The Press.
London, England, 1856-09-27 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

publique de devenir ce qu'elle devrait 'etre." A
senseless opposition to Sunday recreation was suffi-
cient evidence of Anglican clergymen misunder•
standing the temper of the lower orders and the
proper scope of their ministerial duties. Brussels,
said Mr. Ewart, was peculiarly adapted, by local
situation, to become the focus of international
gatherings. Like England, the Belgians enjoyed the
benefits of sell government, and had shown them-
selves worthy to reap the advantages they had
won. England, indeed, might on some points take
an example from Belgium ; and that freedom of com-
mercial exchange, which was now universally acknow-
ledged to be in the highest degree beneficial, would
accelerate an interchange of ideas, whereby the en-
lightenment and toleration of governments would be
made yet more profitable and stable. The speech
of Mr. Ewart, well delivered in French, was listened
to with marked attention, and frequently excited the
applause of the audience.
It is worthy of remark that, at the moment these
observations were made on public education and re-
ligions toleration, the Bishop of Ghent should have
afforded practical illustration that they could not
apply to him or to the Roman Catholic party whom
he is said to represent. In his pastoral letter and
subsequent publications, the University of Ghent is
stigmatised as a school " d'atheisme et d'immoralite,"
capable of teaching monstrous doctrines (" capable
des plus grandes monstruosites "), and of subverting
the laws of social order. Another diocesan, the
Bishop of Bruges, has advanced a step farther, and
has formally anathematised as contrary to the
Roman law, pronouncing the same to be that of the
Deity, "the liberty of conscience, the freedom of
speech, the liberty of the press, and of public
teaching." The liberty of conscience he declares to
be that "erreur contagieuse " which is the imme•
diate herald of that other "erreur funeste," the curse
of modern days, the liberty of the press. Both these
bishops, together with the Cardinal Archbishop of
Mal;nes, call upon the faithful to agitate, to conspire,
and to dedicate themselves to the service of God, in
endeavouring to extirpate the "pests effroyable " of
free and unrestricted education. It is easy to per.
ceive what these prelates mean by summoning Roman
Catholics in the name of religion to do battle for the
exaltation of the priests; and how strictly true was
the assertion, promulgated by them advisedly, that a
representative government with free institutions was
contrary to the spirit and the law of the Roman
Catholic religion.

It is said that the Emperor of the French has
written privately to his military tutor of old, General
Dufour, to exert his influence with the Swiss Govern•
ment that the royalist prisoners of Neufchatel may
be treated with moderation. Any forced measures
might embarrass the question at a future stage, and
render difficult any approach to a compromise. Per-
sonally, the sympathies of the Emperor cannot be
strongly enlisted in favour of the Neufchatel royalists.
When Queen Hortense was a fugitive in 1815, on the
borders of the Lake of Morat, she was seized by the
gendarmes, and threatened to be confined in the
dungeons of Fribourg. Alone and unbelriended, she
appealed in the emergency of the moment to Mme.
Pourtsies, the mother of one of the present prisoners,
from whom she experienced the contrary of kindness,
accompanied by expressions of unbecoming
in a female at any time, and doubly so when the
object of them was in sore distress. The subsequent
escape of Queen Hortense was not owing to the
friendly intervention or Mme. de Potutales. It is
amusing and somewhat instructive to perceive the
radical and revolutionary press of Switzerland fore-
most in the crusade against insurrectionary move-
ments, and counselling extreme measures of punish-
ment and repression. These identical journals pub
lished the manifestos of Mazzini, justified the assas-
sination of :kings and emperors, and one of them,
printed at Geneva, called upon the Swiss prophets
to instal a new religion, to zupply the place cf an
incapable and effete Christianity, more in consonance
with that stern virtue of republicanism that cries
with its mighty voice, "Mort aux rois." One of
these radical and republican worthies, foremost in
exciting the rebellions of '4B, proclaims in large
type :

