The Press. — London, England, 1855-12-08 00:00:00

1162 that they must go back to the place whence they came. Go back, indeed ! Why, there are two or three gun boats idle in the harbour, just fitted for the transport of cavalry, and steamers of light draught have passed by the ships during the day, going straight into Kertch. Why not use them ? We are told that the naval agent says it cannot be done. Our water and provisions are running short. The •• • arrives with artillery on board. is that to go back too? By no means. There is a steam•tug at once to take that on shore. On Sunday, Ncvember 18, General Shirley returns on board. We are to leave for Balaklava. What! sail away from such a famous place for cavalry? Why not land us, if only for a fortnight, to give the horses' legs a chance? Rely on it, Shirley would clear the country round, bring in forage for the whole winter, and the cavalry would gain some credit. Can it he that they think we should gain more than our share, by being the right troops in the right place ? Good bye, for this year at least, to all chance of ho tour and distinction ! With heavy hearts we see the anchor lifted The horses are beginning to droop. We reach Balaklava. The general goes on shore, to seek per mission for us to land at Eupatoria. He wants a chance for his cavalry. The naval authorities refuse, and we sail for the Bosphorus ! What has this trip cost the Government? The cavalry, by the latest accounts, hail been disembarked Silivria, on the Sta of Marmora, and were expecting to re•embark once more for Varna. CAMP OCCURRENCES. In the English camp drunkenness was of course very rife, and the Provost-Marshal had plenty to do. He occasionally picks up with a rara avis:— The agent or representative of a celebrated military tailor in London was unfortunate enough to engage in a personal controversy with one of the Provost•biarshal's sergeants some nights ago in Balaklava, and, having been dining out, he was indiscreet and valorous enough to " let fly with his left" on the official's frontispiece by way of bringing the affair to a satisfactory termination. He was at once seized and carried off to the main guard. where delinquents pass the night in fear and trembling till they are tied up for the attentions of the drummers in the morning. In vain did he entreat the presiding judge to send for various distinguished clients to speak to character or bail him out—in vain did he implore that Lord This or General That, whose intimate friend he was, might be summoned. No efforts could avert or dllay his doom ;he was tied up, when his turn came, like the rest, and re ceived " two dozen " on the back. The arrival at Balaklava of a Yankee steam corvette, created an amusing contretemps : A United States steam corvette, whose complicated name, borrowed from some Transatlantic strew, escapes my memory, arrived here the other day, bearing the flag of the renowned Commodore Breeze. She did not salute. but on coming to an anchor sent on board the admiral's ship to know why he had not saluted. It was politely intimated—so the story runs—to Brother Jonathan that it was his place to have first saluted the officer of higher rank. "By no means," retorted this gentle Breeze from across the water, " a commodore being the highest officer in the American service, is of equal rank with an English admiral " The consequence was that nobody saluted, and the powder was saved. But then arose another difficulty. Who was first to call upon the other—the commodore on the admiral, or the admiral on the commodore ?—a knotty point, demanding grave deliberation. If I am rightly in• formed—but I make every reservation when speaking on so grave a subject—the difficulty was at last settled thus:— the English flag-lieutenant paid his respects on board the American steamer; the American flag-captain called on the English flag captain, who returned his visit ; the com modore then called on the admiral, and the admiral called on the commodore. Thus were all conflicting interests and points of etiquette satisfactorily reconciled, and there is no present danger, I am happy to say, of a war between Great Britain and the United States arising out of the susceptibilities of Commodore Breeze.—lb. THE WAR IN ASIA. No further despatches or accounts of the opera tions of the army under Omer Pacha, after the battle of the Ingonr, have yet reached us. A rumour in Vienna stated that " Kars had fallen," but no official intelligence to that effect has been received. Letters from Samsoon, of the 24th of November, make men tion of the cap'ure, by the Russians, prior to the 25th of October, of a messenger conveying despatches from the War office to General Williams at Kart. THE Iwo:mist - now AT ROME is still as active as in the days of Torquemada. A letter lately published in Turin gives the following account of the manner in which arrests are conducted : When the inquisitors want either to arrest or question you, they neither send officers of justice nor a warrant; such extreme measures are only reserved for those who attempt to escape ; but a gentleman calls upon you in a quiet way, and informs you that the Holy Office requests the pleasure of your company. Should you happen to ex