The Express.
London, England, 1853-06-03 00:00:00

MR. VANDERBILT'S STEAM YACHT.

The gigantic American steam yacht the North
Star, which arrived at Southampton on Wednesday, now
lies along the North Quay of Southampton-dock. Mr.
Vanderbilt, the owner, with his family, lauded, and pro-
ceeded to London, yesterday morning. The yacht has ex-
cited the greatest interest amongst the shipbuilders, en-
gineers, and the commanders and officers of the steam pac-
kets at the above named town. Large numbers of persons
visited her yesterday, and crowds will visit her to-day, who
are to be admitted on board by tickets issued front the
American consulate. The appearance of the North Star,
both inside aid out, is of the most singular character, for
she possesses all the characteristics of an American
river and ocean steamer. She looks as big as the
monster steamers of the West India Company. The edge
of her bow forms a vertical line, and the sides of the latter
are perfectly wedge-shaped. She is steered forward, the
wheel is situated in • comfortable apartment, and com-
municates with the rudder by ropes and rods. The steers-
men are thus close to the look-out man, and there is at-
tached to the wheel a bell which communicates with the
engine-room by means of which signals can be communi-
cated to that department. The upper deck is flushed, the
centre portion of which is covered, the covering forms a
sort of spar deck, and above this deck some portion of the
steam machinery extents. The spar deck, as it may be
called, is level with the top of the paddle-box. Handsome
flights of stairs lead to the saloon, which is larger and more
magnificent than the saloon of any ocean steamer afloat, and
even surpasses in splendour the Queen's yacht the Victoria
and Albert. The carpets and furniture are superb. Ranged
round the saloon are capacious and beautifully furnished
cabins, the doors and panels of which are of wild bird's-eye
maple and rosewood. Mirrors extending from the ceiling
to the floor are fixed in the cabins. The dining saloon is
also a very' splendid apartment, the wails of which appear
of polished and variegated marble and malachite. This
substance is, however, formed of a conglomerate of stone,
marble, and glass, and is a recent American invention. It
is fixed on wood peculiarly seasoned, and bears an
exquisite polish. Fixed on iron, it forms handsome
table and chimney slabs and tops of chiffonaiezes, specimens
of which are seen in the saloons. The walls of the dining
saloon composed of this material appear warmer, and look
far more beautiful than if they were of marble. The ma-
lachite and marble colours relieve one the other, and panels
and gilt mouldier prevent, also, anything like an appear-

ace of monotony.
Beneath the saloons there is another fine deck, extending
the whole length of the ship. Its gloominess being lit
chiefly by port-boles, its immense extent and rows of
massive pillars as supports, makes it appear like the vault
of some cathedral. This immense and seemingly under-
ground saloon is beautifully clean, and the floor is painted
oak. It would form, and no doubt has formed, a magnificent
ocean ball-room. No one can have an idea of the immense
space contained in very large ships, unless they see the in-
terior of such a vessel as the North Star, unencumbered es
she is with passengers, berths and holds for cargo. The
North Star stows away about 600 tons of coal, and her con-
sumption of fuel during the voyage was about 60 tons a day.
She is slenderly rigged, just like all American steamers.
She cost about 600,000 dollars building. The expense of
beeping such a yacht is about 3001. a week. Mr. Vander-
kilt is immensely rich. He was at one time proprietor of a
large number of the gigantic American river steamers, and
at the present time owns a large number of the packets
which ply between New York and San Francisco. In this
magnificent trip to England by Mr. Vanderbilt, brother
Jonathan has certainly gone a head of himself, and has, at
lea.t, surpassed everything of the kind hitherto done by
millionaire Englishmen.

WATERLOO BRIDGE CONlPANT.—Yesterday the
half-yearly general assembly of proprietors of this com-
pany was held at the Freemasons' Tavern, Groat Queen-
street, Lincoln's-inn-fields ; Mr. Joseph Smith in the chair.
The tolls received from 23rd August, 1852,t0 23rd February,
1853, amounted to 8,7701.9 e. ; and those for corresponding
period of preceding year to 9,513/. lls. 7d. After paying
leurrent charges, expenses, providing for the interest of tke
company's bonds, and making a dividend of 3s 61. in the
•
pound for the annuitants in February last, there re-
mained a balance of 3,5101. 16s. Ild. The roads and bridgo
were in a very satisfactory state. The report and auditors'
account wore adopted.

ghe era3roA.

