The Express.
London, England, 1853-12-14 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, WEDNESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 14, 1853.

f,rnia to the States on the Atlantic. Since the gold
:n the former was discovered, the latter have re-
ceived, exclusive of the late arrivals, 203,886,025
dollars, or more than 45,000;000:. Rapidly as
society in our colonies of Australia btu grown,
especially since the discoveries of gold, society is
, . Ci.iifornia has grown more rapidly, and San Francisco
• surpasses even Melbourne. Numerous churches, large
1 theatres, great hotels, and several miles of streets
exist in the former. An electric telegraph
there connects it with Marysville, passing
through San Jose, Stockton, and Sacramento. " The
whole length of the line is 206 miles, and it was put
up in 75 days." The people there do not content
themselves with • railway of a dozen or twenty
miles. "The Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Conven-
t
tion " proposes, and is likely to execute, a plan for
constructing a line from ocean to ocean. They are
forming a company to run steamers between San
1 Francisco, the Sandwich Islands, and China. Already
they have lines of packets to Oregon, on the north,
land Valparaiso, on the south. In the harbour of San
Francisco, according to the Shipping List of the Alto
California, of Nov. 1, there were 103 vessels lying,
bearing fifteen different flags; and between October
the fourteenth and November the first, 83 vessels
arrived—viz., from domestic Atlantic ports, 15;
Europe, 3 ; China, 5 ; foreign Pacific ports, 2;
whaling voyage, 1; domestic Pacific ports, 59: total,
85. In fourteen days 74 vessels departed. So that
San Francisco is already on the way to be a worthy
rival of Liverpool or New York.
After giving a very flourishing account of the
mining districts, the produce of which is rapidly
increasing, the Alta California, from which we bor-
row
these details, states what will show us how dan-
gerous it is for England to be supine or negligent,
or to act on an erroneous system in such a neighbour-
hood :—" A number of miners have returned from
Australia, and all agree that it does not equal Cali-
fornia for the richness of its placers, and is far infe-
rior of the enjoyment of those popular rights which
are dearer to the American than gold. The emigra-
tion from here has ceased entirely." That Victoria
may, in this great race, not be distanced by Califor-
nia, she must, like California, be free. If the Ame-
ricans can rejoice in their institutions, we must make
those of our colonies worthy of being rejoiced in.
Once patriotism consisted mainly in injuring or in
conquering other countries; now it must animate us
to be successful in the march of improvement; to
equal our neighbours in skill and enterprise, and to
exceed them, if possible, in freedom. We must not
be left behind by the Americans; Victoria must, for
our honour, prosper equally with California ; and
Melbourne must grow like Ban Francisco.
We learn by the same arrivals that Adelaide is
thriving as well as Victoria, and that New South
Wales is not behind. It is worth notice, that seamen
from Melbourne get from 101. to 12!. per month as
wages, or tour times as much as they get in Europe ;
that a married couple of labourers, with no family,
get from 701. to 1001. a year ; and that shepherds get
from 351. to 401. So in San Francisco wages are
high, 73 dollars per month, or say 161., and as both
places still offer large inducements to the less well
paid population of Europe, and of the Eastern
States, to go thither, that circumstance ought
to influence employers elsewhere. Renewed
temptations to emigrate will arise with the
ensuing spring, and with the continued and
increasing prosperity of these new countries. Europe,
great and glorious hitherto, can only retain her post
in the front of civilisation by removing old °battle;
lions to industry and enterprise, discountenancing
old usurpations, and approximating the rewards of
labour to its rewards in the New World.

San Francisco, like Melbourne, has been rather
overdone by commodities sent from the Atlantic
States and from Europe. The commercial accounts
are not equal to expectation., and though mining is
flourishing, though the lumber trade is flourishing,
though agriculture and shipping are flourishing, the
commodities produced and the demands of
the people are net quite equal to the com-
modities poured in on them. Nevertheless
though trade in the Atlantic States, like trade here,
has latterly had difficulties to contend with, it is per-
fectly sound. There have been no failures amongst
the traders. There is a growing ease in the money
market—say the last accounts ; the banks have
been discounting more freely, and all the difficulties
that threatened trade there, as they threatened it
here, have turned out to be little more than the idle
fear of protectionists and monopolists. The great
arrivals of gold in both countries will give additional
stimulus to exertion and additional means of enter-
Prise' _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Trade, instead of hanging down its had ashamed,—
shrinking under the reproaches of an arrogant journal,
—and industry, instead of dreading the scowls of pert
politicians,
malting now may bound,
And drink from all the living riUs that gush on freedom's

ground.
On both sides of the Pacific, as well as in Europe and
in the Atlantic States, freedom is exciting exertion
and mewing it a great reward. If there be yet
amongst us any who, from apathy or ignorance,
would still hobble along on the crutches of protec-
tion and monopoly,—even should they save the sup.
ports which lame them,—will linger far behind Free.
traders, and be in truth mere spectacles of pity and
contempt.

LATEST FROM ABROAD.

RUSSIA AND TURKEY.
(BY 6UBBABINE TELEORAPH.)

