The Express.
London, England, 1855-05-10 00:00:00

PROTOCOLS OF THE VIENNA

At a quarter-put three this morning we (Daily
News) received " Papers Relating to the Negotiation.

at Vienna on the Eastern Question ; presented to both
Houses of Parliament by command of her Majesty!

They fill 90 folios, and consist of the

presented by the Plenipotentiaries of England,

France, and Austria, to Prince Gcrtschakoff, on the
28th of Dec, 1864, and thirteen protocols of con•

As early as April 17, u the paper No. 10 shows,
Prince Ciortchakoff declared that Russia would not

consent to the strength of her navy being restricted
to any fixed number, either by treaty or in any other
manner ; and to this principle the Russian plenipo-
tentiaries have throughout adhered.
The protocol No. 13, being the record of the last
conference, held on the 26th of April, after Lord
John Russell had left Vienna, will be found below:

Present.—For Austria: Couot Buol-Schauenstein

and .Baron Prokeaah•Oateo. For Franca: M. Drouyn do
Lhuya and Baron do Bourqueney. For Great Braga: The

Bari of Westmorland. For linasia: Prince Gortohakoff

and M. de Titoff. For Turkey : Aali Paoha sad Uri/

Count Buol opens the meeting by saying that he in-

vited the members of the Conference to sesuable et the

request of the Russian pleuipoteutio
they have communications to make.

who declP.rail that

Prince Oortcbakoff wishes to establish the fact that it was
the Russian plenipotent tries who, in the twelfth confer-
ence, recorded in the protocol the lut proposition tending
to the solution of the third priaeiple, and that it is again
they who new submit new plans with the same object.
Before developing them, he think. it his duty to recur to
en aasertion of the Franca Minister for Foreign Aff►irs, re-
corded in the twelfth protocol, stating " that Russia is un-
willing to give the Ottoman Empire any sort of g tee,

and that as for the one contained in Article 1, and adopted
in the eleventh conference, Russia redress it to a mere
chimera, since even en case a Turkish province were in-
laded by one of the contracting powers, Russia, according
to the interpretation of Prince Gortchakeff, will confine
herself to the exercise of her good offices."
He remarked that the Russian plenipotentiaries have, in
common with the other members of the conference, NlRO-
tioned the principle of making the Sublime Porte partici-
pate in the advantages of the European concert, and of
placing her under the safeguard of the public law of Europe.
And lastly, they have engaged, in the name of their court,
to respect the independence and the territorial integrity of
the Ottcns in empire. Can these engagements be charac-
terised as chimera? One of the reasons for which he do-

dined an active territorial guarantee of the Ottoman em-
pire arises from this difficuzy of precisely defining its
limits. The territorial guarantee once stipulated, would it
not be necessary to extend it to the most distant points—u,
for instance, Tunis and Aden—and to make any attack
directed against either of those territoriee by one of the
contracting powers • cams btlli t Ile declines giving so
extended a meaning to the engagement he takes, on the
plea that the blood of Russia belongs to Russia alone. This
does not, however, mean that Russia will confine herself ex-
clusively to good offices. The independence of the Sublime
Ports is not only the interest of Europe, but also that of
Russia. If it were menaced, Russia would not be the last
to defend it; but she reserves to herself the right of judg-
when the ewe occurs, whether or not it be necessary to
employ her material resources.
Adverting to the special object of terday's conference, he
states that the plan proposed by the Russian plenipotentia-
ries had for its object not only to resolve the difficulties of
the present, but also to surround the independence of the
Porte with guarantees for the future ; however, that &spas
plan had been declined, especially on account of its rating
on a principle contrary to a sovereign right of the Porte,
the maintenance of which she deems necessary for her in-
dependence, be sought the solution in a different plan. He
reads the Articles 1 and 2, of which copy is hereto annexed,
eke one giving a new confirmation to the principle of closing
the Straits ; the other, leaving the Sublime Porte heri
supreme judge of the oases in which the interest of her
security would require exceptions to that principle, and its
which she should deem it requisite to summon, according to
eireemstanoes, either the flute of the Western Powers, or
that of Russia.
In answer to Prince Gortchakoff, M. Drouyu de Limp
maintains the words quoted by the former. He again
states, that France engages to respect not only the inde-
pendence and territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire,
but also to enforce their observance; wh Russia de-
clines contraction this second engagement. As for the Re-
gent' of Tunis, to which Prince Oortebak ,ff has alluded,
he, for his own part, finds no difficulty in extending to that
country the engagement to which he is ready to subscribe.
With reference to the new propositions of the Russian
plenipotentiaries, he has already declared, in the lest con-
ference, that his instructions were exhausted, since Rusin
had rejected the limitation in every form whatsoever. He
applies the same declaration to the present propositions.
With this reserve he observed, that these prepositions tend
so little to the cessation of Russian preponderance in the
Black Sea, that they even provide for the contingency of the
I preponderating fleet becoming
Baron Bourqueney entirely concurred, in every point, in
the opinion of U. Drouyn de Lhuys.
Lord Westmoreland recurs to the declaration made by
Lord John Russell in the last conference, to the effect that
the instructions of the plenipotentiaries of Great Britain
were ezhansted.
With regard to the establishment of Aden, of which men-
tion had been made, he states that his government hu in no
way.violated their treaties with the Sublime Porte concern-
alitce Gortchakoff answered, that in speaking of Aden,
he had no intention of making recriminations with regard to
the past, but only to instance a hypothetical case, calculated
to show the extreme consequeooss to which the territorial
guarantee of the Ottoman Empire would, in certain cases,
lead.

