The Press. — London, England, 1855-09-22 00:00:00

Ett lOrtSo : (ST 111PED.) TERXB OF FOR Per Annum .. .. • • Half-Yearly .. .. • • Quarterly . • .. Payable in advance. .. tl 6 0 .. 0 13 0 .. 0 6 6 Subscribers are requested to send their Orders through their News Agent; if direct to the °thee, accompanied by a remit tance. Advertisements also must have &reference or remittance. Money Orders to be made payable to Mr. ALYUED IVE, 110, Strand. London. TO CORRESPONDENTS. It is impossible to acknowledge the Mass of letters we receive. Their insertion is often delayed, owing to a press of matter, and when omitted, it is frequently from reasons quite inde pendent of the merits of the communication. We cannot undertake to return communications of which we do not avail ourselves. Ccmmunications should always be legibly written, and on one side of the paper only. If long it increases the difficulty of finding space for them. Whatever is intended for insertion must N authenticated by the uame 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. - 7rlx 20) rtgli• LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPT. 22, 1855. POSTSCRIPT. The official despatches from General Simpson, describing the assault on the Malakoff and Redan, and o"cupation of Sebastopol. reached Marseilles on Thursday, by the steamer Telegraph, which had been specially sent on that service from the Crimea on the llth. These despatches were in charge of Major Curzon, who left Marseilles at l p.m. on Thursday, and was expected to reach the War-office i n the course of the past night. At the hour when our paper goes to press the documents had not been published, but we hope to give them in our second edition. LORD GIFFORD AND TOTNESS. OUR readers will perceive that it bath pleased his Grace of Somerset to nominate the Earl of GIFFORD his successor in the representation of the borough of Totness. What may be regarded as the qualifica tions requisite for this post we .do not professito know; nor are we informed to what extent the electors of that place prefer rank to merit and wealth to intelligence. But we think, before accepting his Lordship as their Member, the burgesses of Totness would do well to inquire at the War Department the character for ability and understanding which he acquired during his brief Secretaryship to Lord PANbIURE. Perhaps Mr. G. D. ltAmsay, his quondam associate, now Deputy Inspector-General of Clothing, will state for their information the result of his ex perience and observation on the matter. The following despatch has been received at the War-office : Before Sebastopol, Sept. 8. At daylight on the sth inst., the batteries of the allied armies opened a steady and continued fire against the enemy ' s works. lltiring - the night one of the vessels. supposed to be a frigate, stationed on the north side of the harbour, was set on fire by, it is believed, a shell from a Freitch battery in their right attack. The firing, during the OTh, 7th, and up to the present moment, has continued uninterrupted, and but feebly responded to by the Russians. Another frigate was discovered yesterday afternoon to be on fire, and has been entirely destroyed. From the length of time it continued burning it is supposed to have con tained stores. About eleven o'clock last night a heavy explosion took place, but I have not as yet been able to ascertain in which part of the enemy's works. 1 beg to inclose the list of casualties to the oth inst. JAMES SIMPSON, General Commanding. Aonrriort).l, recruiting parties were sent on Thurs day into the northern and midland districts, with 66 beating' orders," it being intended to augment the Coldstream and Scots Fusilier Guards respectively by a battalion of twelve hundred raeu, THE PRESS. THE CRIMEA. Acco . unts from the Crimea to the 14th have been received by way of Varna. On the 11th some small detachments of French troops entered Sebastopol; they found the streets full of ruins, and barricades erected in different parts. On the 12th the rest of the troops began to enter. Barricades and in trenchments extended almost up to the cathedral and the great square ; but became less numerous beyond the latter point. In the night of the 11th several small vessels of the allied fleets attempted to enter the port by the side of the old Quarantine Fort, and the obstacles at the entrance of the port were about to be removed to admit of the entrance of the large vessels. General Bosquet, whose wound is not serious, was the first to congratulate General Pelissier on being named a Marshal of France. It was rumoured in the camp that the Russians would not defend the northern forts. The latest accounts from Kars state that it con tinued to be invested by 8,000 Russians, but that provisions were not as yet scarce. A letter of the 10th from Constantinople states:— A few days ago 190 Poles, made prisoners on the 16th ult., inscribed themselves as volunteers in the Foreign Legion that is being raised here under the command of General Jamoiski. Two officers have also tendered their services, which have not as yet been accepted. I have met several prisoners who were taken in the battle of the Tschernaya; they admit that the Russians must have had upwards of 10,000 men put hors de combat. The regi ments of Okrainsky and Volgolokoi were almost annihi lated. The former had its colonel killed and three lieutenant-colonels wounded. My informants also said— " You must not be astonished at the defeat of the Rus sians. The divisions were mostly made up of Polish regi ments, who had arrived the pre►ious day, and did not ex pect to be sent to the field of battle, consequently they fought with great reluctance." If the Russians had not surrounded their lines with their cordon of Cossacks, there is no doubt that hundreds of deserters would come over to us daily. The victory of the capture of Sebastopol was cele hltketEl in the cathedral of Turin on the 16th inst. The flags of the four allied powers were suspended from the building. The King was absent, owing to indisposition. In the evening, the royal palace and many of the public erections, as well as private houses, were splendidly illuminated. General Canrobert, it is said, is likely to be called upon to fill the office of Minister of War, Marshal Vaillant wishing to return on the ground of ill-health. The various vessels filling at the ports of France with troops and stores for the Crimea, are ordered to proceed direct to their destination, without even putting in to Constantinople. The deficiency in the harvest is estimated by the French Government at seven millions of hectolitres. A letter from St. Petersburg says : "Three iron sloops, eighty feet long, were launched here on the 24th ult. The greatest activity prevails in the naval workshops in order to complete the screw vessels