The Press. — London, England, 1856-09-27 00:00:00

To CORRESPONDENTS. It Is impossible to acknowledge the mass of letters we receive. Their Insertion is often delayed owing to a press of meter, and when omitted, it is frequently from reasons quite Inds oentlent of the meritsof the communication. We cannot undertake toreturu communicationsof which we do not avail ourselves. Co nmunications should always beleglblywritten, and on one side of the paper only. If lot= it increases the difficulty of finding space for them. Wilateveris intended fori nsertion must be authenticated by the name and address of the writer, not necessarily for publica tion, but as a guarantee of his good faith. Advertisements sent from the country must be accompanied by a remittance or a reference for payment in town. TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION FOR (STAMPED.) Per Manna Half-Yeaily Quarterly ebt Press: .. £ 1 6 0 .. 0 19 0 .. 0 6 6 Payable in advance. Subscribers are requested to send their Orders through their ews Agent; it direct to the Ottice. accompanied by a remit. atm& Advertisements also must have a reference or remittabee, Monev Orders to be made payable to Mr. ALYRED 1 1 /Z. 110. /knurl London. Vlix trtgg+ LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPT. 27, 1856. POSTSCRIPT. Intelligence from Berlin of the 21st of September, in the Weser Gazette, says : We have just learned from a good source that the Eng. lish Ambassador at St. Petersburg has sent to the Russian Cabinet a note relative to the Isle of Serpents, so serious and categorical that the Emperor Alexander has expressed himself at Moscow, to Lord Granville, in terms which prove that that proceeding of the English Government has made a great impression, and was entirely unexpected. The Emperor has said to the representative of Queen Victoria that peace being made, the relations of the powers should have become friendly, and that, in consequence, he could not understand that proceeding of the Cabinet of London. The Post Ampt Gazette of Frankfort gives the fol lowing details respecting the second note sent by the Western powers to the King of Naples : In this note France and England express their desire to come to an honourable understanding with the King of Naples. They admit that under the present circumstances the King cannot grant a general amnesty, and therefore only request the King to grant a pardon to those political prisoners who may apply fot i►t and make their submission in proper form. But this they particularly insist on, and therefore give their note the form of an ultimatum, which allows the King of Naples a fortnight's time to consider, atter which the Western powers will resort to the measures they think advisable. The Times (second edition) Paris correspondent, states that a report exists that the United States have it in contemplation to form an alliance with those European powers, not parties t the treaty of Paris, who may be disposed to adopt the additional article respecting the immunity of merchant vessels and merchandise from capture even by men of war. Russian negotiations with Spain says a letter from Vienna of the 21st, in the Post Ampt Gazette cf Frankfort, are of a peculiar nature:— It is asserted that General Benkendorff, who is - now on a mission at Madrid, has secret orders to open a ne gotiation with the Spanish Government for the cession of two ports on the Atlantic and another on the Mediter ranean. Ou the other hand, we learn that Sardinia has resolved to place one of her ports at the disposal of Russian steamers, and thar the Russian Admiralty has recommended that a portion of the port of Nicolaieff be ceded to the Russian Steam Navigation Company. Kamiesch, Balaklava, Jaffa, and Kertch, are also to be stations for their ships. As to Taganrog, it is to become a free port, like Odessa. THE DISPUTE WITH RUSSIA. THE Vienna correspondent of the Times (second edition) gives the following explanation of the frontier disputes : The 20th article of the treaty of peace concluded at Paris in the month of March last can hardly fail to lead to a serious misunderstanding between the allied powers and Russia, should the latter ~ bject to its being somewhat modified. The question at issne is one of great impor• tanee. When Austria proposed to her allies entirely to remove Russia from the Danube, it was agreed that the new frontier between Russia and Moldavia should be formed by a title, " ehich, beginning in the neighbourhood of Chrtym, and following the line of mountains running towards the south-east, should terminate at Lake Salzyk." If the original idea bad been carried out, Russia would have ceded two-thirds of Bessarabia to Moldavia, but when THE PRESS. the question of the ratification of the frontier was dill• cussed at Paris, the Russian diplomatists spoke in such strong terms of this unnecessary humiliation to which their country would be subjected, should such a large cession of territory be made, that the