The Press.
London, England, 1855-04-21 00:00:00

372

remombrunces. The Adriatic, exposed to the brusque
attack of a slave coalition, would cease to be the niart and
bulwark of the Austrian empire, and the key of the Gull
of Taegu) would pass by a surprise from Vienna to St.
Petersburg.
-

Passing on to the pending negotiations and present
Sews and motives of the allied powers, the article
p roceeds :
As regards the conditions of peace, nothing can be more
just, more moderate, more conformable to the rights and
interests of Europe. It will be easy for us to establish
this by characterising clearly the thought which dictated
them and tit,: object which they were to achieve. The first
of ute tour conditions, in putting an end to the protectorate
of Russia in the principalities of Moldavia' Wallachia, and
Berrie, and in placing their privileges under the collective
guarautee of the great powers, takes away from the Cabi-
net of St. Petersburg the rights which it pretended to hold
from ancient treaties, and which were only the means for
subjugating those populations, for dominating Turkey,
for approaching Austria on her most vulnerable side, and
for troubling the whole of Europe ; the second, by stipula-
ting the free navigation of the Danube, liberates the com-
merce of all nations—especially of Austria—from the moral
and material obstacles which impede it, and throws open
the mouths of that great river to the States of which it is
the fortune and the defence.
The fourth, in delivering Turkey from the pretensions
of Russia to a religious protectorate of the Greek subjects
of the Sultan, nevertheless assures more than ever freedom
of conscience at the same time that it destroys the supre-
macy which the Czars arrogated to themselves, the political
object of which, the better to impose, was concealed
under a religious mask.
As regards the third of those conditions—that which
has for object to limit the preponderance of Russia in the
Black Sea—we have reserved it expressly as the most im-
portant and most contested, so as to explain it here, cate-
gorically. First of all, how must it be understood ? Evi-
dently anything equivocal on so grave a point cannot suit
soy one. The allied Governments, who have a conscious-
ness of the justice of their pretensions, have not feared
defining them. Russia has turned the Black Sea into a
Russian lake ; she has gradually founded maritime esta-
blishments there of the first class; she has accumulated
there, with as much perseverance as mystery, considerable
naval forces, and it may be said that by that exclusive do•
mination of the Black Sea she has placed Constantinople
in a permanent state of siege.
This state of things is not possible, because it is incom-
patible not only with the integrity of the Ottoman empire
but with the security of the whole of Europe.
France and England, in demanding Russia to limit her
power in the Black Sea, or to neutralise that sea, are
therefore completely in their right. If that result was not
obtained by peace or by war, such a peace would be ephe-
meral and suck a war useless ; and, let it be well observed,
-this demand for the limitation of Russian power, or for
the nentralisation of the Black Sea, does not respond only
to Anglo-French interests, it responds also to the interests
of Austria, for which the Danube, a commercial and mili-
tary river, is a magnificent highway, open to her activity
towards the Euxine and Asia. An argument is brought
against this pretension which we do not think serious; it
is said to the allied powers, " You ask a concession from
Russia, which at most might be the price of the surrender
of Sebastopol, and that place is still held by the Russisn
army." Our reply is this :—" The law of nations grants
that a portion of what is obtained by war may be kept by
peace.' We have not yet taken Sebastopol, that is true ;
but what is Sebastopol at the present moment to Russia?
It is no longer a naval port, as her fleet, sunk at the mouth
of the harbour, or shut up behind that insurpassable bar-
rier, is withdrawn from the struggle. The Black Sea is
the battle-field which we have won—or, if they like it, which
has been abandoned to us by the enemy. The Russian
flag could not show itself them. Our ships and those of
England and Turkey navigate it in every sense. Its do-
mination has changed hands. It has gone from Sebastopol
to Constantinople.
Whatever may be the result of the negotiations,
the writer contends that the allies are placed in a
better position by their having been undertaken :
Ent a great result is acquired already from the very fact
of these negotiations. France and England have loyally
negotiated with Austria to allow her policy to exhaust the
last resources of conciliation. Those conferences of which
Vienna is the centre are the loyal and honest act of the
Emperor Francis Joseph. But the allied powers know
that if Austria does not succeed in this nob!e effort of her
European patriotism, she will fight resolutely with them.
In limiting their demand to the very conditions accepted
by the Vienna Cabinet in the treaty of the '2nd of Decem-
ber they have gained to the common cause an important
and devoted ally. The possibility of peace, like the neces-
sity of war, must henceforth he only a fact in common to
le three powers who signed that treaty. The solidanty
of their interests and of their engagements would unite
them in the struggle as it has united them in the Confer-
ences, and that grand European confederation will soon
have triumphed over every resistance.
France and England may therefore congratulate them-
selves in having consented to negotiate while continuing
to tight. In acting thus they have not only given a proof
of moderation—they have increased their strength. Their
adhesion to an honourable and possible peace, having as
consequence the support of Austria in a necessary and
legitimate war, is an act counselled by wisdom, and which
will be approved by public opinion.
THE SHERIFFS OF LONDON AND MIDDLESEX gave a
magnificent entertainment on Tuesday evening at
the Albion Tavern, to the Prefect of Ale Seim:, M.
1) iangle, Senat .r Pelonae, Senator Thayer, Senator
Get-raga Thibault,. IL Earlier de. roarette, anti, AI.

Mille.

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