The Press. — London, England, 1854-08-26 00:00:00

sanctioned any exaggerated attacks on the American people on account of their treat ment of the negroes. We are only too well aware of the vast difficulty of the whole question ; but the violence at Greytown, and the disagreeably ambiguous character of the American policy with respect to Cuba, are most painful to contemplate. At present the character of Spain stands low in Europe, yet if ESPARTERO had the energy of an Alberoni he might, by a masterly movement on the Cuban question, revive for Spain much sym pathy in Western Europe. Whether such a course would be wise, with regard to Spanish colonial interests, or not, we will not now discuss, but with the present state of feeling in the world it is one that might conciliate sympathy towards Spain. RAILWAY ACCIDENTS. AMONGST the other measures which the Coalition succeeded in not passing into law was Mr. CARDWELL'S promised addition to the powers of the railway department of the Board of Trade. At present the authority of the inspecting officers can be best described as enabling them to recommend that the door be shut when the steed is stolen ; and even this permission extends only to what is strictly passenger traffic, although, as in the late case on the North London Railway, acci dents to passengers may very easily happen by previous mishaps to luggage-trains. As the law stands, an accident must be reported by the company to the Board of Trade within twenty-four hours of its alleged occ urrence. The Board appoints an inspecting officer, and to the gratuitous courtesy of the company alone that officer is indebted for the oppor tunity of performing his duty. The results of his mission are recommendations of which generally no more is heard after they have reached Whitehall, and which, if they were acted upon, or even published in the Gazette, and made producible in judicial inquiries, might be of the last importance to the public safety. The inspecting officers are generally men of high military reputation and of great scientific attainments, and if Mr. CARDWELL could have managed to make their efforts — always so zealously rendered—of a little more service, one item of good might at least have arisen from what is facetiously called the labours of the Government. This might particularly have been done in the case of the excursion trains. The railway system is one capable of almost mathematical exactness, and yet hardly an accident occuts from causes that might not have been foreseen. Excursion trains are an incident to the sys tem, and not a part of it, and it would surely be no hardship to make special rules relating to them, so that neither their once occupants, nor persons pursuing their ordinary business, should be endangered for the conve nience of mere seekers of pleasure. Besides, to certain classes of excursion-trains consi derale advantages (as in the omission of the passenger-duty) are given by the State; and it is a wholesome doctrine of government that the concession of an advantage justifies the imposition -if a rule. One thing is certain, that trade, revenue, personal comfort, and national interests are all suffering by the frequency of such acci dents as the reports of this week present, and that it can neither be called centralisation nor despotism to endeavour to save our lives from the recklessness 'if railway companies. The bill for damages done at the late destruction of Greytown, and fur which the United States will be called to account, is thus specified by the New York Herald : Dols. For French property destroyed BOO,OOO For British ditto For Granadian ditto For American ditto For Borland's regiment l,OOl Total It is not yet certain whether the Government will have to pay the American Transit Company's claim of 24,000 dols., which Captain liollins was employed in a national ship•of war to collect. TIIV PAESS._ THE EASTERN QUESTION. Soma further correspondence that has taken place, and notes that have been exchanged between the British and Austrian Governments, respecting the Turkish question, are now published in a parliamentary blue book. This new series of State papers contains, first, a "note," dated July 8, from the Earl of West moreland to Count Buol, Austrian Foreign Minister, setting forth the principles upon which the present difficulties can alone be solved. These principles are stated in the negative form, the writer declaring it to be the joint opinion of the three powers, Eng land, France, and Austria, "that the relation-3 of the Porte with Russia cannot be re-established on solid and durable bases," " 1. If the protectorate hitherto exercised by the Imperial Court of Russia over the principalities of Wallachia, Moldavia ? and Servia he not discontinued for the future; and if the privileg es accored by the Sultans to these provincesthe collec t iv e gu arantee deenencies of their empir d e, be not placed underof the powers, in virtue of an arrangement to be concluded with the Sublime Porte, and the stipulations of which should at the same time regulate all questions of detail. " 2. If the navigation of the Danube at its mouths be not freed from all obstacle, and submitted to the application of the prin ciples established by the acts of the Congress of Vienna. ' 3. If the treaty of the 19th of July, 1841, be not revised in concert by the high contracting parties in the interest of the balance