The Press.
London, England, 1853-06-18 00:00:00

U,

LONDON, SATURDAY, JUNE Is, 1853.
POSTSCRIPT.

HOUSE OF LORDS.—FRIDAY.
The Marquis of WESTMEATH rose to substantiate
the charges he had made against Mr. Keogh, of
having used certain inflammatory language at a
meeting in the town of Moate, in Westmeath, on the
occasion of the Athlone election, the effect of which
was to incite the mob to take vengeance on their
opponents in " the dark nights " which were coming
on. In support of this charge the noble marquis
cited the authority of two magi Andes in whose hear-
ing the language was used ; and, in the teeth of such
evidence, he believed the Government would not pre-
sume to oppose the motion with which he concluded,
namely, " That a committee be appointed to inquire
into the subject."
The Duke of NEWCASTLE, after what had occurred
in the other house of Parliament on the previous
evening, thought it quite superfluous to enter into
=I vindication of Mr. Keogh. Taunting the Mar-
pus of Westmeath with having been animated by
the spirit of party, he said that he had in his posses-
sion a letter from a solicitor named M'Nevin, who
was present on the occasion of the alleged address.
and who was ready to make oath that no such lan-
guage as that attributed to Mr. Keogh had been
held. He opposed the motion for a committee, think-
ing the character of the Solicitor-General for Ireland
quite unassailable, " whether by the pointed shafts
of the Earl of Eglinton, or the rusty bolts from the
battered quiver of the Marquis of Westmeath."
The Earl of EtiLINTON was fully prepared to jus-
tify the expressions he had used on a former evening
with regard to the appointment of Mr. Keogh ; and,
considering the position to which that honourable and
learned gentleman had been elevated, he should sup-
port the motion for inquiry.
The Earl f ABERDEEN observed, that, as he was
chiefly concerned in this " disreputable employment,"
he was prepared to resist the motion, as being abso-
lutely preposterous, the more so as arising out of a
trifling and trumpery case.
Lord Ilnouomot suggested that a criminal court,
and not the House of Lords, ought to be the tribunal
to try the charge, if it was to be noticed at all.
The Earl of DERBY denied that there would have
been anything inconsistent between the offer of office
to Mr. Keogh by the late Government-an offer
which he did not admit to have been made—and the
condemnation of language he had subsequently used.
The question was whether, at the time of his ap-
pointment by the present Government, Mr. Keogh
was a fit and proper person for such RD appointment.
He thought the matter was one which demanded in-
quiry ; but at the same time, after the successful
case which the noble marquis had made out, he
might fairly throw the responsibility of resisting the
motion on the Government.
After a few words from Lords CAment.t. and CLAN-
MCARDE,
The Marquis of WESTMEATH withdrew the motion.
After some routine business their lordships ad-
journed.
HOUSE OF COMMONS.-FRIDAY.

Mr. Cosnrs, complaining that the information
furnished on the subject of the Burmese war had
been garbled, asked the President of the Board of
Control to name the parties responsible for the selec-
tion of the extraets.
Mr. H. BAILED:, Mr. HUME. and Mr. BRIOHT,, after
impugning the soundness of all such information,
enforced Mr. Cobden 's question.
Sir C. Wont' said that the despatches referred to
had been prepared on the responsibility of the Presi-
dent of the Board of Control, but deprecated further
discussion in the absence of his predecessor in office
from the House. In reply to Mr. Bright, he said
that. considerable mortality had occurred amongst the
troops at. Prim. but that at Rangoon the troops were
in a healthy condition.
In answer to Mr. Pr.t.t.Art, Mr. Wit,sow said it was
not intended under the Customs Act to allow to the
home manufacturers any drawback upon the re-
Importation of home-manufactured soap.
Lord PALMERSTON, interrogated by Mr. ar.BERIELEY,
expressed the desire of the Government to facilitate
the formation of graveyards and cemeteries in
the place of the Bat graveyards ordered to be closed
in lane, and of those which had still to be closed.
The CRANcELLOR of the EV:Mk/REM announced
Ins intention of proceeding with the stamp and ad-

THE PRESS.

vertisement duties on Monday, but not after ten
o'clock.
The house then went into committee on the Suc •
cession Duty Bill, and the remainder of the evening
was occupied in the discussion of the clauses.
The motion for the third reading of the Excise
Duties on Spirits Bill was opposed by Irish members,
on the ground that the machinery by which it was
proposed to work the measure had been left unex-
plained by the Government. After a heated and
protracted discussion, which gave rise to a series of
vons on motions for the adjournment of the
debate and of the house, the bill, at half-past three
o'clock this morning, was read a third time.

