The Press.
London, England, 1855-05-26 00:00:00

THE ERUPTION OF VESUVIUS.

THE following additional particulars of this pheno-
menon are communicated by a correspondent of the
Morning Post, who writes from Naples on the 14th
instant:

Since I last wrote, Vesuvius, instead of ceasing its de-
structive eruption, has been committing, daily, greater
ravages. All the artillery of the Roman Catholic Church
has been brought out to oppose that of nature—or the
great God of nature, rather. Processions, masses, votive
offerings, and the exhibition of bones of the saints, attended
by his Majesty, and the liquefaction of the blood of St.
Januarius ; and to-morrow, I might add, in all probability,
the solemn exposition of the image of the saint himself has
been tried, yet the mountain still vomits fire—the burning
lava still rolls down on the devoted country and villages
beneath. Within the last few days a portion of the lava
has diverged from the main stream, which, flowing down
on Cerolo and running to the right, has nearly reached St.
Jovio. How much fine cultivated land has been covered
over, and what promised abundance destroyed, I dare not
say ; people ere much too excited at present to make any
precise calculations, but the loss to some individuals is very
considerable, whilst the total amount must be immense.
There are then, you will understand, two large streams at
present flowing down—the one more northerly, in the
direction of Cerolo, and the other more to the west, in the
direction of St. Jovio and Portici. For a day the former
stream had nearly ceased to flow, but a heavy accumulation
of material came down, and since then it has been ap-
proaching nearer and nearer to the site where the bridge
has been knocked down, as also some houses on the bank.
The obvious object of the removal of these buildings was
to widen and deepen the bed of the stream, and to remove
any obstacle which might lead to the lateral diffusion of the
immense masses of scorime. Notwithstanding, however, all
precautions, the lava has in many places risen above the
banks, though thirty or forty feet high, and committed
great havoc. It came as far as the wall of the Campo
Santo, and then stopped, which is regarded as a miracle.
It advanced to the walls of a large palazzo, belonging to
the family of Cavalcann, which is no miracle, but nothing
but a combinazioni, to use a Neapolitan word you will tho-
roughly appreciate ; curious distinction without difference,
by which one may prove anything or nothing ! A good
walk will lead us across masserias and by-roads to the other
prong of the fork of lava which is flowing down on St.
Jovio. Alas ! for the pretty village of St. Jovio should it
reach it It is one of the chosen spots for the villeggiatura
of Neapolitans. Pretty villas meet the eye in all direc-
tions, and their proprietors are now trembling around
them, fearful to remain, and watching anxiously the pro-
gress which the destructive stream is making. They count
their ruin by the foot and minute. Much of the land be-
longing to St. Jovio has been already destroyed. Should
the eruption continue, the course of the lava will lead it
over the railway into the sea. It is to he hoped, however,
that it will not reach so far. The summit of the mountain
is so riddled, and the surface is presumed to be so thin,
that it is feared it may fall at any time: and no person is
allowed to advance beyond the Observatory ; indeed, it
would be madness to attempt it. The spectacle which the
mountain presents at night is remarkably grand. Its
sides are covered with the fiery fluid, which one may ima-
gine to be blood, oozing out from the wounded giant.

THE RAILWAY FROM GENOA TO LAKE MAGGIORE will be
completed towards the end of June, by the opening of the
section from 011eo to Arona. Genoa will then commu-
nicate directly withggiSwitzerland and Germany.

SATURDAY,

tortign gorrtsponbnct.

