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Leader (1850-1860), 31st March 1855, Edition 2 of 2, Page 9, BELGIUM. {From an occasional Corresponde...

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      Continental Notes. The Annexed Particula...

      would hare been suspended . —Daily News Parts Correspondent . . ¦ ' A letter from Madrid of the 20 th says : —" The Spanish government , and Lord Howden , the British Ambassador , had some rather sharp conferences lately on the subject of the application of the religious question ' to English subjects residing in Spain . It is known that the police at ; Seville a few days ago surprised eight who were in engaged in divine worship at the house of a Protestant minister , and the house was invaded without exhibiting any warrant for that purpose , being a flagrant violation of domicile . Lord Howden remonstrated on

      the subject , founding his application , first on the violation of liberty guaranteed by treaties , and next on the iact that the Spanish Penal Code only authorises proceedings where the act is done openly , and is insulting to the national worship . He added that at Malaga , Madrid , and other places , Protestants performed their religious rites iu private without being interfered with . The Spanish government replied that it had not received any official account of the affair , and it is probable that the matter will be settled by the act of the police at Seville being disavowed by the government . "

      A letter from Athens of the 16 th , in the Nouvelliste of Marseilles , says : —" - M . Spiro Milios , ex-Minister of War , has , at the demand of the Minister , been impeached before the Chamber of Deputies . In reply to a question the President of the Council of Ministers has declared that it was quite true that the difference with the Porte was approaching its termination . The news of the death of the Emperor of Russia caused the greatest consternation in this city . The Russian party at first endeavoured to throw discredit on the account , by affirming that it was not the Emperor but the Empress that was dead ; but the truth was soon ascertained . Brigandage , although for a moment checked ,- appears to be once more

      gaining ground in Greece . On the very night that the news of the Czar ' s death reached this city , a band of about forty , under a noted chief named Passayottis , placed themselves in ambush at about half an hour ' s distance from the capital , at a place where three roads from adjoining villages meet , and by which the country people bring their produce to market . Every one that passed was stopped and robbed . The men were beaten _^ and the women taken into an old church by the roadside , and most shamefully treated . The number stopped and robbed by these ruffians before they dispersed was upwards of 200 . While this was going on , some other brigands made a demonstration on another point , to draw off the attention of the armed force . "

      —The three years' -dispute between "Switzerland and Austria is as good as settled . As to the refugees , Austria abandons her exorbitant pretensions . The expelled friars are not to return to TicinOj the canton pay ing them 115 , 000 francs to stay away . The expelled Ticinese , who have not died or emigrated during the long interval , may return to Lombardy . The affair of the school of Poleggio Austria leaves the Archbishop of Milan to fight out with the temporal power as well as he can . A circular despatch , dated the 16 th instant , signed by M . Manteuffel , and addressed to the Prussian ministers at German Courts , contains a statement respecting the special missions of Herr von Usedom and General , yon Wedell to London and Paris . It is therein laia down that , " according to the express command of the King of Prussia , a regular understanding with the cabinets of

      London and Paris cannot be attained , until Prussia has , by participation in the Peace Conferences , acquired a thorough , knowledge of the full import of the bases of peace , for the attainment of which she would have to enter into obligations . " It is added , " As yet nothing has taken place between us and the Western Powers beyond a confidential interchange of ideas , from which we , for our part , have not departed , arid which character , if it had been observed on all sides , would , perhaps , have prevented many misunderstandings . This interchange of views , however , cannot , with all our sincere desire of arriving at an understanding , impose on us any obligations by anticipation . " The same document says that it 13 " a decided mis-statement that Herr von Bismarck Schonhauscn , either officially or non-officiiilly , has declared that Prussia would move for the entire Kricgsbereitschqft of the Federal fortresses . "

      A letter from St . Petersburg , in the Danube of Tienna , says : " Dr . Mandt , homoeopathic physician to the late Emperor , has left Russia in great haste and secretly . Ho is reproached with having too long concealed from the august deceased that his lung was attacked ; also with having himself prepared the medicines destined for the Emperor , instead of having had them prepared by a druggist . Great irritation was manifested against him at St . Petersburg , and the Emperor Alexander himself advised him , it is said , to loavo Kussia . " The Times Paris Correspondent says , with rcforenco to the Thiers and Vcron affair , that u while M . Thiers was in office , M . Voron asked to bo named Member of tho Council of State , or Prefect of a department , and , when this application received a rather unceremonious refusal , ho demanded tho Sous-Prdfecturo of Sccaux , but with os little buccoss . "

