The Express.
London, England, 1853-07-14 00:00:00

whose interests they themselves had taken in charge?
The learned Judge in pawing sentence upon the pri-
soner took a very peculiar view of the guilty relation in
which the Actuary stood towards the Trustees, while
he neglected altogether the consideration of the
duties which the Trustees owed to the prisoner and
the depositors. " The trustees of the bank," said the
learned Judge, " had naturally placed full cpnfideuce
in such a person as the prisoner, for he was appointed
solely to relieve them from anxiety and trouble."
Surely this is not the true statement of the
case. The Actuary was appointed to his situation
on account of his presumed capability of discharging
functions which, it is no disparagement to the Trus-
tees to suppose them incapable of performing, even
had they been willing to do so. At the same time
the duty of the Trustees to the public was to see that
the officer performed his duty properly, and that
every facility of peculation was removed out of his
way. The Trus:ees sin against the public by taking
upon themselves a responsibility which they never
feel. They sin against the prisoner, by refraining from
the exercise of those acts of superintendence which
might have kept him within the line of his
duty, by banishing the temptation to peculation by
the certainty of discovery. But if close supervision
could not have prevented the peculation altogether.
it might surely have detected the thief before he had
stolen 8,000!. of the moneys of the poor.
Trustees incur a very heavy moral responsibility in
cases like the present. They entice the poor, by the
prestige of their names, to entrust their savings to
their care, and then—to make use of the words of
the Judge—" to relieve themselves from anxiety and
trouble," they transfer their duties to • man who
may be unable to resist the temptations to which he
is exposed by being left entirely to his own devices.
The poor who place their money in • Savings Bank,
under the impression that the list of trustees is a
sufficient guarantee that their deposits will be safe,
are in reality tricked out of their money under false
pretences. Their whole safety lies in the honesty
of an officer, who has the least possible in-
ducement to remain honest. That officer him-
self has to plead in mitigation of his crime
the unlimited temptations thrown in his way. The
practice of the English courts, whether right or
wrong, is to admit this plea, to a certain extent. It
is not long ago that a magistrate denied the right
of a shopkeeper to complain of depredations commit-
ted upon property exposed to sale outside the shop.
The temptation, it was urged, made the thief.
Whatever validity there may be in this plea, might
be urged in benefit of the prisoner in the case under
discussion. The Trustees surely allowed temptation
to be thrown in his way, by the neglect of
their duty, and although this does not remove any of
the guilt from the shoulders of the criminal, or form
any reason for the slightest mitigation of his sen-
tence, it renders the Inds :s in some degree morally
responsible for the injury inflicted.
We are glad to see that a meeting of the represen-
tatives of Savings Banks is announced to take place
to-day in the vestry of St. Clement Danes to petition
Parliament against the objectionable clauses in the
Government Savings Banks Bill. We trust that the
result of the discussion will produce some reform in al
direction where it is so obviously required. We
need a thorough reformation of our present Savings
Beak system.

