FOREIGN EXTRACTS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume III, Issue 110, 12 February 1853, Page 4

FOREIGN EXTRACTS.

FRANCE,

Most of the Paris journals contain notices of the Duke of Wellington; a few short extracts may not be uuinteresting. The Conslitutionnd

says:—

" Everything- has already been said about the disastrous day of Waterloo, the remembrance of which excites every heart on the other side of the Channel, and is so painful to every French mind. But it maybe added that,henceforth, public opinion is formed on that battle, as glorious for our arms as it was unfortunate for our policy. The most competent judges have admitted that the dispositions of Napoleon must have infallibly succeeded—that victory was on our side until the arrival of the Prussians, and that the Duke of Wellington had committed an enormous fault .in placing his army in such a position that it-could not retreat. Let us, however, be just to every one. The fault of Lord Wellington powerfully served his. cause. In placing his soldiers in such a manner that they must either conquer or be destroyed, he gave additional force to the justlyrenowned solidity of English troops. He himself set them an example of determination carried to the length of heroism and of obstinacy, which became a military quality ; 600 officers fell around him, and- 10,000 soldiers perished before his eyes. The Cuirassiers of Kellerman, the old guard under Ney, fell on the immovea.ble squares, and his regiments disappeared one after the other, crushed beneath the avalanche of men and horses. Lord Wellington, on horseback, behind the English Hues, in the midst of a terrific fire, his countenance calm and serene, though with an air of sadness, replied to one of his Generals, who said to him, ' But if you should be struck, tell us what is your plan ?' £My plan, he replied, ' consists in dying here to the last man.' . . .

. . . To sum up, Lord Wellington was an English General in the full acceptation of the ■word, cool, calm, methodical, without enthusiasm, but without any false brilliancy, sure of himself, confident in his soldiers, and always firm both in good and bad fortune. It has justly been remarked that in the numerous dispatches which he published, and which form twelve enormous volumes, the word glory never occurs. His only dominant passion was love of his country. His conduct and his character may be summed up in a word—he was a Pitt on horseback."

The Patrie, a ministerial journal, says:— " The Duke of Wellington died full of days, overwhelmed with honours, with pensions and sinecures; but in this descending into the tomb, he must have carried with him the painful certainty that the undertaking to which he devoted his rare faculties was dead, and that the liberty for which he had refused to draw the sword had triumphed everywhere ; in his own country fi it of all, and in the rest of the world afterward? And, to complete his disappointment, tha he great name of Napoleon, which he had believed buried for ever under the pyramid of Mont St. Jean with the honour of France, had risen full of life and more popular than ever."

The Legitimist Assembles Rationale says :— " We Lave already spoken of the Duke of Wellington, and have retraced the principal circumstances of his glorious career. If we now return to this subject, it is to protest against the bad taste of some journals, who, in order to flatter the cause which now triumphs, draw comparisons between the Duke of Wellington and Napoleon Bonaparte This low rhetoric is of a nature to degrade us in the eyes of foreigners who read our journals and who take them for the expression of public opinion. Every great nation is animated with a national spirit, which has its inevitable prejudices. France and England will never a«ree on the manner of judging Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington. Is it, therefore, impossible, by rising above those passion of circumstances, to arrive at the truth with regard to these two illustrious rivals ? The year 1769 witnessed several glorious births, but certainly there was nothing more remarkable in that year than the simultaneous appearance on the sta»e of the world of the two men who were to meet nt Waterloo. It appears that Providence proposed to balance one by the other; to oppose to a great genius one of a quite contrary character and to bring in contact qualities and gifts of the

