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

30 If they are made du►iug a mere interval of favourable rn• incurs, they may be regarded as being hastily put forth before an inevitable explosion, and under no circumstances can they be safely touched until positive treaties of peace WWI have been published and acccepted on all sides. ortign anD dolonial PRIV ATX COMISPONDENCE. PARIS, January ONE must always go from home, according to the proverb, to hear news. The French Minister of Public Instruction must have appreciated the value of this saying when he received, through the benevo lent columns of the Times, the information that M. de la Guerroniere, directeur politique of the Pays and the Cunstitutionnel, was to be named to his Ministry. What explanations have been thereupon demanded, and what expostulations ejaculated, I leave you to guess ; but it is satisfactory to know that eventual satisfaction has been obtained, and the startled Minister assured that there never had been any ques tion of M. de la Guerroniere as the occupant of his berth. It is related, however, that on the strength of his imaginary nomination M. Guerroniere received some hundreds of aplications for appointments in the department of the State. The Academy of Moral and Political Sciences pro ceeded on Saturday last to the election of a pi esident in the place of M. Damiron. M. Guizot, vice-presi dent during the year 1853, was elected president for the year 1854. M. Ametlee Thierry was named vice president. It would be with great regret that all well-wishers for the " entente cordiale " between England and Rance would learn the retirement of M. Drouyn de l'Hnys from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Such, however, is, I fear, about to be the case. A heavy and painful family affliction is said to be the cause. Every one who appreciates the manly straightforward character of this eminent minister would rejoice if this necessity for retirement may be averted. Captain Laporte, who was recently acquitted by a court-martial on the charge of murdering General Count de Neuilly, has been dismissed from the army. The art of carrying " court trains " with ease and gracefulness is said to be lost in France. In the reign of Charles X. four persons only were remarkable for this faculty—two at the Court : Madame la Duchess d'Angouleme and la Comtesse de Simeon ; two on the stage : Mlle. Mars and Mlle. Levert. Under the Empire, Queen Hortense, mother of the Emperor Napoleon 111., alone knew how to manteuvre this appendage with the science and agility it requires to escape from the dangers crowded around it. Considerable sensation has been produced in the diplomatic circles of Paris by the omission of M. de Kisseletf, the Russian Ambassador, in the invita tions given for the select ball at the Tuileries. Every other member of the diplomatic corps has been invited, and, although the cards are all issued only in the name of the Empress, it is quite certain that the name of M. Kissoleff would not have been left out except under a special injunction front the Emperor. Heretofore the Russian envoy has always met with a most gracious reception at the Tuileries, so that the present omission cannot he looked upon as a personal slight, but is interpreted into a political manifestation. The Prince de Clumsy was received on Sunday by the Emperor, and presented to his bNesty a private letter from the King of the Belgians. This temporary mission of the Prince de Chimay, it is stated, may probably become a permanent one, by his super seding M. Rogier as Belgian Ambassador at the French Court. The Indepiulince Beige authori tatively contradicts the report that the message en trusted to the Prince by King Leopold bears any reference to the Eastern question. The Emperor Napoleon also received on Sunday last at a public audience M. Lucio Pulido, who presented his credentials as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Venezuela. The Moniteur published a decree on the ith inst. calling into active service all the young soldiers available under the second portion of the contingent of the class of 1k52. A levy of 10,000 additional seamen is currently spoken of, and the Minister of Marine is said to be actively organising a third squadron, to be called a reserve, and to consist of seven line-of-battle ships and six frigates. The expense is calculated at ten millions of francs. The decree for the organisation of the Bakers' Bank lately established at Paris appeared in the Moniteur of Sunday. M. de Montulle, Chef de Section at the Ministry of State, is named its director, and is to be aided in his functions by a consulting committee of six members, of which THE PRESS, Count d'Argout, Regent of the Bask of France, is President. The Emperor has bestowed a mark of his cons • dence on M. de Turgot, now sulferina from the wound received in the duel which be fought at Madrid with M. Soule pore, by nominating him a grand officer of the Legion of Honour. On Sunday last a Meeting of bankers and moneyed men took place in Paris, At: kuenigs*ater in the chair. It was decided at the meeting that a memorial should be at once drawn up and presented to the Emperor, praying him to take into con sideration the great pecuniary interests engaged in commercial and industrial undertakings in France and throughout Europe, and not to allow himself to be lightly engaged in the difficulties of a distant