EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume V, Issue 317, 14 November 1855, Page 5

EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCE.

From the Melbourne " Weekly Age." The sixteen days which elapsed between the sailing of the Slialimar and the departure of the James Buines from Liverpool, were singularly unproductive of events of importance in Europe. Most of the despatches from Sevastopol have been of the same tenor: —"Nothing of importance has occurred :'' and if it he true that extensive preparations are beinsr made by the allied armies for another winter in the Crimea, nothing of importance is likely to occur for some time to come. General Simpson appears anx ions to disencumber himself of the »rave responsibility which has devolved upon him, and to be relieved of the command. The Russian forces are assuming a menacing aspect on the Asiatic shores, of the tflack Sea, but the reported death ofSehamyl happilyjprovesiu have been incorrect, uud was probably circulated at

the instigation of the heroic Circassian himself, with v view to lull his inveterate enemies into a false security. The propriety of raising the siege of Sebastopol is being debated (of course with permission of the supreme power) by the French Press. This act must not be confounded with an abandonment of the siege. It would be simply a change of tactics for securing the same result. Occupied and fortified i,y the French, Kamiesch has now become, according- to the Constitutionnel, the sentinel and keeper of the Russian citadel; and it is argued that to surround Se» bastopol and cut off supplies to the garrison by land, while the place is blockaded by sea, might be a more effectual Splan for reducing the place thafi sending masses of men to be mown down by cannon from earthwork batteries. It is consolatory to be told that by reason of Kamiesch being converted into a stronghold, the allied armies can now take the field if necessary. The Times correspondent intimates that a naval attack on Sebastopol is in contemplation. A bold attempt, it is sahl, will be made by 100 Kessels of every kind, with 40.000 men to"f»ree the passage, land in the midst of the place, while a simultaneous attack will be made on the land side. The news from the Baltic is absolutely nil. A .magnificent fleet floats idly on the waters of that sea, and when the brief summer is at an end, will probably return to its moorings at Spithead, without having accomplished anything more important than the capture of a score or two of ! defenceless merchantmen. Oh, for a Cromwell in the national councils, and a BSake upon the quarter deck of the Wellington. Austria is playing her old game of fast and loose ; cajoling England, and coquetting with Russia; ''letting I dare not wait upon I would, like the cat i'the adage;'' and chuckling over the successful craft and'ehicanery of her diplomacy. Meantime, disaffection is rife in her trans-Alpine provinces, and uo less than one hundred thousand troops are authentically stated to he stationed in Lombardy. It pains us to add that the French Government has intimated its intention of discountenancing and repressing any attempt at an outbreak in Italy. The Parliamentary events of the fortnight under review have been comparatively destitute of interest. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has obtained a supplementary credit of three millions on account of the civil service, and the commissariat estimates have been enlarged to | the extent of two millions and a half. It was anticipated that the Limited Liabilities Bill would be pa-sen this session, and the prorogation was expected to take place on the 15th August, jin order to allow of the Queen proceeding to ! Paris on the 18th of the same month. A dissolution was expected to take place in the course of the autumn. The diplomatic tricksters in she pay of Russia and Austria are still babbling of negotiations, conferences, treaties, and protocols. The Paris correspondent, of the 'J'imes connects the return to Vienna of General Letang, late the F:ei»eh Commissioner at the head quarters of the Austrian army with seme sunposrd mysteries of high diplomacy, originating in a correspondence between the Dowager Empress of Russia and the Austrian Archduchess, mother of the Emperor of Austria, and to which further consequence has been given by some correspondence of Austria and France. It is alleged, according to one version, thai the Court of Russia has expressed, ihruti«h ilie medium of the late Cztr's widow, a willingness to- u-.-eept the propositions of the allied powers, as interpreted by their, on the limitation question. Another ver>ion, to ' which greater credit is attached, is that Kussia appears to be much more reasonable than hitherto. General Letang is said to be the bearer of the Emperor Napoleon's leply to the Emperor of Au S t,ia, touching: this neSv phase of the Eastern question,