most dissimilar kind. The principal characteristics of the genius of Napoleon were a prodigious and insatiable imagination, aspiring to the impossible, aspiring to the impossible, the most vast and flexible faculties, hut also a singular mobility of ideas and impressions. A solid judgment, a cool reason, a wonderful justness of perception, both on the iield of battle and in the cabinet, the most penetrating good sense, amounting to a power which became genius; a perseverance which nothing could tire or turn aside, and the most unshakeable firmness in great danger ; such are some of the points which give the Duke of Wellington such a prominent figure in the history of the nineteenth century. It was at a giant's pace that Napoleon .ran through a career which was to lead him for a moment to the head of hnman things. By the rapidity of his progress he dazzled the world, and everything with him took the character of a magic improvisation. His rival, on the contrary, rose with modest and patient slowness by courageous reflection. He never drew back, however; he always went forward, and his glory followed a progression which escaped all reverses. To speak warmly to the imagination of men—to fascinate them— to excite their enthusiasm—and to labour.by every means to inspire them with an admiration, mingled with a little terror, was the constant study of Napoleon, who was far from disdaining artifice to effect his purpose. The Duke of Wellington never thought but of speaking to the reason ; he was never seen to do anything in a theatrical manner. Duty was the only mle which he admitted, and which he imposed on others. He had a horror of charlatanism and falsehood. He never sought to excite his soldiers, but sometimes he reminded them that they had to shed their blood because it was their duty. No astonishment will therefore be felt at the difference in the eloquence and the style of the two Generals. In the proclamations of Napoleon, particularly in those of the campaigns of Italy, is to be found a powerful orator, who, in the manner of the ancients, engraves great events in the minds of those to whom he addressed himself. The orders of the day, the despatches, and the reports of the Duke of Wellington were written with a cold and austere simplicity. Nothing is given for effect—everything is positive and true. The Emperor Napoleon and' the Duke of Wellington were not only great captains ; they have also been called on to play great political parts. History will, perhaps, decide that in Bonaparte the organiser was equal to the conqueror. It must not, however, be forgotten that the possession and the use of the sovereign power smoothed down many obstacles. With despotism great things are often easy. It was in a free country that, during thirty seven years—from 1815 to 1852—the Duke of Wellington enjoyed an unequalled influence and authority. Placed by his birth, and injure particularly by his glory, at the head of the English aristocracy, he belonged, truly speaking, to* no party. Ii may be said that in the bosom of the constitutional liberty of his country the Duke of Wellington exercised a kind of moial dictatorship. The personal force which he was able to give or to withhold from the Government was immense

The end and fall of the Emperor Napoleon are the last points of contrast which we pointed out. at the outset. The Emperor fell—the scaffolding crumbled away—and he who raised it with heroic temerity only survived his irreparable shipwreck for a few years in exile. His fortunate rival, after a day by which the face of Europe was changed, saw open beiore him another career, which procured for him a new glory between peace and liberty, and which has only just finished in the midst of the unanimous regret and gratitude of a great country."

Cardinal Wiseman presided over a grand ceremony at Camhrai, to inaugurate a miraculous statue of the Virgin, stated to have caught cannon-halls in its apron upon the occasion of a siege. His Eminence also headed a procession of another miraculous picture of the Virgin, of which the tradition is that it was painted "by St. Luke. In the procession a number of young maidens in opera-girl muslin, with wings glued to their shoulders, personified angels.

The Union de VOuest publishes' the following letter, addressed to it by M. Shmlien, Professor of Miuhematics at the School of Ann of Augers:

" In your number of the 15th ultimo, you announce from a letter which I had sent to you some smprising Tacts which occurred on the holy mountain of La SaleUe on the Ist of July,

