The Press. — London, England, 1856-09-06 00:00:00

SEPT. 6, 1856. Lye Governments of the republic in regard to Italy. All I can assert is, that the events of June, notwithstanding their importance, would not have hindered me from send ing the army of the Alps down into Piedmont. FOREIGN MISCELLANEA. HOUSE RENT IN PARIS is rising to such a degree till no person of small income, clerks, porters, or workmen, can find a suitable residence. The Com mission of the United Benefit Societies, at a late interview with the Emperor, explained that within the year no fewer than 80,IXX) workmen, no longer able to find lodgings in Pari s , had emigrated extra ,nuros, where they lived as they could. The Em peror was much startled by the statement, and ex claimed, "But they are building a great deal in Paris; they are building incesse.ntly." "Yes, sire," the president answered, " but unfortunately the houses now building are only suited to the rich and middle classes." "I must," said the Emperor, " I must absolutely find a remedy for this state of things." It is reported that to carry out the i nperial promise a project of law is in preparation, fixing • tariff of house rent, to be based upon the o bst price of the house, and the money that may have ben laid out upon it. THE COURT GOSSIP OF ST. PETERSBURG gives an amusing anecdote of Count Moray :—On one occa• sion of Count Morny's appearance in company a brilliant breast-pin that he wore became the object of much observation and admiration; at length a lady of sufficiently high rank to admit of her doing so made some remark on its beauty, in accordance with which he drew it from the breast of his a .irt and handed it to her admiring inspection. Wiien the admiration was about exhausted, he observed that what conferred value on the ornament in his eyes was hid from the view of others in an almost invisible capsule. On his opening this capsule an exquisite miniature of the Empress Eugenie became visible. Ever since that evening all the goldsmiths and jewellers of St. Petersburg have been overrun with orders for capsules to be fitted to rings and breastpins, and if the demands of the female public went no further the said goldsmiths would, doubt less, have shown themselves equal to the crisis; but, unfortunately, the capsules are only required for the purpose of containing Eugenie portraits, which the artists of St. Petersburg are unable to execute. THE CONNECTION OE - BAGDAD WITH BASSORA by water transit is about to be carried out by the Go vernment of the Porte, and great results, both in a commercial and agricultural point of view, are anticipated from this step. Two steamers have been purchased by the Government, and steps are at once to be taken to render the navigation of the Tigris secure from the attacks of the Arabs who have hitherto robbed or held to ransom most vessels which passed up. The Journal de Constantinople, in an article upon the subject, says : The loss of the Assyrian and Babylonian antiquities which M. Place, French Consul at Musson!, and the late M. Fresnel, had calected with so much labour and expense, is only an episode in a series of adventures which happen daily. Steam alone can overcome this difficulty. We shall then have no more need of expensive towing, a process which is not always possible. There will be no longer any need of halts every night to give rest to the towers; no longer shall we sutfur the imposition of any arbitrary tolls, a species of blackmail, which the Arab sheiks levy on every boat containing goods, which they choose to be magnanimous enough not to pillage outright. Steam, alone, by its strength, against which the Arabs will struggle in vain, will rush by them, frighten them, and astonish them. Commerce then, freed from all en• cumbrances, will recover its ancient elasticity. For the escort of trading vessels, and carrying them through dangerous passes, two steamers will not be sufficient. Thus everything gives us reason to hope that this is only a commencement, and that very sown the merchants of Bagdad, enlightened by useful experience, will increase the number of steamers. The Imperial Government has taken the initiative. Private industry must follow in the same direction. THE FATE OF A FRENCH SPY is told in a letter from Berlin this week. The subject matter is the private despatch robbery of last year by Tschen, who, among his agents with foreign embassies, employed one Ha,senkrug, who so far wormed himself into the good graces of the French embassy that he was fur nished with the means of going from Berlin to Pans, with a view to his further services there. He, how ever, in an evil hour accepted a retaining fee from the Russian embassy to spy and report thence to the Russian embassy at Berlin. The French police soon discovered that Hassenkru,g had two strings to his bow, and so far disapproved his tactics that the Go vernment quietly shipped him off for Cayenne. His whereabouts, continues the letter, was for a long time a matter of doubt and mystery, but a letter received within the last few days by his wife here, addressed to her from that place, put that subject beyond a doubt. It would seem from this that be had succeeded in getting to the knowledge of certain matters which it would be unpleasant to that Go vernment to have published, and they have conse quently provided him with a passage free to Cayenne, and, further, board and lodging there, rather than run the chance of his divulging them in Europe. THE PRESS. LORD CARDIGAN AT LEEDS. THE Eanr. OF• CARDIGAN was !presented