abuse of the powers vested in the Russian
dathorities by the convention already referred to.
for maintaining on the northern bank of the river a
rigid and inflexible system of quarantine. Under
the stupid pretence of guarding the regions adjacent
to the Principalities from the perils of the plague,
regulations have been established by which not only
all vessels coming from Asia Minor, but every
English, French, and Italian ship which may have
touched at Constantinople, is subjected to all the
vexatious and expensive delays connected with
the most antiquated quarantine regulations.
It is of no consequence that the vessel may
have obtained a clean bill of health before
quitting the Dardanelles, and she has subsequently
put into no port until her arrival at Galatz. There
she must undergo all the most wearisome and waste-
ful processes of fumigation of her cargo, her rigging,
and crew's clothing. No assurance or demonstration
that she has had no symptoms of tho plague on
board, and no urgency either of business or of health
can obtain the relaxation of the senseless rules
of the Russian lazaretto; for Russian it is in
all respects, although the town is called a
free port, and is situated in a Turkish province,
but a province subject to the baleful influence
of Muscovite protection. Every bale of manufac-
tured goods, no matter how liable to damage from
the state of the weather, must be conveyed in a
lighter from the ship to the quarantine wharf, where
it must lie for so many days and nights before
it can be removed to the merchant's stores.
The additional port charges thus heaped on
every article of importation are well known
to merchants engaged in the Danubian
aide : but what is less generally understood
is the monstrous fact that the same wanton
and perverse hindrance to industrial intercourse is
enforced against all commerce from the Bulgarian side
of the river. Added to this,, and inspired but too
obviously by the same withering policy, a Customs
Convention in Moldavia and Wallachia, prohibits
absolutely the introduction of wheat, maize, salt,
and other articles into either of the Principalities. I
Thus the vast resources of Bulgaria are kept without
development, and her prolific plains remain par-
tially untilled. The people have for centuries borne
the character of being peculiarly given to agri-
culture, and the climate and soil enable
them to grow without difficulty more corn, in pro-
portion to the population, than any other province of
European Turkey. Had they a good shipping port
on their own side of the river, or were they per-
mitted freely to send their produce for exportation
to Wallachia or Moldavia, to the towns of Galatz
and Ibrail, they would ;row ten times as many 1,
quarters of wheat as their fellow-subjects of the
l'rincipalities are able to produce. But that '
would not suit the commercial and politi-
cal jealousy of the CZAR. The Danubian
trade in corn and other agricultural products
would then fairly compete with that of Odessa. As
things now stand, " it is calculated," says an intelli-
gent English writer on the subject, who, from per-
sonal observation, has made himself master of all the
details, " that the restrictive system thus imposed
upon the commerce of the Danube is equivalent to a
differential duty of three shillings a quarter in fa-
vour of Odessa and other Russian ports." Such are
the means by which the resources of the Ottoman
Empire are crushed and destroyed by the " forbearance
and magnanimity" of which the Cabinet of St. Peters-
burg has the effrontery to boast.

WE had recently occasion to revert to the memo-
rable words of Count NESSELRODE, in which, several

years ago, be described the standing policy of Russia
with regard to Turkey. In a confidential despatch
_ . _ . _

LATEST FROM THE CONTINENT.

addressed to the Grind Duke CONSTANTINE: the
Minister for Foreign Affairs delineates the motives

RUSSIA AND TURKEY.

TURIN, JeLY 11.

and advantages of a system of forbearance which,
under the specious show of magnanimity, would in
reality reduce the Ottoman Empire in Europe to a
condition of complete dependence on the will
and subserviency to the interests of Mus-
covy. " The object of our relations with Tur-
key is that which we have proposed to

This government denies that its consul at Smyrna
granted to the Austrian consul authority to appre-
hend M. Costa, said to have been concealed in the
house of a Sardinian. M. Costa was arrested in a
Greek coffee-house, and the Sardinian consul had
nothing to do with the affair.

ourselves by the treaty of Adrianople, and by the re-
establishment of peace with the Grand Seignior. It

ODESSA, Rixi 28.

only depended on us to march to Constantinople, and
to overturn the Turkish Empire. No • immediate
danger would have menaced us if we had given the
last blow to the Ottoman monarchy in Europe. But,
in the opinion of the EMPEROR, that monarchy, re•

The merchants of this port are ordered to confine
themselves in their letters to matters of business and
friendship, and not to communicate information re-
specting pestling events to their correspondents
abroad.

