The Press. — London, England, 1856-03-29 00:00:00

29 This immobility is one of the most excellent fruits of the aristocratic habit. Nor is this all. A combination of solidity and refinement is the best definition of the English character. In our rural districts, among our villages with their orchards and gardens, our churches with their old grey towers, our manor houses with their stately woods, are nurtured those gene rous and tender affections which communicate an indescribable refinement to both mind and manners which make our men both gentle and brave, our women both graceful and virtuous, and of which that untranslateable English word " home " is the complete embodiment. Yet this state of feeling can only grow up and ripen in a country which has enjoyed a long summer-tide of order and quietude — where century is linked to century, and gene ration to generation, by immemorial tradi tions— where the intercourse of classes is softened and illumined by associations of a thousand years. Our villages, and churches, and halls, are but so many perpetual me mentos of this order, these traditions, and these associations. But these would soon lose their charm when our aristocracy ceased to be leaders, for then the link of association would be broken. And our aristocracy would soon soon cease to be leaders when their free and natural action was choked in the sickly atmosphere of clerkdom. COMMUNICATION WITH THE AUSTRALIAN COLONIES. SIR JOHN PAKINOTON has given notice that he will call the attention of the House of Com mons to the conduct of the Lord of the Trea sury in relation to the postal service with Australia. The Australian Colonies are the best market England now has in the whole world. The value of our exports to the United States ex ceeds, but will not long exceed, the value of our exports to Australia. The difference amounts to about a million sterling: against that million paid by foreigners is the fact, that the colonists are our fellow-subjects, whose prosperity is still British prosperity. The value of British exports to Australia is double that of our exports to the East Indies ; six times that of our exports to British North America ; six times that of our exports to France ; six times that of our exports to the West Indies. The war notwithstanding, great contract and postal steam services have been maintained to India, the West Indies, America, Brazil, &c. But for seventeen months. on the pretext of the war, there has been no steam postal service to Australia. The only commu nication, except occasionally and almost acci dentally by Panama, has been by means of the clipper-ships of Liverpool, which occupy an average of ninety days in their passage During these seventeen months, the Bank of England depended on Australian supplies of gold to save us from a commercial crisis. In those seventeen months, the interest lost on money floating three months at sea would have built a steam fleet of twenty vessels each of the size, power, and speed, of the Perna or the Himalaya. The Australian Colonies, un dergoing commercial derangement from over speculation brought about by tardy communi cation with the mother country, are deeply indebted to the Governments of LORD ABER DEEN and LORD PALMERSTON. In 1832, a steam service to Australia, on alternate months, was organized ; one month via the Cape of Good Hope, by the General Screw Steam-Ship Company, and the other month via Suez, by a link line of the Penin sular and Oriental Company from Point de Galle to the Colonies. The first was a dead failure, as the Government was told it would be. The other was not satisfactory, the boats being neither fast nor or good accommodation. But such as it was, it was abandoned on the breaking out of the war. The steamers that were engaged in that service are now in the opium trade to China, so that they could not hive been required fin• the tiansport of troops to the Crimea, or the replacement of the steamers that were so employed by the Go vernment. But the Peninsular and Oriental Company did not like the contract, had no THE PRESS. interest in the Colonies, had effected their pur pose for the time in keeping up their mono poly, and when the Government asked them to convey troops to the Crimea they made it a condition that they should he allowed to drop the Point de Galle line They have now re tendered, at more than double the sum they previously charged. Have the Government accepted their offer? The Australian mer chants would gladly see the line for the pre sent re-established ; it would save a month at least ; but the Government have not re-estab lished the line. The Treasury have issued a Minute of con spicuous wisdom. They point out that there are three ways of getting to Australia; via the Cape ; via Panama; via Suez. They think that the Colonies ought to come to an agree ment among themselves for the preference ; and meanwhile they ask steam-ship companies to tender for all the routes. It is not likely that the six colonies can come to an agreement in a hurry. The apple of discord thus thrown among them will suggest a prolonged scramble. The calculation is, that it would take ten months before the Treasury could act on this Minute ! It is represented to the Treasury that a route to Melbourne via Suez, traversing the Indian Ocean direct, touching only at Diego Garcia, one of the Chagos Islands, would be (by official computation) 3,019 miles shorter than the passage by the Cape of Good Hope, and 2,338 miles shorter than that via Panama. The calculation is presented to them that, if steamers going ten knots an hour were put on this route, letters could be interchanged be tween England and Melbourne in forty-four days ;—if steamers of greater power were used, in thirty-one days. There is in the City a Gene ral Australian Association of well known and highly-trusted representatives of the Colonies. This Association, with delegates from Mel bourne and Sydney in its body, have agreed on the Suez and Diego Garcia route ; have urged the Government to adopt it ; have me morialised, entreated, prayed. But the Trea sury, which is conspicuous for its tendency to the principle of self-government, has deter mined that the colonies shall be consulted—as a matter of form ! SIR JOHN PAKINOTON has a great case ; and we trust that the House of Commons will be peremptory in its direction to the reckless Government. LORD PALMERSTON AND POLAND. THE world continues in suspense—it is not yet in formed what answer Lord PALMERSTON has deigned to give to the Polish deputation. Will the fiat of Mr. PHINN'S destroyer and setter-up of nations be favorable or adverse to the regeneration of Poland? Perhaps we ought to look for his reply in the records