EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCE TO JUNE 19.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 410, 8 October 1856, Page 3

EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCE TO JUNE 19.

[From the London Oorrcspoudont of the ' Sydney Empire.'] Notwithstanding that' the Newspaper advices just brought by the Asia, steamer, from New York, do not positively announce the fact, it seems probable that Mr. Crampton has been dismissed from the United States. Indeed, he ought to be sent away, if the Pierce Government has one spark of that patriotic indignation .which they arrogate to themselves. To withdraw from that demand -which they made on Lord Clarendon, and plead guilty to the charge of "bunkum," would be to seal their speedy downfall. Therefore it is, why we anticipate a measure whose bare threat has been exceedingly irritating to this country. Within the last few weeks, the idea has grown up that Mr. Cramp ton's dismissal is connected simply and entirely with the enlistment question. For our parts, we believe no such thing. We have a suspicion that it arises from a higgledy-piggledy of personal and national considerations, and that the most unimportant ingredient in the whole mass is " offended national honour." It requires no ghost..to tell us that, as the United Slates have grown up in wealth and importance,so has there grown up a tendenc)' to magnify these several points, which between the two countries require a settlement. The history of the last five-and-twenty years abounds in illustrations of this. Public men have, on at least half-a-dozen separate occasions, professed to dkcern the probabilities of war ; and so "ticklish " has been the relationship at limes, that considerable, commercial disorganization has resulted therefrom, just as is beginning to be felt at the present time, What relative value, for .instance, existed between the merits of the Maine boundary question and-the portentous results that were so much dreaded? What proportion between the importance of the Oregon dispute and the surpassing interest of the Ashburton missiotf? And so on with the appendages of the Canadian rebellion. Doubts have always been turned into disputes, disputes into quarrels, quarrels into serious difficulties. And we have got into another of these difficulties now. It is in gome sort the natural result of intimate relationship with a nation which carries the idea of her own superiority to the very pinnacle of absurdity—which principle is illustrated by the ease with which it settles public law,—the Monroe doctrine, and Pierces manifesto on de facto governments to wit. The expnnsiveness of American posterity, then, is one cause of the quarrel. -:sat strange as it may appear, what we have stated above is capable •of demonstration, viz., that in this enlistment dispute, the ostensible cause of quarrel has, of all things, the slightest reference thereto. First of all, it was asserted by Mr. Marcy that American law had been broken by carrying on enlistments in America. The reply which Lord Clarendon made to the charge went, as neatly through Mr. Marcy as a minie : bullet. But Mr. Marcy was not killed, he only, changed this ground. He retorted that if British agents had not broken the law, they had, at Lord Clarendon's instigation, evaded it, and consequently had infringed the States' sovereignty. And this retort, although alleging a far less tangible ground of offence than that which had so effectually been disposed of, has ever since constituted the stock-in-trade of Yankee blusterers and British malcontents. We know how thoroughly impracticable the American Cabinet can be and is; and how unwilling to "arrange" matters. The dislike of .England's offer of arbitration in the Central. American questionis the very latest instance. They must have all or none. There is no neutral

ground. Remembering this, therefore, we must be careful how to allow them to occupy any position, in the hope that negotiation or apology can induce them to abandon it. England is unanimously averse to another Avar, and with America above all other countries. What mighty interests would be brought to a dead stop, upon the first shot being fired ! In the year 1854, the value of our imports from the United.States was £29,795,590. In the same year the value of our exports of produce and manufactures was £21,410,369. On the American side, half of their whole export trade is sent to England. What suicidal folly would it be to interrupt this mutual blessing ! We hope the British Government will adopt a resolute attitude. Mr. Crampton has been sent home from Washington, and. Mr. Dallas will perhaps receive a hint that his presence is not n cessary in London, and then probably the sulky fit will cure itself. The citizens of Manchester have issued an address to the people of the United States, which has already been very numerously signed. The address purports to have been occasioned by the perilous condition into which the relations of these two great nations have been thrown by the mistakes or misconceptions of the respective Governments. The address states : —" We believe that much of the dispute which now emperils. the peace of the two countries has arfsen. in mistake, and not in design ; and we further believe that a calm and quiet survey of the question will even yet lead to a satisfactory solution of every difficulty, and to the removal of every cause of contention and complaint.". It concludes thus: " We therefore, brethren, implore sTou,5 Tou, to exert your utmost influence with the Government of the United States, in favour of this method of averting the calamities of war, assuring you, with all solemnity, that we do the same, to the fullest extent of our power, with the Government of her Majesty, the Queen of Great Britain, and sincerely praying that our mutual efforts may be attended with complete success." , The Scotch miners' strike, the most extensive and bitterly contested which has ever taken place in Scotland, has terminated. When it was at its height,a few weeks since, at least 40,000 men were in a state of voluntary idleness. The loss is enormous, and many days must elapse before the mining districts can recover their usual prosperity. It is calculated that the sacrifice in wages alone amounts to more than£soo,ooo; but to this must be added the. master's profit, and the dislocation, of business endured by all who depend upon the coal and. mining trades. The men have returned to their work in a very; gloomy mood, under a buuning sense of what they consider to be injustice. ;

