Fortign gait tolouial.

grattrt.—The treaty of peace was signed at Paris, by the Plenipo- tentiaries of the seven Powers, some time between one and two o'clock on Sunday. It had been preceded by a Council of Ministers at. the Tuileries, over which the Emperor presided, and from which Count Wa- lewski went to preside Over the Conference. Seven copies of the treaty had been prepared. The Plenipotentiaries of each contracting Power signed-first the copy reserved for their Government, and then the other Plenipotentiaiies signed in alphabetical order. In this manner, each con- tacting Power figuring at the head of the signatures of the copy which it is to ratify, all difficulties as to etiquette or precedence were set aside. To each signature was immediately attached the private seal of each Plenipotentiary. The treaty was signed with a pen pulled from the wing of the Imperial eagle" in the Tardin des Plantes. "The state- ment-that it was ornamented with precious stones is contradicted. Im- mediately after the signature, the pen was attached to a sheet of paste- board, and surrounded by the seals of each of the Powers represented at the Congress, and by the signatures of the Plenipotentiaries. M. Feuillet de Conches the chef du bureau of the protocols, wrote underneath as follows—' I certify that this pen was pulled by me from the Imperial eagle of the Tardin des Plantes, and that it is the pen which was used for the signature of the treaty of peace of March 1856.' The pasteboard was afterwards framed and glazed, to be presented to the Empress."

As soon as the treaty was signed, a signal was given to the artillery- men at the Invalides and a salute of 101 guns first proclaimed the fact to Paris. About half-past two o'clock, M. Pietri, the Prefect of the Seine, caused a placard to be posted at the Bourse announcing the signa- ture of the treaty. When they had completed their task, the Plenipo- tentiaries waited on the Emperor, at the Tuileries.

"He is said to have expressed his thanks to the Plenipotentiaries for having come in Orson to him with such agreeable tidings. He observed that the result of their labours during the conferences was the complete realization of the speech delivered by Lord Clarendon in the House of Lords, and that the Peace which the Allies were determined on concluding was one which carried with it no humiliation to Russia, and which did not compro- mise the dignity or independence of any one; it was, in fact, such as a great nation might propose or accept without degradation, and it therefore had all the elements of solidity and durability; and he added, that so favourable a result Was in a great measure owing to the conciliatory spirit and modera- tion which marked the policy of England, and which was particularly felt in the course of the present conferences."

In the everting there was what is called a "spontaneous illumination" in Paris ; but the spontaneity had been long prepared. It was very general, and very brilliant ; and the Parisians are evidently delighted at the close of the war.

On Monday the event was formally announced in an Imperial mes- sage to the Senate and the Legislative Body ; and the Emperor sent his thanks to them for their patriotism in supporting the war. That even- ing there was an " official " illumination, as distinguishel from the -" spontaneous" one of Sunday.

On Tuesday the Emperor reviewed 60,000 men in the Champ de Mars. Count Orloff rode close beside him all day. The ifoniteur is careful to point Out that the Emperor only wore one foreign order—the order of the Garter. The day was fine, and the military display was very successful. In the evening, Count Walewski entertained all the Plenipotentiaries, the Diplomatic Body, and the chief Officers of State. The Moniteur records the fact that Count Walevrski proposed, as a toast, The per- manenttluration of the peace.' 'The peace will be a lasting one,' he said, since it is honourable for all.' All the guests received this toast with the most marked satisfaction." But nobody made a reply.

- The Paris correspondent of the Times tells a curious story respecting an incident in the _Conferences, which, although it may not be closely accurate, is true-looking, and well worthy of attention. The writer says that his information came from a source so respectable that he ventures to assert that "something of the kind took place." In the first place, Count Cavour demanded that Sardinian vessels should not, either in ascending or descending the Danube, suffer any impediments. This was favourably received by the English, French, and Russian Plenipotentiaries —not so favourably by Count Buol on behalf of Austria. Count Cavour took a bolder step—he drew the attention of the Congress to the state of Italy.

