The Express.
London, England, 1853-12-13 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 13, 1853.

LATEST FROM ABROAD.

TILE OVERLAND MAIL.

The following despatch has been received rta
Vienne.
The following has reached Trieste :
BOMBAY, Nov. 14.
At Rangoon, 100 convicts mutinied. Most of
them were cut down.

Great excitement prevailed at Whanspoa, in con-
sequence of the death of a Chinese female in prison.
The Americans protected the English Consul.

RUSSIA AND TURKEY.
VIENNA, Etc. 11.

General Badberg, the Russian Commissioner for
the two Principalities, arrived at Jassy, on the
30th November.

On the 3rd inst. General Osten-Sacken had not
reached the Pruth.

Prince Alexander of Sepia had left Belgrade for
Krajugewatz, the capital of the country.

CONSTANTINOPLE, Nov. 29.

'fhe Turkish passenger steamer, Medari Tidjaret,
which was captured by Russian cruisers in the Black
Sea several &ye ago, came into the Bosphorus on
the 26th, and caused great astonishment. The ves-
sel was taken before the expiration of the delay
granted on both sides for placing merchant ships out
of clinger. As there were several Russian merchant-
men at Constantinople when the Medari Tidjaret
was captured, the Russians were unusually scrupu-
lous in dealing with her.

Lord Stratford de Redcliffe has removed from
Therapia to Pera to be nearer the French Am-
bassador.

The merchants of all nations at Constantinople
are signing an address to the Sultan, expressing
their best wishes for his cause.

A column of the new legion of Turkish Cossacks
has arrived at Constantinople, 8,000 volunteer
Scodriens have been organised in Albania, and a
now corps of 10,000 Kinds has been formed by the
sheiks of their country.

PIEDMONT.

TURIN, SATUADVI.

The character of the new Chamber of Deputies is
now fixed, the returns from nearly all the con-
stituencies being known. Of 115 elections, 81 are
favourable to the ministry, 23 members belong to the
ultra-liberal opposition, and 11 only to the priestly
1511 obscurantist party. It is expezted that Count
Cavour will reckon two-thirds of the Chamber among
his supporters.

AUSTRIAN ITALY.
GENOA, Dac. 7.

A very severe military inspection has just been
carried out in Austrian Italy, not only along the line
of the Adige, and in the fortresses of Pescheira,
Garda, and Mantua, but in Venice and on the coast.
The works in the arsenals, ordinarily suspended at
this season of the year, are continued, and each day
materials and munition of all kinds arrive.

DENMARK.

COPENHAGEN, Dn. 7.

The sittings of the Folksthing have been •iolent
and personal. The Minister Oersted, conceiving
himself insulted by a deputy, required the Speaker
to call the latter to order ; the Speaker refused, and
Oersted left the chamber in a great rage. He has
since absented himself from the sittings, and the
most exciting rumours are iu circulation.

SPAIN.
AND EUROPEAN TELEGRAPH.)

A despatch was received in Paris this day, dated
Madrid, Dec. 10, which states that the debate on the
Railway question has terminated in a majority of
38 for the opposition. The sittings of the Cortes
have been suspended sine dic by a Royal decree.

RUSSIA AND TURKEY.

