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

~111M.' MARCH 29, 1856. A seizure of twenty-four cases of firearms, entered as ironware, and imported from Belgium, has taken place on the premises of a transport agent at Berlin. Rumours were rife of a change of Ministry, and of the resignation of one important member of the present Government. RUSSIA. The Emperor of Russia has left St. Petersburg for an excursion into Finland. His route will be by Helsingfors, Abo, Tavasthous, and Kekholm. The Emperor, it is believed, will inspect the coast defences. At St. Petersburg every anticipation was in favour of peace. The construction of railways was seriously occupying public attention, commercial companies are forming for facilitating the navigation of the Volga and the Dnieper, while canals and steam nevi• gation on all the rivers were regarded as objects of the first necessity for Russia. The new levy of conscripts in Poland had been postponed till after Easter. A memorial addressed to the Emperor by the Polish nobility praying for the institution of a Polish university at Warsaw, and for permission to use the Polish language in all the schools in Poland, was returned to the deputation unopened. A letter from Nicolaieff, in the Moniteur de la Flotte, gives some details of what is going on at pre sent at that place : • Two days back a commission ; composed of five persons, and presided over by one of the heads of the Board of Ad miralty, arrived here front St. Petersburg charged with the task of taking an inventory of all that the dockyards and arsenal contained. It was received in due form by Captain Schigir, of the Russian navy, formerly secretary to the Board of Admiralty of the Black Sea, now dissolved, and at once commenced its operations. The brand Duke Constantine is, it is said, to arrive here in a few days to inspect the proceedings of the commission. The mate riel lying in this establishment, considered capable of being turned to account, is to be transported to the Baltic, after having been classified and duly marked down in the books of the commission, article by article. Already all the utensils for manufacturing gunpowder and the materials from the artillery depot have been loaded on carts belonging to the military baggage train, and are to set out without delay. The navy school for the sons of the nobility, the school of maritime engineers, and that of the naval artillery, are already evacuated. Similar measures are to be applied to Kherson. That port, though shorn of its former splendour, still contains some fine establishments belonging to the imperial navy, which are now to cease to exist. The commission has received orders to proceed there, and to include that place in its labours. In addition, in order to correspond with all these measures, the defences and arsenals of Otchakoff, Ovidiopol, leraspol, and Vosnesensk, and other fortified points of that zone established to co•operate with the idea in virtue of which Sebastopol and Nicolaieff were created, are about to be notably diminished. No one can precisely say what Nicolaieff will become after its being thus aban doned by the war establishments. It is said that, in spite of the representations of Odessa, it will he declared a free port, in order to attract there the trade of all nations. It is also said that a university is to be established there for the young men of the rich families of the Taurida. Already, the Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg has proposed to establish there an astronomical observatory of the second class, and a meteorological one of the first, the country being exceedingly favorable for such establish ments. TURKEY. The Ottoman Ministry are reported to have been lately occupied for some days with the question of the difficulties said to have arisen in the Paris Con gress on the Danubian principalities. The French Ambassador at Constantinople had received precise instructions on that head from his Government, and several Caiiinet Councils were held in consequence, but no decision had been come to. It was rumoured, however, at Pera that the plenipotentiaries required the insertion of the Hatti-Humayoun in the treaty of peace. Such a measure, says a late letter from Constantinople would be received with great favour by the Porte. It would show the determination of the Western powers that the reforms comprised in the Hatti-Humayoun should be seriously carried out. It would, the letter says, also prove that the protectorate of the allies would be no vain word, and that the Sultan would regard it as a guarantee of security for the future. The Hatti. Humayoun relative to the reforms re cently accorded to the subjects of the empire had been communicated officially to all the chief towns of the empire, and had been read Ly the authotities to the consuls summoned for that purpose. In the principalities a certain degree of agitation prevails, and the number of petitions praying for the fusion of the Moldo-Wallachian provinces is increas ing. The Porte rejected the petition of sixty Boyards of Moldavia against the local Divan of the principality; and Prince Ghika has