The Press.
London, England, 1856-08-16 00:00:00

FOREIGN MISCELLANEA.

Stu CHARLES NAPIER, it is related in letters from
St. Petersburg, met with a very frank reception from
the Russian Government, though their politesse
towards the gallant admiral was now and then fla-
vored with a little delicate irony. For instance,
immediately on his arrival he was informed that
orders bad been given at Cronstadt to receive him
should be desire to inspect the fortifications, and at
the same time he was assured that be would not now
experience any difficulty in entering the various fort-
resses. When Sir Charles first arrived off Cronstadt,
the steamer, according to custom, anchored outside
the fortress abreast of the gnardship. Sir Charles
became impatient, and despatched his card on board
the guardship. In a moment a signal was up at the
masthead, the semaphore at Cronstadt replied, and
then telegraphed at once to St. Petersburg. A boat
was manned and sent from the guardship for the
gallant admiral, who met with a warm reception on
his arrival on board. During his stay Sir Charles
had interviews with the Emperor and Grand Dukes,
was treated with marked distinction, and had a man•
of-war steamer, always at his disposal, anchored
under his windows off the English quay.
MARSHAL PELISSIER'S personal courage is notorious.
It is narrated that on one occasion in Africa, when
in command of a punishment corps, known as the
Zephyrs, he attacked a mud fortress occupied b•
Arabs. His soldiers repeatedly attempted to scale
the walls, but in vain; for the vigilant foe kept a
sharp look-out, and repulsed every effort. Pelis-
sier grew weary, and lost patience. " Throw me
over, and I am sure the company will follow,"
exclaimed he to three or four of the men around
him. The order was obeyed. For some minutes he
was alone among the enemy, and received several
wounds. He had, however, correctly calculated the
effect that would be produced by his intrepidity.
The soldiers followed him ; and the mud fortress
was taken.
THE SUBSCRIPTIONS TO THE. ZURICH CREDIT :WORMIER
are remarkable. A letter froin Lausanne says :
During the three days fixed for receiving subscriptions
the crowd which assembled was so great that no one could
help feeling pity for the poor wretches who remained for

SATURDAY,

half the day pushing and elbowing each other, and im•
ploring, almost on their knees, that they might be relieved
of their bank notes, rouleaux of gold, and sacks of silver.
Bavarian Jews have been seen with game bags at their
backs containing millions. One of these poor fellows,
after having pushed about for two days in the corridors,
was turned out of doors with 3,000,0001. in his pocket, to
which extent he wished to subscribe. On the last day that
the subscription remained open, the amount signed for
attained the sum of 918,000,000 f., and just before the close
the receipts given were in this form :—" Received a bag
said to contain 500,000 f.," and those who were not faiths.
tied with this vague document were sent about their
business.

MoNT BLANC was ascended on the Ist by a young
lady, a Miss Forman, accompanied by her father.
The ascent was "done" in fifteen hours, and the
return in seven. The next day it was ascended by
another young lady and her papa in about the same
time, and the next day a young gentleman did it, up
and down, in twenty-one hours. Would not adventu-
rous tourists gain some useful information if they
gave themselves a little more time for observation?
What can that person see or remember sufficiently
well to describe with accuracy who walks up and
down Mont Blanc in twenty-one hours?
Da. PETERMANN'S Mittheilungen fiber wichtige
neue Erforschungen auf dem Gesammtgebiete der Geo-
graphic (6th number), contains an interesting article
on West Siberia, its physical nature, industrial pro-
ducts, and geographico-political importance. Accord-
ing to this description the Siberia of to-day, in
consequence of the constant advance of the Russians
towards the south, contains regions that may be
called the Italy of Siberia, and which in respect of
climate do in fact equal the Italy of Europe. The
territory that the Russians have taken possession of
during the last ten years between the Caspian Sea
and the Empire of China, in the direction of our
Indian possessions, is more extensive than Great
Britain, France Turkey, and all Germany, including
Prussia and Austria, put together, and gives into
their hands the keys of the fluvial territory of the
Jaxartes and the Oxus, within the confines of which
which the ancient realms of Bockhara and Kokan lie.
Petermann's description of the extent, population
and political importance of West Siberia is rendered
more graphic by two maps of the seven gubernia or
governments into which it is divided. The first
exhibits the density of the population, by a syste-
matic gradation of the colouring of the maps; the
second divides West Siberia, also by its varied
colouring, into four separate regions, which he dis-
tinguishes as the regions of agriculture, of mining,
of fishing, or the chase, and of cattle-breeding, or
the region of steppes. To these is added a filth
region, that of the salt lakes.
THE CHOLERA has broken out most severely at
Madeira. Some soldiers from Lisbon, among whom
cholera broke out on the passage, were permitted to
land at once, and in a few days the cholera broke
out among the inhabitants with astonishing viru-
lence. An account by the Avon this week says:—

