The Press.
London, England, 1857-12-19 00:00:00

THE PRESS, DECEMBER 19, 1857.

1230

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

The Editor would feel obliged if .1.A.0. (" Electoral Inequali
ties") would favour him with his address.
" A CIARGYKAN " is respectfully informed that his letter Is
unavoidably postponed until next wee`.

On the contrary, reassured by the silence of the Treaty
of Paris, they maintain their pretensions more energeti-
cally
than ever, and they do this by a strict blockade, which
sounds rather curiously in the neutralised Black Sea.
The coasters from Trebizonde learned this very soon to
their own cost. For ages there has been a brisk trade
carried on between the eastern and southern shores of the
Black Sea, long before a Russian set his foot on the soil of
the Caucasus. Salt is the chief article of this trade.
Russia, which wants to make the Circassians dependent
upon her for their provisions of salt, considers the trade
as contraband. The Circassians and Turks, who do not
recognise the right of Russia to the coast, naturally look
at it in a different light, and, having heard of a Treaty of
Paris and a neutralisation of the Black Sea, and the con-
sequent absence of cruisers, continued their trade after the
Turks had retired, and num-rotts have been the fights
between these coasters and the Russian cruisers, and not
less numerous are the claims of Trebizonde merchants for
vessels sunk. The fact is, there is only a vague distinc-
tion between regular trade and contraband, and both sides
make, according to circumstances, the most of it; but
there is likewise another cause for complications. The
Russians insist that vessels should only land on the three
points occupied by them, and never touch on any other
place along the coast ; they have issued a notification tc
that effect, against which, however, France, England, and
Turkey have protested as an infraction of the treaty,
which establishes the free navigation of the Black Sea.
The matter is still pending.

These statements are confirmed by the
Russian Embassy at Constantinople publish-
ing, by order of its Government, a notice,
which has been communicated to all the embassies,
upon the position assumed by Russia with respect
to the navigation and commerce of foreign nations in
the Black Sea. It is in order to put an end "to all
uneasiness on the subject" that the Imperial Go-
vernment of Russia thinks it its duty to make known
to the public, and particularly to foreign traders, that
as the Treaty of Paris provides that the commerce
of the Black Sea, " free from any impediments,"
shall be subjected only to quarantine, customs, and
police regulations, the Imperial Government, as
far as it is concerned, intends to scrupulously adhere
to these provisions, and lay down the following regu-
lations, on the ground that quarantine, customs, and
police regulations, however liberal may be the spirit
in which they are drawn up, require measures of
surveillance, and along the eastern coast of the
Black Sea they are doubly necessary in consequence
of the internal state of the provinces of the
Caucasus :

Quarantine and customs establishments exist at Anapa,
Soukoum Kale, and Redout Kale. These three points,
therefore, alone are for the present open to foreign vessels.
If hereafter circumstances shall permit the establishment
of customs and quarantine authorities at other points of
the coast, where foreign vessels can be admitted, due no-
tice will be given of the fact. In the meantime the ap-
proach to the ports, bays, and harbours, with the exception
of the three above mentioned, is interdicted to foreign
vessels. In order to verify the regularity of their place
of destination, foreign vessels will be bound to have their
papers signed by the Russian consular agents. The Impe-
rial Government does not in any way wish to throw ob-
stacles of any kind in the way of law tut and regular com-
mercial transactions. It is for the interest of the sanitary
state of the coast more than for that of the revenue, and
also for the interest of public order, that the Imperial
Government should watch over the maintenance of the
above-mentioned restrictions.
Thus we see that, with the exception only of Anapa,
Soukoum Kale and Redout Kale, the whole of the
east coast of the Black Sea is hlockaded, and this
fact is rendered more plain the traders' perception
by the following and concluding paragraph of the
Russian circular :
Any attempt, therefore, on the part of foreign navi-
gators to communicate with the coast, except at the above-
named points of Anapa, Soukoum Kale, and Redout Kale,
will lead on the part of the Russian authorities to the ap-
plication of the measures of repression established against
smuggling and contraventions of quarantine regulations.
Those who expose themselves to them will only have to
thank themselves for the consequences of their conduct.
As a curious comment upon the above, there has
just appeared from Circassia a declaration, signed by
the Prince Sefer Pasha and many other chiefs of the
Circassian nation, and transmitted to the represen-
tatives of all the Governments which were parties to
the Treaty of Paris :
Mazga Kale, 3rd Rebil Evel, 1274 (Oct. 21,1857).
At the period of the Treaty of Adrianople, the Emperor
of Russia demanded from the Sultan the Circassian coasts
on the Black Sea. The Russians had no right to claim
this coast, nor had the Sultan any right to grant it, since
the Purte possessed only a religious suzerainty over Cir-
cassia.
We Circassians have not acknowledged this arbitrary
cession, and now, after a thirty years' war, all that Russia
holds is a few points upon our coast.
When the war broke out in 1874 between her and the
Porte, and the allied fleets entered the Bosphorus, the
Russians destroyed the fortifications at those points and
retreated to their own territory.
But now, in defiance of the Peace of Paris, the treaty of
which declared the Black Sea to be neutral, the Russian
Government prevents vessels from approaching our ooast,
and assigns as the reasons for this mamma that we Cir.
caimans will not UllibltiliSl the requisite police and soul.
,
tag regulations.

Now the l lth and 12th articles of that Parisian treaty
forbid all hostilities in the Black Sea, and declared that
trade shall be free at every harbour and for every nation.
For this reason we beg your Excellency tp adopt suitalile
measures, to the end that Russia may observe the Pari-
sian treaty of peace, and that our poor country may not
continue to be devastated. _

As for the organisation of a naval police, and a sanitary
office, we engage to organise and maintain the same as
they are in Europe.
Lastly, we beg your Excellency to send to us a consul to
facilitate the traffic of his own countrymen, and to instruct
us, to the end that we may attain the same grade of civi-
lisation as has been reached by other peoples.
Submitting now these our complaints to your Excellency,
and entreating justice, we remain, &c.,
REFER PASHA,
Reigning Prince of Circassia (and others).
We commend this subject and its curious details
to the attention of our readers.