representatives of the allies eventually agreed to the following conditions:— _ The new frontier shall begin at the Black Sea, at one kilo. metre to the east of the lake Bourna Rola, shall in a straight line join the toad to Ackerman, shall lollow that road u far as the valley to Trojan, shall pass the south of Bolgrad, shall ascend the river Yalpuck as far as the heights of Saratsika, and shall end at Kotamori, on the Pruth. According to the Russian maps produced at the Paris Conference, there was terra•Brma between Bolgrad and the Lake of Yalpuck, but in reality such is not the case. The English, French, and Austrian members of the Frontier Commission declare that the object of the allied powers will not be attained unless liolgrad is given to Moldavia, but the Russian Government has suddenly discovered that the place in question, which, according to all accounts is a miserable nest, is of great strategic importance, and refuses to cede it. As has been said, it was and is the object of the allies entirely to remove Russia from the Danube, but if Article 20 of the treaty is carried out to the letter they will not attain it, as Bolgrad lies on the lake of Yalpuck, which is connected with the Kills, arm of the Danube by means of the Lake of Kagurlin and the Repida river. It may be remarked that the Repida river falls into the Danube close to the important fortress of Ismail. A very active diplomatic correspondence is uow going on respecting Bolgrad, and the Russians may probably be induced to cede it. if France does her duty towards her allies. The British and Austrian Govern ments are said to be extremely intliggant at the bad faith of Russia, who previously to the signature of the treaty of peace must have been as well aware as she is now that no line of demarcation can be drawn between Bolgrad and the lake of Yalpuck. The same correspondent adds : The relations between Russia and Austria have cer• tainly . not improved during my short absence from my post. Corrtsponttntt. POPULAR MEMBERS. TO THE EDITOR OF " THE PRESS." Sir,—•lt is now tolerably certain that the forth- coming session will be the farewell session of the present Parliament, and that the autumn of 1857 will witness a repetition of those scenes which occur at evet - y general election. Men of various political creeds will present themselves on the hustings in the hope that they may have the high honour of re presenting the borough or county, as the cue may be, in the Imperial Parliament. The usual quantity of promises will be made, and the average amount of promises will be broken. An election of a knight of the shire or a member for a borough is a much more serious affair now than it used to be before the passing of the Reform Bill. The details of an election in our day are generally settled and arranged before the actual contest commences ; the pod, instead of being kept open for fifteen days, is now—the universities excepted—confined to one day's voting; bands, cockades, colours, &c., are all at a discount; and the " popular member " in our time is a far different person when placed in com parison with the " popular member" of fifty years ago. The "popular member" in those days was the gentleman whose purse was the longest, who had the greatest quantity of " houses" open, who showed the greatest indifference as regarded the ex pense, &c.; but at the same time his political opinions were generally of a negative kind, and, con• sequently. his "return," if it did the Legislature no good, at least it did it no harm. But in our time the "popular member"— " popular," at least, in his own conceit—is cast in a very different mould to that of the worthy we have sketched above. The "popular member" appears upon the hustings big with his own political opinions, and crammed, almost to bur:tine, with his political theories. His placards are to be found pasted in every quarter of the borough, and the " free and in dependent elector " will find himself gazing at huge sheets of type upon which are inscribed—" Vote for Hicks the friend of the people," " Vote for Hicks and the big loaf," "Vote for Hicks and no pocket borough," " Vote fur Hicks and civil and religious liberty," &c. &e. These and many similar invite lions will be read. The "free and independent " will probably attend the meeting in the evening held at the Pig and Whistle, whereat Hicks condescendingly unbosoms himself to his constituents, and manfully avows his political opinions, which, by the way, he does in utter defiance of all and every grammatical or orthographical rules ; and the " free and indepen dent " will probably return to his home a richer but not a wiser man than when be left it; and on the morrow be will register his vote for Hicks because be must be, because he says he is, "the friend of the people." It must be remarked that the name of Hicks had never been heard of in the borough before he issued his placards notitying how that he was "the friend of the people"; true, indeed, his name has figured