The parliamentary proceedings have for the most part been devoid of interest. In the Commons, on the 9th instant, on the motion that the Oath of-Abjuration Bill he read a third time, Sir Frederic .Thesiger moved an amendment, the object of which was to obtain, the reinsertion of the words " on the true faith of a.Christian," which he contended was necessary to preserve the Christian character of the Legislature. On a division, the amendment was negatived by a majority of 159 against 78. On the 10th, Mr. Ewart moved for the appointment of a select committee, to inquire into the operation of the law imposing the punishment of death. The motion was resisted by Government, and, on a division, negatived by 158 against 64. On the 13th Lord Palmerston stated that the American Government expressed itself satisfied with the explanations offered .by Lord Clarendon ; but, for reasons sta'ed, it was not equally satisfied with Mr. Crampton's conduot and that of three of' our consuls, and the intention was to give Mr. Grawpion his

passport, and to withdraw the exequatur from the consuls. Mr. Oampton has since arrived in London, and will, we anticipate, be sacrificed to the exigencies of the situation, after all the talk of war. M. De Lamartine is said to be a ruined man, and to be on the point of emigrating to America. Dr. James Henry Monk, Bishop of Gloster and Bristol, died on the 6th instant: the deceased prjlate. was a distinguished classical scholar, and at the age of twenty-five succeeded Dr, Porson as Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge. In 1822 Lord Liverpool made him Dean of Peterborough, and in 1830 the Duke of Wellington promoted him to the bishopric of Bristol, with which that of Gloucester was afterwards united. Dr. Villiers, recently appointed Bishop of Carlisle, will take his seat in the House of Lord.N,in consequence of the death of Dr. Monk. The new Bishop of Gloucester will not be entitled to a seat until another vacancy occurs.

Oil the 14th instant, William Palmer, the Rufteley poisoner, paid the penalty of his crime on the scaffold at Stafford. For some days before, meetings had been held with a view of obtaining a reprieve for the condemned convict, and the papers teemed with letters intended to prove his innocence. These morbid movements of pfeverted minds were the more remarkable because they practically ignored the very first principle of English law—a code of jurisprudence which for the advantages it gives to a prisoner, and the latitude it affords to the influence of reasonable doubt, is perhaps unequalled in the world. The argument advanced in favour of a reprieve was simply this : that strychnine was not found in the body of the deceased, and that the prisoner was not seen to administer the poison. Of course, had either of these facts been demonstrated, there would have been an end of the case ; but it by no means follows that they were necessary to conviction. How many convictions would take place if a witness to the deed were necessary to the verdict? The utmost that can be 6aid of the chemical evidence is that it was contradictory. One man said that strychniue became decomposed in the system, another that it did not. Discarding such evidence altogether, and looking at the case without it, what, does the medical evidence say ? It shows that the death of Cook exhibited symptoms both in their character, order, and results, which are inconsistent with all known causes save stiyohnine. The medical evidence for the defence was disgraceful, and was completely overthrown by the skilful cross-examination of the Attor-ney-General. The defence, moreover, broke down, because they attempted to prove too much. Had they confined themselves to any one of the half-dozen theories that they suggested, they might have escaped disgrace ; but in their efforts to prove that Cook's death was referable to one of the six diseases which are so distinct'fromeach oUier as they ate from death by strychnine, they proved in effect that the science of medicine was a mere farrago of eniphicism. and that, necessarily, their own individual existence, at all events, was worthless. The medical evidence for the Crown was, on the other hand, consistent in itself and unimpeached. by the conflicting evidence for the defence. But the case for the prosecution was strong enough to dispense with nine-tenths of its own medical testimony, and to rest entirely upon the facts proved, and the only reasonable inferences to be drawu from those facts. Our law requires, not a spectator of the deed, but such a mass of circumstantial evidence as removes all doubt. Was there any doubt in the minds of the jury or of the judges r Not a shadow. And is there any sane man —excepting of course, Palmer's family and advocate—(and their sanity, that is to say, their moral perception

