European Intelligence.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XIV, 10 November 1855, Page 2

European Intelligence.

[Collected from the late Papers.]

A movement in favour of the suspension of business on Sundays is gaining ground in Paris, and associations to effect that object have been formed all over France.

Apartments are being arranged at St. Cloud for the reception of her Majesty and Prince Albert, who are expected in Paris early in August. The chateau will form a delightful residence for her Majesty. The interior is very beautifully furnished, and rich in Gobelin tapestry, Sevres china, and other elegancies which the Queen is known to appreciate so highly. The Pare de St. Cloud will afford an agreeable promenade for the royal visitors, and the chateau being so near Paris ensures every convenience to be desired. Her Majesty will certainly meet with a hearty reception. It was rumoured that General Pelissier, whose management on the 18th of June had been severely censured, would be removed from the command, and replaced by General Bosquet, who had already been removed from the Tchernaya, and had resumed his old position before Sebastopol. Reinforcements of 40,000 men were ordered to be at once embarked from Marseilles.

Prince Gortschakoff had reinforced Liprandi's corps, and asked for 24,000 men more, which would be sent from the Polish army. It was feared at Odessa that the camp at Nicolaieff as well as Kherson would be visited by the Allies. The former had been largely extended.

The quantity of wheat saved from Kertsch was said to be sufficient to feed the Allied armies for nearly a month. The Turkish contingent force under General Vivian was progressing towards efficiency. On the 21st June there were 5,000 men, and before the 30th 5,000 more were to be given over to our officers.

A company of 60 volunteer riflemen from Canada had arrived at New York, en route for the Crimea.

About 900 men of the British Foreign Legion, two-thirds of them the rifle corps from Heligoland, were paraded on the 6th of July at Shorncliffe. Many of them were formerly oflicers in the Austrian and Prussian armies. These all entered as privates, but were made sub-officers.

A schism had taken place in the United States among the Know-nothing party, principally on account of the slavery question ; and a strong reaction has set in against the Maine Liquor Law, to oppose which large meetings had been held ; whilst eminent lawyers had given it as their opinion that the law is unconstitutional in most of its provisions.

South Coast Defences. — Works of considerable importance for the defence of the southern coast are now in progress in Sussex, the expenses of which were set down in the Ordnance estimates at £10,000. From Romney, in Kent, to Newhaven, there are 74 martello towers, which were erected when England was threatened with invasion by the first Napoleon. They are about a quarter of a mile apart, about 35 feet high, and fitted for one gun on a dwarf traversing platform. Each of these is calculated to hold 1 2 men, and underneath are magazines and stores. Near Eastbourne is the Langley Redoubt, mounting six 8-inch guns ; and the Circular Redoubt at Eastbourne mounts eleven 24-pounders. A new tattery is in. course of erection at Ouelcmore, when, completed it will mount six 24pounders. At Blatchington and Newhaven new fortifications are also being erected. The latter place is becoming a port of considerable importance, and at the mouth of the harbour extensive works are in course of construction. They are to present an angular front to the

sea ; internally there will be brickwork. The batteries will be composed of earthwork, 30 feet thick, rising 9 feel above the level of the eastern pier. The dimensions of the works are 112 feet from each of the angles in the interior. The magazines are of brickwork, and 50 feet square. Each front of the batteries will mount three guns of heavy calibre on swivels. At Brighton there is a battery of six 24-pounders, and thence to Little Hampton the coast is unprotected. At the latter place new fortifications have been just completed and armed : six field-pieces were also placed there lately for the use of the Sussex Artillery Militia. The whole of the above forts, except Brighton, are occupied by the Sussex and Norfolk Artillery Militia. The number of in London, for the week ending July 14, -was about 100 below corrected,average of the last ten years. On the 17th July 1 Mr. Roebuck brought his motion for a vote of censure on the -Government before the House of Common^. It was rejected by a large majority, 289 against, and 183 for it; majority 106. The" result was received with loud and continued cheering. A Hamburg despatch, of the 19 July, states that an immense fire broke out during the great fair at Novogorod, in Russia. The loss is estimated at 3,000,000 of roubles.

The Duke of Cambridge had been appointed to the chief command of the Foreign Legion, for which recruits were coming in from all quarters. A fatal encounter had taken place on the West Coast of Africa, between our troops and a native Bang, at Malicoune River : one hundred lives were lost.

The Russian Admiral Machimoff was killed at Sebastopol by a ball in the forehead, while in the centre of a bastion.

Admiral Lyons was seriously ill. Fatigue, and the loss of his son, had severely affected him.

