The Express.
London, England, 1853-09-26 00:00:00

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LONDO", :VONDA Y, SEPTEMBER 26.

DETttIIMENTS from the English and French fleets
We passed the Dardanelles: some versions of the
story say that the whole of both fleets are already
following. According to one statement, the object
of this movement is simply to afford protection to
French and English residents at Con4antinopie; ac-
cording to another, the d, monAration is intended to
hint to the Turks the folly of any lunger refusing to
accept the Vienna Note pure et simple. This
latter version of the story is unblushingly :old and
complacently commented on by the very journal
which not a week ago affected contemptuously to
pouh-pooh the ts :att. rue t s of the Journal des Debuts.
We allowed their contradiction (or evasion) to pass
at the time for what it was worth—the assertion of
journal against journal—and the story still remains
in the same doubtful state. People are totally at a
loss whether they ought to believe the one or the other,
or neither of them. But already the mist seems to be
breaking up, allowing the form and pressure of ob-
jects to appear piecemeal. English and French ships
of war—so much is admitted—have passed the Dar-
danelles. They have done so either to protect
French and English subjects, or the SULTAN him-
self, from some possible .'euciete, as soon as the
course the Porte inter& to pursue towards
Russia becomes known. These two ascertained
facts app., it to imply a third with tolerable
certainty, that the French and English Govern-
meets--the only Governments that so much as pro-
fess to be friendly 'o the Porte—are resolved to
insist that Turkey shall humble itself before Russia by
accepting the dangerous unqualified note. Is not
all this in substance what was said in the Debuts
to be the policy contemplated by the French and
English courts? Now, let us turn back to the
illusory show ut a contradiction by which the asser-
tions of the Nimes were met. The statement that
a piaticular Government Clerk was the bearer of the
instructions of the English Cabinet to Lord STRATFORD
t'E REDCLIFFE was laid hold of—declared to be a
canard. But the contemplated policy attributed
to the English Government Ives not expressly de-
nied—that part of the story was assumed to be
untrue because the other was declared to be so.
This shuffling lends additional probability to the
inference which the passing of the Dardanelles by
part at least of the French and English fleets so
rrongly presses upon every intelligent and unbiassed
mind. It all but proves that the very organ which
so contemptuously rejected the imputation fixed
up .n the English Ministers had a misgiving that it
was telling a quarter of the truth in order to produce
. .

the effect of a falsehood.
Matters standing thus, Lord ABERDEEN and his
colleagues owe an explanation of their conduct to the
nation. It will be said this is impossible : Parlia-
ment is not sitting. No doubt the customary, regu-
lar manner for English Ministers to explain their
conduct to the people is through the medium of a
Parliamentary communication. But Ministers have
by their own act put it out of their power
to adopt this method on the present occasion. They
alternately called fur discussions on the Eastern
question, and put an extinguisher on them—alter-
nately promised revelations respecting the negotia-
tions in which they were engaged, sad falsified
their promises—during the course of last session.
They shuffled and equivocated, and gained time, and
succetded in closing the session without letting Par-
liament know anything. They cannot now, by
directly addressing Parliament, indirectly address
the people. Unless they are still bent upon keeping
the nation in the dark respecting what it has
such a vital interest and unquestionable right
to be well informed upon—the actual state of the
Eastern question—they must adopt some other means.
They can publish despatches in the Gazrtte, or some
one of them can get up a meeting of his constituents
and tell his story to them in the presence of re-
porters—as some of the present Cabinet have done
ere now when they wanted to enlist the public favour

