The Press.
London, England, 1856-12-20 00:00:00

DECEMBER 20, 1856.

put their hands upon everything of a valuable r-
In the village they received a check from t in-
babitants; these defended their coffers with laudable
determination, and on intelligence arriving of the
near approach of the military the insurgents dis-
banded and fled into the mountains. Their number
never exceeded 200. Bentivegna and his cousin,
Coaut San Marco, have been taken.

The attempted assasination of the King of Naples
must not be laid to the door of republicanism.
Milano was a wild fanatic, whose passions had been
worked upon by the orders of Mazza, or one of his
gang, and was an isolated act. The whole passed off
in a manner sufficiently cold and quiet to convince
soy rational being that there was no reality of dan-
ger. The man had more than a dozen yards to run
from his ranks, and if General Latour had shown a
little more expedition the soldier never could have
got within reach of the King. The wound hardly
deserved the name, and the mark on the saddle was
made in wresting the musket from the bands of the
soldier. The words uttered by him were, "Ho
tenuto parola," " I have kept my promise," and not
"I have done my duty." He has since been banged.
The Minister of the Argentine republic has made
an offer, on the part of his Government, to take all
the political offenders now in the Neapolitan prisons
and dungeons as colonists for South Australia. The
Neapolitan Minister declined the advantageous pro-
position on the ground of there not being a sufficient
number to make it worth his while. That was not
his affair. There are upwards of a thousand in
Naples and the islands, without having recourse to
the interior; and the Argentine Minister was quite
ready to accept of that instalment. But the secrets
of the prison-house were not to be disclosed by colo-
nisation.

C. A. H.

tortign Cotatial 3uttiligtut.

FRANCE.

The Emperor presided at a Council of Ministers
on Wednesday.
An official article upon the Neufchatel question
has appeared in the Moniteur

The great powers signed in 1852, at London, a protocol
stating the rights of the King of Prussia on Neufchatel.
The Government of the Emperor, bound, like the other
Cabinets, could not, whatever interest he might take in
Switzerland, disavow what has been consecrated by
treaties.

In Me a revolution took place at Neufchatel and
broke asunder the bonds which connected the canton
with the King of Prussia. That Sovereign constantly
protested against the new order of things, making an
express reserve of his rights, and has never ceased to
raise his voice in favour of a portion of the population
which complained of being oppressed by the victors.
In the month of September last the vanquished part)
endeavoured to take its revenge, invoking the name of the
King. That attempt failed. The canton was occupied by
the federal troops, and the Netechistelois taken with arms
in hands were brought before Swiss tribunals.
This event would lead to a conflict between the Hel-
vetic Confederation and Prussia ; for the former in advanc.
ing troops to reestablish order in the canton of Neuf-
chatel pretended to fulfil a federal obligation ; Prussia, on
her part, found her honour engaged not to allow men to
be tried who had raised the standard of the King, and
who. according to their conviction, were fighting for right
and justice.
The attitude of the Government of France from her
geographical position must necessarily have a marked
influence upon the settlement of this difference. Conse-
quently it was the interest of both parties not to neglect
anything to make sure of its support•
The King of Prussia addressed himself to the Emperor,
expressing to him, in emphatic language, all the interest
he felt for men compromised in his cause. He begged his
Majesty to request their liberation. communicating to him
at the same time his conciliating dispositions.
The French Government, happy to be able to prevent a
eonflict between two powers to which it is bound by friendly
intercourse, hastened to comply with the request of King
Frederick William, and, strong in its good intentions
towards Switzerland, and with the knowledge of the conci•
liating sentiments of Prussia, it requested the liberation of
the prisoners.
At the same time the Government of the Emperor did
not conceal the happy results which that concession
might have, as it would become a sort of obligation on the
Part of France to prevent any armed conflict, and to exert
itself to obtain from the King of Prussia a final settlement
of the question conformable to the wishes of Switzerland.
Unhappily, these wise considerations have not been
appreciated ; the counsels of France have been rejected,
and the Federal Government has preferred to yield to
democratical influences which are agitated around it,
rather than to comply with well-meant counsels inspired
solely by the desire of effecting an amicable settlement of
a question which, pending too long already, might, if more
complicated, disturb the peace of Europe.
Thus France has met, on the one hand, with modera-
tion, the sincere desire of terminating a delicate question,
and a courteous deference for her political situatiou ; on

120

tapha Pacha, Kiamil Pacha, Fuad Pacha, and Aril
Pacha.

