The Press.
London, England, 1856-08-09 00:00:00

FOREIGN MISCELLANEA.

SEVERAL ANECDOTES connected with the late coup
d'etat in Spain are about. The following is stated
as authentic :

The day on which the last Council of Ministers was held,
when Espartero presented his resignation to the Queen, the
two Marshals happened to meet on the staircase of the Palace
u one was quitting it and the other entering. " I fully
expected what has happened," said Espartero. "So did
I, " was the reply. " Some day a fearful responsibility will
be exacted of you for what has occurred," said Espartem.
"It is you, " answered O'Donnell, who are responsible
for what has taken place for the last two years (forgetting
that he, O'Donnell, was his colleague the whole of that
time ). Now I have the upper hand, and I will and shall
conquer, or I will lay Madrid in ruins (arrasare a Madrid),
and if I am driven to extremity I will cairy off the Queen
by force, if necessary, and deposit her in a plisce of safety."
LORD WESTXORLA.ND, in his late congratulatory
address to the King of the Belgians, to deliver
which the noble earl was specially commissioned by
the Queen, said :
The tender attachment of the Queen to her beloved
uncle, and the high estimation in which your Majesty has
ever been held in England since your early connection with
my country, must increase and enhance the admiration and
satisfaction with which her Britannic Majesty and her sub.
jects view the results of your Majesty's wise and beneficent
course in the prosperity and independence of your king-
dom, the contentment of your people, and the attachment
universally shown to your person. These blessings are
justly due to the monarch who has, in perilous times, con•
ducted in safety the oountry which, under a constitution
securing freedom without licence and the well•regulated
liberty of all classes, is a pattern of good government, order,
and loyalty.
The speech has created a most favorable impression
in Belgium.
GENERAL WALKER, who is the head and heart of
the Nicaraguan buccaneers, and who has just
obtained his election as President of Nicarazua, is
described by the New York papers as a young man
a little over 32 years of age, very thin and wiry in
form, most industrious, capable of sustaining extra-
ordinary physical fatigue, and possessed of an un-
bounded ambition. His head is more than usually
high, somewhat large in proportion to his body ; his
forehead is broad and smooth, and so developed in
the reflective faculties that a phrenologist would he
apt to pronounce him an idealist. His face is thin,
his nose slightly aquiline, his mouth is well formed,
expressing great firmness, and his lips have that
compression peculiar to those who are very fastidious
and systematic. His eyes are rather small, and
placed low down from his brow. He speaks with
much deliberation, is particular in bis choice of
woris, and in his manner very diffident. No person
(says the New York Tribune) would suspect in his
half-bashful, half-shrinking manner the desperate
courage of which he is possessed, nor suppose that
his small hands and delicate fingers had so often
fought their way with the butt-end of a pistol through
a crowd of enemies.
AN UNHAPPY DELIVERY occurred the other day at
the Custom-house at Dover. Mme. Augustine R—,
a pretty blonde of from twenty to twenty-five years of
age, embarked from Calais. Her invalid appearance
excited the interest of the passengers, who felt great
anxiety lest sea sickness should bring on a crisis
which evidently could not long be deferred. She
crossed the Straits, however, safely, and upon landing
was placed in an arm-chair, and salts were held to
her nose, while an occasional groan went to the heart
of all her travelling companions. On the wharf a
Custom-house officer observed the disembarkation,
and seemed to feel a warm interest in the pretty
Frenchwoman. He approached and offered his as-
sistance, informing her that he had come knowledge
of medicine ; and, though the lady assured him that
she felt much better, and begged to be carried imme-
diately to an hotel, he protested that it could not be
done without danger, and by his philanthropic autho-
rity she was taken to an apartment of the Custom-
house, and a midwife sent for. As the officer had
foreseen, after begging to be released for a quarter of
an hour, she was safely delivered of 2 pelertnes, 15
scarfs, 17 pieces of lace, 12 pairs of silk stockings, 38
pieces of cotton, 6 reticules, and 48 Lyons handker
chiefs.

AUSTRIA is making considerable efforts to increase
her squadron in the Mediterranean, and indeed her
navy generally. The first line•of-battle ship (90
guns) which she ever thought of possessing was pnt
on the stocks at Pols a few days back, under the
name of the Emperor, and is to have a screw propeller,
with an 800-horse power. Two other ships of the
line of the same dimensions are likewise to be imme-
diately commenced, and, according to orders sent
from Vienna, are to be urged on as rapidly as pos-
sible. Independently of these first-rate vessels, two
screw frigates, the Adria and the Danube, are being
terminated in the yards of Moggia, as well as a screw
corvette at Venice. At the same time the armament
of a screw despatch-boat, the Prince Eugene, is nearly
completed ; while, to complete these measures, two
maritime arsenals, one at Fiume, and the other at
Lussin, are at once to be founded.
Sus CHARLES NAPIER is quite an object of interest
at St. Petersburg. A letter in Le Nord, from St.