The Press.
London, England, 1854-04-29 00:00:00

BRIBERY AND CORRPUTION.

Leave was given on Thursday, on the motion of Mr. WALPOLE,
to bring in a bill to consolidate and amend the laws relating
to bribery, corrupt treating, and undue influence at elections.

tortign anb golanial `,,itttiligtrat.

FRANCE. •
The French Government, in compliance with re-
quest from Nantes, Marseilles, and Bordeaux, will
allow Russian merchantmen leaving the Baltie or
Black Sea before May 15 for French ports to die
charge their cargoes and return to Russian or neutral

ports.
The Moniteur denies that any requisition has been
made by France and England to Prussia with a
view to force her to quit her neutral attitude, and
affirms that the identity of interests of the German
powers is a sufficient guarantee for their common
action
Conferences have been held at the hotel of the
Minister of Foreign Affairs, in which the English
Ambassador, M. Drouyn de Lhuys, the Minister of
the Marine, and Rear• Admiral Dundas, have taken
part to prepare the regulation of the different ques-
tions relative to neutrals, to prizes, and to other
points concerning the maritime laws.
The Moniteur announces that a sixth squadron
will he added to each of the fifty-three regiments of
French cavalry.
The decree augmenting the number of recruits to
be raised this year from 80,000 to 140,000 men has
given rise to litigation. Every young man in
France, without distinction, being liable to be drawn
for the army, a number of insurance societies have
sprung up, who for a premium undertake to provide
a substitute in the event of the party paying the
premium being drawn. The insurers now object
that their contract must be understood to apply only
to the ordinary risk, and that now that the chances
of being drawn are nearly doubled it would be mani-
festly unjust to hold them responsible. The ques-
tion has been brought before the Lille Tribunal of
Commerce, which has decided against the insurers.
An appeal has been entered, and the case will
doubtless be carried to the court of the last resort.
So great is the demand for men as substitutes in the
French army that the price has increased in the
departments from I,ooof. or 1,200 f. to 4,500 f.
Marshal de St. Arnaud, Commander-in-Chief of
the French army of the East, embarked on Thursday
last, the 27th, at Marseilles, on board the steam-
corvette Chaptal, for Gallipoli.
Prince Napoleon, who left Toulon on the 17th,
arrived at Malta in the morning of the 20th. The
Prince was received on landing by the authorities
with all the honours due to his rank, and with every
manifestation of welcome by the military as well as
by the population generally. His Imperial Highness
dined with the governor, and went to the theatre in
the evening, where he was the object of general
curiosity. He embarked during the night of the
20th for Constantinople.
Two French officers have visited Bronssa to confer
with Abd-el• Kader on the means of raising a corps of
Arabian cavalry to act against Russia. Abd el-
Kader, it is stated, entered warmly into the plan, and
was resolved on taking an active part himself in the
war against the enemies of his benefactor and protector,
and with this view was going immediately to Con-
stantinople.
The bill on public instruction has been introduced
into the Legislative Assembly. The following are
its principal provisions :—France is to be divided
into sixteen academical jurisdictions, which will be
administered by a rector, assisted by as many in-
spectors of academies as there are departments in
the circumscription. An academical council is to be
established in the chief town of every jurisdiction,
and a council of public instruction in the chief town
of every department. The powers of these councils
are to be determined by a law. After the Ist of
January, 1855, the establishments of superior in.
struction, charged with conferring degrees, are to
form a separate division, and to be maintained by
the State.
Thursday, the 20th instant, was the birthday of
the Emperor Napoleon, who then accomplished his
46th year. Several private and official banquets
took place in Paris in honour of the day.
Namik Pacha took leave of the Emperor on Wed-
nesday last on his departure
for the East.
An imperial decree, promulgating that convention
entered into between France and Belgium on the
22nd of August, 1852, for the guarantee of
.works of
literature and art, has appeared in the Moniteur.
Decrees approving of the fusion of the
.Strasbourg
and Bale and the Strasbourg and Wissembourg

THE PRESS.