at the head of an advertisement published in all the SATURDAY, newspapers of the day for a long time past ; true, indeed, that Hicks, who is the sole inventor and patentee of the invisible spectacles, is identical with the Hicks who offers himself as a candidate to the " free and independent electors " of the borough of Shears ; true, indeed, it is that the said Hicks has not, never had, nor probably ever will have, an acre of land or a sixpence-worth of property within a hundred miles of the borough which he has the audacity to aspire to represent in the Imperial Par liament. Yet, in spite of all this, Hicks, with a bold. ness worthy of a better cause, so successfully bam boozles and cajoles the "free and independent elec tors," that, to their eternal disgrace, he sails trium phantly into the Legislature as M.P. for the borough of Shears, whereby he has arrived at the goal of his ambition. Hicks goes from his shop to his seat in the house, and back again ; but as for the interests and prospects of the borough of Shears, they must take care of themselves, for what are they to John Hicks, the sole inventor and patentee of the invisible spectacles? It may seem at a first glance that the above is purely and entirely fictitious from the beginning to the end; and well, indeed, would it be for the country were it altogether a myth ! but it is a hideous reality, and it is the cankerworm which is gnawing at the vitals of our Legislature. The remedy is in the hands of the constituencies themselves ; it' they choose to return men to represent them in Parlia ment utterly unknown to them and utterly dis qualified for their position, it is their own fault, they have only themselves to thank for it. Upon them alone must rest the responsibility and the disgrace, for a disgrace it undoubtedly is for any con stituency to return to Parliament a man unworthy of their confidence and support. " Popular " members have greatly increased since the passing of the Reform Bill, and the efficiency of the Legislature has been so much the more lessened and weakened in consequence thereof. It is thought now-a-day that men have only to get into Parliament to become at once lull blown senators. There never was a greater anachronism perpetrated. As an apprentice must devote years of unwearied toil and diligence to master the profession or trade by which he means to live, so must a mem ber of Parliament devote all his time and energies to those finer and more intricate details of parliamen tary lore before he can hope to become a qualified and useful member of the Legislature. No one, I apprehend, will dispute these facts ; they must be perfectly patent to all, and depend upon it they are true. Parliamentary government will be rendered easier and more efficient if constituencies will but pay more attention to the choice of their candidates. Let them prove that they really are "free and inde pendent electors " by turning a deaf ear to the platitudes and claptrap@ of the " popular member," and I will answer for it that the result will be both immediate and gratifying. Your obedient servant, JUTZNIS. THE ABDICATION 07 THE DUKE OF TUSCANY, Says the Cologne Gazette, is resolved on in favour of his son, who is about to marry a princess of Saxony. It is added that this is ao new resolve of the Grand Duke, but proposed by him as far back as 1850. He was persuaded therefrom by the Courts of Austria, Saxony, and Naples, with which two latter he is allied by marriage. The hereditary archduke having now attained his 21st year, the father hss fewer scruples. The journal remarks that the abdi cation will produce a complete change in the political system of Tuscany, but cannot indicate the direction of this change.. THE BISHOP OF ARRAS, whose " confidential cir cular to his clergy," condemning the mixed schools of Calais and other towns, so lately excited discus sion, has published a " pastoral," in which he ex plains his former act, and establishes a distinction between a passive and an active consent given to heresy. He says:— Thus let a Catholic master leave his Protestant pupils to perform personally the practices of their worship, this is on his part only a passive co-opera tion, and if these particular practices involve co appreciable spiritual detriment to any one, the Cathollo master may properly not be bound to prohibit them, evil in his house. But should the master employ his authority to induce those same pupils to perform the exercises referred to, constrain tLem to their performance regu lations, or encourage by rewards, if he should guide them thereto as to a duty, that would be an active and formal co-operation, and it is that we cannot allow him. LITERARY nnox.—Mr. John Forster, late editor of the Examiner, and Mrs. Colburn, widow of the late eminent publisher, were married on Thursday List, the ceremony being performed by the R. Whitwell Elayn, editor of the Quarterly Review. Sir Henry Somerset is gazetted to the Colonelcy of the 25th Regiment. 926