The Express.
London, England, 1863-09-01 00:00:00

"utia
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VEN TG, SEPT.

FROM P.

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...at/04ov ous OWN CORIZSPONI4‘;)
PARIS, MONDAY EVIOWN‘.
Whether or not, as a matter of a fact, an alliance
between France and Russia is at hand, it is evident
that the French journals have orders to treat sash
an event as possible and desirable. The Frame
follows up tie hints which I noticed yesterday, by
an article headed "A Political Evolution," which
is most complimentary to Russia, and favours the
idea that she is about by her own "initiative" to
do all and more than France could desire to pacify
Poland. The Francs considers it nothing but
"logical" that Russia should enter upon a "sin-
cerely liberal" course. Prussia also it hopes well
ot, believing that the Congress of Frankfort must
have " opened its eyes," and served as a " warning"
to its statesmen. These things being premised, the
France enlarges upon the especial disinterestedness
of France, in regard to all the great European
questions which are pending, and comes to the
conclusion that she has a "providential mission',
to resolve them. Continuing to reason in this
" order of ideas," it lays down the proposition
that it is more indifferent to France than to the '
other two powers, "by whom and in what form"
justice to Poland shall be done. England and
Austria, it says, are hampered by "secondary
considerations." France alone hovering serene in
the pore regions of " European order° can with
dignity accept a plan for the re-organisation of
Poland, emanating from the " initiative " at
Russia, set in motion by the " influence" of
Prussia. In aid of this line of argument, it is
suggested that England is regarded by Russia
as an adversary, whose policy stands in her
way in India, Asia, and China ; and that Austria
is an ambitious neighbour, who opposes Russian
influence in Germany, and has views upon the
Danubian Principalities and the Ottoman empire
which alarm St. Petersburg. France, on the con-
trary, does not desire to weaken the empire of the
iczars ; has no conflict of ambition, no secular
rivalry, no present interest to separate her from
Russia. Let France's disinterested sympathy for
Poland be satisfied, and then nothing will stand in
the way of a lasting friendship.
The above article looks very like • bid for a
Russian alliance ; and no doubt if Russia could be
brought to an entente cordiale with France, the
semi-oflicial journals of Paris would very soon be
instructed to think that " justice to Poland" was
fully satisfied by whatever it might please the
Czar to decree. It may be, however, that Russia
is not quite so ripe as France for the "political
evolution" heralded by the France, and that a de-
sire to cover a diplomatic defeat and furnish a
plausible excuse for not going to war is at the bot-
tom of all these pleadings.
The Petrie speaks very much to the same effect
as the France as to something contemplated at St.
Petersburg on the suggestion of the King of Prus-
sia, which will "go beyond the demands made by
the three notes." "It is not without reserve,"
says the Petrie, "that we publish this news ; but
we are disposed to see a confirmation of it in the
journey of Prince de Hohenzollern to Paris, in the
recent audiences given to M. de Budberg, and the
postponement of the insertion in the Moniteur of
M. Drouyn de Lhuya' last despatch, and the me-
morial which accompanied it."
The scheme which it is said the Czar proposes
for a constitutional government in Russia com-
prises two chambers—a Senate of 300 members ap-
pointed for life, and a representative chamber of
450 members. Independently of the central repre-
sentation each province is to have • special consti-
tution ; the kingdom of Poland, for instance,
would have a diet sitting at Warsaw, an internal
autonomy of a very complete kind, and would at
the same time send deputies to the Chamber at St.
Petersburg. Finland and the other great provinces
of the empire would be organised on a similar
principle. The project is opposed by the court
party, which fears a loss of influence, and is jeal-
ous of Moscow as a rival of St. Petersburg, for it
is proposed thr.t the new parliament should sit in
Moscow, although St. Petersburg would still be the
seat of the court. It is hoped that the Emperor
of Russia will be able to overrule all objections.
The Empress left St. Cloud this morning for
Biarritz.