FRLNKFORT, May 23,
" Now, Barabbas was a robber." Such may be
Russia, but superlatively so are Prussia and Austria.
The act of Russia is open, and speaks for itself.
Let us be just. The Emperor Nicholas judged
Turkey to be impossible of self-preservation, and,
assuming the result, sought to discuss with England
the proper disposition of the property belonging to
the moribund. Turkey was not to be forcibly pos-
sessed: the course proposed contemplated the
permission of a peaceful end—an " kronlement," in-
anition, extinction, " pax vobiscum "—then a partition
of the real and personal estate. All this was
founded upon the conjectural hypothesis of Ottoman
dissolution; and there was no concealment. Eng-
land did not participate in the views of the Czar on
the state of Turkey : the negotiation fell to the
ground, and the exact terms of partition never were
revealed even to Lord Aberdeen. It was the desire
and the interest of Nicholas, in default of Grecian
succession, to reconstruct the Byzantine empire, and
to place his second son Constantine on the throne,
with the proviso, similar to that of France and Spain
in the treaty of Utrecht, that the two imperial
crowns of Russia and Constantinople should not be
held by the same monarch. From whence this in-
formation is derived is not material : it suffices that
the fact will not be contradicted. Shortly after the
refusal of England came the question of the Churches,
mooted by France. Russia demanded to move
" pari-passu "; the Greek and Latin Churches heartily
abused one another, according to ecclesiastical rule;
Prince Menschikoff was sent on his Constantinopoli-
tan mission ; the Western powers drifted to war; and
war was finally declared. The initiative was actually
taken by Russia on crossing the Pruth.
Austria and Prussia were on bad terms with them-
selves and with each other. Neither had faith in
their own subjects. Each distrusted the other from
intimacy of character—each had been false—each
bad been covetous—each bad been perfidious—
each had been cruel—each bad been rapacious—each
wanted more to the detriment of the other—each was
disbelieved—each was defeated—and to each was
denied an inherent and integral nationality. Pole,
Gelman, Saxon, Walloon, Rhinelander, and West-
phalian hate the Prussian proper; and, Hungarian,
Bohemian, Transylvanian, Mornoum, Dalmatian,
Illyrian, Gallician, Croat, Sclavonian, and Italian, do
nut affectionate the Austrian. Prussia had sold her-
self, without reserve, to Russia; whereas Austria
retained some faint show of independence. Neither
believed England to be sincere in her hostile atti-
tude, and both relied on Lord Aberdeen. So did
Russia. Germany looked to England for assistance
in the preservation of confederated power; Prussia
deemed her link with England firmly riveted by
Protestantism ; and Austria thought herself safe
whilst the Coburg policy was quietly gaining the
ascendant in the Cabinet of St. James. These
general hopes, reliances, and expectations were
centred in Lord Aberdeen. His antecedents were
held to be a security ; and this supposed security
vouchsafed to Austria and Prussia the means of
misrule. And here the German question disentangles
it from that of Russia.

It cannot be too expressively set forth that the
general belief in the insecurity of the alliance be-
twixt England and Imperial France was founded on
the defeat of Lord Derby's Ministry and the public
censure of the Emperor Napoleon by the colleagues
of Lord Aberdeen. Upon Aberdeen belief Germany
took its stand. The first intimation of error was the
indignant refusal of England to consent to the Aber-
deen proposal that the country should be garrisoned
with German soldiers. This was a severe blow to
Coburg policy, and Lord Aberdeen sullened with ill
humour thereat. It was the coming event that cast
its shadow before. The next untoward hint was the
assurance of the Emperor Napoleon that he would
not permit open hostility betwixt the confederated
States of Germany without the active interference of
France. Then came the Aberdeen defeat, the refusal
of France and England to vouchsafe to Prussia a
seat at the Vienna Conference, and the significant
reception of the Emperor Napoleon by the Queen of
England and the people her subjects. The Diet of
Frankfort, therefore, tardily disabuked of the Aber.
deen fallacies, is on the eve of repudiating the domi-
nance either of Austria or Prussia, and, having loin
the support of England, is disposed to accept sub-
stantially the protectorate of Russia. M. de Glinks,
from Hesse Darmstadt, has made a formal comma-
nication to the Diet, whilst a more intimate and pet-
sonal message to the Germanic princes has bean
privily conveyed by the Prince Peter of Oldenburg ;
and this message was not delivered to Austria or
Prussia. Confederated Germany accepts the terms
' of amity offered by Russia, and agrees to the pro-

MAY 26, 1855.

