The Press. — London, England, 1856-03-08 00:00:00

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 no: avail ourselves. Co nmunicationa should always be legibly written, and on one side of the paper only. If lona it increases the difficulty of finding space for them. Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated by the Dame 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. Etc Press: (STAMPED.) TERMS OF Per Annnm .. Half• Yearly .. Quarterly .. FOR .. 11 6 0 .. 0 13 0 .. 0 6 6 Payable in advance. Subscribers are requested to send their Orders through their News Agent; if direct to the Office, accompanied by a remit tance. Advertisements also must have a reference or remittance. Money Orders to be made payable to lir. ALritED IvE, 110, Strand. London. :vio 2.1!) vtg* LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 8, 1656. POSTSCRIPT. A telegraph from Hamburg states : Two Russian war-steamers, accompanied by three gun- boats, have got out of Sweaborg by breaking the ice. These ships have appeared in the Baltic. Intelligence from Constantinople states that : Lord Stratford do Redcliffe had presented a note from the English Government, asking the Porte to allow, as a guarantee for the promised reforms, the occupation by English troops for an indefinite period of Varna, Gallipoli, and Candia. It was thought at Constantinople that if this question be discussed at Paris Russia will oppose it. Reinforcements of French troops are no longer directed on Kamiesch, but on blaslak. Marshal Pelissier has been summoned to Paris. The Turkish Government is reported to have issued 100,000,000 of paper money. Sir Thomas Redington has resigned his office of one of the Secretaries to the Beard of Control. The Earl of Derby entertained at dinner, on Wed • nesday, at his mansion in St. James's-square, the fol lowing members of the House of Commons :—Sir John Walsh, Sir William Jolliffe, Sir Joseph Bailey, Sir Frederick Thesiger, Colonel Harcourt, Colonel North, Colenel Somerset, Colonel Boldero, Colonel Dunne, Captain Bateson, Mr. Liddell, Mr. Bankes, Mr. Henley, Mr. Cole, Mr. Evelyn, Mr. Bagge, Mr. Du Pre, Mr. Whitmore, Mr. Horsfall, Mr. Malins, Mr. Vansittart, Mr. Cubits, and Mr. Eliot Yorke. The Right Hon. B. Disraeli entertained at dinner, on Wednesday, at his residence, Grosvenor•gate, the following members of the House of Commons :—Lord Henry Gordon Lennox, Lord Charles Clinton, Gen. Hon. H. Arbuthnott, Mr. Hylton Jolliffe, Mr. Farrer, Mr. King King, Mr. Fitzwilliam Hume, Mr. Whiteside, Mr. Rust, Mr. Goddard, Mr. Gwyn, Mr. Peacocke, Mr. Gathorne Hardy, Mr. Robertson, Mr. Moody, and Mr. Lloyd Davies. The Lord Chancellor, with Lords Granville, Stan ley of Alderley, Sundridge, Lansdowne, HarrowLy, Panmure, Glenelg, Breadalbane, and Sydney, have published a protest against the right of the Com mittee of Privileges to decide the question of life peerages, with all hereditary privileges save one, on the plea of the undoubted prerogative of the Crown, the common Inature of the creation, anti the want of principle or precedent warranting the house to refuse admission to such a peer. Mr. Layard has been elected Lord Rector for the current year of Aberdeen University. The Rev. Reginald Courtenay is appointed Bishop of Jamaica. It is in contemplation to hop arate the Bahamas for a distinct see. General Williams is slowly recovering from Lis severe illness at Tiflis. Captain W. C. Harris and Captain Labalmondiere have been appointed assistant commissioners of the metropolitan police. The Royal Commission of General Officers formed to inquire into the Crimean report of Sir John M‘Neill and Colonel Tulloch will hold its meetings in the Great Hail of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea. Mr. Saunders, of the Western Circuit, and Re corder of Devonport, has been appointed to the Re cordership of Plymouth, in the place of Sir William Carpenter Rowe, now Chief Justice of Ceylon. * THE PRESS. THE CONFERENCES. THE plenipotentiaries had their fourth and fifth sittings on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons in this week; the sittings on each occasion lasted four hours. A sixth sitting, will, it is anticipated, take place this day. The statement by Lord Palmerston on Monday (see Parliamentary Intelligence) of the signature of preliminaries, was confirmed by a telegraph from Berlin, announcing that the Emperor of Russia had transmitted to • Count Orloff a