threatened, in the !lame of the Sultan, to repress any further pro tests on the subject. The Sultan had dismissed two chamberlains for offering opposition to the reforms recently decreed. A despatch from Jassy of the 22nd, states : The courier who was the bearer of a formal demand for a union of the principalities, addressed to Count Walewski, has been arrested at Czernowitz. Any manirentli°n THE PRESS. our wishes has been forbidden. The Dale du Danube is suppressed. A protest from Wallachia expressing a desire for the maintenance of the status quo was en route to Paris. ITALY. The assassination of Count Magawly, and the attempt upon M. Bordi, in the streets of Parma has given rise to the proclamation of martial law throughout the State. _ We read in the Parma Gazette of the ]Bth inst.:— We, Louise Marie de Bourbon, governing for Duke Robert 1. the States of Parma, &c. _ _ Murderous hands have once more sacrificed two innocent victims to their infamous designs, and struck with dismay and horror the peaceable population of this city. These horrible attempts fill our heart with sadness and pain. Our intentions were and are clement, but we cannot forget that it is our sacred duty to protect honest people against the wicked, and to adopt rigorous and efficient measures solely directed against the latter. With that object we have en• acted the following:— Art. 1. In virtue of the decrees of the 28th of September, 1849, and 9:2nd of December, 1851, martial law is again proclaimed in the city of Parma and in the neighbouring provincial towns. Art. 2. The general administration of the police and the military authorities shall concert measures for the dis armament of the inhabitants, domiciliary visits, and the expulsion of all individuals who have not obtained leave to reside in those localities. Locus. Parma, March 17, 18.56. The Sardinian Government, fearing a political conspiracy from these assassinations, has strength ened its military posts along the Parmesan frontier. A report that Count Giovanni had been assassin ated at Genoa was not confirmed. M. Lombardini, the Minister of Parma, is said to have received an intimation that he will be Assas sinated. The whole State was seriously disturbed. SPAIN. The Queen went in procession to visit the churches as usual, and had been well received by the popu lace of Madrid. A telegraphic despatch of the 26th announces that the Finance Minister, M. Santa Cruz, has called a meeting of all the proposers of motions against his financial scheme, in the hope of coming to an under standing without a public discussion. Marshal O'Donnell is again unwell. PERSIA. Letters from Persia received at Paris state that Dost Mahommed, the Khan Serdah of Caboul, has taken possession of the province of Kandahar, and that Persian troops were marching against him. In a letter from St. Petersburg, of the 12th, we read the following account of the state of Persia:— Colonel Bartolomei, who was sent by General Mouravieff to the Shah of Persia, in company with the Ambassador charged to announce to the Persian Prince the accession of the Emperor to the throne, has returned here from Teheran, by Tiflis, where he stayed some time. Be has been received by the Emperor. According to this officer, Persia is in such a state of dis organisation that it cannot in any way be relied upon, and there only remains to urge it to the promptest posbible reconciliation with England. AMERICA By the arrival of the America we have intelligence from New York to the 13th. The general feeling of the commercial classes in New York evinced no ap prehension of a war with England. In the Senate on the 10th inst. the bill appropri ating 3,000,000 dollars for increasing the armament and munitions of war, and for the manufacture and alteration of arms, in accordance with the recent recommendation of the President, was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading by a vote of 22 against 12. During the debate General Cass said England had suffered so much in the war with Russia that it was not at all unlikely she might try to retrieve her reputation by a war on the Western hemisphere. He did not see how the Central American controversy could be referred to arbitration. It was not a ques tion of boundary or indemnity, but a mere question about the meaning of a word. No arbitrator, whether understanding the English language or not, could tell what the meaning of the word " occupy " meant better than they knew already. The Washington correspondent of the Norfolk Journal states that Mr. Buchanan is writing to his friends there complaining in very strong terms of the injustice of Lord Clarendon and Lord Palmerston in their endeavours to create prejudice against the United States by the misrepresentation of certain things which occurred in private intercourse between him and Lord Clarendon. Mr. Buchanan alleges that Lord Clarendon's statements with reference to the American Government heving made several offers of arbitration is a gross exaggeration of mere infor mal conversation between him and Lord Clarendon, which was not considered of any consequence. He also denies Lord Palmerston's statement