The Express.
London, England, 1853-12-17 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, SATURDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 17, 1853.

EUt entire/0.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.
Ps-NO ►." of ..Tue kapress."sostaistsi the mu miss's
••(;....-tte." piddiebsd Ms" taming sad PTAs, sistdon Uso•
tar port.

harrtionownts Wtteeded loe "Me Leven; Lemke Ereniog payer.
meet be at the tWak asemerbbifirey4 y Two o'clook Co the
W of pub:mattes.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tun U+*—lllonung, SO. 3111 . Aftrrisium, 3s. 20..
TO4101•06 —Murals., 3.b. Mk /Memos, 3h. 3Sts.

LONDOA; SATURDAL DECEMBER 17.

WittLsT the Daily News was yesterday discussing
in its columns for Correspondence the lost news of
"another split in the Ministry," two of its Govern.
went contemporaries were busily engaged in saying
what their patrons thought it best to have published
about the resignation of Lord PALMERSTON. To-day
" the split" is understood to be larger than it was when
the Home SECRLT %KVA departure from Downing-
street was made known by his colleagues to the " safe"
journal.. If all that is now stated about Ministerial
difficulties be true, then at the very hour when Lord
PoLuEsurros's resignation wa-. being " communi-
cated" to the papers entrusted with the news, it must
have been known to those who employed the printed
conduit pipes in question that the Marquis of
LANspowra also contemplated retirement from the
Coalition. But it was apparently thought best to
pre-occupy the public car with the news of the
resignation of the Home SECRETARY alone, and
to point to differences upon the question
of Reform as the cause of that resignation be-
fore any suspicion of the Marquis of LANS-
DOWNE'S oontemplsted departure from office should
be allowed to transpire. The anti-Reform leanings
of Lord PALMERSTON would easily be believed, and
lees mischief be done, by letting the news first burst
upon the town with that twist in it. If a double or
treble resignation had been made known at once,
and if in the list of departures from the Cabinet
the name of the Whig Marquis of LANSDOWNE had
been given in company with that of the bellicose
Lord PALMERSTON, the public belief would at once
have jumped to the conclusion that the Turkish
Question, and not the Reform Bill, was the real
cause of the split. Hence apparently the general
form,—the two channels,—the mode altogether,—in
which the intelligence of half the Ministerial diffi-
culties was yesterday made known.
The first mental doubt provoked by the Peelite
communications on the subject yesterday, arose over
the sentences in which the Ministerial journals asked
implicit belief for the allegation that the " split " was
all about " Reform." A Cabinet crash does not
usually take place about things that are virtually far
off. " Reform," though now under discussion in
Downing.street, has got a couple of months yet at
least before it can be put to the test of the House of
Common., whilst another matter also on Ministerial
shoulders—is urgent, pressing, vital in its imme-
diate importance. The Cabinet are known at this
moment to be on the horns of a most critical di-
lemma. They have muddled a great question
of foreign policy. They have declared that
Russia had, by crossing the Pruth, committed an act
of war—they have declared the Turks to be our
allies and in the right—they have sent English ships
to the Bosphorus, and, having said and done all these
things, they have allowed our fleet to be idle whilst
the SULTAN'S vessels are being battered and sunk
ander their very noses. Such a state of things cannot
possibly last. When the " game of cannot-shot" is
in full activity slanders-by cannot for ever keep out
of the mischief. Something must be done at once.
yet those whom move it is are afraid to stir. If they
heartily back the Turks they offend Austria and cer-
tain Court coteries—if they don't help the Tusks they
offend still more important people. When they
should act they hesitate, and whilst they hesitate
they are in danger of being involved—it may be
single-handed—in a long and desperate European
war. Is not a serape of this sort a much more likely
thing to have startled a crafty old politician
like the member for Ilverten than any difficulties
about Reform? Lord PALMERSTON has not hitherto
been very strict about niceties when party and place
have stood in the way. His career, if consistent in
any Sing, has been very much of the Vicar of Bray
Nelsool. His stickling. have not usually been about
opinions, but about OEM He began life ea a Tory;
he has been Whig, Peelite, and in some
things (we say it with pride and great Natio-

faction) he lies been a true Radical Re-
former—the graveyards and the Scotch Hu-
miliation to wit. He has almost boxed the political
compass--sonietimse, as we think, to the right quar-
ter; sometimes, we are sun, to the wrong one; but
generally with great cleverness, very little principle,
but almost always with smoses—to Number One.
His only real consistency ham been shown in his
love of power and place. His antecedents, there-
fore, surely all go to show that something has in-
Scented his resignation more serious to his mind
than a pound or two higher or lower in the figure at
which the suffrage-qualification should be fixed.