Railway with the Eastern of France Railway, and
that of the Dijon and Besancon Railway with the
Paris and Lyons Railway, were published on Tues-

day.
In consequence of the failure of MM. Leroy, Cha •
bral, and Co., several failures have taken place at
Sedan, and among others a banking-house for a sum
which is said to amount to six millions of francs.
Several manufacturers have consequently been
obliged to suspend their works.
The Orleans journals state that 625 hectares of
wood in the domanial forest of Vierzon have been
totally destroyed by lire. The loss will fall not only
upon the State, but upon private individuals, many por-
tions of the forest having been leased for felling.
Another fire, destroying fourteen hectares, has oc-
curred in the forest of Cherbrune, in the Puy de
Dome. There is too much reason to believe that
these fires are the work of incendiaries. The pro-
vincial journals contain reports of many other incen-
diary fires.

GERMANY.
The marriage of the Emperor of Austria was cele-
brated with great pomp on Monday evening. The
imperial bride arrived on the previous Saturday, and
entered the capital on Sunday in a state procession.
The nuptials were performed at half-past seven
o'clock, in the Church of St. Augustine, at Vienna.
Besides the Imperial Family, the Cardinal Archbishop
of Prague, the Archbishop of Olmiitz, the Primate of
Hungary, Cardinal Von Scitowsky, the Prince Arch-
bishop of Gratz, Field-Marshal Radetzky, the Ban
Jellachich, Baron Hess, nearly all the chief digni-
taries of the empire and the diplomatic corps were
present. The Czar sent General Grunwald from
St. Petersburg to congratulate the Emperor; but if
the relationships between the two Sovereigns had
been on the old amicable footing a prince of the
blood would doubtless have been entrusted with the
mission.
Vienna was decorated and illuminated on the mar-
riage evening, and much enthusiasm is said to have
been displayed by the citizens. The Emperor
granted an amnesty to 356 political prisoners, of
whom 245 receive a full pardon ; the sentences of
the others are commuted into various terms of im-
prisonment. All criminal suits in Galicia for trea-
son are quashed; also all similar suits for offences
against his Majesty throughout the empire. The
state of siege in Lombardy and the Venetian terri-
tory will be raised entirely after the Ist of May. The
Emperor ordered 200,000 florins to be distributed
among the poor (If the various provinces.
The nuptials of the Archduchess Elizabeth, relict
of Archduke Ferdinand d'Este, with his Imperial
Highness the Archduke Charles Ferdinand, were
privately solemnised on the 18th inst. at the Court
chapel of St. Joseph.
Preparations are already being made for the nup-
tials of Princess Louisa, a daughter of Prince Charles
of Prussia, with Prince Alexis of Hesse-Philippsthal.
The small palace of Monbijou, of which the King of
Prussia accorded a detached wing to be converted
into an English chapel, is to be fitted up as a resi
dente for the young couple.
The following are said to be the principal clauses
of the treaty recently entered into between Austria

and Prussia:—
" The treaty lays down that the operations of war under-
taken by Austria must be concerted beforehand with
Prussia, whose consent will be a necessity. This is the
general rule ; but an exception is made in the following
case :—Anstria is to have liberty of action, as far as she
may consider advisable, in the Danubian provinces ; that is
to say, that the Emperor of Austria is so far master that
he is empowered, without the consent of Prussia, to make
the only war that he is really likely to make in the present
state of affairs, and certainly the only one that France and
England could wish him to undertake ; and that, as
respects Prussia, he is only to be bound to deliberate with
that power with respect to ulterior operations, of which
the bearing or necessity cannot at present be calculated.
For this latter event, should the necessity arise, Austria is
to provide an army of 150,000 men, and Prussia is to sup-
port her with 100,000 men."
Lieutenant-General Theodore Rochus von Rochow,
Prussian Envoy at St. Petersburg, died there on the
20th after a brief illness. The deceased general was
universally esteemed, and his loss rill be severely
felt by the Emperor of Russia and Count Nesselrode.

SWITZERLAND.
The Federal Gazette publishes an official report
from the War Department, from which it appears
that the federal army of Switzerland amounts at pre-
sent to 125,160 men. The Landwehr amounts to
150,I1X)0 men, forming a total of 275,000 men. The
first contingent comprises men of from 21 to 20, the
second from 29 to 35, and the Landwehr not exceed-
ing the age of 45.
ITALY.
Endeavonrs are making to re-establish a friendly
understanding between Austria and Piedmont. Ails
trig makes it a condition of renewed friendly inter-
course that the Piedmontese Government shall re-
nounce its legislative propositions respecting the
possessions of the clergy, conform to the wishes of