posed neutrality, independently of Prussia and Aus-
tria, and on a ground of its own. Russia by dis-
honesty, perfidy, and falsehood, and Austria by
insincerity, pusillanimity, and a breach of faith
towards the Western powers, have lost their influ-
ence over Germany, and have been themselves in-
strumental in transferring it to the Emperor of
Russia, on whose behalf their knavish tricks have
been performed. The biters have been sharply bit.
So much for the German question.
The Oriental and Russian affair is matter apart ;
for although the acceptance of the two first points of
the Vienna Conference has been heralded by the
Czar as a gracious act towards Germany, the two
points in reality have no German bearing. The
Danube is an Austrian river, and only German by
way of being European. Are the Rhine and Rhone,
having their source in the Alps, Swiss rivers ? The
principalities affect Austria exclusively. But, waiv-
ing this territorial view of the case, Russia has met
the demand of the Western powers by assenting to
the reception of Turkey into the European family of
nations. This is a great fact; this is a gain, won at
the point of the bayonet; for without compulsion
Russia would never have conceded the sovranic
rights of a kingdom which she designed to usurp,
and the acknowledged integrity of which by Europe
in Congress solemnly convened fur the purpose must
bar any Barabbas attempts for the future. When
this important concession, held of little account by
Lord John Russell, is set against the proposition to
limit the vessels of war in the Black Sea, to which
Russia could not agree out of respect to herself, the
incapacity of the English plenipotentiary to conduct
the conference becomes palpable. Russia agrees to
the two first points, and on the third consents to the
territorial introduction of the Ottoman power into
the European Congress, so far as relates to Euro
peen possessions. Now have to be determined the
terms of the material guarantee ; and for this the
allies are at war with Russia, and will continue to be
at war until such terms be obtained that shall be
judged by France and England to be just and proper.
But in a spirit of fairness it must be allowed that by
her own free will, and by her own proposition, Russia
abandons the " status in quo ante helium."
The Western powers would make more progress
in negotiation with Russia if disconnected from Aus-
tria. The latter has peculiar interests to advance,
for which she will betray any ally upon principle.
With the Danube and principalities arranged to her
liking she becomes ultra-Muscovite in her Euxine
policy, and goes to strengthen the Czar against the
Western powers. Her province of mediator is an
unhappy consequence of the December treaty,
whereby, with predisposed neutrality, she has design-
edly worked evil to the allies. Prussia is worthless in
deed, destitute of honour, and her military problem was
set at rest at Jena and Ligny. By the recent policy
of St. Petersburg the Diet has been neutralised, or
if dispo?ed to be active it would only be to injure the
Germanic interests of Prussia and Austria.

The events of the following week in the English
Parliament are looked for with anxiety. If the
earnest prosecution of the war be determined on, as
it doubtlessly will, it will eventually lead to fresh
combinations, and those combinations should be
treated and resolved upon by the allies and Russia
alone, without interference. Let them dictate to
Europe when the dispute is over. A new state of
things is arising in Germany. Prussia has lost her
place ; Austria is faithless, and her prestige is gone ;
and a strong and growing party exists in Germany
and Italy, who would view the triple alliance of Eng
land, France, and Russia, with considerable relish.
J. E. L.
PS.—The telegraph has announced the intelli-
gence that Milner Gibson has turned cur at the
eleventh hour.

BELGIUM AND THE WAR.
TO THE EDITOR OF " THE PRESS."

Sir.—The Independence Beige objects to the state-
ments of your Brussels correspondent, that Belgium
is a hotbed of Russian intrigue, that the " Braves
Beiges" sympathise with the Czar, and desire his
success in the present war; and that the Belgian
press in general, and the Independence in particular,
are Russian organs under a thin disguise. The In-
dependence attempts to reply with a sneer, which ill
conceals its vexation at your exposure of the truth :
but it does not, and cannot, deny the correctness of
your correspondent's assertions. I know not who
that gentleman is, but as I have for some years had
ample opportunities of acquaintance with the feelings
and opinions of this enlightened and unbigoted
nation, whose independence has ever been a
historical fact, and whose bravery has passed into a
proverb, I can vouch for the accuracy of your cor-
respondent, and therefore trouble you with this letter.
From the commencement of the war a strong
party in the saloons of Brussels has been attached
to the Russian cause. Russian agents have been
busily engaged in making proselytes, and not a few
among the more sensible of the community allowed
their fears to sway their reason, alarmed lest success

THE PRESS.

