The Press. — London, England, 1856-04-19 00:00:00

APRIL 19, 1856. THE CRIMEAN INQUIRY. 'DIE Crimean inquiry has continued during the wee k, w ith the exception of Tuesday. On Saturday Colonel Low (4th Light Dragoons', Major-General Beason, Major Thompson (sth Dragoon Guards), Mr. Rawlinson C.E., Mr. Bracebridge, and Sir R. Airey, were the principal witnesses examined by Colonel Tulloch. '1 be evidence of the military officers was to the pint that the horses were landed in a poor condi tion, and that a want of proper tools and material re:arded the erection of stabling. Mr. Bracebridge and Mr. Rawlinson both thought that much more might have been done and less horses lost, " pro vided always proper tools and materials were at hand, and forange for the horses." Sir Richard Airey regretted that the commissioner when in the Crimea had not examined him per sonally. In his written replies to their letters he had answered merely in a general sense ; and he thought that in one ride from Balaklava to the camp much more might have been obtained from him, as they would have conversed freely, openly, and honestly on all matters, and many false impression.; would have been set right. At present he was in a peculiar position, from having been in close conference with Lord Raglan, and, fully aware of every transaction between the commanders in chief of the allied armies, there were many things which he could not with propriety state in open court. There was a particular reason why the cavalry were kept upon the plateau so long; and he was unable to say that the permanent camp was really fixed upon so late as the 16th December. In reply to further questions from Colonel Tulloch, Sir Richard Airey said be thought it a great pity that the com missioners had come to the conclusion that there was a want of promptitude and ingenuity evinced by the cavairy in erecting stabling, without taking fur ther evidence. He thought the cavalry, in the circumstances in which they were placed, did all they could. On Monday the examiration of Sir Richard Airey was continued. In his evidence given on that day, Sir Richard spoke decidedly against the use of canvas as a covering for horses upon so exposed a position AS the cavalry held on the plateau and at Kadikoi. On Wednesday the examination of Sir Richard Airey, Colonel Gordon, Lieutenant• Colonel Yorke, Feld Lord Lucan, was proceeded with by Colonel Tulloch. sir Richard Airey completely exonerated the cavalry from all blame in not sooner erecting sta bling. Timber arrived on the 21st of November, but Lord Raglan was desirous that everything should he first done for the sick in front, then for the in fa.itry in front, and that, except for hospital pur poses, the cavalry were not to be served with hutting until the forces in front had been supplied. As to the Frendl cavalry, there were none of them under cover till the next summer. Lord Lucan in his evidence insisted that the loss of horses arose from excessive over-work and under feeding, and not from any want of ingenuity or promptitude on the part of the officers of the cavalry. On Thursday, Mr. Filder gave evidence to the effect that the cavalry was well supplied with rations during their stay in Bulgaria, and that the defici encies in the issues of forage at any time after were not so great as Lord Lucan had represented. On Friday, Colonel Tulloch, in his counter-exami nation by Lord Lucan, denied that there was any animadversion upon Lord Lucan in the report. It was the duty of the commissioners to point out defects to the Government, leaving them to find out who the parties were to blame. In reply to Lord I.ucan whether he had satisfied himself that there were materials and labour wherewith to shelter the horses, before he wrote that paragraph attributing want of promptitude and ingenuity, Colonel Tullocb said:— I did satisfy myself, by the Quarter-master-General's answers, that there was no difficulty, so far as I could see, except that of labour, in providing shelter ; and that labour appeared principally to apply to the Turkish soldier; not being good workmen. I certainly considered that there was a certain amount of cavalry available for the construe• tion of shelter. With regard to the tools, I now learn there was a greater deficiency than I expected. I only thought it was a partial deficiency, confined to one or two regiments. I knew sufficient timber had arrived on the 25th November. General Scarlett was then called, and in answer to a question from Lord Lucan, said : Yea never discouraged me or any other officer, but, on the contrary, you were anxious that every shelter possible should be provided for the horses. In answer to another question from Lard Lucan, General Scarlett said : I don't think more promptitude or ingenuity could have been displayed by your lordship and the other officers in command of the cavalry in the position we were then Pl'wed. If so I should have thought it my duty to have stated that fact to your lordship at the moment. The court adjourned