The intelligence published yesterday in the Daily
News of a naval loss sustained by the Turks in the
Black Sea, is corroborated by subsequent despatches
and by its adoption in the French Moniteur.
The facts, however, have been exaggerated, as
was natural, by the organs of Russia. The admiral
of the Turkish fleet has not been taken.
Osman Pasha, who commanded the flotilla,
was not admiral of the fleet, but feriki
bahrie, or Vice-Admiral, of which the Turkish
navy has several. Nor were twelve ships of the im-
penal navy destroyed or taken. Three of them were
transports, seven were frigate', two corvettes, and
one was a steamer. The loss may be a serious one
for the Ottomans, considering the service for which
they have now to rely upon their sea forces, but we
have yet to be told what are the losses on
the other side. Considering the resistance made
by the Turks, we can hardly suppose that
the Russians came off without considerable damage.
The contest lasted, we are told, an hour. By sea,
then, the Turks have proved that they have good
stuff in them, having so determinedly withstood a
greatly superior force. Tho Russian vessels were all
ships of the line, those of Turkey all small ones. In
the present brush Turkey has hid the worst of it, but
she will show a bold face in the same waters yet.
Before the loss of the vessels just mentioned, her
fleet was thus composed :-2 three-deckers, of 130
guns ; 4 two-deckers, of 80 guns ; 10 frigates, of
from 40 to 61 guns • 6 corvettes, of from 22 to 26
guns ; 14 brigs, with from 12 to 20 guns; 16 cutters, '
&c., of from 4 to 12 guns; and 6 steam frigates,,
besides gun-boats.
The port of Sinope, where the action occurred,
is situated in the small gulf or bay of Sinope,'
which is formed by the projection of a head-
land on the coast of Anatolia, midway be- I
twean Constantinople and Batoum, which are
the extreme points of the southern coast of the
Black Sea. Sinope is about 300 miles from Constan-
tinople,
and as many from Batoum, whilst it is about
200 miles south-east of Sebastopol, the great Russian
naval station in the Crimea. Sinope would, there-
fore, form an excellent port of refuge for Turkish
ships en their way with succours for the Asiatic army
or for the Circassian', whilst it is also a good station
for a squadron whose duty it would be to intercept
Russian reinforcements on their way from Sebastopol
to the srmy of Prince Worenr.off.
The Independence Beige, which may be taken as a
sufficient authority on matters of Austrian policy,
states that it learns from a good source that alread7
• diminished importance is attached to the propost-
tions sent from Vienna to Constantinople, and less
confidence is felt in their efficacy as a means of ar-
ranging the eastern difficulty. The powers, it learns,
have not sent a collective note, but four identical
notes: thus the solidarity between the two govern:
ments is moral rather than formal. What is more
important, "the most complete liberty and inde-
pendence of action is reserved to each power in the
event of the rejection of the propositions, whether
by Russia or Turkey." The assertion that Russia
had signified its readiness to send • plenipotentiary
to a congress, is denounced us premature.
It was remarked with some surprise in Paris, on
Saturday, that the Sleek, which has been often so
well informed, and has certainly taken such a leading
part on the Eastern Tuition, produced the article in
the Moniker without a word of comment. On
Sunday the same journal said it would continue to
abstain from discussion until "further orders." The
natural inference is that, either on account of the
necessity of bolstering up the Bourse with a view to
a loan, or from some other motive, the French govern-
ment has intimated to the journals that the sanguine
hopes expressed by the Moniteur may not for the pre-
sent be questioned with impunity. The Sict le, how-

ever, calls attention to the following paragraph from
the Press of Vienna of the 7th, which has
an important bearing upon the new protocol:—
" The new impulsion given to the negotiations con-
cerning the Turco-Russian affair proceeded from the
English cabinet, which inquired of Austria whether
she was disposed to present a new project of media-
' tion. The Austrian government replied affirma-
tively, but left to the English cabinet the task of
drawing up the plan. On December 1, a draft note,
prepared in London, arrived here. Its object was to
incline the Porte to make peace, and to conclude a
preliminary armistice. In this note it was formally
declared to the Porte that the Emperor Nicholas had
informed the cabinet of Vienna that he would not
refuse to consider propositions coming directly
from Turkey. On the 2nd, Lord Westmoreland had
a conference with Count Buol de Schauenstein on this
new scheme. On the 3rd the ambassadors of France,
England, and Prussia held a meeting on the subject
at the ministry for foreign affairs. This conference,
however, led to no conclusion, the Prussian ambas-
sador alleging that he was without instructions. On
Dec. 4 the ambassador sent for instructions by tele-
graph, and received an answer on the sth. That same
night instructions, accompanied by a copy of a note,
were forwarded to the Austrian internuncio at Con-
stantinople. This note is not ' collective,' but it
contains an identical declaration from each of the
powers signing it. On the 6th a copy of the note
was despatched to the Divan."
Our correspondent writes from the frontiers of
Wallachia :—" I may mention one fact, which may
not have come to your knowledge, and which yon
can use in any form you please. A young man
named Philipeser, the son of a Wallachian bayard,
who was educated in Paris, and displayed great
talent and promise, became involved in the troubles
of '4B, and was exiled. He solicited en amnesty,
and was permitted by the Russians to return a short
time ago. A fortnight since, while residing peace-
ably un his father's estate, he was seized by a party
of soldiers, and by an order of the Russian general
received 25 blows of the stick, which left him half
dead. Nothing is known as to the cause of the out-
rage, but it is supposed to have been some expression
of opinion in a letter written to a friend in Paris, and
which was opened in the post-office. It is thus
they endeavour to reconcile the inhabitants to their
rule."