ABSTRACT OF LAST NIGHT'S DEBATE.
A TRVI.Y 1111%/1 DEFENCE.
Says my Lord in the House, "'Twas a terrible flaw
To appoint Mr. Keogh as guardian of law :
The tone of his speeches last year we remember,
And that very broad hint about nights in November."
" Fail, my Lord," replies PADDY, " you'd best hould your

tongue ;
Yourself and your party are quite in the wrong;
'Tis yourselves were half ready to bid for my aid,
Before ever the apaches ye spoke of were made."

THE BOURBON FUSION ACCOMPLISHED.
THE Frankfort Poslzeilung of the 11th ult., one of the Ger•
man journals which is known for its occasional access to
sources of official information, contains the following
statement from a Berlin correspondent, the correctness of
which there is no reason to doubt:—
" The French fusion affair, which has been so long u
standing phrase of the now more calm Paris coteries,
attracted from its very beginning the attention of the Ger•
man Courts, which, however, was not so much caused by
the importance which these affairs have on their immediate
interests, but rather by the very close relationship in which
the Duchess of Orleans stands to several of our reigning
families. Sister of the present Sovereign, Duke of Meck-
lenburg Schwerin, her Royal Highness is also related to
the royal house of Prussia by near bonds of consanguinity.
I mention this for marking out the base on which the ques-
tion of Bourbonic fusion proceeds now to its solution.
Without entering here into those tiresome weighings of pro-
babilities tone way •3r other) with which this altair has
been discussed for years past, I can assure you that there
is no doubt entertained here that all princes of the Orleans
family have consented to acknowledge the claims and rights
of the Count de Chambord, and that this whole weighty
affair is ready fur publicity save some minor formalities.
We stand here so much nearer the treads of these family
connections, that any one could wonder why Berlin should
possess such news sooner and in preference to the French
capital. We are in the possession of facts that one of the
crowned heads of the north of Germany, on the stress of
his near relationship, has made representations to the
Ducheass of Orleans on account of her hitherto aversion
towards a fusion with the elder branch of the Bourbons.
Some few days since the Neue Prouusiche Zeitaag said
also—' The influence which endeavonrs to confirm her
Royal Highness in this decision loses its intensity.
In legitimate circles a German Monarch is mentioned,
whose relationship makes it a duty to the Duchess to listen
to him, and who has represented to that exalted lady that
her taking into account the principle of popular sovereignty
would compel her (at least logically) to acknowledge the
present order of things in France, the more so as, con-
sidered from this point of view, the tights of the Emperor
are based on a broader foundation than those of the grand-
son of Louis Philippe, who has not been proclaimed but
by some two hundred representatives, acting without 14
mandate.' Whether the formalities above alluded to may,
after all, retard or impede the intended fusion, none can
say; still they are of no great import. Already, last year,
when his Royal Highness the Duke of Mecklenburg-
Schwerin had sent General von Hopfgartin to Paris, for
the sake of entering into negotiations relating to the
Orleans property; when, subsequently, the Duke, on his
return from Vienna, had paid the Duchess a visit in Swit-
zerland, then. already, the princely relations of her Royal
Highness in Germany had entered the circle of transac-
t' which embraces the grave question of the fusion of
the two branches of the Bourbon