till Monday, when Admirals Sir Edmund Lyons and Sir D. Dundas will be •rammed by Lord Lucan. THE PRESS. jortign Comsgonbturt. ST. PETERSBURG, April 12. THE manifesto of the Emperor has diffused universal satisfaction, but it will, no doubt, be criticised by the senior wranglers of Radicalism and the wooden spoons of the Whigs with wrath and contumely, for abuse of the Russian is a staple commodity of Liberal tactics. The Emperor of Russia had to an nounce the re-establishment of peace to subjects well prepared to acknowledge the benefit, and faction must indeed have paralysed the common sense of its Radical devotees if it was conjectured that he would have put the worst construction upon the siege of Sebastopol, or have omitted to dilate upon the fall of Kars from the improvidence of parties that shall be nameless. It may be observed by the way, that here, in the capital of the empire, justice is done to the military ability of General Williams, and his im possible success attributed to the right cause, of which damning testimony exists in Russian safe keeping. There is one portion of the manifesto that the most ill conditioned of Whigs must accept with forced complacency, and that part contains a declara tion to institute measures of reform. When a representative Government announces a projected reform, the chances are that a large portion of the members about to discuss its merits will be gathered to their fathers before the measure be carried into a law and bring forth fruit. It is not so uuder a sys tem of autocracy, notwithstanding its antagonism to freedom and other disadvantages. That which is wanted is ordered, and the matter ordered is well put out of hand by the right man in the right place. Let General Todtleben be quoted as a ready illustra tion of employing the best instrument to effect a given purpose, without other consideration than the right one—fitness. The announced reforms of the Emperor are not a sham ; they will not prove a delu sion ; and English capitalists will not find them a snare. They ) ave commenced already, and are in active progress twenty lour hours after the imperial declaration of their future "else." Imperial ukases following the manifesto of peace have at once caused change and practical advantage —not always synonymous terms. 1. The first of these confirms the title of peasants to land purchased from the Treasury and nominally belonging to other persons who might raise a question of title. It has often occurred in the legal courts of Russia that peasants having laid out the savings of a long life of industry in the purchase of a small property have been dispossessed by the unjust claim of a former proprietor affirmed by a corrupt judge,and have thus lost both capital and investment. This evil is reme died. 2. Rules have been given for the transfer of freed serf, to other properties. The operation of this law is tantamount to an approved certificate of freedom and the rights of industry. It also releases the former proprietor from the liability to maintain his manumitted serf, and exonerates him from the inconvenience of an onerous law of settlement. 3. 'I he children of soldiers are for the future not to be compulsorily enrolled in the military colonies—that is to say, the children may be free to choose a living by sources of industrial labour. This is declaratory of relinquishing a national reputation dependent on the army alone, and provides fer a more profitable source of greatness. 4. Regulations for the recruit ment of Bohemians and others lay down positive rules of service and exemption. These ukases have been gratefully held at their just value. The attention of the Government has been turned to a correction of the errors in the system of agricul ture, and this subject has been intrusted to the care of M. de Kisseleff, formerly Minister at Paris. He has acquitted himself admirably. One of the be setting grievances in the provinces is caused by the cotters on Crown lands. When a Crown serf is cape• ble of gaining his livelihood and marries, he has a right to demand of the Government sufficient ground fur a cottage, garden, and field. This application is always carefully granted—for the Russian Crown is scrupulous in performing those acts of kindness that tend to endear it to toe lower orders. The effect of this subdivision of labour has been to multiply patch cultivation, and to diminish the breadth of pasture, and thus of late years provender has been made dear, and the head of cattle been diminished. With a view to counteract this error, short pamphlets have been published, couched in simple and homely lan guage, pointing out the prejudicial effects of a dis proportion of corn-fields to grazing -land, and im pressing the necessity of rearing a large amount of stock. They also treat of agricultural improvements every shape, suited to the holders of small tene ments. Another disadvantage consists in the diffi culty of the transport of produce from the interior — which diminishes the price, circumscribes