not to receive notes in payment at all unless hey are first marked as good by the Bank. 750