The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-11-21 00:00:00

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE

FRANCE.—it is stated on good authority, that the
French Legislative Corps will be soon convoked, and
that a proposition will be submitted to it for rais-
ing a loan of £20,000,000, and levying 200,000 men.
The Paris journals take generally a cheerful view of
the prospects of the allies in the Crimea. In con-
sequence of the number of gunboats ordered by Go-
vernment at Havre, the Minister of Marine has autho-
rised Mr. Normand, the contractor, to retain in his
dockyard all the workmen included in the last levy of
carpenters. A number of floating batteries are in progress
of construction at Brest. About 20,000 kilogrammes of
iron plates, intended for those batteries, have already ar-
rived there, and more are expected shortly. Count de
Saint-Aulaire, formerly French Ambassador at London,
died on Monday, last week, at his hotel, 61, Rue Saint-
Dominique-Saint-Germain. The deceased had attained
the age of 77.
SPAIN.—The Madrid journals of the 9th are chiefly
occupied with accounts of the opening of the Cortes on
the preceding day. All agree in stating that the Queen
was received with great enthusiasm, not only by the
crowds in the streets, but by the occupants of the tribunes
of the Chambers. The troops and the National Guard,
20,000 or 22,000 in number, after the Queen's return to
the palace, filed off before her. The Madrid journals state
that a band of Carlist insurgents had appeared in the
environs of Astorga, near Leon. At Barcelona twelve
battalions of National Guards have been organised ; one of
them is of engineers, the other of artillery.
limannst.—The Minister of the Interior has laid before
the Chamber of Representatives a bill authorising the
continued and free importation of corn, and prohibiting
till the 15th of July next the exportation of potatoes and
vegetables; also another bill permitting the free importa-
tion of cows and , pigs, and a third one reducing the
drawback on the exportation of Belgian liquors.
ITALY.—Dr. Wiseman arrived at Rome on Saturday,
the 4th instant. The Pope has provided Dr. Wiseman
with apartments in the Palace of the Consulta, the resi-
dence of the Cardinal Secretary of Briefs. A great num-
ber of bishops have already arrived in Rome, from Eng-
land, Ireland, America, Spain, Germany, Hungary, and
other parts. Dr. Wilale is among the number of leading
ecclesiastics. This numerous force of prelates has been
drawn together, by an encyclical invitation, for the pur-
pose of finally settling the question of the immaculate
conception. It is rumoured that Cardinal Wiseman, as
the most learned member of the Sacred College since the
death of Cardinal Mai; will most probably succeed to the
office of Vatican Librarian, if such should be found com-
patible with his occupations elsewhere. The final extir-
pation of paper money in the Pontifical State is being
carried out with the utmost rigour. Only a few five-
dollar notes remain in circulation, and the Government,
resolved to get rid of the premium on silver, by a coup de
main only practicable in a country like this, sent round
the police to close the money-changers' shops and turn
out their owners.

THE BALTlC.—Petersburg letters, received in Memel,
desire that goods to be shipped at the latter port for
Petersburg account shall not be entrusted to English
vessels any longer, it being apprehended that, now that
there are so few English men-of-war
_cruising in the
Baltic, the Russians will come out of their ports and sweep
the English flag from those waters.
AusTroms.—The Aberdeen clipper Ballarat, Captain
Jones, which left Port Philip on the 23d of August, was off
Plymouth on Friday night, and landed a mail, consisting
of nineteen cases and eight• bags, containing above 25,000
and under 40,000 letters. The Ballarat had 50,000 ounces
of gold and 20,000 sovereigns. She had half a cargo of
wool, tallow, and transhipped pepper. Six passengers, out
of thirty, landed at Plymouth. The Ballarat would have
sailed several days earlier, but was detained to bring re-
plies to the correspondence conveyed by the screw
steamer Great Britain, which arrived on 17th August,
and was placed under quarantine, having small-pox
on board, from which some of the passengers had died.
Passengers by the Ballarat report the state of affairs at
Port Philip as very unfavourable. Not much shipping in
the harbour, but plenty of officers and men. Seamen's
wages to London, £3O; to Calcutta, £2O: to Callao, £6
per month; coasting, £5 to £7. Labourers' wages, 9s. per
day. The stores on shore were overstocked, and many
large houses were falling. Gold, £4 2s. 6d. per oz. ; bread,
41b. loaf, Is. 10d.; beef, for shipping, Bd. to 9d. ; for house
consumption, ls. to ls. 2d. The Ballarat spoke, in long.
25 west, lat. 19 south, the barque Melbourne, of Dundee,
from Callao to Valencia.

