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Leader (1850-1860), 17th March 1855, Edition 2 of 2, Page 7, The Sardinian Government has issued a ci...

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      Sir Charles Napier And Sweaborg. The Tim...

      < md Admiral Dundas had no reason to be satisfied with Str tESkA Sebastopol . WiU you tell me why Lord So ^ and Lord Collingwood did not attack Toulon or Cadiz ? Neither of them was so strong as Sweaborg or rronatadt . Why did not Lord Howe , Lord Bridport , SS ^ rd St . vScent attack Brest , Lorient , Rochefort , & c '? Because they knew they would have been defeated B Sd ^ hVFrench admiral and myself refuse to attack Sweabore ? Because we had not means , and because the " eltranee was blocked up . Had . it been opened ? even ^ iSiott gun-boats ) the allied flags would have beea flying en the inner road of Sweaborg . A ship Sack oWstrong fortress is at all times difficult ; add to that the intricacy of the navigation and bad weather , and it becomes impossible . " In answer to Sir James Graham ' s assertion , that Sir Charles had stated in May , and again in J uly , that Sweaborg was unassailable either by sea or land , the latter makes certain statements and quotations from letters written at the time , but puts these forth in so confused a manner that it is not very easy to discover his meaning . It would seem , howev-er , that "he only stated the fortress to be unassailable without the assistance of a greater number of " "—by which we understand him to mean soldiers . " Had there been 30 , 000 men , " lie says , " instead of 10 , 000 , we should have gone to bweaborg . " Sir Charles , who writes very wratMully , calls Sir James " this man , " and concludes as follows : " As to keeping my flag up under Sir James Graham , no consideration on earth would have induced me to do it . No officer of honour and character is safe in his hands . I leave him now before the public , accused by me of wilfully perverting my letters and goading me to riskiier Majesty ' s fleet . " ^

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      Continental Notes. The Vienna Conference...

      CONTINENTAL NOTES . THE VIENNA CONFERENCES . The first meeting of the Congress took place on Thursday . There were present one French , two Ottoman , two English , and two Austrian plenipotentiaries . The discussion o n the gene principles of the basis of the negotiation terminated safcisfactprilyr It is said that the proceedings opened with a pacific speech by Count Buol .

      The Sardinian Government Has Issued A Ci...

      The Sardinian Government has issued a circular to the foreign ministers at its court , and to its own diplomatic agents abroad , in which it declares war with Russia , and thus defends itself from the charges of treachery and ingratitude containedin the despatch of Count Nesselrode of which we gave an abstract the week before last : — " His Majesty has not seen without painful surprise that while the act of accession , unratified , had not yet any absolute legal value , and was in no ways executory , the Emperor Nicholas , by a note of Count Nesselrode s , and in language full of bitterness , taking the initiative in hostilities , has accused him of violating the rights of nations , by sending an expedition to the Crimea without a previous declaration of war , and reproached him with forn-etfulnesw of the marks of friendship shown in past ' ¦' tInTesby ~ Euiiia"to"S 5 rdlniaT Concerning the pretended violation of the rights of nations , it is sufficient to compart ' the date of Count Nesselrode ' s circular ( 5 th < 17 th ) of January last ) with that of the ratification of the act of accession ( 4 th of March ) , to be convinced of tho astonishing flippancy with which the Chancellor of tho Russian Empire baa advanced so grave an accusation , and which is so inappropriate to the Princes of Savoy , iind above all , to a Monarch to whom tho voice of the whole people has accorded tho title of Loyal . As to the reproach of ingratitude , tho Emperor Nicholas , instead of recalling the maTks of friendship which two of his predecessors formerly showed towards Sardinia , ought to have recollected that in 1 & 48 , without any personal motive , he withdrew his Minister from the Court of Turin , and hastily sent the Sardinian representative at St . Petersburg his passports ; that in 1849 ho refused to receive the letter of notification of the accession to the throne of King Victor Emanuel II ., a refusal highlyinjurious , which finds few precedents in tho history of diplomacy , "and which appears to indicate , on the part of tho Czar , the'strange pretension to interfere in our interior affairs , affecting not to recognise tho transformationnot revolutionary , but legal—which had been made in our political institutions . " It is said that already nearly 30 , 000 signatures have boon attached to petitions in favour of tho Sardinian Convent Bill . __ Don Carlos died at Trieste last Saturday . Ho was tho second son of King Charles IV ., and was born on tho 28 th of March , 1788 . On tho death of his brother , Ferdinand VII ., his claim to ttic throne gave rise to thoso protracted civil wars which aro associated with his nanio : but in 1845 tfio deceased Don , who was then in France , abdicated all his rights to the crown of Spain in favour of hia oldest aon , tho Infanto Charles Louis Mario Ferdinand , who took tho title of Count do Montomohno . Owing to t " ho breaking' lip of tho ice on tho Rhine , there have recently been some terrible inundations in Holland and North Brabant . Houses wore undermined and beaten down ; and , in a village near DiiBHoldorf , tho inhabitants had not timo to effect their oscnpc , and man }

