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Leader (1850-1860), 31st March 1855, Edition 1 of 2, Page 297

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      would hare been suspended . —Daily News Pans 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 fact 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 in 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 I { ouvelliste 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 thi 3 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 _ as as good as settled . As to the refugees , Austria abandons her exorbitant pretensions . The expelled friars are not to return to Ticino , the canton paying 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- Usedoin and General von Wedell to London and Paris . It is therein laid clown 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 , and 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 samo document says that it is " a decided mis-statement that llerr von Bismarck Schonhauscn , cither officially or non-officially , has declared that Prussia would move for the entire Kriegsbcreitschaft of the Federal fortresses . "

      A letter from St . Petersburg , in the Danube of Vienna , says : " Dr . Mandt , homoeopathic physician to the lute Emperor , has left Russia in great haste and secretly . He 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 fit St . Petersburg , and the Emperor Alexander himself ad vised him , it is said , to loavo Russia . " The Times Paris Correspondent says , with reference to the Thiera and VeYon affair , that " while M . Thicrs was in office , M . VeYon asked to bo named Mombor of the Council of State , or Prefect of a department , and , whoa this application received a rather unceremonious refusal , ho demanded the Sous-PrdTecturo of Sceaux , but with as little success . " M . Drouyn do Lhuys arrived in London on Thursday night . It ia said that hia object is to confer with Count Walewskl , and to consult our 'Government on tha Eastern question . His Btny will bo very short ; and ho is expected afterwards to depart for Vienna , to bo

      present at the Conferences , 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 Ministrv 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 w ho 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 subjects 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 .

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      BELGIUM . ( From an occasional Correspondent * ) Our 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 . Dedeuker , a Catholic representative , inventor of a sort of hermaphrodite political system , half reactionary , half radical . M , Dedecker 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 . Srnits , Governor oi Luxembourg , Finances ; M . Ch . Vilain XIIII ., 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 tlie 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 royal decrees . M . Dedecker summoned his future colIeaguesTand proceede at Laeken , but instead of taking the oaths of office , invested

      lie resigned the powers with which he was , and abandoned his ministerial combination . The effect upon the country of this strange proceeding may be imagined . Everybody began to ask , " De qui se moque-t-on icif" And the journals insisted on M . Dedecker ' s explaining these capricious transformations . The Emancipation and the Journal dc Brurellcs , 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 . All 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 cemystero infernal ? Je n ' y puis rien comprendro . . . . The French Government , which hud announced with more noise than prudence that it intended to proceed before the Belgian tribunals ngainst the publisher of the brochure of a General Qff icer , just ns if Belgium were a French department , and the King Leopold Prefect of Brussels , has up to this time confined its proceedings to its own JMonitcur . But this brochure is , it seems , destined to come before the lawyers , not at Brussels , but in London . The Brussels publisher talks of bringing an action ngainst Mr . Jeffs , for infringement of the copyright lnw , ns determined by the Jiternry convention of January 26 th between Belgium and Great Britain .

      A publication that may excite some notice in England is advertised here ; it is called Lea hommes d'etat de VAnyleterre . Portraits a la plume . The " governing clasqes" of your country are not spared . Yesterday the reconstruction of our Grand Theatre , so unfortunately destroyed by fire In 9 t January , was commenced . According' to the designs of the now wilding , the flre vriH not have been the 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 rftsorder of architecture . One of our assize courts recently sentenced a matt to death for shooting his father with a pistol while they were engaged in conversation , and afterwards despatching him with an axe . When the prisoner was asked what led him to commit the crime , he

      could only reply , " II embetait ma mere . " ( "He bothered my mother . " ') And on the strength of this excuse two jurymen were found to vote not 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 ' e ' tait un besoin pour lui ... ce besoin est satis / ait ; ce serait bien le diable que je fussc moi aussi son pere , et qu'il eprouv&l le besoin de me tuer aussi . " And so the prisoner is

      acquitted . g . In the present case , if there had been but four more of 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 he * with my children—let others do what they will with their own . " Sad , but true . F .

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      THE LATE BIOTS 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 of public opinion i : i Victoria : — "Ballarat , December 24 th , 1854 . " Dear , —After a very 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 . Rents ,

      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 thxsr 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 ; and from what I have observed of the working classes here , I think they will 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 tlie 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 gets no gold as it does the man who gets a fortune ; the difference between success and non-success at gold-digging being almost entirely a matter of luck . The mode of collection also renders the license-fee excessively unpopular . 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 the 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 after unlicensed diggers used to take place ; but within the last two years the " digger-hunts , " as they are called , have been more frequent and unexpected . About eighteen months ago , it was an ordinary practice for the trooper , * to tio the captured digger to a tree while thoy continued to hunt after others . Imagine the exasperation to the of

      licensed digger , sweating under a broiling sun , having in one day to fish out of its place amid his recking clothes , the saturated nncl dilapidated license-paper home half-dozen times . No man could bo on the diggings , whether digger or not , without a license ; and every man is bound to have his license always with Umi , nim to show it on demand , or he i . i liable to be taken to the camp , and thrust into a beastly apartment , where , ho quickly becomes infected with lice and other vermin , unless ho is in potion of five pound * to deposit as a surety that ho will before theco ™ " *™™ .

      appear uSeforTreceiv ^ g lais Idaro « ny you will have received news of tho excited state of the digger population--of the arming of a portion , and of tho murderous result , llonry and I reached Ballarat just us open hostilities hadI commenced between tho officials and tho diggers . Cannon , and troops , and sailors to net as artillerymen , were sent ns quickly as possible from Melbourne . The procrastination of tho diggers gave time for them to arrive , and for tho camp to bo fortified with trusses o ! hay anl

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      March 31 , 1855 . 1 T H E L E A D E B , eW ?

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), March 31, 1855, page 297, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2084/page/9/