for themselves or their policy.
At present the mind of the general public is kept
anxious, and uncertainty renders business lees exact
than It should be. " What are we to have next,"
every man asks of his neighbour, " peace or war ?
National honour or national disgrace? Are the ships
of war which are known to have passed the Darda-
nelles merely, u some assert, the vanguard of the
French and English fleets, or are they all that are to
advance to Constantinople? Is this demonstration
meant to intimidate the Turks into the acceptance
pure et simple of the Vienna Note? Is it meant,
as some allege, to protect French and English resi-
dents at Stamboul from the popular irritation excited
by the bungling and inexplicable diplomacy of the
Western Powers? Is it meant e.s • counter-brands
to Russia—an imitation at the month of the /kw
phorus of the CZAR'S proceedings on the Lower
Danube? Is the step taken in a spirit friendly
to Turkey, or in a spirit truckling to Rus-
sia ? Are the French and English fleets
taking up their station to prevent the dismember-
ment of Turkey, or to be at hand to share in the
spoil ?" All these questions are vexing the minds of
men—leading them to look forward to contingencies
of complicated, dishonourable, and interminable
wars—making the merchant pause ere he gives his
orders, the manufacturer think of working short
time—causing the funds to tumble down (sorely to
the annoyance of the CHANCELLOR of the Excne-
coma)—and making many an Englishman dread that
he may yet have cause to blush for his country.
All this excitement, all this stoppage and confu-
si in the natural and healthy course of trade,
Ministers, and they alone, may have it in their power
to dispel by a frank explanation. If explanation is
withheld, the interpetation put upon it is that it
would be discreditable and detrimental to Ministers.
Their silence will give countenance to the most
gloomy forebodings.
And not unnaturally. Hitherto they have mid-
managed matters sadly. Eager to avoid a quarrel
with the Northern Autocrat, they have allowed
the Eastern question to get into a condition
that almost seems to render war inevitable; pro-
fessing a determination to maintain the integrity
of the Ottoman Empire, they have allowed Russia to
obtain a footing in the Danubian Provinces fromwhich
it will scarcely be possible to drive her. And their
last move eems characterised by the same aimless,
blind, groping about upon chance, as all that have
preceded it. Are only four (or six) ships to be sent
to Constantinople for the protection of French and
English residents? This would seem to imply that
the SCLTV has not a sufficient force in his capital
to control its mutinous disposition, and that he
cannot rely upon his own fleet or army to aid
him. What could so small a squadron effect
against • spirit of disaffection and turbulence
so universally diffused? Are, as others assert,
both fleets to follow in order to support the

SULTAN? Will not such a movement heimnindititely
laid hold of by Russia as en excuse for Inottihieg in thrb
Principlities? Will it not in.4et 46 a beginnin4
of the partition of the Ottoman Empire—the I-AAR
laying hold as Suvere ign of the territory he t :aecidy
occupies, Austria entering Servia, and moon attd
Endlaad making 4 " State out of the re-
mainder—such a "protected State" ea Poland was,
under the guardianship of Prussia and Austria?

REPORTED IMPRISONMENT OF AN ENG-
LISH SUBJECT IN TUSCANY.

Romish propagandists in England and English
protestant propagandists in Italy have a very dif- I
ferent measure meted unto them. Here we had a
few weeks ago a Romish missionary arrested for a
most disgusting offence. Time was given to the
priest and his friends to get up a case for him;
the magistrate winked at it; the complainant was
assaulted afters % ards by some low Irish zealots for
making the charge; but the police and magistrate
threw cold water on her second application, which
has no more been heard of. About the same time
a Scotch lady had, it appears, given away at Lucca
Bibles and some tracts to a few peasants.
She has been arrested. and is to be tried
for the offence—the punishment, by the present
law of the country, being imprisonment for a
term of years with hard labour. The Tuscan autho-
rities have, it is said, been deaf to all applications on
her behalf. The aggressive attitude assumed of late
years by the rulers of the Itomish Church becomes
daily more marked. There have been charges
brought against British subjects ere now in Tuscany
for giving away Bibles and tracts; but in these cases
the Government was satisfied to order the accused to
leave their territory. The more severe course pur-
sued with Miss Cunningliame is palpably the result
of foreign interference. A manifesto of the Pope
denounced, some time ago, all agents in the distribu-
tion of Bibles as persons of bad fame and immoral
lives. The court of Tuscany has doubtless been
urged on by the agents of the Court of Rome with
a view to convince English Protestants that the
Papal manifesto was no brutum fulmen.
Some portions of the press appear extremely
anxious to discredit Miss Cunninghamc beforehand.
Oue of them asserts that by her distribution of tracts
she had irritated the peasantry and caused riots.
This may be doubted; the relentless deportment of
the Tuscan Government has more the appearance of
being caused by a fear that the peasants were but
too well disposed to accept of her gifts. Another
journal intimates that a Florentine correspondent
declares Miss Cunninghame has no excuse, for she.
has reached the ripe age of 30 or 40. The corre-
spondent might have been able to sympathise with
a young and blooming heroine, but has no
sympathy to spare for a middle-aged lady.
The " indiscretion" of Miss Cunninghamc is loudly
talked of. She may, or she may not, have been in-
discreet; in the present state of the question that has
nothing to do with it. Her case, like all similar
cases, must be brought to the test of a general prin-
ciple or rule; nor does it appear to be difficult to
find out what this principle or rule ought to be.
There are two kinds of offences against the law of a
country: those which all civilised nations concur in
regarding as crimes, e. g. theft, murder, &c.; and
those which though in one country they are de-
nounced as crimes, may in another be thought
venial or even praiseworthy acts. With regard to
the former there can be no doubt ; any person
committing them, whatever be his country, is
amenable to the tribunals of the land in
which he perpetrates the offence. With regard to
the latter class of offences it is different. Protestant
propagandism, though a crime according to Tuscan
law, is a virtue according to the views of a great majo-
rity of Englishmen. The English Government can
scarcely stand by and see Miss Cunningham° punished
for doing in Tuscany what ministers and princes of
the blood join with their fellow-subjects to pay mis-
sionaries for doing in China and other distant lands.
The compromise adopted by the Tuscan Government
on former occasions seems to have been not an unfair
method of solving the difficulty. By sending away
the heretical propagandists it got rid of those who
set a bast example to its subjects by disregarding its
laws, and at the same time avoided insulting the
English Government by inflicting penalties on a Brit ish
subject for acting according to his, or her, conscience.
We might have hoped that, notwithstanding the
ogre-like grimace with which all applications on
behalf of Miss Cunnioghame are stated to have been
rejected by the Tuscan Government, they really
meant merely to frighten and then let her go, but
for one fact. She is said to have been actually pre-
paring to leave the country, but was prevented, in
order that she might be arrested and put upon her
trial. The Tuscan Government, instead of being con-
tented, as formerly, to get quietly rid of a trouble-
some stranger, put itself to trouble to prevent her
departure. The act is apparently intended as
a bravado to England—an experiment to try
whether the British Government will venture to
protect, an " incautious," but uncriminal subject. It
is seemingly a part of the systematic plan now acted
upon by the Romish Court, and all the Governments
with whom it has influence, to establish active pro-
paganda in all Protestant countries, and trample
upon Protestant rights and feelings in all Roman
Catholic countries —as Spain and Tuscany bear
witness.

