The Press.
London, England, 1854-04-22 00:00:00

368

Spanish Government to see that their subordinates,
and particularly their Captains-General, carry out
their enactments with some regard to good faith.
Lord Howden has addressed a note to the Spanish
Government requiring that it shall close its ports
against Russian privateers, if Russia issues letters of
marque.
The Queen has amnestied the soldiers of the
Regiment of Cordova who took part in the revolt at
Saragossa.

THE PRESS.

The price of victuals and fodder have risen enor
mously, with every prospect of a further rise. Horses
are increasing in value with every day which passes :
money will not buy them in five or six weeks when
the officers and staffs of the auxiliary armies have to
be mounted. The most striking anecdotes are cur-
rent of the success of amateur horsedealers. A
merchant in Pera was offered a horse at a certain
rrice : he took it out to try it, and on his ride sold it
at an advance of 2,800 piastres on the price he had
to pay. Another merchant bought ten horses in
Stamboul and sold them on the same day with a
profit of 30,000 piastres ; and this is actually the case
while horses may be had for a mere trifle in Tunis
and Tripoli.
A circular of Lord Stratford de Redcliffe to the
British Consuls has been published. It inveighs
against the proceedings of the Greeks and of the
Hellenic Government, and declares that the move-
ments of the insurgents are not spontaneous, but
prompted by Russia. As some belief, it is alleged,
exists among the population that England and France
are determined to protect the Hellenic subjects
after the suspension of relations with the Porte, the
Consuls are directed to give immediate contradiction
to such rumours, and to declare that the two powers
look with indignation and reprobation on the move•
ment against the authority of the Porte.
The tidings that war had been actually declared by
England and France reached Constantinople on the
sth inst., and occasioned great excitement. The
Turks seem to have rejoiced especially at the news,
for some doubts have till now been hidden in the
depths of their heats as to the sincerity of their de-
fenders—doubts, perhaps, stregthened by the plain
speaking of Parliament and the press as to Christian
wrongs and Ottoman misgovernment. The elder
and stancher of the Osmanlis have not been slow
to express their distrust in words and looks, and the
opinions they express to those more closely in their
confidence have shown that some overt act of hos-
tility to the common enemy was necessary to gain
credit for the sincerity of an alliance which they look
upon as unnatural. " The Franks are here," says
one, "to sot the rayahs over our heads." " They
will dethrone the I'adischah and divide the empire,"
says another. As to the French, it has been agreed
that if they establish themselves in the country they
will never leave it- Not a few have reasoned that
the provinces have been long virtually independent,
that their subjection to Russia would be no material
loss to the Ottoman State, and that if the empty and
unproductive sovereignty over these regions is to be
bought by the overthrow of all that the Mussulman
holds dear—the domination of his race, the sanctity
of his faith, and the supremacy of his Sultan—it
would be better to leave them to their fate, and
acquiesce in the loss of a part in order to retain the
rest in its old integrity. The protection of the
Greeks, asked for by Prince Menschikoff, would be
nothing to the absolute equality of the rayah, which
they fear the allies are determined to demand. On
this subject they have made a fable. "Menschi-
koff," say they, " came to Constantinople and asked
for the Koran. He looked at the book, marked
several passages, and said, Erase these.' The Eng-
lish and French then came and asked also for
the Koran. After reading, they said, ' Throw this
book into the Bosphorus.'" Something of this kind
has been the feeling throughout among the great
body of the Turks, but the declaration of war has
somewhat increased their confidence, and disarmed
their suspicions.

General Canrobert, aide-de-camp of the Emperor,
and commander of the first division of the French
corps encamped at Gallipoli, arrived at Constanti
nople on the 3rd inst. with the intention of remaining
a few days. He visited the Grand Vizir Seraskier
and other great functionaries, and had an audience
with the Sultan at the palace of Tcheraghan, accom-
panied by a numerous and brilliant staff.

The Porte attaches all corn cargoes from the
Danube and Odessa. Baron Bruck, the Austrian
envoy, protests against it.
A misunderstanding between Lord Redcliffe and
Baron Bruck is said to have arisen at Constanti-
nople.
Omer Pacha is at Bardschik, which is now his
head-quarters. The Cossacks show themselves at
Trojan's Wall, hut no regulars are seen.
The bazi-bazouks (irregulars) are misbehaving
themselves in the Dobrudseha. Kostendje, a village
on the coast of the Black Sea, has been set on fire
by them.
At Matschin the combat was sanguinary : three
Russian and three Egyptian battalions remained
dead upon the field.
The Sulina mouths of the Danube are still
blocked up.
Three Russian men-of-war have been seen in the
Black Sea, off Batoum, and the same number at
Ineboli.
Varna, which was only defended by 6,000 men, has
asked for reinforcements from the combined fleets.
The English and French troops which have arrived
at Gallipoli will, it is said, be ordered there. That