The Express.
London, England, 1853-08-27 00:00:00

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LONDO.N. SATURDAY, Au arST 97.

Timm is an old proverb to the effect that " no
news is good news." It does not hold true with re-
gard to the moven', me and negotiations now in pro-
gress', in the east of Europe. The want of news
about them motes that there is a hitch eomew here—
that the aistago:sist Powers cannot come to, or be
brought to, an egreetnent, and that those who have
undertaken to reconcile them are afraid to make
matters worse by speaking about them. lu short,
iu this cum "nu news is bad new,"
It is little better than playing with the patience
of our readers to repeat day after Lay the meagre
and unauthenticared rumours that reach us through
letters, the electric telegraph, or foreign journals. To
argue gravely upon such data would be an insult
to their understandings. But all eyes are
turned to the East—it is with the East that men's
minds arc busied—it is about the East that they
wish to he ar. Well, then, let us talk about the
East: there are other incidents there than those
arising out of the quarrel between Russia and Tur-
key the, have au intereet for us.
Su long ago as the 12th of last month we pub-
lished a letter announcing the arrest of an English.
man at )(Ewes', under the pretext of mistaking him
for a Pole. We hare only now been able to learn
the full details of this case: they certainly are such
as oug,A not to be allowed to be suppressed.
Two young gentlemen, Mr. SoLTAU SYMONS and
Mr. CIIARLEA BERL, who had been pursuing their
studies at Christ Church, Oxford, left England in Feb-
ruary last to make a tour on the Continent—as usual
in such cases in search at once of pleasure and im-
provement. They were, as English subjects, pro-
vided with passports from the Secretary of State
for Foreign Affairs, and they also had letters of in-
troduction for the principal cities they proposed to
pass through from persons of distinction both
foreigners and Englishmen. After visiting Bt.
Petersburg and Moscow, they proceeded by way
of Warsaw to Vienna and Constantinople. They
iutendid to visit Nineveh, but were advised
to reserve that portion of their journey for a
later period of the season ; and, by way of filling
up their time, to spend the summer months in the
Crimea. lit accordance with this advice they left
Constantinople for Odessa, which they reached to-
wards the end of May.
It appears that about the time of their arrival
Instructions had been sent to the Russian
frontiers to keep a strict look-out for a
Polish gentleman of the name of SOLTAN,
who took • prominent part in the Polish revolu-
tion of 1832. The Odessa police pretended to take
Mr. SOLTAT SYMuNs for this person. We advisedly
sty 'intended, for it is impossible to believe that
they were in good faith mistaken. In the first place,
the names SoLThe and SoLTAN arc not the same ;
in the second place, had a Pule intended to pass him-
self off as an Englishman and to that end assumed
an English name, he would not have retained his own
as part of his di aignation; in the third place, Mr.
Soutar Stnoss was only born in 1831, and looks
even younger than he really is; whereas M.—gni:TAN
was a combatant in the year 1832. All these con-
siderations notwithstanding, the only concession the

acting governor—botore whom Mr. StmoNs was
taken—would make, was to allow him to proceed
to his hotel till the Governor-General (then in the

capital) could be consulted, under a promise not to
leave the place till he heard further from him, and
the additional security of two policemen to watch
his motions.

Mr. DERE, the travelling companion of Mr. ST.
MOSS, immediately waited upon the English Consul,
Mr. YE %MEN, who lost no time before repairing to
the Governor, to whom he explained who Mr.
BrosoNs was, and the objects with which he tra.
yelled. Mr. YEAmE24 also wrote to Sir HAMILTON
SEYMOUR, our ambassador at St. Petersburg, on the
subject.