He is not at all the man one would expect to see for-
sake his dearly beloved Downing•street about such
trifles as a Five Pound or an Eight Pound Franchise,
or even on account of the eternal upset of that useful
pocket borough of Hr. RZATIICOTE'S which boasts
Lord PALitxusrox as its member—and which the
Simone river Ens flows by. Reasons more cogent by
far were yesterday believed, and will long bs be-
lieved, to have influenced him, notwithstanding all
that the Times may say to the contrary. The
Turco-Russian question will assuredly bear the credit
or the blame—whichsoever it may be thought by dif-
_ _

ferent people to be—of separating Lerd PAUM:SION
and the Aur.anzg:r Coalition.

After the speculations about—How was it caused?
we are met by those about—What does it mean ?
What will it lead to ?—and here again conjecture has
already been, and will still be, busy. Many of Lord
PaLatatisroN's friends will be found to declare that it
was high feeling for English honour in the Black Sea
and on the Danube which led to his resignation.
Others will, perhaps, be equally prompt in dieco-
tering and canvassing the probabilities of his
future. :They may look back and remember
the way in which he was driven from Downing-
street, when he held office with the Whigs—may
call to mind the ingenious and masterly way in
which he tripped up a Ministry from which he
had been ejected, and how he subsequently
re-installed himself in office, despite the op-
position of many of his ancient colleagues.
Bome of his admirers may even go so far
as to hint that courtly distastes, or COBURG in-
trigues, may have bad something to do with render-
ing his path in office at times uneven. And, then,
what a possible future opens up if a present hasty
resignation could lead to Cabinet difficulties, and
such a Ministerial re-construction could be brought
_ _

about OS should give Lord PALMERSTON the foreign
portfolio once more? Or even—who knows?—the
Premiership itself ? What a grand revenge would
that be'' and what a showy close for a long official
career—The Tory ranks are broken—the cajoled and
dejected squire, hurry here and there for want of a
sufficient leader. Earl DERBY 1. " off the cards "
with the gout. lltsao;LI has genius, Lord STANLEY
knowledge, but the " gentlemen of England " in

topboots and with broad acres, can see no likelihood
of success by following either. Some of them, like
Mr. Mu. s, are even now talking quite u much re-
form as the ex-Home Secretary would advocate, and
nearly all of them now see the advantages of Free
Trade and the hopelessness of Protection. What if
the suave, open-spoken, crack tactician of the House
of Commons should offer to put himself at their
head ; and, pointing to the wretched foreign policy
of Lord ABERDEEN, try to get up at once a
Free Trade Conservative party with " War against
Russia" as a battle-cry ? Less likely castles in
the air than this have surely been turned into real
solid facts before now. At all events, some of Lord
PALMERSTON'S friends think so.