war. The Emperor, it is said, replied to the per sons who presented this memorial, that undoubtedly material interests possessed incontestable im portance in his eyes, but that he could never place them above moral interests, and that a question of honour and national dignity must always weigh with him much more heavily in the scale than any mere question of money. The Count de Peyronnet, formerly Minister of Justice under Louis XVIII., and Minister of the Interior under Charles X., at the time of the famous ordinances, has just expired at his seat of Mont ferrand, near Bordeaux, aged 77. CIRCULAR NOTE OF THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT. The following is the text of the important mani festo issued by the French Government in relation to the Eastern question. The document appeared in the Moniteur of the oth instant, and a summary of its contents was given in last week's PRESS : " Paris, Dee :'O, 1H53. " Sir,—The affairs of the East are assuming too grave an aspect to allow me, at the very moment when circum stances impose new duties on the Government of his Im perial Majesty, to omit to remind you of the @flints that we have nut ceased to make in order to prevent those complications with which Europe is so seriously menaced. " The question of the Holy Places, either badly pre sented or erroneously understood, had excited the alarm of the Cabinet of St. Petersburg. We endeavoured to allay that anxiety by frank and unreserved explanations. It appeared to us that, while avoiding any infringement on the rights of the Porte, a discussion of this nature would be more satisfactorily brought to an issue if conducted at a distance from the scene that gave rise to it. Our opinion was not shared by Pours* and Prince Menschikoff received orders to proceed to Constantinople. I shall confine my self to simply observing, that if our views had been exclu sive, as supposed,—that if the vindication of our ancient and incontestable privileges had not been sustained with so much moderation,—the mission of this ambassador extraor dinary would have instantly become the object of a conflict that we have contrived to avoid. " The affair of the Sanctuaries at Jerusalem having been disposed of, and, front the testimony even of Count Nes selrode himself, satisfactorily arranged, another difficulty sprang up. Prince Mensehikoff demanded guarantees for the maintenance of the privileges of the Greek Church. The Cabinet of St. Petersburg did not attempt to show, by alleging any particular instance, that these privileges had been violated ; and the Porte, on the contrary, so lemnly confirmed the religious immunities of his Chris tian subjects. " Influenced by the desire of arranging a difference which, if it concerned on the one hand the sovereign rights of the Sultan, touched on the other hand the con science of his Majesty the Emperor Nicholas, the Govern. ment of his Imperial Majesty, in conceit with that of her Britannic Majesty, carefully sought the means of harmo nising the interests, at once so delicate and complex, that were at stake. The Cabinet of St. Petersburg - cannot have forgotten the zeal and the loyalty we displayed in our endeavours to accomplish this difficult task; neither can it deny that the resistance of the Porte to join in the first plan of the transaction which emanated from the Conference of Vienna was not the sole cause of our non success. " Pending these different negotiations grave facts oc curred. A Russian army crossed the Pruth, and invaded, in the midst of profound peace, two provinces of the Otto man empire. The squadrons of France and Englund were obliged to approach the Haraanelles ; and from that pe riod, had the Government of his Imperial Majesty so willed it, his navel forces might have anchored in the waters of Constantinople. Nevertheless, if he judged it necessary to establish his right, still more was he intent on further displaying his moderation. The nature of the relations between Russia and the Sublime Porte had become too abnormal to prevent a state of war from succeeding to one of peace, or rather, to speak more accurately, things could not but assume their true name, and the aggression upon the Turkish territory produced its necessary result. 'ibis change in the state of affitirs obliged our squadron to make a fresh movement, and, at the request of the Sultan, the French flag appeared in the Bosphorus simultaneously with that of England. " Nevertheless, sir, we had not renounced the hope of an arrangement, and, in concert with Austria and Prussia, as we already were with England, we continued to pursue a pacific object. New proposals, for the success of which we shall not cease to employ our efforts, have been pre sented to the Porte by the representatives of the four powers. " No treaty concluded with Russia interdicted our ships of war from navigating the Black Sea. The treaty of iuly 13, 1841, by closing, in time of peace, the passage of the Dardanelles and that of the Bosphorus, resorted to the SATURDAY, Sultan the power of opening them in time of war, and, from the day on which his Highness had allowed us free access to the straits, the entrance of the Euxine was legally ac. quired by us. The same motives that had so long de• tallied us in the Bay of Besika detained us likewise in the roadstead of Beikos. The Government of his Imperial Majesty sincerely desired to testify to the last those