The Press.
London, England, 1858-04-10 00:00:00

THE WRECK OF THE " AVA."

ACCORDING to the latest advices from Trincomalee,
dated the 23rd of February, specie to the value of
77,0001. had been saved out of the 250,0001. that was
on board the wrecked mail-packet Ava. The specie
consisted of 500 boxes, each box containing 5,000
rupees. The money in every box was therefore
worth above 5001. sterling. After the wreck 200
boxes were piled up on the fore part of the ship,
ready to be taken ashore in the boats; but the Ava
broke in two unfortunately too near these boxes, and
forty six of them fell into the gap made by the
separation of the fore and aft parts of the steamer,
and thusnearly 25,0000/. was immediately engulfed.
As soon as the Ava struck, the Admiralty agent
rushed into the mail-room to save the mails, but he
found the room filled with water. A quantity of bag-
gage and cargo had been washed on shore, and a
party of Ceylon Rifles was guarding it. As soon as
the fore part of the Ara should break up some por-
tions of the mails would, it was expected, be floated
ashore. Some divers had arrived at the wreck, and
as soon as the sea was smoother they would com
mence operations. The weather overhead was
favourable. The Admiralty agent of the Ava and
the commander and some of his officers were at the
scene of the wreck, watching the breaking up of the
ship, in order to save as much as possible of what
was on board of her. As considerable dispute has
arisen as to the precise time when the Ava was
wrecked, the following information has been furnished
by a naval officer just arrived in England who was
one of her passengers :—Just after four p.m. the
eastern coast of Ceylon was sighted for the first time
on the starboard bow. At half-past seven in the
evening ar. apparently stationary light was observed,
which was supposed to be the Trincomalee light.
Exactly half an hour afterwards the helm was put a-
starboard, and Captain Kerton, the commander of
the Ava, gave orders to keep off the land four points.
As soon as the land was seen on the port bow, the
helm was put hard a-starboard, and the engines
were stopped. Before, however, she lost her way,
after turning astern, she bilged on a reef that was on
the starboard side, and in less than half an hour
afterwards the ship was fall of water.
Yesterday morning intelligence was reneived by
the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation
Company, that nearly the wholu of the specie and
mails bad been recovered.

---
ORSINI'S LETTER AND WILL.
THE letter to the Emperor is in Italian ; the will is
in French. They run as follows :

TO HIS MAJESTY NAPOLEON 111., EMPEROR OF THE FRENCH.
Sire,—The fact of your Imperial Majesty baring per..
mitted the publication of my letter of the llth of February,
while it is a clear proof of you: generosity, shows me that
the wishes expressed in favour of my country find an echo
in your heart, and to me, about to die, it is certainly no
small comfort to see how your Imperial Majesty is moved
by true Italian sentiments.
In a few hours I shall be no more ; but, before drawing
my last breath, I wish it to he known, and I declare it
with that frankness and courage which up to this day I
have never belied, that assassination, in whatever form it
may disguise itself, does not enter into my principles, not.
withstanding that, by a fatal mental error, I allowed my.
self to be led into organizing the attempt of the 14th of
January. No, political assassination was not a part of my
system, and I have combated it, exposing ray very life, as
Well by writings as by public facts, at the time when a mis-
sion of Government put me in a position to do so,
And let my countrymen, instead of putting faith in
the system of assassination, utterly reject it, and know by
the voice of a dying patriot that their redemption must be
won by abnegation, by a constant unity of efforts and sacri-
fices, and by the exercise of true virtue; gifts which already
germ in the young and active part of my co nationals—the
only gifts that will ever make Italy free, independent, and
worthy of the glory with which our forefathers illustrated
her.

die, but, whilst doing so with calmness and dignity, I
desire that my memory should not remain stained by any
misdeed.

As to the victims of the 14th January, I offer my blood
as a sacrifice, and I pray the Italians that, when the day of
their independence comes, they will give a worthy compen•
cation to all those who then suffered injury.
Finally, let your Imperial Majesty permit me to ask,
not my own life, but that of the two accomplices who were
condemned to death with me.