TO CORRESPON

r,econd Edition ef " 1 tie knerces," coot, won ante elven
" Genetic," in publithed every Tuesday tut Friday eight, la um,
Nor roe-
le•T tisenteittp intended for " The Enrollee," London Evening pimp
otilet l•
lay of at tublication.he Office. 10, lioltuene..totet, by Iwo 0.01001 pa AZ
p

/UGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Ttu D.*—Moralsr. Nb. Om. Afternoon. ob. Gm.
T.roaarw—iitormag. 00. 30a AltCrlloo73. 04. 41,ay

LONDON, FRIDAY; JUNE 3.

WHEN friends of free and constitutional govern-
ment express doubts of the ability of Austria to
crush the liberties of Switzerland, we agree with
them. But when they go on to argue from this
concession that in existing circumstances—at the
present moment—Austria will not make the attempt,
we may call in question the soundness of their rea-
soning. Despotistn is quite as liable to be blinded
by passionate desire as popular feeling ; and though
Austria may—must fall short of the conquest of
Swiss liberties, yet it may do a world of
by the attempt. To that attempt Austria will
be encouraged by the assurance of the active
sympathy and support of the posse Contitabis of Ger-
man and Italian despots. We hear much in these
days of popular conspiracies, but much less than we
ought to do of the plots of despotism against nations.
This is owing to the same cause to which Amy
Slum long ago attributed the fact that while combi-
nations of workmen were everywhere clamoured
against, nobody seemed to imagine that there were
such things as combinations of masters. The few
can combine effectively and quietly ; the many are
unavoidably loud and demonstrative ; the few can
glide to the attainment of their objects silent andun,
observed as serpents; the mere multitude of
the many is an inevitable cause of noise.
Yet even the few can at times betray, by lack of
circumspection, the movements they would keep
secret,—as in the case of the present conspiracy of
crowned heads against Switzerland.
Not a step has been taken by Austria in its recent
quarrels with the Swiss Cantons, but a parallel
movement has been made at the same time by other

anti-liberal Governments. No sooner was the brawl
raised by Austria on account of an alleged complicity
of Ticino with the Milanese insurgents, than
the King of Pnusst.► hastened to notify
that when he resumed the government of
Neufchatel, be would not hold himself bound by any
railway contracts of the actual rulers. As the mire
understanding between Switzerland and Austria be.
came more threatening, Wurtemberg and Bavaria—
the satellites of Austria—and Baden, the Govern.

ment of which has been re-established by Prussian
, arms, and is at this moment claimed for the expenses
of the war—proffered their mediation, each in turn
prefacing its offer by a declaration that Austria was
in the right. And now that the Austrian Minister
has been withdrawn from Switzerland, those three
honest mediators begin to talk of a frontier
blockade. The King of Paussta has been prating
at Vienna about the likelihood of the Prussian and
Austrian armies being called upon to fight side by
side in some holy cause. And, lastly, while Austrie
has been driving shoals of industrious labourers from
its Italian dominions to starve in a small Swiss
canton, in the hope that their sufferings might pro•
duce discontent and disturbances, the old conspiracy
of the Sonderbund—whose leaders experienced cone.

tenance and protection in Austria—has actually
risen again in arms in Fribourg.
The symptoms of despotic conspiracy against
Switzerland are too plain to be mistaken. The
hatred entertained by the despots of Europe towards
Switzerland is too well known to admit of astonish•

meat being excited by this. Austria, indeed, has a
private and pressing reason for wishing to sweep the
independent State of Helvetia from its path. We do
not mean that theHouseof HAPSBURG BO persists in
regarding the Cantons as rebellious subjects, of whom
it is bound in honour to attempt the re-conquest,--
though the memory of dynasties in such matters is

