The Press. — London, England, 1855-06-30 00:00:00

614 people passively deliberating on the exact measure of condemnation to be passed upon the executive of a mighty Government. The position of Lord John Russell is unhappy. Every way that he may turn censure awaits him. And let justice be done. In proof of the antagonistic bearing of Austria at the present moment, it is sufficient to state that the military commissioners of France and England have not been invited to accompany the Emperor in his visitto Gallicia. In the purlieus of the Diet, and in the shape of an echo from Vienna, persons well informed in these matters have broadly asserted that Austria will not evacuate the principalities if the Crimea he dissevered from Russia ; and, on the other hand, the fact that the allies will not now be content with the limitation of the four points has been officially cora municated to M. de Buo I. J. E. L. SIENA, June 24. THE attempt to assassinate Cardinal Antonelli is supposed to have been planned by authority, and the clumsiness of the whole affair betokened that there was no practical intent to injure. In matters apper taining te the " colpo di coltello" it is easy to detect a feint from the reality. No Italian, unless a mad man, ever would make use of a two-pronged fork for his purpose. The " coltello "is a long round handled knife without clasp, the back of the blade issuing in a straight line from the shaft and tapering to a point. Enveloped in the folds of the never failing cloak, the bravo awaits patiently a fitting opportunity, and, with a short, sharp, and back handed blow, buries the knife deeply behind the left shoulder of his victim. No noise or confusion pre cedes the deed, and the alarm is generally given by the heavy fall of the murdered man. A misdemeanour against the Cardinal was neces• say to furnish a pretext for unusual severity. " Birbo-Bomba," of Naples, becoming extremely alarmed at certain signs in his dominions, and fear ing consequences that, if perfected, might almost be deemed just, sought counsel and protection from the cardinal son of the brigand chief; and as the latter also had his misgivings, in order to strike terror into the legion of popehaters, he straightway ordered the execution of certain political prisoners in the Romagna, to whom it. had been signified that after a certain time of "penitenza" they would be liberated. " Birbo-Bomba," on his part, performed a similar act of inhumanity, removed Poerio to another and severer prison, and sent troops to the Roman fron tier. This coldblooded and cruel treachery has effectually exasperated the Liberals ; the hatred of the priests, hardly possible of increase, has, how ever, been intensified, and the " maledetto it prete," openly enunciated, is the vivifying principle of action. To exemplify the temper of the priests, the Archbishop Franconi, in Piedmont, styling the Con vent Bill, lately enacted by the Sardinian Govern ment, a " sacrilego furto," has publicly absolved all those who may be disobedient to this law, upon th• principle that submission to the command of the priest is paramount to the duty to princely or govern mental rule. The Jesuits are making their peace with the King of Naples, and have persuaded him that unless their cause is made dominant the entire peninsula will become the prey of anarchists. In this there is a certain degree of truth. Under the present state of parties in Italy there can be no national bond of uniou betwixt the States, unless it be hatred of the" Tederen rabbis." The Sardinians have no deadlier enemies than the Milanese, and the Venetians still nourish their ancient enmity to the descendants of the Visconti and the Tuscan Medici. The Romagnese, not forgetful of the times of the Malatesta and the house of Este, bear no affection for Pontifical sove reignty; the Romans have nothing in common with the Neapolitans, except the "Toro Farnese," and these again are nationally indisposed to the Sicilians, by whom they are detested. Any federation betwixt such incongruous materials is not practical, and upon this disunion the Jesuits are seeking to raise their infernal power. M. T. A. A SPECIAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE CONSERVA 'FIVE LAND SOCIETY for the alteration of rules, and for the transaction of the ordinary business at the eleventh quarterly meeting, was held at Exeter-hall on Wednesday last, Viscount Ranelagh presiding. The report adverted to the approaching proceedings in the Registration Courts, which would be conducted by the society for its members as formerly, free of expense ; and the committee requested that the ne cessary instructions and conveyances be forwarded to the solicitors in time by the allottees who are entitled to the freehold franchise. THE corn inspectors in the market towns have re ceived orders from the Board of Trade to enforce the penalties against corn dealers, who do not