that he (Mr. Buchanan) had expressed himself entirely satis fied with Lord Clarendon's letter on the enlistment question of the 16th July. The Washington Union of the 6th of March con cludes a long editorial article, published doubtless by authority of the declaration : 295 with the following But we cannot forbear to add one remark, which is that Great Britain is thus threatening the United States with war, not because we have infringed her laws or insulted her sovereignty in any the least thing whatever, but only because, after she had infringed our laws and insulted our sovereignty, we courteously regnest her to relieve us from the presence of her Minister, Mr. Crampton, for reasons the most cogent and unanswerable. There is no other cause or pretext of a rupture between the two countries. Accounts from Venezuela to the 10th of February report that fifteen days had elapsed since the day fixed by the Constitution fot the meeting of Congress, and still a sufficient number of members to form a quorum had not arrived. The President bad sub mitted his Message to Congress. He recommended a federal union with New Granada and Ecuador. It was rumoured and believed in Caraccas that the Con gress would break through the Constitution and con stitute Monagas President for twelve years, with full dictatorial powers. A Dutch fleet had arrived at La Guayra—it is said to demand indemnity from the Venezuelan Govern ment for demands of Dutch merchants whose houses were sacked and whose persons were maltreated last year by the populace of the city of Coro. Advises from Hayti of February 26 state that Emperor Faustin returned to the capital on the 14th, and immediately issued a proclamation to the effect that he had been obliged to "retrace his steps for a time." By a despatch from Halifax on the 13th, we learn that intelligence had been received, via. California, of the total destruction of the city of Jeddo in Japan by an earthquake on the 12th November. A hundred thousand houses were destroyed, and upwards of 30,000 lives lost. THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. Intelligence from Cape Town, to the Bth of Janu ary inclusive, has been received. Everything is going on satisfactorily in the colony. The Cape Town Mail of the Bth of January says : . . . Ourintelligence from beyond the borders has now for a long time been confined to works of peace, with scarcely an indication of trouble or discontent. This, we trust, is as much the effect of justice and kindness as of force; though force it present, and ready to repress commotion at any moment. The mining operations in the colony do not appear promising, and were being neglected. AUSTRALIA. The new Constitution, by which "responsible go vernment" is introduced, was officially proclaimed at Melbourne on the 23rd November by Sir Charles Hotliam. A minute of the Governor, regarding the future administration of the government of the _ _ . colony, and defining the relative positions of the Governor and Ministry, gave rise at once to an ani mated debate, in wbicb certain resolutions condem natory of the principles laid down by the Governor were proposed by Dr. Grieves, and defeated by the Government by a narrow majority of one. The con struction of an electoral act was proceeded with, and the motion of Mr. Nicholson in favour of the ballot was misted by the Government. The debate lasted two days, when the Government were defeated by a majority of eight. The Ministry at once resigned, and at the latest dates no new Government had been formed. The news of the fall of Sebastopol had been re ceived with great rejoicing throughout the colonies, and congratulatory addresses to the Queen and the Emperor of the French were being prepared in the Legislative Councils of each colony. The wreck and loss ,of the Schomberg off Cape Otway was reported; cargo and passengers were saved. FOREIGN MISCELLANEA. THE CONCORDAT is not yet quite settled at Vienna. The act of the Internuucio, Mgr. Viale Prela, calling together a synod of Austrian bishops, without taking any notice of the convocation already made by the Emperor, was discussed at a Council of Ministers on the 15th. The result of this sitting has been to despatch to Rome the Imperial Councillor Hoff mann. The number of antagonists to the Concordat increases daily, and amongst the most important of these is M. de Bruck, Minister of Finance. In this sitting of the Council he is reported to have stated without hesitation that the execution of the Con cordat rendered the realisation of his plans of refcrm more difficult. M. MAZZA, the notorious Director of the Neapolitan Police, has lately published an exposition of his political opinions, in which he attempts to prove the superior benefits of absolutism, " that divine form of Government, the only form which can insure the amelioration of all classes." Absolutism M. Mazza admits is his taith, his life, and the future of all the prosperity of Naples, while he asserts that the great majority of the kingdom fully and enthusiastically agree with his principles. The pamphlet is regarded in Naples as a feeler to ascertain the strength of his party.