The Press. — London, England, 1856-11-22 00:00:00

NOVEMBER 22, 1856. Plenipotentiary at Paris, had made a hasty visit to Turin, where he stayed but one day, and returned immediately to Paris. The Corriere Mercantile affirms that the King will not again visit Genoa before the end of December. He will open the legislative session at Turin about the 20th proximo, and probably spend a great part of the winter afterwards at Nice. TURKEY AND THE EAST. Intelligence from Constantinople to the 10th states that Redschid Pacha had not then succeeded in forming his Ministry. The journals also announce that the Russian cruisers of Abasia having captured many Turkish vessels laden with contraband salt, Admiral Lord Lyons despatched some English gun-boats to require an explanation of this capture. One of these gun boats, the Badger, attempted to pass into the Sea of Azoff; the Russians refused her the permission to pass the Strait of Yenikale, and fired upon her. A correspondence in the Pressc states that M. Thonvenel had presented a note to Redschid reminding him that the 28th of October was the last day fixed by the treaty for the evacuation of the Turkish territory. This note, it is said, was the principal topic in political circles at Constantinople when the mail left on the 10th instant. It appears from the same correspondence that the two guns fired upon the English vessel at Yenikale were only loaded with powder, and it is suggested that they may have been meant simply as signals. However, some letters say that Admiral Lyons has sent a squadron to demand reparation, but the point is left in great doubt. The Presse d'Orient, published at Constantinople, states that Ferouk Khan, envoy of the Shah at Park, has full and unlimited powers for the settlement of the dispute between his Government and that of Great Britain. There is no official intelligence of the fall of Herat, but it is stated to have been captured in September. The Journal de Constantincple publishes the speeches of Lord Stratford de Reda& and of the Sultan, on the occasion of the ceremony of the in vestiture of the Garter. Lord Stratford said : In adding to the-numerous species of glory which sur • round your Imperial name a distinction without precedent, your Majesty may attribute it to that personal benevolence, to that policy of conciliation, which have associated your Government with the great European family, and the results of which, already proclaimed, only await their full execution to shower everywhere around the must precious benefits. The Sultan replied : I attach the more value to this mark of friendship, as it is at the same time an imperishable memento of the happy alliance of our two empires—an alliance so fruitful in good results, and so useful for the accomplishment of the work which I have undertaken to insure the welfare of all classes of my people. I also consider this event as a new consecration of that alliance. AMERICA. ELECTION OF MR. BUCHANAN AS PRESIDENT. The result of the Presidential election is no longer doubtful. Mr. Buchanan is assured of a majority of the electoral votes. The following are the numbers so far as the result was known. Indiana has de clared for him, and Illinois for Fremont. California might safely be placed in the Buchanan column: — Buchanan Fremont 125 Fillmore $ Majority for Buchanan :3O The Washington correspondent of the New York Herald makes the startling assertion that Mr. Bu- chanan is in favour of the admission of Kansas as a free State, and says !that the President elect has throughout held to the propriety, if not the necessity, of this course, but it was deemed injudicious by Mr. Buchanan's friends to avow this before the election. The same correspondent gives the following as the probable Cabinet of President Buchanan : Secretary of State.—lsaac Toucey, of Connecticut. Secretary of the Navy.--Tolin Slidell, of Louisiana. Secretary of War.—H. A. Wise, of Virginia, or H. Ward, of South Carolina. Secretary of the Interior.—Jesse D. Bright, of Indiana, or Charles Stuart, of Michigan. Attorney•General.—James C. Vandyke, of Pennsylvania. Postmaster-General.—John R. Thomson, of New Jersey. The excitement at the polls had occasioned riot ing, attendant in some eases with slight loss of life, and injuries more or less serious to a large number of persons. A long list of persons injured at Balti more appears in the papers. The New York Herald, alluding to the probable policy of the South, says : We are not kept in doubt concerning the programme of the ruling Democratic secession factionlof the South. The THE PRESS. present programme, as laid down in Mr. Jefferson Davis's confidential organ, is, after the admission of Kansas as a slave State 1. The reduction of the whole of Central America to a slaveholding confederacy under General Walker. 