The Wanderer of Vienna has the following :—The
great inundations were the cause of Omar Pacha's
withdrawal from the right bank of the river. Ismail
Pacha's corps at Kalafat has been reinforced. The
fifth army corps has been obliged to send more rein-
forcements to the Caucasus. A rumour circulates
here that Prince Paskewitach is somewhat in disgrace,
because he declined to take the command of the army
near the Danube. The Prince also declared that he
could not permit the first and second army corps to
leave Poland until other troops had come to supply
their places. The Emperor was indignant that,
after such a long administration, his deputy had nut
been able to eradicate the revolutionary ideas in
Poland. Of course no guarantee can be given for
the correctness of this. From the seat of war in Asia
we learn that the Turks are received with open arms
in those districts which they have wrested from the
Russians.

FRANCE.

-+-

PARIS, MONDLT EVZNING.
It will be observed that the Moniteur does not
adopt the expression of the private telegraphic des-
patches, " a great naval victory." In other respects,
however, the version of the affair given by the official
journal is more serious than either of the others, be-
cause it would appear that the Russian fleet forced
an entrance into the Sinope roads, and destroyed the
Turkish ships in harbour. Still, the whole story
rests upon the veracity of Prince Menchikoff 'a
aide-de-camp, who brought the account from
Odessa to Vienna. The French government
guarantees nothing beyond the fact that it has re-
ceived the Russian report from its own agent at the
latter place. When we remember that despatches
from Vienna have successively announced the burn-
ing of Bucharest by the Turks, the evacuation of
Kalafat by Omor Pacha's forma, the arrival of Osten-
Sacken at Jassy on the 12th of November, while he
I had not then crossed the Pruth, and an infinity of
! other false reports, all emanating from Russian sources,
the entire accuracy of the present news must still be
considered open to legitimate doubts. At all events,
I the Russian navy is not entitled to triumph in the fact
of havingdestroyedseven frigates with six sail-of-the-
line. The reputation of the French Admiral Sercy
rests entirely upon his having on one occasion suc-
cessfully resisted three English line-of-battle ships
with six frigates. The harbour of Sinope is not
strongly fortified. Formerly it was the principal
naval establishment of Turkey, but of late the
arsenal has been transferred to Constantinople, and
a single battery on the little fort of Boze-Tips con-
stituted the whole defence of the port. The Turkish
ships are supposed to have run in there for refuge
from bad weather, and certainly did not suppose
themselves in a position to resist the attack of a supe-
rior • fle et It is calculated that the Russians had 630
gunsin play against 100 on the Turkish side.
This evening's Presse affirms, on the authority of
private correspondence, that the victory cost the Rus-
sians dear, they having lost two ships-of-the-line,
three frigates, and two steamers. According to the
same accounts their forces, besides the six sail-of-the-
line mentioned in the Moniteur, consisted of twelve
frigates, a brig, and five steamers.
I notice in the Independaace Beige a despatch
from Vienna dated Saturday, which speaks of " se-
veral" instead of "all" of the Turkish ships having
been destroyed. Oman, said to have been taken
prisoner, was for a long time in France. He was
then but a captain in the navy, but has lately been
raised to the rank of Captana Pacba—a grade an-
swering to that of rear-admiraL
According to the Moniteur, the name of the victo-
rious Russian Admiral is Nachimoft; and not llachi-
eueff, as stated in one of the private despatches.
Letters to the Freese arrived this morning from
Constantinople, by way of Trieste, dated Nov. 28,
state that the entreaties of Lord de Bedell& had at
length prevailed upon the Diva°, not purely and
simply to reject the newplans of conciliation. Thus de-
termination was come to at an extraordinary meeting
of the Grand Council held on the 27th. The Turks
were much dissatisfied with this decision, apprehend-
ing that the presence of the combined squadrons in
the Bosphorus would render the advice of their allies
practically obligatory upon them. Omer Pacha had
taken up his winter quarters. Nevertheless, rumours
of a great battle fought near Krajowa were in circu-
lation. At first the victory was given to the Turks,
then to the Russians, and finally it was admittbd that
nothing whatever was known of this pretended en-
gagement, even at the Seraskeriat.