of power In Europe. " 4. If Russia do not give up the claim to exercise an official protectorate over the subjects of the Sublime Porte, to whatever rite they may belong, and if France, Austria, Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia, do not lend their mutual assistance to obtain as an initiative from the Ottoman Government the confirmation and the observance of the religious privileges of the different Christian communities, and to turn to account, in the common interest of their co-religionists, the generous intentions mani fested by his Majesty the Sultan, at the same time avoiding any aggression on his dignity and the independence of his crown." Then follows a note from Count Bnol, bearing the same date, and recapitulating the same conclusions, to which full adhesion is expressed on the part of Austria. This interchange of notes was duly communicated to Lord Clarendon, and mentioned more than once in Parliament before the session closed. Afterwards came the announcement of the Russian reply to the last summons sent from Austria, followed by a tele graphic despatch from the British Ambassador in Vienna, stating that Prussia had declined joining in the Conference summoned for the purpose of taking that reply into consideration. Lord Clarendon then transmitted the following paper to the Earl of West moreland, analysing the Nesselrode letter, and ex plaining the views of the British Government upon the whole question in its present aspect " Foreign-office, July 22, 1854. "My Lord,—l have to acknowledge the receipt, this day, of your lordship's telegraphic despatch, by which her Ma jesty's Government learn that Prussia has declined to attend the Conference which Count Buot proposed to sum mon fer the purpose of communicating the answer to the demands addressed by Austria to the Cabinet of St. Petersburg, and that it will in consequence be transmitted by Count Buol to Count Colloredo for the information of her Majesty's Government. " Her Majesty's Government, however, being already in possession of this answer, and ha vin g taken it into mature considordshieration, I shall no longer delay communicatin in g to your lordship the views which they enterta with respect to it. " It is unnecessary to dwell at any length upon the argu ments by which Count Nesselrode endeavours to throw upon the Western powers the responsibility of the war which Russia alone has provoked. Count Nesselrode objects to the form of the summons addressed to Russia by England and France, and maintains that this summons, rendered imperative by the acts of Russia, was the true cause of war ; but he takes no account of the long series of negotiations during the past year, nor of the repeated warnings which were given to Russia by France and Eng land, and he chooses to forget that it was the invasion of the principalities by Russian troops which first disturbed the peace of Europe, and which has rendered abortive every effort for its restoration. The despatch of Count Buol to Count Esterhazy, to which Count Nesselrode's despatch is an answer, points out clearly upon whom the responsibility rests of the present state of things ; and in the protocol of the 9th of April the four powers have solemnly recorded their opinion that the summons ad dressed to Russia by England and France was founded in justice. " The opinion of Europe has been pronounced in favour of the course pursued by England and France, and it is needless, therefore, that they should defend themselves against the accusations of Russia. I proceed to examine the other points contained in the Russian answer. In the first place, if the demands of Austria, supported by Prussia, are considered in a purely German sense, it is impossible that the answer of the Russian Cabinet can be considered satisfactory by the two German powers. The main points put forward in Count Buol's despatch to Count Esterhazy were:— " 1. The necessity of a speedy evacuation of the Danu bian principalities. " 2. The impossibilities of making this evacuation, re quired by the essential interests of Germany, dependent upon conditions which it was out of the power of Austria to ensure. " But Russia fixes no limit whatever to the occupation of the principalities; and she looks upon an armistice as a previous condition sine qua nun of the withdrawal of her armies beyond the Prutli. "The injury, then, which in the opinion of Austria and Prussia the Russian occupation inflicts upon the Germanic Confederation continues unabated; nay, more, it is aggra- gAttriibiY, vated by the refusal of Russia to attend to the just demands of the two German powers. " Count Nesselrode professes, it is true, to adhere to the principles laid down in the protocol of the 9th of April ; but this declaration is worth little, as long as the Russian troops remain on Turkish soil. " In fact, the evacuation of the principalities is essential to the integrity of the Ottoman empire, and their occu• pation is in itself a flagrant breach of the public law of Europe. " The crisis which disturbs the peace of the world had its origin in the passage of the Pru.h ; and it is impossible to admit the pretensions of Russia to make the reparation which she owes for an act universally condemned depen dent upon the exigencies of a position which she has volun tarily created for herself. " Nor can England and France consent to an armistice upon the vague assurances