declaration of his approval of the act. The Constitutionned this week has stated that it has reason to believe— That the allies of the 2nd December have given notice to the Russian Plenipotentiaries that at the expiration of the armistice concluded until the :11st of March, no pro longßt.on of it will be granted. Bekre that date, there fore, the preliminaries of peace which contain the callus belli must be accepted and ratified by Russia. The Le Nord of the 6th, says : One thing is happily certain—that the Conference con tinues its work with a sentiment of moderation and equity which is a guarantee, not material, like a treaty, but a moral and excellent guarantee, of the successful termina tion of the negotiations. It is that the Emperor of the French believes in Peace, every wise and intelligent man in every country wishes it, and the interests of Europe demand it. HOUSE OF LORDS.-FRIDAY. LAW. The Mercantile Amendment Bill and the Mercan tile Law (Scotland) Amendment Bill were read a second time. Their lordships adjourned at half-past five o'clock. HOUSE OF COMMONS-FRIDAY. SOLDIERS' GRAVES IN THE CRIMEA. Sir J. FERGUSON called the attention of the Ad ministration to the necessity of taking steps to obtain a pledge from the Russian Government to secure that the graves of the British officers and soldiers in the Crimea shall be respected, after the country may have been evacuated by the allied armies. Lord PALMERSTON assured the house that the sub ject had not been overlooked, and expressed his con viction that no difficulty would arise in obtaining such a pledge from the Russians, who had, he ob served, during the course of the war, invariably observed all the courtesies customary among civilised nations. APPELLATE lON OF THE PEERS. On the motion for going into Committee of Supply, Mr. BOWYER commented at great length upon the anomalous stare of the appellate ,jurisdiction exer cised by the House of Lords. He enforced the necessity of establishing, upon principles which he described in detail, a Supreme Court of Appeal, pre sided over by special and permanent judges. When Mr. Bowyer concluded his address, which was considerably prolonged, and listened to with some impatience, the subject was allowed to drop, and the house went into Committee of Supply. SUPPLY. Several votes belonging to the Ordnance estimates were agreed to in committee, after a miscellaneous discussion prolonged for some hours. The grant of 1,794,0001. on account of the works and buildings at Woolwich and other arsenals gave occasion for a protracted debate, in which the rela tive advantages of the contract system or of Govern• ment manufactories for the supply of iron ordnance, mortars, shells, Sec., were respectively upheld and questioned by many hon. members. Ultimately the vote was passed, and the house then resumed at one o'clock. The remaining business on the paper was rapidly disposed of, and the house adjourned at half-past one o'clock. OFFICIAL DESPATCHES RESPECTING THE FALL OF KARS. THE papers lately presented to Parliament relative to the " Military Affairs in Asiatic Turkey and the Defence and Capitulation of Kars" are of too impor tant a nature, and too voluminous in extent, to be summarily disposed of by a br,ef precis of their cunt en Is. The documents commence with a letter by the Earl of Clarendon, dated August 2, 1854, to Lieut.- Colonel Williams, informing him of his appointment as commissioner at the headquarters of the Turkish army in Asia. Letters to and from Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, and to and from Colonel Williams, follow, treating of the gallant colonel's interview with and instructions from Lord Raglan ; certain losses of the Turks; the state of things at Erzeroum; the measures urgently required ; the state of the army; and the defences and hospitals at Kars at the date of Colonel W'lliams' arrival. Oa the Bth of Decem ber, 1854, Colonel Williams writes from Erzeroum t) Lord Stratford de Redeliffe complaining of not re ceiving replies to fifty-four despatches sent to him since the commissioner's arrival at Kars, and of the dela/ in t4tendiug to his requests, and vroppying SATURDAY, the ultimate success of the Russians if these re quests be not attended to. Much correspondence takes place on this point between Lord Clarendon, Lord Stratford, and Colonel Williams. On July 16, 1855, G2neral Simpson f‘trwards a despatch detailing the particulars of a conference, attended