Entering into details, " he dwelt on the danger of leaving so important a question undecided, and declared that the Congress ought not to separate without coining to some decision on the question. Count Buol expressed

his surprise that such a subject should be brought before Plenipotentiaries

assembled in congress on the Eastern and not on the Italian question, and maintained that it was not within their functions. Count Cavour disputed that opinion • he denied that the question was less Italian than European, and maintained that, as they were there met on matters relating to the general interest and welfare of Europe at large, Italy was a perfectly legiti- mate subject for their consideration. He declared that if something were not now done another Congress would have to assemble soon again. Count Buol disputed the right of Count Cavour to speak in the name of Italy : he was in Paris simply as the Plenipotentiary of the Piedmontese Government, and he had no authority to speak in the name of the Pope, the King of Naples, or the Grand Duke Of Tuscany. Count Cavour replied, that he was there as an Italian, and that his right to speak for Italy was not less than that as- sumed by Count Buol, who spoke throughout in the name of Germany, whereas Austria was but a single member of the Confederation. Count Buol denied the analogy sought to be established between the two countries ; the States of Italy had no resemblance to the Germanic Confederation : Austria was the most important member of that Confederation ; as such she presided at the Diet, and therefore wherever Germanic interests were dis- cussed the Plenipotentiary of Austria was perfectly entitled, where no other Germanic representative was present, to speak in the name of the whole : but such was not the case with Sardinia. With respect to the occupation of yart of Italy by foreign troops, which, he presumed, was one of the grievances, it hardly became the Congress to discuss that point, seeing that one of the first effects of the resolution adopted by the Congress would be the oc- cupation of part of the Sultan's dominions by French, English, and, if needbe, by Sardinian troops. He again questioned the propriety of introducing a topic with which in nowise the present Congress had anything to do. Count Cavour said, that the object for which the Allied troops were to occupy the Sultan's dominions was very different from the occupation of Italy by foreign troops. The allies had made war in defence of the independence and in- tegrity of Turkey, that independence and integrity having been endangered by Russia. The situation of Turkey as it was, and the peculiar condition of the subjects of the Sultan, were among the causes of that danger. The obligation imposed on the Allies was to protect the Porte not merely from immediate but from future peril, and the way to do so was by the removal of the causes which led to it. The Allies were not only bound to aid Turkey in her resistance to Russia, but also to aid her in preventing the recurrence of aggression. This prevention was by means of the reforms in the in- ternal administration of the country, which the Ottoman Government had resolved on adopting; and the occupation of Turkey by the troops of the Powers in alliance with her was only with the view of enabling the Sultan to carry out those reforms. The Italian occupation was for a different object ; it was for the protection of Governments who refused to introduce any reforms. M. Cavour also denied that the introduction of the Italian question was inopportune, or that it took the Congress by surprise. The observations which, he contended, he had a right to make, were nothing more than the development of a memorandum which had been drawn up by the Sardinian Government, at the request of the Emperor Napoleon, and presented to his Majesty. He made some further observations in the same sense, and again entreated the Congress to take the question into con- sideration as, if they did not, he feared that before two years passed away the Italian question would force itself on the attention of Europe."

The Journal des Dads gives some particulars respecting points agreed to in the Conference, and its information is ascribed to the Russian Pleni-

potentiaries. The points stated are these. The treaty consists of a pre- amble and thirty-four articles. In the preamble is a declaration, pro- posed by Lord Clarendon, that the peace is due in an especial manner to the personal efforts of the Emperor of the French. The articles are, in substance, that no part of the Turkish empire shall continue to be oc- cupied by the Allied armies ; that the Hatti-Scherif shall not be annexed to the treaty of peace ; that the Danube shall be absolutely free to the mercantile marine of the whole world. The " Congress" has become a sort of tribunal of European public law, to take note of what may be-

come the subject of new conflicts. The state of .Italy, and the war which the Governments wage against popular parties, and the reforms ne- cessary to prevent revolution, were mentioned : the competency of the Congress to discuss such questions was debated, and it was resolved to return to them.

It is noticed as a "most remarkable coincidence" that Count Orloff "is the identical individual who, on the 30th of March 1814, being then Colonel Orloff, aide-de-camp to the Emperor Alexander, affixed the first signature to the capitulation of Paris ; and on the 30th of March 1856, he signed the treaty of peace of the Congress of Paris."

