The Sun.
London, England, 1854-01-07 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, JANUARY 7, 1854

deeply interesting paper of Mr. BAKER, a Glou- '
cestershire magistrate, describing the operations
of the Children's Friends' School at Hardwicke, in
that county. The interesting point is, that his
plan is as capable of being carried into effect,
wherever a sensible magistrate or two, and a few
friends to help, can be found, as a Sunday school
of being established in any ordinary place of worship.
For 2501. he erected a Reformatory School and
buildings, which is large enough to take in all the
lads furnished by the county, thirteen in number,
and ten more from other counties. The buildings
can at any time, moreover, be converted into
' labourers' cottages. He hired (not purchased)
all the land wanted, avoiding thereby enormous
outlay and trouble. Beginning.with one acre in
March, 1852, and three lads, they increased the
quantity to six, and then to ten acres ; and he
now finds that fifteen little boys can work this
quantity of " stiff blue clay," and make it produce
respectable crops. The boys themselves have
built the cowsheds, pigsties, barn, and carpenter's
shop of waste slabs from a saw-mill. They have
a schoolmaster (but it is quite evident they learn
as much of " common things" as Lord ASHBURTON
could desire), and a superintendent, properly
termed a bailiff. The entire cost, however, has not
exceeded 11/. per head for the twelve months.
This Mr. BAKER indeed considers to be high,
and explains that it includes all the cost of inex-
perience, and the alterations consequent on a
first start. Mr. BAKER prefers spade hus-
bandry for the boys, partly as enabling them
to do more for their own support, and partly be-
cause he considers it unfair to the children of
honest, rustic labourers that crime should be the
means of teaching children to be tradesmen while
the rest remain farm labourers. There is, more-
over, a growing demand, in consequence of emi-
gration, for well-trained farm hands, and he hopes
to carry out a system of apprenticing the lads to
suitable agricultural masters when they have
quitted the school. It is obvious that Mr.
BAKER'S method may be adopted in any county in
the kingdom, but we think it equally obvious that
no Government system could generate the care,
the economy, the interest in the lads' welfare, and
therefore all the elements on which the success of
Reformatory Schools depends. So far as we can
see at present, Government can only aid by con-
tributions of money, and by temporary legal
powers granted for experiment, and renewed from
time to time.

THE FLEETS IN THE BLACK SEA.

(From the Press of this day.)

Orders have been sent out for one ship from the
English and one from the French fleet to enter the
Black Sea, and under flag of truce to approach
Sebastopol. When there they are to inform the
Russian Admiral that if he leaves the port of
Sebastopol he will be immediately fired into.

LATEST FOREIGN NEWS.

RUSSIA AND TURKEY.

On the 26th of December Constantinople was
perfectly tranquil. Trieste was mentioned as a
neutral town probable to be selected for the meet-
ing of a congress.
No mention was made of the entrance of the
combined fleets into the Black Sea.

Mehemed Pacha, the leader of the Opposition,
still retained office ; so did Reschid Pacha, whose
resignation had not been accepted.
Besides the conditions already known, the Porte
is said to have proposed, as a basis for the negotia-
tions, a confirmation of privileges for all its Chris-
tian subjects.
Mr. Marsh, the United States Minister, had a
farewell audience of the Sultan. He is replaced
by Mr. Brown.
Lord Dudley Stuart had arrived.
General Prim had taken his departure, on an ab-
sence of some months.

The Persian Government had ordered two arma-
ments, as necessary effectually to meet eventua-
lities.

M. Kanikoff and a Russian General were on
their way to Teheran, on a diplomatic mission.
The troops of the garrison at Constantinople
were consigned to their barracks, and reinforce-
ments had been called in from the neighbourhood.
Strong patrols prevented assemblages in the streets.
The Ministers were sitting in permanency.
The war party has been strengthened by the re-
ceent demonstration of the Softas. One hundred
Softas have been exiled to Candia ; many of them
are sons of respectable mend
On the occasion of the late disturbances, the
Sultan, it is said, declared to the French ambassa-
dor that he would rather abdicate than accept
foreign assistance against his own subjects.
The Trieste Zeitung publishes advices from Kra-
jowa to the 30th Dec. The peasantry had risen in
insurrection along the Danube, from Kalafat to
Turnul, extending as far as the Aluta. They were
partly supported by Wallachian irregulars. The
Russian minor officials had been everywhere turned
Out.

The Ostdeutsche Post says that warlike news may
be shortly expected from St. Petersburg.
The Russians have occupied the Austrian Wal-
lachian frontier from Orsova to the Torburg-pass
near Cronstadt. The Russians are also permitted
to make purchases within the Austrian frontier.
Serious news has been received from Bucharest.
Russia has, it is said, replied by afresh movement
of forces, and by extraordinary warlike measures,
to the last propositions of peace which were made
to her. According to instructions received from
St. Petersburg; the army of invasion of the Danu-
bian provinces, which does not now exceed 80,000
men, is about to be immediately carried up to an
effective strength of 240,000 men. A great number
of general officers recently appointed to commands
in that army have just joined, and entered on their
duties.