But whilst the course of events can alone show
what the future of Lord PALMERSTON may be, it
seems certain that if an efficient Home Secretary is
lost (and may be regretted) the Reform element of
the Cabinet becomes all the stronger for his absence.
It may offend some that Lord PauterterroN should
go out, but it will assuredly gratify very many
more. Indeed if anything like a wise and genuine
measure of reform is proposed by the Cabinet, and if
wise resolves are at last come to on the Eastern
difficulty, the Coalition may gain more friends than
it loses by the changes just announced. The admirers
of Sir James GRAHAM name him for the Home-
office, and would send SIDNEY HERBERT to fill the
vacancy so made at the Admiralty; others again
gossip about Sir gEOZGE, GREY as sure to be asked
by Lord bout( RUSSELL to enter harness once
more,—which he would be nothing loth to do
But these speculations are probably most premature.
The " split " may spread—beginning with PALMER-
Brom it may end with ABERDEEN, and we may again
find a Cabinet composed avowedly on the basis of a
measure of reform, with one of the authors of the first
Reform Bill at its head. Should any such party
be found is power, only let them speak plainly and
fairly out, and they will have at their backs so large
a mass of the intelligent, industrious, and wealth-
producing people of this practical and progressive
nation as will carry them triumphantly forward.
War is not wanted—and never was for its own sake,
and any opposition that should endeavour to get up
a War Ministry would meet only troubles and defeat.
We want to keep faith with allies and put back
the Autocrat; but this is not to be done by war,
for war's own sake, nee by making War the rallying
cry of a faction. "My religion is to hate Russia,"
said the expatriated Bast ; and every lover
of freedom sympathised with the veteran patriot
and soldier. Every Liberal hates Russia because
Russia is the intermit and cruellest of existing
Despotisms. Bat hearty Liberals in England don't
want to be led by the nose by any artful Russo-
phobic cry invented for the sake of restoring the
Derbyites to power in any new combination or under
any new leader.
The public at large can well afford to wait the
result of Downing-street quarrels with great equa-
nimity, since on such quarrels the people rather
thrive than suffer. By the opposition " bids " of
successive candidates for office the national work is
gradually advanced, and reforms successively ob-
tained.
The quietude with which the news of a
splitting Ministry was yesterday accepted proves
that the people understand this. Ministers may
squabble, but the national prosperity marches on,
with scarcely an additional pulsation of that breeches-
pocket interest, so truthfully represented by the
price of Consols. The resignation, which two of our
contemporaries made so much of, had affected the'
funds at the close of the market yesterday, exactly

SABBATH OBSERVANCE BY ACT OF
PARLIAMENT.
--•--

By the Act 57 Cleo. LTL, c. 29, sec. 63, all occu-
piers of dwelling helms, shops, &c., are bound under a
penalty during the esetlaaatice of frost or snow, to cause
the footway along their houses to be swept once every day,
boron 10 o'clock, except on Sundays. The exception is
meant to denote reverence for the Sunday, but its only
possible erect smut be to hemp people from church by leav•
tog the streets impassable.
The following caution be been extensively circulated.
" Notice is hereby gives, that by an het of the 67 Geo. 3,
lc. 29, stet. 63, every occupier of say house, tenement, wash.
hones, shop, shed, ocethhouse, stable, chapel, meeting
hew, or other publics or private building, in any street, or
public place, during the continuance of frost, or after, or
during the fall of snow, *hall ones in every day, before 10
o'clock in the forenoon of each day (except Sunday) cause
to be swept and cleassed the footway, all along the front,
side, or back walls of their respective houses, &e. For
every neglect the occupier to forfeit a stun not exceeding
ten shillings."

THE PROPOSED CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY.

A deputation from the Early Closing Association,
assisting of the searetuy sad ether gentlosien, wafted a
Merida, but apes the Lard Mayor, at the Mansies-home,
apes the subject of the seepensien of business on Monday,
the 26th last.

The deputation having been introduced by Mr. Sheriff
Wire,

Yr. Luvrat.t. stated that the deputation had been induced
to take the prewat step in consequence of having received
nuarrolu communications upon the subject from employers

and others. He believed that, in common with the various
firms throughout the kingdom, then existed a very general
and Kraig desire ea the put of the mercantile mea of
Ludas, in the embus wake of commercial life, that the
day in question should be observed as a holiday. But there
was a fear that, in the absence of an abeelute recommends.

tion from his lordship, as chief magistrate, to the effect, thus
creating an uadentandisg on the point, the arrangement
of closing in the 'metropolis would not be universal, which
would probably occasion dissatisfaction to those who did
close, besides depriving the employes of those who did not,
of the holiday: _ _ _

His Lordship replied that he had received a great many
communications and applications both from persons in
London and the provinces in favour of the object, and his
own 11J11101111 desire was that the day should be observed as
• general holiday, so far as the existing law, which mere
particularly referred to bailing establishments, allowed.
He did not hear what the intentions of the government
were in reference to the public officers, but would commu-
nicate with the Secretary for the Home Department ups
the subject.
Yesterday the deputation, accompanied by Mr. Sheriff
Wire, spin attended at the Mansion-house, when his
lordship stated that he was in hourly expectation of a re-
ply from the Home-office. His lordship then gave it as
his official recommendation that Monday the 26th should

be kept as a general holiday, adding his belief that in an
possible eases it would be so obeerred.

