The Press. — London, England, 1856-01-12 00:00:00

Arm -707) ,/ 7/ / A Ce Cv ._.....m.maniIIikIIMiI=IMMEMINNIINIMINIIME ST AMP No. 141.—VoL. IV. LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 12, 1856. UNSTA • Vrtss. haps for the reason theologians have assigned for their belief—Quiz impossibile est. The time has arrived for exposing their sincerity to a sharp test. A negotiation has been opened with Russia. Conditions of Peace, formally agreed to by the Allies, have been forwarded to St. Petersburg. Those conditions, long grossly misrepresented, are at last before the public. We look to them in vain for those terms which the War Party have constantly insisted were indispensable. We shall be extremely thankful if these gentlemen will lay aside their extravagant professions, and demean themselves like sen sible mortals. Let them bury their hatchets and wash off their war-paint, and we shall be th first to congratulate them on their return to rationality. But our duty, for the moment, is to show that they are not entitled to lead the policy of this great country. or to be the exponents of its opinion. As guides they are blind, or they are faithless. We are compelled to speak plainly. An effort may possibly be made to keep up the delusion—which thus far has been tolerably profitable—to the last, and even. for the sake of maintaining an appearance of spurious consistency, to throw obstacles in the way of a scheme of pacification. We hope that war journals and orators alike may devise some ingenious scheme for reconciling their past professions with the prudent reserve de manded by existing circumstances. There are signs already that the most acute among them are beginning to " hedge," that they may make sure of a sate book. But there is a pro bability that some of their namber may be less discreet, and this is the danger we have to guard against. There has been a furious outcry against the proposals contained in the last Russian Circular. They have been an nounced as arrogant and insulting,—with how much reason, may be judged from the fact that they are nearly identical with the terms which have been sanctioned by the Allies, and transmitted to St. Petersburg. We are emerging from the darkness of secret diplomacy. Journals presumed to be in the confidence of Government will no longer be able to put forth garbled representations of the Allied terms. They must argue fairly—at least, they must argue on known facts. They will no longer be able to play the double part of supporting those proposals, while they at tempt to excite prejudice against the Russian Government for submitting terms which, so far as they go, are substantially similar. We publish in another column the text of the Allied Proposals. As regards the main point at issue—the neutralisation of the Black Sea—there is no material difference between the Circular on one side and the Propositions on the other. This will be better seen by placing their terms in parallel columns : RUSSIAN CIRCULAR. ALLIED PROPOSALS. Neutralisation of the Black Neutralisation of the Black Sea. Sea. No mil tars flag whatever This sea shall be open to shall float in the Black Sea, merchant vessels—closed to with the exception of that of war navies. Consequently, the forces which Russia no naval or military arsenals and the Porte, by a common shall be created or main consent, may deem it neces- tained there. The prow• sary to maintain there. tion of the commercial and maritime interests of all nations shall be assured in the respective ports of the Buick Sea be the establish• ment of institutions con formable to international law, and to the customs sanctioned in such matters. LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 12, 1856. “PRESS” OFFICE, Saturday Morning, January 1:2. THE Court of St. Petersburg has trans mitted by Count STACKELBERG to the Court of Vienna Propositions for Peace expressed in a frank and conciliatory spirit. We are assured that they do not differ so much in principles from the Propositions of the Western Powers as in details of practical application, and that the Russian form is likely to be more agreeable in several points to the Sublime Porte than the original method. There is no foundation whatever for the accounts of interviews and conversations between various Ministers and Envoys which have appeared in the public journals. The Prospects of Peace are favorable. The Straits to be closed. WE cannot think that our principal journals have dealt fairly with the public on the clues tion of the War They have seemed more anxious to state what they assumed would gratify their readers than to place before them the truth. Their tone has appeared both unwise and insincere. Objects have been put forward which it was morally certain could never be realised, and every possible effort has been made to mislead the mind and ex asperate the passions of the country. We have been assured in influential prints that the War was to be a war of principles—a war of liberty against despotism—a war for the liberation of Italy, for the regeneration of Poland, for the dismemberment of the Russian empire. If these journals believed in their professions, what are we to think of their understanding? If they had no such belief, what are we to think of their honesty? In either case, what are we to think of their pas sive attitude now, when all those objects are most expressly disclaimed by the action of our Government in the negotiations in pro gress Still graver culpability attaches to the pub lic men who, in face of their constituents and the country, have not scrupled to pledge them selves to sentiments which, if honestly adhered to, and widely held, would make peace im practicable, and commit us to a war against Russia of vengeance or of propagandism. Among the whole War Party there has been a general concurrence of profession that the Crimea must be absolutely wrested from Russia, never to be restored to her again. Facts teach these gentlemen nothing. They hear of the destruction of the Sebastopol docks, but they hold to their creed still, per- 'ED .... SIXPENCE. ,MPED..FIVEPENCE The amount of these The two powers which forces shall be fixed by a hold the coast eugage them direct agreement between selves to maintain only the the two coasting rowers, number of small vessels of a without any ostensible par- fixed force necessary for their ticipatiou of the other coast service. This coriven powers. tion, concluded separately between these two powers, shall form part as an ani ei of the general treaty after re ceiving the approval of the contracting powers. This separate convention can't , t be annulled or modified without the consent of the signitaries of the general treaty. The closing of the Straits will admit the exception ap• plicat.le to the stationary vessels mentioned in the preceding article. [The " exception " of " the preceding article " is] Each of the contracting powers shall have the rig t to keep one or two small vessels stationed at the mouths of the river destined to assure the execution of the regulations relative to the freedom of the Danube. He must be a microscopic politician who can discern any substantial difference between these proposals on one side and the other. The main terms are :-1. The Straits are to be closed. 2. No war-ships are to be allowed in the Black Sea, except those which Turkey and Russia shall mutually deem necessary to be maintained 3. The amount of such force to be regulated by separate convention between the two Powers. The stipulations, of which the Russian Cir. cular makes no mention, are of too trifling a character to excite serious disagreement The admission of Consuls into the ports of the Black Sea, and the prohibition of naval military arsenals, would result naturally from the Euxine being constituted a purely com mercial sea ; and it is not to be supposed that any objection would be urged to the contract ing Powers maintaining one or two small vessels at the mouths of the Danube to secure the freedom of its navigation Of the other heads of the Allied Propositions, two—the abolition of the Russian Protectorate in the Danubian principalities, and the adjust ment by the contracting Powers of the privi leges to be enjoyed by the Christian subjects of the Porte,—have already been conceded by Russia. The only point on which the nego tiation is likely to break down, is the entirely new proposal that Russia shall cede a portion of her Bessarabian territory to be incorporated with the new Danubian State. If this cession had been confined to so much of territory as was necessary to secure the navigation of the Danube from Russian intei ference, the condition would have been intel ligible. But, so far as we can judge by the map, the new frontier—from Chotyn, on the Dniester, to Lake Sisak, communicating with the Black Sea—would appear to take a line between the rivers Pruth and Dniester, divid ing the province equal portions. political reasons •' rectification" of tial. All we can al not contribute to it would not apps Russia; that it w , I well-defined bon of Bessarab . o nearly We have fo_k_minin the which `{e dhierittlk f the Riis ,•' • 1 40 -44111- Lt. preseii • - , ' ' .4 onld the sew. • .; - Oat oreciablry • f would Lead Lndary. :„ t- Eye '~°,~