The Press.
London, England, 1854-09-16 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

ling per annum. About 783,000 tons of shipping annually
enter the ports of the straits' settlements; 1,028 square-
rigged vessels, of 347,000 tons, arrived at Singapore in the
year ending March last; and of these 041, measuring
225,878 tons, sailed under the British flag. Of the re-
mainder, 179 were Dutch, 47 American, 2.5 Siamese, and
of French, Hamburg, Swedish, and native craft there were
about twenty each. This was exclusive of twenty-three
men-of-war. The native vessels (prahus and junks) ar-
riving numbered 2,810, and their aggregate burden was
75,859 tons. This was an increase of 24J3 vessels and
5,065 tons over the previous year. They came chiefly from
Bally, Borneo, Celebes, Sumatra, Java, and the neighbour-
ing islands—from China, Siam, Arraean, Maulinain, and
other ports of the continent. A large increase has taken
place in the direct trade with the Australian settlements,
from whence ninety-three vessels arrived of 35,000 tons,
against thirty-six of 13,258 tons in 1852.53. The commerce
with Great Britain and with Java has also greatly increased,
twenty-five more vessels from English ports and thirty
from Batavia having arrived this year. A very large pro-
portion of the population of these settlements consists of
Chinese, who have usually been industrious and orderly
At least 45,000 are located in Singapore, and of the 70,000
souls in Malacca there are a great many Chinese. Having
no customs duties, the revenue of the straits' settlements,
which is chiefly derived from opium and spirit licences,
or farms, market dues, fkc., is at present inadequate to the
payment of the incidental Government expenses and
charges. The gross receipts are about 77,5401., and the
expenditure, including charges for military and convicts,
104,7501.

Viewed in its commercial relations, Singapore is of great
advantage to this country ; it produces annually 5,000 tons
of gambler, 6,950 tons of pearl sago and sago flour, and
1,250 tons of black and white pepper. It also receives and
ships 29,000 cwt.of gutty percha, 23,000 cw•t. of tin, besides
antimony ore, sapan•wood, mother-of-pearl, and tortoise-
shell. Penang is the great seat of our spice culture for
nutmegs and mace, and Malacca bids fair to succeed in
sugar cultivation. Rut it is in its vast relations as a store-
house for the extensive supply of British manufactured
goods to the dense native population of the archipelago,
and as a mart of exchange for the various goods brought
by native junks from hundreds of little-known and unfre-
quented ports, that Singapore is so important. As a naval
station, also, for the protection of British interests, the
suppression of piracy, the advantages of a coaling depict
for the Peninsular and Oriental and Netherlands India
Steam Companies, it is of great utility. And as commerce
and civilisation extend their beneficial influences, a more
marked progress will become evident in the native races
who are thus brought into connection with European cus-
toms, arts, and manufactures. British colonisation is
making such rapid strides in the East, and British com-
merce has become so important in the archipelago, that
new fields are opening up to enterprise day by day. Japan
is no longer a sealed kingdom, and the Chinese empire
will most probably become ere long entirely free to com-
merce. Steamers will shortly run thence to California ;
and our own islands on the north-west coast of America,
with possibly Sitka and other possessions now belonging to
Russia, may then be deemed worthy of attentive consider-
ation.

THE following is the account of a correspondent of the
New York Daily Times of one of the multifarious American
sects—the Shakers. Their meeting-house is a large yellow
building, about eighty feet long by sixty feet wide, without
a single pillar therein, and no galleries. The service is
somewhat as follows :—The females enter at one door and
seat themselves on plain wooden benches, without backs,
and the men do the same on the other side of the house.
They are all dressed alike—the men in blue pants and long-
waisted blue jackets, with white shirt sleeves, and the
women in long white robes, with lace caps for the head, each
having a large bordered tassel hanging over her arm. They
often remain seated on these benches for over half an hour in
perfect silence, with their hands crossed, and, I believe,
are not allowed to whisper or speak to one another. At a
given signal they all rise and remove the benches, piling
them in the corners, and take their positions on the floor
facing each other. Then the orator of the day comes
forward and impresses upon the audience the solemnity of
the occasion. Those that have often witnessed the ceremony
are no doubt impressed with some feelings of solemnity ;
but to a first visitor I think it often affects him, but more
often gratifies his curiosity by its singularity. After
this discourse they sing a song, to be sure without ac-
companiment, but several of the voices are quite powerful,
and they sing in good time. They then dance backwards
and forwards, and turn and march around the room—the
men three by three one way, and the women three by
three the other way—all of which is done to the
music of the singers. After the first dance comes the
sermon, which, i believe, is always extemporaneous ; and
then, to conclude all, they have another dance, which is
much more lively than the first, in which they dap their
hands, and jump up and down, to the great delight of those
who have never before witnessed them.

THE new works lately executed in the neighbourhood of
the Bois de Boulogne have necessitated very considerable
expropriations of ground both within and without the Arc
de Triomphe. All the waste lands above the Champs
Elysees, known by the name of the Promenade of Chaillot,
are to be turned to account by the erection of handsome
dwelling-houses, whilst such parts as can be spared are to
to be sold to private individuals. The same is to be the
case with the ground on the opposite side. Outside the Arc
de Triomphe the new avenue to the Porte Dauphine will be
800 metres or half a mile long, having a road for carriages
forty metres wide in the centre. All the buildings to be
erected on the Place de l'Arc de Triomphe are to be built
on a regular and similar plan. The total cost of the new
works is estimated at 2,000,000 f., of which expense the de-
partment of the Seine bears 300,000 f.