And, truth to say, the manner in which many
Protestants have hitherto met this aggressive policy
partly accounts for the growing tyranny and inso-
lence of the Romish Court and priesthood.
" Liberal" Protestants affect on all occasions to side
with the Itomanists. They were shocked et the
intolerance of the Durham letter ; they declare that
the Irish savages who pelted Protestant field-
preachers at Limerick "served them right;" they
approve of hushing up the Paulsenetti story, lest it
should create scandal; and now they are shocked
with the " imprudence" of Miss Cunninghame, not
with the barbarity of the Tuscan law. Such trim-
ming policy is not likely to avert the collision which
►he Romanist priesthood are ostentatiously courting;
it will only render the contest more embittered when
it comes. It is useful when there is danger of such
mistaken policy prevailing, to hold up the Cunning-
hame and Paulzenetti cases to the public in combina-
tion.

TH4 :EXPZESg,,

'Eatt

,A
r N

:OND

TURKEY.

AUSTRIA.

1M THE A tk.. EXT.
-
MANCE. •
PARtS, SUNDAY.
The Bourse was greatly affected yesterday by a
report of art extraordinary fall in Console; extending,
according to some accounts, to 21 per cent. The Threes.
which had already been done at a low price in the
roulisse, opened at 76.05, being a fall of 45e. from Fri-
day. After many fluctuations they closed at 75.80, being
nearly the lowest price of the day, and 75e. lower
than the closing quotations of yesterday. All the
railways fell considerably. Strasbourg, which during
the last few days has been the favourite line, fell
to-day more than any other. The last price was
9301., being 26.25 lower than Friday. The other
principal lines fell from 10f. to 22f. Credit Mobilier
was 27.50 lower, and even Bank of Franoe, which
has for a long time been so well sustained, fell sf.

Telegraphic accounts from Constantinople of the
lath state that the Beiram passed off well. It is in-
ferred that the Ulemu cannot hive taken the step
imputed to them by the despatch of the 22nd.

THE DANUBE.
BT. PETERSBURG, Strr.

The march of fresh troops into the principalities
is to go on until the addition reaches 40,003. The
troops lately encamped at Bucharest are ordered to
ascend the Danube as far as Calefat.

VIENNA, SUNDAY.

The two Eraptrors are at Olmutz. The Come-
witch and the Grand Duke Nicholas accompany their
father.

VIENNA, Szrr. 20.
To-day the Hungarian deputation presented the
own of St. Stephen, with the other regalia of their
nation, to the Emperor. The deputation, which was
headed by the Archduke Albrecht, was composed of
the Cardinal Prince Primate of Hungary, Prince
Paul Eiterhazy, Count Francis Zichy, Count F.
Palffy, Count Louis Szechenyi, and Count John
Keglevieh. It was noticed that in mentioning Hun-
gary the Emperor spoke of it in the old ante-Scha ar.
senberg style as a kingdom.