postulate, the quiet gentleman politely suggests the ex pediency of being punctual. When you reach the outer court of the Vatican, you find a priest who conducts you to the tribunal, and if you are only summoned as a witness, it is he who conducts you back. When in the presence of the inquisitor, you are made to swear that you will speak the truth; your answers to the questions put to you are written down in Latin, and, before being released, you • will reveal nothing of THE PRESS. fortigit 6arrrsponbetut. FRANKFORT, Dec. 5. FEW political strictures have been more opportune than the leading article of the Times of Nov. 27th, on the Austro-Papal Concordat. It has been exten sively read and circulated in a private translation, and has been slightly commented upon in the Frank. fort Journal. The question is put on its proper basis, apart from any religious consideration, and the whole is ably dealt with in reference to its certain consequence on the affairs of Central Eu rope. There are occasions, and this is one of them, when the Times superbly works out a real and bene• ficial end for the cause catholic of human benevo lence and civilisation. Most correctly is it observed that this return to the sacerdotal tyranny of the dark ages is certain to lead to the opposite of its intent; and instead of consolidating the Papal power in Italy and Austro•Germany, it will insure the fierce opposition that will only terminate in the discomfi- ture, and it may be said the destruction, of the Aus trian empire. It was impolitic in the extrome that the first intimation of Austro-Roman intolerance should have emanated from an act of persecution towards a Prussian subject. The Pastor Borzinski had seceded from the idolatrous practices of the Church of Rome. A religious enlightenment, spiri tualised by revelation, and simplified by common sense, confuted in his mind the Roman and Papal addenda, unscriptural and unauthorised, which had vitiated the commands of evangelium. He made public his convictions, and avowed his Protestant disbelief in the Egyptian mysticism of Roman error. By ecclesiastical order he was summarily arrested and cast into one of those dungeons that are about to be set apart for the use of the Roman priesthood, according to the special proviso of the Concordat, fit types of the Dantescan Hades, with its ever-flaming and appropriate motto, " Lasciate ogni speranza voiche entrate." But even the Familiars conspired against the nascent enormities of the Austrian "Vepres," and, assisted by faithful friends of the " Gotha" party, the persecuted Protestant escaped from the fangs of his read) tormentors of the cowl. His deliverance, however, was not effected before the Government of Prussia had energetically protested against his incarceration. Let the "parts de la Croix " take counsel in time, and ponder upon this overt monition of a forthcoming and papistic dia bolism. M. de Gerlach, Councillor of State, an intimate partisan of the King of Prussia, and one of the inveterate chiefs positive of the Russian faction "de la Croix," made comparatively notorious by his pam phlet calling on Prussia and Germany to unite in a common war to dethrot - m the Emperor Napoleon, and to dismember France, has now attained to a superlative degree of obloquy by the recent discovery of his participation in an intrigue against the Prince Royal of Prussia. Rogues cannot confederate with honest men, but with their fellows only. This is a course of action which Providence has necessarily so shaped for the punishment of the politically and radically wicked, and as a saving health unto all who are true and loyal of heart. M. de Gerlach fulfilled the decree of Providence. His servants were var lets, "proprement dit," and held their master in congenial honour. He was unscrupulous, they were not punctilious; he was malignant, they were not tender-hearted ; he was greedy, they were not squeamish ; he was " alieni appetens," but they asserted he was not "sui protusus," and, being wrath thereat, they stole his most secret despatches, to be as a golden stream of coin from the hard rock of Gerlach. The fact was bruited about, and reached the ears of the King. But the Right Honourable Counsellor of State solemnly protested to his Sovereign, "on the faith of a gentleman," that he had not compromised him, nor had he, or any of the "parts de la Croix," written or done evil against his Royal brother, a declaration that well merits the title of " splendide mentlax." The Prince of Prussia, having possession of the original docu ments, demanded an audience, and placed the papers, replete with foul abuse and patent con spiracy against the Prince and the Gotha party, in the King's hands. M. de Gerlach departed into the country, "en retraite," for a few weeks. Neverthe less, he has been again restored to the confidence of his master. The retirement of M. de Prokesch•Oiten from the Presidency of the Diet ha , been agreeable to M. de Bismarck-Schonhausen. Of the former he was wont to observe, " qu'il traitait lea affaires avec une brusque rie malhonnete et touts militaire," and he augurs more favorably for Prussian intrigue from "le carae tere modere, et conciliant," of M. le Comte de Rechberg. The four points of