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Leader (1850-1860), 24th September 1853, Edition Country of 2, Page 8, HAIL WAY ACCIDENTS ABROAD. Aw nccidont h...

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      Menschikoff The Missionary. Tip Civiliza...

      the only human beings who think in Russia , are very anx iously interested in the fate of the rayas ? ( Greek Christians in the Ottoman dominions . ) Ah ! they know better than anybody else the sort of immunities those poor wretches would have to enjoy if they ever passed from under the sceptre of the Sultan to the sceptre of the Czar . Imagine , then , how they laugh at the efforts which European , diplomacy is making , or at least was lately making , to transform Prince Menschikoff into an Evangelical Missionary ! NICHOLAS " NOW AND THEN . "

      In the midst of this general excitement , what is the attitude of the Emperor Nicholas ? It is sombre and mysterious , no doubt , but it yields to the torrent nevertheless . Did he not himself let loose the floodgates ? Nicholas must not be regarded as the man he was , say , twenty years ago . At that period , having just vanquished a revolution , which well nigh cost him his throne , he was absorbed by the anxieties of the internal administration oi the Empire . He had not only to re-establish his authority , but to surround it with those institutions and elements of strength which -confer at once power and prestige . He had hardly sketched out this mighty task , when Poland

      rose in insurrection . Nicholas determined to reduce Poland , and with that object he deemed it politic to exterminate it by degrees . This required time . Then he resumed his labour of organization and influence . Long years were given him to develop his projects substantially . Next came the revolution of February to give him an opportunity of putting his work to the test . While all was tottering around him Russia remained firm . Nicholas , afraid of his own safety and of his system , assumed the character and the office of the invincible protector of the rights of the discomfited Kings . The Kings believed him , Austria threw herself in his arms . For a moment the

      Muscovite Czar wa 3 regarded as the corner-stone of social order , as the arbiter of the world . This moment passed by . Peace was restored to Europe . Nicholas retired . And it was then that , in his secret meditations he felt himself devoured by a bitter grudge . Catherine II . was fond , as she used to say , of " fishing in troubled Avaters . " Nicholas had had an opportunity of indulging largely in the same tastes . He was annoyed to-find the thrones in safety again , and the peoples quiet . Besides , his intervention in Hungary appeared to be less fruitful in results tlian he had anticipated . He felt that the scandalous malversations committed by the officers of

      his army , in the face of a foreign power , the innumerable corpses with which his army , by its disgraceful condition , had strewed the roads and infected the encampments ; he understood that all these horrors would be so many flashes of light to expose to Europe the secret weakness of his empire ; and that he would run the risk of appearing to the rest of the world rather as the conserver of mischief than the energetic organizer of public order . Nicholas , moreover , knew well that obligations imposed are apt to degenerate into an involuntary yoke , and one which , soon or late , tho obliged makes no scruple of shaking off , as Prince Schwarzenberg expressed it , by a supreme inqralitude .

      THE RUSSIAN 15 MIQ HATION . Nothing , in truth , can be more curious and instructivo than what is now going on on tho banks of tho Neva . The very ministerial bureaux scarcely dissemble tho movement . As for other peoplo in the city and about tho court , it is a riviilry which . shall betray the mystery first . They dream of nothing but Byzantium and tho enchanted shores of tho Bosphorus . " Are yon going to the country soon ? " " No , 1 am waiting ; but , for Heaven ' s sake , 1 hopo it will soon be settled . " One hears of schemes of emigration en masse . Even the merchants and bankers are ready to ship their countinghouses and be oil " .

      920 The Leader. [Saturday,

      920 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

      Hail Way Accidents Abroad. Aw Nccidont H...

      HAIL WAY ACCIDENTS ABROAD . Aw nccidont happoned on Sunday on tho Paris-Boimlonux railway . Two engineers , two firemon , and tho guard wore killed . Other pnssongors rpooived novr ; ro contusions . Tho causo of tho accident ; in Raid to havo boon nomio unaccountable nogloct on tho part of tho Hlnt . ian-inaHt . or oi St . JAfriiftfi . Tlioro in an yet hut . ono lino of mils botwoon Tours and Bourdeaux . A tologrnpllic donpnteh wan nonfc to tho utntion-mnBtor , inform ing him that a Hpeoiul goods train from Uourdouux was corning up tho lino , and ( lowir . ing him to boon tho down mail train on tho hhIo railn at tho station until tho luggago train had panned . Thin ordor wa « unattended to , and honeo tho collision . An accident has also occurred on tho Rouen railway . About « ight o ' clock on Sunday ovening two onginoa cainn in collision opposite Sottovillo , in < : onnequonoo of somo mintako in turning tho switches . Ah tho onginon " woro both running n < - groat « pced , tho shook waH very Hnvevo . Ono of tho onginos wan completely knookod to pioccn , and tho two rnon thrown runongHt tho ruins of it . l'h « oii ^ in « - < lrivor had his thigh and bin kneojoint broken , and tho Hlokor rocoivod oomo very oovoro coul . iiHioiiH . Thoy woro both convoyod to tlio Jl ' olol-Diou at Jtouon , whoro tho Htato of tho engine-driver wan conuidorod very flnngcroua .