with • sword of honour last Saturday, in the Stock Excliaage • hall at Leeds. The noble and gallant earl was entertained at a grand banquet, and, after the usual loyal toasts, the chairman of the committee read a complimentary address to the gallant earl from the subscribers : It is to co'^•^'morate the events of your lordship's mili• tary life in hat vat., and particularly that great incident which has ndat Balaklava a pass-word in the soldier's mouth (of he will ever feel proud), that we now present your lordship with a sword, and invite your accep tance of it in the name of the numerous noblemen gen tlemen, merchants, tradesmen, and yeomanry connected with the county of York, many of them having no other association with your lordship than that which a brave soldier performing his duty will ever find in the hearts of Englishmen. Lord Cardigan replied at some length, detailing his reconnaissance of the Dubrudsclia, " Lord Raglan considered had been well performed." Taking the opportunity to explain the duties of a eenerßl of cavalry in leading his brigade into action, Lord Cardigan observed:— One would really suppose from what has been said that, when a charge of cavalry is ordered, the general officer commanding a brigade has nothing to do but to wave his sword and gallop off, his men following him, and come into personal contact with the enemy's troops. Gentlemen, no such thing is the case. The duties of a cavalry general in leading a charge are very important. In the first place, it is his duty to keep his regiments together ; secondly, it is his duty to lead them at such a regular pace under any fire to which they may be exposed that, when they come into contact with the enemy. they may attack them with a proper and full impetus. Further, it is necessary that, under whatever fire they may be exposed during the ad vance, the general officer should keep the alignment of his regiment. I believe there is no person who was pre• sent—and (here are many persons present who were spec tators (for the hills on all sides were covered with our own troops and those of our allies)—there was no one so present who will deny that the leading of the regiments of the light cavalry brigade into the battery on the day of the Battle of I3alaklava was a firm, satisfactory, and compact one, well and gallantly supported by the three other regi ments belonging to the brigade, which came on iu succes sion under their respective commanding officers. Ladies and gentlemen, I will leave the troops who have just ar rived at the battery for one moment, and refer to one or two other fallacies. It has been also suggested, and the idea has been entertained, that it is the duty of a general officer commanding cavalry to fight the enemy, with and among private soldiers, after coming into contact with them. No such thing is the case, and I will give you the greatest authority to the contrary. The greatest authority we have ever had in this country is that of the late noble hussar, Lord Anglesea. Under the names of Lord Ux bridge and Lord Paget he frequently commanded cavalry, and distinguished himself in every way, and had the repu tation of being the best cavalry general that ever lived in this country. He has been known to declare that he never during his career raised his sword or used it against an enemy, except on one occasion in self-defence. The noble earl then briefly detailed the famous °barge : Tue loss of life, of officers, non-commissioned officers, and men—those who were put hors de combat either by death or wounds, or taken prisoners—was 295, and there were 397 horses put hors de combat, and the whole of that occurred in the short space of twenty-five minutes ; and gentlemen, I think I may here state that of those who es caped that day it cannot be truly said that any man's life was saved by any unbecoming conduct ; if their lives were saved it was by the will of Divine Providence, who decreed that they sholld be saved, while many died a glorious death. Gentlemen, after this had taken place I proceeded to Lord Raglan to report the circumstances of the charge, and his lordship expressed to me his marked disapprobation of what had been done, stating that such an attack was totally contrary to the principles of warfare—that is, the attacking a battery in front with cavalry. I have only to say on the subject that there never was a more uncalled for attack, inasmuch as we had seen this Russian battery with a large body of heavy cavalry in its rear at least twenty minutes; and when this attack was ordered they were neither advancing nor retreating. Lord Cardigan then in a few worth expressed his sense of the high honour conferred upon him by the presentation of the sword, and resumed his seat amidst hearty cheers. THE APPOINTMENT OF AIAitbHAL YELISSIEIt to the governorship of Algeria is contradicted this week by the Paris correspondent of the ',dependance Beige. He writes : I have often spoken of the probabilities of Marshal Pelissier being appointed the supreme command in Algeria. It seemed impossible to refuse this post to the earnest and frequently expressed wishes of the late com mander-in•chief of the army of the Crimea. I learn, however, very positive to•day that the stoma quo will be maintained. The Emperor is said to have expressed himself in the most flattering terms regarding the mar shal, but has given it to be understood that the title of Duke of Malakoff and the pension of 100,000 francs were in tended by his Majesty to be in full of all claims for reward. The Emperor, moreover, has a due sense of the value of Marshal Hendon's services, being well whaled that he has n( t to apprehend from him that attitude of eventual resistance which it seems Marshal Pelissier assumed in the Etat whenever his insttuctious, no matter from how high a quarter they emanated, did not square with his own views. 