as tenacious as that of the Moors in North Africa,
who are said still to keep possession of the
keys of the houses in tho Spanish towns from
which they were driven. Bat apart from
this : the darling object of Austrian ambition
is to confirm and extend its territorial ac-
quisitions in Italy. Since the growth of the Pros
sign power Austria has lost all hope of subjecting
Germany, and aims at compensation in a sunnier
land. 'Whoever takes the trouble to consult the
journals and correspondence of the first Lord
MALMESBURY will find that this aspiration was
frankly confessed both by MARIA TUEREnk and her
eon Josorn IL And whoever consults the history
of the French Revolution will find that FRANCIS,
when he abdicated the throne of the Holy Roman
Empire, on the formation of the Confederation
of the Rhine, and changed his title from Emperor
of GERMANY to Emperor of AUsTRIA, retained pos-
session not only of such Italian territories as were
fiefs of Austria, but of those which appertain to
the Empire, and ought to have been surrendered by
him when he ceased to be its Sovereign. It is ro.
necessary to insist upon the shameless greed with
which Austria subsequently accumulated other par-
cels and portions of Italian territory, now as
the accomplice of NAPOLEON, now of the allied
Sovereigns, or upon its obvious eagerness to
enrich itself in the present day at the expense either
of tho States of the Church or of Sardinia, as may
seem for the moment most expedient. Enough : the
eager, hereditary, wolf-like hunger of Austria for
wider lands in Italy is transparent. It must be clear
that far a government which has its heart set upon
such dishonest acquisition, a free neutral State like
Switzerland, in immediate proximity, and upon its
flank, is an awkward neighbour. Austria hungers
and thirsts for the extinction of Swiss nationality, in
order that it may with greater security push its
nefarious projects in Italy.

The cause of the hatred entertained by the crowned

co-conspirators of Austria for Switzerland is pal-
pablo to the dullest understanding. The vicinity
of a free Government is in their eyes a permanent
bad lesson to the serfs whom they call subjects.
The existence of a free neutral territory in their
neighbourhood is a great nuisance in their eyes
whenever they make a battue of Liberals. Switzer
land was spared with reluctance in 1815, when
Rolland and Venice were extinguished. Opportu-
nities to assail it have been sought for with cat-like
watch ever since. And now an attempt appears to
be on the evo of being made to carry BYRON'S pro'
phecy into fulfilment :
The name of Commonwealth is crushed and gone
O'er the three fractions of the groaning globe ;
Venice is crushed ; and Holland deigns to own
A sceptre, and endures the purple robe ;
If the free Switzer yet bestrides alone,
His chainless mountains, 'tie but for a time ;
For Tyranny of ►ate is cunning grown,
And in her own goad season tramples down
The sparkles of our ashes.
The conviction that we arc on the eve of such an
attempt increases the regret with which every true
Englishman remarks the subservient tone adopted of
late by his own Government towards the despots of
the continent. The KOSSUTH niece's-nest is ono
symptom of this; a worse is the missionary expcdt
tion of the King of ilkUal:Nl to organise an Orleans
league among the German princes, and the at'

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1

tempt of English ministerial journals to persuade
ir realm that Austria is a better ally to resit
Pollan encroachment in Turkey than France !

