The Sun.
London, England, 1856-09-17 00:00:00

RUSSIA.

BERLIN, SEPT. 15

The .Tournal de St. Peters 6 ourg of the 10th inst.
contains the following manifesto, issued by' the
Emperor of Russia on the occasion of his corona-
tion, and dated
. • , " ST. PETERSBURG, LUG. 28 (SEPT. 9).'
"His Majesty Alexander 11., Emperor and Autocrat
of All Russian_ Kinn of Pnlnnrl. being defnrous of
y.i.f.rking in an especial manner the solemn day in which
he assumed the crown of his ancestors, deigned, under
date of August 26 (Sept. 17, N. S.), to promulgate a
manifesto of grace, the principal dispositions of which
we hasten to reproduce.
" His Majesty's first thought attached itself to the
grave events which marked the outset of his reign, upon
those days of trial and at the same time of. glory,
.in
which the Emperor received such memorable and such
unanimous proofs of prowess, of love, and, unshakeable
fidelity from his subjects.
" For the purpose of perpetuating the remembrance
of this noble conduct of the Russian people, during the
whole duration of the formidable conflict which has
just been happily settled, his Majesty, as a recompence
for these exploits, and also as a souvenir, has deigned to
institute a commemorative medal, which shall be
worn, according to the regulations, on the riband of St.
Andrew, St. George, or St. Wladimir, by all those of his
subjects in the civil or military service who took any part
in the events of .the late war.

" This medal, similar to that which the Emperor has.
conferred in particular on the heroic defenders of
Sebastopol, who have astonished the world by the
longest and most stubborn defence that the annals of
nations have retained any record of, will recall t 3 the
most remote posterity the military and civil virtues of
which all Russia has given proof, in this grand national
trial which she has just passed through.
"The military that have shed their blood for their
country ; the militia that rose in an inetant from the
soil of Russia ; the clergy, whose eloquent words and
unbounded charity have never been wanting to the na-
tional cause; the illustrious Russian aristocracy, which, in
imitation of its ancestors, has again shown itself foremost
in the ranks of valour and devotion; the commercial, in-
dustrial, and operative classes, in fine, which have made
such great and such noble sacrifices for their country
menaced, have all an equal claim on the gratitude of the
Emperor, who thanks them this day, and invokes on the
entire nation the blessing of God the Merciful, in the
hope that it will soon be granted to his Majesty to efface
even the last traces of the public and private sufferings
that Russia has home so worthily.
"In the accomplishment of this sacred purpose the
Emperor commences by granting great immunities to the
provinces of Tauris, Cherson, Ekaterinoslaff, and Arch-
angel, as well as to the whole littoral of the Baltic, and
in general to all the provinces that have more -particu-
larly borne the brunt of the late campaigns. Further-
more, and in order to extend as far as possible the circle
of his liberality, his Majesty has been pleased to confer
on the whole empire the benefits of a general boon, the
importance of which can be measured only by the im-
mensity of the sphere it embraces. The Emperor most
graciously dispenses the whole of Russia from every
burden of military recruiting or conscription for four
consecutive years, unless, which God avert, the neces-
sities of war should interpose obstacles in the execution
of this measure.
"In strict conformity with this same idea, the Em-
peror, in. his solicitude for the welfare of his subjects,
has instructed his Minister of Finances to set on foot
immediately a new ceneris of the population of the empire,
so as more equitably to assess the burden of the capita-
tion tax, which may possibly weigh disproportionately on
certain classes, whose numbers have been more or less
sensibly diminished by the war and by the epidemic
scourges that have raged more particularly among them.
" Furthermore his Majesty orders that the different
arrears of taxes, altogether amounting to at least
24,000,000 silverroubles, as well as all pecuniary fines,
shall be graciously remitted to the debtors. Finally, the
Emperor deigns by the same act to abolish the tax
hitherto raised on passports for foreign parts, reserving
only a stamp duty to be appropriated to the benefit of
, the Invalides.'
" His Majesty further extends his Sovereign clemency
to those who have become obnoxious to public justice,
and grants to all repentant criminals whose conduct has
been irreproachable since their condemnation either the
entire remission of their sentence or a considerable com-
mutation of their punishment.
" With respect to State prisoners, both those who
belonged to secret societies discovered in Russia at
various times, and those who took part in the Polish
rebellion of 1831, the Emperor ordains—that as re-
gards some, their lot shall be considerably alleviated in
the place to which they were banished ; as regards others,
they shall be permitted to settle in the inland provinces
of the empire ; and as to the rest that they may be en-
tirely restored to freedom, with the liberty to fix the
place of their residence in any of the towns of the
empire, as well as of the kingdom of Poland,
with the exception of the two capitals, Moscow
and St. Petersburg. Finally, as the crowning
point of his clemency, the Emperor deigns to grant to
all these State prisoners their rights of nobility, and
also to their legitimate children born since the condem-
nation of their parents, whether they be already dead or
still alive.
"His Majesty being desirous of extending to the very
farthest limits of his empire the benefits which he has
deigned to confer on his people on occasion of his corona-
tion, has been pleased further to confer on the population
of his western provinces certain special favours of peculiar
importance. In conformity herewith the Emperor, in
two supplementary ukases addressed to the Administra-
tive Senate, prolongs the temporary legislative measure
which hitherto has regulated the entrance into the service
of the State on the part of the nobility of the Governments
of Wilna, Kowno, Grodno, Minsk, Volhynia, Podolia, and
Kieff. Henceforward, and in consequence of the gra-
cious decision of his Majesty, the conditions of the pub-
lic service will be the same in the western provinces se