given by Count Nesseirode of the pacific disposition of the Russian Government. After malting such great efforts and sacrifices, and engaged as they are in a cause so just, the allied powers will not, stop in their course without the certainty that they will not again be called upon, after a short interval, to recommence the war. The particular conditions of peace must depend upon too many contingencies for it to be possible to lay them down definitively at the present moment. Her Ma jesty's Government have, however, no hesitation in stating the guarantees which, in their opinion, and in that of the French Government, are essential to secure the tranquillity of Europe from future disturbances. These guarantees are naturally suggested by the dangers to guard against which they are required. " Thus Russia has taken advantage of the exclusive right which she had acquired, by treaty, to watch over the rela tions of Wallachia and Moldavia, with the suzerain power to enter those provinces as if they were part of her own territory. " Again, the privileged frontier of Russia in the Black Sea has enabled her to establish in those waters a naval power which, in the absence of any counterbalancing force, is a standing menace to the Ottoman empire. " The uncontrolled posssesion by Russia of the principal mouth of the Danube has created obstacles to the naviga tion of that great river which seriously affect the general commerce of Europe. " Finally, the stipulations of the treaty of Rutschuk- Kainarriji, relative to the protection of the Christians, have become, by a wrongful interpretation, the principal cause of the present struggle. " Upon all these points the status quo ante belly's must undergo important modifications. " Her Majesty's Government cannot doubt that the Austrian Government will admit that these views are in ac cordance with the principles laid down in the protocol of April 9 ; and that it would be difficult to restrict within more moderate bounds the inquiry which, by that protocol, the four powers engaged themselves to make in common, as to the means best calculated to maintain the Ottoman empire, by attaching it to the general balance of Etirope. But it is remarkable that to this passage in the protocol of the 9th of April—the only passage of capital importance, implying, as it does, the necessity of a European revision of the ancient relations of Russia with Turkey—Count Nesselrode carefully avoids making the slightest allusion " In fact, the profession of the Russian Cabinet, that it adheres to the principles laid down by the Conference at Vienna, contains nothing which is of a satisfactory nature. " Her Majesty's Government are at a loss to understand the meaning of Count Nesselrode's declaration, that the integrity of the Ottoman empire will not be menaced by Russia so long as that integrity is respected by the powers who now occupy the territory and waters of the Sultan. What comparison can be drawn between the invaders and the defenders of the Turkish territory ? What analogy can exist between the presence of the allied troops at the invi tation of the Porte, under the authority of a diplomatic con vention, and the forcible invasion of the Ottoman territory by the Russian armies ? " It is unnecessary to say anything further as to the con ditions which are attached by Russia to the evacuation of the principalities; and I come now to that paragraph in Count Nesselrode's despatch which relates to the situation of the Christian subjects of the Sultan. " It amounts to nothing less than this, that the Russian C a binet includes among the ancien t privileges which are to be preserved to the Gr eek Church the entire rights which flow from the protectorate, civil as well as religions, claimed by Russia ; but it cannot fo r a moment be supposed tha the system established by such a protectorate, even if it were based upon a European guarantee, could be compatible with the independence and sovereign rights of the Porte. " Her Majesty's Government is very far from saying that Europe can be indifferent to the amelioration of the condi tion of the Christians in Turkey; on the contrary, they think that Europe ought to take an active interest in the welfare of the rayah population, and ought to come toe of an u nderstanding as to the best m ode of taking advantag the generous intentions of the Sultan towards his Chris tian subjects ; but at the s ame time they are firmly con vinced that the reforms whic h are needed in the govern ment of the various Christian communites in the Ottoman empire can only be effectually and beneficially carried out by the Porte taking the initiative with regard to them, reign and, that if such reforms are to be promoted by any fo influence, it can only be by means of friendly counsel an Y d advice, and not by an interference grounded upon engagements into which no State could enter without ab dicating its independence. " In fine, it appears to her Majesty's GovernmentM thno at the respective situations of the different powers are wa y whatever changed; they are only more clearly marked ed out by the answer of the Ru sal C a binet. England asaran France must therefore continue in the attitude of bellige rents on the other hand, as the principalities have not been evacuated. " Austria and Prussia will, no doubt, consider that the obligations of the treaty of the 20 th of A p ril, strengthened, -