The Press. — London, England, 1854-03-25 00:00:00

272 it, and thought the British Government did not well understand his object. He was not so eager about what should be done when the sick man died as what should not be done upon that event taking place." When Sir M. Seymour replied that they had no reason to think that the "sick man " was dying, his Majesty said that if they believed that the British Government must, have been incorrectly informed. " I repeat to you ist the sick man is dying, and we can never allow such an enteute to take us by surprise" : " We must come to some understanding; and this,we should do, I am convinced, if I could but hold ten minutes' conversation with your Ministers—with Lord Aberdeen, for instance, who knows me au well, who has fall confidence in me, as I have in him. And, remember, I do not ask for a treaty or a protocol: a general under standing is all I require—that between gentlemen is sufficient ; and in this case I am certain that the confidence would be as great on the side of the Queen's Ministers as - - on mine. „ An interview was then appointed for the following day (February 21), when the missive from Lord John Russell was to be read to the Emperor, and which resulted, as Sir H. Seymour, reports, " in one of the most interesting conversations in which I ever found myself engaged." The purport was, indeed, nothing less than to offer Egypt and Candia to Great Britain, as the price of her co-operation or connivance with the aggressions of Russia in other quarters of the Ottoman empire : " The Emperor went on to say that, in the event of the dissolution of the Ottoman empire, he thought it might be less difficult to arrive at a satisfactury territorial arrange ment than was commonly believed. The principalities are, he said, in fact, an independent State under my protection : this might so continue. Servis might receive the same form of government. So again with Bulgaria. There seems to be no reason why this province should not form an inde pendent State. " As to Egypt, T quite understand the importance to England of that territory. I can then only say, that if, in the event of a distribution of the Ottoman succession upon the fall of the empire, you should take possession ,of Egypt, I shall have no objections to offer. I would say the same thing of Candle. That island might suit you, and I do not know why it should not become an English possession. " As I did not wish that the Emperor should imagine that an English public servant was caught by this sort of overture, I simply answered, that I had always understood that the English views upon Egypt did not go beyond the point of securing a safe and ready communication between British India and the mother country. " The conversation now drawing towards an end, the Emperor expressed his warm attachment to the Queen our gracious Sovereign, and his respect for her Majesty's present advisers. The declarations contained in your lordship's despatch had been, he said, very satisfactory: he could only desire that they should be a little amplified. The terms in which your lordship had spoken of his conduct were, the Emperor said, very flattering to him. " In dismissing me, his Imperial Majesty said, ' Well, in duce your Government to write again upon these eubjects— to write more Hilly, and to do so without hesitation ; I have confidence in the English Government. Ce n'est point un engagement, une convention, que je tear demande ; c'est un libre eeharige d'idees, et an besoin une parole de gentleman ; entre nous cela suffit.'" The Russian Cabinet replied in a " confidential memorandum "to Lord John Russell's letter. This document is dated March 6th, and very voluminous. Sir H. Seymour describes it as being "one of the most remarkable papers which have issued, I do not say from the Russian Chancellerie,' hut from the Emperor's secret :cabinet." The document is partly historical, partly argumentative, but the propositions which it was designed to convey are these : " Let England employ herself in making the Porte listen to reason. Instead of uniting herself with France against the just demands of Russia, let her avoid supporting, or even appearing to support, the resistance of the Ottoman Government. Let her be the first to invite the latter, as she herself considers it essential, to treat its Christian subjects with more equity and humanity. That will he the surest means of relieving the Emperor from the obligation of availing himself in Turkey of those rights of traditional protection to which he never has recourse but against his will, and of postponing indefinitely the crisis which the Emperor and her Majesty the Queen are equally anxious to avert. In short, the Emperor cannot but congratulate himself at having given occasion for this intimate inter change of confidential communications between her Majesty and himself. He has found therein valuable assurances, of which he takes note with a lively satis faction. The two Sovereigns have frankly explained to each other what in the extreme case of which they have been treating their respective interests cannot endure. England understands that Russia cannot suffer the estab lishment at Constantinople of a Christian power sufficiently strong to control and disquiet her. She declares that for herself she renounces any intention or desire to possess Constantinople. The Emperor equally disclaims any wish or design of establishing himself there. England promises that she will enter into no arrangement for determining the measures to be taken in the event of the fall of the Turkish empire without a previous understanding with the Emperor. The Emperor, on his aide, willingly contracts the same engagement. As he is aware that in such a case he can equally reckon upon Austria, who is bound by her promises to concert with him, he regards with less appre