furnish particulars of sales of corn as to quantity and prices. THE PRESS. fortign anb dolonial FRANCE. The Empress Eugenie arrived at Pau on Tuesday evening, where her Majesty was received by the crowd assembled with every mark of enthusiastic ap probation. AUSTRIA. Much surprise has been expressed that no official notification has appeared in any of the Austrian papers relative to the reduction of that army. It has, however, been ascertained from the best sources of information that the Austrian Government intend to diminish their military strength by 140,000 men. Wurtemburg and the other States of Germany are adopting a similar course. SPAIN. The Committee of Finance have rejected the plan of M. Bruil by six votes to three. It is probable that M. Bruil will retire from the Government. His suc cessor is not yet mentioned. The Carlist chief Hermando, ordered for execu tion, has had the extreme penalty commuted by the Queen, at the intercession of two ladies who suppli cated this act of mercy. TURKEY. The Bairam commenced on the 15th inst. The Sultan, preceded by the Ministers of the Porte and all the officers of the Divan, according to annual custom, proceeded to the Mosque, and on his return received the congratulations of all present, in the same way as presentations take place at a levee. Tho holidays in honour of the Bairam were to continue uninterruptedly for three days, during which time all the Government offices are closed. The Forte has concluded a small loan of 50,000,000 piastres (about 370,0001.), on terms very advantageous to the lenders. The revenue of the rich and populous town of Smyrna is guaranteed for the repayment of the principal at the end of two years. In the meantime the loan is to bear interest at the rate of twelve per cent. Accounts from Damascus state that the organisa tion of the British Legion advances. Greek Chris tians and Roman Catholics are incorporated. Some of the Greek merchants at Constantinople have been severe sufferers by the Anglo-French ex pedition into the Sea of Azoff. One house has lost 100,0001., and many others sums to a considerable, but less amount. A few English firms in the East have also been shaken by the successes in that sea. RUSSIA. The Northern Bee of St. Petersburg of the 14th publishes an order of the day addressed by the Hett man Adrianoff to the Cossacks of the Don, in which he calls them all to arms , great and small, old and young, with their standards and the sacred images of their respective parishes at their head. This levy en masse of the Cossacks of the Don will have their head-quarters at the town of Novo-Tcherkase. The Grand Duke Nicholas reviewed on the 21st the troops at Helsingfors and Abo, and inspected the fortifications of Sweaborg. On the 17th an imperial ukase appeared at St. Petersburg requiring the formation of a rifle corps from the miners employed in the Altai. A letter from St. Petersburg of the 13th, in the National Gazette of Berlin, says Many of the Jews in Russia have been of late years con• verted to Christianity. The number of those who have been thus converted amount in this capital to 80,000. They have been up to this time exempt from military ser vice, but in consequence of the present war, an imperial ukase has just ordered that one in thirty shall be taken for the conscription. . _ _ The Goiatitutionnel asserts, upon the authority of a letter from Warsaw, that three American officers had requested permission of the Czar to be allowed to join the Russian army in the Crimea. UNITED STATES. New York mails of the 13th inst. have come to hand by the steamer Pacific, which brought also 210 passengers, and 1,500,000 dollars in specie on freight. A - Know-Nothing Convention met at Philadelphia on the sth, and was sitting when the packet left. George Law is to be their presidential candidate. In all parts of the States the condition of the crops is cheering, and a plentiful harvest is expected. A reaction against the Maine Liquor Law is taking place. The sailing of recruits for British service has been stopped at New York. From ➢lexico it was announced that Santa Anna had gained advantages over the revolutionists. Jamaica alvices state that great destructions have been caused by the spring storms. Five English war-ships had left Honolulu to join the French in attacking Petropaulovski. THE ARCTIC EXPEDITION in search of Lieutenant Kane sailed from Now York on the 3rd. The expe dition will proceed up Bathn's Bay, visiting the most prominent headlands, SATURDAY, Court an cfastun. Her Majesty held the last levee of the season on ' Wednesday. On Thursday the Queen and Prince Albert were guests of the Duchess of Cambridge, who gave a grand banquet at her apartments at St. James's. Her Majesty on Tuesday held a Privy Council at Buckingham Palace. Apartments are being arranged at St. Cloud for the reception of her Majesty and Prince Albert, who are expected in