What Lord Dundonald did do.— Ad officer describing what Lord Dundonald did at Basque Roads, in 1809, says : — " Our fire-ships were sent in, each conducted by a lieutenant and five men. . . . The fire-ships having done little good, the small craft and frigates were or* dered in to attempt to destroy them. The place where they lay was like Portsmouth Harbour, under the fire of two batteries, each of wbieb had three tier of guns of twenty-nine each, all heavy metal. . . . Our ship was clear for action in fifteen minutes, and in half an hour we were alongside of three sail of the line, when we opened a dreadful cannonsde on them, which continued an hour and a quarter, when the Warsaw,, a fine 80 gun ship, and the Aquilon, struck to as. We were aiow in a very critical state ourselves, being in only five fathom water, which was ebbing very fast. .The batteries on shore, having got our length, struck us almost every shot for the last quarter of an hour. Luckily, a breeze springing up, we got into deeper water. ... At nine | they were all in flames, and at two in the morning they blew up with a tremendous explosion. . . . The captain of the Warsaw is on board our ship ; be says they were bound out to' relieve Martinique with troops and provisions. . . . Lord Cochrane caused about 1,500 barrels of gunpowder to be started into puncheons, which were placed end upwards. Upon the tops were placed between 300 and 400 shells, charged, with fuses; and, again, among and upon these were between 2,000 and 3,000 hand grenades. The puncheons were fastened to each other by cables wound ronnd them, and jammed together with wedges, and moistened sand was rammed down between these casks, so as to render the whole, from stem to stern, as solid as possible, that the resistance might render the explosion more violent. In this immense instrument of destruction Lord Cochrane committed himself, with only one lieutenant and four seamen ; and, after the boom was broken, his lordship proceeded with this explosion ship towards the enemy's line. Let it be recollected that at this moment the batteries on shore were provided with furnaces to fire red-hot shot, and then bis lordship's danger in this enterprise may be properly conceived. The wind blew a gale, and the tide ran three knots an hour. . . . When Lord Cocnrane had conducted his explosion ship as near as was possible, the enemy having taken the alarm, he ordered his brave little crew into the boat, and followed them, after potting fire to the fose, which was calculated to give them fifteen minutes to get out of the reach of the explosion. However, in consequence of the wind Retting very high, the fuse burnt too quickly, so that, with the most violent exertion against wind and tide, this intrepid little party was six minutes nearer than - they calculated to be at the time when the most tremendous explosion that human art ever con* trived took place, followed by the bursting at once in the air of near 400 shells and 3.000 band grenades, pouring down a shower of cast metal in every direction. But, fortunately, our second Nelson was spared, the boat having reached, by unparalleled exertion, only just beyond the extent of destruction. . . . The repetition of this explosion was so dreaded by the enemy, that they apprehended an equal explosion in every fire-ship ; and, immediately crowding all sail, ran before the wind and tide so fast that the fire-ships, though at first very near, could not overtake them until they were high and dry on shore, except three seventyfours, besides the Calcutta, which were afterwards engaged, taken, and burnt. Our hero soon turned his attention to rescue the vanquished from the devouring elements; and. in bringing away the people from the Ville de Varsovie, he would not allow even a dog to be abandoned, but took a crying and now neglected little favourite up into his arms and brought it away, It may be sopposed that he has conveyed this fortunate little trophy into the bosom of his family, where it ought to be ever cherished as an instance of bis generous care. But a still greater instance of his goodness was displayed in his humanity to a cap* tain of a French seventy-four, who came to deliver his sword to Lord Cochrane, lamenting that all he bad in the world was about to be destroyed by the conflagration of his ship. His lordship got into the boat with him, and pushed off to assist his prisoner in retrieving some valuable loss ; but, in passing by a seventy-four, which was on fire, her loaded guns began to go off, a shot from which killed the French captain by Lord Oochrane s side, and so damaged the boat that she filled with water, and the rest of this party were nearly drowned." In a letter in the papers, on Thursday, Lord Dondonald writes:-" I am " a loss to conceive the cause why I have not been called on to explain any difficulty or doubt as to the practicability of my plans, if. in the opinion of a scientific and professional commission, such in reality exists^. Assuredly it cannot be that my plans are now he^ sitatingly delayed lest it should be inferred from tbeir success that, had they been attended to when privately offered, or even when secretly communicated, nine-tentus of the delay, loss, expense, and (I may add) yet further cost and impending dangers, entailed by defective plans and inadequate measures, might have been avoided. I repeat my unshaken confidence in the efficiency of my plans, and my readiness thereby to overcome all resistance throughout the Baltic." — Liverpool Journal.