in the field should arouse what they conceive to be
the traditional policy of the French empire, and bring
the eagles of Napoleon to the banks of the Sambre
and the Scheldt. Incapable of generous emotion,
and unmoved by noble feeling, they cannot conceive
that England and France should be contented to
fight the battle of the weak against the strong, with-
out any intention of reaping territorial aggrandise-
ment as the fruit of the war. With these sentiments
pervading a considerable number of the educated
classes, an enormous sensation was pro-
duced among the masses, and the pro-Russian,
anti Anglo-Gallican feeling received a great impulse
from the unpleasant trnths which Lord Derby uttered
in the House of Lords, during the debate on the
Foreign Enlistment Bill. What! The brave Bel-
gian army fly before an enemy ! That noble, that
unconquered, that resolute phalanx, which bad
ever rushed unaided to its country's defence,
and preserved it secure from the encroach-
ments of every foe, whether Spaniard, Austrian,
French, or Dutch ! The very thought was libellous ;
its utterrance due to ill-concealed envy on the part
of the English peer. The Government accordingly
" protested," and a Belgian general was soon found
to prove conclusively that the British officers of
Picton's division laboured under mental hal.
lucination in supposing that the gallant band
who formed Perponcher's brigade at Water-
loo " retired " at the approach of D'Erlon's
corps ; or that those British officers with diffi-
culty restrained the Highlanders from firing on their
resolute allies. The general's brochure was pub-
lished in the Independance, copied into the other
journals, and its author thanked by Senate and
Representative Chamber. Lord Derby being thus
disposed of, and the nation convinced that their in-
vincible army was the real cause of Napoleon's fall,
they have during the last six months been compla
cently discussing the relative merits of the heroes of
the Beverloo camp and Montagne de la Cour, and
are th roughly persuaded that the allies will never
take Sebastopol without that assistance, which they
somewhat ostentatiously assert they are not pre-
pared to give; and as England and France are not
likely to seek their aid, it is probable that the truth of
this assertion may never be tested.
It is really pitiable to see a nation whose existence
dates from 1830, which owes its being to the united
arms of England and France, which professed to
borrow so much from the Constitution of Great
Britain, which prates of liberty, and babbles of free-
dom, declaring that its wishes, its sympathies, and
its hopes are with the representative of absolute
government and brute force, and opposed to those
great Western powers to which it is so deeply in-
debted. But so it is ; and England and France
must combat as they may, uncheered by Belgian
sympathy, unaided by Belgian valour.
That the Indipendence Beige is an organ of Russia,
that it serves the purpose of the Russian Chan-
cellerie in publishing such diplomatic or other in-
telligence as the latter desires to communicate to
the nations of Western Europe, that its correspon-
dents are deeply imbued with contempt for England
and France, and lost in awful admiration of the
great autocrat of the North, are questions that admit
of no doubt. It is but two months ago that the
Russian Government desired to establish a French
journal at Berlin, by aid of which they might possess
increased means of obtaining proselytes, and of de-
fending their policy. A staff of editors, correspon-
dents, compositors, pressmen, dec., was formed, the
greater part of whom were supplied from the office
of the Independence. A house was taken at Berlin,
and all was prepared for action ; when at the last
motnent the resolute Frederick William mus-
tered all his courage, declared that his neutral
Government could not countenance the estab-
lishment of a foreign journal in the metropolis,
in avowed hostility to the Western powers, and
ordered the journalists and their assistants to quit
Berlin in a body. About the same time this inde-
pendent Independance inadvertently published a
translation of an article in the Times, reflecting on
the policy of Frederick William, the faithful ally
and trusty servant of the Indipendance's master,
the Czar. The Independance was accordingly stopped
at the Prussian Post-office ; which produced from the
editor a grovelling apology, promising better be
haviour in future, and pointing to "other boys as
bad as I am," who had translated the same article,
and escaped unpunished. Many reflections on the
King of Prussia have since been made in the Times
and other English journals, but the Independance
has not thought fit to translate them for the benefit
of its readers.

The Indipendattee contains no leading article on
foreign polities ; its revue politique being a mere
resume of the news of the day. To its correspon-
dents must we, therefore, look for its expressed
opinions, and these gentlemen write from Paris,
Vienna, Berlin, Constantinople, Hamburg, and
London. The Anglophobia with which they are tor-
mented is quite ludicrous ; the wicked designs of
England haunt them by night, and distract them by