AMERICA.

ARRIVAL OF THE NIAGARA,

By the British and North American Royal Mail steam-
ship, Niagara, Captain Shannon, which arrived on Satur-
day, we have intelligence from New rork to the 7ht, and
Boston to the Sth instant; and by telegraph, via Halifax,
from New York, to the 10th instant.

The Niagara left Boston at 10, p.m., on the Bth, and ar-
rived at Halifax at 9.40, p.m., on the 9th, whence she
sailed again at midnight, and arrived in the river at 9.30,
p.m., on Saturday, after a capital run of only ten days
four hours. The America, for Boston, was passed on the
9th, at 9.20, p.m, ; and the Africa, for New York, at 3
p.m., on Saturday.
The Niagara brought seventy-eight passengers and
$386,256 in specie.

The Royal Mail steam-ship Arabia, Commodore Jud-
kins, arrived at New York, hence, onthe 3rd inst., having
experienced very boisterous weather on the passage.
• The screw steam-ship the City of Manchester, Captain
Wylie, arrived at Philadelphia on the 6th instant.
The screw steam-ship Sarah Sands left Portland on the
6th instant, for this port.
A new iron steamer, called Her Majesty, which left the
Clyde for Quebec, had been at sea about ninety days, and
all hopes for her safety had been given up. She was
built by Mr. Denny, for the route between Toronto and
Niagara, and was 400 tons burthen.
Telegraphic dispatches from Washington state that the
United States Government would shortly issue a treaty
circular providing for the admission of the produce of
Canada, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, on
the same terms as recently established respecting colonial
fish. The provinces of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward
Island would shortly adopt measures for carrying out the
treaty.

An official proclamation had been issued confirming the
convention entered into between the United States and
Russia, establishing the rights of neutrals at sea. The
convention provides that free ships make free goods, and
that the property of neutrals on board enemy's vessels is
exempt from confiscation, unless contraband of war.
Messrs. J. A. Westervelt and Co., shipbuilders, had
been obliged to make an assignment. They owe about
$275,000, and show a nominal surplus of 150,000.
A disastrous accident had occurred on the Rock Island
Railroad, near Minooka. Numerous persons lost their
lives, and a large number were severely scalded.
The yellow fever continued to prevail at New Orleans.
Amongst the victims was the Lieut.-Governor. At Mont-
gomery, Alabama, it had entirely disappeared ; and at
Charleston and Savannah the authorities had notified that
the fever had ceased as an epidemic.
At the United States Circuit Court a trial was proceed-
ing against Captain James Smith, of the Julia Moulton,
on the charge of having confined and detained five hundred
negroes, for the purpose of making slaves of them.
At the request of Mr. Collins, the carrying capacity of
the boats of the Arctic, taken into Philadelphia by the
Osprey, had been tested, by their being rowed about for
half-an-hour, with fifty-seven persons, chiefly sea captains,
in each. The bulwarks were sixteen inches out of the
water, and there was no doubt amongst the nautical men
that they could carry sixty persons with safety. Mr.
Collins had ordered five additional metallic lifeboats for
the Collins' steamers. An experiment had shown that one
of these boats was capable of carrying fifty-seven full-
grown persons. _ _ _ _ _

It was expected that Sir Edmund Head would leave
Boston for Canada on the 7th, to assume the post of
Governor-General, and that Lord Elgin would shortly sail
for England, first visiting New York and Washington.
The Reciprocity Bill passed the New Brunswick House
of Parliament by a majority of fifteen. The new Ministry
had been named.

A break, which it would take three days to repair, had
occurred in the Erie Canal.
The Bath Mirror states that in that district, since the
Ist of January, ninety-eight vessels have been launched,
whose aggregate tonnage is 77,697 tons, an increase of
tonnage over 1853, of 28,198.