TUE BIRMINGHAM CATTLE SHOW.—BIRMINGHAM,
FAIDAY.—Tbis cattle show dosed this evening. During
the four days the exhibition has been opened, there have
visited it about 48,000 persons. The sales of poultry hare
exceeded 1,5001., and in the majority of instances enormous

- .
prices having been gives. Lord Leigh hu accepted the
office of president for the earning year, and the entrain.
dinary success which has attended the exhibition, is a proof
how deserving the present cornea are of the confidence of
the subscribers.

IMPORTANT TO Ul
the question was raised, whetber, in cases were policies
made out, "from Liverpool to Now York, and thirty days
after arrival, at a premium of 20,. per cent.," the addi-
tional thirty days constituted the instrument a time policy,
and subject to the additional duty of 2s. Gd. The Board of
Inked Revenue considered that such policies were entitled
le pay the extra duty u time instruments, and caused an
tlacement to that effect to be posted in Lloyds last
VMS& Since that time the committee of Lloyds have
pissed before the Board the opinion of Baron Marten, that
the policies in question were not liable to additional duties.
The Beard, this week, in a letter to the stimp diatribe's,
at this port (0. W. Bischoff, Esq.), states that on a re-
consideration of the whole subject they are not dii:Pword to
press the point of liability to the duty on time policies in
the cue referred to.—Liverpool Chronicle.
MARIA ANTONIA RAlLWAY.—Traffic for week
ending Dec. 1, 11133, 2W. Corresponding week, 1852, 205 L

time sines

IrDe Court.

OSBORNE, Duo. 16.
The Earl of Aberdeen and Captain the Hon. J.
Denman had the honour of dining with her Majesty yes
terday.
Lord Aberdeen returned to London to-day.
The Hon. Mary Hottest has =weeded the Hon. Lucy
Kerr as Maid of Honour in Waiting.

The Earl of Aberdeen arrived in town about six
o'clock last evening, from Osborne, Isle of Wight.
Viscount Palmerston left town on Thursday, for
Bowood-park.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer and Mrs. Glad-
stone arrived in town yesterday, from Hagleppark,
Stonrbridge.
Despatches were sent yesterday from the Colonial office
for the Governors of Canada, the West India Islands, and
Gibraltar.

The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council sat yester-
day, and commenced au appeal from the Court of Arches,
"Bo'Wigton v. BelLogien." The lords present were the
Dean of the Arches, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Corn-
wall, the Lords Justices Knight Bruce and Turner, the
Judge of the Admiralty Court, Sir J. Partition, sad Sir B.
B. Ryan.

Her Majesty has, we understand, been pleased to
confer upon Mr. Alaric Watts a pension on the civil
list of one hundred pounds a year, in consideration of
services rendered by him to literature and the fine
arts. A pension of similar amount has, it is under-
stood, been granted to the widow of the Ettrick
Shepherd.
The 27th, 35th, 82nd, and 90th Regiments are to
proceed to the East Indies, to relieve the 25th, 22nd,
96th, and 98th Regiments, which are to return
home.

The following announcement in last night's Ga-
zette deserves e special notice —" 27th Foot. Lieut.-
Colonel Edward St. Maur, from the Mat Foot, to be
Lieut.-Colonel, vice Arthur Augustus Tharlow Cu-
uynghame, who retires upon half-pay 51st Foot."
Is this preparatory to the latter getting upon the
staff at head-quartem

The Rev. Thomas Hart Francis Penron Davies
M.A., has been Rowed to the perpetual curacy of Christ
Church, Ramsgate, is the county of Kent, and diocese of
Canterbury, vacant by the maim of the Rev. Edward
Hoare.

The Rev. Smith Churchill Clerk was instituted on
the 16th to the Rectory of Boughton, in Norfolk, on the
presentation of Sir W,lliem John Henry Browne Ffolkee,
of Hillington Hall, Bart.
The Rev. Henry Samuel Musgrave Hubert, M.A.,
was also instituted ea the 16th to the Rectory of sums, in
Norfolk, on the presentation of Lord William Powlett.
The Rev. John Davies has been licensed to the
Perpetual Curacy of St. John's Church, Smallwood, la the
parish of Lathery, la the county of Chester.