The Noniteur states that "the Emperor has just decided that the soldiers of the class of 1848, who have hitherto been kept in service in

virtue of the Army Recruiting Bill of the 21st of March 1832, shall be sent back to their homes. The Minister of War has given orders for this liberation to be immediately carried out." A body of troops between 6000 and 7000 strong are to be embarked immediately for Algeria.

1155i .—The style of proclaiming peace at St. Petersburg would seem to show that Russia considers herself to be victorious. We talk about the "objects of the war" being gained, and we think we have gained them ; whereas, according to the St. Petersburg version, it is _Russia who is gainer. "An Imperial manifesto was issued at St. Petersburg on the let instant, relative to the conclusion of peace. It sal s, that though the war was not sought by Russia it had been waged with great energy by the Russian people. The rights of the Christians in the East were assured; thus the object of the war had been attained. Special arrangements had been made to prevent collisions between Turkish and Russian vessels in the Black Sea, and a new line of frontier had been agreed upon in Bessarabia."

Baron Brunow has informed the French Government that the Emperor of Russia has taken off the prohibition which prevented the Russian nobles from visiting France. Such is one report ; another is, that the prohibition to travel is to be removed altogether.

The Paris Moniteur de in Flotte states that orders have been issued at Cronstadt to fit out five war-steamers by the middle of May. The re- port at Cronstadt is, that the Emperor and his brothers will visit England and France during the summer.

13r1155i 3.—The news of peace reached Berlin on Sunday evening, and was most welcome. The Court were at dinner at Charlottenburg when the telegraphic despatch came to hand; and "on the spur of the moment "—dinner, we suppose, being first disposed of—the entire party "returned thanks in the Royal chapel of the Schloss there, which was

specially illuminated for the occasion. The unusually joyous pealing of the bells attracted thither also a numerous party of the inhabitants of Charlottenburg, and of the Berliners who happened to be spending the day there. It is a singular historical coincidence, that it was also on March 30, in the year 1763, that Friedrich II. returned thanks in the same chapel for the conclusion of a peace at the end of the Seven-Years War."

The intelligence was known throughout Berlin on Monday, but there were no public rejoicings. Baron Ton Miiiitellffel is to be invested with the grand cordon of the order of the Black Eagle. The Upper House had granted permission, in reply to an application to the military authorities, to put Herr von Rochovr and Herr von der Marwitz his second on their trial for participation in the Hinekeldey duel.

trimta.—The intelligence from the Crimea comes down to the 22d March. The French officers and soldiers kept up a close intercourse with their "late enemies" across the Tchernaya ; the British officers were restricted, by general. orders, to shooting on the left bank of that river. For the rest, amusements of all available kinds seemed to be the order of the day,—foot and hurdle races, theatrical representations, ex- cursions in search of the picturesque. In the mean time, the work of demolition was still going on in Sebastopol. The Times "special cor- respondent," writing on the 22d March, gives a striking picture of Se- bastopol as it now is. "The demolition of trenches, works, and houses in the city, continues daily and incessantly ; so that the South side will soon be as desolate and ruinous as Thebes or Palmyra. Every hour long trains of men pass by with beams of timber and planks on their shoulders, which are taken out of the remains of the White Buildings. Had fire been rained down from hea- ven on the devoted city, its annihilation could not have been more complete. The stranger who halts to survey it from the neighbouring heights, de- ceived by the whitewashed and plastered walls of the houses, might think that

' Sebastopol was still a city ; but when he walks through its grass-grown, de- serted streets, formed by endless rows of walls alone, of roofless shells of houses, in which not one morsel of timber can be seen, from threshold to eaves ; when he beholds great yawning craters, half-filled with mounds of cut stone, heaped together in irregular masses ; when he gazes on tumuli of disintegrated masonry,—once formidable forts, and now shaken, as it were, into dust and powder ; when he stumbles over the fragments of imperial edi- fices, to peer down into the great gulfs, choked up with rubbish, which now mark the site of the grand docks of the Queen of the Euxine ; and beholds the rotting masts and hulls of the sunken navy, which was nurtured there ; when he observes that what the wrath of the enemy has spared is fast crumbling away beneath the fire of its friends, and that the churches where they worshiped, the theatres, the public monuments, are specially selected for the practice of the Russian gunners, as though they were emulous of running a race in destruction with the Allied armies,—he will no doubt come to the conclusion that the history of the world affords no such authen- tic instance of the annihilation of a great city. * * • • The shells of princely mansions which remained on the French side of the town have been battered to atoms by the Russian batteries on the North side ; the theatre has been demolished, and the beautiful church of St. Peter and St. Paul laid in ruins by the same implacable fee; and they have directed particular vol- leys of round shot and shell on a monument to one of their naval heroes, which stands conspicuously placed in front of a beautiful little kiosk in the midst of a garden, to which there was a fine approach from the place behind Fort Nicholas by a handsome flight of steps, now knocked to pieces."

