The Press.
London, England, 1856-05-31 00:00:00

PR

THE BALLOT.
Major Ittm, on Tuesday, gaVe notice that on
the 2.lth of June he should move for a select com-
mittee to receive evidence from constituencies upon
the present system of open voting and the limitation
of the franchise.
THE NATIONAL DEBT.
Mr. POLLARD-URQUHART, on Tuesday, gave notice
that on the 24th June he should move for a select
committee to consider the question of paying off the
National Debt by means of terminable annuities.

THE POET-OFFICES.
The Duke of ARGYLL, on Monday, in answer to a
question from the Marquis of Clanricarde, stated that
in 103 of the largest country post daces there bad
been a revision of the scale of payment, and the
salaries of the clerks had been increased. There
were ninety-nine other offices now under revision.

APPELLATE JURISDICTION OF THE HOUSE.
The LORD CHANCELLOR, on Monday, laid on the
table a 13.11 to make better provision for the discharge
of the appellate jurisdiction of the House of Lords,
which had been framed in pursuance of the recom-
mendations of the select committee. The bill, was
read a first time.

DISEMBODIED MILIT/l.
Mr. PEEL, on Monday, in reply to Mr. Grogan,
said that when a militia regiment was disembodied
no officers continued to receive permanent pay ex-
cept adjutants and quartermasters, who retained
their appointments. If sergeants who had been
promoted to the position of adjutants and quarter.
masters retained their appointments, of course they
would be permitted to remain on the permanent
staff; but others who had been promoted, but who
did not retain their appointments on the disembodi
ment of the regiment, would only receive the pay
they were previonsly entitled to receive.

INDIAN ACCOUNTS.

The Earl of ALBEMARLE, on Monday, rose to move
for various returns connected with the salaries, pen-
sions, and annuities paid to the servants of the East
India Company, with the view of ascertaining whether
the number of civil servants were sufficient for a
good government in India, and whether, in a poor
country like India, the number could be increased at
the present rate of remuneration.
Earl GRANVILLE objected to the motion ; the re-
turns would entail gr, at expense an.l immense labour,
without effecting the purpose the Earl of Albemarle
had in view.
The Earl of ELLENBOROUGH believed that the
India-house would not be able to furnish four-fifths
of the returns.
After a sugLmstion from Earl GRANVILLE, that the
Earl of Albemarle should withdraw his motion and
apply to the Board of Control for the information
which might be given as to some of the returns, the
Earl of Albemarle assented to this course, and the
motion Was withdrawn.
BUSINESS OF THE ROUSE.

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, on Tuesday,
in reply to Mr. Hadfield as to what the Government
intended to do with the various bills now pending,
begged to state in answer, that it was the intention
of the Government on Monday next to propose, as
the first order of the day, that the house should go
into a committee of supply, and proceed with the
civil service estimates until they were completed.
Afterwards would be taken the remaining votes of
the army and navy estimates. Notice had been
given by the hon. member for Inverness-shire of his
intention to bring forward the question of recruiting
in America, a question upon which negotiations were
now pending with the United States, on going into
committee of supply on the army estimates, and not
oe the civil service estimates. With regard to the
question of the hon. gentleman (Mr. Hadfield) re-
specting the several bills he had mentioned—viz., the
two Scotch Education Bills, the Wills and Adminis-
trations Bill, and the bills introduced by the Vice.
President of the Board of Trade—he was riot able to
state what course would be taken regarding those
measures, not knowing how long the remaining votes
in committee of supply woul4l occupy.
THE EXPOSITION BUILDINO in the Champs Elysees
is to be turned into an agricnitnral-show upou a
grand scale. Agricultural productions of every class,
and agricultural instruments and machines, with
cattle and sheep of every breed, have arrived. Prizes
will be given, and the exhibition will be open from
the Ist to the 10th of June, at an admission of lfr.
It is creating quite a sensation in Paris, and promises
to be highly successful.
AN EXTRAORDINARY CASE OF HOMICIDE, if not
murder, occurred at Washington, on the Bth. A
member of Congress a Mr. Herbert, stopping at
Willard's Hotel, Washington, ordered breakfast at an
hour when it was not allowed to be served without
a special order from the office. When told of this
Mr. Herbert abused the waiter, struck him, struggled
with him, and, finally drawing a revolver from his
pocket, shot the man dead. Mr. Herbert sable
quently delivered himself up to justice, and his
examination took place the following day, when he
Itah remands&

ALL the allied troops, except our own, continue to
leave the Crimea rapidly. 59,000 French, 10,000
Turks, and 7,000 Sardinians have managed to get
away, while only 9,000 English troops have been
embarked in the same time ; but then the English
ships are transporting these soldiers of all nations,
and our men of-war are not to be turned into trans-
ports. An entrance has been forced into the
harbour, and vessels are now laid alongside the
Admiralty and Nicholas Quay for artillery and stores.
Sir William Codrington held constant reviews and
inspections of the army.
The late fracas between the French and English
soldiers, in which an English sergeant of marines
bad been killed and a naval officer wounded, has
resulted, after a tedious inquiry, in the acquittal of
the French soldiers. The case is sai.l to have been
one of positive " murder," and, as the awe were
captured in filgreat delicto, with smoking arms,
there was no &alit about their identity. General
Codrington, it is said, is determined upon not letting
the matter rest without obtaining the punishment of
the offenders, and fresh representations have been
sent in to Mix-dial Pelissier.

