The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-05-02 00:00:00

WEST INDIA MAIL.

(Puma OUR OWN CORRESP3NDENT
SOUTHAMPTON, FRIDAY.
The Royal Mail Company's Steamship Magda-
lens, Captain George Abbot, arrived this day from
the West Indies with the usual mails, in charge of
Lieutenant Bolton, Admiralty agent. On her
homeward voyage, the Magdalena experienced fine
weather, with a smooth sea.
The latest dates brought by the Magdalena are
_Tampico March, 31; Grey Town April 2, Vera
Cruz 4, Santa Martha 0, Colon 9, Havannah 9, De-
merara 9, Trinidad 9, Carthagena 9, Jamaica 10,
Grenada 10, Barbadoes 11, Jacinel 12, Antigua, 13,
Sc. Kitts 13, Nevis 13, Montserrat 13, Porto Rico
14, and St. Thomas 15.
She brought 225 passengers and 2,637,145 dols.
in specie on freight, the principal part of which is in
silver. Also the following cargo :-176 bites bark,
182 cases of cigars, 101 bales of tobacco, 197 bags
cocoa, and 62 packages sundries.
There is not much news of importance.
The West India islands were healthy, and the
people in good spirits, in consequence of the rise
in the price of sugar.
Her Majesty's ship Pearl had captured the
Peruvian war-steamer which robbed the Pacific
mail packet
In Jamaica, rain had fallen copiously, and vege.
tation of every kind was progressing favourably.
On the 11th April, a fatal accident took place at
St. Thomas, by the capsizing of a boat of the Mag-
dalena. The boat had been sent ashore for a load
of sand for the ship's use, in charge of Mr.
Bushnan (one of the officers), and three men, and
on her return she Itvlinalmis;uesvit.ei,arly, deeply 1;a deerna,,
lac rind
,mlu9sbt,
have shipped some water, as the sea was rather
rough, and sunk immediately. Neither of the
bodies had been recovered when the Magdalena
left for England.
In British Guiana the cholera still remained, but
was on the decrease. A proclamation Was issued
on the 7th April, declaring that the cholera had
ceased to exist in the city andlipLorl::
3Gseboir•lgsc;-•
town.
The exports during theo,ifpooourtnbiasri;sh:
mpreeavLiolaotsBtoortllsie;
9th April were —Sugar, 1,172 hlLis, 77 tierces, 4M
ombororl snl
a,asnsldeosB3, 77b4briapsgu;sno:
slid;
barrels ; rice, 4,407 - bags ; timber, 7,031 feet ;
pork, 95 brls ; cigars, 4,000 ; cocoa nuts, 3,000.
Peru was still unsettled ; the army had declared
in favour of the acting President, but the navy had
revolted.

Admiral Stewart was on his way to Carthagena,
in consequence of the United States claiming a
portion of the New Granada territory.

FRANCE.

PARIS, THURSDAY EVENING.
The Grand Duke Constantine arrived here this
afternoon at 5 o'clock, and passed along the Boule-
vards at half-past 5. He was received at the rail-
road station with the ceremonial described in my
letter of Tuesday, and from which, I believe. there
has been no deviation- Several of the houses along
the Boulevards were decorated with flags, in which
the Russian colours were mingled. From 3or 4
o'clock the great thorough fares leading to,the Lyons
Railway Station were crowded with the curious,
who were anxious to catch a sight of a real Russian
Prince, particularly of one to whom popular report
attributed the sterner features of his family. The
Grand Duke sat in an open carriage, drawn by four
horses. with Prince Napoleon on his left. Both
were in uniform ; the Grand Duke -as an Acl_
miral, with a blue riband and star. Prince
Napoleon wore the dress of a General of Division,
and displayed the grand riband and star
of the Legion of Honour. The carriage in which
they were seated passed along at a walking
pace, so that a good view was had of the Duke
by the people, who • thronged the feotways and
the balconies of the houses. The clay wits rather
cold but otherwise fine, and the two Princes were
enveloped in cloaks, which were thrown back at the
shoulders. There was no cheering on the Bottle-
-yards, but the spectators in the streets saluted by
(D) tfui,e
their
acknowledgedhats a s t heo
the carriage
salute
b passed,
catching
awl the
his cocked hat with the open hand. Indeed, he
ceased hardly for a moment returning the salute,
atarkainnga
The carriage in which. the Princes rode was pre-.
ceded by a detachment of Guides, and officerS belong-
ing to the Imperial household rode oa both sideS
Another carriage followed with the functionaries,
who received him at the railroad station ; in a third
were deposited the ponderous person of Marshal
Magnan and the more slim forms of his aide-de-
camps ; and a fourth conveyed the Russian officers
of the suite of the Grand Duke. The rear was
brought up by a squadron of Guides in full
dress and equipments. It was perhaps owing
to the coldness of the day that neither the Grand
Duke'nor the Prince wore an expression of much
animation. The Russian Prince is rather a mil I
looking young man. He is of fair complexion
with small light whiskers, and a thin fair moustache.
The Princes proceeded to the Tuileries by the rue
Royale at the same slow pace: Prince Napoleon
received the Duke at the railway station, but did
not as I stated he would not, go to Toulon to meet
him.