11 faut titer a ces incorrigibles la possibilite de nuire.
Guerre I lour fortune—guerre aux aristocrates du dehors
et du dedans. Le people est souverain.
This choice medley of communism and conservatism
is a fair sample of the rampant radical who would
first steal his neighbour's goods and then place him-
self under the protection of a law of his own making.
On the other hand, the Austrian press is lavish in
its defence of the royalists. Habitually wont to
censure and defame Protestant Prussia in Germany,
it perceives that an ultramontane object can be in-
directly gained by siding with the Court of Berlin
against the Confederation. It thus hopes that an
opportunity may be afforded to the Romanists to
revenge themselves in some degree for the injuries
of the Sonderbund. All the insurgents that have
escaped have taken refuge in the Boman Catholic
cantons. Prussia will not be guided by any impul•

SATURDAY,

sive movement, and as the matter is purely of a per-
sonal nature, the character of the royal right in Neuf-
chatel will probably be determined according to the
spiiitof the London protocol of May 24, 18ra
On the subject of capital punishment the Govern.
ment of Prussia has always shown itself anxious to
be in unison with the spirit of the age, and to avoid
the brutalising display of public executions. In
cases of excessive guilt, when mistaken clemency
might be morally injurious, the extreme penalty of
the law is sometimes administered privately in the
presence of the prison authorities. A woman was
lately decapitated within the precincts of the prison
at Berlin for having murdered the wife and children
of the man whom she desired to marry, and it was
proved that she bad some time before poisoned her
husband. She confessed her guilt, but exonerated
the man for whom it had been committed in any
participation. This is the third execution of a
female in Prussia within the century. In 1800 a
woman was broken on the wheel for the marder of
her mistress ; and in 1810 another, with her para-
mour, was publicly burnt for arson.

The trial at Varna for the murder of the Bulga-
rian girl, Nedela, has terminated in a conviction, and
judgment has been passed upon the prisoners found
guilty. Salih Pacha was formally acquitted, but his
discharge from arrest was accompanied with such
severe censure upon his conduct by the President of
the Court, that no doubt can be entertained that he
was supposed to be an accessory before or after the
act. Arnaout Mustafa, the actual murderer, was
condemned to death. Hussein, secretary and
steward of the Pacha, was sentenced to five Sears'
imprisonment with hard labour. Mehemet and
Vasaly, as accomplices, to two years with hard
labour; and Rifeat, for false evidence and perjury,
six months with hard labour. The sentence against
Hussein was far too lenient, and Salih Pacha himself
richly deserved to be hanged and quartered. With-
out his protection and authority the murder would
not have been committed. This poor and incompe-
tent show of justice will be without any effect upon
the Turkish population. Their deadly hatred against
all Christians is stronger than ever, and their mal-
treatment of them is a part and parcel of their reli-
gion. M. Brescianini, a young lawyer, was riding a
short time since in the streets of Scutari, when his
horse ran away with him towards a neighbouring
guardhouse. The soldiers succeeded in stopping
the horse, but, instead of affording the rider any
further help, they dragged him from the saddle and
coolly murdered " the Giaour " with their swords and
bayonets, without any interference on the part of
their officer.

It has been officially announced that the Emperor
Francis Joseph is about to visit his Italian domi-
nions. Workmen are employed day and night in
the imperial palace, situate near the magnificent
cathedral, in order to prepare it for the appointed
time. For the last few years the greater portion has
been occupied as a barrack, and the utmost care is
being bestowed in effacing those marks of disaffec-
tion that bear unhappy reverence to the revolutions
of 1818 and 1849. An accident occured on the 16th
in the saloon "di Brera." Among other pictures
was one representing the return of Pio Nono from
Gaeta. All the cardinals and other dignitaries of
the Vatican who accompanied his Holiness from tho
gate of San Giovanni Laterano to the I3aschia of
St. Maria Maggiore, to return thanks before the
high altar, were faithfully represented, each person
having sat for his likeness. The picture had been
painted expressly for Duke Scotti, at a price of
25,000 francs. Whilst the saloon of Brera was full
of visitors, examining the various objects of art, this
picture, without any ostensible reason, and not in
contact with anything of a combustible nature, un-
accountably caught fire and was consumed in a few
seconds. It is stated to have been the effect of
accident, but that is simply impossible : the de-
struction of the picture has a far other and different
cause, palpable and self-explaining.
There appears to be great apprehension amongst
the ambassadors of an outbreak at Rome as soon as
the foreign troops are withdrawn. The arrival of
M. Ragneval is awaited with anxiety ; the Marquis
Sassione Burgagli has arrived from Florence, and
M. de Kisseleff and M. Colleredo, the Russian and
Austrian Ministers, are in daily communication with
Cardinal Antonelli.