With the most profound respect, &c.,
FELICE ORSINI.
Prison de la Roquette, March 11, 1858.

About to end my days, T write with my own hand the
following dispositions, which I desire to be exactly executed,
and that they should have the force of an act of my free
anti independent will :-
1. I desire that M. Enrico Cernusohi, of Milan, Italy,
residing at Paris, shall withdraws my money, which was
taken from me at thn time of my arrest,+ and which is in
the hands of M. le Procureur General of the Seine, less a
sum equal to those expenses of the trial which are at my
charge.
2 1 desire him to dispose of the money that remains,
after deduction of the above-named charges, in the following
manner :

( A). He will bay a gold watch and a gold chain to give
as a souvenir to M. Jules Fevre, the lawyer who defended
me, the whole to be of the value of at least 800 f. On the
watch he will have the following words engraved, " Felice
Orsini to M. Jules Favre, souvenir."
( B). I desire that my body shall be put into a box of
common wood, and sent to London, England ; because
I wilt be buried in the cemetery where are the remains of
the Italian patriot, Ugo Foscolo, and laid by his side.
M. Cernuschi will pay the necessary expenses out of the
above-mentioned money, &c.
(C). All these charges paid, I wish the money that
remains to be sent to my uncle, Orso Orsini, or to my
brother, Leonidas Orsini, who reside together at Imols,
Roman States, Italy, and who are to dispose of it excln-
sively for the benefit of my two little girls, Ernestina and
Ida Orsini, residing at Nice, Sardinian States, Italy.
3. I authorize J. D. P. Hodge, of Glastonbury, near
Bath, Somersetahire, in England, to take charge of my
eldest daughter, Ernestina Orsini', born at Nice Maritime,
Sardinian States, Italy, on the 9th of April, 1852, and
residing in the same town.
4. I authorize Mr. Peter Stuart, of Liverpool, England,
to take charge of my second daughter, Ida Orsini, born at
Nice Maritime the 12th of March, 1853, and residing with
her elder sister in the same town.
5. 1 recommend with all my heart to my intimate friends
J. D. P. Hodge, of Glastonbury, and Peter Stuart, of Liver
pool, my two above-named little girls, in order that the
education they shall receive may he quite conformable with
the principles of honesty, of true virtue, of prudence, and
of true love of their country.
0. 1 desire that all my property in clothes, books, Ice.,
now in the hands of M de Lasalle, Director of La Roquette,
shall be sent to Miss MIES Cheney, of London, residing in
London, England, No. 2, Grafton-street, Aland-mad,
Kentish New-town (sic in Gazzella), No. 10, London.
Miss Eliza Cherney (sic) will dispose of them according to
her free an i independent will, as well as of my other
property already left to her before my arrest and during
my impriscnment. All that I have done for her is but a
very humble and a very small souvenir for the extreme
goodness and devotion she has under all circumstances
shown to me. I recommend this honest and virtuous lady
to my friends in England.
7. I will, in the last place, that M. Enrico Cernnschi,
above named, should he the executor of the arrangements,
herein announced, at Paris ; and that with regard to those
which are to he executed in England, he should have the
co-operation of M. Vincenzo Caldeai, of Faenza, Roman
States, Italy, and residing in London.
The whole w►itten with my own band.
Fe LICE ORSINI._

• With the co-operation of M. de Lasalle, Director If De
Roquette, if his (ovations permit it.—F smot Oasts].
+ And aleo the other things that may WM.—Mica OWN:,

evrrtsp.entutt.

R. BRIGHT'S CONTEMPLATED

REVOLUTION.

TO THE EDITOR OT "THE PRESS."