2. A descent from Nicaragua, by Walker, upon Cuba and the West India islands generally, the re-establishment of slavery in those islands where it has been abolished, and the annexation of the whole lot to the Union. 8. The adoption of this policy of slavery extension as the Union•preserv►ng plank in the Democratic platform of 1850. AUSTRALIA. The intelligence by the Lightning, with dates from Melbourne up to the 28th of August, is of no great importance. _ _ A Ministerial crisis had occurred in Sydney. The Ministry have resigned! On Thursday, August 21st, the financial statement was to have been made by the new treasurer, and hon. members went down to the house with some curiosity to hear it, as the finance of the colony is not flourishing just now. To their surprise, however, Mr. Donaldson, the premier, moved an adjournment till Tuesday, to enable the Ministers to lay their resignations before the Governor : Only one or two persons ( says a Sydneylcorrespondent) had the slightest idea that such a denouement was to take place, and the house generally was taken quite aback. Mr. Murray, not knowing what else to say, jumped up and declared that it was a trick. This provoked a bitter reply from Mr. Darvall, who inveighed against the " vindictive opposition shown by the Liberals." A general discussion would have taken place, only it was put down as being irregular, and the house adjourned. The same afternoon Ministers tendered their resignations, which were ac cepted, and Mr. Cowper was sent for. The Emptre, which ought to be well informed, gives the following list of the Cabinet:— Principal Secretary Mr. Cowper. Attorney General Solicitor• General Mr. Isaacs (with a seat in the Upper House). Treasurer Mr. Murray. Secretary for Land and Public Work; Mr. Flood. r,o'art an fas4ten. The Court has gone into mourning from the 20th instant to the 4th December, on account of the death of his Serene Highness the Prince of Leiningen. Her Majesty the Queen and her Royal Family continue at Windsor. The Court festivities are postponed. His Excellency tha Ambassador of France and the Countess de l'ersigny have during the week been on a visit to the Earl and Countess of Derby at Knowsley. His Excellency and the Countess are expected to return to town to-day. His Excellency the Netherlands Minister is ex pected in town in a few days from Paris. The Earl and Countess of Ellesmere and family arrived at Bridgewater-house a few days since from Worsley-house, Lancashire. The Duke and Duchess of Richmond and party are expected to arrive at Goodwood, at the close of next week, from Gordun Castle, Fochabers, N.B. His Grace is at present suffering from an attack of gout. The Right Hon. B. Disraeli and Mrs. Disraeli have left Grosvenor gate fur Paris. Volittr AI. CABINET COUNCILS have been held at the Premier's official residence, in Downing, street, on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday in the week. All the Ministers were present, with the exception of Lord Clarendon on Monday. MESSRS. H. BERKELEY, W. H. GORE LANG TON, arm W. MILES ON PUBLIC AFFAIRS. Os the 13th of November the citizens of Bristol celebrate the anniversary of the birth and death of their philanthropist, Edward Colston. Three so cieties have been established for perpetuating his memory. The Anchor (Liberal), the Dolphin (Con servative), and the Grateful (neutral). The amount collected this year for the purposes of these several societies, the funds of which are appropriated to the apprenticing of boys, the relief of poor lying in women, and the assistance of cases of distress, was as follows :—Grateful Society, 663/. 10s. ; Anchor, 1601.; and Dolphin, 3361. Is. 2d. Mr. H. BERKELEY, at the Anchor dinner, after some remarks on local politics, asked what were Con servative principles now ? snd expressed his satisfac tion at being unable to discover any Conservative principles:to attack It would puzzle any man to tell. It is not for me to stand here and find principles fur Conservatives; I can only rejoice that I can find none to talk about. J And nothing to attack,—nobody to put down. 1100 As to the war cry of "No Popery," he wished the Tories "joy of it." The hon. member then dilated at some length upon Liberal Protestantism, religious tolerance, church service, and Puseyism, and at length came to praises of Lord Palmerston, as "the pilot who weathered the storm" in the late European crisis, when "Queen Victoria mounted a great war horse, which she rode boldly, with the people in full cry at her heels." But although he bowed to the decision, energy, and great capabilities of the noble lord at the head of the Government, he was not quite satisfied with him. He wished he was more of a Liberal : He has well maintained his high position in dealing with the affairs of the war, but we wish him now to turn his attention to moral progress and the reformation of abuses. Will he do that remains to be proved; it will be for you to jtulp of him by his acts; I am sorry' to judge of him by his antecedents. What was the result of the Sebastopol committee?