without delay. It was from the want of such vessels that the Russian fleet was obliged to remain inactive in presence of that of the allies." Intelligence was received yesterday from Vienna, to the effect that Austria signifies her willingness again to undertake the work of mediation, and proposes new conferences at Vienna. France has intimated a willingness to negotiate, but only at Paris. The following statement appears in II Piemonte, Naples, Sept. 8 : For some days past there has been a rumour here that Signor Mazza, our Director of Police, had been dismissed ; but it is not true, nor would such a measure be of any value, as far as our gain is concerned. Every police director is above the law. The Queen of Spain gave ber formal sanction on Saturday to the new plan for the organisation of her household. This plan reduces expenses, diminishes the number of employes, and gives the Ministry a real control over every functionary. It is not true, as was reported, that Marshal O'Donnell bad re signed in consequence of the adoption of the new regulations. The post of Under-Secretary of State in the Ministry of Marine is to be suppressed. The solemn inauguration of the reign of Dom Pedro V. took place at the Lisbon Cortes on Monday last. His Majesty declared his adhesion to the policy of the former Cabinet, and confirmed the Ministers in their portfolios. On this occasion, for the first time, use was made • of the electric, telegraph in Portugal. The accession of the King ww, received with enthusiasm by the people. The English vessels of war Shnspareil, Neptune, and Rosamond arrived just in tiintto salute Oie new 4.ii4g. SATURDAY, SITKA AND PETROPAULOWSKI. THE Russian establishments on the north. west coast of America were founded in 1797, and it was the state-councillor Baranoff, who, being a man of great penetration and enterprise, laid the germ of their future greatness. The Russian-American Company may be compared to the English East India Com pany, and, like the latter, is under the complete con trol of the Government. The Governor of Skim, and all its various employes, are Russian officials, &c. The organisation and system of the north-west American colony is curious and interesting. It is in Sitka and Petropaulowski where all the costly furs obtained in that vast territory are collected. The communication between Sitka and Cronstadt (or rather St. Petersburg) oan, as a matter of course, only be kept up by sea, but even Petropaulowski could not communicate with the latter places but by an expensive and lengthy land transport. For the sake of obviating this, and also for retaining the management of such costly traffic within their own grasp, the Russian-American Company despateh ever year (or thereabouts) a man-of-war, which performs the following tour:—From Cronstadt it goes first to Rio de Janeiro, the only port on the east coast of America where a Russian am bassador of high rank resides. Thence it proceeCa to Sydney, partly for taking fresh supplies, as well as for espying the condition of this important colony. From Sydney the Russian man-of-war performs the difficult passage through the South Sea Islands to Sitka. The approach to this place is so difficult at certain seasons of the year that no accurate astrono mical observations can be made; but when the ship has arrived within the approximate latitude it cruises, and fires guns at short intervals, which, when they are heard at Sitka, are responded to, and a pilot sent, &c. At Sitka a part of the cargo of the vessel (be ing generally a frigate of 1,000 tons burden) is discharged. It consists of naval and military stores, ammunition, accoutrements, medicines, dc. The space of the vessel thus emptied is filled with the cases containing the costly furs collected since the last vessel sailed. From Sitka the Russian man of-war pro ceeds to Petropaulowski, where the same process of un loading and loading is gone throtgb. Having thus filled her hold with a cargo, Which is generally valued at one million of silver4oubles, the vessel begins her homeward passage, /and proceeds from Petropaulowski, rounding Cape *torn, direct to Rio do Janeiro. As the natural peiences are much esteemed in Russia, vast hawksl collections of living plants, &c., are taken in at that Brazilian port. Returning to Cronstadt the furs are shipped for St. Petersburg ; and it is with these American and Asiatic furs that great part of the commerce of Kiachta with the Chinese is carried on. It is with these Russian furs that the Emperor of China and his grandees at Pekin are vested. Although the Russian-American Company pos sesses a small naval establishment, the vessels alluded to are officered and manned by the Imperial navy, and carry the Imperial flag. Sitaa, the chief place of such a vast territory, the seat of a Russian governor, a place well defended by fortifications, and possessing an arsenal and a garrison, cannot be called a mere trading port, any more than Calcutta, Madras, or Bombay, although accounted as such in the diplomatic arrangements which have lately come to light. A rnosEctrnoN has just been instituted at Berkeley, against Mr. John Sampson, surgeon, for uttering counterfeit Bank of England notes, with intent to defraud several parties. No fewer than four charges, three of uttering Si. notes, and the other of uttering a 101. note, have been made against the accused. Prolonged examinations were taken before Mr. Purnell and Major Weight, two justices of the peace acting for the Berkeley petty sessional division, on Wednes day, and Wednesday se'nnight, and the case has been again postponed. In the first case, Mr. Swan Webster, of the White Hart Inn, Berkeley, deposed that on the 23rd ult. the prisoner came to his house and asked him to change a 51. note; he gave him the change, received what appeared to be a Bank of England note for Si., and locked it up in a drawer where the only other paper money where notes of the National Provincial Bank. He thought the note a good one, but, in consequence of certain rumours which were afloat, he sent to get it cashed at the bank at Dursley by Mr. W. P. Hadley, a miller, who was informed by the bank clerks that the note was counterfeit. On the day following that on which Webster received the note back Sampson called on him, and said he was totally ignorant that the note was bad, and offered to give the money for it and have it back again. When taken to the sta tion, Mr. Sampson produced his pocket-book, and in it were found five counterfeit bank notes. The defence set up by the prisoner is that he re ceived the notes from a person named Thomas Evans, connect'd with the betting world, but no such person has yet been found, although the note !n- Spector from the Bank made every inquiry for hun at Birmingham, where A was statist be otidetim Nig