Tot- evening her Majesty's Ministers are to tell
to what plan they propose for the future government
of haw. Within the last few days a notion has got
abroad that it is their positive intention to rush into
panianent legislation, against the public opinion of
Eegland and—su far as it has been expressed—against
public orinion of India; the Ministry
tho•
mlets being raw and uninformed, and scarcely
one quarter of the inquiry which they themselves
is-tituted having as yet been completed. It is also
aid—we hope for the reputation of Lord DAL-
,IE untruly—that the last mail brought a com-
munication from him ads ising immediate legislation,
so is to foreclose the Indian question and avert
certain cell. which the keen eyes of East India
Directors and their GOVLItNuIt-UENLBAL detect in
Indian agitation—agitation be it remembered for
some amelioration in the condition of one hun-
dred millions of British subjects. The President
of the India Board ought to be asked in his place
in Parliament under what circumstances Lord
1011 fin: six, if lie have really given it, has
come to offer his cpinion on the question
of Indian agitation. Did he volunteer it, or did he
give it in reply to a leading question put to him pub-
licly, or put to him privately, in that confidential
correspondence on public matters which is stated to
take One between the President of the Board of
Cannon-row and "the Chair" of Leadenhall-street
and the Go LiiNur.-CENERAL? Whether pubic or
confidential, the importance of the question is such
that the correspondence,—with the evidence, if any,
on which the Coo ERNOtt-GENERAL'S notion of dan-
gerous Hindu agitation is founded,—ought to be laid
on the table of the house of Commons, in order that
the !louse and the public may be able to form an
opinion of its value. In the meanwhile, we must
my that this notion of danger from Indian agita-
tion has for sonic months beck been industriously pro-
gagated by the Directorial body of Leadenhall-street,
and that, unluckily for their own reputation, some
members of the existing Cabinet have been
found too credent of the fable. For ourselves,
we are quite satisfied that the" dangerous agitation"
which Directors fear is English and not Indian, and
we are confirmed in this view by the opinion en.
tcrtaincd by the mercantile classes in the City, that
if the inquiry now going on be continued but for
another year there is a sure end to the Company
and to their long rule.
Let us, however, examine for a moment the value
of the opinion of the Marquis of DALstorstE, under
the supposition that the noble lord has been simple
enough to give it. In the first place, agitation for
intension of political rights is an English, and not
• Law felon. In reference to India, it is contrary
la the Meetings of near a century of English, and
of seem centuries of Mahomedan history. Indeed,
it is sostrary to the truth of all Asiatic history.
Oat et one hundred millions of people, there are
not ono hundred thousand who understand the
English language, and not 6,000 who un-
derstand or care for politics, and even this
little fraction, to whom the agitation is eon-
fined, is restricted to three small corners of a ter-
ritory above ten times the size of the united islands
of Great Britain and Ireland. The Indian agitation,
moreover, is directed to a demand for a very small
instalment of a hugs' debt which has been owing for
the best part of a century, and the demand is made
in terms so moderate, that had it been made for
Englishmen it would be condemned for its timidity.
We can readily understand the danger of closing the
door against necessary reform, but danger from a
reform of crying evils is unintelligible. There is
another danger also intelligible enough—that of
betraying fear of reform when the danger is purely
Imaginary,—as undoubtedly in the present instance
it is.

The Indians have seen us conquer one Indian
people alter another, until by foul or fair means we
have subdued all India, but they have
agitated for no political change on this
account. They have seen us squander mil-
lions of their own money in making or
attempting to make foreign conquests, but they have
neither agitated, nor revolted, but now that they
ask to be relieved of a small share of the grievances
inflicted on them by the misrule of the East India
Company, they are denounced as dangerous agitators,
and the legislature is besought to shut the door in
their faces, and bid them to be contented as they are.
—to put up for another score of years with
what they have already endured for nearly eighty !
No doubt there has been agitation in India
under our rule, but it has never been one for exten-
sion of political rights. It has been an agitation to
avert extortion, and it has often ended in insurrec-
tion and even in dangerous rebellion, put down only
by cannon and the bayonet. Of these "agitations,"
within the last 40 years there have been at least
half-a•dozen, produced, in every ease, by the imposi-
tion of new taxes or the aggravation of old ones, and
we may refer our readers to an ample, truthful, and
well-written account of these " agitations "—with all
the terrible story of the blood that flowed from
them—to the history of India by Profaner WILSON;
now and for the last forty-five years a servant of the
East India Company. In such a work the sins of
that Company are sure not to be overstated.
But there is a palpable danger to India and
to England from not agitating for Indian
reforms, to which we must now refer. Unless we
agitate and carry a sweeping reform of the
existing system, India will be beggared and bank-
rupt through the want of improvement, and as
it will be quite impossible for us to cut
India adrift, England will have to pay 20s. in
the pound for her bankrupt dependency. Let
as proceed to a short proof. For the ten years ending
with 1848-49 there was an annual deficit in the In-
dian revenue averaging a million and a half a year,
and making a total deficit of better than 13,000,000/.
Next year there was a surplus, the amount of which
was about one-fourth part of the average deficit of
each of the ten preceding years ; but this surplus
arose entirely from an extraneous cause. The
Chinese in the year in question paid a larger
Price than usual and smoked a larger quantity then
usual of Indian opium. With an expensive and ill-
conducted war at present on our hands, any surplus
for the next ten years is not to be expected, and the
great probability is that an annual deficit of a couple
of millions is what must be reckoned on. And now even
the opium revenue is itself in danger. The importation
of opium has been declared legal by the Chinese Go-
vernment, and the culture of the poppy and prepara-
tion of opium is on the point of being made aci,—se we
find by the accounts broaght by the last maiL Here
is the argument of the Chinese Cabinet Minister,
who recommends the legalising of the prone-
tion of native opium : " The native resources
of the country being developed, the ex-
pin of money abroad will diminish in the
natnral:rourse of things. Native-grown opium
daily becoming more abundant, there will be leas
demand for the foreign opium ; the quantity will
gradually dwindle away ; at last there will be none
mid Chinese traitors will then be deprived of where.
withal to support their vocation. The productions of
barbarian countries, being, with the exception of
opium, very limited, the fountain of our prosperity
daily swellina higher, the fountain of theirs will