      were in consequence drowned . At some places , people might be seen sitting on the roofs of their houses , only iust out of reach of the waters and the drifting ice . The church of Veenendaal , being situated on a rising ground , is almost the only building in that locality uninjured by the flood ; and it is filled by the shelterless victims of the inundation . Dykes have been broken down , bridges carried away , and the town of Bois-le-Duc completely islanded in water . The King has given a thousand florins towards the relief of the sufferers ; and subscrfp-^^ romVopenhiJen we learn that the Committee of the Volksthing appointed to examine the late ministers has be-un its sittings . The ministers were charged with having illegally exceeded the budget , and arbitrarily spent money not voted by the Diet ; and their defence is that thev felt it their duty , in the present disturbed state of Europe , to put the army and a part of the navy on a war footing . They add , that they dul not take the opinion of the Chambers , because they thought it undesirableto make the preparations then going on known to the public . The committee has resolved to ignore the whole of the sums thus arbitrarily spent , and also to impeach the late Ministry . The Espana states that the printing of the Protestant Bible , which had teen commenced in Madrid had been prohibited by the authorities . . The Spanish Cortes have sanctioned , by a majority ot 200 a-minst 12 , the measures introduced by M . JUaaoz , intended to effect a great reduction of public expen-1 Mdlle . Doudet has been convicted before the Tribunal of Correctional - Police of Paris , of having voluntarily given blows and inflicted personal injuries on the tour daughters of Dr . Marsden , and sentenced to two years imprisonment , 200 f . fine , and the costs ; which is the maximum penalty . It will be recollected that she was acquitted upon the charge of manslaughter . _ The Mpniteur announces that General de TTedell was received on Thursday by the Emperor . A telegraph has-been received at Paris from Constantinople , dated March 10 , which says that Lord Stratford de Kedcliffe is seriously ill . The journey of the Emperor of the French to the Crimea continues to be the subject of many contradictory rumours . According to some authorities , the ^ idea is Riven up ; according to others he will still infallibly go 7 but , at any rate , _ the date of his departures unknown . It has been asserted that preparations are being made in Constantinople for his reception . Rumour attributes a sort of death-bed repentance to the Emperor Nicholas , who is said to have told his heir _ that it was necessary to make peace , even at the cost ot reducing the Russian power in the Black bea ; that France and England were too strong for Russia ; and that God had humbled him at the close of his life for haying carried his pride too high . . The story is evidently a fiction . ,, The new Emperor Alexander has issued two addresses to his armv , communicating to them the news of his father ' s death , and thanking them for their past services . At the sitting of the Federal Diet at Frankfort , on February 22 , M . de Prokesch von Osten ( the Austrian representative ) inade-a statement . , with ... respect to the troops assembled and ready to take the field to cover the territories placed under the common protection of the Confederation , in virtue of the resolutions of the 24 th of July and 9 th of December , 1854 . Free-Trade ix America . — The American Congress has passed an act for lessening the duties on imports . About twenty articles which have hitherto paid duty arc now to be admitted free . No doubt is felt that the bill will pass the Senate . The Mayor op New York lias published a letter denouncing the plan pursued by Belgium , Switzerland , and other European states , of sending over their paupers to America , and leaving them , there helpless . This ia * the more absurd in the case of Switzerland , since in that country " a pauper resident in one canton is not permitted to become a resident in another canton . " Efforts have been made to induce the Government to take tho matter in hand , and compel tho offending countries to observe tho laws of nations . A Homtinua Aifaik . —Accounts from the Transvaal Republic announce the return of General Pretorius , after inflicting signal punishment on the Kafir chief Makapan , for the murder of Fiold-Cornot Potgioter and soven or eight men , and tho massacre of several women , accompanied by circumstances of tho most horrible cruelty . Tho Goneral reports that towards tho end of October his force , united to that of Commandant-General Potgietor , reached tho subterranean caverns in which tho enemy had entrenched themselves . The former then blocked up tho caverns Avith stonca and treos , and imprisoned tho Kafirs . This lasted from November 8 th to 21 st , during which timo tho savages would sometimes burst forth to procure wfttor during the night . On the raising of tho sioge , the Kafirs ma-rendered ; and it was found that upwards of nine hundred had been killed outside tho cavornH , and a much greater number inside . Natat ,. —From Natal wo hear that an expedition against tho chief Dushani , of cattlo-stonling . celebrity , has been fmcceanful , and without bloodshed . Dushani , being terrinod , mnde an abjoct submission , and agreed to pay a lino of 101 ) 8 head of cattle .

