The Press. — London, England, 1856-04-12 00:00:00

Expenses of civil government in every branch mak ing up the remainder, and barely amounting, with every item included, to 10,000,0001. This result seems worth noting. Taxation is raised to maintain government. In civilised Europe peace is the normal state of man, war the exception. Yet in England, in 1455, past. and present wars ac tually absorbed more than 7-Bthe of the entire public expenditure, the civil government of the country being carried on at a cost considerably under Bs. per head for each member of the population. Table VI. gives the capital amount of National Debt, as follows : In 1853 .. £771,335,000 1854 .. 775,041,0(X) 1855 . . 793,375,000 To which it is probable that about twenty millions more will in a short time be added. On this unsatisfactory statement follow 3 a column of principal British imports, from which one or two samples will suffice : Of cotton, in 1855, there came in 890,159,000 lbs. Of coffee, 64,063,000 lbs. Of wheat, 2,667,000 qrs. Other grain, 3,061,000 qrs. Flour, 1,922,000 cwts. Of sugar (raw), 7,344,000 cwts. Of tea, 83,117,000 lbs. Of spirits, nearly 10,000,00(1 gallons. Of wine, about 8,900.00(1 gallons. Of tobacco, 38,500,000 lbs. r Collectively, the real value of these and other articles of import may be stated at:— £143,850,000. In 1854, it was 152,591,000. Of exports (Table XIV.) we have a corresponding catalogue, in which the most remarkable feature is the extraordinary increase which has taken place within the last fourteen years. Total exports (de clared value) were In 1841 .. £51.545,000 In 1855 .. 95,669,000. The most rapid vise having taken place since 1848. This export trade is, roughly, divided thus : To the United States and California .. £21,410,000 Australia 11,031,000 East Indies 10,026,000 North American Colonies 6,878,000. Forming more than one•half of the whole, and leaving for other countries about £40,000,000. Of these exports, cotton manufactures constitute the chief, their value being (Table XV.) £27,581,000. Iron and steel produce £0,500,000 nearly. Cotton yarn .. 7,230,000 Woollens .. .. 7,717,000 Linen 4,118,000. Textile fabrics, collectively, are exported to the amount of £51,000,000: exceeding half of the entire exports of the country. Taking next the items of tonnage, we obtain the foll3wing results (Table XXI.) : In 1841, tonnage of vessels entered and cleared at porta of the United Kingdom was— British. Foreign. 6,790,000 tons. 2,69.8,000 tons. In 1855, 10,919,000 7,569,000. Collectively, the tonnage was :- 11141. 1855. 9,418,000. 18,489,000. Showing that trade has in that time nearly doubled. Pauperism in England and Wales, Jan. 1, 1856, were .. 877,767 Scotland 79,887 Ireland .. .. 73,083 1,030,737 The numbers showing an increase, except for Ire land, since 1853, but a decrease, since the earlier (1841.6), for which raturns are given. We omit the estimates of population, since these are both incomplete and, to some extent, uncertain. FACTS ABOUT THE POST-OFFICE. THE second annual Report of the General Post-office is issued. The most material facts contained in it are the following :-- Number of letters delivered in the United King dom (1855), 458,000,000. Proportion per head to each number of the popu lation, 18 letters yearly. Increase per cent. on number in 1854, 3. Average increase per cent, during last live years, s}. Newspapers delivered (retransmissions included), 71,000,000 in the year, or nearly 200,000 daily. Book-packets sent through the London-office, about 1,400,000 yearly. One-half the letters of the entire kingdom pass through the London office. All tho colonies, except ten, have adopted a uni form postal rate of sixpence per half-ounce. The principal recusants are Mauritius New Zealand, Cape of Good Hope, and W est Aust ralia. Ihmoimmlin THE PRESS. Not much ha 3 been done towards the cheapening of foreign postage, except in regard of France; but new conventions are in progress with Belgium, Ger many, and Spain. The official staff of the Post-office includes 22,547 persons ; of whom 10,314 aro messengers and car riers, 10,498 postmasters, 1,511 clerks. Of this staff 2,800 are attached to the central office in London. The number of inland post-offices has been in creased by 525 within the last twelve months, making the total 10,498. The experimental use of pillar letter-boxes is held to have fully succeeded. Difficulties are found to arise in distributing letters from the enormoustextent of London. These difficulties it is proposed to meet by dividing the metropolis into ten districts, each of which will have its own chief office, and be treated as in every re spect a separate town. When this plan is fully carried out, a delivery will take place every hour. Within the United Kingdom mails are conveyed every week-day, over a distance of 59,000 miles. Of this distance 2 7 ,000 miles are performed by rail, and