A trial of field-pieces has been made between the
French six and twelve pounders, and our nines. The
trial does not seen to have been very creditable to
either armies, but we were disgracefully beaten, a fact
which the Times correspondent accounts for by our
artillery officers in command insisting upon pointing
and laying the guns themselves, to the exclusion of
the more practical gunners of the corps.
Marshal Pelissier it was expected would shortly
return to France, resigning the command to General
McMahon.

General d'Allonville's cavalry corps had come
round by land to Kamiescii from Eupator.a. The
Courrier de Marseilles publishes the following de-
scription of the march :

On leaving Eapatoria we marehed along the onset of
the Gulf of Kslnuits, leaving on our left the salt lakes of
Sassik, Tuala, and Karuisely. With regard to these lakes,
the Tartan, in order to supply themselves, with 'salt, have
only to drive their carts into the water sufficieatly deep fur
the water to flow into the carts ; and the mud at the bottom
being stirred up with the wheels, in a few minutes they
have an abundant supply of salt left behind as sediment.
The waters, or rather the mud, at the boti one of these lakes
is said to be a sovereign remedy for rheumatism and other
chronic complaints of the kind. We untortunitely h..d no
time to test this remedy, for although we have net easy
men affected with chronic complaints, many of us Lass
at times severe twinges of rheumatism in our joints flora
the damp and cold nights which we have been exposed to.
After passing the lake of Kamisely our road quitted the
seacoast, and turned a little to the east towards Old Fit. t,
near which the troops of the etpeditiou landed on the 14th
September, 1&,4. On leering Old Fort, we traversed three
chains of heights and then crossed Sulgansek, whirb is
rather a rivulet then a river. The Alma is only seitseat..d
from this stream by a small rising ground which rims seat
and west. 1 cannot express to you our feelings on leach-
ing the foot of the heights washed by the Alma, and where
the allied troops so gloriously opened the cAmpaign of the
Crimea. One could scarcely believe that our troops could
have been able to scale the rapid ascent which separated
them from the army of Prince. Menschikoff. After leaving
on our right the village of Mamaskeni, onr road again pro-
ceeded towards the sea, and crossed the Belbeek at a short
distance from its mouth. We then entered on t►e road
from Baktchi•Serai and Simferopol, which is a betttr and

. .
wider one than that on which we had been before march
ing, and we soon after arrived before the northern forts.
Oar embarkation will take place at Sebastopol, and not at
Kamiesch.

The Courrier de Marseilles also publishes the
following letter, dated Sebastopol, the 10th inst

The embarkation of troops is proceeding with the great-
est rapidity. About 40,000 men have already left, and as
many mole will have sailed before the end of Jane. The
French forces remaining here number 80,000 men. In
order to facilitate the embarkation, the engineers have con-
structed five platforms, three at Kainiesch and two at
Sebastopol, near the Quarantine. Those platforms advance
sufficiently far into the sea to enable both men and horses
to walk into the steamers which are to convey them to
France. The depirtere of the marshal has been re-
peatedly talked of, bat I have reason to believe that he will
be one of the last to quit the Crimea. This delay will en-
able the troops already arrived in the South of France to
recruit their strength previously to their entering Paris
with the marshal. The Russians continue to pay us fre-
quent visits.
Another letter, in a description of a dinner with
Russian officers, gives an excellent idea of their
habitudes de table:—

A few minutes after our arrival we were invited to seat
ourselves at table. The dining-room was in the garden
under a tent, which, as the weather was tine, was tar pre-
terabie to being indoors. According to the Russian custom,
a whet is given to the appetite by first going to a mile table
and drinking a glass of brandy or gin, and eating sardines,
cheese, and a lot of other things steeped in vinegar, but
which to those unaccustomed to them would rattler take
away all desire to eat, and the more so dist all drink out of
the same glass. and use the same fork to take ap ens
sardine, whieb they swallow virboleat one mosebini, without
bread, or removing the bones. These preliminary was-

MO

tions being over, we took our seats at a well.served table.
J had the seat of honour between General Wrangel and
another general. The table was covered with bottles of
wine, but not a drop of water. All the wine came from
our dealers at Kamiesch. We were first helped to a hot
Russian mite, composed of chopped meat mixed with rice,
eggs, caviare, and other condiments, and it was a very
savoury affair. After this there was a soup served round
in cups. It was strongly seasoned with cinnamon. Then
came hot hams, pieces of roast beef of 40lbs. weight, &c.
Three•gnarters of an hour's interval elapsed between each
dish, which penod was filled up with toasts and libations.
Then came sweet dishes is la Francaisr, such as puddings
with sauce, &c., and we were in hopes that the repast was
at an end; but in this we were deceived, for our plates
were removed, and we were served with roast turkey and
salad. the latter mixed with vinegar and sugar. We were
compelled to do violence to our stomachs, or else appear
wanting in politeness to our host. We drank to the health
of the Emperor Napoleon, the Emperor of Russia, Marshal
Pelissier, and others during five hours, not quitting the
table until near six o'clock. We had then ten leagues to
ride on our return home, and therefore after smoking some
cigars we left, and reached our quarters at ten o'clock.
Our horses we found had not fared as well as we had, for
not a grain of corn had been given them for the whole day.

The Piedmontese Gazette of the 24th inst. an.
flounces that General De la Marmora, Commander-
in Chief of the Sardinian Contingent, had embarked
at Constantinople on the 23rd, in the war steamer
Governolo, for Piedmont. _ _

Sir William Codrington, in a late general order to
the army on the conclusion of peace, quotes an
acknowledgment of the gallant services performed by
the troops male by Lord Panmure in a recent de-
spatch to the general commanding.