hension the catastrophe which ho still desires to prevent - THE PRESS. and avert as much as it shall depend on him to do so. No less precious to him are the proof% of friendship and personal oonfidence on the part of her Majesty the Queen, which Sir Hamilton Seymour has been directed on this occasion to impart to hint. He sees iu them the surest guarantee against the contingency which his foresight had deemed it tight to point out to that of the English Govern ment." • Lord Clarendon, then become Foreign Secretary, transmitted on March 23rd a further expose of the policy of England. The letter was, however, written before the receipt of the new memorandum. His lordship says : " Her Majesty's Government persevere in the belief that Turkey still possesses the elements of existence, and they consider that recent events have proved the correctness of the opinion expressed in the despatch of my predecessor, that there was no sufficient cause for intimating to the Sultan that he cannot keep peace at home, or preserve friendly relations with his neighbours. " England desires no territorial aggrandisement, and could be no party to a previous arrangement from which she was to derive any such benefit. England could be no party to any understanding, however general, that was to be kept secret from other powers ; but her Majesty's Government believe that no arrangements could control events, and that no understanding could be kept secret. They would, in the opinion of her M ajesty's Government, be the signal for pre paration for intrigues of every description, and for revolts among the Christian subjects of the Porte. Each power and each party would endeavour to secure its future interests, and the dissolution of the Turkish empire would be preceded by a state of anarchy which must aggravate every difficulty, if it did not render a peaceful solution of the question im possible. " The main object of her Majesty's Government, that to which their efforts have been and always will be directed, is the preservation of pence; and they desire to uphold the Turkish empire, from their conviction that no great ques tion can be agitated in the East without becoming asource of discord in the West, and that every great question in the West will assume a revolutionary character, and embrace a revision of the entire social system, for whinli the conti nental Governments are certainly in no state of prepara tion. • "Her Majesty's Government believe that Turkey only re quires forbearance on the part of its allies, and a determi nation not to press their claims in a manner humiliating to the dignity and independence of the Sultan—that friendly support, in short, that, with States as with indivi duals, the weak are entitled to expect from the strong—in order not only to prolong its existence, but to remove all cause of alarm respecting its dissolution. " It is M this work of benevolence and of sound European policy that her Majesty's Government are desirous of co-ope rating with the Emperor sthey feel entire confidence in the rectitude of his Imperial Majesty's intentions; and as they had tiv satisfaction of think'ng that the interests of Russia and England in the East are completely identical, they entertain an earnest hope that a similar policy there will prevail and tend to strengthen the alliance bet',ieen the two countries, which it is alike the object of her Majesty and her Majesty's Government to promote." • When the memorandum arrived, the Foreign Secretary acknowledged the event in a brief despatch dated April 5, in which he stated that it was " received by her Majesty's Government with feelings of sincere satisfaction, as a renewed proof of the Emperor's confidence and friendly feelings; turd her Majesty's Go vernment desire to convey their acknowledgments to his Imperial Majesty for having thus placed on record the opinions he expressed at the interview with which you were honoured by his Imperial Majesty." The Czar on his side expressed equal satisfaction with the result of the communications, affecting to believe that his own views bad been thoroughly adopted by the English Government. After a palace dinner on April 20th the Emperor stated to Sir H. Seymour "the real and sincere satisfaction which he received from Lord Clarendon's despatch. It had been, his Majesty said, most agreeable to him to find that the over tures which he had addressed to her Majesty's Government had been responded to in the same. friendly spirit in which they were made ; that, to use aformer expression, there was nothing in which he placed so much reliance as /a parole d'un gentilhomme ; that he felt that the relations of the two Courts stood upon a better basis, now that a clear under standing had been obtained as to points which, if left in doubt, might have been productive of misintelligence." The imperial idea of the result of the negotiations is more formally expressed in afresh "memorandum," with which the series close : (Translation.) "The Emperor has, with lively satisfaction, made himself screminted with Lord clarendon's despatch of the 2Ard of March. his Mo.i• sty congratulates himself on perceiving that his views and those of the English Cabinet entirely coincide on the subject of the political combinations which it would be chiefly necessary to avoid in the extreme case of the contingency &sliming in the East, which Russia and England have equally at heart to pre vent, ot, at all events, to delay as long as possible. Sharing generally the opinions expressed by Lord clercndon on the ne cessity of the prolonged maintenance of the existing state of things in Turkey, the Emperor, nevertheless, cannot abate n from adverting to a special point which lends him to suppose that the information received by the British ilrovernmentis not altogether in accordance with ours. It refers to the humanity and the