The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-10-22 00:00:00

NEWS OF THE DAY.

On the measures that may be resolved on by the
Three Powers whose chiefs are at this moment assembled
in conference at Warsaw, the peace of Europe greatly
depends. The withdrawal of the Russian ambassador
from Turin, and the concentration of the Austrian forces
on the Po, led to the impression that Austria may have
received a promise, or at least some hope, of assistance
from Russia in a new attempt to regain her position in
pression, we trust, is groundless, for such
Italy. This im
a course would in all probability tend to a general con-
vulsion. On the other hand, if the Three Powers confine
themselves to adopting measures against aggression on
the Rhenish frontiers, or any unprovoked attempt upon
their territories, they will greatly add to the chances of
soon restoring Europe to a state of security and tran-
quility. According to the latest information received
in Paris, Austria is still resolved to maintain a defensive
attitude, and not to act unless she is attacked ; but that
she will be attacked sooner or later in Venetia, there is
now little doubt. The title of prince is about, it is

said, to be speedily conferred on Garibaldi, as
well as the post of generalissimo of all the land
and sea forces in Southern Italy; and in
addition to the appeal recently made by his future
Highness for volunteers from all parts of Europe,
another call of a similar kind has just been made by the
authorities at Turin. The Minister of the Interior in
that capital has just issued a circular to the governors
and intendants-general of the kingdom, announcing
that the Government has resolved to enlist refugees
willing and able to do military service, and that the
Minister of -War has named two committees—one at
Milan, the other at Bologna—for the purpose of regis-
tering the volunteers who may present themselves.
The term of service is fixed at eight years.
One of the most important items in our foreign news
of to-day, in connection with the probable eventual war
between Sardinia and Austria, is the official intimation
of the fact that the Russian Ambassador has not only
been actually recalled from Turin, but that the depar-
ture has taken place of the whole of the personnel of
the Russian embassy. This indicates that the rupture
between the two governments is complete. It is pos-
sible that the presence of a Piedmontese army in the
Crimea, and the success it achieved there under General
La Marmora, have not yet been forgotten.
According to the latest French accounts, Francis 11.
is determined, at all hazards, to prolong to the last
moment his resistance to his inevitable fate. We are
also informed by the same semi-official sources that the
royal troops will probably soon evacuate Capua, but that
they will take up an excellent line of defence behind Vie
Carigliano, and that as the army yet counts upwards of
35,000 men, Gaeta is in a position to sustain a long
siege. Not, however, if it be true, as stated in a Gaeta
despatch dated the 13th, that provisions had begun to
fail in that fortress.

M
_
As was to be expected, Francis 11. has protested
against the voting yesterday ; but he has surely grounded
his protest on some other reason than because it was to
be conducted " under the pressure of Piedmontese and
Garibaldian troops." But is not this " pressure" a
necessary part of this now favourite system of disposing
of kingdoms and crowned heads ?

The Gazette de Lyons, who, in opposition to " the
good advice" of the French journal administration,
persisted in opening its columns to violent attacks on
the Government with reference to its conduct towards
the Pope, has been suppressed.
A subscription has been opened at Naples, with a

view of presenting a sword of honour to General Gari-
baldi. On one side will be represented the victories of
the general in 1859, and on the other his triumphs in
the kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The arms of Naples
and of Sicily will be engraved in gold on the pommel,
which will represent a hand breaking the chains of
Italy. Brilliants, emeralds and rubies, will be so
arranged upon it as to represent the three Italian
colours. "To the Captain whom all Italy honours," is
to be the inscription.
The following statement appears in the Sentinelle
Brescinna :—"For the new prisons which are being
built in the Strada St. Tominiro at Verona, the Aus-
trians are making eight subterranean cells, which are
called Belle de revelazione (cells of revelation), and the
persons who are placed in them are compelled to stand
and sit in a curved position. They will be deprived of
every power of motion, and kept without light until
they confess. The walls in which the Miserable victims
will be enclosed are eight feet thick. In a tot' days the
contractor will have completed his works, and will hand
them over to the military authorities. The horrors of
the Inquisition and the prisons of the Bombas are now,
if possible, surpassed by the Emperor of Austria. Who
can 'Wonder that Italians, Poles, and Hungarians desire
to rid theniselves of such barbarity ?"
Lieutenant 31aury, of the United States Observatory,
is about to visit England; in connection with the publi-
cation of an important work he has been long engaged
upon, " On the ketedrolegy of the. Ocean."

