The Press. — London, England, 1856-07-26 00:00:00

JULY 26, 1856. Volitttal. PARLIAMENT will be prorogued upon Tuesday next. Her Majesty's Speech will be decided on at a Privy Council to be held at Osborne on Monday. THE CABINET COUNCIL held at the Foreign-office on Saturday last sat two hours and a quarter. All the Ministers were present. AT THE MINISTERIAL FISH DINNER, at Greenwich, on Saturday last, the following noblemen and gentle men were present :—Viscount Palmerston, the Lord Chancellor, the Duke of Argyll, the Marquis of Breadalbane, Lord Stanley of Alderley, Lord Shel burne, the Earl of Mulgra►e, Viscount Monck, Lord Ernest Bruce, Viscount Duncan, Lord Panmure, Lord Alfred Paget, the Right Hon. the Chancellor of t , e Exchequer, the Right Hon. Vernon Smith, the P, ght Hon. M. T. Baines, the Right Hon. H L i bouchere, the Right Hon. W. G. Hayter, the Right H Jr). Sir B. Hall, Bart., the Right Hon. W. Cowper, the Right Hon. Robert Lowe, the Right Hon. the Lord Advocate, the Attorney-General, the Solicitor- General, the Right Hon. the Attorney-General for Ireland, Mr. W. N. Massey, Mr. J. Ball, Mr. H. D. Seymour, and Mr. R. W. Grey. THE RIGHT HON. EDWARD STRUTT is to be raised to the peerage under the title of Baron Kingston.— Globe. VISCOUNT CASTLEROSSE has been appointed Comp troller of the Household in the room of Lord Drum lenrig, resigned. A DEPUTATION waited upon Sir George Grey, Bart., yesterday at the Home-office, for the purpose of representing to him the desirableness of sub dividing the present extensive and populous diocese of Durham. The scheme submitted to the Home Secretary was, that another diocese should be formed out of the present see, the seat of which should be at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Sir George Grey stated that, though he could not say that there would be a subdivision of the diocese, the subject would receive ample consideration from her Majesty's Government. LORD WENSLEYDALE has been raised to a peerage. SIR BENJAMIN HALL, the Daily News states, will also be raised to a peerage. Mr. LAYARD addressed a meeting of his constituents, on Thursday, in the County hall, Aylesbury. Not more than sixty persons were present, many of whom were not eleAors, but the hon. member at consider able length adverted to the war and peace, the results to be expected from the latter, and the prospects of this country in connection therewith. Although he would not say that the Government could have obtained more, he thought that the peace was inadequate to the blood they had shed and the sacri fice they had made. They were bound to have done something for the Circassians, but they had not done so, and the condition of that people was worse than before the war. The principalities, he believed, bad gained nothing by their interference. The question had been left entirely undecided at Paris. Russia was by no means debarred from further inter ference. Then with respect to the new frontier : The frontier line was settled by Austria, and included above a third of the province of Bessarabia. We could, and ought, he believed, to have demanded more; we ought to have retained the old Bessarabian frontier to the Dneiater, which furnished a good military and well defined line. The Russians accepted the frontier as proposed by Austria, which included much valuable land, several places of importance, and would have been an important acqui sition to Moldavia. But what happened? At the con ferences in Paris the Russians pretended that the proposed frontier could not be carried out, and they produced a map, which there was every reason to believe contained a wrong delineation of the country. They proposed that we should give up nearly two-thirds of that which we had already agreed to cede, and adopt a frontier line suggested by themselves. We had actually accepted those terms. The new frontier line included no valuable territory, and was so drawn across the marshes formed at the mouths of the Danube, that access could not be had from one point to the other of the ceded territory, which would be almost useless to Moldavia. The only acquisition was, that the mouths of the Danube were freed altogether from Russian control ; but she retained still a good military aggressive frontier, and could always intimidate the adjoining prin cipality. ( Hear, hear.) He did not believe Russia would relinquish her policy of aggrandisement., which was traditional. He voted with Government on the question of Kars, because he believed that though they bungled the business, the fall of the city was due to the errors of Lord Aberdeen's Ministry. France and England working together could accomplish much good for mankind, were the alliance on an equal basis, but in the alliance as it was, he considered they had sacri._ ficed the honour and position of this country. With the system of despotism prevailing in France this country could not sympathise. Having briefly touched upon military and administrative reform, the latter of which be admitted to be a failure, Mr. Layard concluded by stating that he had endea voured to fulfil the pledges be made on the hustings for liberal measures. THE PRESS. LORD BURGHERSH AND THE HON. FRED. LEVESON will join the