The Sun.
London, England, 1853-10-08 00:00:00

I LATEST FORE-EON N E WS.

FRANCE.

The Franklin steamer arrived a Havre on
Thursday morning at 4 o'clock from New York
with 100 passengers.
After domiciliary visits made at Bayonne last
week, several political arrests were effected. The
persons arrested are accused of being affiliated to
secret societies.

The Emperor of Russia has just appointed M.
Balabine Secretary of the Russian Embassy at
Constantinople, to the same post at Paris.
Accounts were received yesterday at Paris from
15 towns. In 10 the price of corn had fallen If.
per hectolitre.

Public securities were tolerably firm at the
Bourse yesterday, without much business doing.
The Three per Cents. opened at 72f. 75c., fell to
72f. 60c. rose subsequently to 73f. 10c., and closed
at 72f. 75c. for the end of the month. The Four-
and-a-Half per Cents. closed at 99f. 50c. ; Orleans
Railway shares, 1,135 f. ; Rouen, 990 f. ; Havre,
485 f. ; Great Northern, 822 f. 50c. ; Paris and
Strasburg, 895 f. ; Paris and Lyons, 885 f. ; Lyons
to the Mediterranean, 710 f. ; Western of France,
690 f. ; Bordeaux and Cette, 582 f. 50c. ; Great
Central, 505 f. • Lyons to Geneva, 495 f. ; Shares of
the Bank of thdit Mobilier, 695 f.

RUSSIA AND TURKEY.
The following is from Vienna, under date of yes-
terday (Friday)

" It is stated that the Turkish Embassy here has
received the declaration of war, which is, however,
contingent on the non-evacuation of the Principa-
lities within a certain term—said to be four weeks.
" The Oesterreichische Correspondent denies all
knowledge of this fact.

" There is a panic on 'Change. Metalliques,
88a ; Northerns, 209."
The Tancredi, which arrived at Marseilles, from
Constantinople, has brought the confirmation of
the news that on the 26th ult. the Sultan declared
war against Russia.
___

The Weser Gazette announces that the Emperor
of Russia and the Emperor of Austria intend ad-
dressing a manifesto to all the Christian Powers of
Europe.
A letter from Bucharest of the 25th ult., in
the Breslaw Gazette, says :—" Conversation has
turned here on a razzia which the Turks are said
to have made on the borders of Wallachia. The
Commander-in-Chief of the Russian army had ima-
gined that the Turks had passed the Danube, and
he sent on the point which was menaced a regiment
of hussars, two boats, and five companies of Cos-
sacks. Afterwards it was understood that an irre-
gular Turkish body had made a razzia on the bor-
ders of Wallachia, but that they had withdrawn be-
fore the Russians came up. At the Russian head
quarters, no great importance is attached to this act.
What is more grave, if the news should be con-
firmed, is that the Russians had seized on several
commercial vessels. The Consul of France has, it
is said, interested himself in this affair. A report
has been sent to Prince Gortschakoff, and a de-
cision is waited for."

The Post Ampt Gazette of Frankfort says that
the conference which commenced at Olmutz will
be resumed at Warsaw.

We learn from St. Petersburgh, Sept. 24, that
General Perewski, Governor of Orenburg, who in
1840 commanded the unsuccessful expedition against
the Khan of Khiva, has lately stormed the fortress
of Ahmetzi. The road to Khiva is now open to the
Russians.

The Patric states, on the authority of Peters-
burg letters of the 24th ult., that the Czar has de-
creed another levy of recruits. The ukase to this
effect received the Imperial signature at Moscow,
previous to the Czar's journey to Olmutz.
The following has been received by electric tele-
graph, dated Berlin, yesterday (Friday) :—" The
Emperor of Russia, with the Czarovitsch, will ac-
company the King of Prussia back to Potsdam, and
return to Warsaw this evening."

THE NORTH WEST PASSAGE.

