The Press. — London, England, 1855-01-06 00:00:00

JANUARY 6, 1855. I feel in consequence much depressed, worn out, and exhausted. A severe chronic complaint I am subject to having been also extremely aggravated during the cold nights we latterly had in camp, and which are now be coming more frequent and severe with the advancing winter season. I should not, however, been so prolix, for in your lordship's letter of the 31st you were pleased to refer to some of these circumstances as follows: " Nothing can have been more satisfactory than the whole of my inter course with you, and it is painful to my feelings to see it interrupted. But unfortunately no man can command health, and you have had to undergo not only great fatigue, but anxiety of mind, since your division has occupied the important position it now holds, and so gallantly maintained under your directions a few days ago." Such expressions of approval from your lordship are indeed a great happiness to me to have received. About a month ago, when the generals of divisions were surutuoned to headquarters to receive a communication, your lordship may recollect my mentioning that I had only been able to attend by taking ammonia and other stimu lauts. During the occasional northerly winds I was obliged sometimes to have my tent for twenty-four hours together wholly closed, and gave and received orders through my unopened tent doom. Some also of your lordship's staff will remember how often iu bringing me orders they found me on my bed, or rather in my blankets, on the ground, when I ought rather to have been, if 1 could, on horseback. 1 was well aware, though others may not have been, that this invalid condition prevented my attending to many things which I knew it was urgent 1 should have person. ally seen to and executed. Under these circumstances, instead of asking your lord ship fur longer leave, which 1 ant sure you would grant, I thick it the inure proper course to solicit your lordship's permission to resign my staff appointment with this army, the very arduous executive duties and responsibilities of which my impaired health and want of strength render me no longer adequate to. And I trust that the several wounds I have received, and the services 1 have faithfully endeavoured to perform iu various parts of the world, will be deemed to render me deserving to close at length my active duties, when unable to continue them with justice to the public service or to myself. I have now only to repeat my expression of warm grati tude for the uniform kindness and indulgence 1 have been treated with by your lordship. And have the honour to remain your lordship's most humber and obedient servant, Ds LACY EvANS. To General the Lord Raglan, G.C.13. The following is Lord Raglan's reply, dated Nov. 13, 1854, at night : My dear General,—Your letter of the 11th only reached me this afternoon, when I was engaged preparing my despatches for the mail, and I have not until now found a moment to reply to it. ' It contains what is, to me, and will, I am sure, be to the second division, and many others, your gallant com panions in arms, most painful intelligence—your desire to be permitted to resign your staff appointment with this army, which your impaired health and want of strength render you disqualified for in your own estimation. Every man is the best judge of his own feelings and bodily powers, and I am grieved to have to acknowledge that you may be right in your impression of them ; but 1, and those whom you have so recently commanded with such advantage to the public service, know that your mental faculties and gallant spirit enabled you, no longer ago than the 26th of last mouth, to meet the enemies of your country in the field, and successfully to repel a most powerful attack on the position occupied by the second division. I view the loss of your assistance with the deepest regret, but I cannot ask you to stay after the statement you have brought before me of your sufferings from illness, anxiety of mind, exposure to the weather, and over-fatigue. You will be at. liberty to go when you please, and be assured that you will carry with you my best wishes and those of all with whom you have been associated. I trust that English air and the comforts of home life will gradually restore you to health, and enable you long to enjoy the re putation yout services have acquired for you. I cannot elope my letter without sympathising with you on the destliki your first aide-de-camp, Captain Allix, who appeared to me to be a most promising officer, and fully to deserve your confidence and good opinion. Believe me, my dear general, very faithfully yours, RAGLAN. . Fs the cant phraseology of America, Maine is the Star in the East ; New Hampshire the Granite State ; Vermont the Green Mountain State; Massa chusetts the Bay State ; Connecticut the Land of Steady Habits; New York the Empire State; Penn sylvania the Keystone State; Virginia the Ancient Dominion; North Carolina the Turpentine State; South Carolina the Palmetto State; and Ohio the Buckeye State (from the buckeye tree, common in it). The Vermonters are called Green Mountain Boys ; the people of Ohio, Buckeyes; those of Ken tucky, Corncrackers ; those of Indiana, Hoosiers ; those of Michigan, Wolverines; those of Illinois, Suckers ; and those of Missouri, Pukes. New