PARIS, SCNDAY EVIII/NO.

The Emperor was expected yesterday to be pre-
sent at the opening of the splendid new street lately
pierced in a straight line, nearly a mile in length,
from the Boulevard St. Denis to the Strasburg rail-
way station, and very inaccurately styled the Bon-
levart de Strasbourg. A handsome triumphal arch,
hung with velvet, flanked with flags, and surmounted
by a golden eagle, was erected at the entrance, with
the inscription, ".1 rEmpertur Napoleon 111., le
Ve. Arrondissement Hommage de Reconnaissance."
The Prefect of the Seine, the authorities of the arron-
dissement, and a large cr3wd of people, werewaiting
till a late hour when it was announced that the Emperor
was " prevenied" from attending. It seems scarcely
to be known whether the inauguration is considered
to have taken place or not. The decorations are still
there, and some of the papers give out that perhaps
I his Majesty will attend to-day or Monday. He was
I not, however, there to-day, and I suspect the inha-
i bitants of the bth arrondissement will be altogether
disappointed.
The Mondry gives an account of some further
fighting in Algeria. After the last affair at Brazia
on. the 26th of October, in which Captain Lacretelle
gained an advantage already reported, the Damian
malcontents offered to submit, but asked for a delay
of ten days. General de Luzy, commanding the
Oran division, being of opinion that their applica-
tion wu merely a device to gain time, ordered two
ttgooms " of 400 horse each, supported by 140
Spahis, to follow them up without remission. Coin-
mandant de France and Captain Lacretelle I
with the above troops (almost all natives)
attacked their camp on November 20. They found
a number of tribes occupying about 500 tents, and
commanded by two celebrated chiefs, the Marabout

iSidi-Chiqr-ben-Taieb and El-Gourari. The French
forces attacked the camp, and after a serious resist-
ance put the enemy to flight. The Arabs left 70 or
80 dead upon the field, and abandoned 20,0110 sheep
and 800 camels. On the French side there were 14
killed, and about the same number wounded. Further
offers of submission had been made by the routed
' Arabs, and the French general was considering
whether they were sincere.
In the night of the 7th the telegraphic wires be-
tween Calais and Boulogne were cut by some mis-
creant, who has not yet been discovered.
It is reported that government has convoked a
general meeting of the directors and principal engi-
peers of all the railways in France, to concert mea-
sures of public safety. This railway congress is
expected to assemble towards the end of this month.
There has been an extraordinary fog at Lyons
and in the neighbourhood. In the city carriages
were brought to a stand still, and people lost their
way as completely as they might have done in
Thames street. On the Bth the navigation of the
Saone was reported to be entirely suspended. The
mail from Paris was sent by land, and made very
slow progress, owing to the fog.

BRUTAL TREATMENT OF A BRITISH SUB-
JECT IN THE PAPAL STATES.