— Nothing. What of Administrative Reform. But, first, what was Administrative• Reform? asked the lion. member. " Who can tell me? I never saw the man who could." But he could see no hope of any Administrative Reform without a reform in the House of Commons. Yet, how was that to be done?— I am for Administrative Reform—l go every length the Administrative Reform Association wishes me. But how is this to be done? You cannot remove the aristocratic dummies from the House of Commons until you free the electors from their influence. So long as the aristocracy and landocrecy can send 500 or 600 men to vote as they please, without even taking the trouble of asking them to give a vote but through their steward or underlings, how can you expect these men to speak the truth of their own consciences at the polling•booth. You can't do it. It is impossible, so long as this aristocratic influence remains, that you can do it. You can have neither army reform nor any other reform, so long as the great majority of re presentatives are elected by the aristocracy and money oligarchy. How soon the people may please to demand the first step towards reform, the leading step to reform, how soon they may demand the ballot, is a question not for me to solve. The Liberals in their efforts to obtain reform had to undergo a great deal of reproach, but they looked to their consciences and their friends, and relied upon their constituents and the public press. Yet he was delighted to think that the Liberals possessed no party press. Liberal editors of Liberal papers were not to be controlled by mere party considerations : It is very true that the Liberal party has no party press; you may just as well attempt to govern so many mad hulls as the editors of Liberal papers, and I am perfectly de lighted that it should be so. The Tory party have a party press which will say anything which tends to the advantage of their own particular party. The hon. member then congratulated his hearers upon the approaching abolition of Church rates. lie thanked them tor the confidence they had re posed in him, and which he had endeavoured to en joy by a conscientious discharge of his duties, even when those duties jarred upon his own feelings, said he was particularly lucky in such matters as regards politics, in which he always felt himself at home, but he found a great deal of difficulty in steering clear of the rocks and shoals of religion. Mr. W. H. G. LANGTON then rose, and was very warmly received. He opened his address with a brief allusion to the barren results of the late session ; but he thought that the situation of the country when Parliament assembled, with the con elusion of a great war and the restoration of peace having been achieved, admitted of some excuse for the apparent indifference of the house to enter then fully into great questions of social reform. Yet the discussions which took place en the questions of education, of our commercial policy, an,l of the amendment of our civil service, had, he trusted, pre. pared the house during the ensuing session for more useful and practical results. Mr. Langton then explained his reasons for voting in the majority on the Kars debate The motion of Mr. Whiteside on the fall of Kars was, perhaps, one of the most important of the session. As soon es the fall of that fortress became known one general expression of regret and indignation burst forth in every quarter, and I will frankly state that if Mr. Whiteside had adhered to the words of iiis original motion, I should have felt it my duty, so convinced was I that the events which led to the fall of Kars were to be attributed, in a great degree, to the neglect, the pride, tun' the obstinacy of our ambassador at Constantinople, to have voted with him, whatever might have been the consequence of that vote ; but Mr. Whiteside was induced to surrender his better judgment to the prejudices of his political friends. and, yielding to their wish of sheltering the real offender, he altered the terms of his motion to a vote of censure on the Government—in other words, on the Earl of Clarendon. Now, I would ask any one who has ever read the corre spondence relating to this unfortunate event whether there is any name which appears throughout the whole of these transactions in so honourable a manner as that of Lord Clarendon ; and I therefore recorded my v o te w ith pleasure in that immense majority which expressed the opinion of the house as to the conduct of one of the most able and patriotic statesmen which this country ever possessed. A