The Sun.
London, England, 1854-01-02 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, JANUARY 2, 1854

Successions. No—not one of these separately,

Corn Laws and Protection, had to do what these
operatives must do sooner or later ; they had to
yield to the irreversible laws of political economy—
in other words, to the laws of PROVIDENCE. There
is no reasonable and reflecting man of forty
among us who has not had to change or modify
his views, and who could therefore for a moment
taunt the men of Preston, if the majority of
them acknowledged that they had conducted their
struggle hitherto ou an unsound principle, that
they were willing therefore to return to work,
and to try a better one. It may encourage
them to cast a glance on the " ruined farmers
and their ruined landlords," and to mark how
completely the abandonment of compulsory
prices for food has been followed by results the
reverse of those predicted by agriculturists, not
only to themselves, but to the rest of the community.
Free Trade in corn has given prices for food, and
that too with unexampled importation from
abroad, such as have hardly been heard of by
half the present generation ; and Free Trade in
labour, there is every reason to think, would work
precisely the same results. It could not, indeed,
make wages high when labour is redundant, but
it would rapidly direct labour into its most natural
and profitable channels, would adjust most advan-
tageously the proportions employed in each trade,
manufacture, and employment ; would thus in-
crease the consuming powers of the great bulk of
the population ; and the circle would therefore be
completed by greater general production, and
greater demand for the productions. Disturbing
causes, like war, famine, and pestilence there will
always be ; but unfettered production in every
department always means that each class has more
to offer to other classes of the commodities it pro-
duces, and that other classes have also more to
offer in return. All are wealthier when all are
working, and working where the demand for their
labour shows they are wanted.
LordPALmuusTorr suggests to the men on strike,
how much better it would be to let the causes
which inevitably affect the value of labour "act
silently and gradually in equitably adjusting, from
time to time, the proper rates of the money re-
ward for labour." This is unrestricted competi-
tion in the labour market ; strikes and unions are
protection ; and we believe, honestly, that they
are as much the cause and the bane of the labour-
ing classes as legislative protection was of every
trade which enjoyed it. Operatives thus endea-
voured to get from the buyer of labour a price
which it would not command were it left to each
man to sell his labour as he pleased. A commit-
tee price for labour is as vicious in principle as a
House of Commons price for wheat. Reverse the
process. Let every operative free from threaten-
ing, free even from the awful punishment of being
sent to Coventry by his own class, let him, as an
independent man, accept such terms from the
capitalist as the latter is pleased to offer. Sup-
pose they are lower than the capitalist can afford,
and that the master is making undue profits ; the
keen eye of his neighbour capitalist perceives it in
an instant, up goes another mill or another fac-
tory ; the underpaid operatives now perceive their
"good time coming ;" their labour will be
wanted. A bidding for it forthwith be-
gins between the two millowners. Nei-
ther of them will allow, if possible, the capital
sunk in his buildings and machinery to lie idle.
Wages begin to go up, for there are fewer labour-
ers than are wanted, and up they will go till they
reach the point when it is not worth the employ-
ers while to work his mill. This case between
two mills applies equally to a thousand or to ten
thousand. If heavy profits are made for any
length of time, the capital of the country will flow
to them as surely as water will seek the lowest
level ; and if capital flows into any department
of trade, employment in it must be brisk, and
wages will rise whether masters like or not. No
business now can long monopolise excessive pro-
fits. If the operatives who can work in it are
few, then raised wages will soon swallow up a
large portion of the gain. If its work can be
done by anybody, the influx of capital and easily
obtained labourers will soon bring its profits to
the average level of other trades.

nor all of them collectively, can be said with truth
to compensate in any way for the ills otherwise
flowing to the country at large from this unfortunate
ABERDEEN Administration. It is not that the
extension of the Income Tax over seven years
constitutes a considerable counterpoise to the
above enumerated advantages. It is that in the
mismanagement of the Russo-Turkish difficulty
from April to December Ministers have dragged
the banner of England through the mire to no
purpose—allowing her Turkish allies to remain
unavenged, and permitting the designs of Russia to
advance unmolested and unimpeded in the course
of their lawless and sinister development—until a
squabble in the Danubian Principalities has be-
come complicated and magnified into war for entire
Christendom. Remembering these things in
regard to 1853, we look, nevertheless, with hope
to 1854—reposing our hope at this perilous junc-
ture entirely upon the people of England, and not
at all upon the English Government.