York is the Empire City; Philadelphia the Quaker City; Baltimore the Monumental City ; New Orleans the Crescent City ; and Washington the City of Magnifi cent Distances. OUT of eighteen Custom-house officers stationed at Gravesend, who voluntarily offered to accede to the proposition of Government to proceed to Balaklava for the purpose of assisting in the commissariat de partment there, twelve have been selected. They are to receive as pay 7s. ad. a day and rations, and be still borne on the Customs' books. THE PRESS. ortign 6firrtsponblutt. Frankfort, Dec. 31, 1854. I NEED not observe that the towns cf Frankfort and Mayence are garrisoned by Austrian and Prus sian troops, and although the higher military autho rities exercise extreme vigilance over their respec tive corps, even when partaking of the social enjoy ments of life, yet they[cannot.suffocate thought, nor effectually stop the ready member of its utterance. "Si pensa poi si parla, e si parlara " was once, said by the Princess Belgiojoso to Lord Normanhy, in reply to an advice of caution. Both Austrian and Prussian officers are given up to their profession of arms. They consider themselves belonging to a body that depends upon their personal exertion as officers to be maintained in efficient service, and they perform their regimental duty with scrupulous exactitude. The wearing their uniform is not con sidered a bore, but a mark of honour, and the mili• tary governments are willing to adopt any innovation of dress when proved to be conducive to the greater comfort and efficiency of the soldier. The fighting dress of the Austrian seems to be perfect. His double-breasted frock-coat, short, and fitting easily, and without strain to the figure, with,.a trouser of sufficient fullness, leaves his muscular energy free for development, and the close helmet, handy cart ridge, and short sword, complete his useful equip ment. I have seen some of these soldiers run races in their uniforms without the slightest inconvenience. The Englishman, with his iron stock, tight coatee, and straitened pantaloons, would not be able to disport himself in so free a manner. The officers, absorbed by their profession, con verse freely on military topics, and have watched the progress of the - Crimean war with eager atten tion. They respect the French as an enemy, but without any unfair rancour will not consent to regard them in any other light, and this is more especially the case with the Prussian. The name of Napoleon conjures up the hereditary animosity, and at the re doubted name " ils se dressent,". as the French say, and according to American vernacular, " lock all our doors." They are firm Orleanists, and regard Lord Aberdeen as a tutelary angel, and a sympathiser in their anti-Napoleonic tendencies. The Prussian fraternises cordially with his English comrade, as he styles him, but the 'Austrian is less inclined to make common cause with his old ally of 1814. Both ser vices waited with anxiety for the first collision be twixt the Anglo-Frank and Russian armies, and after the battle of Alma were loud in their praises of the valour and personal prowess of the allied troops. Still they held to the opinion that the soldiers of Russia, of whom they thought highly, had not been sufficiently tested. The battle of Inkermann, and the mode in which it was fought, called forth their deepest admiration, and the unflinching and un exampled fighting of our Guards for many hours against overwhelming numbers, with tlie brilliant support of the French, has in their mind settled the question of military supremacy. The charge of French and English together, so animated and de cided, inspired them with a mixed feeling of conster nation and approval, and the thought evidently uppermost in their minds was how soon it might be their fate to stand against these indomitable batta lions. Hitherto the Austrians and Prussians have doubted the sincerity of the "entente cordiale" be twixt the Anglo-Frank allies. They bad an idea that jealousy would weaken the alliance betwixt the soldiers, and they clung to the hope because they had been so instructed that the imperial throne of France was transient, and that England was Or leanist at heart. The thanks of the English Parlia • went to the armies of France, on which they set great value, have totally obliterated any lingering notion that the seeds of disunion can be sown be twixt constitutional England and imperial France. Both the services concur in anathematising the infamy of that Ministerial abandonment and neglect to which the English soldiers have been exposed. They can hardly credit the truth of the accounts given by the papers, and nothing but the admissions of the Duke of Newcastle and Mr. Sidney Herbert could have persuaded them otherwise than that they were the exaggerations of party. To them the per mission of such conduct by the country said to be free, which consent is argued from the continuance in office of the Peelites, is to them wholly inexplica ble. They say, and properly, that in their countries Ministerial disgrace would have instantly followed the first proof of a faulty system, and they cannot understand how a Minister, with the open acknow ledgment of guilt, can be allowed to browbeat an entire nation. Their inference is that, with all our boast of