      Hail Way Accidents Abroad. Aw Nccidont H...

      SUSPENSE OP WAR IN INDIA . The Burmese war is said to be at an end , but it seems merely a suspension of hostilities . Our troops are kept in a state of readiness ; staff-officers are not allowed to leave their regiments , and all European women are restricted to Rangoon as the only safe place . The Friend of India , the Ministerial paper , speaks in an exulting tone of the future conquests to follow that of Pegu : — " We have obtained possession of another of those great Asiatic deltas which teem with the luxuriant fertility of the tropics , and have opened to our traders another river , which may well be compared , in its own size , and the richness of the tracts through which it flows , with the Ganges or the Indus . .... We still believe , as we have always believed , that a

      third Burmese war is ultimately inevitable , and that our frontier to the eastward will shortly be Western China The Ministry did not desire the war , the Court of Directors regretted it , the public were scarcely reconciled to it , and it was denounced , from the first , by the English press as a quarrel about a swamp . Yet , in spite of press , Parliament , and people of the Board of Control , the Court of Directors , and the Government of India , the red line , the mark of British dominion , surrounds Pegu . We' have quitted the peninsula and are fairly embarked in the affairs of Indo-Chinese Asia , and , if any one imagines the red line will remain at the 96 th degree of east longitude , he has studied the history of India to exceedingly little purpose /'

      But at present this " fertile" province is the scene of a most frightful famine . The entire population is destitute of food . Rice , the staple production of the country , and upon which its inhabitants are as much dependent for existence as the Irish were upon potatoes before the famine of 1846 , is so excessively dear , that it is beyond the means of any but the richest to purchase enough to keep body and soul together . A small basketful sold in Calcutta for about a shilling , there costs sixteen ! A letter from Prome of the 11 th of July States : —" Some hundred * of families came in from the jungles a week or two ago in a state of starvation indescribable . Forty of them died in one night . "

      A most liberal subscription , amounting to 600 r ., was raised among the officers at that station , and many starving people were relieved . By the last accounts the scarcity had been only in the most partial manner alleviated by the arrivals of rice from Calcutta ; but there were 16 to 20 vessels loading grain on the 1 st instant , of an average tonnage of 500 tons , and of which , we believe , some have already left for Rangoon . In the meanwhile the whole country is overrun with bands of dacoits . The river is so infested with them , that no merchant will venture up ; and it is said , that even the commissariat with a strong guard dreads tho passage . The Rangoon Chronicle is full of nothing else but murders , dacoities , starvation , and cholera .

      The official intelligence from India is meagre . The Governor-general is at Calcutta , and Lord Falkland and the Commander-in-Chief at Poonah . At Calcutta a monster meeting of native Indiana had been held to express disapproval of many parts of Sir Charles Wood ' s Bill .

      The Change In China. Titk Rebellion Make...

      THE CHANGE IN CHINA . Titk rebellion makes way slowly but steadily . Wo have news of various small successes by tho rebels , of imbecile movements by tho imperialists , and Tieu-teh , said by somo to bo a myth , is heard of again . A person writing privately from Hong Kong says : — " News is now coming in of new insurrections in all parts of the empire , and tho fall of the old dynasty is become hardly a matter of doubt . With a body of religions enthusiast , part of whoso creed is war to tho death in tho heart of the country , and engaging in all the feeble energies of tho Government , and insurrections under other banners in nearly every province south of the Yellow River , it cannot long survive . Tho ultimate roKult is a question only to bo decided by time , but the superior organization , poor aH it in , of tho Christian rebels , and their moro determined spirit , may justly give us hope that in the end thoy may prevail over their competitor for empire . They still remain in position at Nanking and Chinkinngfoo , and beyond some skirmishes with tho Chinese foreign ships , in which they are uniformly successful , nothing nmv has occurred . "

      I'ho general of tho Amoy insurgents professes hhnftolf an adherent of tho restored dynasty of Ming , represented by Tiou-toh , and it is said that great and quiet person is to appear in person should tho rebellion becomo generally successful . At , Fooohow there had been a Chinese riot , cut short by tho Tartars , who out ofl'tho heads of tho rioters on tho spot . Two ships chartered by an American firm woro lying below Fooohow waiting for ton cargoes , but owing to tho disturbnncoo in tho interior tho toa had

      not arrived . Trade in general at Shanghai was dulled by the unsettled state of things . Tho European im port merchants had asked Sir George Bonham to get the duties temporarily taken off on the grounds that the frnarket for goods was spoiled by the bad state of things , but Sir George considered such interference beyond his province .