embassy of Earl Granville at the corona- tionof the Emperor of Russia. Dr. Sandwith is to he the medical officer attached to the embassy, and Sir Robert Peel, on dit, is to be chief secretary. Sin ALLAN MACNAB of Canada has been raised to a baronetcy. ESPARTERO AND O'DONNELL. A COMPARISON between two such men as O'Donnell and Espartero can hardly be made. Whatever be his merits or his shortcomings as a political man, Espartero is still the honest citizen, the pacificator and liberator of his country. Regent and Dictator of Spain, he descended from his high place, quitted power, and went into exile, rather than violate a single article of the constitution to which he had sworn. His exile was spent in England, where he learned the practice, as he had before admired the theory, of representative government ; and his greatest ambition was to endow his country with it. Espartero long occupied the highest posts to which a subject could aspire ; yet he is a poor man, and he has not only refused all recompense which a grateful nation dasired to confer upon him, but be has never touched a real of his salary as President of the Council. The personal courage of O'Donnell is unquestion able, but it is not so much to that ordintry quality that he owes his brilliant career as to the favour and protection of Espartero, who in 1838 appointed him Chief of his Staff. In 1840 O'Donnell embraced the cause of Maria Christina against the people and the army, and, abandoning his command, he emi grated with her to France. In 1841 he demanded permission to return to Spain as a friend to the established Government, and made the most solemn declarations of harbouring no design against the public tranquillity. Espartero, then Regent, would not believe that his old protege and favourite was again false ; and, ignorant of the plot formed for his own overthrow between him, Maria Christina, and Louis Philippe, who was already projecting the Spanish marriages, freely allowed him to return. The price promised him for taking part in the in insurrection of 1843 against Espartero's Govern ment was the Governor Generalship of Cuba. That promise was fulfilled, and the world has learnt from blue-books and debates in Parliament the manner in which this grasping satrap exercised his command, and the immense fortune he and his wrung from the blood of the miserable race, the traffic in which his Government had been long bound by treaty to put an end to. On his return to Madrid O'Donnell, in right of his rank in the army, became a member of the Senate. Narvaez, whom he hated, and who hated bim, was then in power. To his rule none, except a few Pro gresistas, dared to make the slightest opposition. O'Donnell announced that he was about to reinforce that Opposition, but he was silenced by the lucrative appointment of Director-General of Infantry. It was the placo best suited for his future plans, as he could organise the army according to his pleasure. Narvaez soon saw the error he had committed, and he dismissed O'Donnell. Once more he rushed into the Opposition organised by Generals Concha, Serrano, Sze., who accepted him as their leader. Maria Christina, as being the most vulnerable, was the great object of attack. Narvaez left the finis try, and was once more exiled by Maria Christina, and neither O'Donnell nor the Conchas were called by her to power. The Bravo Murillo and Lersundi Minis tries passed away, not without leaving traces of their baleful despotism. Sartorius (known as the Count San Luis) was named Minister, and the struggle became more desperate than ever. The scandals of La Grania are not yrt forgotten, and the Spanish people have still fresh in their memory the debate on the railway concessions, in which General Concha denounced Maria Christina and her accomplices in a tone far surpassing the Commission of Inquiry after the death of Ferdinand ; and in that denuncia tion the whole of the Senate, composed as it was of generals, grandees, ex-Ministers, leading financiers, &c., joined, and voted against the Administration of the detested Sartorius. It will he well to remember that the Senate was no democratic or revolutionary body ; it was essentially the reflex of the M oderado party ; it was the issue of the constitution accorded by Narvaez and Maria Christina ; and its members were exclusively named by the Crown. We remember the persecution O'Donnell suffered from the Sartorius Government; his concealment in Madrid ; his military insurrection ; the combat of Vicalvaro ; his defeat and retreat in Andalusia; his utter failure and impotence; and the famous 711 Liheralmanifesto which dread of approaching destruc tion extorted from him, and in which he made an appeal to the people to rise in defence of their liber ties. He offered them his sword, and flung himself into the ranks of the Liberal party. O'Donnell was defeated and flying when that appeal was made ; it was responded to by Espartero. Then, indeed, all was changed : city atter city, village after village, from south to north, from east to west, rose against the miserable crew who had oppressed, plundered, and degraded them. Espartero found the Queen besieged in her Palace in Madrid, and he saved her from public indignation by the prestige of his name, his honesty, and his popularity. Espartero carried his generosity and his confiding spirit to a point which deserves censure. Never meaning bad futh himself, he did not suspect it in others. He had saved O'Donnell from ruin ; he now offered him the Portfolio of War. How many times in the course of two years has not Espartero covered his unpopular colleague with the buckler of his own honesty and his own influence! The pm sence of Espartero produced a restraint on the scan dals of the Court; and it was by him and his, whom Maria Christina and her companions call the "enemies of the throne," that throne has for the last two years been saved again and again.