(From the Times.)
We have every reason to congratulate the public upon
the intelligence just received at the Admiralty of the
safety of the Investigator, Arctic exploring ship. This
vessel, under the orders of Commander M'Clure, has
just solved the geographical problem of the last' four
centuries by all but making the North-West P
A very little more, and they will have completed the
task. It is perfectly true that by a union of the re-
searches of various expeditions this result might be said
to have been actually attained ; but it was reserved for
Commander M'Clure and his gallant crew absolutely to
perform the passage in the same ship and in the course
of the same expedition. We now know, that by spend-
ing some years in the ice, and by incurring a most
frightful risk, almost amounting to a certainty of
death, a ship may be able to force her passage
through the narrow inlets, choked up with ice, which
separate Behring's from Davis's Straits. Commander
M'Clure has proved that the thing may be done, al-
though he has been so many years engaged upon the
task that the friends of all his shipmates had given them
up for lost. It is certainly a most interesting fact in a
geographical and scientific point of view, although what
the result will be, beyond that of adding a scratch to our
maps of the Arctic Regions, we are not able to discover.
Let it not, however, be supposed that, when we ex-
claim against the trifling advantages derived from such
heroic exertions, we seek to undervalue the courage of
the gallant seamen who have been engaged in the task.
They have shown themselves worthy successors of that
generation of Arctic Paladins who have added lustre
to the naval service by their exertions in those dis-
tant regions. If they have been more fortunate
than their predecessors, it must be remembered how
much the achievements of Parry, of James Ross,
of Franklin, of Back, and of others had facili-
tated their task. In reading the accounts of the Arctic
adventure, it has always appeared to us as though they
contained instances of endurance and of daring such as
are not to be found in any other records of which we
have knowledge. Certainly, the fortunes of the Inves-
tigator, since she steered northerly through Behring's
Straits, until she forced her way to a point from which
she sould communicate with others which had entered
the Arctic Seas by the Atlantic passage, will form a
notable addition to the series.
Commander M'Clure can send us no news of Sir John
Franklin's expedition. Can any be expected ? The
opinion among the most distinguished and experienced
of the Polar worthies now is that Sir John Franklin,
after leaving the winter quarters where his traces were
found, proceeded to carry out the Admiralty instruc-
tions, steering first westerly for Melville Island, and
then shaping a course—as far as the configuration of
the scene of action permitted—southerly and westerly
for Behring's Straits. It is supposed that, Lin en-
deavouring to carry this purpose into effect, the
Erebus and Terror were hopelessly frozen up or
destroyed years ago in some of the multitudinous
channels which are known or supposed to exist
there. We do not give this as a theory of our own, al-
though it is with reference to a point upon which all
men now may venture to advance a theory. This we
find to be the opinion of the principal Arctic navigators,
and it comes before us recommended by its extreme pro-
bability. Certainly, Sir John Franklin was not an offi-
cer to leave unattempted any duty which he had been
ordered to perform, and therefore it is probable that he
would not have deviated from the letter of his instructions
without excellent cause ; had he so deviated, it is all but
certain that he would have left behind him at Beechy
Island or elsewhere some record of his changed inten-
tion. If, then, Commander M'Clure has been unable to
find any trace of the lost expedition between Behring's
Straits and the point from which he wrote his dispatches,
it would appear that our best chance has been exhausted.
As to the character of the dangers to blvhiemchet
Wweithwitoll
the westward of Melville Island, we would beg particu-
lar attention to the following passage,
hero venture to transcribe from the dispatches of Com-
Mander M'Clure
is my intention, if possible, to return to England
this season, touching at Melville Island and Port Leopold,
but, should we not be
,again heard of, in all probability we
shall have been carried into the Polar pack, or to the west-
ward of Melville Island ; in either of which cases any at-
tempt to send succour would only be to increase the evil,
as any ship that enters the polar pack must be inevitably
crushed therefore., a depot of provisions, or a ship at
Winter Harbour, the best and only certainty for the
safety of the surviving crews.”
This passage we heartily recommend to the considera-
tion of our Polar di!ettaitti, who can dream of nothing
but summer seas and whisphering zephyrs within lati-
tude 80 deg. It adds, however, another and a most
melancholy presumption as to the fate of Franklin's ex-
pedition.
The pleasing intelligence of the safety of the Investi-
gator does not, however, come to us without alloy. We
find described in Commander Inglefield's dispatch the me-
lancholy death of Lieut. Bellot, the French officer, who
had already on a previous occasion visited the Polar Seas
in search of our missing countrymen. The intelligence was
received by Commander Inglefield in an official letter
from Captain Pullen. It appears that this noble sea-
man was blown away from the shore in company with
two seamen upon a floe of ice. He had mounted to the
top of a hummock in order to reconnoitre the position,
and to see what could be done for the safety of his two
companions. At this moment he was taken by the wind,
thrown into a crack in the ice, and unfortunately
drowned. The two men were saved, after driving about
for 30 hours, without food or hope. We should indeed
be untrue to our duty if we did not express in the very
strongest terms the sense entertained in this country of
the humanity and courage of this gallant officer.
The records of Arctic heroism can show no brighter
name than that of Bellot. We have been informed that
he was endeared to all his English shipmates by every
social quality, as well as by his unflinching valour and
daring. We feel that we have a common loss with the
French sea-service, and entreat them to be assured that
the name of this distinguished man will not lightly pass
from the recollections of Englishmen. Alas ! another
noble life wasted in battling with the eternal ice 1 The
public have a right to expect that we have now seen the
last of Arctic expeditions. Even Sir John' Barrow, had
he been yet alive, would now have entreated the Admi-
ralty to hold their hand.—Times.