M. de Titoff adds to the statement of his colleague, the
expression of his hope that the conference will acknowledge
that the obstacles to an understanding do not emanate from
the plenipotentiaries of Russia, who, far from confining
themselves to any exclusive system, now proposes plan on
a new basis, whilst the plenipotenti • of Prance and
Great Britain declare that their instructions are exhausted.
Aali Pasha and Aarif Effendi state that their instructions
neither admit of their givieg their adhesion to the proposi-
tions of the Russian plenipotentiaries, nor of their giving
an opinion in this matter, and that they find themselves in
precisely the same situation as the plenipotentiaries of the
allied powers.
Count Buol addresses himself to the new Russian pro-
posal. He sees with satisfaction that is article 1 the prin-
ciple of closing bad been substituted for that of opening,
which had previously been proposed. He thinks that
article 2, which reserves for the Sultan the power of even-
tually calling to his assistance foreign fleets, and of opening
the Straits as an exception, is susceptible of a practical ap-
plication. The proposition appears to him to admit of dis-
cussion ; it contains elements of which Austria will end's-
your to avail herself for an understanding ; bat in the rough
state in which it still is, he cannot consider it as a solution.
nor even as a basis for a solution.
Baron Proksoch says that since there is a disparity in tin
respective positions of the powers it will be di
to
carry out the principle of reciprocity on which Article 2 is
based. Nobody will suspect Austria of wishing to impair
the independence or the territorial integrity of Turkey.
When the maritime powers, in concert with Russia, agreed
to the emancipation of Greece, they derived no territorial
aggrandisement from it. On the other band, Russia in a
senes of wars with the Ottoman empire, during a century.
deprived her of province after province. The nurse
punned by her in 1863 was judged by the
powers who signed the protocols as pregnant witk
imminent danger to the Sublime Porte and to
Europe. Against thus dangers they are at present
endeavouring to provide. Their respective positions not
being equal, it is not for Russia to seek parentees; she is
not in want of them, either for herself, for she Bads them
is her own power, or for the Sublime Porte, who does not
regain any ea bit side : but it is right that the allied
powen @Muhl ask Russia for puritan's M the interest of
the Peet% sal whin the recurrence of the dangers which
bow best the NAM of such serious disturbance and of such
oneenline MMus to Europe.
la a restisal point of view, he thinks that the Retain
feet, in eider eventually to give effectual asaisianee to the
Sublime Porte, must possess considerable strength. Article 2
would therefore tend to perpetuate • danger which it is our
object to put an end to.
Prises Gortchakoff, in answer to the Austrian plenipo-
tentiaries, states that the project now proposed is more than
a mere sketch, that it is equivalent to a real basis ; that
this project does sot merely toad to the solution of the pre-
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