Prince Napoleon's yacht is at Havre, awaiting to
convey him and the Princess Clothilde to Lisbon,
where they wish to be at the time of the Queen's
sceonehement. It is not stated whether the yacht
will stay at Cherbourg en route.
The Bourse was in great spirits, owing to the
prospect of a friendly settlement of the Polish dif-
ficulty. The interview which Count de• Goltx
bad with the Emperor to-day was believed to be
connected with the news above extracted fr•m the
evening papers. Rente rose 40c., and Mobilier
371 r. 150 c.

A RHINE STIAXIOAT ON PHlL—Three days
back • fearfnl scene was presented on board a steamboat
on the Rhine, Darned the Agrippina. The vessel was= the
memo upward. front Rotterdam, when one of • beeketful
of bottles cootaining bensoine was broken, nod the in-
flammable stuff ran down the owl-spout on the deck
into the engine-room ; a volume of flame • instantly
shot up as high as the top of the funnel, and one
of the paddle-boxer, the smoking-room on deck, and the
oonductor's room with all his papers were soon de-
stroyed. There were fifty passengers on board, and it
may be easily =Desired that terror and disorder preo
veiled all over the vesseL The enguner bad the pre-
emies of mind at the outbreak of the fire to redoes the
speed, but the west wind drove the llamas emcee the deck, and
the other peddle-box POO caught fire, and thee all comma.
elastics between the fore and after part of the reseal wee
cut off. On the after part, besides SOON pensagers,
there were only the steersman and the ship's cook ; bat
the latter cut down the awning over the deck to
prevent it taking fire, and the boat was launched to
save the passengers Fortunately a tag-boat wu near.
Her crew rowed to the burning vessel as woo
as possible, when the passengers were put os shore,
and the fire was eztioguisbed is the course of ball an hour.
The that thing done when order was restored was to un-
ceremoniously throw overboard the hamper of benzoine,
which had been the came of all the mischief. Tbe pas-
sengers were takes on the same evening by another vessel,
and the Agrippina was sent to Rotterdam to be repaired.
Tag " TIMES " AND THE CONFEDERATE STEAMERS.
—After making all abatements due to the exceptional cha-
racter of the war between Federals and Confidantes, we
must seeds admit that the case of warships is Dot like
the case of munition, of war. There is not so much direct
intervention or provocation in one as there is is the other.
Rifles and gunpowder are soon lost sight of, hut •
ship of war is an active engine, endowed, as it
were, with life and personality, and traceable in
her achievements from day to day. Indeed if we suppose I
that not only the hull, but the guns, the stores, and the
men are furnished more or lees circuitously from the neutral
state, it is hard to MI bow the supply differs from that of a
regiment of soldiers, We have only to ask ourselves what
our feelings would have been if, while we were block-
ading the Russian porta during the Crimean war, some
neutral state had furnished the RUSika govammeet with
cruisers enough to close the sea against our commerce. Of !
course we should have allowed them such • range as
the Alabama bas enjoyed, bat some day or other even we, ,
with our enormous navy, may God our hands too full. It
is sot oar interest to allow such a precedent to be estab-
lished for the first time, if it does not exist already, nor to
connive at its extension, if it has any existence. Of all the
doubts which the question contains we ought to give our.
Delves the benefit, and our interests, as it happens, coincide
oe this suasion with the desires of the Federal States.—
ltiesrs

MARCHANT SRAHIN's ORPHAN ASYLUM—The
Ulf-yearly oloctioa took place yeiteeday at the Lead°.
Tavern. The hoard of management, Is their report. .rpd
upon the friends and patrons of the society the neosority al
obtaioieg increased support for the institution. They stated
that the explicate %mired during the post year in a
cotd
I pletiog and rendering the new asylere fit for cectipatioe
precluded the possibility of iocroatang the number of
children to be admitted at the present election. At twelve
o'clock the subscribers proceeded to elect four girls out
et tee candidates, and eight boys out of twenty tune can-
didates.

•
.k.,R 1, 1463.

THE POLISH INSURRECTION.

(FRO: OUR SPECIAL 001

CRACOW. AUGUST 27.