RESIGNATIONS.

POLITICAL MOVEMENTS.

The Earl of Aberdeen returned to town via South-
ampton, yoetorday evening, from visiting her Majesty at
Osborne. The noble earl reached Downing-street shortly
after six o'clock, and was lansedlately waited on by the
Duke of Newcastle, who had a short conference with the
noble premier.

Mr. Gladstone and family arrived at his official riddance
is Downing street, yesterday afternoon at four o'clock, from
visiting Lord and Lady Lyttalton at liagley-hall, Worces-
tershire.

The Lord President of the Conseil (Earl Granville),
who has quite recovered from his slight indisposition, and
who, with his countess, is visiting the Earl and Countess
Bruce at Savenache Lodge, near Marlborough, Wilts, is
expected in town this forenoon in order to attend the wet-
log of the esbiast.
The Right Hon. Sidney Herbert corneal, town this
morning from Wilton-bola', near Salisbur), to meet his
colleagues in odes.
Lord John Russell also comes to town to-day, to assist in
the deliberations of his political friends in the cabinet, from
Pembroke Lodge, Richmond, where the noble lord has
been sojourning since his return from Osborne.
The Duke of Amp is s ennamed to attend the Cabinet
Council this afternoon. His gran, with the Duchess of
Argyll, and the Duke and Dueling of Sutherland, had
removed from Trentham, to visit the Marquis and Mu-
chionem of Stafford, at Littleshall, Shropshire.
The Right Hon. Sir James Graham returned to his
oMcial residence at the Admiralty on Thursday, from
Grimsby, Yorkshire, having been absent from town only
24 hours.

The Lord Chancellor, the Right Hon. Sir William Moles-
worth, and the Right Hon. Sir Charles Wood have been
staying in town for some days past.
Viscount Palmerston, accompanied by her ladyship, left
town as Thursday, to meet the distinguished circle visiting
the Marquis of Lansdowne, at Bowood, Wilts. The noble
viscount returns to Carlton-gardens this afternoon (he bad
intended to stay there until Tuesday nest), and early in the
ensuing week his lordship quits London for Broadlanda, his
seat near Romaey, Hants.

Tit, 11111i10:1111-8. 01 LANSDOWNII.—It is said that the
noble naarquiaNeill not be in town to-day, to join the meet-
ing of the Cabinet.

CABINS? COUNClL.—lmmediately after the Earl of
Aberdeen left tows on Thursday, on a visit to the Queen,

suanntonses were issued for a Cabinet Council (or thin after-
noon, at the Foreign-office, in Downing-street. The meet-
lag is announced for one o'clock.

FRIDAY, MIDNIOUT.
The Berl of Aberdeen has given audiences to several of
his colleynres in the cabinet at present in town.
Late in the evening, the Earl of Aberdeen, the Duke of
Newcastle, the Right Hon. the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer, and two other members of the cabinet, assembled at
Sir James Graham's official residence, at the Admiralty,
and were in eassultation until after 12 o'clock.

The Tory journal, The Press, says:
The withdrawal, at this moment especially, of the most
eminent member of the administration, without whose pre.
since the cabinet could never originally have been formed,
and to whom the ministry are indebted for the only degree
of public confidence which they ever perused, has pro.
<Woad a prolonno sensation. It ie Itadentood that this step
was taken by Lord Palmerton with the concurrence and
approbation of the Marquis of Lansdowne, and of the prin-
cipal members of the old whig party. Lord Palmarskia is
now on a visit to the noble marquis at Bowood, to which
seat he repaired after bevies sent in the resignation of his
°Moe to the Prime Minister, in order that it might be for.
may laid before her Majesty. Lord Aberdeen left town
for Osborne for that purpose on Thursday, and returned,
we believe, this (Friday) night. A Cabinet Council is
summoned for to-sorrow (Saturday, this day).

