The Press.
London, England, 1854-04-01 00:00:00

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of Bedford a revenue of 200,0001. ? and the moment
the aforesaid. "public " declares itself the rightful
heir of the Wykehams and the Waynfletes, their
testamentary dispositions notwithstanding, why not
of the Gowers and the Russells?
This branch of the subject, however, may be safely
left in the hands of Mr. Locke King.
Your faithful servant,

S. R.

DEATH OF THE DUKE OF PORTLAND.
THIS nobleman died at Welbeck, his family seat,
on Wednesday last, in the 80th year of his age.
William Henry Cavendish Scott Bentinck, fourth
Duke of Portland, was educated at Westminster
School, and Christ Church, Oxford, and succeeded
to the title in 1809, on the death of his father,
who was twice Prime Minister during the reign of
George 111. The late Duke, when Marquis of
Titcbfield, sat in the House of Commons for four-
teen years as member for the county of Bucks, and
in 1807 was appointed a Junior Lord of the Treasury.
As a member of the Upper House, he was twice a
Cabinet Minister, having in 1827 held the office
of Lord Privy Seal in Mr. Canning's Administra-
tion, and in 1827-28 that of Lord President of the
Council in Lord Goderich's Administration. After the
death of Mr. Canning, who was his brother-in law,
and whose opinions seem to have coincided with his
own, the duke took but little part in politics. At
first he inclined to the Whigs, and voted for the
Reform Bill of 1832, but he withdrew his support
from the Grey and Melbourne Governments, and
joined the great party that raised Sir R. Peel to power
in 1844. After the betrayal of the Conservative party in
1845-8, the Duke formed a very unfavourable opinion
of Sir R. Peel and the free trade measures then
brought forward ; and on the death of his son,
the late Lord George Bentinck, in 1848, he he-
came a supporter of Lord Derby's Government, both
in and out of power. The Duke was a man of very
considerable ability, and employed the greater por-
tions of his time in improvin; his property and in
bettering the condition of his tenantry. Numerous,
indeed, were the works he executed—the experi-
ments he successfully tried. The harbour at
Troon, in Scotland, and the water-meadows at Clip-
stone, in Notts, will remain as lasting monuments of
his genius and energy. For the last twenty-five
years the Duke led, comparatively speaking, a very
retired life ; and though from his extensive in-
formation, powers of conversation, and natural
humour, he was eminently fitted to shine in society,
the visitors at Welbeck were confined to the mem-
bers of his own family and a few intimate friends.
Notwithstanding that the hospitality of his house,
except as regards the poor, was, from this cause,
somewhat limited, there never lived a man more
universally respected. His neighbours, whether
gentry, yeomanry, or labourers, one and all concur
in feeling that his death has caused an irre-
parable loss to the district of their common resi-
dence. The Duke was born on the 24th of June, 1788;
he married on the 9th of August, 1795, Henrietta
Scott (daughter of General Scott, and sister of the
late Viscountess Canning). His successor, John,
the present and fifth duke, was born in 1800.

The Emperor of the French passed in review oe
Thursday on the Carrousel the 6th battalion of th
Chasseurs de Vincennes and the 19th Regiment of
the Line, on the eve of departure for the East.
Marshal de St. Arnaud, the commander-in chief of
the French expedition to the East, is certainly to take
his departure on the 4th of April.
Thursday's Moniteur contains a notice about the
seizure of enemy's property in neutral vessels,
identical with the English notification. It also an •
nounces that the French Government will not at
present grant letters of marque.

The Sampson has returned to Constantinople from
her cruise, with information that the Russians were
abandoning their forts on the east coast of the Black
Sea. Souchum Kaleh was in flames, and the Circas-
sians were plundering it. The Furious has left to
gather further information.

In Berlin the following bulletins have been issued
of his Majesty's state of health :—" 25th. Erysipelas
.(rose) commences spreading from the wound, accom-
panied by febrile symptoms." "28th. The King has
had a good night, and slept well. The wound sup-
purates favourably : the rose has not spread further,
and the fever has passed off." " 27th. The Bing
slept calmly the whole night. State of wound satis-
factory. Although the rose has spread further down-
wards towards the throat, the fever has entirely disap-
peared."

The Queen of Spain has amnestied all the convicts
now undergoing terms of imprisonment for being im-
plicated in the Lopes invasion of Cuba.

THE PRESS.

Vrotabings in arliammt.

