The Press. — London, England, 1854-01-14 00:00:00

_ gbt I;tric.6,s No. 37.—VoL. 11. Ot V rtss. LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 14, Mi. "PRESS" OFFICE. Friday Night, Jan. 13. A SECRET negotiation carried on at Con stantinople between Lord STRATFORD, her Britannic Majesty's Ambassador, and REDS CHID PACHA, while the public negotiations were conducted, at the same time, by the Ambassadors of the Four Great Powers with the Porte, terminated in a surrender, on the part of the Sultan, of all those points which the Divan, by a large majority, had previously decided to maintain. The in stant the news of this surrender transpired, MEHEMET ALI, the brother-in-law of the Sultan, and the head of the Patriotic party, a man of honour and energy, violently pro tested against the course, as he affirmed, thus surreptitiously obtained. The popular indignation was considerable. The students, the most numerous and powerful body in the city, moved ; REDSCHID PACHA was charged by MEHEMET Ati with having been I previously convicted of taking bribes from Russia ; the people were reminded that Prince MENSCHIKOFF had insisted, in March, on the dismissal of the then Minister for Foreign Affairs, and that. at the dictation of the Russian Envoy, REDSCHID PACHA had been appointed in his stead. The ex citement became great. REDSCHID PACHA, panic-struck, resigned, and fled for refuge to a palace of the Sultan on the Bosphom. Tranquillity was ultimately only restored by the menaces of the English and French admirals, who thus, instead of defending the Sultan from the Russians, discovered that their real mission was to defend his Highness from his own subjects. Much of what occurred on this occasion has been concealed and suppressed, but our readers may rely upon this statement. The whole facts are before us ; but the intimation that we are now permitted to give will throw light upon late events otherwise very ob save. Notwithstanding this outbreak, and the exertions of MEuntrr ALI, the conditions thus obtained from Turkey by the British Ambassador through HIS INFLUENCE with REDSCHID PACHA became and continue the basis of the propositions since forwarded through Vienna to St. Petersburg. THEY ARE NOT, AS HAS BEEN ERRONEOUSLY, THOUOII AUTHORITATIVELY, STATED, AN ULTIMATUM. LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 14, 1854. They therefore admit of negotiation ; and, with only a moderate allowance for the mo difications which under such circumstances occur, the arrangement, even if accepted by the Czar, will resolve itself, virtually, into an adoption by the Porte of the spirit of the Menschikoff treaty. Peace may thus be preserved by the subjugation of Turkey being postponed. The ancient treaties are to be renewed ; and, as regards the Pro vinces, the language employed with respect to their evacuation is merely the language already gratuitously used by the Czar him self. The circumstances above detailed are the circumstances referred to by anticipation in our leading Article of the lith of December, when we warned our readers that "an " enormous diplomatic conspiracy was hatch " ing," a warning followed up by some de tails then for the first time mentioned, and to which we must again refer. Notwithstanding this desperate resource on the part of England, the enterprise may yet fail ; for our perplexed and, as it will ultimately prove, ever-blundering Govern ment, while a promising negotiation was on foot, and before they could receive the an swer of the Court of St. Petersburg to the Turkish propositions, which had been pre pared in deference to the feelings and private intimations of Russia, thought tit, in consequence of the affair of Sinope, to order the entrance of the fleets into the Black Sea. To change the circumstances while a negotiation was proceeding which you wished to succeed is a capital error. It will allow the Czar, if H) wishes, to take new ground. Lord ABERDEEN mutters " War," in case the Turkish propositions are not accepted. One almost begins to fancy that Lord ABER DEEN leas been maligned. It really would seem that he did not understand St. Peters burg. The propositions will not meet such a fate from Russia► diplomacy. They will be considered, and we shall commence the new year with a new phase of negotiations. In the meantime, alas ! poor Turkey ! THE important intelligence to which we have given prominence above has not only trenched upon the spare devoted to our ordinal• leader, but has in a measure anticipated the substance of its statements and inferences. Assuming that the concession on the part of Turkey, which has been compelled by "foreign conspiracy," procures its immediate object, the suspension of hostilities, and that the submission thus obtained by treachery is not frustrated by maladroitness, what is the state to which the ABERDEEN CAPITULATION, if accepted at St. Petersburg, reduces the Eastern _ . question If there was one advantage which Europe might have derived from the Czar's aggression it was the abrogation of those treaties by which the Czar had defined the successive PRICE SIXPENCE. stages of his road to Constantinople. Those treaties were cancelled at the option of the Chancery of Europe when the tired Russian detachment crossed the Pruth, and their renewal is now proff,red as the price of a Muscovite peace. As if this were insufficient to destroy the Ottoman empire, it is bound to the publica tion of firtnans relative to the spiritual privi leges of all its non-Mussulman subjects, which are to be communicated, as we understand, to each of the Powers separately, accompanied with suitable explanations (assurances eon renables) to each. If this view of the proposal be correct, each of the Powers will thus have a separate understanding with the Porte, to the terms of which it alone will he a party, and of which it will be practically the sole arbiter. To appreciate the effect of this we must remember that the Consuls of the dif ferent European Powers are at present invested with the authority of magistrates over the subjects of their own States within the do minions of the Porte ; and while invested with this attribute, as of right and necessity, their relations to the subjects of the Porte are in definitely extended by the proposal to which it has been compelled to assent. It is little to say that this would be a source of inextricable confusion, or that it must embarrass the Go vernment of Turkey in the administration of its internal affairs. It brings the negotiations back to the point at which they originated, enfeebles Turkey as their chief result, and solves the Eastern question by opening ques tions innumerable. At the same time, while all the treaties with Russia are renewed, it de liberately provides excuses for their extension by other treaties, and for further aggressions, until Turkey is absorbed. This is the climax of our policy, unless intrigue, as appears probable, is thwarted by its own blunders, and a hoary conspirator is frustrated by his clumsiness. SADLEIRISM AND PEELITE PURITY. THE squeamish affectation of purity exhibited by the Peelites must have received a dreadful shock in learning into what a slough " my " dear Duke of NEWeAtiTI.IO4 " Melia, Mr. SAD LEIR, had rolled himself, along with other promoters of the "Coalition." For these were the gentlemen whose delicate no tions of personal honour were so exqui sitely sensitive to official scandals ! Your prudes have always the most reason for hiding their peccadilloes demurely committed. " Not " that," like Fay in The Rivals, " they mind the " thing itself, but it hurts their conscience to " be found out." We really should like to have seen the faces of the Poelites when they found that " our Mr. ".lona SADLILIE" was so exposed. These were the folk that looked so lionified at reputed election irregularities ! And now one of their own special followers is caught chin-deep in the very vilest transactions that stain elec tioneering annals l It reminds us of the dif ference between the Shepherd at the temperance meeting and the same reverend gentleman im bibing his pineapple rum in the bar of the Mar quis of Granby. Or, to take a metaphor from " monastic institutions," these reelite aii4 • II + Po- ‘ or es lIN el II lb* .ste. Five ;fa Vie tkial ielout igiWt rEnobt io na. el. •Aitfe .' I 'I i