LIVERPOOL, FaiDAY.—The merchants on 'Change
were startled this morning by the announcement by tele.
graph that Lord Palmerston had resigned aloe in the
cabinet, and that his resignation had been accepted. At
any time the retirement of a cabinet minister so suddenly,
is sufficient to cause considerable excitement and specula-
tion u to the causes ; but at the present period, when the
Eastern question h.,s assumed an alarming character,
the retirement of so prominent a person as the
noble lord is looked upon with anxiety as to the future.
The motive of his lordship's step, as given by the Times,
is looked upon with distrust, and the feeling is generally
prevalent that differences upon the Russian and Turkish
dispute have had more effect upon his retirement than any
misunderstanding on the new Reform Bill. An opinion
11 prevails, and is largely shared in by the mercantile body
here, that his lordship's retirement at the present time is
only the prelude to his shortly entering upon office la a new
ministry.

SURREY ARCIIB.OI.OGICAL SOCIETY.—A Meeting
of the council of this society was held on Thursday lut,
Mr. W. D. Bruce in the chair. After the minutes of the
last meeting had been read and confirmed, Mr. Geo. B.•
Webb presented a list of fifty-six candidates for admission,
amongst whom were the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rev.
W. H. Pearson, Guildford; Rev. A. Mangles, Woking;
Rev. F. P. &lapel. . Mr. %V. Cubit?, Mr. G. Steinman,
lAA.; Mr. Ralph Lindsay, F.S.A ; Mr. W. F. G.
Farmer, Mr. Nunsuch Park, &c , &c. This important
i society, the object of which is the elucidation of the very
interesting antiquities of the county of Surrey, has already
enrolled as many as 400 of the nobility and gentry of the
county among its member'. The Duke of Norfolk bee an-
apted the office of pr. eident, and among the vice-presidents
are the Earls of Lovelace and Ellesmere, Viscount Down,
the Bishop of Wincluster, Sir William Melenworth, M.P.,
Sir Charles Sullivan, Sir W. J. Hylton Joni& M.P. Sir
Gs*. Pollock, 0.C.8 , Mr. 11. Drummond, M.P., Mr.W. J.
Evelyn, M.P., Mr. T. Somers Cocks, M.P., and Mr. J. W.
Freshtield M.P.

DEATH OF TILE DOWAGER LADY HOWDEN.—The
Dowager Lady Howden, mother of his Excellency the Bri-
tish Minister at Madrid, dud at St. Leonard's-on-Sea, on
the 13th inst., after a severe illness.

LATEST FROM ABROAD.

RUSSIA AND TURKEY.

CONSTANTINOPLE, Dsc. 6.

On Saturday, the 3rd, a steamer, the Meseeri
Vakri, arrived from Buyuker6 with intelligence that
a Turkish steamer bad reached that point in a very
disabled state, and with news of a serious conflict
with the Russian fleet.

The Russians, with seven 3-decked ships and ten
frigates, four of them steamers, appeared in the roads
of Sinope, on the 30th ult., and attacked the Turkish
naval division, greatly inferior in the size and num-
ber of its ships, and destroyed nearly aU, after a
murderous combat. The Russians lost two of their
largest vessels.
A detachment from the Turkish and English fleets
was to go out yesterday and make a reconnoissance.

PARIS, FRIDAY ERVING.

Closing prices at the Bourse :—Three per Cent.
Rentes, 74.83; Four-and-a-Ralf per Cents., 101.10
Bank shares, 2,940. These prices show a trifling
rally, amounting only to 6c. to 10c. compared with
the final rates of yesterday.

The telegraphic announcement of Lord Palmer-
ston's secession from the English government caused
considerable excitement here. Various and op-
posite views were taken of the event, but all
parties refused to disconnect it with the Eastern
question. By some it was regarded as a pledge of a
peaceful and inactive British policy in the East
while others were inclined to think that the prospect
of meeting of Lord Palmerston in opposition would
decide the Aberdeen Cabinet to act with increased
energy as a measure of self-defence.

GERMANY.

Tho cue of the Prussian Deputy Aldenhoven,
prosecuted by order of the government for a speech
reflecting upon the Minister of the Interior, came on
on the 12th, before the High Court of Appeal. The
court held that for words spoken in the chamber
members are responsible only to the chamber itself.