A great meeting has been held in Liverpool for
the purpose of taking into consideration the im-
portant question of a decimal coinage. With the
objects of that assembly we fully and entirely
concur. The present clumsy and elaborate system
is not merely injurious to all classes in the com-
munity ; it is still worse, being positively dis-
graceful. We arrogate to ourselves the designa-
tion of a commercial nation ; and yet we obsti-
nately persist in a barbarous and exclusive system,
which creates daily impediments to our transac-
tions with other nations, We perversely ignore
the improvements that have taken place in the
coinage of every country, and cling with a despe-
rate fidelity to our X. s. d. The Russians were
not more bigoted in their adherence to the old
style than we have been to our currency. As they
rejected the Gregorian calendar, notwithstanding
its decided ameliorations, so we rejected a decimal
coinage. We had a complicated system of weights
and measures, too, which afforded ample occupation
to the youths of many successive generations.
We must all remember with disgust the hours de-
voted to the acquisition of—we cannot call it a
" knowledge," but rather a slight " smattering,"
of our " tables." How frequently have even the
most diligent and intelligent pupils excited the
objurgations of the indignant pedagogue for an
imperfect acquaintance with " dry and liquid
measures," and all the arcana of COCKER or
VOSTER. If we could ascertain the numbers that
have been driven from honest occupations, whose
prospects in life have been ruined, and who be-
came " vagabonds by profession," in consequence
of the difficulties attendant, we might almost re-
gard it as the heavy toll required on the passage
of,these "pontes asinorum" of English—we should
stand aghast the appalling consequences of our
national stupidity and adherence to ancient forms
which had nothing to recommend them but an-
tiquity.
It was not from want of having public attention
directed to the subject of having the enormous
evils arising from the system clearly and dis-
tinctly pointed out, and impressed upon every
person of ordinary intelligence, that the
nuisance was suffered to remain without abate-
ment. Every man perceived and under-
stood the full extent of the grievance, but it was
not his business to endeavour to obtain redress.
He might say—

" Meliora video proboque, deteriora sequor."

Knowing the better course, he deliberately pur-
sued the inferior one. It was not so much from
bad inclination as from bad habit, from a wish to
do wrong as from sloth and indifference, from that
vis inertia, the insouseance that made almost any-
thing, no matter how objectionable, tolerated,
because it had been handed down from our fore-
fathers—because it was "an aged vice, a grey
iniquity." It was the same spirit that induced
us so long to submit to intramural interments, to
the poisoning of the atmosphere with dense
masses of smoke, that might have been consumed
not merely without loss, but with very considera-
ble gain to the parties more immediately con-
cerned (as witness Messrs. TRUEMAN, HANBURY,
and BUXTON, who for several years not merely
got rid of the smoke nuisance, but saved
more than 2,0001. per annum for a comparatively
trivial outlay), to the adulteration of what
was once " the silver-winding Thames," with an
abundance of feculent matter—the rinsing out of
our sewers—the manure which, properly applied,
will have rendered our land fertile in place of
our water impure—to the various abuses, in fact,
which still continue exciting numerous complaints,
but no really energetic or efficient efforts for their
removal.