Intelligence of the re-capture by the Hessians of
Soudjcuk-Kale has been received. The Journal de
Constantinople of the Bth gives the following, under
the head of " Serious News " :—" On November 22,
the Russian General Philipson retook Soudjouk-
Kale, and drove out the Circassians, after an obsti-
nate resistance.''

The reported capture of some Turkish boats by
the Russians is incorrect.

AMERICA.

Congress assembled on the Ist instant, and on
the day following the President delivered his
Message.

The President commences by a few remarks upon
the result of the election:—

It is impossible to misapprehend the great principles
which, by their recent political action, the people of the
United States have sanctioned and announced.

'They have asserted the constitutional equality of each
and all of the States of the Union of States. They have
affirmed the constitutional equality of each and all of the
citizens of the United States as citizens, whatever their
religion, wherever their birth or their residence; they have
maintained the inviolability of the constitutional rights of
the different sections of the Union; and they have pro-
claimed their devoted and unalterable attachment to the
Union and to the Constitution as objects of interest gape-
nor to all subjects of local or sectional controversy, as the
safeguard of the rights of all, as the spirit and essence of
the liberty, peace, and greatness of the Ilepublic.
In doing this they have at the same time emphatically
condemned the idea of organising in these United States
mere geographical parties: of marshalling in hostile array
towards each other the different parts of the country, north
or south, east or west.

He then passes to the slavery and Kansas questions,
going in detail through the different stages of this
" unhappy sectional controversy," and, maintaining
the right and necessity of the Nebraska Bill, denies
that that measure originated in a desire to extend
slave labour beyond the limits assigned to it :

When the act organising the territories of Kansas and
Nebraska was passed the inherent effect upon that portion
of the public domain thus opened to legal settlement was
to admit settlers from ail the States of the Union alike,
each with his convictions of public policy and private
interests, there to found in their discretion, subject to
such limitations as the constitution and acts of Congress
might prescribe, new States hereafter to be admitted into
the Union.

It was a free field, open alike to all, whether the statute
line of assumed restriction were repealed or not. That
repeal did not open to free competition of the diverse
opinions and domestic institutions a field which, without
such repeal, would have been closed against them ; it
found that field of competition already opened, in fact and
in law. All the repeal did was to relieve the statute book
of an objectionable enactment, unconstitutional in effect
and injurious in terms to a large portion of the States.
Is it the fact that in all the unsettled regions of the
United States, if emigration be left free to act in this re-
spect for itself, without legal prohibitions on either side,
slave labour will spontaneously go everywhere in preference
to free labour? Is it the fact that the peculiar domestic
institutions of the southern States possess relatively so
much of vigour that wheresoever an avenue is freely
open to all the world they will penetrate, to the exclusion of
those of the northern States ?

Is it the fact that the former enjoy, compsred with the
hitter, such irresistibly superior vitality, independent of
climate, soil, and all other accidental circumstances, as
to be able to produce the supposed result, in spite of the
assumed moral obstacles to its accomplishment, and of
the more numerous population of the northern States?

The President then announces, with " unmingled
satisfaction," the peaceful condition of things at
Kansas, and the entire restoration of tranquillity
without " one drop of blood having been shed in its
accomplishment by the forces of the United States."
In finance, the President states the income at
73,918,141 dols., and the debt at 30,7:37,129 dols.
He recommends a reduction of the revenue from
Customs so as not to exceed 4R or 50 million dollars.
The army and navy are reported to he in a satis-
factory condition. The navy is not only satisfactory,
but exhibits the most gratifying evidences of in-
creased vigour. The new frigates ordered add
largely to the public strength and security "; and, in
conclusion, the President recommends " a still
further increase " of the naval forces.

Foreign relations are declared to be amicable with
all powers. The settlement of the Anglo-Central-
American question is announced, and the fishery
question is thus alluded to :

The treaty between the United States and Great Britain,
of the sth orJune, 1854, which went into effective opera-
tion in 18-55, put an end to causes of irritation between the
two countries, by securing to the United States the right of
fishery on the coast of the British North American pro-
vinees, with advantages equal to those enjoyed by British
subjects. Besides the signal benefits of this treaty t-) a
large class of our citizens engaged in a pursuit connected
to no inccusiderable degree with our national prosperity
and strength, it has had a favorable effect upon other
interests in the provision it made for reciprocal freedom of
trade between the United States and the British provinces