those which are in force for the inhabitants of all the
other parts of the empire.
" llis Majesty's subjects professing the Jewish per.
suasion have also been the objects of the generous die:,
mency of the Emperor, who has deigned to relieve them
from the special burdens which the conscription has
hitherto entailed upon them.
" Finally, the children of soldiers, sailors, &c., can-
tonists, who have been born during the period of their
fathers' service, and who hitherto have belonged to the
army, are henceforth to be restored to their parents, and
be at liberty to enter upon any station of life that they
may choose for themselves.
"Such are the principal dispositions of this manifesto,
of which we have only been able to touch upon the most
prominent features. A great number of other acts of
grace and favour, both financial and administrative,
which occupy no less than 33 separate articles, have refL-
rence to details which, although of high national im-
portance, cannot offer the same interest to our foreign
readers."
The same number of the Journal de St. Petee•s-
bourg contains also the following orders of the
day :
On the 26th August (Sept. 7) his Majesty the Em-
perur deigned to issue the following orders of the day
to his armies and to the fleet :
" I. Brave Warriors !—ln remembrance of your
valiant exploits in the last war I have instituted by my
manifesto of this day a bronze medal, so that there may
be seen shining on the breast of each of you a mark of
my satisfaction and my gratitude, and as an evidence
that you have justified my confidence by your constant
. readiness to sacrifice yourselves for our religion, the
throne, and the country.
'6 ' The troops will wear this medal in conformity with
the arrangement made by me.

g ALEXANDER.'
" 11. In his active solicitude for the brave soldiers
,hat had sealed with their blood the valiant fulfilment of

their duties towards the Throne and the country, the
Emperor Alexander 1., of glorious memory, instituted
the committee of August 18, 1814, and confided to it the
care of watching over the fates of wounded officers with-
out fortune.

" Our dearly beloved father, of blessed memory, never
ceased, with indefatigable and paternal attention, to
direct the development of this Committee and the suc.
cess of its operations.
" This solicitude for the brave officers of our troops,
who had acquired by their wounds a claim upon our
constant care, has been no less dear to our hearts.
" ' In the desire of manifesting on this day, so holy and
so solemn to ourselves, the sincere interest which we
feel for them, we have enjoined the Committee of Aug.
18, 1814, to arrange for augmentingthe pension assigned
to wounded officers out of the sums at its -comment

"g Having sanctioned the new schedule of pensions to
be settled on officers of all grades out of the Fund of tEe
" Invalides," which has been submitted to us by the
Committee, we have ordered, that these pensions shall
be regulated according to the said schedule dating from
to-day, and we bring this ordinance to the knowledge of
our armies and our fleet. g ALEXANDER?"

A letter from Sebastopol of the 3d says :—" On
Sunday last Divine service was performed for the
first time on the south side of Sebastopol. It took
place in the unfinished church of the Admiralty,
the only one not destroyed during the siege. The
altar had formerly been on board the Grand Duke
Constantine, line-of-battle ship, which had been
sunk. After the service the crews of the fleet were
reviewed to the number of 3,000."
SWITZERLAND.

The Bund, a Swiss paper, says :—" We are sur-
prised to read in various Swiss papers that thJ
Federal Council does not think Art. 37 of the
Federal Penal Code applicable to the insurgents of
Neufchatel, and that it will not therefore prosecute
them as guilty of high treason against the Confe-
deration, but only against the canton of Neufcha-
tel. Art. 37 says : The same punishment (im-
prisonment for ten years or more) is incurred.by
any citizen or inhabitant of Switzerland who shall
attempt to subject the Confederation, or any por-
tion thereof, to the sovereignty of a foreign power,
or to detach therefrom a canton or a part of a can-
ton &c.' We believe this article to be perfectly
applicable to the crime committed at Neufchatel."
The Council of State of Neufchatel has extended
by ten days the period for the payment of com-
mercial bills which fall due during the first three

weeks of September. The cause Of this measure is
that, in consequence of the check given to, busi-
ness by the late outbreak, several solvent trades-
men have found it impossible to meet their
engagements. The Neufchatelois, the organ
of the moderate royalists, has resumed its publica-
tion, which had been suspended during the early
part of the' month. It has been permitted to reap-
pear on condition of containing no leading article.
The above journal states that, according to the
declaration of Col. de Pourtales during the first
days of his captivity, he was on the point of sign-
ing,,t,UnpurrOnder of the castle at the very moment
when it was attacked and taken by the republi-
cans, and that an officer had even received orders
to go with' a flag of truce to make the proposition.
What became of the officer and of the flag no one
knows. for poaii-,
“nil WA* by thosiA
who made the attack.