daily subside. It will be needless for us to deprive
them of it by force, for in verity it will of itself de-
part from them. Behold the subjection of the enemy
without the fighting of soldiers." The illustrious
WOO-TING-POO seems as bent on the peaceful
overthrow of the East India Company as
any recent petitioner. But the Chinese Minister not
only proposes to legalise the production of native
opium, but he also tells us that it is already grown
in several provinces clandestinely, and he particu-
larises that of Yunan, a great province bounded by
Siam and Ava. "The Imperial officers, it is true,"
he says, "are sent to cut down the poppies, but, re-
ceiving a small bribe from the cultivators, they de-
putt, reporting that the business is complete. The
cause of the prosperity of Yunan," he adds, " is, that
" its native grown opium is abundant, and the drain of
specie proportionately inconsiderable."

Next in amount to the opium revenue in the In-1
dien Exchequer comes the money gained by the
Tax on Salt; and here the prospects of the future are
very gloomy. On the authority of a Calcutta journal
in the interest of the G overnment, we bad that in
the two years from 1849-50 to 1831-52 there had been
a decrease in the consumption of this necessary of
life of 60,000 tons!—implying, beyond what would be
inferred from a diminished consumption of any ex-
ciseable article with us, diminished means to con-
same, or in other words, increase of poverty in the
people. The diminished consumption infers a loss
lof revenue to the amount of 415,0001.! The opium
lrevenue, in round numbers, is 3,000,0001., and the
salt revenue 2,000,000/., making between them
5,000,0001., or one-fourth part of the whole net re-
venue of India. With this and many other evidences
of mal-administration staring them in tho face, our

rulers are for rushing into a legislation which has
for its object in ono shape or another the continu-
ance of an administration which has brought British

India to this piteous and perilous condition. " Agita-
tion " is a truly conservative duty when such folly
is in the ascendant.

TURKEY.

A despatch, purporting to have been received from
Constantinople,and announcing the arrival of "Count
Nesse!rode," was yesterday published in London.
As this name is generally understood when not fur-
ther qualified to designate the well known Chancellor
of the Russian empire, it was supposed by some that
the Czar, as soon as he was made aware of the hesi-
tation of the Porte to yield to the demands of the
Prince do. Menchikolt resolved to send 'a more
moderate and at the same time more skilful nego-
tiator. Others better informed of the position
of Count Neseelrode, and the impossibility
of news of the 22nd reaching Bt. Petersburg in
time for sending him so early to Turkey, concluded
that there was some jumble in the despatch, which,
it was observed, had no date. The following is the
true reading of the message:

TICIESTE, TVESDAT EVENING.

News has arrived from Conetantinople, dated May 2s.
Count Nesselrode has arrived in oar port, charged with di-
spatches.

That is to say, that the eon of the Imperial Chan-
cellor, who was attached to Prince Menchikoff's mis-
sion, had arrived at Trieste, not at the Turkish
capital, and from Constantinople, not from Russia,
having left in the Lloyd's boat the day after Prince
Meachikoff started for Odessa.

Respecting the departure of M. Ozeroff and the
resident Russian legation from Constantinople, ao-
counts are contradictory; those from Seadin report-
ing that the chargE d'affuires remained alter Prince
Menchikoffs departure, although preparing to follow
him to Odessa ; and those him Trieste stating that
M. Ozeroff and all the personnel of the legation ac-
companied the special envoy on buard the Bessarabia.
The Trieste despatches, moreover, differ from one
another ; some stating that the protection of the sub-
jects of Russia is confided to the Austrian legation,
and others that they are entrusted to the care of the
Danish minister.