The October session of the Cential Criminal Courti
London, will commence this day, and is eipected to be
an unusually heavy one, in consequence of the niinitier
of prisoners for trial, and the serious nature of the
offences committed. The trial of Mullins for the
Stepney murder will probably be fixed for Thursday.
_ _ _ _ _

The memorial in honour of the officers and men of the
brigade of Guards who fell during the Crimean cam-
paign, which has been so long in course of completion,
will be finished in a few days. The whole of the cast-
ings, from the designs of Mr. Bell, have been completed,
and will be sent from Messrs. Elkington's works, at
Birmingham, on the Ist of November. The bronze
group of the men—the fantods &la ifi jawed—have
been for some months in their place, waiting fot the
statue of Victory, which, with extended bands, hope
the latitel crown above their heads. This figure will,
when placed on the top of the column, complete the
work, and the hoarding and scaffolding will, it is ex-
peCt,,':l, be removed by the sth of IsloVettrbeY, the anni-
versary of the battle of Inkermann.
A good deal of interest has been excited amongst
newspaper folk by the invention of a new class of paper
from maize straw. The gentleman who has obtained
the credit of the inVerition is Herr Von Aner, director of
the Imperial press of Vienna,. Who has also constructed
a rapid printing iire§s; to be Connected with the maize
straw paper tiranttfatitOrY ilidirgh first reports as to the
quality and cheapness of the paper niiist be received
cum grano setlis, the inveation, it is said, will be likely
to introduce a noW class of material in connection with
our daily journals.

The attempt is being renewed amongst mercantile
men to abolish, or at any rate materially reduce, the
duty on fire insurances next session. The Chancellor of
the Exchequer, it is said, is not averse to the proposal
if he can only spare the money, but this difficulty is
the formidable one which meets even ati Utopian Chan-
cellor.

The members of the London police force, who for
many months have cultivated the moustache--some to
rather prodigious extent—received notice, on Friday
last, from their commissioner that the embellishment
was to be removed instanter, and, accordingly, on
assembling for duty, all had undergone a clean shave.
A new style of photography will soon come into opera-
tion. Instead of taking a person into a six-pair back,
there to be screwed into meaningless positions, you
merely buy a " pistolgram." With your camera ever
ready, you wait your opportunity till you see a very
pretty girl advancing, when you "make ready, present,
fire," and all is over. An indelible photograph is thuS
obtained at no trouble whatever. An announcement in
the Times tells us that babies have been attempted, after
whom we may expect children, youths, &c., growing
" aged by degrees, and beautifully old." Or, perhaps,
the invention is to be confined to infants. Not at all a
bad way of "teaching young ideas how to "shoot."
Volunteers will, however, we are sure, make a demand
for riflegrams ; nor will our archery fair ones be content
without bow (or beaux) and-arrow-grams.
The spirit oT charity has reached its acme. An hos-
pital for dogs is in process of creation (lucky dogs !),
not in the Isle of Dogs, as one would suppose, but in
Islington, London. This ought to be opposed on the
score of English literature. The force of one of our
most frequent idioms will be diminished, if not entirely
annihilated, by this false spirit of humanity. How can
we dare apply the stigma " going to the dogs," if the
situation for those quadrupeds turns out to be comfort-
able furnished apartments, with separate wards for
males and females.

