New-York daily tribune., 1858-10-01
THE STATE OF EUROPE

From Our Own CoTrspondsn. o
LONDON, Sept. II, ls5s.
The ACQUISITION Of the harbor of Vil.airanca, IN
Piedmont, by the Odessa Steam Navigation Com
pany is an event the importance OF when is deePy
felt at Vienna and Paris. though The London I'mes
tries 70 depreciate IT, II is well known that the
Odessa Steam Navigation Company, though appa-
rently Joint stock undertaking is in fact 'o'-
ernment enterprise. One-half Of the shares nave
been taken by the Russian Government, no ior-
eigner is allowed 10 hold share, the suFerntehd-
ence of the Company is in the hands OF the Adini-
ralty. and all the captains and officers must be
selected from the Navy list; the ships are 10 DC
built according TO the American plan, ready 10 oe
armed as steam frgates at any emergency,
and will perform regular trips alternately on
both shores of the Black Sea 70 Constantlnope, 70
Greece, Syria, Alexandria and Italy. The harbor o
Villafranca has now been taken on lease ol t"en,
ty-two Years for five millions OF roubes, To De pad
at once TO the Sandman Government Ny tue s"ino
company Thus Russia mas at last got naval sta,
tion in the Mediterranean, which she has coveted
in vain for the last sixty years. Even now AL tne
diplomatic squabbles about Montenegro have had
no other cause than the desire of acquiring mar
Dor from Turkey for these m0untMneers, VINO
never have been sailors and have no inclination 10
go TO sea. The political importance OF these regu,
lar trips, which will accustOm the Christian and
Mussulman population of Turkey 10 the Russian
flag, and will soon expe the Austrian Lloyd from
those waters, where it is maintained solely by a
large Government subscription, cannot be over
rated; as TO the dividends of the Russian share
holders, they are safe, since they are guaranteed
by the Gar. / will not now enter into
the question whether it was patriotic on
the part of Count Cavour and King Victor
Emanuel to give footing 10 Russia on the Italian
peninsula. They may have felt this difficulty but
the present animosity against Russia prevailed over
any further consideration and the lease is TO last
only for twenty-five years, the Sardinian Govern
ment believes that the Italian accounts with Austria
once settled the dangerous cOnnect0nnay De easily
terminated. The Vienna papers are seriously
alarmed by this transaction, so much the more as
hopes were entertained at the Imperial Court that
the antagonism between the Car and Austria
might soon be terminated by the Intervention OF the
Czarna, who, as German Princess, Is sincerely
attached t. the Austrian dynasty, and depiores the
circumstances which gave rise to the estrangenent
of the two Courts.
The great object Of Gar Alexander's home policy,
mean the emancipation of the sers has been advanced
one great step by the resolution OF the Lithuanian
committees to leave the peasant communities in the
possession Of portion of their lands while some Rus
sian banking houses have prepared scheme for CIV
ing facilities the seris 10 pay off their dues to the
landlords and TO redeem their liberty by regular in
stallments to the bank which will pay the landlords in
full 1t seems that the Lithuanian committees have re-
commended the Prussian system, by which the land
lord received one-third of the landed pro-
perty of the peasant as an equivalent for
the lost labor, tithes and dues, while the scheme
of the bankers agrees more closely with kosSuth' $
plan. by which the Hungarian landlord got the
cayta in State obligations, the State being In
dennfed by temporary higher taxation of the
peasants. This plan, accepted by the Hungarian
Government, was popular IN the country that
the Austrian Government did not dare to subvert
or to alter it. 1t thus survived the wreck OF al
the Hungarian institutions, and the Austrian Slin-
listers had to confirm it; but from time to time
they try to appropriate the merit of the mode 81
emancipation to themselves.
Party politics are now at a complete ebb IN En-
gland France is quiet There are no new difficult
ties on the Continent which require an instantane-
ous solution, and Ministers have quietly gone 10
their country seats all over Europe; but Queen
Isabells is suspicously kind to O'Donne-a Ger
tain sign that she is brewing mischief. The next
great event in Europe s to be the abdcaticn OF the
King of Prussia in October.