The Express.
London, England, 1853-12-30 00:00:00

LATEST FROM ABROAD.

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(Ol• SMINIARINE AND EUROPEAN TELEGRAMS.)
FRANCE.

PARIS, TIIVRSDAY.

The restrictions imposed on the importation of raw
cotton from ( cat Britain by the ordinance of
February 8, 1626, are abolished.
The Emperor has decided that with respect to
yarn no change shall fur the present be made.

At the Bourse to-day the Three per Cent. Rente
closed for money at :4.35, and the Four-and-a-Half
per Cents. at 101.25. After the fall of yesterday
these prices exhibit a rally of 25e. to 33e.

THE WAR.

RUSSIA AND TURKEY.

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Telegraphic despatches from Constantinople of the
19th inst., announce that the meeting of the Grand
Council, originally appointed to be held on the 20th,
had taken place on the 18th, for the discussion of the
collective Note communicated to Reachid Pacha by
the ambassadors of the Fuur Powers, pursuant to the
agreement of Dec. 5.
The collective Note, it will be remembered, merely
expressed the regret of the Powers at the outbreak
and continuance of the war, and invited the Porte to
state upon what condi lona it would be ready to ne-
gotiate a treaty of peace. The result of the delibe-
rations on the 18th inst. is embodied in Reschid
Pacha's answer to the ambassadors on the following
day. The Porte has accej?ed all the advice which the
Powers formally undo took the responsibility of ten-
dering it, i.e. all the re commendations embodied in the
" Instructions to the Ambassadors," but by its reso-
lution it hes condemned one of the bases of the Vienna
protocol,

and the very one which had been previously
condemned by public opinion in England. The Porte
refuses to come again under the obligations arising
out of the treaties which Russia has first abused and
then broken, and while proalaimiug that policy, no
less than duty, enjoins the maintenance and even the
extension of the rights with which the Sultan has at
various times invested his Christian subjects, declares
that driven to defend its very existence with the
sword it will not exist for aught lower than full sove-
reignty within its dominions. 'f he Porte is ready to
send a plenipotentiary to treat in some neutral city
with a minister similarly empowered by the Czar. It
will adhere to its original sine qua nun of the evacua-
tion of the Principalities, but will not renew the
broken treaties of Kainurdji and Adrianople. It is
thus equally incorrect to say with one ministerial
contemporary that the Porte has " accepted the
project of accommodation" recommended by the Rau
Powers, since the Powers this time recommend no
such project, "but leave it to be elaborated by direct
though not unassisted negotiation, and to say with
another ministerial journal that the Porte has ac-
cepted the collective Note, since that Note merely
asked for information. All that the Powers recom.
mended in their instructions to the ambassadors
Iteschid Pacha adopts ; hut the abject compliances
which the fortunately published Vienna protocol•
shows they were prepared to recommend are dis-
posed of in advance.
A despatch from the Danube states that the Rus-
sian war steamer Pruth, in passing down the Danube,
had set two Turkish villages on tire with red hot
balls. Incandescent missiles appear to be
greatly in favour with the Russian sea captains,
having been plenteously showered upon the Turkish
vessels at Sinope. Their employment against
villages, however, is a now and particularly Russian
feature in recent warfare.

A rumour prevailed at Constantinople on the 16th
that the Russians had made an attempt to set fire
to the allied fleet at the entrance of the Bosphorus.
A fireship, it is said, was sent, but it was seen from
the forts, and stopped by their artillery. Numerous
letters of the same date have been received from
Constantinople, and make no mention of such an
attempt. Probably the story arose out of the incident
recorded in our correspondent's letter.

CONSTANTINOPLE, Dec. 15.

For the !ast two or three days the representatives
of the Four Powers have had frequent conferences, a!
several of which Resilid Pasha was present, for the
purpose of elaborating a new and last note which
shall sufficiently safeguard the interests of Turkey,
and at the same time contain such concessions as should
satisfy all the reasonable expectations of the Czar.
Not that much hope is entertained that at the eleventh
hour the Czar will show himself reasonable, but the
ministers of the Sultan wish to be consistent through-
out the course of negotiations, and to manifest to the
lest moment that cow :History and moderate spirit
which has characterised their entire proceedings.
Should this last effort fail, the Porte will have de-
monstrated its pacific disposition, and the powers
will be irrevocably engaged to lend their energetic
support to Turkey. They will have the more reason
to do this, since the unfolding of Russian designs
in Asia and the entrance of Persia into the quarrel.
Various disquieting reports have been in circula-
tion, and it has been said that an important re-con-
stitution of the ministry has taken place. All these
rumours are untrue. The appointment of a new
Capudan Pacha is the only real change in the high
departments of the imperial service.
A Russian war schooner has this very evening
been driven by stress of weather to tale refuge in
the Bosphorus. The captain took the precaution to
throw his guns overboard, thinking to make the
Turks believe that the schooner was a trading vessel.
The Turks have taken provisional possession of it,
placing forty men on board.
General Prim has dealt very sharply with the
famous Gortschakoff bulletin of the battle of Olte-
nitza, which he says will be laughed at by every
corporal who may read it. The General says:
" I have just come from the head-quarters of Omer
Pacha, where I have passed four months. I am a
mere soldier, and I went to &builds simply in the
character of an amateur. I consider, therefore, that
I am an impartial observer of what goes on under
my eyes. The question of orthodoxy and Holy
Places does not interest me the least in the world,
' but Ido feel desirous that my fellow-soldiers of all
nations should know in truth what is taking place
on the Danube, and not be misled by the reports of
the Russian generals."
General Prim then takes up the assertions of
Prince Gortschakoff one by one, and refutes them.
I need not follow him, but I may observe that he
convicts General bannenberg of great incapacity,
and General Gortschakoff of boldly attempting to
foist on the world a story as absurd as it is untrue.
He says:—" At the moment when the Russians com-
menced the attack (on the 4th Nov.), the redoubt
was open on both sides, for want of time to
complete the works, so that twenty men might have
entered on the left and fifty on the right hand. Had
the general commanding given himself the trouble, as
he ought to have done, to make a reconnaissance, he
would have discovered the weak points of the Turkish
position, and might have attacked with great chance
of success, and without losing so many brave soldiers
as he did. But General Dannenberg doubtless thought
that he had only to advance his infantry and artillery
to drive the Turks into the Danube."
The following is the result of the Spanish general's
observations on the Turkish army :
"The troops of Turkey are no longer such as the
Russians had to combat in former wars. Then incon-
testably the Turkish soldiers were individually brave,
but the army was an undisciplined multitude, ill
armed, each fighting according to his own notion,
without unity, without concert, advancing or retiring
at will, in a word, without the least military organi-
sation. To-day, without having lost any of their
traditional courage, they are, thanks to the reforms
introduced into the army, disciplined and well-taught
soldiers, and constitute an army le•rfectly organised
according to the principles of European armies, and
consequently in a condition to match with the Rus-
sian'. I ant convinced that in the spring—for I see