The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-01-08 00:00:00

THE MEDITERRANEAN

From Iklarseilles, under the date of the 4th inst.,
we learn that the quay of the Joliette is at present
as much crowded with bomb shells brought back
from the Crimea as it was during the siege of
Sebastopol when the same shells were being
shipped. Equal activity is displayed in another
part of the quay in shipping gun-carriages, cais-
sons, and materiel for field artillery to an enormous
extent. Several artillery officers, moreover, have
received notice to hold themselves in readiness to
proceed to the Crimea. The port of the Joliette,
which for some days was comparatively empty, is
again being filled with ships from the East.
While the war has directed the ingenuity of
inventors in many instances to the discovery of
more terrible instruments of destruction, an indi-
vidual residing near this town has been applying
himself to give to steam a new and peaceable
application. The idea suggested itself'to him that
a steam trawling boat would prove a lucrative
speculation during the frequent periods of calm
weather, when the Marseilles fishermen are unable
to pursue their avocations, and shoals of the finny
tribe approach the coast with impunity. In order
to avoid being anticipated in his speculation, the
inventor constructed his boat in a field, enclosed
with high walls, some distance from the sea. Great
was the curiosity to discover the mystery, but the
secret was well kept, and the boat (with some diffi-
culty) was conveyed over land to the dock, and is
now afloat. She is a smack of about fifty tons,
fitted with a screw. Another peculiarity is, that
her mast is hollow, and will serve as a chimney.

Prussia is said to be doing her best to detach the
smaller German States from the policy of Austria.
That task has become easier since the circular of Count
Nesselrode.

The Poet Ampt Gazette, in a letter from Vienna, of
the 2nd, says :—Selim Pacha has arrived at Erzerourn•
where troops are being collected by the Turkish govern-
ment. The fortifications recently constructed are only
mounted with twenty-eight pieces of cannon, and the
whole place is in a bad state of defence.
MensicaLrs, Sunday.—The Lougsor has arrived. She
brings news from Constantinople to the 27th. The
Russians have increased their fortifications over Inker-
mann, and have unmasked the new batteries on the left
of the Tchernaya. -No ship of war was lost in the storm.
Omer Pacha has arrived at Batoum. His replacement
was discussed, but it was decided to be impossible. The
army, when near Kutais, was for two days without
supplies.

A letter from Frankfort mentions that additional co-
operation is given to Saxony, Bavaria, and Wurternburg,
in the efforts made by those 'states in favour of peace.
It is considered certain that the Grand Duke of Hesse
gives his complete approval to the propositions trans.
witted by Austria to the court of Russia. The repre-
sentative of the Grand Duke at St. Petersburg has been
instructed to support those propositions, or at least
advise their acceptance by the Russian cabinet.
The Grand Duke is brother to the Empress of Russia,
and he is believed to possess much influence over her.
A letter from St. Petersburg, in the Hamburg News
says :—General Rudiger, commanding the guards and
the grenadiers, has published the following notice :
Owing to the number of officers which it is certain will
be wanted in the next campaign, for tile service of the
coast redoubts constructed for the defence of the Baltic
coast, such officers of the navy as are wounded or
incapable of service afloat, are invited to take service in
the above named batteries. The letter adds—We learn
that the Russian government is thinking of defending
the railroad from Moscow to the capital, against any
operations of the enemy. It is proposed to arm the
stations on the line with works and with cannon. Each
of the redoubts will be occupied by a battalion of
militia, charged to guarantee it, at least, from any
surprise of the enemy's advanced guard.

CpSTODY OF INFANT CHILDREN.-0110 of those cases
which frequently excite so much interest in Ireland, viz.,
the custody of children where the question of childrens'
religion is at stake, was decided on Friday by the Lord
Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench, at his lordshin's
private residence, after an adjournment from a preceding
day. It appeared that a Mr. Richard Story, an apothe-
cary at Ballinamore, in the county of Leitrim, died
recently, leaving two small children, besides two grown-
up sons. Mr. Story was a Protestant, but his wife, who
only survived him a short time, was a Roman Catholic,
in which faith also it would appear that the two grown
boys had been educated. The two young children came,
S
some way, into the care of the local Protestant Orphan
Society ; and as they were taken away by force, as it was
aLY lleged, from their care by their two elder brothers, and
some relatives of their mother's, at the instigation, as
it was stated, of the Roman Catholic priest, and with a
view of educating them as Catholics, the present proceed-
ings were brought in the shape of a habeas corpus for the
restoration of the children to the custody of the Protes7
tant Orphan Society. The Chief Justice, after hearing
the case and conversing in private with the children,
declined-sending them back to the former custody, adding
that they had not been well treated under the care of the
Protestant Orphan Society, and that he was not surprised
at the children's wish to remain in the care of their
brothers and other friends,