The Press.
London, England, 1856-03-29 00:00:00

THE CONFERENCES.

The Plenipotentiaries have held daily sittings
during the week. The slight difficulties which were
gravely stated to be so imminent, and to threaten the
continuance of the Conference, have gradually been
smoothed away.
The Patrie stated on Tuesday :

It is affirmed that the aub•committee appointed to draw
up the text of the treaty of peace has not yet been able,
notwithstanding all its exertions, to terminate its task. It
is probable that the examination and approbation of this
important document will necessitate &everal meetings of
the Congress; but the general belief is that it can he signed
and made public before the 31st of March, and that, con.
sequently, the armistice need not be renewed.

The 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, and it is believed, 16th
and 17th sittings have been and will be held this
week. The Assemble Nationale declares that the
essential conditions of the treaty have been settled,
and that the ratification will take place this week :

What we can assure is this (adds the .4ssemblee) that
Lord Clarendon has made several P.P.C. visits, and has
announced that he will quit Paris on Sunday morning, in
order to be present at the Monday's sitting in the House of
Lords.

The Siicle, in a letter from St. Petersburg, shadows
forth, according to this authority, some of the leading
articles of the expected treaty :

1. Russia consents to the neutralisation of the Black
Sea. 2. Sebastopol is not again to become a war depot,
and the reconstruction of the fortresses is prohibited.
3. Ni luced + commercial

Nicolaieff is to be reds .to a —.cud port. 4.
Russia is to abandon her protectorate of the principalities.
5. Russia renounces certain territories in Bessarabia,
which leaves the navigation of the Danube perfectly free.
8. A commission is to be appointed to trace the new
frontiers in this district. 7. The fact of a Russian soldier
passing the Pruth, is to be looked upon as a caaua belli by
the contracting powers.
The occupation of Turkey, according to Le Nord,
has been fixed at an amount of 20,000 men, French
and English.
The Siècle believes that the occupation of the
principalities by the Austrians will be seriously dis-
cussed before the ratification of peace, and also that
the solution of the Italian question will be attempted.
Count Cavour is reported to have drawn up a
memorial on the subject. The Indhpendance Beige
states :

Piedmont, which has a right to expect a just compen•
sation for the sacrifices she has imposed on herself, and
which France and England must wish to see arranged to
her satisfaction, insists strenuously on Austria removing
unconditionally her sequestrations on the property of the
Lombard emigrants who have become Sardinian subjects.
The occnpation of the Roman States will also be discussed;
it is contrary to treaties, and sooner or later will have to
be solved by the simultaneous departure both of the
Austrian and the French troops. It remains to be seen
whether the Pope, as soon as the support of foreign
bayonets shall have been withdrawn, will be able to prevent
the revolution from breaking out among the people, ever
ready to rise against the incapable Government that
assumes to rule them.

The Mats off yesterday speaks of the rumoured
difficulties which have delayed the signature of the
treaty of peace as having arisen from " pretensions
raised by Prussia—pretensions to which England
opposed insuperable objections to which she finally
converted the other powers. This incident., how-
ever, is not of a nature to cause any uneasiness
peace is more certain than ever."

The Right Hon. Sir HENRY POTTINGER, Bart.,
G.C.8., died at Ma..,a on the 18th inst. in his 67th
year. The distinguished services of the deceased in
India, China, and the Cape, his great energy, public
zeal, and ready administrative powers, bad justly
achieved for him a high and honourable reputation
among the distinguished men of his day.
Mr. JOSEPH NEELD, M.P., F.S.A., F.L.S., died on
Monday at his residence in Grosvenor•square.
During his long Parliamentary career as Conserva-
tive representative for Chippenham, Mr. Joseph
Neeld was a stanch adherent to the Protestant and
Protectionist cause, and voted for agricultural pro-
tection when Sir Robert Peel abandoned the cause in
1846. He was brother-in-law to Captain Boldero,
the other member for the borough, and brother to
the honourable member for Cricklade. Mr. Neeld
was married in 1831 to Lady Caroline Mary, the
eldest daughter of the late, and sister to the present
Earl of Shaftesbury.

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