The Press. — London, England, 1856-03-22 00:00:00

272 time. A contingent of 12,000 infantry, 3,000 cavalry, and four companies of artillery, will be raised at once. The intelligence from other parts of India is not very tranquillising. The Santhals are again in arms. The old revolted tribes were still wandering unsettled about the jungle, and some fresh tribes in the north had broken out and ravaged the country around. There have been, also, some slight disturbances on the Punjaub frontier among the mountain tribes. The Oodeypoore question appears likely to be amicably settled between the Rana and his recusant chiefs without our interference. In the affairs of the Nizam, Lord Dalhousie had declined to interfere. Mr. Bushby, the Resident at Hyderabad, had proposed to burrow four millions to pay off all claims against the Nizam Government, to ship off all the Arab Guards of the Nizam, and reduce his army to 25,000 men, to be offloered by Europeans. 30,000 of our men to be employed in effecting these changes, and, to insure the payment of the charges for which and the interest of the loan, the Nizam to cede a certain portion of territory worth 300,00u1. per annum. It is considered probable that the plan will be carried out. At Burmah matters were quiet. Lord and Lady Canning reached Madras on the 14th Feb., en route to Calcutta. Lord Dalhousie was in so precarious a state of health at Calcutta as to have desired that Lord Can ning should be telegraphed to hasten his arrival. WEST INDIES. The usual West Indian mail, with dates to 25th February from Chagres, 27th Jamaica, and 3rd March St. Thomas's, has arrived. The intelligence from the islands is unimportant, but serious disturbances between the negroes and the Portuguese emigrants appear to have occurred in British Guiana. The interference of the troops was necessary to suppress the riots. There was no political news from Chili. The Presidential election in Peru would, it was antici• pated, be attended with many difficulties. THE AFRICAN MAIL. The monthly mail, with dates from Cape Coast, February 14, arrived on Tuesday. The coast was healthy and quiet, with the exception of an outbreak between the two native political parties at Cape Coast, in which upwards of 100 natives were killed and wounded. The disturbance ended by the depo sition and flight of the King. FOREIGN MISCELLANEA. PRINCE GORTSCHAKOFF, since his assumption of the Viceroyalty of Poland, has done everything to ingratiate himself with the Poles. He visits their schools and charitable institutions, assists at public performances, has promised his special protection to the School of Arts, and makes a point to frequent the houses of the Polish nobility. A few days since, in reply to a hope that this new reign would inaugurate a period of relief for Poland, he ob served :—" The Poles have no idea of what the Em peror intends doing fur them very shortly." It is certain that important administrative changes are in contemplation. COUNT ORLOFF AND THE PRINCESS LIEVEN, ac cording to some Paris gossip, are not very intimate at this moment. It appears that the Count upon his arrival in Paris for some days neglected to visit the Princess, who, becoming fidgetty, wrote a note to the plenipotentiary begging the favour of a visit from him. The great man, it is reported, came, but only to remind the Princess that a new regime now existed at St. Petersburg, that she must no longer look for the same indulgences under Alexander 11. as she enjoyed under Nicholas, that, in short, her position was entirely altered. One result of all this has been that the Princess has comparatively closed her salons, and now only occasionally receives a few of her most intimate friends . BERLIN last week rivalled London and Paris for the number and exciting nature of its incidents. On Sunday, says a letter, a dentist put an end to the lives of his two children, his wife, and himself, with chloroform; on Monday the Hinckeldey duel occurred; on Tuesday the suicide of the Geheim rath von Ramer; also the murder of his two youngest children by a cabinetmaker of the town (the murder of the two other elder children and his own suicide were only prevented by their deter mined resistance, in which all three were badly cut with a razor); on Wednesday the Canitz duel; and on Thursday the impressive funeral of the late President of Police. " Surely," adds the correspon dent, " this was enough to turn stronger nerves than the Berliners have ; a Parisian could not have asked for more excitement than this; no wonder, then, that the waves of mental agitation roar rather high in this little washhand basin of a world called Berlin." TILE COUNT MORNY is mentioned in the corre spondence fromiParis as being about to start for St. retersburg on a special mission. THE PRESS. PRINCE SITRBEY is said to have no intention, as has been stated, of retiring from public life ; on the contrary, he hopes that the great powers will render the Hospodariate of Wallachia hereditary in his family. His agents are said to be displaying great activity in Constantinople, Vienna, and Paris. BARON DE BRUNOW, exhausted with fatigue, fainted last Wednesday in the cabinet of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, just as the plenipotentiaries were about to enter on their deliberations. THE FUTURE FRENCH AMBASSADOR AT ST. PETERS BURG is said will be the Baron de Bourqueney, but General de la Hitte, the Marquis de la Roche jaquelin, Marshal Canrobert, and many others, are spoken of. IT IS A CURIOUS COINCIDENCE that the number of the Moniteur announcing the birth of an imperial prince and heir to Napoleon's throne contains a decree ordaining the withdrawal from circulation of all coins bearing the effigy of Liberty. PRINCE FREDERICK WILLIAM, SOH of the heir to the Crown of Prussia (now at Coblentz), according to the Brussels Indipendance, has " solemnly de manded of the King, his uncle, the consent indis pensable to the projected alliance with the Princess Royal of England." This consent is said to have been granted in the presence of the whole Court, no doubt appearing to exist as to the analogous disposi tion of the Queen of England or the feelings of the Princess Royal. THE TURKS, from late accounts, are far from en couraging proselytism, and combat it with every means in their power. They neglect nothing to pre vent it, and even compel the person to first confer with an ecclesiastic of his own persuasion. If he be a minor they will not have him at all, and very re cently Faud Puha three times sent back to the Patriarch a young Greek who wished to embrace Islamism. THE NAVIGATION OF THE DANUBE promises at length to be fairly secured. Baron Bruck and the efficials of the Ministry of Commerce at Vienna have already issued orders to purchase a steam dredging machine, to be employed in deepening the channel at Sulina. In addition to this, a number of buoys will be laid down to mark out the channel, and at the same time serve for mooring ships that may be detained by unfavorable winds, while a light-ship will be stationed off the entrance, with a sufficient guard to preserve order. THE NIAGARA FALLS, during the recent hard frost in America, presented a most remarkable feature. Vast blocks or ice were formed on the river above the rapids, and came doxii in such masses as to wedge themselves in between Bath and Chapin Island, and from thence to the very brink of the Fall. The ice soon became sufficiently firm to be trusted, and a few adventurous persons crossed from the mainland to the islands, and even advanced to the edge of the ice, and looked upon the vast body of water rushing over the precipice into the abyss below. Such an opportunity of standing literally upon the edge of the Fall was never before presented to living men, and many, far and near, visited the Falls under these singular circumstances. MLLE. RACHEL was lately reported in the Paris papers to be on the eve of marriage, and about to renounce the stage. The Indipendance Belge this week publishes her reply to the author of this canard. The letter was not, our Belgian contemporary statei, " intended for publication" : I have heard many clever people say that it is better to be maltreated by the press than to submit to its silence and its neglect. I have, then, to thank you once more for the notice which you have given me in the . But why, my dear friend, have you occupied yourself for such a length of time with nothing but fancies of marriage which you have invented in order to blame me, and why suspect me again today of this inutility? I have two suns whom I adore ; I have thirty-two years upon my certificate of birth ; I have fifty upon my figure—l will not say how many au reek. Eighteen years of passionate tirades upon the theatres, hasty journeys to the extent of every land, Moscow winters, Waterloo treacheries, the perfidious sea, the ingrate land—behold things which soon age a little bit of a woman like me ! But God protects the brave, and Ile seems to have created expressly fcr we a little corner un known to all the geographers where I can forget my fatigues, toy pains, my premature old age . . . . , and this though you fling your villatious canard in the midst of the birds which perch upon my branches, sod which sing me songs of return—mine probably, and that of the spring. Is it thus you should act with a poor creature who returns very truly from the other world? By Jupiter, it is very genteel of me to act thus towards you. This letter is cer tainly not written by a "great tragedienne," but by a good child, who calls herself March 11, NH. Ramat,. THE VICEROY OF EGYPT is desirous, at the same time that he op, ns the Isthmus of Suez, to solve the great problem of African geography—that of the sources of the Nile. A new expedition, under