The Press.
London, England, 1856-01-19 00:00:00

Sortign durrzsgouttnct.

FRANKFORT, Jai:. 15.
THE speech of the Prince Royal of Prussia on the
Ist of January to the officers of the Prussian garrison
at Coblentz, has excited an unpleasant sensation. It
is construed by the mercantile interests here to be
significant of war. " Nous sommes press au combat
et aura de la victoire," are bold words, and surely
ought not to have been used at a moment when the•
first statesmen in Europe are earnestly engaged in.
an endeavour to find means for the re-establishment
of peace. If these expressions were employed in.
answer to the blustering tone of a portion of the
London press, the Prince should yet have recognised.
the wide distinction between the import attached to.
language used by a person in his high position, and.
the slight value set on the flourishing rhetoric or
irresponsible writers. The time was singularly ill-
chosen for the Prince to declare himself a partisan of
Russia, and ready to take up arms against the allies.
There is another suggestion that may not he un-
profitable. The taunts that have seen lasiqued
against France by the Courts of Munich, Dresden,
and Berlin in their official and Court journals, are
known to all. The Professors s.iss and Silgado oi
Prussia have sent back Glair Parisian, medals.
These sundry contumelies have been puk forth for a
purpose, and should they have their intended effect
Prussia would probably: suffer bitterly for thus wan
tonly provoking the enulity of France.
To come to Austria, a real price Ls demanded by
her for the unreal value of the December treaty of
'54. It is proposed by Austria to take a line between
the rivers Wall and Dniester, and intersecting the
province of Bessarabia,. to form an independent
State with the islands at the mouth of the Danube.
Be it well understood that this State, quasi-indepen- •
dent, would be immediately under Austrian influence..
This induces an examination of the treaty of Adria-
nople. That treaty, in 1820, confirmed the former •
ones of Jassi, 1792, and of Bucharest, 1812, in
regard to the possession of Bessarabia. The line of
the Pruth continued to be the limit of the two
empires; but on its junction with the Danube the•
new line of demarcation crossed the latter river, and
rested on the right bank to the mouth of the canal of
St. George, so that the islands formed by the differont
branches of the great stream were declared to belong
to Russia. The Porte also abandoned the towns,
fortresses, and the lands on the north or left side of
the Danubian bank, and it was further stipulated
that all the private property possessed by Mussul _
mans should be ceded to Russia by compulsory sale
within the period of eighteen months. At one 011
the earliest conferences after the commencement of
the war, Russia voluntarily offered to revise the con-
ditions of the Adrianople Treaty. This revision
should directly re-establish the old boundaries.
according to the treaties of Jassi and Bucharest,.
which, with the other provisions for the independence:
of the Black Sea, might meet the emergency. Thg•
Danubian islands might be made a neutral grnitratl
for the station of the small vessels " destined to.
assure the execution of the regulations relative to,
the freedom of the Danube." Thereby the territor
rial integrity of Russia would be maintained,, ac-
cording to the minutes of the Congress of Vienuai,
which were departed from by the treaty of Adria-
nople, and the national honour and plenary rights elf
sovereignty as a primary power of Europe roma,/
remain thoroughly intact to Russia,
But this apparently would not suit the. Asiewr of
Austria. She demands that Russia shall be tr re--
torially reduced, and shall exchange Eueoposts for
Asiatic dominion. The words of the Vieunese4' urnal
shall be quoted t

•
Russia should pursue in good faith. kor histus mis-
sion, which is to propagate the civilisation. of I,urope in
Asiatic countries inhabited by a pastorali alai t nomadic
people. The Czar should decide on *mho
,raging the
sceptre of the protector of Europe for that of a great
Asiatic power.
That means, observes Le Nord,
[that Russia is not a. European coati on, that F e
should be thrown back into Asia fnout tsi aence she has
issued.

JANUARY 19, 1856.

, .
This is intelligible. Without waiting to analyse the
moral, it may be, welt to examine the amount of
a-quirement in eistory and geography exemplified by
theAustriar, advocate.

When du the Russians emigrate from the wilds of
Asia? They were a portion of the Scythi; but the
fir..c authentic account of them is A.D. 822, under
tituik, Grand Duke of Novogorod. The Mongol
Tatars overran the country A.o. 1200, and held it in
subjection until 1540, when Ivan Basilowitz, with the
tit'. of Czar, or Great King, drove the invaders from
his d.ominions, and once morn established a Russian
in'l.tependence. It is the Mongol interregnum of 350
years that the Cabinet historians of Austria mistake
for an Asiatic Russia, forgetful at the same time
that the Sclave race is distinctly European and
properly Russian, without Tartar and Mongol ad-
mixture. The Russian proper is Caucasian, and of
primary organisation; and the Tartar is Mongolian,
.or of secondary organisation. A wilful error of this
nature is an absurdity that surpasses belief. It is
but common justice to give the spirited reply of
Le Nord :

As to a e importance of Russia as a European power,
she will maintain it in spite of her deadliest enemies, for
this importance does not depend on any syatem of foreign
policy, but in her elements of internal force and prosperity.
She can then, in an attitude of repose, allow events to take
their coarse, and wait. To know how to wait is the great
secret of great States as of great men. To be able to wait
is a proof of force and power, as much as the reverse shows
the wai.t of it.

The delay of a European settlement is not
favorable to Austria or Germany. They cannot
afford to wait. Austria has defied Russia, Prussia
and Germany have challenged France. Peace may
yet be'tnade. if peace be not concluded the respon-
sibility will rest with Austria, I'russia, and Germany :
with Austria for perfidious delay and consummate
selfishness; with Prussia and Germany for short-
comings, indecision, and an empty bravado of France.
J. E. L.