of the Conference when they are made public. It is really cruel to keep the Polish emigration in sus pense in this way. Is it not time that the hesitation of twenty-five years had an end ? For so long has Lord PALMERSTON maintained the illusion, though, like a decayed coquette, whose faded complexion requires continually a deeper blush, and whose wrinkles want more paste and powder, he has been compelled to lay on the deception thicker each year. Surely the time must be near when all his arts will cease to retain one ancient admirer to keep up the flirtation. Italy too, it has been freely supposed, may be mentioned at the Conference, but all hope of Italian independence was crushed by Lord PAL MERSTON in 1848. We have often intended to quote a paragraph from Mr.Wrimirrsiros's " Modern Italy." Here it is : On the 23rd of May [lB4B] the Cabinet of Vienna, having demanded the mediation of England, offered, through Baron Hummelauer, to recognise the indepen dence of Lombardy, which was to be at liberty to form a separate Government, or to join with any other Italian State, on condition of being responsible for a part of the national debt of the empire. The Duchies of Parma and Modena were to be allowed to unite with Lombardy ; and a separate administration was to be offered to Venice, which was to have a distinct army under the Emperor's command. On the 3rd of June Lord Palmerston, accord ing to Parini, declared himself unwilling to accept the mediation, unless Austria should include the cession of a portion of the Venetian provinces; and instructed Lord Ponsonby to use his endeavours with the Imperial Court, then resident at Inspruck, to that effect. Public opinion at Vienna was opposed to these demands; and the Govern ment, reassured by Radetzky, not only rejected the Eng lish proposals, but became inclined to withdraw those SATURDAY, which it had already offered In June the weakness and discord of parties in Italy became better known, and the confidence of Austria increased.—Modern Italy, p. 241.2. And in this way was lost the opportunity of realising that hopeful dream of English statesmen—the erec tion of an independent kingdom in North Italy, THE CONFERENCES. The Plenipotentiaries have held daily sittings during the week. The slight difficulties which were gravely stated to be so imminent, and to threaten the continuance of the Conference, have gradually been smoothed away. The Patrie stated on Tuesday : It is affirmed that the aub•committee appointed to draw up the text of the treaty of peace has not yet been able, notwithstanding all its exertions, to terminate its task. It is probable that the examination and approbation of this important document will necessitate &everal meetings of the Congress; but the general belief is that it can he signed and made public before the 31st of March, and that, con. sequently, the armistice need not be renewed. The 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, and it is believed, 16th and 17th sittings have been and will be held this week. The Assemble Nationale declares that the essential conditions of the treaty have been settled, and that the ratification will take place this week : What we can assure is this (adds the .4ssemblee) that Lord Clarendon has made several P.P.C. visits, and has announced that he will quit Paris on Sunday morning, in order to be present at the Monday's sitting in the House of Lords. The Siicle, in a letter from St. Petersburg, shadows forth, according to this authority, some of the leading articles of the expected treaty : 1. Russia consents to the neutralisation of the Black Sea. 2. Sebastopol is not again to become a war depot, and the reconstruction of the fortresses is prohibited. 3. Ni luced + commercial Nicolaieff is to be reds .to a —.cud port. 4. Russia is to abandon her protectorate of the principalities. 5. Russia renounces certain territories in Bessarabia, which leaves the navigation of the Danube perfectly free. 8. A commission is to be appointed to trace the new frontiers in this district. 7. The fact of a Russian soldier passing the Pruth, is to be looked upon as a caaua belli by the contracting powers. The occupation of Turkey, according to Le Nord, has been fixed at an amount of 20,000 men, French and English. The Siècle believes that the occupation of the principalities by the Austrians will be seriously dis cussed before the ratification of peace, and also that the solution of the Italian question will be attempted. Count Cavour is reported to have drawn up a memorial on the subject. The Indhpendance Beige states : Piedmont, which has a right to expect a just compen• sation for the sacrifices she has imposed on herself, and which France and England must wish to see arranged to her satisfaction, insists strenuously on Austria removing unconditionally her sequestrations on the property of the Lombard emigrants who have become Sardinian subjects. The occnpation of the Roman States will also be discussed; it is contrary to treaties, and sooner or later will have to be solved by the simultaneous departure both of the Austrian and the French troops. It remains to be seen whether the Pope, as soon as the support of foreign bayonets shall have been withdrawn, will be able to prevent the revolution from breaking out among the people, ever ready to rise against the incapable Government that assumes to rule them. The Mats off yesterday speaks of the rumoured difficulties which have delayed the signature of the treaty of peace as having arisen from " pretensions raised by Prussia—pretensions to which England opposed insuperable objections to which she finally converted the other powers. This incident., how ever, is not of a nature to cause any uneasiness peace is more certain than ever." The Right Hon. Sir HENRY POTTINGER, Bart., G.C.8., died at Ma..,a on the 18th inst. in his 67th year. The distinguished services of the deceased in India, China, and the Cape, his great energy, public zeal, and ready administrative powers, bad justly achieved for him a high and honourable reputation among the distinguished men of his day. Mr. JOSEPH NEELD, M.P., F.S.A., F.L.S., died on Monday at his residence in Grosvenor•square. During his long Parliamentary career as Conserva tive representative for Chippenham, Mr. Joseph Neeld was a stanch adherent to the Protestant and Protectionist cause, and voted for agricultural pro tection when Sir Robert Peel abandoned the cause in 1846. He was brother-in-law to Captain Boldero, the other member for the borough, and brother to the honourable member for Cricklade. Mr. Neeld was married in 1831 to Lady Caroline Mary, the eldest daughter of the late, and sister to the present Earl of Shaftesbury. 4.41