The Press. — London, England, 1856-03-01 00:00:00

Mr. WlLaos, for Mr. Horsman, obtained leave to bring in a bill to abolish the office of secretary to the Poor Law Commissioners in Ireland. THURSDAY. The Turnpike Trusts and Arrangement Bill was read a sexnui time. The Drainage Advances Acts Amendment Bill was rend a third time, and with amendments passed. The Secretary to the Poor Law Commissioners (Ireland) Bill was read a second time. The Annuities Bill passed through committee, with a proviso added that the provisions of the Act 22 George 111. shall not extend to any subscriber or contributor under the act. THE WAR. THE allied generals are busy in carrying out their plans for literally leaving not one stone upon another, except in their inverse order, to mark the site of Sebastopol and its batteries. The docks, Fort St. Nicholas and Fort Alexander, have all been blown up, and the great fort Constantine, the crenelated wall, and every public] building in the town, are to share the same fate. As to the sunken ships, preparations are being carried out, we are assured, to render them useless for most purposes, if not utterly to destroy them. The camp continues healthy, and the army is in high spirits. The Russians fire heavily at times, and still push on their works of defence. At Tractir they have just finished a battery which commands the position held by the French second division. In the French camp, the return, for a short time, of Marshal Pelissier to France was thought pro bable. In the Sea of Azoff a thaw has taken place, and the coasts for a short distance have reconstructed heavy mortar batteries ; and other defences had been completed by the Russians at Arabat and Genitchi. In Asia Minor matters were tranquil. The resig nation of Omer Pacha had not been accepted by thr Sultan. General Williams was reported to be ill at The Post Ampt Gazette, of the 23rd, states that intelligence from Batoum announces the speedy exchanges of General Williams and staff. A British steamer was lying off Batoum waiting for a reply from the Russian authorities at Tiflis to the offers of exchange. The arrival of the peace news at Eupatoria caused great consternation among the Tartar population, because peace may expose them to the most severe retaliatory measures on the part of the Russians. It is the same in the valley of Balder, at Kerteh, and wherever the allied armies have come into contact with the native population. The following extract from the official journal of Russian military operations in the Crimea, trans zpitted to the Emperor by General Luders, appears in the Gazette de St. Peterebourg : From the With of January to the 4tb of February there was no change in the state of affairs in the Crimea. The artillery of the fortifications of the north, and the Carbi neer* in the posts estab ished on Mackenzie's-hill, have continued to fire on the enemy. Jn the night from the 2Pith to the 29th of January, six boats (cutters) endeavoured to pass our guard vessel in the Bay of Sebastopol, near the sunken steamer Vladimir. The officer commanding the guard vessel gave the signal, the batteries of the north side opened tire on the boats, and our troops near the shore stood to their arms, and proceeded towards the ravines. After a cannonade of half an hour the boats retired. In the night from the 29th to the 30th of January, an tramigtm de mimeos, Borovikoff, was rowing guard in the Bay of Sebastopol, when his chaloupe was met off the Paul Battery by moose of the enemy's boats, which endeavoured to sat off his retreat. To the grapeshot fired from the small gun on board our chaloupe the enemy replied by a are of musketry and some grape from a piece in one of the ratters. At a signal given by the officer of our chaloupe the batteries of the north aide opened a cannonade, but the enemy had disappeared. DESTRUCTION OF FORT ALEXANDER. The work of demolition proceeds. Fort Nicholas and Fort Alexander now belong to the class of the "has-beens," and the great fort Constantne will, it is said, speedily come under the same category. Fort Alexander was blown up on the 11th ult.:— Yesterday, precisely at one o'clock p.m., Fort Alex ander was exploded into ruin by the French engineers. This work, which was immediately opposite to Fort Con stantine, and commanded the approach and entrance to the roadstead, was second only in extent and importance to Fort Nicholas, on the south side. It was constructed of stone, and calculated to mount ninety guns. A tolerably still breese was blowing Irons the westward, and heavy masses of grey and inky clouds were rising from the hori• son, and sweeping rapidly over the plateau. The sun was finite lost to view. The water of the roadstead, and the sea gis far as the aye could reach, were enveloped by a thin mist. Without being able to fix the sight on the work itself, the attention of each spectator looking towards the direction THE PRESS. in which it was situated, and anxiously expecting the ex