The strike-men can abuse their masters freely
enough, but after all they.have little practical
faith in their selfishness. Perfect faith in it
would save them from all the follies and direct
miseries of the strike, and from the far more
serious danger of driving the very trade which
supports them to lands where workmen are too
wise to strike. Yes, we only ask them to
believe their masters to be so selfish that they
will bid one against the other, if they want
labourers, till another bid would be their ruin.
Does Mr. GEORGE COWELL believe this of them or
not ? He may believe it to the letter. All the
masters in the kingdom, if their concerns were
short of workmen, would offer increased wages
to attract them, as long as their profits would
permit them to do so ; and they would care no
more about other masters than one shopkeeper
cares about another, if he thinks he Can really in-
crease his profits by prices which allure his neigh-
bour's customers. It is only by this " silent and
gradual" process that wages can safely or per-
manently rise. If the Preston men will only act
on this practical hint from Lord PALMERSTON,
they will gain all that they.can gain from this
strike, which is—never to strike again. This
generation probably never will; but it were high
time that their offspring should learn 'at the
opening of the social catechism, that the price of
their labour must depend upon the competition
for it, or the absence of it, amongst those who
need it, and that one of the social commandments
most essential to the well-being of workmen is—
"Ye shall not strike." Present ignorance on the
subject among the working classes is little to
be wondered at, when we remember with
what infinite labour " The League" indoctri-
nated the masters themselves with Free-trade
principles, and the little that has been done to
show the working man how strictly those prin-
ciples apply to labour also, and how infallibly they
will override all mistaken legislation on wages,
whether by Governments or by Committees of
Delegates. It will be some consolatory gain from
all the discussions originated by the errors at
Preston if workmen learn to trust to reason and to
natural causes instead of resorting to protection.
We fear, indeed, that temper has, in the present
case, more to do with it than reason ; and that
whilst other operatives throughout the kingdom
mulct themselves of the money which should
educate their children to keep the operative army
at Preston upon half-pay, there is little hope of
reason being listened to. For sixteen weeks has
ignorance thus enabled ignorance to defy the laws
of our social economy, and mistaken kindness
embittered the hearts of men against their masters.
How long this will go on it is impossible to say.
We see that COWELL, who once said, "only get
Christmas here," now says, " only get spring
here"—just as poor DANIEL O'CoNNELL used to
defer his seasons for carrying repeal. We trust
that such Irish blarney will soon op en the eyes of
Englishmen.

This may be ascribed to the system of leaving
everything in this country to " private enterprise"
—of not only not assisting, but decidedly dis-
couraging, every improvement. How heavily were
the introducers of the railway system mulcted
before they received the legislative sanction to
these useful undertakings. What Parliamentary
opposition had the promoters to encounter before
their bills were .passed. If considerable profits
were not anticipated by the parties, we might
still have had advertisements informing us that
the journey from Exeter to London would be
performed (D.V.) by heavy waggon in six days,
in place of by express train in as many hours.
The accuracy of the old proverb, that " What
was everybody's business was nobody's," would
have received an additional and powerful illus-
tration.

Now, there could be no individual profit rea
lised by the introduction of a better and more
rational system of currency—the ordinary stimu-
lus to energetic agitation was wanting. We all
perceived and deplored the evil, but we took no
effective steps to provide an adequate remedy.
At length there is a prospect of a movement.
The inhabitants of Liverpool are up and doing,
and we have no doubt that the beneficial step
will be very generally followed, now that the
initiative has been taken. As we have already
stated, we do not altogether agree in the details
of the contemplated alteration. We have ex-
plained our views that " the florin," and not the
" pound," should be the unit of the new decimal
Coinage ; and, moreover, that " theflorin" adopted
should be one of 20 pence, in place of 25., by
which considerable losses to the working classes
would be averted, and there would be no excuse
for adding 400,000/. per annum to the Post-office
revenue, and a large but unascertained sum to
the receipt stamp revenue. Any discussion must,
however, serve to elicit truth, and we, therefore,
hope that eventually the system most beneficial
to the community at large may be adopted—a
system that will look to the interests of the
OL roXXot, as well as to the commerce of the great
merchants and bankers that will leave the value
of the penny unaltered, and will make the
changes in the gold and silver rather than in the
copper coinage. We have shown that this may
easily be effected without confusion or difficulty ;
but if our own views should not be recognised
and carried into practical execution, we should
hail the adoption of a decimal system, even with
the pound unit, as a vast amelioration, which
would be very advantageous to persons of all
classes throughout the length and breadth of the
land.

ENTRANCE OF THE ALLIED FLEETS
INTO THE BLACK SEA.

We have just received the intelligence, that the
allied fleets entered the Black Sea on the 21st ult.
This information comes to us from a quarter on
which we can rely. The question now comes to be,
What will the united squadrons do, now that they
have got there ?—Morning Advertiser.