more than 31,900 by coach, cart, or other con veyance. Of the increase of 13,000,000 last year in the number of letters, about 300,000 were letters from Australia, 310,000 from France, and an equal num• her nominally from Prussia, but really from the Baltic fleet. The correspondence with the United States fell off, owing to diminished communication, by nearly 500,000. The gross revenue of the Post-office amounts to 2,717,0001.; the expenditure to 1,591,0001.; the net revenue to 1,126,0001. Between 7,000 and 8,000 letters were last year posted without any address. Those returned from the Dead-letter-office were 2,400,000, or nearly one half per cent. on the whole number posted. Various plans are suggested for the improvement and comfort of the subordinate officials in Post-office employ ; among them that of establishing, by the agency of private enterprise, but with the aid of a Government subsidy, lodgings for the accommoda tion of letter-carriers and others, on the most im proved sanitary principles. This scheme is most creditable to the Duke of Argyll, and deserves to be imitated in other departments of the public service, such as the Customs and Excise. RUSSIAN IMPERIAL MANIFESTO ON PEACE. ON the Ist instant the following Imperial Manifesto upon the conclusion of peace was published at St. Petersburg:— The obstinate and bloody struggle which has distracted Europe for nearly three years at last has ceased. It was not Russia that commenced it. Even before it burst forth, my late august father, of imperishable memory, solemnly declared to his faithful subjects and to all the foreign powers that the sole object of his desires and efforts bad been to protect the rights of our co-religionists in the East, and to cause the persecutions of whtch they were the vic. tims to cease. A stranger to any selfish view, he could not believe that his just claims would have the scourge of war for a conse quence ; and regarding its calamities with a profound sen timent of sadness, he did not cease, as a Christian and as the father of the people confided by Providence to his care, to manifest his disposition in favour of peace. But the negotiations which opened a short time before his death, upon the subject of the conditions of that peace which was the necessity for us all, remained without success. The Governments which had formed a hostile coalition against us did not discontinue their armaments: during the progress of the negotiations they even increased them; the war had to take its course, and we continued it with a firm hope in the grace of the Most High, and with a firm confidence in the unshaken devotion of our beloved sub jects. They have justified our expectation. During this period of painful trials our brave and faithful soldiers, as well as all our people, without distinction of class, have, as ever, shown themselves worthy of their high vocation. Throughout the extent of our emgire, from the coasts of the Pacific Ocean to the borders of the Baltic and the Black Sea, one thought, one impulse, has inspired every soul, and led it to spare neither fortune nor life in the defence of the country. Labourers quitting the plough and their fields have hastened to arm themselves for our holy cause, rivalling our veteran soldiers in courage and abnegation. New and brilliantly striking feats have signalised this last contest with powerful foes. _ _ The enemy has been repulsed from the coasts of Siberia and from those of the White Sea, as well as from the ramparts of Sweaborg; the heroic defence for eleven months of the fortifications of the southern part of Sebastopol, erected under the eyes and under the fire of the assailants, will live in the memories of the most distant posterity. In Asia, after the glorious victories of two previous campaigns, Kara was compelled to surrender with its numerous garrison, composed of the entire army of Anatolia; and the elite of the Turkish troops who went to the succour of the place were forced to retreat. In the meantime, by the salutary and impenetrable decrees of l'rovidence, an act was preparing which harmonised with the wishes of our august and beloved father, with our own wishes, and with those of entire Russia, and which realised the object of the war. The future condition and rights of all the Christians of the East are henceforth gueren• SATURDAY, ■ teed. The Sultan solemnly recognises them, and i❑ eon. sequence of this act of justice the Ottoman empire enters into the concert of the European States. Russians ! your efforts and your sacrifices have not been in vain ! A great work has been accomplished, although by other and unexpected ways, and we can to-day, in the calm of our conscience, put an end to these efforts and sacrifices, and restore our dear country the invaluable benefits of peace. In order to hasten the conclusion of the treaty of peace, and to dispel for the future even the thought of