the eve of the fete of the Visitation of the Virgin. I now send you the details. A young pupil at the religious establishment of the Visitation at Valence, who had been for three months completely blind from an attack of gutta serena, arrived at LaSalette on the Ist of July, in company with some sisters of the community. The extreme fatigue which she had undergone in order to reach the summit of the mountain, at the place of the appavation, caused some anxiety to be felt that she could not remain fasting until the conclusion of the mass, which had not commenced^; and the Abbe Sibilla, one of the missionaries of La Salette, was requested to administer the sacrament to her before the service began. She had scarcely received the sacred wafer, when, impelled I) 3' a sudden inspiration, she raised her head and exclaimed, ' Ma bonne mere, je vous vois.' She had, in fact, her eyes fixed on a statue of the Virgin, which she saw as clearly as any one present. For more thaa an hour she remained plunged in an ecstacy of gratitude and love, and afterwards retired from the place without requiring the assistance of those who accompanied her. At the same moment a woman from Gap, nearly 60 years of age, who for the last 19 years had not had the use of her right arm in consequence of a dislocation, suddenly felt it restored to its original state, and, swinging round the once paralysed limb, she exclaimed in a transport of joy and gratitude, 'And I also am cured!' A third cure, although not instantaneous, is not the less striking. Another woman, known in the country for many years as being paralytic, could not ascend the mountain but with the greatest difficulty, and with the aid of crutches. On the first day of the neuvaine, that of her arrival, she felt a sensation as if life was coming into her legs, which had been for so long dead; this feeling went on increasing; and the last day of the neuvaine,after having received the communion, she went without any assistance to the cross of the Assumption, where she hungup her crutches. She also was cured !"

The Moniteur mentions the discovery by some gentlemen staying at Bagneres often bodies of travellers buried in the snow of the Pyrenees, all of them covered with bruises and cuts, and had near them sticks like those used in mountainous ascents. It was evident that they had fallen from some height, and rolled from rock to rock. They were all about 30 years of age. They were conveyed to the bottom of the mountain and buried.

General Haynauhas been mobbed at Brussels. Presenting himself at Vauxhall, lie was soon surrounded and greeted with hooting and cries of' Down with the executioner.' General Chazel and a body of soldiers arrived and afforded him protection from further violence,though a crowd, groaning and hooting, followed him to his hotel. A well-dressed lady called him 'Hyena.' General Chazel assured him that the mob consisted of French refugees, but on some being seized they were found to be Belgians and were at once released. General Haynau, having a second time braved the mob, took his departure for Paris, where he now remains. One day the General dined with a large party at the house of one of the leading financiers. There were several French officers of high rank present, and in the course of the evening one of them, whilst, paying some compliments to Haynau on his military skill, frankly observed that he was sorry nothing had been done to clear his character from the stigma attached to it by the report that he had ordered a female to be flogged. General Haynau said:

" I had intended to leave to history the task of doing me justice; but I am thankful to you, Sir, for giving me this opportunity of contradicting an infamous calumny. It is quite true that a female was flogged. The Countess ,on the abdication of thy' predecessor of my Emperor, in order to express her joy, had a figure representing him dressed up, and, with her entire household, went through the farce of interment with the most ontrageous insults to that illustrious personage. The Captain Chief d'Escadron, who was in the place, heaving of the affair, arrested the Countess, and ordered her to be flogged. This is true, but I declare on the honour of a soldier (surmon honneur comtne militaire), which t holdjsacred, that when this occurred I was at a distance of 60 leagues from the place, and when I heard of it I expressed my indignation, and ordered the Chef d'Escadron to be placed under arrest for his conduct." After some further explanations, General Haynau said : ■" I do not deny that I have been severe. I represented a brave army exposed to everything infamous, and I was desirous of showing that I was jealous of its honour. I regard war, gentlemen, as the greatest scourge that can be inflicted on humanity, and consider that a severity