The Austrian Correspondenz publishes the fol-
lowing from Orsova, Jan. 5 :—" Two battalions of
Russians, under General Belgarde, were attacked
on the 31st ult., at Osestan, by some Turkish
cavalry from Kalafat. The Turks were repulsed,
and forced to retreat, leaving several dead and
prisoners behind."
We read in the Constitutionnel :—" A report has
been in circulation that news has been received
that the Russians were making imposing arrange-
ments for attempting to cross the Danube. These
accounts are still vague, and we must add, on the
faith of letters from Jassy, that at the date of the
21st ult. there had only entered into the capital of
Moldavia 9,000 men of the corps of Osten-Saken,
and not the slightest detachment had passed the
Wallachian frontier. It is true that since that time
the frost may have favoured the movement of Rus-
sian troops towards the Danube, which before had
been very difficult on account of the bad state of
the roads."

The National Gazette of Berlin, under date of
Warsaw, Ist, says :" The estimate of the Russian
troops at --
two millions must be considered as an
exaggeration. It is even, according to all appear-
ances, a typographical error. The following is not
the real effective strength, but such as it is indi-
cated by the muster rolls. The corps of the guards,
the corps of grenadiers, the six corps of the active
army, the first and second corps of cavalry of the
reserve, and the corps of dragoons, in all eleven
corps, are composed of 368 battalions of infantry,
460 squadrons of regular and 14 of irregular
cavalry, and 996 pieces of artillery. Thus, ac-
cording to the written list, the army ready to take
the field is 486,000 men and 996 pieces of artil-
lery. The first levy gives 98,000 men, with 192
pieces of cannon ' • the second levy, 115,000 men
and 280 pieces of artillery. Total, 699,000 men
and 1,468 pieces of artillery. In adding the army
destined for local purposes, and the reserves, which
are put down at 315,000 men in the returns, we
should have in point of fact an effective of a million
of men with 1,800 guns, whom Russia could call
out in the event of a European war. All the corps
of Cossacks form an army of 93,200 cavalry and
33,000 infantry, with 224 cannon ' • 60,000 of them
and 110 guns could be employed in a European
war. Our readers see that, large as the Russian
army is, we are still very far from an effective of
two millions."

IMPORTANT CIRCULAR OF THE FRENCH
GOVERNMENT TO ITS DIPLOMATIC

AGENTS.

The following is a translation of the important
circular, addressed by the French Government to
its diplomatic agents, a summary of which ap-
peared in the The Sun of yesterday :--
" PARIS, DEC. 30, 1853.
_

" The affairs of the East are taking a too serious turn
not to recall your attention, even at the moment when
circumstances impose new duties upon the Government
of his Imperial Majesty, to the efforts which we have
not ceased to make, for the purpose of preventing the
complications with which Europe is so seriously me-
naced.

