The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-05-21 00:00:00

Prince Gortschakoff, the Minister of Foreign
Affairs, is expected before long ak,) to pay this
Gutyr visit, told perhaps to extend his trip furtlitr
in-.. (
Toe obiy mein out of }di the nil ',iietions of ,b,
Ros-inni pleas that bet's anyThio,4 of
ches icier is a pa-aera ph iii the Nurthern Bee
point:ng out that the story of the Aurora's crew
having been attacked by the natives after landing
on the Chinese coast, for the purpose of taking in
water, is in all probability an entire fiction, not
being even founded on facts ; at the time when
the incident is reported to have happened the
Aurora had long left the Chinese waters. Further-
more, in the report that has been already sent in
by the captain of that frigate, containing all the
incidents of his voyage, there is no mention of any
episode of this kind.
The number of persons who will avail them-
selves of the recently increased facilities of the
passport system to make a trip abroad this
summer promise to be greater than ever; and, as
there are people bold enough to assert that this
number amounts to 50,000, we may ,at least assume
that it will be an unusually large number. In con
nexion with this exodus the reflection does not
fail to strike both Government and people—both
the favourers of the new notions of progress, and the
vo.aries of the old Russian system of quiescent stag-
natien —that every one of these visitors toEurope will
return home a more or less active propagator of the
new civilisation-worship; they will have tasted the
sweets of a free press and an unrestrained develop
ment of social life and industry, and will, on their
return, view the restrictions of the censorship and
the home administration with totally different eyes
than was formerly their easy wont to do. While
the Government reckons on gaining here by an
increased number of assistants in its great work
of reform and reorganisation, it is not blind to the
danger that the number and zeal of its assistants
may be inconveniently and dangerously powerful
for it, and drive it on more rapidly than is
.1 udicious
in the path of reform, seeing how sluggish, inert,
an I lcorrupt the great bulk of the'population
All the old Russians solace themselves for this
frivolity of their inquisitive ga.f.about countrymen
(as the latter appear to them) with the hope that
iu proportion as they inform Ihemselves about the
arts and manufactures of foreign countries the
better Russia will be able to dispense altogether
with the presence of foreigners on her holy soil.
The number of enfranchisements of serfs exe-
cuted by owners of estates has of late increased a
good deal. As they are all registered in the office of
the Minister of the Interior, and subsequently pub-
lished in his official periodical, the public has every
facility of observing the progress of this move
ment. According to the regulations already exist-
ing on this subject, the serfs thus enfranchised
become free peasants, but are bound to pay a poll
tax to the crown. The terms on which the arrange-
ment between them and their owner is made are
very far from being too easy. In conformity with
the communistic organization of rural life in
Russia, these compacts of enfranchisement are
generally concluded between a landowner and an
entire village or other aggregate community; this
latter undertakes in its collective character to pay
the landlord a certain sum down, varying according
to circumstances; to pay him, and, in some cases,
his next heir, an annuity; to take on themselves
the debts on the estate, and to undertake to pay
all the taxes that are at present levied or that may
hereafter be imposed on the same. The capacity
for undertaking such onerous obligations would
imply the existence of some pecuniary means, and
the instances in which these arrangements have
hitherto been made have been for the most part
small estates, on which, in consequence of either
careless management or kind indulgence, the serfs
have been able to earn and lay by something for
themselves, and on the other hand the owners
have got so deeply into debt that after paying the
interest of their loans and mortgages and the ex-
penses of management, there is little or nothing
left for them to live upon. The willingness of these
debt-ridden landowners to part with their estates
and set themselves straight with the would
is on the increase, and it is expected that
the construction of railroads will greatly tend to in-
duce others to swell the number, since, in cense.
quence of the increased value of the estates that will
ensile on their cons•ruotion, some surplus will ac-
crue to their owners, on which they can live after
paying their debts, while at present little or no
margin is left between the amount of their debts
and the value of their estates, including the serfs.
In fact, there is the same process going on in
Russia at the present moment, and voluntarily, as
was lately introduced by our Government into
Ireland, by the Encumbered Estates Act; hitherto
the possession of means on the part of the serfs
has supplied the estate market with buyers, and
superseded the necessity of a legislative act ; but
when these means are wanting, or the owners are
not driven by any motive to sell, some gentle com-
pulsion from without will perhaps be necessary
According to the observations made by intelligent
Russians, this compulsion will, however, be ren-
dered superfluous by the circumstance that the
number of noble .landlords will, by the progress
of the present movement, soon become very small,
and be confined to the proprietors of
enormous estates, and free from debt, and that
the pressure of public opinion will, in the
course of time, operate so po-verfully on this
small minority as to make it impossible to hold out
in opposition to the general example. A similar
process was introduced into Prussia under the
administration of Baron Stein. and has been going
on ever since, to the great benefit of the country.
The preclusive term within which all applications
for permission to commute soceage tenures for
money-payments or rents, is just now expiring,
but will be prolonged by the Government.

SPAIN.

MADRID, MAY 15.

In the Congress yesterday, the Minister of Pub-
lic Works read two projects of law, one fixing the
general basis of a system of public instruOtion,and
the other for the completion of the works in the
Puerta Del Sol. The Spanish proverb says that
in this country things are begun late, and never
finished ; and of the truth of this saying one is daily
reminded. When the works in the Puerto del Sol
will be completed it is very difficult to say the pro-
babilities are that in 20 years hence there will stilt
remain something to be done, just as the bullring
at Seville remains still unfinished, and as in the
Plaza Mayor at Madrid (a large square of houses of
no very recent erection) there stitl remains in. one
of the sides a gap of six or eight feet. The much
talked of works,in the Puerta del Tel are to consist,
as you are aware, in the substitution of hand-
some and lofty houses, disposed in regular
form, for the naltry irregular edifices that at
present surround this central point of Madrid. Up
to the present time, all that has been done is to
pull down a church and another building, a
portion of the materials of which still lumber the
ground, and have done so for the last three years.
The project originated with the Belgian Count
Hamel, and with Mr. Edward Manby, one of the
well-known English civil engineers of that name,
who is now constructing the railway between
Seville and Cordova, and who has, at various
periods, devoted m'ich of his time and of his great
skill in his profession to public works in Spain
Having conceived the idea, these gentlemen went.
into the thing with that energy and goodwill by
no means uncommon in England and Belgium, but
which Spaniards cannot appreciate, and which
they are apt to explain, with their customary sus-
piciousness, by the anticipation of some enormous
profit, such as it would be a thousand pities any
but Spaniards should make • The two pro jectors
expended a great deal of time, trouble, and money
on the preliminary development of their plan,
in sketches, surveys. estimates, &c. In this
they were encouraged by the Government of the
day, which, without exactly pledging itself, greatly
anpro-ted the plan, and held out to them hopes that
its execution should be intrusted to them. Thus
they were induced to go to great expense, and
(which was very important) they made arrangements
with capitalists here to find the whole sum required
,--XOOO,OOO sterling. A lithograph exists showing
the Puerta del Sol as it would have been when