■which is likely to hasten the triumph of one of the contending parties is the best sort of humanity that can be practised. It has been said that in cold blood I ordered at one time the execution of 18 persons. These persons were condemned by the military tri"bunals. I had nothing to do with their condemnation. I could have saved their lives, but my conscience would not permit me to do so. An example ■was necessary, and I allowed justice to take its course. My conscience does, not reproach me for this severity." The following are the details of the conspiracy to assassinate the President of the Republic, published in the Moniteur : — a The Minister of General Police has for some time past been on the trace of a secret society, *■ of which the object became every day more ■manifest. The members had resolved to make an attempt on the life of the President. The city of Marseilles had been chosen for the execution of the plot. M. Sylvain Blot, InspectorOeneral of the Ministry of Police, carefully followed its developemeut and progress. The construction of an infernal machine having been resolved on, several of the members set to work, gtnd the machine was quickly completed. It is composed of 250 gun barrels, and four large "blunderbuss barrels, the entire divided into 28 compartments. Those 28 pieces were for greater precaution deposited in 28 different places until "fciie moment a suitable place could be found to fix and put the machine together. The conspis*ators then occupied themselves with the choice of a situation, which should naturally be situate on the passage of the Prince President. They first fixed their choice on a first story in a house in the Rue d'Aix, whither they were to remove . and raise the machine on the night previous to ■fcliat in which the President was to arrive at H&Harseilles. Some suspicions which were excited in the minds of the conspirators caused them to ena.nge their idea, and a second locality was clxosen. Like the first, it was situate on the [passage of the President, behvjf on the high road fkrom Aix. An entire house was hired. It is a small house, composed of two stories, with two windows in front. The infernal machine was to liave been placed on the first floor. It was seized on that spot. At the same moment one of the conspirators was in the very house in wnich the internal machine was found. The otners were in their houses, or in the different places where the police were assured of thenis x-eseuce." ITALY. The Duke of Parma, a young Prince, is just xio"W absent without leave from his dominions. It appears that lie is married to a lady older than himself, with whom he is not on the best of terms, but who with the assistance of his ro.ot.lier and aunt, has endeavoured to turn his attention from field sports to the cabinet. FailIng- in this, it is siiitl the Princess intended appealing to tfiu Ci>urt of Vienna to transfer the sovereignty of the state from the hands of her spox'ting husband to her own. This my lord not very surprisingly objected to. He set out one day under a pretext of inspecting his troops, numbering it is said 81 men, but in reality for Vienna, to anticipate his ambitious spouse. Arriving- at Placentia he sent back his two aides-de-camp, one with a despatch to his mother, containing a blank piece of paper, the other addi-essed to the first minister, investing his confidential sigeut, Thomas Ward, with full powers and title of regent, and has not himself since been heard of. The more curious part of tiie story yet remains behind, viz., the history of tlxe said Thomas Ward, which is thus related fay ttie correspondent of the Daily News : —

The elevation of Ward to the regency of Parma is not only an instance of the mutability of is. v man affairs, but of the tendency of the Anglo-Saxon race, when transplanted to foreign cou.il tries, to emerge to eminence, and surpass otliers by the homely but rare qualities of common sense and unfaltering energy. Ward, as your readers are perhaps aware, was a Yorkshire groom. The Duke of Lucca, who obtainecl., by his fall from horseback in Eottonrow, the familiar sobriquet of 'filthy lucre,' spying- the lad's merit, took him into his service, and promoted him through the several degrees of command in his stables, to be headgroom of the ducal stud. Upon Ward's arrival in I inly with his master, it was soon found that the Intelligence which he displayed in the rannagesnent of the stables was applicable to a variety of other departments. In fact, the Duke hiul such a high opinion of Ward's wisdom that he very rarely omitted to consult him upon any question that he was perplexed to decide; and