doced to exist only under the protection of Russia, RUSSIA AND TURKEY.
and merely execute henceforward her desires, suited
better our political and commercial interests than any Lette.rs. from. Paris and Brussels state that only
oneand oop:engiaryingenetzratraaiteder respecting Totuinnif the insolentin
new combination which would have forced us either
to extend too far our domains by conquest, or to last circular note. According to our correspondents,
substitute for the Ottoman Empire states which before this opinion is by no means a second thought, cor-
long would have become our rivals in power, civilisa- recting a previous fahe impression ; and if certain
tion, manufactures, and wealth." Let us now see how organs, whose conductors have hitherto professed to
guarantee of in every warlike word
Russia uses her oppressive predominance in the ordi- see
ndaacatevrof the Czar, declare that public opinion is
nary councils of the Porte ; and by what means she tranquillised by this last manifesto from St. Peters-
seeks to secure herself against her rivalry in civilise- burg, they only carry out the system by which the
tion or commerce in those regions which have not as Russian cabinet seeks to amuse and deceive Europe.
yet been annexed to her imperial domain. The French government has, of course, applied to
the English cabinet to ascertain its views respecting
The treaties entered into subsequent to that of the new manifesto, and it is said that the question is
Adrianople have frequently of late been quoted as actually put whether the moment has not come for
illustrating the desire for political ascendancy. But England and France to make an energetic demon-
there hero likewise been conventions made from stration—such, probably, as sending orders to the
time to time with special reference to matters fleets to enter the Dardanelles.
of trade and intercourse, the provisions of which, General Worouzow, who brought the Russian
to leave for S cir-
cu L Petersburg to-
and still more the manner in which those provi- day,lar to Paris, was
sloes have been executed, demonstrate if possible It is understood that before the arrival of Count
more clearly the unsleeping malignity with which Nesselrode's note the governments of France and
the Cabinet of St. Petersburg pursues its fatal pur- England had agreed upon various forms of a note
pose of destroying its neighbour. Its policy towards which they considered the Sultan might, with
propriety, be asked to address to Russia and sign, and
Turkey may be truly said to be the policy of slow that these had been remitted to the Czar for his accept-
poison.
Every hope of renovation is watched in sure, either directly or through the medium of the
order that it may be blighted; every new develop- Austrian government. These propositions will test
meat of industry is observed in order that it may be the sincerity with which the Russian Emperor pro-
checked and counteracted. This, of course, cannot fesses his desire to maintain the peace of Europe.
be done openly and avowedly. The same hand that We have correspondence from Constantinople of
the 30th ult. The lawless seizure of M. Cats by the
penned the memorable words we have above given, Austrians had excited great indignation there, and
so fatally indicative of the true purpose of his the peremptory tone assumed by M. de Bruck in de-
court, has never failed to indict assurances in- manding satisfaction for the outbreak which was its
tended for the perusal of Europe, that " the natural conseguence was thought to augur unfavour-
prosperity
of the Turkish Empire was an object dear ably for the friendly dispositions of the Austrian minis-
otefr.AliMineltuctki,teneol satisfied with
otfh;mdefnoettainoa
to his imperial muter." The convention exacted
from the Porte in 1840 respecting the conservancy the Sultes'sa'brother-in-lawg°, has demanded the ex-
and trade of the Danube aptly illustrates the dupli- pulsion of all the refugees now in the Turkish
city of the public professions and the inveteracy of dominions. It was feared that the Porte would
the confidential counsels of the Russian Government. feel itself compelled to comply with this demand
By the terms of that convention, the care of the na- under all the circumstances. The surrender of the
vigation of the river from the Austrian frontier to iaipants in the attack on the officers was also
demanded, but it was understood that the American
the sea was assumed by the CZAR. As minister at Constantinople would oppose compliablethe greater portion of the trade must pass with this request and support his objection if noose-
through the Sulina branch of the stream, special co- sary by a display of force.
venants provided that a certain depth of water should Recent telegraphic despatches state that the Ru-
be kept at all times on the bar. How systematically iniasncdrPolf o2f6oetncrautionhzill consist of 80,000
several
these stipulations have been set at nought, and how journals. Considering that the 4th and sth Russian
greatly the trade of the Turkish provinces on both sides corps d'armee number 120,000 men who can be
of the river has been thereby injured, the recent obser- moved abross the Pruth without difficulty, it seems
rations of Lord PAtmzesros in the House of Commons hardly worth while to ask on which side the river
sufficiently explained. It has been asked, indeed, they stand for the moment, now that the Turkish
how it comes to pass that Austria should look on territory has been violated. Although there was no truth in the announcement
passively while the navigation of the Lower of a contemporary, that the Austrians had invaded
Danube is every year deliberately rendered more Bosnia, the accounts which arrive from the banks of
difficult, dangerous, and costly. But the an- the Save make it desirable that the movements of
ewer is easy and plain. The produce of Hun- thet power should be watched. The strong rein-
sesonutt
htoof Ptzteerrznarndbeein,aree
eSxclavot:itiumtoft-
gary Ands a readier and cheaper exit by the port of tfore.slatoenthae
Fiume, on the Adriatic; and hence Austria looks useful in some way ; certainly they are not for the
I with indiNrence on the silent struggle that is now 0;,-fence of the frontier against Turkey. It is not for
going on b,'tween Bulgarian and Wallachian in- the. first time in the course of the Russian dispute with
duatry and its insidious oppressor. the forte that we have had to notice the departure of
Other means, however, beside those directly in-f
immerses_rontier, when the importance of the fact
convoys of auditions to points near the
rurki,ll2
terfering with the nevi lion, have been resorted to, '
was not Properly appreciated I
for the accomplishment of Muscovite purposes. Of From accounts received from Belgrade, it appearej
these, perhaps the most remarkable is the that the Atatrien garrisons immediately on the Bos-