" The question about the Holy Places, either misre-
presented or misunderstood, had excited the apprehen-
sions of the Russian Cabinet ; we have tried to calm
these alarms by frank and complete explanations. It
did appear to us that in preserving the rights of the
Porte, a question of such a nature might well be cleared
up at a distance from the scene where it originally arose,
Our opinion, however, was not shared by Russia, and
Prince Menschikoff received the order to repair to Con-
stantinople. 1 will merely say, that had we really en-
tertained the exclusive views which are imputed to us
—if the claiming of our ancient and incontestable rights
had not been sustained by so much moderation—the
mission of that Extraordinary Ambassador would at
once have become the object of a conflict, which we
knew how to avoid.
" The affairs of the sanctuaries at Jerusalem were
hardly settled, and, by the admission of Count Nessel-
rode himself, regulated in a satisfactory manner, when
another difficulty presented itself. - Prince Menschikoff
demanded guarantees for the maintenance of the privi-
leges of the Greek Church. The Cabinet of St. Peters-
burg did not prove by any particular fact that these
privileges had been violated ; while the Porte, on the
contrary, confirmed solemnly the religious immunities
of her Christian subjects. Animated by the desire to
appease a difference which, if it concerned on one hand
the sovereign rights of the Sultan, touched on the other
the conscience of his Majesty the Emperor Nicholas,
the French Government, in concert with the English,
have assiduously tried all means to conciliate the in-
terests, at once so delicate and so complex, engaged in
the affair. The Russian Cabinet cannot have forgotten
the zeal and loyalty with which we have endeavoured
to accomplish this difficult task. Neither can it deny
that the resistance of the Porte to accede to a first plan
of arrangement, as emanated from the Conference at
Vienna, was not the only cause of our failure. In
the course of these various negotiations serious
events took place. A Russian army had crossed
the Pruth and invaded in full peace two pro-
vinces of the Ottoman Empire. The fleets of France
and England ought to have approached the Dar-
danelles at that moment ; if the French Government
had desired to do so, its naval forces might have
anchered in the roadstead at Constantinople. How-
ever, though it thought it necessary to establish its
right, it showed all the more its moderation in the step.
The nature of the relations of Russia with the Porte
had become too abnormal not to allow war to succeed
peace, or rather, to call the subject by its real name,
that the aggression on the Turkish territory should not
produce its natural consequences. This change in the
situation has necessitated a new movement of our fleet,
and, at the instance of the Sultan, the French flag has
appeared in the Bosphorus simultaneously with the
British.
" However, sir, we had not renounced the hope of
an arrangement, and, together with Austria and Prus-
sia, as already previously with England, we pursued
once more a pacific end. New propositions, for the suc-
cess of which we shall not cease to employ our efforts,
have been addressed to the Porte by the representatives
of the Four Powers.
" None of the treaties concluded with Russia inter-
dicted to "our men-of-war the navigation of the Black
Sea. The treaty of the 13th of July, 1841, in closing
in time of peace the passage of the Dardanelles and the
Bosphorus, reserved to the Sultan the right to open them
in time of war, and from the day when the Sultan gave
Ili free permission to enter the straits the Euxine became
equally open to us. The sane motives which had kept
us for a long time at the Bay of Besika, stopped our
fleets in the road of Beycos.
"The French Government was most anxious to mani-
fest its friendly sentiments towards Russia, and to reject
before the world the responsibility upon aggravation in
the actual state of things, which, despite all considea- ,

tions, could not be modified. The French Government
thought, moreover, after the contents of the recent de-
spatches of General Castelbajac, that the Russian Cabi-
net. satisfied with the possession of what she considered
as a•pledge, would not have taken any offensive part in
the struggle which she has so unhappily commenced with
Turkey. It seemed to us sufficient that the presence of
our flags in the waters of Constantinople ought to have
attested our firm resolution to protect that capital against
a sudden danger, and we did not wish that its premature
appearance in the quarters nearer the Russian territories
should pass for a provocation. The state of war rendered,
no doubt, possible a collision between the belligerents
both by sea and land, but we had a right to think that
our reserve would be imitated by Russia, and that her
admirals would avoid with equal care the occasion for a
rencontre, in abstaining from proceeding to aggressive
measures when, had we supposed the Russian Cabinet
to be animated by different sentiments, our fleet would
certainly have exercised a roore active vigilance. The
event of Sinope, sir, has realised all our apprehensions,
and this deplorable fact modifies equally the attitude
which we ought to have taken. The agreement which
has recently existed at Vienna between France, Austria,
England, and Prussia has established the European cha-
racter as regards the difference existing between Russia
and Turkey. The four Courts have solemnly acknow-
ledged that the territorial integrity of the Ottoman em-
pire was one of their conditions of the balancing policy.
The occupation of Moldavia and Wallachia constitutes
the first attempt against that integrity and there can
be no doubt that the chances of war might still more en-
danger it. Count Nesselrode represented, a few months
back, as a nececessary compensation of what he has since
called our maritime occupation,' the invasion of the Da
a übian Principalities. On our part, sir, we believe that it
has become. indispensable for us to measure ourselves the
extent of the compensation to which we are entitled
by right as the Powers interested in the existence of
Turkey and the military positions already taken by
the Russian army. We must have a pledge which as-
sures us the re-establishment of peace in the East on
conditions which do not change the distribution of the
respective forces of the great States of Europe. The
French and English Governments have consequently
decided that their fleets should enter the Black Sea, and
combine their movements in such a manner as to prevent
the territory or the Ottoman flag from being exposed to
a new attack by the Russian navy. The Vice-Admirals
Hamelin and Dundas have just received orders to com-
municate to all those to whom it concerns, and we hope
that this loyal step will prevent conflicts which we should
see with but deep regret. The French Government, I
repeat, has but one object—that of contributing to bring
about honourable conditions and a reconciliation between
the two belligerent parties ; and as circumstances oblige
us to arm ourselves against terrible casualties, we still
hope confidently that the Russian Cabinet, which has
given such numerous proofs of wisdom, will not expose
Europe to useless wars—to trials of war from which the
Sovereigns have saved her for so many years.

" DROUYN DE LHUYS."

FRANCE.