--Times Paris Correspondent. MARSHAL PELISSIER AT CONSTAN TINOPLE. A LETTER from Therapia of the 14th, in the Moniteur, gives some curious details of Marshal Pelissier's sojourn at Constantinople The Sultan, in order to gratify the marshal, had been graciously pleased to order Mehemed Bey, the intendant of the palace of Top Kopon, to conduct that officer through the room containing the treasures of the crown and the different kiosks erected by his Majesty's ancestors within the circuit of the seraglio. On the morning of the 10th, the French Ambassador, the marshal, Vice-Admiral Trehouart, and the persons who accompanied them, pro ceeded in state carriages to the seraglio, where Mehemed Bey had prepared for them a splendid breakfast. They afterwards were conducted to the kiosk of Bagdad, a most beautiful construction, built by Sultan Amorath IV., and situated on the highest point of the seraglio. It is im possible to behold anything more admirable than this con struction. It is lined inside and out with slabs of porce lain, known by the name of Kiachi, and the finest kind of which was formerly made at Knchan in Persia. All the doors, shutters, and panels are of cypress-wood, incrusted with tortoiseshell, ivory, and mother•of-pearl in beautiful patterns. The ceiling of the cupola is covered with de signs in gold on a vermillion ground, the colour of which is still as fresh and bright as ever. When the visitors had sufficiently admired this wonderful construction, Mehemed Bey conducted them to the private treasury of the Sultan. Until late years the riches accumulated by the Ottoman Sovereigns were deposited in coffers ranged in cellars of Byzantine construction. But, in the prevision of a visit from the Emperor of the French, the Sultan last year gave orders to have a room prepared and arranged with the objects worthy of being shown to his august ally. The intention of the Sultan was in part carried out, and, owing to the exertions of Mehemed Bey, a portion of the wonders which the Ottoman treasury contains can be viewed by the persons specially permitted to visit them. The visitor's attention is first attracted by the throne of Ker Kaous, Sultan of Koniah in 12,15, which was formerly surrounded by hangings embroidered with pearls and emeralds, now hung up in glass cases. This seat, in solid silver, is covered over with enamelled designs of the greatest beauty, representing the thrones and ornaments of the Kings of Persia in the olden time. It is sur rounded in every part with cloth of gold, and the cushions are of crimson velvet, embroidered with pearls and pre cious stones. Close to it are to be seen the shield and sabre which Sultan Amurath wore when he made his triunvhal entry into Constantinople after his Persian expedition. These arms are dazzling with diamonds. By their side is the precious box which contained the Koran, and which the Sultan Suleyman carried with him during his campaigns. The lid is covered with jewels of price, amongst which is a tur quoise in the shape of an almond of immense size. To the end of the cord which served to suspend this box is fixed an emerald as large as a hen's egg. In another part of the room are arranged the aigrettes which the Sultans formerly wore in their turbans on days of ceremony. The emeralds, rubies, and diamonds collected together in these ornaments are of a size and brilliancy to excite wonder; and it may be safely predicated that NVestern Europe can boast of few jewels to be compared to these handed down by the ancient sultans. I will not dwell on the beautiful objects in some other rooms, but nothing can surpass the beauty and exquisite finish of the cups of jade, the' arms inlaid with jewels, ancient stuffs stiff with gol. and silver, China vases, and a most curious collection of timepieces of the seventeenth century, sent as presents from the Sovereigns of Europe. The inspection of the Imperial treasury being terminated, the visitors were con ducted to the library, erected by Sultan Ahmed, which contains a collection of Eastern manuscripts, such as can not be found elsewhere ; and, lastly, they visited the old throne room, the canopy and chimney-piece of which are covered with silver plates, beautifully enamelled and inlaid with agates, garnets, and turquoises. A theatrical per formance followed, at the conclusion of which the marshal and his party proceeded to the Porte, and in spected a body of troops drawn up on the vast esplanade of the Seraskierate. Everywhere the marshal was the obt served of all observers.