The Press.
London, England, 1857-02-21 00:00:00

be behindhand in igndiCating the flag of his
country. Each fresh case will act as an in-
centive to further punctiliousness, till at last
we shall become public nuisances, and invite
a coalition against us among every people
that has a farthing to lose by our aggressions,
or a single shred of honour to defend from
our insolence.

Touching the bright idea of Sir J. BOWRINO,
that this was an excellent opportunity of re-
covering our dormant right of entry to the
town of Canton, we can only say that it seems
to us both ungenerous and impolitic. We
will grant that Sir GEORGE BONHAM never sur-
rendered the claim. But he consented that it
should remain in abeyance, owing to the inex-
pugnable dislike of the Cantonese to accede
to any such arrangement. Obviously the
rational and becoming policy was, therefore,
to postpone the demand for its concession
until such time as the native prejudices had,
by long intercourse with us, been softened
down ; but to insist upon it at the very
moment when these feelings are naturally
highly exasperated is one of those happy im-
provements of an occasion which seems pecu-
liar to Lord PALMERSTON'S policy. We fear it
is the old story, that we were determined to
find muddy water; and, as far as making an
uncommonly nice mess of it is concerned, no
one can deny our success.

THE BOLGRAD DESPATCHES.
PRINCE GORTSCHAKOFF'S REPLY TO LORD

CLARENDON.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE COUNT DE CHREPTOMUTCH.

ST. PETERSBURG, DeC. 8 ('0), 1856.

Monsieur le Comte,—ln answer to the statement
which your Excellency has been directed to leava
with the Government of her Britannic Majesty, Lord
Wodehouse has just communicated to me the
despatch, a copy of which is annexed.
This document contains, on the one hand, senti.
ments which I share, on the other conclusions from
which I dissent.

I wish, M. le Comte, to re'mpitulate the principles
on which we are at issue with the Government of her
Britannic Majesty.
I shall then call your attention to the facts which
form the subject of our difference of opinion. A
frank and loyal exchange of our ideas gill, I trust,
facilitate the task of coming to an understanding
with England in a spirit of conciliation, as well as
with a mutual sentiment of tha dignity of the two
countries.

I fulfil an agreeable duty by commencing my pre-
sent task with a statement of the doctrines which
establish between my views and those of Lord
Clarendon a conviction common to both of us.

Guided by the sentiment.; of our august master,
which is the constant rule of my conduct, I frankly
associate myself in the regret expressed by the
Government of her Britannic Majesty at seeing that
there still prevail bAween us motives of disagree-
ment and irritation which it would have been
desirable to shroud in oblivion from the conclusion of
peace.

Like Lord Clarendon, I will abstain from a painful
retrospect of the past. A policy of recrimination is
not that with which the Cabinet of Russia is inspired.
Far from that, it longs for the moment when the
relations between Russia and Great Britain, freed
from every recollection of ho'tility, shall be re-
established on a footing of goodwill and reciprocal
cordiality. I accept that wish in the spirit in which
Lord Clarendon utters it. I shall always be ready to
join my efforts to those which he will himself employ
to bring about this happy result, so necessary for the
confirmation of the peace of Europe, ani so salutary
to the interests, rightly comprehended, of our two
countries.

After having indicated to you, M. le Comte, the consi-
derations which establish, between the policy of her
Britannic Majesty's Government and our own, an
approximation which I take a pleasure in expressing,
I am about, with equal frankness, to pass in review
those assertions in the despatch of Lord Clarendon
which leave me to regret that they are not in harmony
with my convictions.