Paris early in August. The Earl of Westmorland, British Ambassador at Vienna, has demanded leave of absence. A Cabinet Council was held at the Foreign-office, Downing-street, on Saturday afternoon. The Duchess of Beaufort gave a grand ball on Tuesday evening, in celebration of the marriage of his grace's sister, the Lady Henrietta Somerset, with J. Morant, Esq., nephew of the Earl of Errol. Up wards of 500 of the most distinguished members of the aristccracy attended the ball. Miss Coutts had her first assembly for the season at her residence in Stratton-street on Tuesday evening. The Queen and Prince Albert, attended by Lady M. Churchill and two equerries, visited the British Museum on Saturday last. The object of her Majesty's visit was to inspect the new Assyrian anti quities lately arrived from Nineveh, the results of the last excavations of Mr. Loftus and Colonel Raw linson. They were received by Sir H. Ellis ' K.H., Colonel Rawlinson, C. 8., Mr. Panizzi, and other officers of the establishment, and proceeded in the first instance to the Nimrod Gallery. From thenco they returned to the Medal•roorn to inspect the highly interesting series of drawings made by the artists attached to the late expedition, representing the lion-hunts, repasts, and other adventures of Sar danapalus. Among the other curiosities exhibited to her Majesty on this occasion were the gold objects discovered in the late excavations. An alabaster vase, containing the remains of the sweetmeats of Sardanapalus, various ivory objects, the remains of the throne of the king, and several inscriptions relating to Nebuchadnezzar, Sardanapalus, Tiglath- Pileser, and other kings of Assyria. They also ex amined the collection of ancient gems, gold objects, prints, &T. THE DWELLINGS OF THE INDUSTRIOUS CLASSES. THE Association for Improving the Dwellings of the Working Classes in the Metropolis held their eleventh annual meeting on the 22nd instant- Lord Itadstock, Lord Ebrington, Mr. Wilkinson, Dr. Southwood Smith, and several other advocates of sanitary reform were present at the meeting, over which Mr. Tottie presided : The report stated that dwellings for sixty families had been completed in New-street, Golden-square, and were then fully occupied. They consisted of sixteen sets of two rooms, and forty-four sets of three rooms, and had been eagerly sought after. A great amount of improved accom modation had thus been afforded in a neighbourhood where the visitations of cholera had been virulent. Two substan tially-built freehold houses, giving accommodation to twenty-four families, had been purchased in Albion-build ings, Bartholomew-close, and dwellings for 108 families in Nelson-street, Bermondsey, were on the point of com pletion. In the improved dwellings of the association, in the Old Pancras-road, not a single case of cholera had oc curred, out of a population of 693 ; in Albert-street, Mile end New Town (population 350), a mother and three children had died of cholera in a family of ten persons, but in the remaining filty-nine families not a single case had occurred. In the lodging-house for single men, in the same street, only two cases of cholera had occurred out of an average population of two hundred. At the Soho Chambers, out of an average of eighty-eight, there was not a single case of cholera, and only seven cases of diarrhoea; while in the immediate vicinity oft .is building the inhabi tants were dying daily in large numbers, and the epidemic while it lasted was more general and fatal than in any equal area of England during any visitation of the epidemic. In the twenty-three houses for families in Pelham•street and Pleasant-row not a single case of cholera occurred, and the total number of deaths from all causes in the dwellings, out of an average population of upwards of 2,200, was twenty, of whom thirteen were children. There had been an addition of more than 4001. to the net profits for the year, and the directors recommended that a dividend at the rate of two and a half per cent. per annum on the amount of the paid-up capital in the association should be declared, and that the sum of about MO/. required for this purpose, in addition to the 1,7521. 2s. profits of the year, should be taken from the guarantee fund. During the last year the directors had apportioned capital to the extent of 65,0001. among the towns of Liverpool, Bristol, Wolverhampton, and Sunderland, which with the branches previously formed at Brighton, Dudley, Ramsgate, Torquay, Southampton, and Newcastle-on-Tyne, absorbed a capital of 103,6251., and the formation of branches at Manchester, Birmingham, and in other towns, was under consideration. THE COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS, ap pointed to consider Earl Shaftesbury's bill for the limitation of the hours of labour amongst needle women, report that it is inexpedient to proceed with the consideration of the measures