ROYAL MESSAGE—THE WAR.
Both Houses of Legislature presented on Monday
evening a scene of unwonted excitement. It was
known that a royal message would be sent down pre-
paratory to the immediate proclamation of war, and
the solemnity of the incident, recurring after an in-
terval of more than fifty years, gave rise to varied
emotions on the part of the assistants and spectators
of every class. In the Lords' House an unusual
attendance of peers, a throng of ladies in the "peer-
esses' gallery," and the crowded state of the sections
set apart to privileged visitors and miscellaneous
" strangers," attested the interest which the forth-
coming event had attracted both among the noble
members of that house and the public out of doors.
The Commons also assembled in great numbers, and
waited with evident impatience for the anticipated
announcement. Yet neither in the upper nor the
lower branch of the Legislature was the forthcoming
event, important as it might be, allowed to interfere
with the ordinary formalities of the house, or delay
the transaction of the most routine business ap-
pointed for the sitting. The peers listened while
the purport of several petitions was explained, and
were detained for some time over one presented by
the Lord Chrincell'or from Sir Culling Eardley, pray-
ing for the admission of dissenters to the universi-
ties. In the other house something more than the
customary amount of private business was got
through, and the proposal to utilise the accumula-
tive capital and unemployed organisation of the
South Sea Company, for the purpose of undertaking
a great corporate business of trusteeship, was dis-
cussed with most deliberate prolixity, and settled at
length upon a division in the affirmative. Even
when the "message" was at length brought in and
read, the ceremony transpired in a manner as little
ceremonious as possible. It seems to be the custom
of Englishmen to do business with nothing but a
business-like air. A staid routine gravity is main-
tained during the transaction of the most trifling
affairs, and nothing more accorded even to the most
momentous. Accordingly the royal intimation that
a new page of history was turned, and a war com-
menced which may change before it closes the desti-
nies of the civilised world, was read with the same
clear, unimpassioned delivery, and received with the
same outward token of respect, and no more, than if
it had related to the most every-day occurrence. The
members of the Legislature listened, as in duty
bound, fixed a day for " considering " the message,
and then proceeded with the night's business as if
, nothing had happened. The message ran as foi-
-1 lows:—

" VICTORIA R.
"Her Majesty thinks it proper to acquaint the
house that the negotiations in which her Majesty, in
concert with her allies, has for some time past been
engaged with his Majesty the Emperor of all the
Russias, have terminated, and that her Majesty feels
bound to afford active assistance to her ally the
Sultan against unprovoked aggression.
" Her Majesty has given directions for laying
before the house copies of such papers, in addition
to those already communicated to Parliament, as will
afford the fullest information with regard to the
subject of these negotiations. It is a consolation to
her Mejesty to reflect that no endeavours have been
wanting on her part to preserve to her subjects the
blessings of peace.
" Her Majesty's just expectations have been dis-
appointed, and her Majesty relies with confidence on
the zeal and devotion of the House of Lords (or her
faithful Commons), and on the exertions of her brave
and loyal subjects, to support her in her determina•
tion to employ the power and resources of the nation
for protecting the dominions of the Sultan against the
encroachments of Russia."
By the Commons the motion proposed by Lord
Jour; RUSSELL that the message should be considered
on the following Friday (yesterday) was agreed to
without remark. In the Peers a brief conversation
ensued.
The Earl of DERBY said :
" My lords, I only rise for the purpose of saying that, as
the noble earl has given notice of hie intention to move
that her Majesty's message be taken into consideration on
Friday next, I am quite sure your lordships will be unani-
mously of opinion that this is not the time to say a single
word on the great and important subject to which it relates.
On Friday I presume that the noble earl, or the noble earl
at the head of the Government, will take the opportunity of
stating fully not only the causes which have led to this un-
fortunate rupture of our amicable relations with Russia—
for with those we are partially acquainted—but that he will
also state the precise objects that we have in view in entering
upon this war, the objects that we seek to obtain by it, and
whether there are any conventions or any other engage-