CAUTION TO LORD ABERDEEN AND SIR JAMES
GRAHAM.—We have been informed, on excellent autho-
rity, that agents of Russia are at the nresent moment
engaged in this country in search of ships and warlike
stores for the Russian government. Agents have also
proceeded to America on a similar mission. We can-
not calculate on the extent of their success across the
Atlantic, but it is right to warn all British subjects that
they will subject themselves to very heavy penalties if
they shall be found engaged in the prohibited commerce
tribution it would be. It would immediately put of arms, ammunition, or armed vessels, with any fo-
earnings into their pockets to double the amount reign sta.' e. This contraband trade is prohibited with
e at this
actual hes
ti
whatn
of the charity on which they are now idling and Parties i
e termedin timea
a hostile
ofpea ce e a
attitude. lau
moment
starving ; and they would sacrifice in reality to : lities occur, all persons engaged in this dangerous traffic
thing by it. They would yield to truth, not to their would be placed in a position of some danger. In such
masters ; truth discovered, sadly late it may be, an event, which may come upon us any day, the crime
but that is the lot of most of us short-sighted warning,and the
therefore, punishment wouldwe h npbee
will
onunstlybe increased.thrnw n awTahye
mortals. Sir ROBERT PEEL and the vast phalanx fur the guilty parties may be assured that they will not
of legislators, who changed their opinions on the j be allowed to escape with impunity.—Observer.

It may be easy to ridicule Lord PALMERSTON'S
lecture on political economy to the Preston ope-
ratives, and to represent him as giving them a
stone when they asked for brea•l. The plain truth
is, however, that Preston operatives need nothing
else from Lord PALMERSTON but the very
advice he gave them ; all they need be-
sides the good temper, namely to yield to it,
must be their own contribution. A valuable con-

MONEY MARKET

AND
COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.

CITY, TWO O'CLOCK.

The sales of cotton at Liverpool on Saturday were
estimated at from 5,000 to 6,000 bales. The market
was firm, and prices of all kinds fully supported.
The sales comprised 100 Pernam and Maranham at
bid to 7id, 100 Bahia at 63/4d to 62d, 500 Egyptian at
6d to 9d, 500 Surat at 3d. to 3id., and the re-
mainder American. Railway Shares were heavy.
The railway meetings announced are the fol-.
lowing :

Company. Date. Place, &c.
Great Indian Peninsular Jan. 11, 3, New Broad-st.
Kilkenny andGt.Southern / Jan. 11, 17, Gracechurch-
and Western (Ireland) c street.
London and Greenwich Jan. 10, 10, Coleman-st.
Londen,Brighton,& S. Coast Jan. 26, Bridge House HI.

It is stated in a communication, from Mr. Joseph
Whitaker, of Liverpool, that, " During the month
of December, there have been despatched from
Liverpool to the Australian colonies, 15 vessels,
with an aggregate of 11,186 tons, and carrying 957
passengers, viz.:—Sydney, 3 vessels, 1,821 tons,
12 passengers ; Melbourne and Sydney, 3 vessels,
4,973 tons, 437 passengers; Melbourne, 8 vessels,
4,175 tons, 508 passengers; Geelong, 1 vessel, 217
tons, no passengers. Freights to Melbourne are
now quoted at 70s. to 80s. to the Bay, and 90s. to
110 s. to the Wharf.

The state of the Manchester market, according
to the report of Messrs. N'Nair, Greenhow, and
Irving, is satisfactory. They inform us that stocks
are light, and that last month a good demand has
existed for the home trade. Cotton they expect
to see dearer, and, in conclusion, they observe :
" What the new year may bring forth it is, of course,
impossible to say. Where the influences attaching to
the Eastern question fzirly removed, we could confi-
dently calculate upon a year, of renewed vigour and pro-
sperity. In case they vere effected, the present value
of money, unless increased, would not, we think, mate-
rially interpose ; added to these, the conclusion of the
Chinese insurrection would afford a stimulus equal, if
not surpassing that of the opening of the trade with that
vast and unknown country. With its vast and really
unknown resources we are yet unacquainted.
"We close the year, according to our judgment, in
confidence of existing sources of ascertained data for rea-
sonable and beneficial hopes for the future. Though
money has been dearer, and restricted employment from
that and other causes his ensued, we rely on the belief
that, eventually, much good will ensue. The various
important markets abroad have, by these seemingly hard
processes, become restricted essentially in their habitual
and unnatural supplies ; and, as a consequence, new and
legitimate enterprise will be encouraged, and for a time
cultivated."