ambitious views, or projects of conquests, which might be attributed to us, we have consented to the adoption of certain measures of precaution destined to prevent a collision between our vessels of war and those of Turkey in the Black Sea ; also to the establishment of a new line of demarcation in the southern part of Bess. arable, nearest to the Danube. The concessions are without gravity {gracile), if we put them in the balance with the expenses of a prolonged war, and the advantages tranquillity holds forth to the empire of which God has confided to us the destiny. May these ad vantages be completely attained by our efforts united to those of our faithful subjects ! With the aid of the Almighty, who has always protected Russia, may its in. ternal organisation be consolidated and perfected! May equity and clemency reign in its councils! May the impulse towards civilisation and all useful activity spread itself everywhere with new force, and may every one enjoy in peace the fruit of hie labour, under the shield of laws equally just and protective for all ! Finally—and this is the most important, the dearest of our wishes—may the saving light of faith, in enlightening souls, in fortifying hearts, preserve and improve more and more our social morality, which is the surest pledge of order and hap- piness. Given at St. Petersburg, March 19 (31), and the second year of our reign. (Signed) ALEXANDER. THE FUSIONIST SALONS IN PARIS are St present completely absorbed in discussing an important event which has lately occurred. The Count of Paris has addressed a letter to the Duke de Chambord, ex. pressing sentiments of great affection, and also a desire to perfect the reconciliation between the two families. But there is one knotty point upon which it is feared no compromise will be made. The Count of Paris desires to retain the tricolor, while the Duke de Chambord refuses to renounce the blanc drapenu and fleur-de-lis of his family. This letter of the young Count is regarded as a certain homage to the elder branch of the family, although his obstinate adherence to the tricolor, it is feared, will prevent any agreement upon the question of a national flag, and at the same time affect the unity of the family. Le Nord states that the flotilla being equipped St. Petersburg is for the purpose of conducting the Empress Dowager to Stettin, from whence her Ma jesty will go to the baths of Wildbad. The Em press Dowager will probably assist at the coronation fetes at Moscow, and at their conclusion leave for Palermo. Binfium, the great American—it is difficult to exactly decide what Mr. Barnum was, but he is a bankrupt! All his ill-gotten wealth,—from Feejee mermaids, woolley horses, Joyce Heths, Tom Thumbs, buffalo-hunts, and impostures of every description,— has been swept away by a false speculation in clocks. Mr. Barnum may yet find out. that honesty, after all, is the best policy. A CURIOUS EPIDEMIC lately broke out among the English artillery horses stationed at Galata. One morning they were taken to water as usual, and, a short time after their return, they became restless, broke out into a sweat, were seized with violent trem blings, tore themselves away from their stalls, rolled on the ground in terrible agony, and in a few hours twenty of them died in convulsions. Their bodies were opened and examined, but nothing was found in the intestines. It is believed that the water was poisoned. One driver deposed that, of the two horses in his charge, one which seemed very thirsty and drank a great deal was one of the first dead; while the other, having tasted the water, refused to drink, although repeatedly brought to the trough, and this horse never was ill. The symptoms remind one very much of strychnine. Every measure has been taken to clear up the case. THE VISIT OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON to Algeria after the ratification of the treaty of peace is very generally talked of at Paris. Instrwtions are even said to have been already given to expedite the com pletion of the electric cable from Cagliari to Algeria without loss of time, with this view, and to prepare a small squadron for escort. THE POPE, it, is said at Rome, intends to testify his satisfaction at the conclusion of peace, by cele brating the Anno Sante, or Holy Year, from May 1857, to May 1858, which the political state of Europe prevented him doing in 1850, the fixed period for the recurrence of this solemnity. The Catholic countries of Christendom will be officially informed, if the plan is carried into execution, on Ascension-day, when his Holiness will put forth the requisite announcement to the faithful, in order that they may have time to prepare for a pilgrimage to Rome next spring. The Romans themselves are rather aghast at the prospect of twelve months' ex hortations and fasting, without carnival or theatres, but with friars and pilgrims in lieu thereof.