On the Bth of September, at the festival of " Pie
di Grotta," the King of Naples ostentatiously passed
in review 40,000 men of all arms. The ambassadors of
the foreign powers occupied a balcony in the royal
palace. A messenger has been sent from Paris with
verbal instructions to M. Brennier, authorising him to
apply to the King for his " dernier mot." The an-
nouncement that four ships of the line, English,
and four French, accompanied by eight war steamers,
were about to appear in the Bay, has created the
greatest sensation. Placarus and proclamations aro
distributed and posted throughout the town and the
suburbs, urging the people to rise in defence of
liberty, and hailing the approach of the allied
squadron as an jaugury of a more fortunate time.
C. A. H.

SEIYr. 27, 1856.

lorcign anb tolonial

FRANCE.

The Emperor and Empress, it is anticipated, will
return to St. Cloud earlier than was expected.
The Neapolitan question excites much interest.
The dispatch of Admiral Trehouart with a squadron
will not take place it is now believed until the reply
of the King of Naples to the ultimatum is received.
Baron Hubner, it is affirmed, is en route to, if be
has not arrived at, Biarritz. The Marquis Antonini,
the Neapolitan Minister at Paris, has received orders
in case of rupture to retire to Brussels.
An important article bas appeared in the Moniteur
this week upon the question of house rent, with a
view to show that the enormous increase in rents is
not so much owing to the demolition of houses for
improvements as to the increase in the population of
Paris, and, while admitting that in the changes made
lodgings for the poorer classes suffered great dimi-
nution, it asserts that. this deficiency will speedily be
made up.
The Bank of France has raised its rate of discount
from five to six per cent.
M. de Hatzfeldt, Prussian Minister, continues with
the Emperor at Biarritz.
AUSTRIA.

General Martini, Austrian Ambassador to the
Two Sidlies, left Vienna on the 22nd for Naples.
The German press is not agreed as to the course
Austria is taking in reference to the differences be-
tween Naples and the Western powers.
A Berlin letter of the 19th, in the Nuremberg Cor-
respondent, says :
Accounts from Vienna represent that the object of the
visit of Baron Hubner to the King of Naples is to induce
him to accept, not all the demands of the Western powers,
but the more important of them, and to come to an under-
standing with him as to their details. In the event of the
King consenting to this, Austria offers to act as &mediator,
so as to cause the Western powers to accept the concessions
he may offer.

On the other hand, the Augsburg Gazette is in-
formed from Vienna that—
The English and French Ministers have notified the
approaching appearance of an Anglo-French fleet in the
Neapolitan waters, in case the King should again reply in
a negative strain. The Austrian Cabinet has replied, that
not only was it not prepared to object to such a course, but
that it would have the King to understand that he had to
attribute to himself alone the consequences of his conduct.
In a word, Austria will leave the King to his fate unless he
yield.
Prince Petrulla, the Neapolitan Envoy at Vienna,
has tendered his resignation to the King his
master.

A number of the disbanded soldiers of the British
Italian Legion have, on entering Lombardy, been
arrested by order of the Austrian authorities and
sent to the fortress of Mantua. They are to be
tried by court-martial for having entered a foreign
service without the permission of their Government.
The Emperor continues his tour in Hungary.
PRUSSIA.

The King left Berlin on the 24th, on a tour
through the Rhenish provinces. His Majesty will
visit the Grand Duke of Baden, and pass through the
principality of Hohenzollern.
The marriage of the Princess Louisa and the
Grand Duke of Baden was celebrated at Berlin last
Saturday with much ceremony.