toleration to he shown by Turkey in her manner of treating her Christian subjects. Putting aside many other examples to the contrary of an old date, it is, for all that, notorious that recently the cruelties committed by the Turks in Bosnia foroed hundreds of Christian families to seek refuge in Austria. In other respects, without wishing on this occasion to enter upon a discussion as to the symptoms of decay, more or less evident, presented by the Ottoman power, or the greater or less degree of vitality which its internal constitution may retain, the Emperor will readily agree ; , SATURDAY, that the best means of upholding the duration of the Turkish Government is not to harass it by overbearing demands, sup. ported in a wanner humiliating to its independence and its dignity. His Majesty is disposed, as he has ever been, to the upon this system, with the clear understrunling,however, that the same rule of conduct shall be observed, without dititinotion, and unanimously, by each of the great powers, and that none of them shall take advantage of the weakness of the Porte to obtain from it concessions which might turn to the prejudice of the others. This principle being laid down, the Emperor declares that he is ready to labour, in concert with England, at the common work of prolonging the existeuee of the Turkish empire, setting aside ail cause of alarm on the subject of its dissolution. He readily accepts the evidence offered by the British Cabinet of entire con fidence in the uprightness of his sentiments, and the hope that, on this basis, his alliance with England cannot fail to become stronger." jouign 6011 M at 4uttiligente. FRANCE. The secret despatches between the Ruisian and English Governments, just issued by the latter, are republished in most of the Paris papers, and com mented upon by many of them. On the whole, the result seems to have been to produce a favourable impression on the French public. Thursday's Moniteur, referring to this correspondence, says ; " As regards the French Government, there is only one observation to make upon the care with which Russia left her aside in its plans of territorial rearrangement—it is, that it returned to her as soon as it failed at London; and that in her turn France bad to decline advances, more or less direct, which are not without analogy with those first made to England." In the Constitutionnel we find the following re marks on the same subject " A just sentiment of indignation will arise, both In France and England, on reading these documents, which attest, at the same time, the contempt of Russia for right and equity, her pride, her audacity, and her ambition, and the great precision of the views and the pert ct loyalty of sentiment which for a long time past have inspired the conduct of the British Government in its relations with Continental Europe on the subject of the Eastern ques tion." Lord Raglan is expected in Paris on the Ist of April, or soon alter, so as to coincide as nearly as possible with the departure of Marshal St. Arnaud, which is now fixed for the oth, as that of Prince Napoleon is for the 15th. The Pays repeats and adopts the rumour that 2,000 cavalry and 1,000 artillery from England are to come through Paris en route for embarkation at Marseilles. General Canrobert, and the first portion of the troops destined for the army in the East, left Mar seilles on Sunday evening. The Austerlitz screw man-of war, 100 guns, left Brest on Monday for the Baltic. Admiral Perceval -I)uchesnes left Paris on the same day for Brest, to take the command of the North Sea squadron. The Trident and Zenobie sailed from Toulon on Tuesday for Brest, where they are to form part of the fleet. The Courrier de Marseille of the 14th says : " One hundred vessels have been freighted in our port for the conveyance of troops ; 9,500 workmen arc at work in the arsenal at Toulon from five a.m. till ten at night. The Municipal Council of Marseilles has voted the sum of 10,000 f. for the more urgent wants of the troops on board the transports." The Abbe Parabere, who has been appointed principal chaplain to the army of the East, is a Father of the Company of Jesus. The Government has applied to a leading Jesuit to select a certain number of zealous and devoted priests to afford their succour to the army, independently of the chaplains officially attached to the expedition. The Patrie announces that the Sultan intends to place at the disposal of the expeditionary army, on its landing, 1,200 horses and 1,800 mules. The imperial signature has been affixed to a report from M. Ducos, Minister of Marine, recom mending that an allowance should be made to the children of all sailors called out to serve the State at the present juncture. Marshal Valliant, the new Minister of War, in order to rid himself of all responsibility, has sent in a report to the Emperor on the state of the French army, which represents in a most unfavourable light the state in which he found the military service on his assumption of office. The interest on Bons du Tresor was again in creased on Monday, being fixed at 4 per cent. for there whit!) have from three to five months to run, 41 per cent. from six so eleven, and 5 per cent. for those which have a year to run. The Moniteur denies the rumour that the Govern ment intends to retain the amount of the subscrip tions exceeding 250 millions fixed for the new loan as an addition to the gross amount. The Government has authorised the publication of a new evening (Ministerial) journal, to be called the Monitettr Parisien. The Union has received a first warning for " per sisting, notwithstanding the non-official recommenda tions given to it, in a system of attacks, marked by bad faith, and of an insulting nature, towards the allies of France." The articles alluded to were di rected against England. The Presu has received a