The Express.
London, England, 1855-01-08 00:00:00

RUSSIA.

OP TES DAMP NUIPS4
ST. PETERSBURG, Due. 27.
In my last letter I mentioned that the Czar had
sent orders by the telegraph for Prince Paskiewitai
Erivansicy to repair to this capital from his seat of
government at Warsaw. Those orders were, how-
ever, countermanded the next day, but have now
been again renewed, and we may look for his arrival
here in a few days,* no doubt to spend the Christmas
holidays (twelve days later than ours) at St. Peters-
burg.
Reports are current that the aged Prince is to have
the command of the army in the Crimea, or, accord-
ing to other accounts, of the troops on the Danube;
but I am informed on good authority that, though
such an offer has been male to him more than once,
he has uniformly persisted in declining any active
summand, as he feels that at him very advanced age
he is not equal to bear the hardships inseparably con-
noted with an active campaign. Oa the contrary I
may venture to assert that the object of Prince
Paskiewitch's visit to St. Petersburg is to give the
Mar an opportunity of concerting measures with the
Gold marshal and viceroy for the protection of the
treaders of Poland, should the threatening attitude et
Austria lead to open hostilities.

(PROM THI

The Constilutionnel publishes the following letter
from St. Petersburg, dated the 28th ult. :
"Now that the two Grand Deices have returned
from the Crimes, the Cesarewitch Alexander and
Prince Pukiewitch are expected. The journey of

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tartan from Warsaw tot 81. Ntorsberi.-59.

this Worts caused by military and political reasons.'
In his quality of oommander-in-chief of all the active
army his °Onion is of paramount authority on all
matters relating to the army under his orders. He
recommends ofters to **summand of corps and for
other employments It is he who got Pnnoe Gort-
shakolf appointed, first to the command of the army
of the Danube, and then to that of the army of the
south. It is he who had Osten-Sackett named to
the 4th corps d'armee, Read-to the 3rd, Rudiger to the
command in Poland, and lately Berg to the command
in Finland. Above all, he has to render an account of
all the measures taken for the defence of the empire in
west and south-west. The following is the way in
which the frontier provinces are provided with
troops. In the provinces of the Baltic are the Grena-
diers of the Guard and of the reserve, in addition to
the garrisons in the town of the coast; in Poland and
Lithuania there are the let corps d'arinee, having its
head-quarters at Radom, garrisons at Zamoie, Iwan-
gond, and Nowogeorgiewsk, two divisons of Grena-
dian, two divisions of the Guard, two brigades of
cavalry and two of the Artillery of the Guard, the
artillery and cavalry of the let corps, of which two
divisions are near Kamienits and Kijow. The last-
named town is the centre forthe position of the reserve.
From Kamiesits to Kiechenew, Odessa and Reni
extend the remainder of the 3rd corps, under the or-
ders of Gortchekoff; the corps of the cavalry reserve,
Cossaske and garrison troops, as far as Kherson and
the Tanrida. The second line of this defensive posi-
tion is formed by the army of reserve, which has its
head quarters, under the orders of Tscheodajaw, at
Moscow itself. Bach are the principal points of the
position which Russia has selected for displaying her
armies in the face of Europe, a position which, not-
withstanding its great extent from St. Petersburg to
Odessa, appears to many persons in this country so
exceedingly strong that they would look on the ao-
ceptance of the four conditions as an act of shameful

coOdemendence 'towards the Western Powers. M.
Brok, our Minister of Finance, provides perfectly for
all our wants of money. In order to ensure to the
Russian merchants a sort of monopoly in the commerce
of tea with China, he has had the ingenious idea of
levying a duty double that paid by the native mer-
chants, on all teas imported from the frontiers of Siberia
and Orenburg by the other merchants of Asia. This
measure will have the inevitable consequence of
leading to the naturalisation of the Asiatic traders
as Russian subjects, or at least their inscription in
the corporations of the empire, whence it follows
that the new measure has, at the same time, a
political bearing by bringing the non-Russian
merchant under a sort of dependence with respect
to our government, as. in order to save his com•
mercial existence, he will be obliged to pay what
is called the corporation tax. The day before yes-
terday a young man was so imprudent as to allow
his tongue to run on somewhat too freely, which
act brought him into trouble. He had remarked
that the four points sent from Vienna were some-
what too highly salted, and that Austria seemed
to have thrown into them some of the products of
her saltworks of Wielicka, in order to sell them as
dearly as possible. ' But,' added he, no one will be
Neva that the Czar will yield as long as he has a
conscript left.' These short observations were made
last Thursday in a society of intimate friends at
Strains. The next day, the young man received
from the government a passport to proceed to his
property at Saratoff, with these words : ' Count
ff will be pleased, like a good patriot, to
explore his property and see if he can find any salt
there, and free Russia from the necessity of obtaining
her salt from other countries.'"

A letter from Vienna, 2nd, in the Cologne Gazette,
says: _

" It is clearly evident that Frinve, England, and
Austria are very moderate in their demands, and
are animated with a desire for peace. Unfortunately
the same cannot be said of Russia. Prince Gorts-
chakoff yesterday stated in a confidential circle that
the demands which had been communicated to him
could not accord with the fundamental idea of Rus-
sian policy, and that, consequently, their acceptance
at St. Petersburg would meet with great difficulties.
He added that, in his opinion, the most that the Em-
peror Nicholas would do, in order to spare Germany
from the horrors of a war, would be to allow the allies
to withdraw freely from the Crimes. Such a preten-
sion clearly shows that there is nothing to hope for
on the part of Russia. It is said that Prussian not
far from giving her adhesion to the treaty of the 2nd
December. The intrepretation of the four points,
which is said to be very moderate, is doubtless known
to her, as it has been communicated to Prince Gort-
chakoff."

A letter from Warsaw of the 27th ult., in the
Wanderer of Vienna, states that some regiments of
the cavalry of the Guard have passed the Vistula to
join the corps of observation formed on the Prussian
frontier. Regiments of infantry and artillery of
the Guard are being sent towards that frontier.