When we left Madeira on ahe 3rd inst. there had been
5,000 cases of cholera and 1,500 deaths amongst the poya-
lation of Funchal, which numbered only 26,000. There
were no medical men, nor any medicines in the island, and
the people were dying for want of them. The panic which
this calamity caused at Funchal was terrible All business
was suspended, the shops were closed, and every family
isolated itself. The dead lay unburied in the cemetery,
and fires were kindled there to mitigate the evil effects
arising from the putrefaction of dead bodies. The Go-
vernment at length got twelve men to dig graves, and six
of them literally dug their own, for they died almost im-
mediately, and were buried in the graves they had made
for others. The cholera bad been raging fearfully at
Funchal for five days before the Aron left. Only one
Englishman had died of it, and he was an hotel-keeper.
Seventy of the English escaped from Madeira in the Aron,
which were all that packet could accommodate. Every
English person would have got on boaid the Aeon if there
had been room. The t•truggle and &bile,' to ge; away
from the island was leamil.

TIE SWEDISH °SMELL JOURNAL, Post-Tidning,
contains a letter from Finland, stating that orders
bave been given by Russia for the immediate con-
struction of a first-rate fortified naval arsenal and
dockyard on the island of Kasko to the northward of
Christinestad and nearly opposite Sundeswall.
ESPARTERO 'S last interview with the Queen of
Spain is thus related in the Spanish journals :
The Marshal having obtained an audience to take leave
was received by their Majesties on Sunday week last. The
Queen, it appears, was the first to speak, and addressed the
Marshal as follows :—" Duke, how have you been since we
saw you last ? where have you been that neither I nor any
other person has seen anything of you ?" These two ques-
tions appeared to make a deep impression on the Marshal,
who merely replied, " Madame, I am about to retire into
private life. I can no longer serve either my Queen or my
country, but at Logrono I shall offer up prayers to Heaven
for both. I shall not fail to be faithful to the flag which I
have sworn to defend. I return to my home ; and there,
if they will leave me quiet—which I do not think they will
—they may break down my body, but not my soul." The
Marshal then kissed their Majesties' hands, and took his
leave. He left by the diligence in the evening for Logrono,
but will shortly proceed to the baths.

AUGUST 16, 1856.

SIR ARCHIBALD ALISON ON THE TOPICS
OF THE DAY.