constitutional freedom, there is still a power greater than the Constitution. And some risk is ran by the conduct of the Peelites of England adopting this AllBtrO-PrUSlSitill opinion. An old officer of experience, on pointing to the champaign country betwixt the Odenwexcl and the Tannus mountains, remarked, " May God avert that yonder .fine country should become the battle field of France and England against the nations of the North; and then who would be friends, and who enemies?" The doubt expressed was in allusion to Prussia. One thing must he laid down as an axiom, that nothing will tempt a Prussian to side with France in war. He would rather die. Nor is he less averse to fight against England. The pressure of circumstance might induce the Austrian to do either the one or the other, for that nation will follow the course which she shall judge most consonant to her interest irrespective of any feeling. The Prussian proper sets little value on his Rhenish brethren, in proof of which, when 1 had occasion to talk of the Prussians of Cologne, and thereabouts, the officer to whom I was speaking ez• claimed, "What, those fellows : Prussians did you say' l'hisht !" and he kicked a stone that lay in his path to about twelve yards distance. "Ce sont les marchands de vinj du ltoi mon maitre, et celui la nest guere mieuz," pouting to the plat of the Duke of Nassau. Both Austrians and Prussians have the most supreme contempt for the principali ties of their petty rulers—in fact, the enthusiasm for the fatherland is a perfect fiction as regards them. The mission of Herr Von Usedom to England has been largely speculated upon, and is supposed to have had other objects besides that of the Vienna treaty. Poland, Greece, and the Rhenish provinces, are fruitful of consequences to the powers of central Europe, and there is a growing feeling of insecurity that checks any straightforward movement on the part of the two dominant Sovereigns or Germany. In the end one must be a loser and the other a gainer, and each is well aware of the exact position of the other. They are now sensible that the parti tion of Poland was a fatal mistake, and that they helped to destroy their own barrier against Russia. In the meantime secret emissaries prowl about, and there is a constant communication with Brussels and Vienna. The Belgian Constitution, in regard to the freedom of the person, is of an elastic nature, and depends upon the perfect or imperfect acquaintance of the Minister with the valve of French woras ; for arrests are made and parties receive an order to quit the territory without any recourse to the " tambour battant" of the Constitution. Two persons of the highest order of exiles, who bad been residing at Brussels "en retraite," were lately joined by a third from this place, and all three left for Paris by a night train. They were stopped at Lille, and marched off to prison. All the travellers by that convoy were rigidly searched, and it was supposed that documents of the highest importance were seized. The persons arrested were neither French nor Germans. A curious circumstance occurred on the Rhine during the last autumn. The King of the Belgians, Lord Lansdowne, and Mazzini were in the presence of each other at the same moment. Mazzini scanned the King from head to foot. As nothing loses by retail, it was confidently asserted that Kossuth was with the Italian. Such was not the case, as that honest guardian and expert financier never exposes himself to the risk of capture, and on the other hand the daring of Mazzini is without bound. P. F. fortion anb dolonial 3ntelligtut. FRANCE. New Year's•day in Paris was celebrated as usual by a "reception" among the imperial family, all the members of which who were in the capital proceed ing to the Tuileries to present their congratulations to the Emperor and Empress. The family dinner party, which usually takes place at the Tuileries on New Year's-day, was held at the Palais Royal, the residence of Prince Jerome, the Emperor being too fatigued to preside on the occasion at his own table. The Senate being in the course of the day presented to the Emperor, with the customary formalities, the President made a complimentary speech, in which he said: — Each year, sire, appears to have for object to add to the grandeur of your reign. That which has just ended has given, under your auspices, a new character to the policy of Europe ; even in the midst of war you have obtained an alliance which strengthens our country, and striking proofs of friendship which do it honour. Since your Majesty will, by an exception with which it is deeply affected, authorise the Senate to depart for a moment from the ordinary ceremonial of this day, allow me to express to your Majesty our confidence in your government, our gratitude for the heroic co-operation of England, and our patriotic solicitude for our brave armies, who so gloriously support in the East the intentions of your Majesty and the honour of the French name. The year which has new commenced will not be less propitious, for there is happi ness in the policy of upright and loyal princes. The Emperor replied : I thank the Senate for the sentiments which it ex presses to me through the organ of its President. I shall always rely on thsco-operation of UK bent' at everything ...NUMNIMI .4 - - - - -