If the Grand Duke had postponed his entry into
Paris but seven days from the present date, it,
would be the anniversary of the visit of his
ancestor Peter the Great to the same capital.
Very nearly 140 years ego, that is, on the 7th
May, 1717, Peter drove to the Palace cf the
Louvre with the Princes Kourekin and Dolgo-
rouki, Baron Schafferoff, the Ambassador Tolstoi,
.and other high
,dignitaries of his suite. The cere-
monial and etiquette, as then practised at the
French Court, displeased and annoyed him. He
refused to be lodged in the splendid apartments
of the Palace prepared for him and his at
tendants, and, having gruffly paid his compli-
ments to his entertainers, he went on foot the stone
evening to the extreme end of Paris, and took up
his quarters at the Hotel des Lesdigueres, which
belonged to the Marshal de Villeroi. The expenses
of his living were of course defrayed by the country
On the following morning the Regent Duke of
Orleans visited him at his lodgings ; and the
day after the King, Louis XV., then only seven
years old, was conducted by his
governor to gee
the man whose
genius, whose eccentricities, and
whose barbarous manneis astonished all Europe.
Two days elapsed before Peter returned the It)yal
visit ; the interval Was occupied in receiving
the authorities and Cor
visit to the King wAs paid at night, and it is
related that, to cut short all difficulty about
precedence, peter carieel the Royal child
in his arrns for some time. The Czar's
journey to France was p
oration of the city. His
not that of en idle tourist ;
he desired to gain knowledge, no doubt, but
political motives were, perhaps, those which chiefly
actuated him. His Ministers at the Hague had pre-
viously several secret interviews with the intriguer,
Gertz, the secret agent of Charles XII. of Sweden.
Gertz had done his best to bring together the Swe•
dish monarch and the Czar and prevent the war,
to restore Stanislaus to the throne of Poland, and
to deprive George I. not merely of Bremen and
Verdnhut even of the throne of England. Peter
told by his most admiring historian, was
particularly desirous of ascertaining in person on
what terms the Regent of France really was with
the King of England, and whether George was
we aree'
firmly seated on the throne. In one respect the
visit of the Prince who has entered Paris this even-

