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

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FRANKFORT, March 26.
TUE coolness, without adopting the word antipathy,
that already subsists between I'russia and Austria,
cannot but receive an accession of asperity by the
discourtesies of M. de Buol at Paris. On the 22nd,
when the Prussian Plenipotentiaries were in attend-
ance, awaiting a formal introduction to the Con-
ference, M. de Buol declined to proceed in the
observations he was charged to make by his Go-
vernment in the presence of M. de Manteuffel and M.
de Hartfeld, and they were made to wait in the
antechamber for more than an hour. As the com-
munication could not in any way affect the terms of
peace definitively agreed upon, and bore chiefly on
the subject of the Danube, the incivility was inten-
tionaliy overt, and one of the plenipotentiaries, at
did ..• his •

least, - not care to disguise opinion.
The Danubian clause is found to be replete with
ulterior contingencies, requiring care in adjustment
to guard against future difference. The river rises
in Baden, passes the small State of Illhenzollenf
Sigmaringen, enters Bavaria at Ulm, going through
the Archduchy of Austria, traverses Hungary, and
then by Selavonia and the Banat of Teuneswar flows
onward by Servia, Wallachia, Moldavia, Bulgaria,
and Bessarabia, to the Black Sea. It is evident, by
reference to the excellent map of Wyld, that Austria
has only riverain rights of passage, shared in
common with others, from the spot where the stream
commences to be navigable ; and the more beneficial
portion, as to commercial supply and breadth of
navigation, belongs to the principalities. Hitherto
the Danubian advantages of the upper and middle pas-
sage have been usurped by Austria and made a purely
Austrian appendage—a pretension that is not just,
and will not be permitted. The stream is not more
Austrian than German, and acquires public proper-
ties from the moment it bears merchandise for a
distant market. If Prussia, therefore, is held to
represent German interests, her right of inter-
ference on the subject of the Danube is equal
to that of Austria; for, were it otherwise, and the
above rule be rejected, the owners of territory at the
river mouth would claim the right of preventing
ingress and egress. it is this very conduct of Russia
that is the actual subject of complaint, and which a
similar course on the part of Austria would go to
justify. By the intervention of Prussia the question
of the Danube becomes of European interest.
In furtherance of this German view a canal has
been projected and is in course of construction from
Dietfurth, near the Danube, to Bamberg on the
Mein, whereby a line of communication would be
continued from the Black Sea by the Danube, Mein,
and Rhine, to the German Ocean. The opposition
to this international relationship has mainly pro-
ceeded from Austria, for that Government of syste-
matic misrule has always furnished every obstacle to
throwing open the river trade. In 1833 the proposal
for a steam navigation company on the Danube,
founded on a report showing the various benefits of
commercial and passenger traffic, was scouted with
derision by the Austrian Government, and the author
of the scheme was declared to be insane. By perse.

294

verance a company was at last formed, and funds
for the building and equipment of one boat to ply
between Vienna and Semlin was grudgingly sub-
scribed, and held to be a dead loss of capital. Fur
two years it remained the solitary vehicle of trans-
port, but it succeeded. In 1840 the boats were in-
creased to five, with an extension of voyage to Sins-
tria and Galatz. In 1850 tho number of steamers
amounted n twenty-four, and five tugs, making the
voyage to Trebizond, Constantinople, Smyrna, and
Trieste. In 1854 there were eighty-three vessels,
with 280 tugs, and in the last year the progress has
been in proportion. From a disbelief of advantages,
and almost a refusal to afford support, Austrian ob-
tuseness has sluggishly arrived at the truth ; and
hence has arisen the desire of monopoly, and the
working of an anti-Germanic policy. In defence or
its obliquity of commercial vision, Austria advances
the assumed fact of a facility of locomotion and in
tercourse being accompanied by a facility of revolu-
tion, and avows, for that reason, having discouraged
on the Danube the development of Germanic re-
sources. Any claim to be the protector of German
interests in commercial parlance is thus entirely
overthrown by its own admission. The war has
summarily dispelled all illusory pretext for hin-
drance, and the construction of the Kustendjie Canal,
in which England and France have equal interests,
will give the latter an immediate voice in the affairs
of the Danube; and this canal is of paramount and
European importance.
In order to make the undertaking complete, a
free port, actual and not nominal, must be established
at the mouth of the canal on the Black Sea. At the
present time the grain of Wallachia is exported from
Ibrailow, that of Moldavia from Galatz ; the corn 01
Bulgaria is brought to Matchin, and that portion of
grain from Bessarabia that is carried to the Danube
is shipped from Reni and Ismail. In spite of the
vaunt of these towns being "free ports," the Russian
regulations, by the treaty of Adrianople, expressly
provide every impediment to river commerce. The
product of one province cannot be carried for ship-
ment to the port of anotaer State. For instance,
corn and tallow are prevented from being brought
from Wallachia into Galatz, and from Moldavia into
Ibrailow; and as all importation of grain is prohibited
into these provinces, it follows that no corn coming
from Turkey can be introduced or exported from
those places, and yet they assume the title of " free
ports." Ismail and Reni, therefore, Russian stations,
have local privileges almost conferring a monopoly of
Danube trade, nine tenths of which is of corn,
besides throwing the chief supplies upon the Odes-
sian market.

Another serious disadvantage consists in the diffi-
culties which fetter sailing vessels in their voyage
from the Sulina mouths, up stream, to the ports for
shipment of cargo. The time consumed is often not
less than a month ; and then again down stream, on
account of the shallows, the ships are obliged to
transfer a part of their cargo to lighters, and these
several obstacles occasion the waste of another
month. The expenses, in consequence, are greatly
increased, as can be shown by the difference upon
freight, the charge being from Galatz to England
12s. per quarter, and from Ismail and the Sulina
mouths Ss. per quarter, or an increase in freight
charge of one third for a distance somewhat under or
about a hundred miles. It may be stated on autho-
rity, proved and published, that the freight from
Galatz to England is fifty per cent. higher than that
from Odessa. It is manifest, therefore, that the for
mation of a free port on the Black Sea, at the mouth
of the Kustendjie Canal, where sea-going vessels
may receive their shipment of grain brought down by
the Danube, is absolutely necessary for the develop-
ment of the river trade, and for the protection of
capital that may be invested in mercantile enterprises
connected with those countries. Whatever blame
may have been attributed to Russia for obstructing
the traffic of the principalities, the share of Austria
in that selfish policy is of equal delinquency, and,
having possession of the territory, her Government
will struggle to retain its advantages levied at Euro-
pean expense.

Without denying that the secrecy of the Con-
ferences has been carefully preserved, and not
listening to the idle rumours of those interested to
mislead, yet a sufficiency may have been gleaned by
common observation to enlighten those who are not
altogether uninstructed in European tactics. It re-
quires no depth of perception to be sensible of the
mutual approaches of France, Russia, and Sardinia;
neither can the drift be misunderstood. Sardinia
does not trust its hereditary foe, wary, deceitful, and
unrelenting, and having the one object of suppressing
Italian constitutionalism in view. That country has
a right to look for extraneous aid, being certain of
attack from Austril, either open or insidious. Frai.ce
is the readiest ally, at hand always, and, of long
standing, occupyin.; a high position in Italian regard :
neither does Russia withhold sympathy in the dis-
favour towards Austria. These reasons are suffi-
ciently obvious to account for the friendly affinities
that now draw together the three countries in closer