Letters for India and Australia, to be sent by
the overland mail, must be posted on the evening
of the 3d, or before eigit o'clock on the morning of
the 4th ; by way of Southampton and via Mar-
seilles, at six p.m. on the 9th.
The English Funds have been very weak this
morning, although the intelligence that the Divan
has accepted the ViEnna propositions would pro-
bably at any other tme have induced buoyancy.
The impression, however, grows daily stronger
that Russia will persist in her demands. Consols
have been 931, and a7e now 93. The New Three-
and-a-Quarter per Cents. have been done at 94± to
94k, and the Reduced Three per Cents. at 93± to
Exchequer Bills are sa. to Bs. premium, and India
Bonds par.
The Foreign Market presents a heavy appear-
ance, most securities being at reduced values.
Mexican Bonds, however, are firm at 24. Grenada
Deferred are 7i, and Danish Five per Cents. 102,
being lower in both instances. Spanish Bonds are
quoted ex dividend, the Three per Cents. being
441, and the New Deferred 211 I. Austrian Bonds
are markd 81. Dutch Two-and-a-Half per Cents.
are 631, ex dividend.
Railway Shares are very inanimate, and a further
decline has in most instances taken place. Cale-
donian have dropped about 1/., Eastern Counties
55., Midland 155., and Brighton U. Bristol and
Exeter, North Western, South Eastern, and York
and North Midland, are firm. French shares are
dull. Luxembourg are about ss. under Saturday's
quotations.
Very little is doing in Gold Mine Shares, and
generally there is no alteration in prices.

LATEST FOREIGN NEWS.

RUSSIA AND TURKEY.

The Porte accepted the Note of the Four Powers
on the evening of the 20th.

Bank Shares are inactive. Australasia are about
103. better, but Oriental 1/. lower.
Land Shares are depressed, the Australian Agri-
cultural having receded about 11., and the South
Australian to a like extent. The British American
Land, however, are an exception, being about V.
higher.

BRITISH FUNDS THIS DAY AT ONE O'CLOCK.

( From the Official List. )

Businesq don,
3 per Cent. Reduced Annuities 93a pl 4
New 31 per Cent. Annuities 943 4
India Bonds, .ClOOO. . . . ...........
Consols for Opening 18th Jan. 93. 3
Exchequer Bills, ld.
£l000
£5OO 8 5 p
Small
PRICE OF FOREIGN FUNDS AT ONE O'CLOCK.
Danish Bonds, 1825, 3 per Cent
Ditto 5 per Cent . ..........
Grenada Bonds, Deferred.
%lexicon 3 per Cent.
Portuguese Bonds, 5 per Cent. 77

Ditto for the Account.., 44
panish Bonds, 3 per Cent 444
Spanish New Deferred, 3 per Cent. 214 a

Dividends on the above payable In London.
Austrian Bonds 5 per Cont. 10 Gn. 8t
Dutch Exchange, 2i per Cent. 12 Guil 631 x d
HALF-PAST TWO.
Consols for Opening 18th January 93 j x d

THE MURDER AT ACTON.—This morning bills were
issued by Government offering a reward of one hundred
pounds for the discovery of the perpetrator or perpetra-
tors of the murder of the unfortunate lad Medhurst.
ACCIDENT AT THE EUSTON-SQUARE TERHINUS.—On
Saturday forenoon, a frightful accident occurred in the
coach-building department in the vicinity of the station,
by which a man named George Lewis, a fitter, met with
a shocking death. Lewis was engaged in working a
belt for a shaft near a wheel, driven by an engine of
sixteen horse power, which was at the time revolving at
a rapid rate. A portion of the wheel caught his jacket,
and in each revolution of the wheel his head was dashed
against an iron girder with such force that it was bent by
the collision. The poor fellow was heard to exclaim once
or twice, " Oh, oh !" bnt before the engine could be
stopped he was tightly wedged in the shaft. He was
taken to the University College Hospital, but had ceased
to exist before he was extricated from the machine. His
head and legs were completely crushed, his ribs broken,
and his body otherwise frightfully mutilated. He had
worked in the factory three years. He resided at No.
7, Stanmore-street, Old St. Pancras-road, where he
leaves a widow lying ill in bed with fever, and seven
young children, one of whom, a little girl, a few weeks
back fell out of a two-pair window, and was impaled on
the iron railings, and by which she is rendered a cripple
for life.

It is agreeable to an armistice, it insists on the
evacuation of the Principalities, it consents to a
congress in a neutral town, to the revision of ex-
isting treaties, and to reforms tending to the ame-
lioration of the condition of the Christians.