in a case of this kind is open to doubt) is there any man who can chmbt that William Palmer was John Parson Cook's poisoner? We believe not; although we are not constrained to think that some persons have cultivated a morbid sympathy for a man, who was a ruined'gambler, who robbed his friend and dosed him with antimony— who forged the name of his mother to the extent, of many thousands — who compelled bis wife to be the instrument of his frauds —who attempted to pass off the vilest shams on many insurance offices, who seduced the Rugeley Post-master to his ruin, whose particular friend was * Jerry Smith'- —who tampered with the course of justice by bribes of game, if not of" money—and who laboured under the suspicion of numerous still darker deeds. If ever capital punishment was a righteous retribution, it was in the case of Palmer—who died with great firmness, declaring to the last that he bad been unjustly convicted, and that Cook had not died from the effects of strychnine, and begging that the body might again be exhumed for the purposes of further examination. Twenty-five thousand persons, from all parts of the country, were present at the execution. The subject of public and private executions is exciting considerable attention at the present moment. A committee appointed at the instance of the Bishop of Oxford, is now holding its siiti gs. A step has been taken which has caused much remark, v«z.. the establishment of Prince Alfred at the 'Royal Lodge,' Windsor. Twelve is rather an early age to require a separate establishment, and the precedent is regarded with considerable apprehension. Recollections of the ' necessary provisions' called for from the country on behalf of the numerous family of George 111. come to mind- and make people uneasy. Prince Frederick of Prussia and the Princess Royal of England are now seen frequently together,vmd even at the theatres, so that their marriage may be regarded as settled. During the tim^ the young Prince has been in England he has been the almost constant companion of the D< ke of Cambridge. The Prince's sister, Louisa, will shortly visit this country, and as she is to marry the Regent of Baden, who is now here, there will be a reunion of lovers at Buckingham Palace. The Regent has nearly finished a grand four of the manufacturing districts and the lions of this country that are ordinarily visited by foreigners. The question of a dowry for the Princess Royal will soon be agitated, but the country is indisposed to sanction any heavy grant, especially as the Princess will some day, probably, be Queen of Prussia.

The French papers during the week, have been occupied with the very serious disasters caused by recent inundation's. The loes_ of property is peat, and hundreds of families have been, in a measure, ruined by this calamity. 'Large gums will, no doubi* b? contributed by the French Government, and the Emperor, who has displayed great activity and courage in visiting the scene of the inundations. A subscription has been opened in this country, the City of London taking theimmtivein a meeting convened hv the Lord Mayor at the Mansion Housp, Friday.—A secret soni-fy has bf en discovered in Madrid, which was organised for the purpose of assassinating the Queen. It fell to the lot of a young carpenter, named Fueulesj to do the deed, and he was only prevented from discharging1 a pistol at the carriage of the Princess Astwias by a police agent. This would-be assassin has made a statement implicating numerous other persons, who have als > been arrested, but. the result has no*; been allowed to transpire. Letters from Constantinople, speak of a great fermentation pie vailing among the Turk a on die subject of the recent conces-

sions to the Christians by ths Sultan. At Padgorizza the Turks have burnt two Roman Catholic churches, and killed two Christiaus ; at, Wiseki, near Montenegro, the Christians in order to avenge themselves for the continual outrages they meet, with have attacked and pillaged a caravan coming from Ragusa ; fourteen Turks were killed. —The reports of the state of trade in the manufacturing towns show, on the whole, a tendency to dnlness. At Manchester, the demand has been heavy, and there has been a gradual increase in the amount of business At Birmingham, the demand for iron has been limited, and prices affected by the uncprtainty of the American question. The Nottingham accounts describe increased purchases of lace for home consumption, and steady transactions also in hosiery. In the woollen districts there is an absence of activity. and sales have not kept pace with production. The Trish linen markets continue to exhibit great animation.

London, 19th June, 1856. We have, we trust, safely tided over those sunken reefs —the American difficulties. Mr. Crampton* s dismissal will not be followed by the dismissal of Mr. Dallas, the new American Minister here. The Foreign Enlistment, was an unpopular measure from the very first, and the country would not willingly have gone to war in its vindication. There was. however, some danger of a warlike, tendency arising out of the impression that President Pierce wished to bully the British Government. By a dexterous stroke of policy, however, exhibiting no small political skill. General Pierce and his colleagues have ceased to blame our Government, and made all their charges personal against Mr. Crampton, but professing the best feelings to the Government he represents. What is still more clever, they have invested Mr. Dallas, the new American Minister, at the Court of St. James, with special powers for the settlement of the Central American question, so that his dismissal in retaliation for that of Mr. Crampton would be tantamount to a rejection of friendly overtures with regard to the remaining matter of dispute. We must concede to this combined movement the merit of being well calculated to disarm the resentment, and to induce our Government to abstain from retaliation. Fairly viewing the circumstances, perhaps our Ministers could come to no other decision than that which they announced on Monday night, and by promptly resolving upon it, they too have gained an advantage over their political opponents, who will not be able to attack them for having abandoned Mr. Crampton. siwee they stood honourably by him so long as doing so could be of any'avail. The nomination of Mr. Buchanan for the Presidency by the democratic convention of Cincinnati, to the exclusion of Mr. Pierce, tends still further to strengthen the prospects of peace.—Dean Eliot, of Bristol; Dean Tait, of Carlisle; Dean Dawes of Hereford ; the Rev Dr. Robinson. Master of the -Temple ■; the Rev Dr. Carus ; the Hon. and Rev. J. T. Pelham, M.A. ; and the Rev. Dr. Thompson, Provost of the Queen's College, Oxford, are mentioned as likely to succeed the late Bishop of Gloucester. A subscription has been commenced to re-estabiish Mr. Barber, the attorney, who was tried and transported for participation in the Fletcher will forgeries, iv his profession. Among the contributois are the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop, of St. David's, Lords Kllesmere. Fortescue, Minto, St. Gennaitis ; Serjeant S fpheus, Wilkins, Parry, Sir F. Kelly ; Messrs. Koumiell, Palmer, Collier, M. Chambeis, &c.