The Governor professed to be satisfied, but stated
that having applied to St. Petersburg fur directions,
he must wait an answer. He promised, however,
that the guard should be removed. This promise
was not kept. On the 3rd of June the guard was
reduced to one ; on the sth, the Governor consented
to dispense even with that one, upon receiving a
written guarantee from the Consul teat Mr. SyMONs
would nut leave until an answer was received from
Bt. Petersburg; but on the 20th the surveillance of
the polio* was renewed. In the meaetime, Mr.
StmoNs's books and papers were taken from him.
On the 2nd of July, the answer was received from
St. Petersburg. It forbade Mr. SYMoNS to proceed
on his tour to the Crimea, but allowed him to leave
Odessa. Circumstances prevented his leaving till
the 12th of July, when he proceeded with his
friend Mr. SERE to Constantinople.
Here, then, we have an Englishman, against
whom not the shadow of an accusation is brought—
for the pretence that he was mistaken for a Pole who
might have been his father, will not stand investi-
gation—detained for upwards of a month in Odessa,
at a ►eason of the year when that town is notoriously
unhealthy; subjected to the annoyance of police sur-
veillance; deprived of his books and papers; and finally
expelled the country as if he had been a criminal.
And this treatment was sanctioned—in part origi-
nated -by the authorities at St. Petersburg, although
they must have been aware that Mr. SYMONs had
visited their own city, Moscow, and Warsaw, only •
few months before; had come provided with unex-
ceptionable letters of introduction ; and had con-
ducted himself in a manner of which even the
jealous Government of 'Weida could not complain.
The consequence of this treatment was that Mr.
SOLTAU SYMONs, when at Corfu, on his return to
the more civilised regions of Europe, was seized with
an illness so serious that the medical gentleman at-
tached to the staff urged his immediate departure
for England. This indisposition was the necessary
consequence of his detention under circumstances of
wanton annoyance in Odessa at an unhealthy season.
It is impossible to regard this incident in any
other light than as an act of unprovoked annoyance
to an Englishman because he was an Englishman.
't he authorities of St. Petersburg are as deeply impli-
cated in it as their subordinate officer at Odessa; but
what still more concerns us is the question—what
steps did Sir HAMILTON SEYMOUR take to assert
the c use of his injured countryman In the cor-
respondence lately presented to Parliament re-
spec'itig the obstructions to navigation at the mouth
of the Danube, we saw that egregious diplomatist
apnl-gising for not ',Tiering the Ituseiun Govern.
meet, because he war afraid of receiving an angry
reply. Did the same unmanly timidity prevent him
from cuing his duty in the cast of Mi. Soe-rat:
Sirsti,NO

N't e hare no means of knowing what course Mr.
tiTNIWO4 or his friends intend to pursue in reference
to thew tramistioas. That is their court:a. Our

duty, however, as journalists, ha% ing übtaincd
well-
aut!:enticatad intorinat ion respecting the facts,
is to submit thin, as we have done, to
the judgment of ti.r people of England-
They show what kind of treament English-
men have now to look for at the hospitable
hands of the Russian Government; and, more impor
tent still, they show what countenance and aid
F.ngli-hmcn have to expect at the hands of the
I English Minister at St. Petersburg. In the course
of little more than a year papers have passed through
our hands, showing a similar neglect of duty on the
part of the representatives of England at the courts
of Berlin and Vienna. In fact, in the event of an
Englishman (unless he be of very high rank indeed)
experiencing maltreatment at the hands of Govern-
ment officials in any country on the continent of Eu-
rope, he may lay his account in a majority of cases
with finding the Ministers of his nation and their
secretaries making common cause with the foreign
Government against him. The reason of this is ap-
parent enough. The despotic Governments of the
Continent labour at present under a morbid fear of
English liberalism; they fancy they see in every
Englishman a mau liberal running about to bite their
sheepish subjects. Again, the English diplomatists at
these courts have almost all been bred up in the
old Tory school, have as inveterate a dislike of
liberalism as the veriest despot on the Continent, and
would do almost anything rather than offend a
crowned head—or anything belonging to it, from a
Prime Minister to a flunkey. Since the era of
GEORGE CANNING, and still mere since the passing
of the Reform Act, the relations of England to the
Continental despots have been entirely altered ; and
yet men hostile to the new spirit which animates the
Government of England arc relied upon to carry
out the intentions and wishes of that Government.
This is folly. England will never be faithfully and
usefully represented abroad until the old leaven
of Tory ism is entirely purged out of its diplomatic
staff.

Tim monotony in the aspect of the reports from
our police courts and assizes is horrible. There is a
sickening sameness in the daily repetition of the ex-
aminations of men charged with acts of brutal fero-
city. Crimes against property, which formed at ono
time the great majority of offences, seem to be giving
way to crimes against the person. In proportion as
one section of the population seems to be getting
more honest, or as the improvement in their
circumstances seems to remove from them the tempta-
tions to dishonesty, they appear to have increased in
brutality. Whether it is that the latent ferocity of
the classes that form the outer fringe of society was
kept down by the need of perpetual labour, which
oppressed them until the late change in the condition
of the labourer, and that the advent of prosperity
has removed this check, it is impossible to say. It is
generally supposed that with improved material cir-
cumstances the moral character of the man is im-
proved—that the greater the stake he has in the
country, the greater respect he has for its laws. This
principle perhaps may fail in its application
to the very lowest class, who, having had up to a
certain time to concentrate all their energies to the
attainment of what is barely sufficient to keep body
and soul together, have acquired none of the habits
of self-control which are necessary to the proper
enjoyment of prosperity. The only holiday for slaves
is a Saturnalia. Whatever may be the reason, the
fact is evident enough. The Legislature has lately
been obliged to increase the severity of the laws
against maltreatment of women. The judges are
perpetually lamenting the occurrence of child-murder
by mothers. If Mr. YARDLEY is to be believed, the
only effect of the greater stringency of the law
against the men has been to increase the violence of
the women. All this shows that there is down below
in the scale of society a population so brutified by
ignorance that it is as unable to preserve its equili.
brium iu prosperity as to overcome manfully the
evils of adversity, and that if we do not apply the
remedy of education to the offspring of this
class, we may expect it to be perpetuated;
and then, if the old phenomenon of a redundancy of
labour should make its appearance, we shall have the
same incapable class as betore, unable to do more
than earn a portion of their existence, trusting to
charity for the rest. They will be equally incapable
of making a proper use of prosperity, should it ever
arrive, and thus perpetuate the cycle of misery and
crime. The deduction from this is, then, educate
your labouring classes, and you may expect a popu-
lation able to re. tat all that is dangerous in the
attacks either of prosperity or adversity.

