RUSSIA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume X, Issue 635, 8 December 1858, Page 5

RUSSIA.

The Emperor Alexander has conferred upon Prince Gortschakoff, Minister for Foreign Affairs, the decoration of the Imperial Order of St. Anne, and at the same time he addressed a letter to the Prince, complimenting him on the good understanding he has established between Russia and the European powers since the conclusion of the peace, and on the completion of treaties which have put an en& to the misunderstanding which existed relative to the frontiers of Russia and China, which treaties, the Emperor says, opened new commercial relations with that empire. The St. Petersburg journals announce what they call ■' a decisive defeat of Schamyl." The intrepid mountaineer was led into an ambush, and the Russian general, by a skilful manoeuvre, divided his forces, and attacked the Circassians right and left. Of course the Russian loss was nominal, and that of their enemies very great. . Among the trophies the Muscovites profess to ■ have captured was Schamyl's own tent. j 'Le Nord' is trying to excite the fears ot i Europe. This journal, which professes to re- j present Russian opinion in the West, states that | the Grand Duke Constantine is about to visit Villifranca, under the pretence of his wife s indisposition, and, in truth, to review the Muscovite naval force in the Mediterranean. Hie | Russian navy in this sea will surely not require much of his attention. Meanwhile the Paris correspondent ot tne 'Times' says that the story about lvussias Gibraltar in the Mediterranean has been a most successful canard. The acquisition, by a Russian mercantile company, of a few coal sheds, is i a peril only to one power, and that power ot a political and commercial, but not of a warlike character. Russia is now preparing a _ formidable opposition to the great steam navigation of the Austrian Lloyd's. Austria dreads the development of tho Russian commercial steam navy, fearing to see Eastern commerce change its track from Trieste to Piedmont.

An extraordinary trial has taken place at the Stafford assizes to test the validity of a will. The issue was directed by the Court of Chancery, and it arose out of a contest for the property of the late Samuel Swinfen, a contest that has now been carried on in the law Courts for some time. Samuel Swinfen died on the 7th July, 1854. Nineteen days before his death he made his will, leaving a large amount of property to the widow of his son who a few days before had died. Then Francis Swinfen, the son of the testator's eldest half brother, put in a claim for the whole property as heir at law. At the Stafford Assizes in IBSC the i>arties through their counsel, Sir Frederick Thesiger and Sir Alexander Cockburn, agreed to a compromise, but Mrs. Swinfen declined to carry it out, alleging that it was made in defiance of her express instructions. The Court of Common Pleas refused to enforce it, and the Court of Chancery, refusing a similar appeal from Mr. Francis Swinfen, sent the case down again for a second trial. This trial lasted four days. A vast number of witnesses were examined—lawyers, medical practitioners, servants, tradespeople. The heir at law admitted that the will was properly drawn and properly executed, but he contended that Mr. Samuel Swinfen, an infirm old man eighty-one years of age, was incompetent to make a will in July, 1854. As is usual in these cases the evidence %vas very conflicting, and the issue depended on a number of minute particulars; but there could be no doubt that Samuel Swinfen was in a very weak state of body and mind when he made his will. Still it did not appear that he had intended to show any favour to the children of his halfbrother, but on the contrary that he regarded them with some antipathy, and it did appear that he was well disposed to his son and his son's wife. The Jury were of opinion that the will was valid, and they returned a verdict for the plaintiff. This was received with much cheering in the court, and the mob testified their sympathy with the lady when she appeared in the streets.