      The Australian Mots. The Australian Dist...

      THE AUSTRALIAN MOTS . The Australian disturbances are , for the present at least , at an end . The encounter between the military and the diggers has apparently quelled the spirit of the latter ; and , order haying been restored , Sir . Charles Hotham issued a proclamation on tfee 8 th of December , -revoking the martial law which had been proclaimed on the 6 th . On that day the Legislative Council of Melbourne pledged , itself to aid the Lieutenant-Governor in maintaining order ; on which occasion the Colonial Secretary gave the following particulars with respect to the rioters : — " Most of the disaffected , who did not form ( he bulk of the diggers , and many of the leaders , were foreigners , while the real hard-working diggers were delighted with the timely intervention of the Government . Order was now entirely restored , and 417 licenses had been issued in one day . He was also truly happy to say that the majority of the prisoners , as well as of those killed , were foreigners . " The Legislative Council passed a vote of thanks to the military . . , "We find in the Melbourne Argus the subjoined details of the composition of the insurrectionary body : — " I am informed that about thirty of the one hundred and fifty in the stockade were of those who had been convicts , and that of these thirty , twenty might be regarded as induced to connect themselves with the agitation with a view to plunder . Even a temporary success would have furnished the most favourableopportunity for aggrandisement . Besides the robbery of the stores , & c , a course which was commenced and carried to some extent , many shafts were known besides in which valuable washing stuff had been collected , and there was every probability that even a few days of successful rebellion would leave these heaps m the power of the rebels . " A letter from Ballarat , dated December 14 th , says : — " The speech of the new Colonial Secretary has given great satisfaction , as well as the manner of the Lieutenant-Governor , in paying such marked attention to the deputation from the diggers of Bendigo , and the prospective repeal of the unjust license-tax is taken- as a popular triumph . In fact , this law is impracticable as well as harassing ; one-half of the diggers never paid the tax , and the other half never will again , and it is doomed to be thrown out of the Legislative Council . ^ "At the Ballarat Police Court , on December 8 th , several of the rioters engaged in the Eureka . xiots were committed on the charge of high treason . An inquest had been held on the body of one of the diggers killed m the attack , which resulted in a verdict against Arthur Purcell Akehurst , clerk of the Bench at Ballarat , who had volunteered to accompany the troops . 1 he jury also presented that they viewed with the greatest horror the cool-Wooded butchery of the troopers , in cutting down many innocent persons of both sexes . " The orderly and respectable portion of the colony are using all their efforts to promote peace and security , and counteract the designs of the rebellious . But it is confidently spoken that concessions-and . amondmenta on the part of the Government must be made—an export duty instead of a license tax . Everything is improving in Ballarat . "

      State Oe Trade, Labour, And The Poor. Th...

      STATE OE TRADE , LABOUR , AND THE POOR . Thr condition of our great manufacturing towns has not creatly improved since the cessation of the frost . A little more activity is observable in some branches of industry ; but the general tone is that of depression The reports from the iron distnets of Birmingham are gloomy ; orders are scarce , and many of the works are only partially employed . The Birmingham Journal of last Saturday says : — " Rumour is again busy in attributing insolvency to several houses of note in the district , and this time , wo regret to add , there is some foundation for the reports . The embarrassments are less serious , however , than is generally supposed , and the actual stoppages aro confine I to two firms . Other firms still more eminent aro spo on of , and wo cannot say that the reports ^ ej hMy . mfounded ; but this wo know , ^ nt r t « r ombarrMjmonto ariso , not from insolvency , but from ti "» l * ™™* . sales and tho difficulty of real « . nff the means ^ o mee t posing engagements . ^^^^^ "S isras rz S- - EfciTM £ ? f 5 ——^ mMmmm .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), March 17, 1855, page 7, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_17031855/page/7/