SATIIRDAY,

ments into which we have entered with France or the
Porte binding us to any specific object. If there are any
such I have no doubt they will be found among the papers
which her Majesty holds out the expectation of laying be-
fore the house; and I will only express my earnest anxiety
that ender these considerations the Government will state
whether or not there is any truth in the report that has
been circulated during the last few days, that in this con•
vention there are articles between us, France, and Turkey
which will be of a nature to establish a protectorate on our
part as objectionable at least as that which, on the part of
Russia, we have protested against. I will not say a single
word more, as on Friday, of course, the noble earl will be
prepared with such a statement as will induce us to coimr
in the address in answer to the gracious message of her
Majesty, and with regard to which it is not necessary for
me to say that her Majesty will not rely in vain upon the
support of all classes and denominations of her subjects
for the maintenance of the honour and dignity of this
country in a just, necessary, and honourable war, and in
taking such vigorous 'measures as may be necessary to
bring that war to a speedy and honourable termination.
(Cheers.)"
Earl GREY : I will only add that I trust that in the
address in answer to her Majesty's message the Govern•
went will take care so to draw that address that there will
be no difficulty in its being unanimously adopted by your
lordships. (Cheers.) Because, whatever our opinions
may be as to the past, we must all concur in the desire that
this address should be unanimously adopted—( Hear, hear)
—and I hope that it will be so framed as not to express
any opinion that any noble lords may find a difficulty in
concurring in, either on the grounds that the war might
have been avoided by abstaining from all interference, or
by more vigorous steps having been taken at an earlier
period. I hope that no difficulty will be interposed in the
way of those who are not altogether satisfied with the
course which has been pursued upon either of those
grounds so as to prevent them from concurring in the ad-
dress on Friday. (Hear, hear.)
The motion for considering the message in the
Peers also on the day named was then agreed to,
and thus the event terminated.

MOVEMENTS IN THE BLACK SEA.
In the Peers, on Thursday, the Earl of MsucEs-
BURY referred to the reports received that day from
Odessa and Constantinople stating that the Russian
fleet bad sailed from Sebastopol and gone with rein-
forcements to Circassia. He wished to know what
foundation there was for these rumours, and what the
position of the combined fleets?—
" The letters do not appear to agree as to the object of
the Russian movement, some stating that the ships had
gone out with Russian troops to reinforce the garrisons on
the coast of Circassia, while others think the object is to
bring away the garrisons from such ports. Your lordships
are aware that the line of fortresses which run along that
coast are all that the Russians possess in that country,
and it is supposed to be one of the moat vulnerable points
and easiest of attack. Whatever the object may have been,
it was of considerable importance that the movement
should have been prevented by her Majesty's ships. But
it is said that the Russian fleet was not impeded, but that
her Majesty's fleet is still at Beicos Bay. I, therefore,
wish to ask the noble earl whether there is any truth in
the rumour that the Russian fleet left Sebastopol unim-
peded by our fleet, and what is now the position held by
the combined fleets in the Euxine, and whether they are
prevent still lyin gthe sudden at Beicos Bay
op,erations s where thupey
posed would
to hav be useless to
e taken
place on the part of the Russians?"
The Earl of CLARENDON: In answer to my noble Mend,
I have to state that I have seen in the public newspapers
the rumours to which he refers, but I have received no
official information of the kind. Such information as we
have is rather of a contrary character as far as Circassia is
concerned. That information was a telegraphic despatch
from Constantinople, stating that it was reported that ten
Russian ships-ofthe•line bad left Sebastopol, and were be-
tween that place and Perekop, on the northern coast, and
not near Circassia. With regard to the position of the
fleets, by the last accounts they were at Beicos Bay. Sir
Edmund Lyons had just returned from a cruise in the
Black Sea with the steam portion of the fleet, and, having
visited those parts of the Black Sea to which my noble
friend refers, stated that he had not seen a single Russian
ship-of-war.

INCOME TAX.
The third reading of the Income Tax Bill was
moved on Thursday night.
Sir J. Psalm;Tom, pursuant to notice, called atten-
tion to the circumstances which had led to the proposed
increase in this tax. He traced the necessity for de-
manding im increase to the impost to the ?mismanage-
ment of the public finances by the present Chancellor
of the Exchequer. We had this year to commence an
expensive war with an empty treasury, becauselast year
the Finance Minister had dealt unskilfully with the
public funds, and had based the revenue of the coun-
try on a peace budget- To show the rashness of that
proceeding the right hon. baronet cited extracts from
the earlier despatches in the recently-issued blue
books, from which he showed that, while the budget
was not proposed until the 18th of April, the Govern.
went had received on the 15th of that month ample
warning to prepare f war. If a that time the
house and country had known how the negotiations
stood, as the Ministry knew it, they would neverhave
passed the finance scheme, nor sanctioned the pro-
jects for converting the public debt. Summing up
the sacrifices of revenue from indirect taxation in-
curred last year, and dwelling upon the soap and tea

'a-.

JIMINIIIIII

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