sen timents of friendship which it prefesses for litildßiEl, and to display in the strongest light to the elk's of file world, responsibility of an aggravation in a state of things ivhichh all its forbearance had not succeeded in modifying. It felt a pleasure, too, in thinking, in accordance with the most recent despatches of General Castelbajac, that the Cabinet of St. Petersburg, satisfied with the occupation, and which it considered as a surety, would nowhere assume the offen sive in the cont( at it has so unfortunately commenced with Turkey. It appeared to us sufficient that the presence of our flag in the waters of Constantinople should attest our firm intention of protecting this capital against any sudden danger, and we were not desirous that its premature 4- pearance on the coast too near the Russian► dominious should incur the risk of being considered a provocation. " The state of war doubtless rendered a collision between the belligerent parties equally possible by sea as by land ; but we had been authorised to believe that our reserv e would have been imitated by Russia, that her admirals would have avoided with like care all opportunity for an encounter, by abstaining from having resort to aggressive measures within those limits, where our squadron wou:d certainly have kept a more active guard, if we could hate possibly supposed the Cabinet of St. Petersburg to be ani mated with different intentions. " The occurrence at Sinope, sir, took place contrary to all our expectations, and this deplorable fact equally midi• fees the attitude which it is our desire to maintain. " The accord which was recently accomplished at Vienna between France, Austria, England, and Prussia has estate fished the European character of the diffirence which exists between Russia and the Porte. The four Courts have solemnly recognised that the territorial integrity of the Ottoman empire is one of the conditions of their poli tical equilibrium. The occupation of Moldavia and Wel lachia constitutes a formal violation of that integrity, and it cannot be doubted that the chances of war may lead to yet others. " Some months since Count Nesselrode represented the invasion of the Danubian principalities as a necessary com pensation for what he called our maritime occupation. hr our turn, we consider that it has become our duty to mea sure for ourselves the extent of the compensation to which we have a right, both as a power interested in the existence of Turkey, and in consequence of the military position already taken up by the Russian army. We require a pledge nuns Put an gage) which may assure us that peace will be re-established in the East, on conditions which shall not change the distribution of the respective forces of the great states of Europe. " The Government of his Imperial Majesty and the Go- vernment of her Britannic Majesty have consequently de cided that their squadrons shall enter the Black Sea, and combine their movements in such a manner as that nei ther the territory nor the flag of Turkey shall aqain be the object of an attack by the naval forces of Russia. " The Vice-Admirals Hamelin and Dundashave received orders to impart the object of their mission to all con cerned, and we feel a satisfaction in hoping that this loyal conduct will prevent conflicts which we could witness only with deep regret. The Government of the Emperor, I re peat, has but one aim, that of contributing to 1 ring about a ropproehernenl between the two belligerent parties upon honourable conditions ; and, if circumstances compel him to take precautions against formidable eventualities, he preserves the contleAsice that the Cabinet of St. Petersburg, which has given so many proofs of its wisdom, will not ex pose Europe, at present scarcely recovered from convul sions, to trials from which the high intelligence of its so vereigns has preserved it through so many years. " I authorise you to read this despatch to M. (Signed) " DIIOVIN DE LEVIS." GERMANY. The Second Prussian Chamber has held a secret sitting, to receive a communication from the Govern ment relative to the acquisition by Prussia of a military post on the North Sea. The New Prussian Gazette has been seized in Berlin, on account of an article hostile to the French Government. The Emperor of Austria, during his stay at Munich, had laid before him by his Ambassador the details of the differences existing between the Government of Baden and the clergy. His Majesty recommended that Government to make certain concessions, at the same time that he blamed, it is said, the re bellion of th 3 clergy. The Archbishop of Friburg has suspended from their functions six curates who had disobeyed his orders. The Count and Countess de Chambord are stated to have paid numerous visits to the Duchess of Orleans at Eisenach. The report that Prince Napoleon, nephew of th e . King of Wurtemberg, will marry the Princess S o p hia, eldest daughter of the Margrave William of Bade n, uncle of the Prince Regent, is confirmed. The Prin cess will attain her twentieth year in April next. SWEDEN. A commission, composed of officers and engineers, left Stockholm on the 20th ult., to visit different parts of the coast, and put all the military points in a state of defence. Sweden every day declares itself more and more against Russian policy, and has decided on making its neutrality respected by force of arms, in the event of its being lielated. I I