Criminal statistics of last year show that nearly
400,000 persons were dealt with summarily, of whom
about 80,000 were women. It is said that there is a
greater proportion of women acquitted on trial than
men, a proof of the leniency of the unfair sex towards
females. There were about 84,000 charges of assault
last year, more than 3,000 of which were aggravated
cases against women and children. In England and
Wales, last year, there were nearly 90,000 cases of
drunkenness. More than 8,000 offences against the
game laws are chronicled; and, as to the social evil, the
statistics are perfectly frightful. Not to go into details,
it will be sufficient to state that there were nearly 3,000
young girls engaged in this fearful trade, under the ago
of sixteen ! nearly double the amount of last year. So
much for the benefits of civilisation.

The citizens of Melbourne are getting up a Shaks-
peare Memorial, and have decided one placing the
selection of the design in the hands of a Committee of
Taste, composed of Sir Charles Eastlake, Tom Carlyle,
and John Ruskin, and through them to invite six of the
most eminent English sculptors to send in designs.
In addition to the loss of the Attic, already recorded,
during the storm that swept our own coast and the
shores of the Baltic, it is feared that four other iron
screw steamers have shared a similar fate. The missing.
vessels, and for which every search has been made, but
without avail, are—the Edinburgh, 842 tons, from
Leith to Cronstadt ; the Moscow, 600 tons, also bound
to Cronstadt, from Grimsby; the Thor, 500 tons,
trading between Copenhagen and Hull ; and the Viscount
Lambton, to Haniburgh, from7Sunderland. These
vessels, besides carrying a large number of hands, had
each several passengers on board.

STATE DIPLOMACY OBSTRUCTING
COMMERCE.

WE have frequently attempted to point out the
great advantages which may be expected to
ensue from the adoption of the project for open-
ing up intercourse with Western China, by
means of a direct trade between Rangoon and
Esmok. The proposal has been advocated for
many years by Captain SPRIT and his son, and
latterly by Captain SHERARD OSBORN. Our
influential contemporary the Times also recently
devoted a leader to a powerful argument in
favour of the immediate prosecution of so grand
an idea. As usual, the greatest obstacle in the
way of securing a fair trial for this new route-
for our commerce in the East has been found
in the ignorance of government officials, and
their shameful indisposition to take action in
behalf of any movement that would disturb the
antiquated routine of the circumlocution office.
The subject, however, is gradually attracting
greater attention, and the more it is discussed
the likelier it seems to secure the approbation of
those whose concurrence and support are all that
is required to bring about for it at least a fair
trial. The London and China Telegraph reviews
the objections to the project as these have been
stated, by a commercial authority of some stand-
ing, in a letter to the Times, under the signature
of J. C." Our contemporary says :

The reasoning of "J. C." in the letter to which we
refer rests on the writer's wrong belief that the eastern
half only of China is populous and fertile. We will
briefly examine some of his statements in support of
this assumption. First, "J. C." speaks of the south-
western province of Yun-nan as " the poorest and the
least populous of the Chinese empire." He gives the
population at five and a-half millions. Now, to show
the inaccuracy of this statement, what is the fact by the
last computation in 1847 ? It was upwards of eight
millions, and is now probably over ten millions. Next
we are told that the adjoining province, " Quang-si•
though somewhat better, is the poorest of all the
southern provinces of the empire." Still, this province
of Quang-si, comprising upwards of 70,000 square miles,
had in 1847 a population of about ten and a-half millions,
which now probably numbers more than twelve mi;lions•
Then, again, "J. C." strangely omits all notice of the pro-
vince of Sze-chuen, immediately to the north of Yun-nan ;
which contained in 1847 a population exceeding thirty
millions, and is said to be the richest of the eighteen
provinces of China. In proof of this we refer “J. C.
to that late traveller, the Abbe Hue's account of this
province, in his journey through it from Thibet to
Canton. Further, we may remark that "J. C." over-
looks, as part of Western China, the two provinces of
Chen-si and Kan-su, contiguous to Sze-chuen ; and con-
taining in 1847 a population of upwards of thirty-84
millions. With the vast provinces and populations to
which we have referred we have no trade from the sea-
ports of China. Yet—and let our manufacturers mark
this well—they are not only in themselves prolific of
mercantile advantages, but are, beside, the long-ista.