The Press.
London, England, 1855-05-05 00:00:00

LORD JOHN RUSSELL AND THE VIENNA

CONFERENCES.

Lord John made his first appearance on Monday.
As soon as the routine business of the evening was
over Mr. DISRAELI rose and inquired whether it was
his intention to lay any papers upon the table with
respect to his late mission, or to make any statement
to the house with regard to it, and, if so, when ? And
whether it is his intention, by any other means, to
afford the house any inform aucn as to the proceedings
of the last two mouths at Vienna?

Before the question could be answered, Lord PAL-
XERSTON explained that when he had said on a
previous night that the Russian plenipotentiaries had
made no counter proposition on the limitation point,
he was led into error by the telegraph. There had
been counter propositions, but they had at once been
rejected as unsatisfactory.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL then rose, and was received
with some cheering. The noble lord said :

In reply to the questions which have been put to me by
the right hon. gentleman, I have to state, in the first place,
that I do hot think it is for me to decide what papers shall
be laid upon the table of the house. I may say, however, that
I believe her Majesty's Government intend very shortly to
lay upon the table the protocols of the conferences which
have taken place at Vienna. Those protocols will convey
to the house information of the substance of the negotia-
tions that have taken place. Perhaps I may say a few
worda more, without intending to go into any detail as to
the negotiations. The first meeting of the conference was
on the lath of March. The negotiations with respect to the
first two of the four points with which the house is ac-
quainted lasted until the 26th of March. On the 28th of
March the third pint came under consideration. It was
suggested by the plenipotentiaries of Austria that the pleni-
potentiaries of Russia should themselves make a proposal
calculated t 3 satisfy the exigencies of the case. The pleni
poteutiaries of Russia replied that they had no instructions
to do so, but they asked for time to refer to their Govern-
ment. The consequence was that the conference was then
adjourned, and that no meeting fur the transaction of
business t ok place until the answer was received from St.
Petershing. tin the 17th of April another conference was
held. when the plenipotentiaries of Russia informed the
conference that they had received instructions from their
Government not to take the initiative of any propositions,
but that they were ready to hear and discuss any proposal
which might be submitted to the conference. The repre-
sentatives of the allied powers then requested forty-eight
hours to consider the form in which they should make
their proposal, and on the 19th of April the plenipotentiaries
of France and of Great Britain, supported by the plenipo-
tentaries of Austria, laid their proposition before the con-
ference. The Russian plenipotentiaries, on their bide,

. .
asked for forty-eight hours in order to prepare their
answer to this proposition. Accot dingly, on the 21st they
gave their answer, totally rejecting the propositions which
had been made to the conference. They stated to us, how-
ever, that they had propositions to make on the part of
their Goveninient which they conceived would be in ac-
cordance with the demand that Turkey should be united
more closely with the maintenance of the balance of power
in Europe, and that so,ue restriction should be placed upon
the preponderance of Lussia in the Black Sea. The pleni
potentiaries of Austria, France, and Great Br.tain found
those proposals of Russia entirely unacceptable, and refused
to consider them in detail. The plenipotentiary of Austria
then said that, although these propositions had been re-
jected, he trusted that all the means of reconciling the belli-
gerent parties by peace were not vet exhausted. To this
the plenipotentiaries of France and of Great Britain replied
that their instructions were exhausted, and that they had
no powers to consider any further propositions. I then
considered that the best way of performing my duty would
be to repair to my own Government, and to lay before them
the whole state of the case with respect to the negotiations
at Vienna, and the manner in which the conferences had
been suspended. Two or three days afterwards the Minister
of Foreign Affairs of France, having requested the orders of
the Emperor, came to a similar determination. I believe
he was expected to arrive in Paris last night, and I have no
doubt he will lay before his Government his account of the
occurrences that have taken place in the course of these
negotiations

Mr. DISRAELI then asked if there would be any
objection to lay the preliminary papers upon the table
at once, that they might know officially what the four
points were? Lord PALMERSTON lhoßgill, there might
be no objection to the production of preliminary
papers, but he would take care that the house should
know what the four points were. Mr. DISRAELI Still
thought that the single despatch might be laid on
the table, in which the nature of the four points was
communicated to the Government. Lord PALMERSTON

said that the papers would be produced as' soon as
possible, sooner than the right hon. gentleman seemed
to suppose.
In reply to further questions, it was stated that a
proposal had never been made by Russia which was
not likely to lead to a satistertory result, and that the
p:•oceedings were approved by the Turkish plenipo-
tentiaries.

NEWSPAPER STAMP BILL.

The committee on this bill, on Monday, sett'ed
the various points respecting which so much qua-
%ten had boon raised. In the first place the