A fire occurred in the huts of the Commissariat Works Corps, on the slope above Radikoi, on the night of St. Patrick's Day. Assistance was speedily rendered, but the huts were entirely consumed ; and sixteen bodies were found next day, burnt beyond recognition. An inquest was held, and a verdict of "Accidental death" returned.

Itilia.—The overland mail arrived in London on Wednesday, with advices from Bombay to the 5th March, and Calcutta to the 23d Feb- ruary. Lord Canning arrived at Calcutta on the 29th February, and imme- diately took the oaths of his office. Lord Dalhousie, it was expected, would embark on the 6th or 7th March. A meeting had been held in Bombay to vote a farewell address to Lord Dalhousie ; but it was "less fully attended than might have been expected." The address adopted recognized the great abilities of the late Governor-General, his success- ful termination of great wars, the introduction during his proconsulate of the railroad and the electric telegraph, of a cheap postage and a na- tional system of education ; and, while avowing frankly a dissent from his views on some points, it proclaimed him "one of the most able, en- ergetic, and honest statesmen to whom the destinies of India have been intrusted." An enthusiastic meeting held for the same purpose in Cal- cutta voted "an address and a statue by acclamation." Lord Harris had determined, subject to approval from home, to modify the tenure of land in Madras. Hitherto there has been an an- nual settlement between the Government and some 5,000,000 peasants.

"This settlement was made by a calculation of the gross produce of each separate patch of land. Government then took 35 per cent of this as its rent, and left the remainder to the cultivator. It was, of course, im- possible for the European to examine each patch. He intrusted the duty to natives, who made their power an instrument of extortion. The tenure, therefore, became wholly insecure. If a Ryot sunk a well, his rent was raised ; if he cut a small canal, it was nearly doubled. There was therefore no possibility of improvement. Moreover, the land being divided among cottiers, whose only capital was their labour, two bad seasons reduced them to the verge of starvation. In such cases, the whole revenue was occasionally lost in remissions. Of course, nobody ever grew rich, and in all the Presidency there are probably not ten farmers worth 1000/. The area of cultivation is only one-fifth the area of the Presidency, and shows no tendency to increase. Lord Harris therefore has proposed to modify this tenure. He would reduce the tax from 36 to 25 per cent upon the gross produce. He would fix this pro- porllon for fifty years, and thus allow the Ryot the benefit of his own improvements. Moreover, he would change the rent in produce into a rent in specie, according to a sliding scale. The market-price of grain is to be settled on the average of seven years, and the produce-rent com- muted, like tithes in England. The change will involve the loss of nearly one-third of the land-revenues of Madras. It is considered, how- ever, that the temptation to clear now lands will compensate for the loss, while the absence of remissions will make the revenue more steady." Some statistical tables published by the Friend of India give a favour- able idea of the exporting capabilities of that country. The exports of wheat from Calcutta have increased nearly 100 per cent over those of 1854-'55,; the exports of rice have increased by 140 per cent, hides by 50 per cent, jute by 24 per cent, linseed by 40 per cent, and mustard. seed by some 280 per cent. The supply is practically boundless; at present its only limit is the cost of carriage. The distant provinces can- not send their products because the cost of transit consumes the profit. With good means of Communication in our Indian empire, "England might be independent for its supply of food both of America and Russia." It 18 estimated that good wheat from the Dooab might be profitably sold in London for 50*. a quarter

Dost Mahomed has taken possession of Candahar, so long the object of his ambitious desires. His nephew, the son of the late chief of Can- dahar, has escaped to Persia.