      M . Drouyn do Lhuys arrived in London on Thursday night . It is said that his object ia to confer with Count "Walewaki , and to consult our Government on tho Eastern question . His stay will bo very short ; and ho ia expected afterwards to depart for Vienna , to bo

      present at the C onferences , and assist in smoothing the difficulties arising out of the Third Point . A despatch from Madrid of the 29 th inst ., announces that Espartero has resisted the demand for a modification of the Ministry in a democratic sense , made by different leaders of the Militia , who assembled in the night . These attempts at disorder have failed . Madrid is tranquil . * The Spanish Cortes has decided that the commission charged with inquiry into the acts of the ministries which preceded the late revolution should send in its report in the form of an indictment against the Sartorious . cabinet , with a summary of evidence in support thereof . *

      The treaty between Greece and Turkey is now settled ; and it has been agreed upon that those only are to be considered Greeks who have been born in Greece , or who become Hellenes before the year 1835 . This , it will be seen , excludes all those subjects of the Porte who desire to consider themselves Greek subject 3 upon the strength of their having been naturalised in Greece-The Hellenes , however , have gained the privilege of trying their own countrymen for offences committed in Turkey , and of deciding civil disputes by means of their own consuls .

      The journey of the French Emperor to the Crimea seems to be adjourned sine die ; but it appears probable that he will visit the Sultan at Constantinople , and shortly . It is also announced by the Moniteur that he will visit the Queen about the middle of ApriL

      Maboh 31, 1855] The Leader, ^97

      Maboh 31 , 1855 ] THE LEADER , ^ 97

      Belgium. {From An Occasional Corresponde...

      BELGIUM . { From an occasional Correspondent ) Oor Ministerial crisis is not yet over ; it has now lasted twenty-seven days , and we have been obliged to have a meeting of the Chambers without a Ministry , to pass a few urgent measures ; such as the renewal of the differential duties , the military and other estimates . This session lasted three days , and opened with a diverting mystification . Among the personages to whom the king addressed himself to form a Ministry , was a certain M . Dedecker , a Catholic representative , inventor of a sort of hermaphrodite political system , half reactionary , half radical . M . De & eeker was invited to take this

      opportunity to translate his theories from paper into power . He set to work , and succeeded in forming a- "Ministry , which was announced as complete . It was composed of M . Dedecker , Interior ; M . Smits , Governor bi Luxembourg , finances ; M . Ch . Vilain XIIIL , Foreign Affairs ; General Greindl , War ; Dumon , Public Works ; and Nothomb , Justice . The last-named is a brother of our Minister at Berlin , and a man of great ability . About the end of last week this Cabinet was to have appeared in the Moniteur ; everything was arranged ; all the future Ministers were agreed , and the usual audience had been demanded for taking the oaths and the signing of the royul decrees . M . Dedecker summoned his fnjure colleagues , and proceeded to the royaLchuteau at Laekenbut instead of taking the oaths of office ,

      , he resigned the powers with which he was invested , and abandoned his ministerial combination . The effect upon tlie country of this strange proceeding may be imagined . Everybody begun to ask , " De qui se moque-t-on ici ? " And the journals insisted on M . Dedecker ' s explaining these capricious transformations . The Emancipation and the Journal de Bruxelks , the two organs of the party represented by M . Dedecker , declared that full explanations would be given to the Chambers as soon as they met . On Thursday week the Chambers met . AH the galleries were crowded in expectation . Never was deception more complete . M . Dedecker did not open his mouth . Only M . de Brouekere , the ex-Minister , declared—that ho should declare nothing . So the country was reduced to sing , as in La Dame Blanche ,

      Quel cst done comyaterc infernal ? Je n ' y puis rien comprendro . . . . Tho French Government , which had announced with more noise than prudence that it intended to proceed before tho Belgian tribunals against the publisher of tho brochure of a General Ojficcr , just as if Belgium wore a French department , and the King Leopold Prefect of Brussols , has up to this time confined its proceedings to its own Moniteur . But this brochure if , it seems , destined to como before tho lawyers , not at Brussels , but in London . The Brussels publisher talks of bringing an action against Mr . Jcfl's , for infringement of the copyright low , as dotorniined by tho literary convention of January 26 th between Belgium and Great Britain .