As an illustration of the brutal insensibility in the
commission of violence to which we have alluded, we
may point to the confession of FLACK, the murderer,
published in our impression of Wednesday. The
wretched man seems to have been utterly unmoved,
during the commission of the crime, by any of the
feelings which actuate human beings generally, or
which are usually supposed to be roused during the
perpetration of murder. He describes the whole
scene as if he were giving an account of the felling a
tree and cutting off the branches:

It was me that did the murder. There was nobody else
with me. • • • I knocked, mut Mrs. Steggles came
to the door. I knocked her down when she reached the
kitchen. I struck her with my fist. She fell. When
down she cried out violently. I then took a small ease-knife
belonging to my folks. My little brother called it his. I
cut her throat with it, I think, in two pieces—at least I
cut twice. I then knocked her on the head with my boots,
or high-lows, the same as were pr.dueed at the mixes. I
kicked her seven or eight times. I knew she was not dead
when I left Aer, and went up stairs.

After giving an account of his plundering the
house, he continues:
When I ran down-stairs, &fter being up about ten
minutes, I went to the kitchen and looked at the deceased.
She was lying on her back. I did not see her move, bat
found she was breathing. I then kicked her two or three
times more on the head. Immediately after I left the
house. I went to the house with the full intention of

NoNg to the knowledge ot the first e:e.
meats of facial lih ? With all due respect
for the motives which animate the hundred clergy.
alien who have chivalrously undertaken to convert
Ireland to the Protestant faith, it is yet diffieu t
not to thick that they might hare discovered a far
more promising field of action nearer home. Who
had the teaching of WILLIAM FLACK ? Is his soul
of less consequence than that of the Irishman, who
at any rate has never been neglected by his spiritual
director? Why do not some of the eitzgy who
seem to be animated with such a superfluity ot
missionary enterprise, exercise it in courts and alleys
of towns, and in the straggling streets of villages?
Now is the time, if an impression is to be made upon
the lowest class of society. Its members are not, as
they occasionally have been, rendered by misery deaf
to everything but the call; of providing the necessa-
ries of life. There is employment for all, and wages
are high. At such times men are ready to receive
advice which at other times they would reject. If
philanthropists of all classes would join together in
taking advantage of our present prosperity to im-
prove the education of the classes below them, they
would do much more for their country than by en-
gaging in schemes the failure of which is certain,
and the prosecution of which is attended with
danger to themselves and anxiety to their friends.

ACCEPTANCE oF TIIE NOTE OF TIIE
FOUR POWERS BY TLIE PORTE

(IT St

TELEGRAPH.)

PARIS, SATI:RDAT MORNING.

The .11imileur states that news from Constanti-
nople announces that the Sultan has adopted the
project of the note of the Conference of Vienna,
with some unimportant changes in the drawing up.

THE UNITED STATES.

SOUTHAMPTON, SATURDAY MORNING.

The Washington has arrived here, on her way to
Bremen. She left New York on the 13th August.
She brings about half a million of dollars in specie.
The extremely warm weather has caused many
deaths.

Large subscriptions have been made for the suf-
ferer• from yellow fever in New Orleans.
The American government has approved of the
conduct of Captain Ingraham, with regard to the
seizure of Costa in Smyrna.
The fishery question still continues to absorb a con-
siderable share of attention throughout all parts
of the country. Lord Stirling is now at Washington,
making arrangements with a company of influential
American gentlemen for the prosecution of his claims.
Her Majesty's steamer Devastation recently
seized an American schooner, and took her into
Prince Edward's Island, where, after a short deten-
tion, she was released.
At Tennessee a democratic governor has been
chosen.

A rumour prevails that England and Spain have
agreed to abolish slavery in Cuba, and that the
American government will take strong ground in
opposition to it.

_
The Africa arrived on the 11th June. Two weeks'
later news has arrived from California.

A letter states that slavery is to be abolished in
Surliam.

Much damage has been done by fires in Prince
Edward's Island.

Two hundred and four persons have been swept
off by yellow-fever in New Orleans.

Brcadstuffs—Flour was in better demand at
unchanged figures. Cotton—There were 1,200 bales
sold at previous figures. Freights to Liverpool—
Engagements were moderate. Sugars varied little.
Tobacco leas active. The money market was slight.