by General Pelissier, General La Marmon, Vice-Admiral Sir E. Lyons, Vice-Admiral Bruai, Rear Admiral Stewart, and General Simpson, at which Omer Paella endeavoured to induce them to send a portion of the troops from the Crimea and transport them to Asia. His arguments failing to produce any effect, the Turkish general announced his intention of proceeding to Constantinople, to con_ suit with his Government ; and General Simpson begs Lord Stratford "to use your powerful influence to cause our opinion to prevail over that of his Highness, for great public interests are at stake, and serious consequences might result from his success." Frequent despatches then appear from General Williams as to the failing strength of his garrison, and for the necessity of vigorous measly es. On November 13, Consul Brant, narrating to Lord Stratford the contents of a note he had received Irom General Williams, adds (writing to Erzeroum): " I ask from your Excellency is the Kars arniy to be allowed to perish ? Is nothing to be done to re lieve it?" Nov. 24, Consul Brant attributes all the danger to the apathy of the Porte, and the cowardice and im becility of Selim Pacha. Then follow the few remaining documents re lating to the catastrophe, comprising a despatch trom General Williams announcing his surrender; other despatches from Lord Clarendon to Lord Strat ford upon receipt of that intelligence ; and a volumi nous abstract from Lord Stratford's correspondence with the Turkish Government, from the arrival of General Williams to the fall of Kars. M. AND MME. GOLDSCHMIDT will give an evening concert on Tuesday next at Exeter-hall, for the benefit of the Nightingale Fund. The programme is a most attractive one, and we cannot doubt that a most brilliant attendance will reward the generosity of Mme. Goldschmidt, and add a considerable sum to the Fund. Mr. Macaulay was lately burnt in effigy by the Highlanders of Glenmore, Inverness, for the charges brought against their ancestors by him in his last volume of the "History of England." THE LUNATIC POOR OF Sr. PANCRAS appear to be no better cared for than their sane, brethren. The report of the Lunacy Commissioners this week, dis closes a lamentable falling off in the care and pro tection of these unhappy people. No record is kept of the number or mortality of the inmates. The wards are crowded to excess; the stench of the place unbearable : the bedding dirty and detective, and an utter want of all care for the personal cleanlines, convenience, or amusement of the inmates. GENERAL BOSQUET.—We called to-day (Sept. 25, 1855) upon General Bosquet, who was very severely wounded at the assault on the Malakoff, and, to our surprise and pleasure, he was sufficiently recovered to be able to admit us. We were shown into his room, which forms one of the compartments of a large wooden hut, and found him reclining in an arm-chair, having been able to sit up only within the last two days. He was struck by a piece of a thirteen-inch shell under the right arm and on the right side; it bad completely smashed all the muscles and sinews, and his arm is as yet powerless above the elbow joint. He showed us the piece of shell by which he was struck ; it could not weigh has than four pounds. It is astonishing how he es caped with life from a wound inflicted by so terrible an implement of war. He appeared cheer ful enough, and glad to causer UN peu, said he was ordered away for change of air, but did not wish to leave his post here, and fully coincided in my quota tion, " On ne marche pas a la gloire par le bon beim" In his room was a fauteuil taken from Sebastopol, and which he had very appropriately covered with the green turbans worn by the Zouaves of his division.- —Mrs. Duberly's Journal. THE CANADIAN PENINSULA.—The Great Western Railway, joining all the large towns in that part of the province, brings them within a few miles of each other, and a trip we should have taken several days to perform may now be accomplished in as many hours—yet but a few months have passed since we left the country. Thus rapidly do all material im provements progress in the Canadian peninsula. Full of promise as is the whole land, that, atter al l, is the garden of the province—the heart , th e soul of that great country. Canada will never cost English Ministers another thought or care if they will bri t leave her entirely to govern herself as she thinks fit. —Kingston's Western Wanderings.