the success which never failed to crown Ward's advice gave him, in the eyes of the feeble descendant of the Spanish Bourbons, the prestige of infallibility. As Louis XII. used to answer those who applied to him on any business, by referring them to the Cardinal d'Amboise, with the words, ' Ask George/ so Charles of Lucca cut short all applications with ' Go to Ward.' The expenses of the stable having been reduced to less than half under his administration, while the Duke's horses were the envy of all Italy, ifc struck the Prince naturally enough that it would be a good thing if the same economy could be introduced into other departments. So Ward tried his hand on one thing and the other, continually enlarging his sphere of influence, until from horsehold matters he passed to those connected with the State ; which, indeed, is such a miniature affair that it does not greatly pass the limits of some private domestic establishments.. Ward, now become the factotum of the Prince, won in the disturbances which preceded the revolutionary year of 1848 a diplomatic dignity, and was despatched to Florence upon a confidential mission of the highest importance. He was deputed to deliver to the Grand Duke the act of abdication of the Duke of Lucca. At first the Grand Duke was doubtful whether he could receive in a diplomatic capacity a messenger of whom he had only heard in relation to the races of the Cascine, where Ward hud been in the habit of riding as a jockey. But it soon appeared that the Lucchese envoy had in his pocket a commission making him the viceroy of the Duke's states, which was to be acted upon in case the Grand Duke made any difficulty, or even if he refused to receive Ward as the ambassador of the states of Parma at the capital of the Medicis. Soon after, in 1849, when the Duke of Lucca resigned his other states to his son, Ward became the head counsellor of the hopeful prince, who has thus been able to • follow out a sporting bent under the best auspices, while he had a minister whose shrewd sense was move than a match for the first diplomatists in Italy. Ward w;is on one occasion despatched to Vienna in a diplomatic capacity. Schwarzenbevg w;\s astonished at his capacity; in fact, the ci-divant Yorkshire stable boy was the only one of the diplomatic body that could make head aguiust the impetuous counsels, or rather dictates, of Sclnvarzenberg ; and this was found highly useful by other members of the diplomatic body. Among others, MeyendorfF, the Russian ambassador, cultivated him greatly; An English gentleman, supping one night at the Russian ambassador's, complimented him upon his excellent ham. 'There's a member of our diplomatic corps here,' replied Meyendorff, ' who supplies us with hams from Yorkshire, of which county he is a native.' Ward visited England. The broad dialect and homely phrase betraying his origin through the profusion of orders of all countries sparkling on his breas', he rarely ventured to appear at evening soirees. Lord Palmerston remarked that he was one of the most remarkable men he ever met with. Ward, through all his vicissitude, has preserved an honest pride iv his native country. He does not conceal his humble origin. The portraits of his parents, in their homespun clothes, appear in the splendid saloon of the prime minister of Parma." RUSSIA. A letter from St. Petersburgh states, that in th^ province of Jakoulsky (Siberia), the surface of which is equal to that of the whole of Europe, the Greeo-Hussian missionaries have constructed a kind of portable church, which can be erected and taken down at pleasure. Its several parts are placed on wheels, and in this way it has, iv the space of eight months, gone over the greater part of the province. About 1,500 idolaters have, it is stated, during that period received baptism. It is related of the Czar Unit he is very diligent in inspecting public schools, often leaving his iron camp bedstead in the middle of the night for the purpose, and, quitting his palace on foot, enters the first hackney carriage he meets with. "In one of his nocturnal excursions the snow was falling in heavy flakes, and an islworstchik took him to one of the most distant quarters of the city. The sledge waited for him a long time, and when the Emperor returned, he wished to pay the coachman before he got again into the vehicle; but he found that he had no money. The driver replied that it was of no consequence, and when the Czar was

==- — e~ seated, he said, without thinking, ' Na doma' (home). The man whipped his horse iwto a gallop, and drove to tin winter p;tlace, where he stopped. . The Emperor, surprised, asked the man if he knew him. He replied no, and on the following night received a royal gift, not for his veracity but his discretion. In his nocturnal visits to the schools the Emperor examines carefully the thermometers in the corridors, to see if the persons charged with the fires keep up the prescribed degree of heat. He then inspects all the rooms, to see if they are in good order, and examines the beds of the pupils, their linen, and their bodies, to ascertain if they are kept with proper cleanliness. Sometimes, in order to judge of their physical strength, he provokes them to a wrestling match." PRUSSIA. The Times correspondent relates the particulars of the first execution under the new law, avoiding the scandal attending public decapitations. The prisoner was a peasant condemned for the murder of his uncle, and he suffered in. presence only of the officials and a few persons admitted by ticket. Tied to the block the excutioner struck off his head atone blow:—" To those without the walls the time of the execution was only known by the tolling of the prison bell from the moment the criminal was brought out till the axe descended. The body was placed, in a plain coffin, and interred without any religious rites in the neighbouring burial-ground. A written placard posted in the entrance of the district court during the day was all the notice the public received of the last solemn act of justice. It will only be heard of like a fire or any other daily catastrophe, and will make less impression than the account of a railway accident. The Gazette gives, under the title of ' Warning,' a brief statement of the crime (which, was committed on the 6th March, 1549), and an extract from the sentence, with a note stating that 'it has been this i!ay executed.'