      "Three Courses Open" To Australia Southa...

      " THREE COURSES OPEN" TO AUSTRALIA Southampton is destined to be the starting point for three lines of steam-packets running regularl y to the Land of Gold , and three distinct companies are in "the field , " if one may so term the wide stretch of waters to be crossed . That monarch of great associations , the Peninsular and Oriental , has been the pioneer of regular passages to Australia . It equipped and sent to sea , from Southampton , tho two first steam ships destined to commence and continue a postal system . That wealthy and suecessful company , already possessing a line of steam shim

      in regular operation from Southampton , via the Isthmus of Suez , Ceylon , and Singapore , to China , was enabled to be the first in the field , and the operations of their steam ships , stretched out in advance so far as Singapore , the nearest point to Australia , rendered it a comparatively easy task to complete the line by adding a link from Singapore to the various ports of South Australia . That link has been already supplied , and for some months past the piercantile community have been indebted to the Peninsular and Oriental Company for the most speedy and only reliable method of postal intercommunication—viz ., that by the eastern route .

      This poute is not and never can be anything more than a postal one , its great expense for passenger , bullion , and . merchandise traffic is practically prohibitory , and must apparently long continue bo ; while , additionally the frequent changes from steamer to steamer , and the necessity for crossing the desert through Egypt , are inconveniences not easily remedied . The line established by this company is , however , of much importance to this country . in a postal point of view , while many benefits to the trade and commerce of both India , China , and Australia have been effected by the regular communications maintained between those places by means of this line .

      The second company in this line is the General Screw Steam Shipping Company ; and it has chosen the Cape of Good Hope route to Australia . At an outlay of capital of nearly 500 , 000 £ . sterling , this company are using the greatest energy to place upon the best possible footing this gigantic enterprise , which involves nothing less than the circumnavigation of the globe ( for their steamers are to come home by way of Cape Horn ) during every voyage to be undertaken . The Harbinger , of 1000 tons , the first of their ships , opened the line in February last , and for an experimental voyage did exceedingly well . This vessel was

      followed by the Argo , a fine screw steamship of 1850 tons ; and tho Harbinger is about to start in October to prosecute another voyage to the antipodes . Pending the experimental trips of these steamers , tlio General Screw Company aro preparing three iron screw steamships of great size , with which most efficiently to carry out their undertaking . These are the Croesus , the Jason , and tho Golden Fleece , each of 2500 tons , and 500-horse power ; and a fourth , of still greater tonnage , is , wo \ mderstand , likely to bo built . There is no doubt , therefore , that ero long the C apo route to by

      Australia will be effectively " and regularly performed tho ships of this company , and that great success will reward the efforts of this enterprising association . Tho merits of tho Capo route , so far as passenger and merchandise traffic is concerned , over tho eastern route , arise from tho convenience and moderate olmrgcs WiU which goods , bullion , and passengers am bo conveyer No change of ships is needed , and a passenger sotting foot , nt Southampton , on board ono of tho noblo steamships of this company , may without further "m *] " *'" nienco be convoyed direct to Melbourne and by « " *» contra ted wi

      at a cost comparatively trilling when s tho excellent accommodation to bo afforded on »<» them , magnificent floating hotels . Tho fuel " , llkmV ' ' that tlicro is no isthmus to cross , and that not , n ^ Hhipinents of any kind aro necessary on thin juio , ables merchandise- of all descriptions to bo "' "P ? ^^ ' such rates as will always command a n ' " iull <> ) ' , jofl ( , freight for so desirable a " method of oonveymioo . - ^ fillips are ' destined , therefore , to bo tho '/ " ^ "J ^ ;„ vasl ; quantity of cargo , and will nlso brmg » ^ great amounts , tho precious products of tho aur

      soil of tho Australinn colonies . . ~ , 'I'ho third competitor is tho Australasian / ne ^ Mail Steam Packet Company , and it « mail jtJlH through tho Isthmus of Panama . Only ft I" ** w (| jr will intervene boforo a regular communication . y of Panama will be established , Southamp ton Do "B ^ wise , as in tho case of the eastern nnd Capo rou

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 24, 1853, page 8, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24091853/page/8/