The Express.
London, England, 1856-04-05 00:00:00

THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES.

(MOM OVA OWN 001

BUCHAREST, MARC. 17.
The intense agitation in Moldavia, noticed in
my bat, continues.
As soon as the result of the Conferences held at
'Constantinople on the Ist of March was known at
Jassy, a deputation waited on the Prince, for the
purpose of directing his attention to the critical state
of the country. The Prince stated is reply that he
had already addressed a memorandum to the Presi-
dent of the Congriss at Paris, Count Walewski, is
which he had appealed to that body from the deci-
sions adopted at Constantinople, on the ground that
the latter were an attempt to violate the autonomy
and other most essential rights of the Moldo-Walla-
chins, and that he had demanded the union of the
two Principalities under one prince taken from one of
the reigning families of the West. In the evening of
the UM day the Prince's secretary, M. Grenier, read
this document to a numerous assembly, amid the
unanimous applause of the parties prtseut. Imme-
diately after, the principal ir,habitants of Moldavia
in their turn signed by thousands a protest against
all that had been decided at Constantinople. This
protest was intended for presentation to the Prince.
At the same time they sent off to Paris a courier with
an address, in which they also demanded of the Con-
gress the union of the Principalities under a foreign
sovereign. While this was proceeding, the
Prince received simultaneously from Vienna—
through the medium of General Coronini,
who had gone to Jassy—and from Constan-
tinople the threat of immediate degradation
if he did not succeed by some means in preventing
his subjects from manifesting their wishes order pre•
sent circumstances. This threat has unfortunately
obtained only too signal a success, tor the Prince
suddenly prohibi,ed every kind of demonstration in
Moldavia, suppreseed the principal organ of the
Union, the Star of the Danube, that was under
the direction of the learned and energetic Michael
Gogalnitelteano, and canoed the courier bearing the
address of the Roumanians to the Congress at Paris
to be arrested at Czernowitz in Bucowinn.

In Wallachia, also, the union of the two Principa-
lities under one sovereign belonging to one of the
reigning families in the West is desired se
strongly as in Moldavia; but here the ex-
pression of that wish is far greater than in
Moldavia, and consequently public opinion cannot
declare itself in the same way, for Prince Stirbey is
entirely under the thumb of Austria. To give you
an idea of the reign of terror brought on in this
country by the Austrian occupation, I shall give you
the authentic lint of the a•rocities which the Aus-
trians have committed during the brief interval alone
of the last twenty-five dip in the single city of
Bucharest. Here it is :

In the first week of this short period, eighteen
assassinations were committed by the Austrians, and
proved on evidence. On the 23rd of February they
killed in broad daylight, in the Cot zotcheni quarter,
three men who had lodged a complaint against the
murderers for au act they had previously nom.
milted. In the night of the 26th they
killed three other men in the Street of the
Tanners for the mere sake of a loaf of sugar which
they had atfirst tried to take from them by brute force.
The assassins of the first three victims are known to
the Austrian commander, but, notwithstanding this,
no proceedings have been taken against them. On
the 24th they cut off the arms and legs of a poor
fellow, and threw the mutilated body into the Dam-
bovitza. Oa that same day, about nine o'clock in
the evening, they killed in the middle of the street a
man because he tried to protect his wife and pre-
vent her from being curled off by them. Oa the
25 h, in the afternoon, three Austrian soldiers, in the
presence of several of their officers, killed a man in
the Tchismedgi garden.
On the last evening of the carnival, which WAN
only over here the other day, two Austrian soldiers
in a state of intoxication, who were shamefully
using everybody in a public-house near the prison,
were arrested by four Roumanian soldiers, who had
hastened frem their post at the prison to the scene of
disorder, but an Austrian patrol coming up at-
tempted to rescue the prisoners at the point of the
bayonet. On the Roumanian side, an officer, M.
Andreesco, arrived from the prison with four more
soldiers, and the eight Roumanian soldiers, who were
not permitted to use their arms, had to sustain a
fierce but unequal combat against fifty Austrian
bayonets, disputing with them the possession of the
prisoners. They managed, however, to knock down
five of the Austrians. Happily, the prefect of polio*
interfered early enough to prevent bloodshed, for only
through his intervention have we been spared a hots
rible massacre. In tact, considerable bodies of Aug•
trian and Roumanian troops were already on their way
to the spot, and the people, who were beginning to
take part in the affray, did not conceal their wish to
find an opportunity for taking vengeance on their
bloodthirsty oppressors. It is probable that M. An-
dreecco will not escape with the wound he received
while discharging his duty, for the Anstrian cow.
mandant demands hie punishment, and of course will
obtain it, as he always has done in every case, of our
Prince Stirbey. If the Austrians delay their depar-
ture from the Principalities, this country will very
shortly have some terrible drama enacted in it, so
profound fs the contempt and detestation in which
they are held by the Roumanians.