The Press.
London, England, 1855-03-31 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 31, 1855.

A second proposition was, we understand,
then made by the allies, that the Straits of
the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus should
be open to all Powers, and that England and
France should be permitted to maintain an
equal number of ships of war with Russia
in the Black Sea. The Court of St. Peters-
burg made no difficulty on this head. It
was quite content that the Treaty of 1841
should not only be revised but abrogated;
the result of this second proposition, of
course, being that the Russian fleet would
be free at all times to enter the Mediter-
ranean. Here, however, the Sublime Porte
interposed, and considered the maintenance
of the Treaty of 1841 as indispensable to
the independence and integrity of Turkey.
Indeed, it is difficult to comprehend how
I these political characters could be sustained
if the fleets of all nations might sail and
anchor, ad libitum, in the waters and har-
bours of Constantinople.
These two profound suggestions having
fallen to pieces, a resource was found in a
third proposition, that the numerical force
of the Russian navy in the Euxine should
be limited ; and it is from a want of agree-
ment as to the degree of this condition that
the labours of the Congress have for a
moment been suspended, and the Represen-
tatives of Russia have required fresh instruc-
tions from their Governmen. Restrictions as
to the amount of naval force to be main-
tained by a sovereign power are at the best
but illusory guarantees, and it is difficult to
believe that Europe will engage in war for
the sake of obtaining a particular gradation
of such an equivocal security. It might as
well continue the war to obtain an indem-
nity of some millions from Russia : probably
an amount almost equal to that we have
already expended on a single item of
transports. The truth is, the affairs have
been so blundered from the first, the pur-
pose of the war has been conceived in so
petty a spirit, that, when the Powers have
come to negotiate for peace, they begin to
find there is really nothing worth going to
war about.

It may be amusing to our readers to have
some idea of the scene where these memo-
rable conferences take place. At a round
table presides M. de BUOL, the Austrian
Prime Minister ; on his right sits M. de
BOURQUENEY ; next to the French Minister
Lord JOHN RUSSELL, then Lord WESTMORE-
LAND. The two Russian Plenipotentiaries
follow, and the Turks complete the circle.

PRICE SIXPENCE.

This is the s3ciety in which, probably on
Tuesday morning, M. DROUYN DR LHUYS,
the Foreign Minister of France, will find
himself. His Excellency arrived in London
yesterday, and, we understood, left England
this evening, at eight o'clock, for Vienna. He
was so pressed for time that, we have been
told, he was obliged to deprive himself of
the gratifying distinction of dining this day
with her Majesty. His Excellency will
repair to Vienna with the most pacific in-
tentions. Nor can we doubt he will succeed
in assuaging any storm which the last mo-
dification of the third point may have excited
at St. Petersburg, when we remember that
Count NESSELRODE, the constant counsellor
of peace from the first, NOW REIGNS SUPREME
AT THAT COURT.

Mr. BOUVERIE, Chairman of the Corn.
mittees of the House of Commons, is
appointed Vice-President of the Board of
Trade.

Mr. BURKE ROCHE, M.P. for the county
of Cork, will be raised to the Irish peerage.

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER has
announced that the Budget will be brought
forward on the t?Oth of April. Our readers
will perhaps recollect that it is upwards of
a fortnight since we positively announced
that this was the day fixed for the financial
statement.

EUROPE has lost a great opportunity, but
Europa has not lost its honour nor its power.
The impending peace will be one mortifying
for the allies, but not humiliating. It will be
unsatisfactory—it will approach even the
ridiculous ; but it will not be tainted with
ignominy.

Russia has escaped an immense retribution.
She was in a vice ; but the hands of the
workmen were paralysed. Had there been
truthfulness in our Cabinet in 1853—had there
even been energy in 1854—the prospects of the
world might have undergone a vast and salu-
tary revolution. The present deplorable
result is the inevitable consequence of all the
false steps which for two years have perplexed
and irritated the country. Insincerity, inde-
cision, action too late, and therefore precipi-
tate, faint protests, feeble negotiations. ill-
planned and ill-timed expeditions, have been
links in a chain of irresistible causation, that
will permit Russia to emerge from a contest
which menaced her imperial existence, with
her arrogance unquestionably checked, but
her essential strength unimpaired.
But we must not, therefore, despair. We
must not confound the qualities of " a guilty