Letters from Constantinople, of the 19th, contain
some interesting details respecting the facts which
accompanied and preceded the departure of Prince
Menchikoff.
On the 17th alt., an extraordinary council was
held under the presidency of the Sultan. Fifty-seven
pawns were present, among whom were Kosrew
Packs. Raouf Pacha, Riza Pacha, Sateti Pacha,
Nafiz Pacha, Filed Effendi, Chekib Effendi, Chekib
Bey, Ziver Effendi, in fact, all the former ministers
and high functionaries of the empire. The deli-
beration lasted two days, and the council was
unanimously of opinion that the government must
persist in the negative response made some days pre-
vious to Prince Menchikoff. When all had expressed
their opinion, the Sultan said, "We have done all
that depended on us to satisfy Russia and avoid a
rupture with her ; if we have not succeeded, the
fault is not ours. It was my duty to defend my
sovereign rights ; I know also my duties, and in all
the grave circumstances which may arise I shall
know how to fulfil them. Have confidence in me,
as I have in you." The Prince was informed
of the result of the council on the evening of the
18th, and next day the decision was formally notified
to him. On the other hand, 'the attempts made by
the principal members of the diplomatic corps to in-
duce Prince Menchikoff to modify his demand, and the
instances of Reschid Pacha, wholad a long conference
with bim, having completelyfailed,and the Porte having
declared that it had no modification to make in its
first reply, the Prince addressed to the Porte a final
note, signifying the cessation of diplomatic relations
and his approaching departure with the entire
Russian mission.
The Divan, although not admitting the possibility
of war, yet believing that in the present state of affairs
Ithe brat mode of assuring peace was by taking an ener-
getic attitude, resolved on adopting a series of impos-
ing measures. Orders were sent to Achmet Pacha, com-
manding the Mediterranean squadron, to return im-
mediately with his fleet. He was expected at Con-
stantinople in the course of the present week. The
fleet of the Viceroy of Egypt was also expected
in a few days, a courier having been sent
to Alexandria with orders. This fleet was
Ito bring a reinforcement of about 15,000 men. At
the same time order was given to Omer Pacha,
General-in-Chief of the army of Rnmelia, to descend to
Shumla with his corps-d'armee, a force of from eighty
to one hundred thousand excellent troops, inured to
war, and a great number of which took part in the
expeditions to Bosnia, Kurdistan, and Montenegro.
The Commander-in-Chief has also ordered the
immediate formation of two camps, one at Roud-
jouck and the other at Brume. These two camps, com-
posed of the redif or reserve, will comprehend
260,000 men, who, joined to the active army of about
230,000 men, will form a total effective force of more
than 500,000, available for the defence of the country.
Besides its ordinary resources, Turkey has at its dis-
posal the reserve chest, recourse to which is only had
in extreme oases. This treasury has not been opened
since 1827. Its present contents are estimated at
300,000 " purses "or 37 million francs at least. The
enthusiasm of the army is unmistakeable. The Turks
of all classes are decided in their hostility to the,
Remises; and, should war break out, it is the whole
nation that will rise against the Muscovite.
The Greek clergy have taken the alarm at the
first glimpse. of the Russian yoke, and are ready to
persuade their flocks to oppose the advance of a
despot who would reduce patriarchs and priests to
the slavery. of the Russian clergy. Important and
powerful in Turkey, the Greek priests see that the
merest corporal would be of more consequence in
Ramie than they. It is said that with a view to re-
cognise and confirm the devotion of the Christian
population, the Sultan contemplated a new act of
sovereignty which shall for ever secure to all Chris-
tians of whatever communion rights and immunities
more extensive and valuable than those which have
been before granted, whether in treaties or in the
hatti-sherif of Gullianfi or in the Tanzimat. A copy
of this act will be given to all the foreign embassies,
so that it will be thenceforward a diplomatic docu-
ment.

r.L.,
NCLOSVRE OF HAMPEITEAD HEATlL—Yesterday
the vestry of St. Pancras resolved that a petition be pre-
sented against the measure, and that a committee be ap-
pointed to oppose by every legal means the bill for 'Delos.
wag Hampstead Heath now before the House of Lords