ACCIDENT ON THE RIVER.—On Saturday Mr. W.
Carter held an inquiry into the circumstances connected
with the death of Mr. Charles Giamellii, aged 20. the
son of the proprietor of the Warwick Hotel, Warwick-
street, Regent-street, who lost his life on Monday last
by the swamping of an eight-oared cutter by the dwell
of a large steamer belonging to the North of Europe
Steam Navigation Company. Mr. Richard Freething,
a jeweller, of 33, Gloucester-street, St. John's-street-
road, Islington, deposed that on Monday afternoon last
he met the deceased and eight other persons at Mr.
Ralph's, boat-builder, Lambeth, aad hired an eight-oared
cutter to amuse themselves fora few hours. They intended
to go as far as Greenwich, and had proceeded down the
riveras far as the London docks when they observed a large
steamer coming up the river. Witness turned round to the
deceased and said it was customary for large steamers to
ease their steam when passing a light boat, but the Ham-
burg did not do so. The swell caused by the steamer
was very great. After passing the steamer some dis-
tance, a person named Bushby, who was steering, called
to the rowers to hold up the boat, that was to keep the
oars on the water for the purpose of passing over the
swell. This was done and the boat passed over the first ;
but, in doing so, the nose of the boat veered from the
straight course, from there being no way on it. Bushby
then called to the bow oars to row a stroke, to put the
boat straight, to meet the second surf; which was also
done, but the surf broke over their heads, filling the boat
up to the seats. The boat then sunk, and witness and his
companions, with the exception of the deceased, were
rescued by several watermen. Coroner : Did you hail
the steamer ?—Witness : No, sir. William Bushby, sta-
tioner, of 6, Herbert's-place, Beaufort-buildings, Strand,
the steerer, gave a similar account. Coroner Have
you been used to steering ?—Witness l Yes, sir, for up-
wards of eight years. Inspector Trickey, of the Thames
police, said that steamers were allowed to go up and
down the Pool at five miles an hour. He was of opi-
nion that the steamer was not going at a rate more than
between four or five miles an hour. At the time of the
occurrence it was about an hour before flood tide, and
therefore very low. Coroner : How do you think the
occurrence might have been avoided ?—Witness : By the
persons in the cutter going inside the tier, instead of
going outside, in the stream. Coroner : Is a steamer
obliged to ease her steam when passing a light boat ?
Witness : It is not compulsory for a steamer to stop
when passing a boat, but many commanders and pilots
do so. The jury, after a long consultation, returned a
verdict to the effect that the deceased was accidentally
drowned.

The conferences of the Grand Divan on that day
and on the 21st and 22d were, it is said, remarkable
for the calm and dignified way in which the pro-
posals of the mediating Powers were discussed.
The modifications proposed in the Vienna proposi-
tions by the Divan are not, it is added, to bear the
character of an ultimatum.

2,500 Softas created a riot in the evening of the
21st, and the English and French steamers and
marines were called to Constantinople. The night,
however, passed over quietly.
The Softas are theological students, and their
rising was owing to the pacific resolutions of the
Divan, which they say have violated the scheriat,
or fundamental law.

The Sultan has ordered the recruiting of Chris-
tian volunteers to cease.

It was said that Reschid. Pacha, now supported
by EMI Pacha in the Council, was in favour of
peace, which the Sultan also desired.
The combined fleets were still at Beycos.

despatch from which the above is obtained says
that rough weather had forced a Russian war cutter
into the Bosphorus. The English fleet had re-
ceived reinforcements. The Russians were ap-
proaching Kars.
Official intelligence was received at Vienna on
Saturday from Constantinople of the 19th, to the
effect that the Grand Council had given the Mi-
nisters authority to enter upon peace negotiations,
subject to the following conditions
" That the Danubian Principalities be evacuated.
" That the independence and integrity of the
Ottoman Empire and the Sovereignty of the Sul-
tan be perfectly secured."

Halil Pacha, says the same despatch, is Minister
without a portefeuille.

The Belgrade correspondent of a contemporary
writes as follows :
The deliberations of the Divan continued for
three days. An adjutant of the Sultan has been
sent with two firmans to Servia. The Russo-Turk-
ish treaties annulled ; all previous rights volunta-
rily confirmed. Servia has the option of claim-
ing the Protectorate of all the Powers.