The Moniteur of this (Saturday) morning pub-
lishes a decree calling into active service all the
young soldiers available under the second portion
of the contingent of the class of 1852.
It has already been stated that a corps d'armee of
70,000 men would be sent to Turkey, in case of war
beinc, formally declared against Russia. It is be-
lieved that that number of men or more, will be
ready to move at the shortest notice. A consider-
able portion of that number will be taken from the
army of Africa.
In Paris, the circular of M. Drouyn de Lhuys,
given in another column, is looked on as nothing
less than a delaration of war from France and Eng-
land against Russia.
M. de Kisseleff, the Russian Ambassador at
Paris, had received his instructions as to the line
of conduct which he would have to follow on the
official notice appearing of orders having been given
for the occupation of the Black Sea by French
and English fleets. There is every reason to be-
lieve at present, from the information received,
that M. de Kisseleff, at Paris, and M. de Brunow,
at London, will not delay in demanding their pass-
ports. Likewise, if confidence can be placed in the
declarations of the Russians, who are in a position
to be well informed, the reply of the Czar to the
manifesto in the Moniteur will be an order to the.
Russian troops to cross the Danube.
The aide-de-camp of the Minister of Marine, who
was to have embarked at Toulon in the Vauban
steam-frigate on the 2d inst., was stopped by tele-
graph, to wait a few days for further orders. He
is to carry out with him new instructions, more
categorical and firm in their nature than those
-which he had previously received.
There is still a rumour of a loan. The closing of the
College of St. Michael (St. Etienne) alluded to some
days past, has occasioned a good deal of surprise.
The College contains 150 resident pupils, and a still
greater number of out pupils. The families of the
students are wealthy, and many of Legitimist
opinions. The superior of the college, M. de Da-
mas, is a member of the order of Jesuits. He is
brother of the Count de Damas, who is attached
to the Count de Chainbord, and is son of the Baron
de Damas, governor of the Duke de Bordeaux,
and formerly Minister of Foreign Affairs under
Charles X., after M. de Chateaubriand's summary
ejection from office. It is surmised that some-
thing connected with the fusion or with Frohsdorff
politics was the cause of the suppression of the
college.
The Count de Peyronnet, formerly Minister of
Justice under Louis XVIII., and Minister of the
Interior under Charles X., at the time of the fa-
mous ordonnances, has just expired at his seat of
Montferrand, near Bordeaux, aged 77.
We have me than once had occasion, says
Galignani, yesterday, to notice the attempts of the
organs of the Legitimist party in France to create
distrust of the alliance with England, and to make
the public believe that the Government has com-
promised the interests of the country by making
common cause with England on the Eastern
question. Why the Legitimist journals should be
constantly attacking the English, is, to a certain
extent, a mystery, and we shall not enumerate
even those motives for such a line of conduct
which are evident; it is painful enough, considering
the claims which the English have to very different
treatment to notice the fact itself. In the two Legi-
timist journals of this day, the Assemblie Nationale
and the Union, we find long articles on the Eastern
question, in which it is again asserted that it is the
interest of France to leave to England alone the
task of protecting the Porte against Russia, she alone
having, according to these journals, a vital inte-
rest in giving that protection. By going with
England in a naval warfare, France, they say, will
only increase the supremacy of the British navy.
Either these journals are exceedingly ignorant of
the real state of the question, or they wilfully shut
their eyes to the truth, in the expectation that their
readers will accept falsehood in its stead. France has
more than any power in Europe an interest in pre-
venting the further aggrandisement of Russia, for,
if the supposed views of the Emperor of Russia
were to be realised, the whole of Germany
would be under his sway, and France would
have to struggle against all the continental
sovereigns. As to the pretended fear of increasing
the naval power of England, by assisting her
against Russia, these journals ought not to forget
what has been said in England by those who dis-
approve of the alliance with France. They have
said that the English government, by accepting the
naval aid of France, will afford to her an opportu-
nity of distinguishing herself which will make her
a very formidable naval power, and one day ex-
pose England to disaster. This is, perhaps, quite
as absurd as the argument of the Assembee Na-
tional and the Union, but it is a good set-off to
what they advance on the present occasion.
The circular relative to the Eastern question,
published in the Moniteur yesterday, produced an
unfavourable effect on the Bourse, which was fol-
lowed by a serious fall in the price of public secu-
sities. The Three per Cents. opened at 70f. 75c.,
rose to 71f., and fell subsequently to 70f., at which
they closed for the end of the month, being a de-
cline of If. 40c. as compared with the closing price
of Thursday. The Four-and-Half per Cents. closed
at 98f. 80c. ; Orleans Railway shares, I,loof. ;
Rouen, 970 f. ; Havre, 470 f. ; Great Northern,
-800 f. ; Paris and Strasburg, 747 f. 50c. ; Paris
and Lyons, 850 f. ; Lyons to the Mediterranean,
695 f. ; Western of France, 632 f. ; Bordeaux and
Central,Cette, 580 f. ; Great 49of. ; Lyons and
Geneva, 480 f. ; Shares of the Bank of Credit Mo-
bilier, 640 f.