plosion, was excited, just at the time fixed, by a sudden outburst of giey-white smoke, which rapidly broke into two columns. One rose almost perpendicularly upwards ; the other bent towards the eastward. While watching these volumes of smoke unfolding and expanding, there came the report of the explosion. Unlike the dull, distant sound which accompanied the springing of the mines by which Fort Nicholas was destroyed, the report of this ex plosion was intensely loud and sonorous, was accompanied by a violent agitation of the air, so that a strong coneni. situ was produoed against the huts and buildings in the camps, and was followed by a grand roll of echoes like a peal of thunder. This had scarcely died away, when a second mass of dense, almost black, smoke rose a little to the westward apparently of the first explosion. The re port which followed the explosion was not quite so loud our the shock so violent us that of the one preceding. Then came a third. The violence of the concussions caused by these three explosions, and the loud reports, roused all the persons in the ottmpe, and both officers and men came running in crowds to the crests of the hills to gain a view of what had happened. The effect of the ex plosion was not visible at such a distance.—D. News ear., Feb. 12. The wall form;ng the western enceint of Sebasto pol, the public buildings, Fort Constantine, are all to be destroyed : It is said that all the mines necessary for destroying the Quarantine Battery, and various public works and build- ings still remaining in the parts of the town and fortifica tions intrusted to the keeping of our allies, are nearly finished. Between three and four o'clock p.m. of the same day, the English engineers destroyed, by a sucees sion of explosions, all the groups of buildings, some of them rather massive in character, which occupied the area comprehended within the inclosure formed by the Barrack, or White Buildings. It is expected that the whole of these buildings, together with the terrace in front, will he blown up in the course of the week. The terrace, which is faced by a very highly-finished wall of compact masonry, has been a work of great labour. On the low ground in front ate the foundations of the new Admiralty buildings, which were in progress prior to the breaking out of the war. They are also on a magnificent scale. The whole of these works are to be broken up and destroyed.—/b. RUSSIAN MOVEMENTS. The Russian batteries kept up their fire and threw shot and shell into and beyond the Redan. A large portion of their force (25,000 men) is said to have lately left the northern forts and fallen back on Simferopol. At Tractir their battery seriously threatened the position of the French second division, and it was believed in camp not an improbable thing if between the 11th and the expected armistice a little sharp fighting on behalf et per contra of that battery were to come off. prrign Corrlsponlitutt. FRO:I[IOAT, Feb. 27. THE Vienna journals, on the eve of the Parisian Conferences, or rather on the day on which they were opened, declared, as the opinion of Austria, that England is placed in the second rank at the Euro pean council-board. The following are the words quoted by an Austrian journal from a Russian organ, with full and consentaneous agreement : —" England, by her disasters in the Crimea, has descended to the position of a second-rate power (les pertes et lee desastres de Is campagne en Crimee rejettent I'Angleterre au second rang), whilst the powers of France are increased in the same pro portion (pendant que la France vit son influence grander dans la me me proportion)." By the acceptation of the five points, the Diet as sumes to have fulfilled the stipulations qualifying for a seat at the Conferences. The acceptance is accompanied by a reservation in these words, " En se reservant son jugement propre surtout quant aux conditions speciales que les puissances belligerents pourront presenter." No reproach can be directed against the Confederation for placing itself in guard against an extravagant construction of the fifth point ; but thereby it forfeits the claim to a parity of position with powers who have not made such reservation. This comes from the impolicy of giving the Conferences a double instead of a single action. After the terms of peace are concluded on a firm basis of operation, it, would then he a proper moment for the minor power.; of Europe to be summoned in congress to discuss details 1 y which they are certain to be affected. A conference is not a congress. However impatient the Confedera tion may be, her well-being will not be benefited by low intrigue and abuse of the Anglo-Frank relations. The late debates in the Lords and Commons of England have been watched with earnest attention. Everything connected with that parliamentary synod of liberty—free discussion, and royal and popular Government—" plus sacri mille fois que celui du Pnyx d'Athines on du Forum Romain" (Mon