The Press.
London, England, 1856-10-11 00:00:00

TURKEY AND THE PRINCIPALITIES.

According to information received in Paris, the
return of the Ottoman forces to Wallachia has coin•
cided with the occupation of Galatz by an Austrian
force of 3,000 men. Prince Schwarzeuberg, the
Governor of Transylvania, was at Galatz on the 27th
ult., and left in the evening for Jassy.
The Journal de Constantinople of the 29th Sep-
tember, alluding to the Bolgrad and Isle of Serpents
difficulties, observes :

It is known that the question of the isle of Serpents,
as also that of Bolgrad, far from being adjusted, takes
every day a graver form,the difficulties raised by the Court
of Russia being contrary to the spirit and the letter of the
treaty of Paris of March 30.
We believe that we are thoroughly well informed when
we state, that in consequence of telegraphic despatches
received the day before yesterday, the English division,
under the command of Admiral Lyons, at present. an•
chorea at Buyukdere, has received orders to return to the
Black Sea. The admiral himself, on board his vessel, the
Royal Albert, has not yet left his anchorage, but several
frigates, corvettes, and steam gunboats are preparing to
depart.

A French squadron it was reported was also
ordered to co-operate with the Brit►sh fleet.
An Austrian squadron was also expected at Con-
stantinople.
Le Nord this week publishes a diplomatic note
from nista Pacha upon the question of the annexa-
tion to Moldavia of the isles of the Danube, and
addressed to the representatives of the Porte at the
different Courts.

The Turkish Minister for Foreign Affairs sets out
with the assertion that as the isles at the mouth of
the Danube never formed part of Bessarabia, but
were always subject to a special regime settled by
the treaty of Adrianople, it is clear that they cannot
be included in that part of Bessarabia now restored
by Russia to Turkey, and annexed to Moldavia.
" Article 20 of the treaty of Paris," observes Fuad
Paella—

fixes the new frontier between the Ottoman empire and
Russia. Art. '2l says that " the territory ceded by Russia
shall be annexed to the principality of Moldavia, for the
suzerainty of the Sublime Porte." The spirit of this last
article makes it easy to comprehend that the annexation
to Moldavia of the territory ceded by Russia applies only
to Bessarabia, and not to the islands in the embouchure.
If the contracting powers desired to give the islands to
the Moldavian principality, the treaty should have so ex-
pressed it in an express clause.
The declaration of our plenipotentiaries at the Paris
Conference, embodied in the protocol without any obser-
vation on he part of the congress, confirms the return of
the mouths of the Danube to the direct ownership of
Turkey. It promises the discharge of a duty in return
for a right recovered.
The condition in which the islands at the mouth now
are, the spirit of the treaty itself, and this declaration of
taking possession—a declaration accepted by the congress
—will be evidence of the intentions of our allies as to the
future condition of the mouths of the Danube. In stipu-
lath% for the restitution of Bessarabia to Moldavia, they
undoubtedly had no intention of wronging Turkey by de-
priving her of what rightfully returned to her, to unite it
to a province having no claim to it.
Our august allies must have recollected the blood shed at
Oltenitza, lialatat, and Silistria.

•
The abject aimed at by l•:urone in stipulating for the
restitution of the mouths of the Danube was the freedom
of that river. It is plainly evident that the best means of
attaining that object is to place them again in the hands of
their legitimate proprietor.
The Paris Union thus remarks on the diplomatic
note :

The Sublime Porte claims the ownership of the isles on
the mouth of the Danube. Doe. 4 she claim them from
Russia! No—bat from Moldavia. The Porte may be
perfectly in the right, but the claim is not the less
singular. Has it not been decided and drawn up that

965

Moldavia thrms en integre& poet of the Tarkish territory ?
Does not the Divan understand that the Sultan is sove-
reign, nut protector, of the Danubian principalities?
This is in truth a strange claim, and the more so from the
fact of the isles being deserted and not capable of being
inhabited.

The Corriere Italian of Vienna, of the sth, says :

new treaty of commerce, the draft of which has been
drawn up by M. de Prokesch Osten, is about to he con-
chided between the Porte and Austria ; and we learn that
the principal basis of it is a diminution, and eventually a
suppression, of the duties imposed by Turkey on the ex-
port of goods by the Austrian frontiers, and the grant of
extraordinary facilities for the importation of Austrian pro-
ductions into the Ottoman empire.
The dissension between the French Ambassador
and the Turkish Government, with reference to the
privilege granted to Captain Magne and the naviga-
tion of the Sereth and the Pruth, is said to be
entirely settled. Austria at last listened to reason,
and the revocation of the privilege has been again
set aside.