473

day ; and, were it not ter the watehful eye and reso-
lute courage wherewith they see through and expose
our machinations, Europe would soon fall a prey
to the perfidies and treasons Latched in Great
Britain. M. Jules Leoomte, the gentleman who
"does" the Courier de Paris once a week, and
who favours the Belgian publio with his views
on the I..:xhibition, looks down from the height
of his stupendous intellect on all unfortunate
Englishmen, criticises the cut of their garments
with the air of a man-milliner, and wearies his
readers with marvellous stories of the manners
and customs of the uncivilised islanders who dwell
beyond the Channel. "He speaks an infinite deal of
nothing, more than any man in Paris. His reasons
are as two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of
chaff; you shall seek all day ere you find them, and
when you have them they are not worth the search."
Another Parisian correspondent, under the signature
" Y," has for weeks been endeavouring to prove that
England and France must make peace on terms
acceptable to Russia, and leave Sebastopol untaken.
He asserts that the war feeling in England is purely
factitious, and that she is of small advantage as an
ally to France ! He of Vienna is still more vigorous.
He looks upon the Czar as the greatest of mortals,
and the Austrian Emperor as the second. This very
day be informs his readers "that all the concessions
made by Russia are due to the attitude assumed by
Austria, and not to any success obtained by the
allies." This, when England and France have
swept the Russian flag from the seas, blockaded
every Russian port, defeated her armies in every
engagement, and besieged her in her mightiest
stronghold, is rather strong even for the capacity of
a Flemish stomach. The Berlin correspondent is
the vehicle chosen to communicate the despatches,
notes, and circulars, issuing from the Russian Chan-
cellerie. The gentleman at Constantinople hates
Lord Stratford with a virulence exceeding even that
with which the great diplomatist was honoured by
the late Emperor of Russia, whose plans he had so
often frustrated. According to this veracious scribe,
Lord Stratford is in a state of continual diplomatic
warfare with the representative of France, whom lie
tries in vain to outwit. To-day he informs us that—
Lord Stratford is furious against the French Chargé
d'Affaires, to whom he attrihntes the dismissal of Rescind
Pacha ; and since his return from the Crimea his relations
with the Turkish Government have been marked by a
bitterness indicative of his ill-humour. However, the
Sultan now cares little about him, persuaded that the
Cabinet of London does not now, as heretofore, blindly
partake of his antipathies and spite; and it is expected his
pouting will soon he brought to an end.
The Ind ependance kindly volunteers the informa-
tion that your correspondent " robs you " in sending
his intelligence in return for your money. May it
not take counsel from itself, and profit by its own
advice with regard to the twaddling trash here trans-
lated, in return for which its correspondent at Con-
stantinople doubtless receives a yearly salary ? The
Hamburg correspondent keeps his readers well in-
formed as to the movements of the allied fleets in,
and the Russian armies on the shores of, the Baltic ;
but although he constantly sneers at the inglorious
exploits of our navy in capturing merchant vessels
and destroying Russian commerce, he forgets we can
find no higher game ; for the idol of his admiration,
the Grand Duke Constantine, has not yet fulfilled
his threat of meeting us on the high seas in gallant
battle t and he has no contempt to spare for the
Russian fleet, which, like a whipped cur, sneaks and
cowers beneath the protection of its powerful for-
tresses. "G. F." is the London correspondent. One
of his principal occupations seems to consist in tele-
graphing, each Saturday, a portion of the intelli-
gence contained in your journal. As there are no
Russian sources of information in London, he is shut
out from those springs of intelligence which supply
his fellow labourers at Vienna, Berlin, and Ham
burg.
Such is the Independattee Beige, and such the
opinions of its chief that
with the exception it
alone of European
Sebastopol, whose
doings of us "outside
fore taken to insert
Muscovite readers,

correspondents •ia
feats of Russian

Russian arms. To

the Belgian press
ludicrous in the Du

sympathy anti cotmeetion
agents.—l remair
AN ENI
Brussels, May
A Sum or 10001.,
been paid to the royal,
of the Amateur Artists'
house, "to be applied r
and orphans of British
the present war."
has been attended '

chiet contributors. We know that
Lion of the Journal des Mats it
an jeurnals obtains admission into
se defenders it instructs As to the
lutsitle barbarians." Care is there
vsert nought that might annoy its
rs, er wound their feelings and its
via with each other in landing the
valour, and exkilling the might of
To those who It acquainted with
ess there is something absolutely
Indipendassee affecting to deny its
connection with Ruben) and her
in, sir, your! obediently,
SOLISHISAN RESIDENT IN BELoium.
22, 1N25.
N., (being a third instalment), has
oyalcommissioners by the committee
Artists' Exhibition at Burlington-
plied exclusively in aid of the widows
tritish officere who lose their lives in
Up to this time every application
Ito.