Vienna have been SATURDAY, afresh and privately forced upon the consideration of the Diet, and it is evident that both the Austrian and Prussian envoys will use every means to effect a Germanic recognition of them befure preliminaries of a negotiation for peace may be declsred, should such be the proximate course of events. The gravest im portance is attached to the question of the Danubian principalities, far more than to that of the Black S ea , which can admit of but one solution under the ex isting and victorious position of the allies. Austria has always coveted the Moldo-Wallachian provinces ; and her unopposed occupation of them—was more than hinted at the time b) Russia—might be con verted into • permanency, provided always that the secret parole agreement on the intcgnty of the four points, and nothing beyond, should be duly observed by her. The fall of Sebastopol, the annihilation of the Russian fleet, and the rejection of the four points by the allies as inefficient for their one intent and purpose, has marvellously vexed Austria, and the fate of the Danubian principalities is the cause of intense anxiety with the Cabinet of Vienna. Alone, it cannot resist the allies; and it is sought to precipi tate the acceptation of the four points by the Diet with the forlorn hope of assistance in obtaining that secret prize for which the house of Hapsburg- Lorraine has been playing its faithless part. _ _ J. E. L THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. ( Frost a Correspondent.) ROUMANIA, or "Zara Romanesca," the indigenous inhabitants of which are called " Rumunyi," is pro perly formed by the provinces of Moldo-Wallachia, Transylvania, Bukovina, the Banat, part of Hungary and Bessarabia, and comprises the extent of country between the rivers Thiess, the Dniester, the Danube, and the Black Sea. This was ancient Dacia, origi nally inhabited by a Pelasgic race, miscalled fierce because courageous against aggression, and accounted perversely indomitable by reason of a successful re sistance to foreign subjugation. Words, like nobler and fairer things, may be applied to an improper purpose. Trojan, the Roman Emperor, after five years of incessant warfare, from A.D. 101 to 100, at last exterminated the Pelasgi, and entirely colonised the country with the "Vle.cci," a people whom he brought from the banks of the Tiber, and who had been located in the vicinity of Rome. The soft lan guage of the " Rumunyi," abounding in vowels, and deriving most of its words from the Latin, with only a slight admixture of Sclavonic, is strikingly indica tive of its Roman origin, and the modern pronuncia tion, with the singular fact of the common termination of their words in vowels, in close resemblance to the Italian, goes far to prove that the dialectic changes are those which a polished language must be certain to undergo when simplified by the use of an unedu cated people. And with the melodious suavities of Ausonian diction the "Rumunyi " have inherited the noble hearts and strong hands of their Transteverean progenitors. It may be observed, " passim," that the Germans call the Moldo-Wallachians " Vallios," and the Ita lians also " Vallios." The French in the fourteenth century named the Italians " Valloches" and the Wallachians " Vallaques," the Poles " Vloch" and " Vallowni," and the Hungarians " Olas " and " Oloch." In the Hungarian language Italy is "Vlockazenie," and Moldo-Wallachia" Voloskazenie." —(Confidences sur la Turquie, Paris, 1855. Manu script 7,512. Bibliotheque de Is Rue Richelieu.) To this Roman colonised country was given the name of " Dacia Felix Augusta," or " Dacia Trajana," and the capital, "Zarmethusa," was possessed of Roman rights, and exempted from the payment of tribute. Aurelian, unable to protect the inhabitants from the inroads of the Goths, withdrew the principal families into Maria or Bulgaria, and to this district south of the Danube was attached the name of " Dacia Aureliani." The Maass-Goths were ultimately expelled the country, and it was divided into "Dacia Superior," Moldavia and Transylvania " Dacia Ripensis," Lower Wallachia and Upper Bulgaria on the banks of the Danube—and " Dacia Interior," which extended to the confines of Macedonia. Finally, Constantine annexed the country to the Eastern empire. " Itumunyi " descendants of the Roman colo nists emancipated themselves from the domination of the Byzantine empire in the twelfth century, and founded a distinct kingdom under the dynasty of the house of Aszen. A member of this family was anointed and crowned by Cardinal Leoni, the Legate of Innocent 111., A. n. 1209 (Ducange—Guillaume de Tyr). But the Osmanli had obtruded upon the demesnes of Christianity, and had absorbed the Byzantine empire. He had been beaten upon the banks of the Loire by the grandsire of Charlemagne; Portugal had been wrested from him by Henry of Bourbon, 1087; he had lost the greater portion of Spain, and the kingdom of Granada was about to escape from his power; yet the losses sustained in the West were atoned for by the subjugation of Eastern Europe. The last Sovereign of the house written down in Latin, and, heti must take another oath that yon what y ou have either seen or heard. lIIIIIIIIIihnr.._