847 THE GOVERNMENT SMALL ARMS FACTORY AT ENFIELD. Tins exhibition of mechanical power as applied to the manufacture of rifles, the delicate mechanism of which hay hitherto been performed solely by skilled artisans, is extremely interesting. The establishment at Enfield is divided into de partments, of which the principal are the smithery, where there are Oaily forty-five forges at work with their attendant machinery, and that in which all the various minute processes connected with the manu facture of locks, bayonets, and stocks, are carried on. It is in this latter building—an extremely large one and well lighted from the roof—that the greater part of the machinery in use is in operation ; and the whole of the mechanism, as well there as in the smithery, is driven simultaneously by a magnificent double engine of eighty-horse power. The opera tions for rolling and perfecting gun-barrels are per formed in an adjacent building, which is being enlarged and fitted up with an engine of twenty-five horse power, for conducting that department on • scale commensui ate with the other parts of the factory. The barrel-rolling machinery at present in use, which is not of American invention or manufac ture, has been in operation since 1852. In the smithery the bayonets and all the several parts of the lock apparatus, including even the small screws used in its construction, are first forged from bars of steel, with the greatest rapidity, and with all the aids of a perfect system of machinery. Thence they ate transferred to the general building, where they ate submitted to an almost endless succession of pro cesses of the nicest description, performed again by machinery specially adapted to each operation, until they attain the requisite degree of accuracy, finish, and perfection. Besides the rapidity with which these operations are performed, far exceeding the capacity of any amount of hand labour, two other re sults have been attained of the greatest importance in a trade so peculiar as this, where a great national emergency might at any time create on a sudden an immense demand for the article manufactured. The one is, that this machinery, guided by young men and boys taken from the plough-tail, or any other of the humbler occupations of life, is capable of exe cuting work until now performed by skilled opera tives specially trained to it, and by necessity with far more marvellous accuracy than was ever achieved by hand labour, however superior. Little boys, not more than fourteen years of age, for example, are to be seen charged with the management of two, and sometimes three, different machines performing simultaneously the same operation. Another resut on which much stress is laid is, that every conceiv able part of a musket, from all the small component portions of the lock upwards, is manufactured with such unerring precision that it will fit with sur prising exactitude the place destined for it, not in a single musket alone, but in every other constructed on the establishment. For instance, from indis criminate heaps of each of the several finished parts of a lock, consisting of the plate, the sear and its springs, the bridle, tumbler, mainspring, and screws, an artisan can put together a lock in a few minutes. It is the same with every other part of the weapon; all the respective materials are exact counterparts of each other; every barrel adapts itself to every stock, every bayonet to every barrel, and so on. By this complete system of interchange of parts, when any portion of the arm wears out in service before the rest, or get% into disorder, it can easily be replaced, and thus the whole weapon is not disabled by a casualty of that kind. Touching the quality of the materials and work, at every single stage of its pro gress it uniergoes a rigid examination, by which any defect is at once detected, and every minute article is made exactly to correspond with an une changeable gauge. The very tools used are manu factured on the premises, and also by machinery iu many instances. The machinery for making gunstocks was specially fabricated in the manufactory of Mr. Ames, of Chicopee, Massachusetts, and is of the most inge nious and efficient description. This department of the factory, which is under the direction of Mr. Oramel Clark, an American, skilled in its manage ment, is singularly interesting. It contains twenty three machines, which performs sixteen distinet operations on the stock, and are similar in principle and construction to those in use in the two Govern ment armoury establishments in the United States, at Springfield, Massachusetts, and Harper's-ferry, Virginia. A piece of walnut-wood, roughly sawn into the shape of a gunstock, is submitted to these manifold processes, which round it, scoop out the bed for the barrel, do all the intricate manipulations required for the reception of the mechanism of the lock and its appendages, and, indeed, every other imaginable thing towards its completion, with the most consummate neatness and accuracy. Several of these machines embody a beautiful automatic ac tion for reversing the motion of the tool when it has penetrated the wood deep enough, by which it dis engages itself from the stook on which it is