ROME, Dn. 4.
I mentioned in a preceding letter that a British
subject, a native of Gibraltar, named Testaferrata
Desain, had been arrested in the month of September
last at Arezzo, by the Tuscan authorities, and sub-
sequently handed over to those of the Papal States,
for no offence whatever. Having obtained the par-
ticulars of his two months imprisonment and suffer-
ings from Mr. Desain himself, in an interview with
him since his release, I am enabled to give you a
correct statement of the unprovoked and unjustifiable
treatment to which he has been subjected.
Mr. Antonio Testaferrata Detain, aged 5 , native of
Gibraltar, left Cadiz for Malta, with a passport, signed
by the British consul-general, and dated December
22, 1851, whence, after three months' stay, he
repaired to Constantinople. There M. Lucy, a
French merchant, entrusted him with eight
Arab mares, to take to France and consign to the
government agents at Marseilles, which he did at
the end of September, 1852, arriving by the steamer
Nilus, with his passport en n'gle, duly signed by the
French and English ministers, and leaving again for
Piedmont with the signature of the British consul at
Marseilles. Towards the end of July last, his pass.
port having been duly eise'd by the police authori-
ties and the British minister at Turin, he left Genoa
for Tuscany, remaining a fortnight at La Spezia,
where the Tuscan consul signed his passport for
Leghorn by land. After a short stay at Leghorn,
Mr. Desain proceeded to Florence, whence, after
three weeks, he proposed entering the Austrian do-
minions, and obtained the signatures of the Austrian
and British ministers, but subsequently, as his ill
destiny would have it, he changed his intention,
and got his passport signed for Rome by the police
and the l'apal Nuncio, on the 29th of August. On
the 19th of the following month he arrived at
Arezzo, and proposing to stay a few days showed
his papers and gave his name to the innkeeper. Oa
the 21st of September, at midnight, he was not a
little surprised at being roused from his bed by a
brigadier and band of gendarmes, who took hint to
prison without alleging any motive, in spite of
all his remonstrances and entreaties to speak with a
magistrate. The gendarmes brutally presented him
to the gaoler, saying, " There's the magistrate you
are to speak with." Mr. Dcsain's passport was
restored to him by the gaoler on his leaving Arezzo
in charge of the gendarmes for the l'apal frontier,
where he arrived, halting three days in the prison
of Santo Sepolcro, at the end of the month. The
Roman police authorities at the frontier town
of Citta di Castello took away his pass-
port and papers again, saying that the
former must be forwarded to Rome. After three
days he was sent on to Perugia, where he was con- I
fined for seventeen days with the worst sort of
offenders, fed on galley slaves' fare, and manacled
during the journey thither, which was performed
upon a cart, escorted by gendarmes on horseback.
All his inquiries as to the reason of his imprison-
meat, and his requests to speak with some of the
local authorities, were treated with contempt, and it
was only during the journeys from prison to prison
that he was able to bribe some passer-by to put a
letter into the post informing the British agents in
Rome of his miserable condition. He speaks with
horror of the frightful state of his dismal prison halt-
ing-places between Perugia and Rome, especially that
of Foligno, the filth, vermin, and contaminated air
having a very bad effect upon his health, and the
jolting of the springless carts a by no means consola-
tory effect upon his person. Whilst travelling, he was
handcuffed and chained to the other malefactors on
the cart, but when replaced in prison his fetters were
removed. This mode of conveyance at foot pace, and
only on stated days of the week, was so tedious that
poor Mr. Desain only arrived at )tome on Nov. 17,
when, after being deprived of his beard and moustaches
by the prison barber, he was thrust into the common
ward of the Termini gaol with 63 malefactors of every
description. Here, however, the energetic inter-
ference of the British representative, Mr. Lyons,
►egan to show itself. Without entering into the
exact steps followed by him and the British consular
agent, Mr. Freeborn, to obtain the prisoner's release,
it will suffice to say that Mr. Desain was brought to
the consular office two or three days after, and for-
mally placed under British protection, and he now
awaits the result of negotiations pending oa his be-
half, and the restitution of hie regular British pass-
port, which the police authorities appear by no means
ready to hand out, as it forms the chief piece of acen-
sation against them. Meanwhile Mr. Desain has
missed the engagement for which he was coming to
IRome, which was to accompany aSpanish gentleman,
I M. R. Basques, to Constantinople, to purchase Arab
horses for a speculation.
The recently arrested liberals of the fusionist party
are kept in the strictest confinement, and are, as it
I were, out of the world, none of their friends or relations
being allowed to hold communication with them, or
even to know what is became of them.