389

Austria with respect to the reception and treatment
of refugees, and enact a restrictive press law.
The Piednumtese Gazette of the 20th publishes a
decree ordering a levy of 12,000 men from the class
of 1853. A bill for the establishment of a telegraphic
line from Alessandria to Novara passed the Pied-
montese Chamber on the 21st.
The Tuscan Monitore of the 19th publishes a
decree for the organisation of a battalion of sharp-
shooters in the Tuscan army. It is to consist of 047
men, officers included.
The Augsburg Gazette states that her Royal High-
ness the Regent of Parma becomes more popular
from day to day. The possessions of charitable in-
stitutions, and even of individuals, which had been
most unjustly seized by the Government, have been
restored, and an indemnification for the loss will be
given. The decree of the late Sovereign, in virtue of
which every subject was to have subscribed 40 per
cent. of his income to the forced loan, has been
abolished, and the unlimited power of issuing Exche-
quer Bills has been taken from the Finance Depart-
ment. A loan of 2,400,000 lire (Bd.) will be raised
on the dompins of the Crown and the private posses-
sions of the Ducal Family. The shares will be for
511) and 1,000 lire, the whole loan to be paid off in
four years, at the rate of 600,000 lire per annum.
The royal establishment has also been greatly re-
duced.
The King of Naples is said to have been greatly
incensed by the language held by the Bishop of
Nancy at the marriage of Prince Joachim Murat, the
eldest son of Prince Lucien. The prelate on that
occasion said :—" Songez, mon prince, que roes ites
peut-ette appal a porter en jour ens couronne."
Marquis Antonini, the Neapolitan Minister at Paris,
was instructed to demand an explanation of such ex-
pressions, which were the more significant as falling
from the an/nosier of the Emperor. The reply that
M. Drouyn de Lhuys was instructed to give was to
the effect that the French Government could not be
answerable for any expressions used by a dignitary of
the Church in the performance in private of &family
religious ceremony.
SPAIN.
The Madrid Gazette has published a decree which
may be considered as the reply to the note lately
sent in by Lord Howden:—
" It prohibits the equipment, supply, and reception in
any Spanish port of privateers under the Russian flag. It
forbids all, shipowners, and captains or masters of Spanish
merchant vessels, to accept letters of marque from any
power whatsoever, or to afford to ships bearing such let.
ters any assistance beyond what humanity may demand in
cases of fire or shipwreck. It announces that the transport
of merchandise of all kinds may be safely effected under
Spanish colours, with the exception of materials of war
and despatches or written communications, excepting also
to places blockaded by the belligerent parties, the Spanish
Government repudiating the responsibility of all injury or
damage that may be received in the infraction of such
blockades.'

A negotiation for a loan, amounting to twenty-two
millions of reale, has been concluded between the
Spanish Government and two capitalists, to whom
the revenues of the Philippine Islands have been
given as security.
PORTUGAL.
No application has yet been made to the Cortes
regarding the young King's projected voyage to Eng-
land, France, and Belgium, but the affair appeared to
be settled, and his Majesty is to be accompanied by
the Duke of Terceira and Viscount Correira.
TURKEY.
Accounts that Odessa had been bombarded by the
combined fleets, and that Silistris was closely in-
vested and partially burnt by the Russians, were re-
ceived vl4 Vienna some days since. The statements
were given most circumstantially, the very number
of houses, 1,325, destroyed in Odessa being an-
nounced to a unit. Subsequent information, how-
ever, shows that neither report had the slightest
foundation. The only account of engagements that
appears authentic is one to which the Moniteur has
given official corroboration, stating that on the lath
inst. a sharp encounter took place before Kalafat
between the Russian and Turkish forces. The Rus-
sians were driven bark as far as Maglovitz with a
loss of nearly 500 men. The Turks had fourteen
men killed and thirty-three wounded.
The last intelligence from the seat of war is to the
effeet that the Russians had not crossed Trojan's
Wall, but were strengthening themselves in the Do-
brudacha, and that Omer Paeha had made a retro-
grade movement in order to concentrate his forces.
A telegraphic despatch published in the Austrian
Lloyd adds to the statement that all the Russian
forces were retiring from Kalafat, and that Prince
Paskiewitsch had issued orders fur the evacuation of
Lesser Wallachia.
Constantinople letters of the 17th announce

that 1,638 English troops, comprising the 33rd
and 41st Regiments, had arrived in the Himalaya,
and were quartered in the new barracks at Scutari.
The British declaration of war had been posted up
by order of Lord Stratford. Two palaces have been