Advicee of the 3rd inst., from Constantinople,
were retie 'j 7'—day at Vienna, If/Lich state that
news of the affair at Sinope had reached the former
city. Steamers had been ordered to proceed to the
scene of action for the purpose of obtaining accu-
rate information respecting the occurrence, and it
was believed that on their return the combined
fleets would be ordered to enter the Black Sea.

THE PROPOSITIONS OF THE POWERS.
BERLIN, Dec. 10.
The Prussian Correspondence, in • semi-ofci•l
article, says :

" The basis of the new project of mediation (that
which is put forward by the Four Powers) is the
maintenance of the previously existing treaties be-
tween Russia and Turkey. The Vienna protocol
pronounces in favour of the integrity of the Ottoman
empire, but at the same time also in favour of the
maintenance of the treaties of Kutschnk Kainardji
and of Adrianople." Moreover, proceeds the same
authority, the proposals for peace which Turkey is
invited to make may be modified by further negotia-
tions should they not obtain the anent of Russia.
"The negotiations relative to the treaty of peace
will take place directly between the plenipoten-
tiaries of the belligerent powers, and the participa-
tion of European diplomacy will be limited to
softening down the opposition of litigious pretensions
by its conciliatory intervention.
It is evident," says the semi-official writer,
"that in acting thus the Four Powers have no intea-
' lion of meddling in the difference itself, as indeed
they have no right to do. Such conduct would be
improper towards the Turkish government engaged
in defending the sovereign rights, which it deems
menaced, by all means in its power; it would be
completely absurd towards the Russian empire, the
dignity and position of which as a state, represented
by a distinguished sovereign, and the patriotism of a
powerful nation, form an essential basis of European
equilibrium and social order."

SPAIN.

... 11. -.-

A NEW CRISIS IN SPAIN.

The Sartorial; cabinet has been beaten in the Senate
on the railway question, the first battle field selected
by the opposition on the meeting of the Cortes. From
the beginning it was known that the contest would
be conducted in the bitterest spirit of opposition, and
the government organs only ventured to predict a
small majority for ministers. The division list, how-
ever, shows that they have been defeated most sig-
nally, the votes being 105 to 69. The policy of the
opposition was to assert for itself—that is, for the
Senate, in which it believed that it had a majority—
the prerogative of initiating an important legislative
act, and so expose the impotence of the cabinet, thus
despoiled, to the nation.

The results of this ministerial defeat may in the
present critical state of Spain prove most eventful.
Cabinet after cabinet has now for several years been
condemned by the representatives of the nation, and
has regularly attempted to govern without the
Cortes, supporting itself meanwhile by court intrigue.
These is good reason for believing that this expedient
will last no longer. The Queen's absolutist rivals,
encouraged by what they mistake for the
reviving prospects of legitimacy, renew their in-
trigues, and are ready at the first favourable moment
to light the torch of civil war. Under these circum-
stances it is satisfactory to be assured from
Madrid that the friends of constitutional government
are alive to the responsibilities of the hour. The
meetings of their leaders have been of late more
frequent, and their intercourse more confidential.
The telegraph informs us that the Spanish cabinet
has suspended the sittings of the Cortes by a royal
decree. This may either be the first step in the path
of the old anti-parliamentary system, or a necessary
preliminary to the reconstitution of the government
itself. The former, however, is the more probable
assumption.
A Madrid letter of the ith describes the sitting of
that day, when the Premier replied to the attacks on
his cabinet. " The Senate," it is observed, " when
the President took the chair, was crowded, owing to
the interest excited by the railway affair. The
President of the Council, the Count de San Luie,
ascended the tribune amidst profound silence.
He began by expressing regret at being obliged,
on presenting himself for the first time before the
Senate, to defend himself against hostile and un-
founded attacks. The opposition which arose under
' the administration of the Duke of Valencia, had con-
tinned, he said, under five other ministers, and he
thought that it might, without injustice or exag-
geration, be called a systematic one. What proved
this was that without waiting to see what the acts of
the present ministry would be, the Senate, in exe-
cution of a preconceived project of opposition,
had attacked the ministry by its report on the
railway affair, and by the proposed resolutions on
the railway bill presented by the cabinet. In
that report there was a haughty, unparliamen-
tail!, and, he might say, unconstitutional tone,
which it was not becoming to display towards the
direct and responsible advisers of her Majesty.
The concessions of railways had led to the
conflict between the ministry and the senate; and
yet it was precisely the men who had made the
concessions—the Marquis de Miraflores, for example
—who now opposed the cabinet. M. /toe de Olano
had declared in his speech that there was no middle
term between the destruction of the ministry or that
of the senate. Now, he would say if the question
were placed on that ground, the ministry could not
fall, for it was powerfully supported by the grace
and confidence of the crown, it had the approbation
of the majority of the Chamber of Deputies, and,
finally, it had a majority of members of its opinion
in the senate itself. It is now post hour," says the
letter in conclusion, " and the minister is still speak-
ing. It is expected that the ministry will have the
majority on the question;" an expectation which the
event has not justified.