There was a report current in Cracow yester.
day, to the effect that the insurgents had torn up
the rails for the space of fifteen English miles on
the Warsaw line. On proteeding to the railway
station to learn the truth, I found the report con-
firmed, so that my contemplated journey to War-
saw swat be deferred for, at any rate, a few days.
Letters from Cracow to Warsaw were forwarded
this morning by way of Konigsberg, which looks as
if the rail from Berlin to Warsaw were also imprec-
[ ticable. The railway is about the surest barometer
to which one can trust to register the rise and fall of
the insurrection. Nothing annoys the Russians so
much as the stoppage of railway communication,
and this wholesale destruction of the line, which
L a proof that the insurgents must be in great
foroe, is an excellent commentary on the late report,
which was forwarded to St. Petersburg, to the effect
that the insurrection had been put down. The fact is
that so far from being put down, the insurrection
gains ground every day, if not directly, indirectly,
for by existing from day to day the hold of the
National Govern meet on the people becom es stronger,
and the Russian authorities are day by day brought
into inoreseing embarrassment by their inability to
collect the taxes. The peasants are already
beginning to regard the National Government in the
light of a fixed institution, and the peasants once
fairly gained over, the Russian hold of the king-
dom of Poland is gone for ever. But for the
invaluable aid lent by the peasantry in the
Ruthenian provinces, the insurrection would there
have placed the Russians in the utmost jeopardy.
That the crime of Nicholas in forcibly convening
the Uniates in those provinces to the orthodox
faith, should already have stood the Russians in
such good stead, is one of those facts which render
it very hard to believe that Providence rules al
things for the best. That it cannot by any
possibility be fur the best for any individual or
people to live under Russian rule, I think
even Lord Shaftesbury would have to admit. When
travelling in Volhynia, I was informed by • doc-
tor, living in a small country town, that he would
never forget to the day of his death the scenes he
witnessed as a boy at the conversion of the unfortu-
nate Uniates. Driven like sheep into the schismatic
churches, the victims were forced to abjure the
religion of their fathers, and if one refused the
knout was administered till he should think better
of it. In particular the doctor mentioned the case
of several women, who obstinately clung to their
old faith, for which constancy they were severely
beaten on the bare back, under his very eyes, and
thirty years had not sufficed to effuse the impression
from his memory.
Whatever course the Western Powers why adopt,
there is not the remotest probability that the in-
surreotion will be put down in any given time.
The extent of the military operations during the
winter months will depend more or less on the
greater or less severity of the season. If the coming
winter should be as mild as the last, there isnothieg
to prevent the continuance of the sort of warfare
which is at present carried on. If, on the other
hand, the winter should be a severe one, the number
of engagements will be much entailer, bitt the pot is
sure to be kept boiling till the spring. The National
Government is so universally obeyed, and the taxes
paid to its appointed agents with such regularity,
that the Russian government exists only in name
in the kingdom of Poland. That step which is
essential to the success of all desperate under-
takings, i.e., the cutting off of all possibility of
retreat, has long since been deliberately taken by
the Poles, so that they have only success or an-
nihilation before them. It lies with the Western
Powers to decide, whether Europe shall be the richer
by a generous and intellectual people, or whether
the Cossack shall be brought so much nearer to
their own doors.

I visited yesterday the St. Lazarus Hospital,
whither the latest batch of wounded brought into
Cracow from the detachment of Tanie wak i were con-
veyed. It is almost the rule now that the insurgents,
in crossing the frontier, have a preliminary tussle
with the Austrians, who have lately nearly doubled
their force along the Galician frontier. In one of
these affairs, which took place a fortnight since, it is
reported that the Austrians had four or five men
killed, besides nine or ten wounded. Whatever may
bathe truth of this report—and the authorities keep
these things very dark—nine Poles wounded by
Austrian soldiers were brought into the Lazarus
hospital. In some cases a sentinel is placed at the
foot of the wounded man's bed, I suppose
to see that he does not run away while
having his leg cut off. I found the
same cheerfulness pervading the patients which
has struck me on all my visits to the hospitals,
and which, I have no doubt, helps them to get well
the faster. There were several who bad received
eight or nine wounds, and one the back of whom
bead bad been lopped off by a sabre-cut.