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

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

,=I.M.Ir.-
-

SEPT. 22, 1855.

•Corrisronteurt.

SLAVE LABOUR.
TO THE EDITOR OF " THE PRESS."

Sir,—The almost simultaneous advent of the
opening of Nature's unrestricted banks of issue,
California and Australia, has saved the United
Kingdom from a monetary despotism that might
have gone wellnigh to ruin us under our new com-
mercial policy, combined with the late Sir R. Peel's
Bank Restriction Act, as it has to a great extent
disarmed the tyrant power, Money, and again given
to agriculture, the humble tradesman, and free
labourer a fair field in which they can now again
compete with the owners of monef. There is, how-
ever, I am sorry to say, one class of labourers to
whom these cheering views do not apply. I allude
to the labourers in slave countries. To them the
unlimited supply of gold gives additional value, but it
will give increased weight to their chains, inasmuch
as they are under the complete control of owners
who can compel them to exertions in proportion to
their increased value.

The value of the slave has been more than doubled
during the last ten years, during which period slave
countries have rapidly progressed, and have reaped
such ample profits from slave labour that money
with them has become considerably cheaper. The
value of free labour has also risen to a very consider-
able extent during the same period.

The value of an able slave- in 1845 was some 701.,
and such slave would now sell readily for 1501. ; and
allowing the value of money in 1845 to have been
twelve per cent., and in 1855 to have fallen to eight
per cont.—which is, I believe, about the relative pro-
portional value,—the proportional difference of in-
terest on the purchase-money of the slave at 1501.,
as against 701., would be 3/. 128. against the
slave-owner; and allowing the rate of remunera-
tion for free labour to have risen only twenty-five
per cent., which I believe is below the mark, we shall
find—for instance, in the rise of ss. per cwt. which
has recently taken place in the value of sugar—that
the slave grower will still have the advantage over
the free grower to a large extent, as it is well known
that the free African will not exert himself during
the year more than is sufficient to raise one ton of
sugar, if so much ; and allowing that the sugar here-
tofore sold for 201., and that he took three hundred
days to perform this work, with a rise in his wages
of twenty-five per cent. only, or from Is. to Is. 3d. per
day, we shall find his extra cost to his employer to be
31. 155., and the increased value of his produce, in
sugar, will be Si., from which deduct the 31.15 s.—the
rise in the cost of his free labour—and the free
grower's profit on his labour will be 11. ss. On the
other hand, a slave can be easily made to raise two
tons of sugar in the year. The increased value of
his labour in the advanced price of sugar (Si. per
ton) would be equal to 101., whilst the extra cost to
his owner being only in the shape of interest on his
purchase-money, or 31. 12., leaves the slave grower an
advantage of 61. Bs. per slave, against the free la-
bourer's 11. ss.—an advantage not likely to induce
the slave-owner to discard his slaves, or to give en-
couragement to the free grower to compete with
him.—Yours, most obediently,
September 17. Aftl-SLAVERY.

ORDNANCE PREVISION.
TO THE EDITOR OF " THE PRESS."

Sir,—l see under the head of "Naval Intelli•
gence " in the Times of Wednesday as follows :

Three monster shells have been landed on the Arsenal
wharf at Woolwich from the Lowmoor foundries, bearing
each the following dimensions :—Diameter, 3 feet 9 inches ;
weight, 1 ton 6 cwt. They are the first of a num-
ber of that species which had been ordered for the
purpose of being despatched to Sebastopol for the reduc-
tion of that fortress. An experimental gun has likewise
been founded at Liverpool for projecting those enormous
missiles, weighing no less than twenty tons.

Can any of your readers inform me whether these
shells were made for Nasmyth's mortars ? If they
were, it accounts for the founding of this enormous
gun at Liverpool, as no one ever supposes that our
present Government would acknowledge that a
blunder had been made. It ever has been
their policy to blunder on, and it would be unbe-
coming in them to cast aside these monster shells,
and so proclaim their ignorance. I wonder if this
monster gun will he a repetition of the mistakes
which have been made in the Lancashire district.
What, with bayonets and rifles at Manchester, which
were to put Birmingham in the shade, and which has
caused a laugh at the expense of both the Govern-
ment and Manchester by the "toy-shop" people, and
the monster wrought-iron ordnance of Mr. Nasmyth,
we are disposed to look with suspicion upon these
great announcements. What a pity there should
be such a lack of practical knowledge in the right
place
Sept, AO, 101

A COUNTRYMAN.

THE PRESS.