Sir,—The following paragraph, containing the
present opinion and prospective hopes of so noted a
tical celebrity as Mr. Bright, - has I y the press
honoured with a very extensive circulation.

contains matter worthy of minute attention :
The unemployed of Birmingham, having passed a
memorial to the Queen, praying for some gigantic system
of free emigration, authorized their chairman to ask Mr.
Bright to present the memorial. On Friday afternoon the
following reply was received from Mr. Bright, and as it is
one of the most remarkable productions of the great
Reform champion, we subjoin a copy :

Dear Sir,—When your memorial reaches me or Mr. Schole-
lield, we will at once take the usual course with respect to its
presentation to the Queen. lam sorry to tind that the " un-
employed should be so numerous in Birmingham as to induce
to unite, with a view to some public measures for their
Aid. At this moment the unfavourable condition of the .1
markets of the United States and of the continent of Europe
will account for much of the suffering which I. being endured
the working men of England. I confess, however, that I
see no remedy for a large portion of the mischief complained
so long as we tiud our taxes constantly on the increase, and
national expenditure augmenting. We are now spending
20,000,0001. a year more than we were spending only a few years
and our military expenses have doubled since the year
a', when the Duke of Wellington and •Sir Robert I'eel were
. power. This year, I suppose, we shall raise in taxes at least
0,000,000/. sterling more than will require to be raised by an
eqnsl population, living, not in England, but in the United
States of America. Surely this will account for much of the
evils which you and the memorialists and the working classes
generally sutler, and I am not surprised that sensible men
should wish to quit a country where the burdens are so heavy,
slid the political privileges of three•fourths of them are so few.
very man who is not prepared to compel a better and more
economical government at home should emigrate, or the pau-
perism of his day will be deeperand more without remedy in the
days of his children. I wish I was able to come to Birmingham
and talk to you about these great queationa.--Yours very re-
spectfully, JOHN BRIGHT.
-Times, March 29.
There is in Mr. Bright's letter an acknowledg-
it of "the great fact " that all the prophecies of
, Anti•Corn-Law League have proved erroneous.
Jnder the operation of Free Trade, emigration has
increased with unprecedented celerity, as the produce
other nations imported into these islands has
increased in extent; the exportation of human
beings has also increased. What are shiploads of
foreign corn, and of foreign-manufactured goods of
sorts, but concentrated human labour ? Were the
operatives of these islands to see landed on the
quays, at the railway stations, thousands of living
labourers and artizans, who entered the fields and
workships, and cast the native-born labourers and
artizans into the streets to starve, to die, to emigrate,
le cry would soon be heard in Birmingham,—
England for the English !" In effect, this is, with
omission of an important circumstance, what
occurs—the foreigner, under present circumstances,
.1 saved from paying British taxes. When the labour
. the Englishman, in the shape of manufactured
goods, is not absolutely prohibited, but enters a
foreign market, it is directly taxed from twenty to
forty per cent.. The Englishman is thus doubly
taxed ; there is his own home taxation, and the tax
be is compelled to pay for the privilege of selling
abroad. Mr. Bright's remedy • for national. distress
is reduced taxes. • The Queen of England must be
paid after the fashion of the President of the United
States. Assume, briefly, that the taxation of Eng-
land must be reduced, say from 60,000,0001. to
6,000,0001. per annum. • Before this consummation
can be realized, the National Debt must be paid, or
blotted out with a cotton cloth. • The Queen of
England, whose income is a compensation for in-
terest in the estates that belonged to the Royal
Family, must henceforth be an annuitant in reduced
circumstances, and all under the Queen must follow
the royal example. Divide the 50,000,0001. thus
acquired among the whole population, share and
share alike, man, woman, and child, it will not be
quite 21. each per annum. As the Queen, and all
under her paid from the taxes, spend the much
greater proportion of what they receive within the
country, and to that extent find employment for the
working population, the internal industry of the
country will not be greatly increased by the change.
The disbanded soldiers and sailors, dr.c., will neces-
sarily return to their friends, and try to find employ-
ment as best they can ; the number of hands in the
labour market must be augmented, and, as a natural
consequence, the difficulty of finding employment to
some extent also increased. All those who are not
disposed to remain in England, and with that disposi
tiara resolved to assist Mr. Bright in accomplishing a
revolution (to which those changes are the prelimi-
nary steps), are recommended to emigrate, in justice
to themselves and their families. When Mr. Bright's
revolution has been realized (assuming it possible)
he cannot then, more than now, compel foreign na-
tions to abolish their tariffs. Englishmen selling
goods abroad must still be subjected to foreign tax

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