ing reminds us of that of Peter. The Grand Duke
will neglect no opportunity during his stay of
acquiring information on that important point,
and of doing his utmost to improve the good
understanding which NJ. de Moray no doubt
believes he has successfully commenced at St.
Petersburg. Ido not know whether he will seek
for information, as his ancestor did, about the sta-
bility of the British Throne, but we may be sure he
will hint no doubts about the peaceable transmis.,
sion of the Imperial Crown of France to a fourth
Napoleon ; and will also satisfy himself as to the
nature of the relations between the two Govern-
ments of France and England.
In 1782 Paris was honoured with visits from
another member of the Imperial family of Russia--
seclusion than a throne,
re
-suthpaptosyedeasronthoof
ainnladet GrandwlvshhtDo:aluNn'pkageseer inPscola Pped fitviolently.oe i col I_oft , the
crime
and talent;
Catherine 11., visited Paris. Paul was then mare
tied to his second wife, a princess of Wurtemburg,
niece of Frederick the Great, and they boa/ tra-,
veiled incognito,—which means that every one knew
who they were,—under the title of Count and
Countess du Nord. The storm that eight or ten
years later burst over France was then gathering
darkly ; the clouds were charged with thunder,
and, amid the revels of a careless court
and a frivolous and profligate nobility, the
flashes in the distance indicated its rapid approach,
The Count and Countess du Nord were received
with the politeness which half redeemed the vices
of the upper classes, and which contrasts with the
assumption of the " great men" of this day, who•
have been enriched, or who have been dragged up
, from obscurity of late years. The Count d'Artois,
afterwards Charles X., then occupied the Villa deo
• Bagatelle, where the present Emperor loves to
pass a morning occasionally with its proprietor,.
and the Grand Duke Paul was a frequent visitor:
Then there ware the • breakfasts, at Sceaux. with
the Duke of Penthievre, and suppers at Chantilly
at the palace of the Prince...of Conde, whose last
descendant perished mysteriou'sly in 1831. Paul
PetroVitch and his wife had to undergo the cere-
monious visits of the Grand Almoner, the Grand
Master of the Household, the Grand Chamberlain,
the Grand Equerry, Grand Pander, Grand Hunts-
man, and the other embroidered trifles that swarmed
in the antechambers of Versailles, and helped, like
the same costly encumbrances of our day, to
exhaust the treasury. I suppose the Grand Duke
Constantine will have to go through the same
infliction ; ha may, however, consider himself
foriemate if he escape the harangues of what are
called " the constituted bodies." The famous
Mesmer, tiis inventor or discover of animal mag-
netism, *as then in Paris, as also the no less
to thee t oircie e'
famous charlatan:- Cagliostro. They both waited
o other Paul; ul ;
v)f
hie andson, Constan-
'red to magnetise him, the
Prth°
.kips:‘iit of his fat her—
which Paul declined. Itine, wishes to know sometirig .about charla-
tans,ae he will find that' the family has
increased, though the. general population may
have diminished. The Romanoffs were not .in
general a very ' edifying race, but if the Grand
Duke has any curiosity to see the shades of Peter;,
Elizabeth, Catherine, Paul, or the other amiable
specimens of humanity, here is the .celebrated
medium, Hume, who, it is said, has returned pur-
posely to Paris in case his Imperial Highness may
want him.
This is not the first time that the Grand Duke is
his travels. In 1839 his father sent him on a tour;
he visited the principal States of Europe, with the
exception of France, whose Sovereign the Emperor
the
ttie
uohfnGsedbisi
pl,eiaoyantrnisiisNois:Dslieidtivoulaeftkeitet.ny:ilss
the very
vvo entry,
eenanrgl;l
Nicholas disliked and affected to undervalue. The
Grand Duke was recognised in the beginning of
the late war as one of the chiefs of the old Russian
party, and it was ha who, as High Admiral and
Director-in-Chief of the Ministry of Marine, was
charged with the organziation of the defence of
Cronstadt and the Baltic coast against Sir Charles
Napier. He is said to be well-informed and fond of
letters, but, what is rather strange, has but little
partiality for the civilization of the West. His is
the first friendly visit of • a Russian Prince sines
that of his grandfather Paul ; for, in spite of his
declaration that he came only as their friend,- and.
in spite of " Russian influences," the mass of the
French. people do not yet regard the entry of
AlexanderiNt\vi.vnh,gilauct:whose
dteldi(tiosi
ensarticle
the
tiniini:eceallos.pevBfaaellal
would
all that
raudet slaialbaryaaeet
ogdl'ilfa`seintfn.
I heard two or three days ago that the Press
th
e
contain an article on the English alliance, and
events inspired, by a personage of exalted rank
moment the Grand Duke was passing. It begins
with this phrase :
" The alliance of England and France is one of
the fundamental basis of European civilisation.
The day it is seriously disturbed, the same blow
will destroy the entire edifice. We must then take,
care to lay a hand on that corner stone, for its fall
would be alike fatal to both countries. The corn-
, inanity of their interests is evident, and it is the
blind only who will not recognise it. Whoever
sees and understands must not allow his eyes or
his theughts•to- be diverted from this great objeet
•by pony obstaeles.".- • . •
This is the concluding paSSae
" Democratic France:is the ally of Free England.
We recognise .iu this alliance the great political
necessity of the nineteenth century, and we hail it
as the pledge and the security of the future,"

I•,,,,•••

SWITZERLAND AND PRUSSIA.
A telegraphic despatch from Bern; dated the
20th April, states that on that day the Swiss
Federal Council authorised the signing of the treaty'
for the settlement of the Neufchatel question ort
the conditions drawn up by the Conference at
Paris.
Another despatch from Berne, dated 30th April,
acks The Federal Council has decreed the
immediate publication of the treaty, as also of an
annexed protocol, adding to it the tenor of the
primitive deMands of Prussia and the first instruo
tions given to Dr. Kern.