      A publication that may excite some notice in England is advertised hero ; it is called Ijcs hommes d'Ctat de VAntjIeterre . Portraits a la plume . The " governing classes" of your country arc not spared . Yesterday the reconstruction of our Grand Theatre , so , unfortunately destroyed by fire last January , was commenced . According to tho designs of the now niilding , the fire will not Imvo been tho worst

      misfortune to our theatre ; its restoration will be _ still more unfortunate . The design adopted is destitute of all grandeur , and belongs to some hitherto undiscovered disorder of architecture .-One of our assize courts recently sentenced a man to death for shooting his father with a pistol while they were engaged in conversation , ^ ind aft erwards despatching him with an axe . When the prisoner was asked what led him to commit the crime ,-he

      could only reply , " // embetait ma mire . " ( " He bothered my mother" ) And on the strength of this excuse two jurymen were found to vote n « t guilty . This reminds one of what Alphonse Karr says of juries . He maintains that a jury is never affected by the crime of parricide , and for this rather plausible reason : — " Cet homme a tue son pere , e ' etaii un besoin pour lui . . . ce besoin est satisjait ; ce serait bien le diable que je fusse m oi aussi son ph-e , et qu ' il eprouvat le besoin de me tuer aussi . " And so the prisoner is

      acquitted . In the present case , if there had been but four more o the jurymen of the same opinion as the two , the prisoner would have returned to society , with the reproach , perhaps , of entertaining some rather disagreeable prejudices on the subject of the filial relation , but nothing more ! The same tenderness of juries acquitted Mademoiselle Doudet at Paris . The jury said , " Bah ! I shall not trust her with my children—let others do what they will with their own . " Sad , but true . F .

      The Late Riots In Australia. The Followi...

      THE LATE RIOTS IN AUSTRALIA . The following original letter , from a private correspondent at Ballarat , will be found to contain some interesting particulars of the recent commotions at the diggings , and of the state o public opinion i . i Victoria : "Ballarat , December 24 th , 1854 . " Djear , — After a ve * y- fine and rather rapid voyage , I reached Melbourne in a splendid state of health and wretched state of wealth . Trade of every description was very depressed at Melbourne . Mechanics hardly able to get employment of any kind , and labourers' wages growing less by degrees . It is the opinion of many that business will not mend till nearly a third of the Melbourne tradesmen are bankrupt . Jtents ,. which have been enormous , are already -rapidly declining . A tradesman who has just arrived here informs me that he is now only paying 14 / . per week in the place , of 22 ? . 10 s . per week ( all rents are- paid by . the week ) . There have been meetings of the unemployed to express their grievances , in which'the political element is plainly discernible . At all such meetings the . land question turns up in some shape or other ;_ andfrom what . I have observed of the working classes here , I think they Vill never let that question rest till the lands are unlocked . If England desire the prosperity of Australia—if she wishes to retain Australia as a dependency—the sooner

      the lands are open to all who wish to purchase and settle on them , the better . Among the diggers I found a unanimous opinion upon the most important questions affecting this country—namely , independence , opening of the lands , political enfranchisement , and abolition of the ' gold-license and . its . attendant grievances- They and the actual diggers do not object to pay a tax , but object to the present one . One objection made to the license ( stated by an able representative of the diggers , Mr . Humphrey ) is , that it taxes labour instead of labour ' s products ; that is , it taxes as heavily the man who geta no gold as it does the man who gets afortune ; the difference between success and non-success at cold-digging

      being almost entirely a matter of luck . The mode of collection also renders tho license-fee excessively unpopulnr . The mode is this at Ballarat ( which I am told will servo as a sample for nearly all other diggings ) : A convenient plot of ground is fixed upon contiguous to tho diggings , upon which a camp is formed , consisting of two or more commissioners and a number of armed troopers . At first , once a month , a search nftcr unlicensed diggers used to take place ; but within tho last two years tho " digger-hunts , " as they are called , have been more frequent and unexpected . About eighteen months ago , it was nn ordinary practice for the troopera continued

      to tie the captured digger to a tree while they to hunt after others . Imagino tho exasperation to tho licensed digger , sweating under a broiling sun , of having in one day to fish out of its place amid his recking clothes , the saturated and dilapidated Iici-nsc-pnpor *« mo half-dozen times . No man could bo on tho digging * , whether digger or not , without a license ; and every man is bound to have his licciiuo always with . him , ami to show it on demand , or ho is liable to bo taken to tho camp , and thrust into a beastly apartment , where ho quickly becomes infected with lico and other vermin , unless ho ia in possession of five pounds to deposit us a surety that he will appear before tho ™™™»™ .

      "Before receiving this Idaro aay you will hove received news of the excited stnto of the digger population—of tho arming of a portion , and of the murderous result , llenrv and I reached Bullarot just as open hostilities had commenced between tho officials nnd tho diggers . Cannon , and troops , and sailora to act as artillerymen , were sent as quickly as possible from Melbourne . lhc procrastination of the " diggers gavo time for them to arrive , and for the camp to bo fortified with trusses of hay ani

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), March 31, 1855, page 9, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_31031855/page/9/