871

PRINCE ALBERT AT BOULOGNE.
THE BATTLE OF BOULOGNE.
ALL Boulogne was astir by five o'clock in the morning of
the Nth inst. The Emperor Napoleon and Prince Albert
left the Hotel Brighton at six, in an open carriage drawn
by four horses. The Emperor wore the undress uniform
of a general of division, and the grand cordon of the Legion
of Honour. Prince Albert wore the undress uniform of a
field marshal, and the grand cordon of the Legion of
Honour, conferred upon his Royal Highness by the late
K►ng Louis Philippe. A second carriage ►onveyed his
Grace the Duke of Newcastle, Lord Seaton, M. Drouyn de
Lhuys, Marshal Valliant, and General the Duke of Monte-
belle. Two imperial chorsql-basic were occupied by naval
officers of the royal yacht and squadron, and two others by
the officers of the household of his Majesty. The splendid
cortege arrived at Marquise about seven o'clock, where the
whole of the party mounted horses which had been pre-
viously sent forward to meet them, and rode a short dis-
tance out of the town to the ground where the operations
were to commence.
There was nothing in the nature of a programme of the
proceedings to be obtained, everything connected with the
mamkuvres having been kept with the most jealous secrecy
within the Emperor's own breast. The orders necessary
to be given to the generals and commanding officers were
conveyed to them separately. The following outline will,
however, correctly represent the state of things preparatory
to the commencement of hostilities. A foreign army had
landed at Calais, which may be supposed to have been
brought by some Russian fleet, escaped then► Helsiugfors
or Cronstadt. The army of the Czar has not only sue-
' ceeded in establishing a footing within the fortified town of
Calais, but has also formed a series of encampments along
the heights near the coast. The most advanced of this
enemy's corps (ramie is ordered to attack Boulogne, pro-
bably with the view of holding it as " a material guarantee."
The Emperor of the French has information of the move•
ments of the enemy, ►.nd takes the field this time as the
protector of Boulogne. Commanding in person, he brings
up an army corps of about 10,000 men from Equihen, a
camp about five miles south of Boulogne, and takes up a
position a short distance from Marquise, with the view of
arresting the advance of the invading Cossacks. The
Emperor's force bivouac for the night in a strong position,
the right of which rests upon the small village of Hidre-
quent, and has its left upon the hamlet of Ledquent. The
main road from Calais to Boulogne runs through nearly
the centre of the line. There are two roads which branch

off from the main road, that on the right leading to Land-
rethun, and on the left to Bazinghen. The invading army
occupies on the high ground, about a mile distant from the
advanced posts of the Emperor, a position the right of
which rests upon a small farm called the farm of lilac-
count, the left upon the village of Bermes, and the centre
upon the high road to Boulogne. The cavalry and reserves
are upon the low to the rear. Both armies had marched
into the ground on the previous night, and all were
bivouacking in their tents except the outposts, when the
Emperor arrived to lead his troops to action, and when
General Schramm arrived at the head of the Russian
forces.
Long lines of military equipages and waggons, laden
with provender for horses, wood for the bivouac tires, am-
bulance-waggons, and piles of litters for the conveyance
of the wounded from the scene of action; the small, white,
Arab.looking tents scattered far and wide over the country,
groups of soldiers round the rudely-constructed fireplaces,
and the smoke of the bivouac fires by the roadside, piles
upon piles of hay and straw, and sacks upon sacks of grain ;
could not fail to convey to the mind of the traveller the
notion that he was in the neighbourhood of a spot where
some great action was imminent; and as he looked with
astonishment upon the vast materiel required for the use
and subsistence of a small army for a day, he would be
enabled to appreciate to a trilling extent the difficulties
with which a commissariat is required to contend in an
enemy's country and during a protracted war.
immediately on the Emperor and the Prince arriving
upon the ground the rappel was heat and the troops were
shortly under arms. General Schramm commenced the
action with some artillery on his left. A feint attack was
immediately made by the Emperor, with the view of
turning the enemy's left. The right wing of the Emperor
engaged in this attack fell back upon the approach of a
large force of the Cossacks. Having drawn the enemy to
some extent from their position, and succeeded in diverting
their attention from his left wing, the Emperor rapidly
threw forward his right wing, and, supported by artillery,
caused the Russians to fall back to their first positions.
The Emperor's left, having reformed, pushed forward with
the whole line, and after an ineffectual struggle, supported
by two well-reserved batteries of artillery, the Cossacks
retired upon the wood of Inglevent. The attempt to dis-
lodge the enemy from this position was a long and pro-
tracted one, and artillery played in and around the wood in
excellent style. The enemy's left wing, which extended
beyond the wood, was ultimately turned by a part of the
Empetor's cavalry—the regiment of " Guides." General
Count de Schramm bravely but unavailingly resisted the
opposing force, and with much exertion and great ability
succeeded in accomplishing that most difficult and dan-
gerous of movements, changing a front in the face of an
attacking and superior force, and successfully resisted for
a time this flank movement of the Emperor. Some re-
serves of the French were now brought up, which com-
pelled the Cossacks to fall still further back in the direc-
tion of Calais, near the mill of Hervelinghen, and towards
some rising ground called Mont Couple. While the
enemy were retiring a charge was made by a regiment of
dragoons. As the cavalry advanced, some guns of the
enemy poured in a shower of grape, and the infantry imme-
diately formed square, with the artillery inside, and sent a
volley of musketry into the squadrons, who were charging
in considerable confusion, probably in order to show the
effect of the warm and unexpected resistance which they
had met from the artillery of the enemy. he their advance