The Press. — London, England, 1854-06-10 00:00:00

~• 7- =7 l 4' --r "frA? Ae/ / 512 7 4,4 1' //e 6 • • . • , • t rt,oi6 imp Lu} t.'' u ',4 tl 1 t (:i ~. ~C~ k-.lt + LONDON, SATURDAY, JUNE 10, 1854. No. 58.—VoL. 11. PRICE SIXPENCE• E4t Vrtss. LONDON, SATURDAY, JUNE 10, 1854. THE state of critical. affairs on the Continent is The secret negotiations which a fortnight ago we announced were in active progress, with the view of terminating the Turkish war, and yet saving the honour of Russia, have been brought to a successful conclusion, so far as the German Powers are concerned. .Austria, who claims to act as principal me diator, has agreed to propose an armistice to the belligerents, preliminary to a general Con- gress, which is to settle the terms of a perma nent peace. Russia has admitted that by the change which has recently taken place in the condi tion of the Christian subjects of the Porte the original cause of war has been removed. A security for these Christian privileges which will not invalidate the sovereign rights of the Sultan will engage the solicitude of the Congress. The free navigation of the Danube is secured ..., by the great treaties of Vienna of 181.1; and if any doubts have arisen as to the interpreta tion of the subsequent convention between Russia and Austria, respecting especially the mouths of that important watercourse, Con gress will give to this document that clear in tention which both parties to the convention have always desired. The treaty which prevents the ships-of-war of foreign nations from passing the Darda nelles was not intended to give any advantage to Russia, nor is it an act between Russia and Turkey alone. All the great Powers, on the contrary, are pa;•ties to it, and one of its prin- cipal objects at the time was to rescue France from the diplomatic isolation in which she had been placed by the imprudence of M. THIERS, by facilitating her European co-operation, and thus formally readmitting her to the transac tions of La Haute Politique. Where general interests are so obviously concerned, if revi sion become necessary, a Congress of the high contracting parties offers a natural tribunal. The treaty of Karnadgi is a treaty between Russia and the Sublime Porte alone ; but, if any doubts exist between the contracting parties respecting the tenor of some of its * clauses, Russia, acting according to diplomatic precedent, will not decline referring those ambiguities to the , solution of a properly-con stituted arbitration. Russia will mature arangements for the evacuation of the Principalities the moment that Austria and Prussia make a requisition to that effect. It is stated that, in acceding to these over• tures, Russia has only expressed her willing ness to accomplish a purpose from the first frankly admitted. A proposition for an armis- tice was made by Austria, at the secret sugges tion of Russia, so far back as the autumn of last year, before the Western fleets had entered either the Black:Sea or the Baltic (vide leading article of the " Plum " Nov. 26, 1853, where information to this effect was exclusively given). If the invitation by Austria to the Western Powers to join in this arrangement prove un successful, Germany will remain neutral until the development of events indicates its line of duty. It is considered not improbable at Vienna that if the armistice be not agreed to, and any event occurs which draws the war out of the Greek and Sclavonie limit, Russia will be invited to join the alliance, offensive and defensive, which has already been formed between Austria and Prussia. A new writ was last night moved for the city of London, Lord Roes RUSSELL having taken the office of President of the Council. Since the time of DANBY this post has always been filled by a peer, but Lord JOHN will con tinue for a time to sit in the Commons. The duties of the office are light, and will not sensibly add to his Lordship's labours, while the change will free him from an anomalous position, and spare his friends and the public the necessity of listening to farther laudation on his extreme disinterestedness. Lord GRANVILLE will descend from the Presidency of the Council to the Duchy of Lancaster, and Mr. STaurr will retire from the Ministry. By the division of the present War and Co lonial department a fourth Secretaryship of State will be created. The Duke of NEWCASTLE takes the War Department, and Sir GEORGE GREY will be the Colonial Secretary. Sir GEORGE has borne his exclusion from office with ex• emplary patience—he has always been ready to bear testimony to the merits of his Whig friends, who fora time found it convenient to throw him off, and he is now rewarded for his good-natured forbearance. The above changes are definitively arranged. It is also said, but we do not vouch for the cor• rectness of the report, that as the result of the appointment of a new Secretary of War, and the consequent abolition of the office held by Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT, that gentleman will take the department of Woods and Forests, now held by Sir WILLIAM Moutswoirrii. In, that event it is supposed that Sir WILLIAM I would be raised to the peerage. _ THE COALITION JUDGED BY ITS FRIENDS. THE public, often indifferent to theories, are alive to facts, and as a fact it is found that a Coalition Government does not answer. The appearance of union it presents is delusive. Amid the confusion resulting from gathering together statesmen with scarcely one principle in common, the systems of policy which they have severally followed with usefulness, and with which their names are honourably con nected, suffer shipwreck. The Holy Alliance ideas of Lord ABERDEEN serve to mask the aims of a party desiring war as a means for revolutionary propagandism ; and the Pro testant zeal of the author of the Durham letter only avails to hoodwink the country while Papistical bills are stealthily laid on the table of the House, and Tractarian priests are thrust on the Episcopal bench. It is indeed in the nature of such Coalitions that while they are powerless for good they are strong for evil. The sacrifices made by their members, even supposing the sacrifices to be real, not fictitious—honest, not fraudu lent—are but the surrender of those safeguards which protect the dearest interests of a people —their liberties, institutions, and religion. The sacrifice is not, and cannot be, of the less to the greater, but of the greater to the less — of principles to crotchets or fancied expe diency—of the large views of policy which rally the intelligence of numbers, bind a party together, and sink self in patriotism, to the exclusive notions of a single mind, or the promptings of individual ambition. Thus the illustrious reputations of the separate mem bers of a coalition become a snare. They seem to afford a pledge for the security of those ideas with which they have long been con nected, while in reality they are employed to sanction their overthrow. We are glad to see that these views, main tained in the PRESS from its commencement, are now adopted by a journal of so much ability and influence as the Spectator. In its last number are some remarkable admissions on the practical failure of the Coalition What we do know as a fact becoming only too conspi- CIIOUR is, that a Ministry enjoying the largest support which any Cabinet in this country has enjoyed for a long series of years is rendering itself as remarkable as any of its predecessors for the fallow of measures which it declared to be necessary for the public welfare, and which the public V i