The Fremden-Blatt publishes advices from Bu-
charest of the 29th December, to the effect that
the Turks have taken Karakal in Lesser Wal-
lachia by storm, after an obstinate battle.
The Nouvelle Gazette Prusse states that the
Czar has ordered the troops to be put in motion
throughout the whole of the Empire.
The letters from the Black Sea state that an
epidemic very common in the Crimea, arising from
the malaria, is now prevalent at Sebastopol.
The Indus, which arrived at Southampton from
Alexandria, on Saturday, brings word that there
are steamers daily expected from Constantinople
to take away more troops which the Pacha is col-
lecting to the number of 12,000 or 15,000, in addi-
tion to those already sent. Public feeling is very
great against the Russians.
The Lloyd of Vienna, of the 26th, says :—" A
letter from Odessa, of the 15th, states that Sheffi
Khan, formerly charge d'affaires of the Shah of
Persia at the British Court, had arrived in that
town on his way to Teheran, where he was received
with great distinction. He will probably continue
his voyage on board a Russian steamer. The Rus-
sian Colonel, M. de Kewalewski, has left for Mon-
tenegro, having been charged on the part of the
Czar to present Prince Danilo with some vases and
other church ornaments. According to letters from
Semlin, of the 24th, the Danube is full of drift ice
beyond Widdin. Letters from Cattaro state that
the Turks are increasing their army of observation
on the frontiers of Montenegro, but the troops
forming this corps are almost all Redifs."

The Emperor has addressed the following letter
to Prince Woronzofr, dated the 16th :

" Prince Michael Semenowitsch,—The hostile inten-
tions of the Ottoman Porte against the district placed
under your administration were manifested in the course
of last summer by the assemblage of troops on the Trans-
Caucasian frontier, and by measures for the propagation
of revolt amongst the mountaineers. Under these circum-
stances, you had to take simultaneous measures for the
expulsion of the foreign enemy and for the repression of
domestic foes. This undertaking has been accomplished
by you with full success. According to your measures
not only have the brave troops of the Caucasus annihi-
lated the presumptuous attempts of Schamyl on the Les-
ghine line, but penetrating to the heart of the Trans-
koubanian tribes, have prevented them from co-operat-
ing with the Turks. Your able measures on the frontier
of Asia have been crowned with a series of brilliant
victories. The glorious combat of 14th Nov., near Bay-
audourg, was the prelude of the defeats of the Turks, on
the 18th of the same month, at Atskhour, the 26th
before Akhal Tsiche, and the Ist on the right bank of
the Arpatchai. The 37 pieces of artillery, the flags, the
arms, the two camps, the large quantities of stores and
ammunition taken from the enemy, testify to the bravery
of the troops placed under your command—namely, the
Caucasian corps, the 15th division of infantry, the Cos-
sacks, and the militia. It is specially to your expe-
rience, and to the great firmness with which you ani-
mated the troops placed under your orders, that I owe
such a favourable commencement of the campaign. I
beg of you on this occasion to express to them my sin-
cere gratitude, and my conviction that in their ulterior
operations they will, with the aid of God, cover them-
selves with new glory, which will shed lustre on you and
on the Russian arms. —I remain for ever and invariably
your affectionate " NICHOLAS."
The Invalide Russe, of the 21st, publishes a re-
script of the Emperor of Russia addressed, " our
well-beloved son. the Grand Constantine Nicolaie-
witch," which, after alluding to his useful services,
says :

"All these facts, by giving pleasure to our paternal
heart, give you a right to our particular kindness, in
testimony of which we name you Knight Grand Cross
of the Ist Class of the Order of St. Vladimir, of which
we herewith send you the insignia, ordering you to wear
them according to the statutes. We are certain that by
continuing to act with the same zeal, you will bring the
branch of the administration confided to yogi to the de-
sired degree of perfection, and render yourself worthy,
should circumstances require it, of leading our fleets to
aoquire fresh glory against the enemies of the country."
It is said the only military movement in Finland
is, that 6,000 sailors have been sent from St. Peters-
burg to Helsingfors, to man the ships that are lying
there. Recruiting, however, is going on briskly,
but ilot in the usual compulsory manner of Russia,
as Finland is free from that system for a period 50
years after the annexation. No one can be sur-
prised that Russia replaces the Finnish regiments
by Russian. The former are employed in Russia--
perhaps against the Turks.