SIR ARCHIBALD ALISON, while On a visit at Seaham-
ball, delivered an address upon the late war and
other topics of the day, on Monday last, in the Me-
chanics' Institute. Lord Adolphus Vane, M.P., in
a brief and appropriate speech, introduces the
learned baronet to the assembly.
Sir Archibald Alison prefaced his address by ob-
serving that there were three points out of which
he should endeavour to educe lessons of experience
from passing events :—First, that the country—
and, above all, the middle classes—should be im-
pressed
with the imperative necessity of main-
tainiug our national armaments on an adequate
scale, if we would avoid, not a repetition of our late
Crimean disasters, but the advent of disasters infi-
nitely greater, and perhaps the ultimate and not dis•
tint ruin of the empire; secondly, the great and
important change taking place from the discovery of
the vast gold-mines of California and Australia; and
lastly, the effects which those changes would have on
smiety.
In reference to the first point, Sir Archibald
Alison alluded at length to the dangers we bad run
during the last twenty years in consequence of the
reduction of the national forces. In India, in
1835-6, from our reduction of our Indian army
from 250,000 to 150,000 men, we permitted the
extension of Russian influence in Northern Asia,
brought on the Affghanistan war, costing ten mil-
lions and 25,000 lives, and rendered the conquest
of the Punjatib ultimately so difficult, as the men
we had disbanded in '35 entered the Sikh service
and then fought against us, that for the time
our very rule in India was jeopardised. At the
same time our home naval and military forces
were in a deplorable state. Sir Charles Adam stated,
in his place in Parliament, in 1837, that England
had only one frigate and one liner afloat to guard
her shores, while at the very time the Russians had
thirty, and the French had twenty, ships of the line
perfectly ready for sea. At the time of the Syrian
war, in 1840, we were twice on the very verge of
hostilities with France, and once with France and
Russia united, and we had the authority of Lord
Hardinge for saying " he could not, if England had
been invaded, have got more than 10,000 men toge-
ther, and only 40 guns, the greater portion of
which were so crazy that if they had been put into a
clay-field they would have gone to pieces":—

At the conclusion of the last war (said the learned
baronet) there was no person ventured to show himself
upon the hustings to solicit the suffrages of a constituency
who did not begin directly by saying that his principles
embraced unflinching economy and unsparing reduction
in every department of the State. That was the universal
cry. No one ventured to gainsay it. The advocates of
retrenchment were entirely successful, and they reduced
the armaments of the country to the very lowest point.
The question was not one of party :

I would be the last person to urge anything here which
could occasion any division among any of my hearers ; but
there are some points of national policy which are not
matters of party, but matters important for public salva-
tion. If there is any one point upon which, I trust, the
whole community of Great Britain will be ever united, it is
the maintenance of those measures which are necessary to
uphold our influence and independence, and to preserve
our national freedom. I hope, therefore, the time will
never come again when, relying upon the shadow of former
victories, England will neglect present preparations. Re-
member, the best foundation for the continuance of peace
is to be prepared for war; and a certain way of inducing
war is to g:ve over the preparation of the means by which
it is to be resisted.

Upon the effect of the gold discoveries upon prices
Sir Archibald Alison observed :

One consequence of this great discovery is, that the price
of all articles of life will be permanently and lastingly
raised Attend to this ; you are all concerned in it. People
say that prices were raised in consequence of the war with
Russia. That had some effect, no doubt, but it was not the
great thing. It was the gold of California and Australia
that caused the rise of prices. Gold became cheaper in
consequence of being more plentiful, and as gold becomes
cheaper every article of life will, of course, rise in price—
price being measured in gold. Now, that is of the greatest
possible benefit to a commercial community, where almost
every is dependent upon industry ann commerce, and
where the great elemeut of prosperity is a regular and pro-
gressive rise of prices, for a rise of prices is beneficial to
every person—to the highest as well as the lowest. In
contrast to this we all know what was the distress of the
country during the thirty years of low prices. But what
has since taken place? Since that time gold has come
more plentifully into circulation, and the price of every.
thing has been raised. And what is the consequence ? Do
we nut see it in the most unequivocal marks of prosperity,
and do not all the public journals boast of the immense
increase of our exports and imports, and the greater ease
with which we bear increased taxation, raised as it has been
from fifty millions to seventy-five millions, and nnder which
the country prospers even more than when the taxation
was twenty-five millions less ? Therefore I think this great
change, arising out of the discovery of the gold regions, is
certainly one of the facts upon which the attention of all
persons should be continually fixed, and more especially
persons in trade, because it evinces the wisdom and bent,.
ficence of Providence; for if it had not been for the mines