talembert, c. ix ), is held iu marvellous respect and honour throughout the length and breadth of Europe. A difference betwixt the Crown and the SATURDAY, bereditar) house of nobles is viewed with regret; yet there is a general assent given to th e simple resistau s of an encroachment upon the pr iv il eges o f the peels; It is the want of an honourable and inilep eo d eLt nobility, possessed of wealth and legislative autht. rity, time-honoured and respected by Cr own and people, that renders impossible tins essential branch of constitutional government on the Conti- Still more injurious is the report of the Crimean Military Commission, and the appalling delinquel cies o munitted by an Aberdeen Lord of the Treastu 7 and attorney-at law. His fiscal lapses have ev en reached Frankfort, and the familiar interrogation s amongst foreigners are :—Was he r ea lly a L or d of the Treasury? had he, in truth, been an intimate of Lord Aberdeen, the Fast Lord? England must set its house in order if she expects continental respect as of old. J. E. L SIENA, Feb. 26. THERE is a lull throughout Italy, partially disturbed by the republication of the letter of Mazziei, ad dressed to "la Giovane Italia." Y oung I ta l y, w i th all the admitted wrongs of ages, has only prov e d i t ferocity. It has left no sign of merit for popular gratitude. Rapine, murder, confiscation, robbery,crirne against the person, were its daily, nay hourly evidences of sinful progress, private, public, and legislative. The better portions of Young Italy, however, repu diate pure republicanism, are well aware of the fatal error which brought Carlo Alberto to an untimely grave, and, seeing ,the present success of Sardinia, are disposed to act with greater wisdom and patriot ism. Hence the reappearance of Mozzini's le:ter ; and no better proof can be afforded of its beneficial effect than having roused the ill-temper of the Maz zinians. All parties seem by one consent to lay aside hostility for the moment, and to wait the upshot of the ;Conferences. Here, as elsewhere, the peace question is considered as a matter apart from the general settlement of European affairs, nor do the Italians expect to derive benefit except from the questions that must eventually follow. That a peace can be durable without a settlement of national dif ferences, not within the exact scope of the present war, no one for an instant can imagine ; end the attempt to perpetuate existing misgovernment by re fusing to entertain the subject of reform, will bring about a revolutionary chaos that will not be allayed without frightful havoc. But when were the saa. guine Italians without hope? Greater severity than newt] mark the doings of the Tuscan sbirri. Their object would seem to be to secure the higher order of Liberals on their transit from the Roman States to Sardinia, in order to join the Anglo-Italian Legion. the latter finds great favour with the Italians, but a secret correspondence having been lately discovered between tbe agents of Mazzini and some of the recruits, the legion has received orders to quit its present quarters for Genoa. These Red republicans ire the destruction of every plan for solid regeneration. Intelligence had been received that Signor F—, a Liberal, highly esteemed, and of much weight with his party, was on Iris way from the neighbourhood of Viterbo, through the Maremma, to the North. The authorities at Orbi tello and Grosseto had been fully instructed, hut he passed through their fangs unscathed, and wended his way by Cecina towards the Pisan marshes, Via reggio, noted as the place where Byron and Trelawney celebrated the funeral rites, or rather orgie., of their friend Shelley. Here the woods and marshes of the seacoast narrow, and the passage of the Sirchio is always dangerous for a fugitive. The guard at the river was on a sharp look out, as it was known that Signor F— had been traced to the vicinity—almost to the water's edge. To pass the upper or lower ferry in the day was impossible, and floating down in a boat by night was nearly cer tain of detection. He was, however, well served by his friends, lay and sacerdotal. The little church of Borghetto stands on the Pisan bank of the river, and the padre curato of the establishment had been sent for to attend a dying parishioner. Signor F— confessed, was ab solved, underwent the operation of the tonsure, lost his beard and moustachios, and donned the black cap. He then took the Host, carried it on high with its embroidered covdrlet, and, accompanied by tbe priest with the acolytes and wax candles, went down to the ferry. Here the procession was received by the sbirri sent in pursuit, upon bended knees; the ferry was crossed in pontifical honour, amidst reli gious chaunts and the prayers of the tender-hearted and anxious womankind who had assisted in the cheat. Signor F— escared. One must not be too severe upon the Roman Church. Sometimes it does a good ,urn even to an unbeliever in its sanctity. M. T. A.