CIRCULAR NOTE OF THE SUBLIME PORTE,
ADDRESSED TO THE REPREsENTATIIVES OF ENOLAND,
FRANCE, AUSTRIA, AND PRUSSIA, AT CONSTANTINOPLE.
(Translated how the Turkish.)
THE question of the Holy Places, which formed one
of the principal objects of the mission of Prince
Menschikoff, envoy extrordinary of Russia, had been
solved to mutual satisfaction, when his Highness
started demands relative to the Greek Church and
clergy whicl► possessed quite a different character.
It is an affair of 1 for the Sublime Porte to
leave intact. as well now as in future, those religious
immunities, rights, and privileges which had been
granted. as well by former Sultans as by his reigning
Majesty. to the clergy, the churches, mu►d convents of
those of his subjects who profess the Greek religion ;
and, as the Sublime Porte has never thought to make
in this respect the least retractation, she has also
never doubted the kind and loyal sentiments of his
Majesty the Emperor of Russia towards the Sublime
Porte. But to stipulate with a foreign Government
by a formal treaty, or by *note or detiaration of equal

SATURDAY,

force and meaning, about the rights, privileges, and
immunities in favour of a numerous class of subjects
of the Sublime Porte, even if these rights were only
to relate to religion, the cadge, and church, would
destroy the independence and the foundation .of
government of the powers entering into such stipula-
tions, and can by no means be compared with
the concessions made by ancient treaties.
This has been explained as freely and honestly as
possible to Prince Menschikoff; and besides it has
been stated, that we are quite willing to dispel, by the
most appropriate declarations, those fears which may
be entertained with respect to a faith professed per-
sonally by his Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias.
It is to be regretted that this has not led to any
understanding between the two parties, and the Sub-
lime Porte deplores very much that the Prince has
gone so far as to break off official relations and to
leave his post. The Sublime Porte is animated by
no inimical sentiments towards the high Court of
Russia, but, on the contrary, cherishes the most
ardent desire to cement closer than before, by a re-
sumption of official relations, those ties of friendship
so dear to her. She hopes, therefore, that his Majesty
the Emperor, whose high sentiments of justice are
sufficiently known, will not, without reason, enter the
area of hostilities, and that his conservative principles,
whose witness is the whole world, will not permit him
to resort to steps which would be in contradiction
with the formal declarations made by his Majesty to
the high Courts of Europe. As, however, Prince
Menschikoff has broken off the diplomatic relations,
and left his post, and as since the Sublime Porte has
not received the insurance that no war will break out;
as, on the contrary, Russia is making armaments of
an enormous scale by land and sea, in the vicinity of
the Osmans' empire ; the Porte, although not har-
bouring by any means inimical sentiments, has found
herself compelled to make certain preparations in way
of precaution, and has resolved to resort, from this
date, to military defensive measures. The Sublime
Porte hopes that the high Courts which have signed
the treaty of 1841 will assent to this line of conduct.
MUSTAPHA RESCHID.
19 Safer, 1209 (20th May, 1853).

" TI►E PRESS" AND THE EASTERN QUESTION.-6011
Monday we stated that the demands of Russia upon
the Porte had been virtually encouraged both by Lord
Clarendon and Lord Aberdeen. Our readers will
recollect that we did little more than repeat, in per-
haps a more cautious form, the statement which had
on the previous Saturday been published in the
columns of the PRESS. Up to this hour no contra-
diction dues been given. We may now, therefore,
assume, as an admitted fact, that Baron Brunow,
months ago, sought from Lord Clarendon the opinion
of England on the Russian invasion of Turkey's inde-
pendence, and that Lord Clarendon, aided by Lord
Aberdeen, virtually represented that opinion as not
unfavourable to the project of the Czar. If contra-
diction could be given we may be perfectly sure that
before this it would have been so.—Morning Herald.
THE Frankfort Journal asserts that the Emperor
of Russia had expressed his willingness to accept the
mediation of Austria.
W's regret to announce the death, by suicide, of
the Hon. and Rev. A. P. Perceval, rector of Little
Bookharn, and one of the chaplains to her Majesty.
At the inquest it was proved that the deceased cler-
gyman had taken a large quantity of laudanum. The
evidence showed also that he had for some time past
been labouring under strange delusions; and the
verdict of " Temporary insanity" was returned.
MR. GEORGE BIRCH, an Irish attorney, has been
arrested on a charge of taking and carrying away
money and valuable securities belonging to his aunt,
Mrs. Kelly, to the amount of about 35,0001. The
prosecuttix is the widow of the late Mr. Edmund
Kelly, of Roscommon, under whose will she suc-
ceeded, after much litigation, in establishing her
right to a fortune little short of half a million sterling.