the command of Count d'Escayrac de Lauture, member of the Central Commission of the Geographical Society, a man well known for his travels iu the in terior of Africa, and for his works on that part of the world, is now being organised at Alexandria, and will shortly start upon its mission. S ATURDAY, that tat lastion. Her Majesty, with Prince Albert and the Court, left town on Monday afternom for Windsor Castle. The King of the Belgians, godfather to the Princess Royal, invited by her Majesty to attend the confirmation of the Princess on Thursday, reached Dover from Ostend on Monday night, and left on Tuesday morning for Windsor, arriving at the Castle the same afternoon. Her Royal Highness the Princess Royal was con. firmed in the private chapel at the Castle, in the presence of her Majesty and Prince Albert, King Leopold, the different members of the Royal Family, and a distinguished company of the Ministers and nubility. His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by the Bishop of Oxford, the Bishop of Chester, the Dean of Windsor, and the Rev. Lord Wriothesley Russell, officiated on this occasion. His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge, and Prince Edward of Saxe Weimar, lift town on Thursday morning, for Windsor Castle, to attend the confirmation of the Princess Royal. Their Royal Highnesses returned to town in the afternoon. The King of the Belgians will take his departure on Monday, proceeding by the Great Western line, en route to Dover, whence he will embark fur Brussels. Her Majesty and his Royal Highness Prince Albert, and• the Royal Family, will on the same day leave the Castle for the isle of Wight. Their Royal Highnesses the Duchess of Cam bridge and the Princess Mary left St. James's Palace, on Saturday, for Cambridge -cottage, Kew, for the holidays. On Wednesday the Royal Duchess and Princess left Kew on a visit to her Majesty at Wind sor Castle. Prince Frederick William of Prussia will arrive in England from Berlin in the first week of May. The Duke and Duchess of Northumberland have arrived at A lnwick Castle, from Sion-house, Isleworth. The noble duke and duchess will rfmain at the castle about three weeks, and then come to town for the season. The Earl and Countess of Derby and Lady Emma Stanley have left town for Knowsley, near Prescutt, for the parliamentary recess. Lord Stanley for the present is sta3ing in town. The Marquis and Marchioness of Salisbury have left town for Hatfield-house Herts, for the recess. The Earl and Countess Talbot and the Ladies Talbot, who are at Funchal, Madeira, are not ex pected to return to this country before the month of May. Viscount and Viscountess Ingestre have arrived at Wynnstay, Wales, on a visit to Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, M.P., and Lady Wynn. Lady Lavinia Bingham and Lady Rachel Russell, are to be shortly married respectively to the Hon. Charles Hardinge, M.P., and Lord James Butler. The Marquis of Lansdowne, the Earl Granville, and Viscount Palmerston returned to town from Windsor Castle on Thursday. The Eight Hon. W. E.Oladstone has left town for Harvarden, Flintshire. Sir Alexander and Lady Malet have arrived in Grafton-street, from Frankfort, on a visit to Lord and Lady Brougham. The Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress give the usual dinner at the Mansion-house on Easter Mon day, and a distinguished party has been invited to meet his Loyal Highness the Duke of Cambridge, who has intimated his intention of honouring the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress with his presence on that occasion. littrapolitan. COVENT-GARDEN THEATRE. THE adjourned inquiry into the cause of the fire at Govent-garden Theatre was resumed on Saturday and Wednesday last. No fact has yet been arrived at to satisfactorily account for the origin of the fire. Mr. Sidne) Sniiike, the architect, attributed the rapid progress of the fire to the removal, in the architec tural changes of 1846-7,.0f a thick wall originally built over the proscenium, and dividing the carpel': ter's shop and flies from the other part of the root. He could not form any idea as to the cause of the flue; but thought there was great laxity in respect to the access permitted to the carpenter's shop. Dalliston, a carpenter employed at the theatre, wait up to the carpenter's shop at twenty minutes to ten on the Tuesday night. It was dreadfully hot. He thought it possible that the fire might have origin ated by the fly-ropes sustaining the iron barrels of the batten-lights across the top of the stage catching fire, and the flames running up the ropes to the flies. The batten lights were turned on to the lull by order of Mr. Anderson. It was quite possible that the carpenter's shop would be thus set on fire. %Maim Jones had left the upper flies twenty minutes before the tire broke out, and yet he bad not perceived