the market, and makes the farmer careless of culture. The statistical calculations show that over and above 367 the corn consumption of Russia there remains a sur plusage of the value of three hundred and turfy millions of francs for foreign export, of which not above one-third finds its way out of the country, from a deficiency of carriage. To remedy this drawback there is a promise of railroads and other governmental expedients to remove every ob stacle to the increase and internal improvement of agricultural commerce. These easy pamphlets, written expressly for, and suited to the capacity of, the peasants, are extensively circulated, and have en gaged much attention. Thus it is that the governor should deal with the governed, under any form of Government; and of a country thus success fully treated it may be said, "Give her the fruits of her hand, and let her own works praise her in the gates." P. G. FRANKFORT, April 16. WITHIN the brief period of a fortnight extraordi nary changes have occurred in the affairs of Europe and the general aspect of the nations. Peace has been ratified betwixt the three great na tions of the world. Under the influence of especial circumstances, the object of strife for which Russia had originally contended has, been ceded. On this ground the late belligerents are now of one accord, and Austria assumes, in its turn, and for its own purpose, to be the protector of the sovereign rights of the Sultan. Germany is teeming with dissension. The Prussian Chambers are in conflict at home, and the Rhenish provinces are dissatisfied. In Austria the pretensions of the Pope are assuming an inconvenient importance, whilst Italy is in a state perilous for herself and for others. But the sin cerity of the peace between England, France, and Russia invests them with a power that will compel a specific settlement of grievances without recourse to extreme alternatives. The union of this triple might is a guarantee for the weak against the misgovernment of the strong; and barely was the ra tification of peace signed al. Paris than the power con ferred has been called into action. The subject of the Danubian principalities in volves three propositions; Ist, the sovereign rights of the Sultan; 2nd, the rights and interests of the principalities ; 3rd, the combined interests of Europe. The Porte may well answer for itself—the Moldo- Wallachian territory is as yet unrepresented, and the plenipotentiaries of the Paris Conference are directly commissioned to deal with the question of provincial reform, for general and European advantages. Austria, at the commencement of the war, assumed the protectorate of the principalities by military pos session, and, in the spirit of usurped authority, issued an order to the Hospodars, at the time of the Vienna Conferences, to send two representatives to discuss local affairs. The Porte resisted the pretensions of Austria to dictate, disallowed the privilege of the principalities to elect official delegates without special order, and attempted to get rid of the difficulty by signifying that two Boyards, chosen by the Porte, would proceed to Vienna charged with the duty of representing the sovereign rights of the Sultan. This step became abortive from the Vienna failure. At the Conferences of Paris the Porte has repeated its demands in another shape. It proposed that a " Kaimakan" should be immediately established in each principality, conformably to the Russo-Turkish treaty of Balta Liman in 1849. This was untenable from the reasons that the present Hospodars, ap pointed for seven years, do not relinquish their func tions before June—that the lidoldo-Wallachian pro vinces are under the immediate control of the Euro pean powers, for the purpose of governmental revision—and that it would be impossible for the Porte to base any demand upon the strength of a Russian treaty, after the general suppression of those treaties, especially of Karnadji, Jassy, and Bucharest. The Ministers of the Sultan show little sagacity in preferring claims npon the sanction of a treaty that, linked with others, has been set aside for Ottoman benefit, and at Ottoman request. Neither was the proposition that the affairs of the principa lities should be discussed and arranged at Constan tinople, with a full acknowledgment of the sovereign power of the Sultan to interfere at pleasure, less objectionable. At the synod of Vienna the Pope has not aban doned a particle of his claim to pontifical pre dominance. A fundamental difference between the Roman Church end the Government exists at the outset. Cardinal Viale Prela, the president, declares the synod to have been convened by a Papal sum mons, fully confirmed by the terms of the Concordat, and ignoring the interference of the Austrian Go vernment; whilst the latter, in the official letter of the Minister of Religion, affects to agree with the objects of the Roman assembly, and to accord a passive sanction. The Roman Church, with one consent, adopts the 'validity of the Papal mandate as