The Press.
London, England, 1854-03-25 00:00:00

272

it, and thought the British Government did not well
understand his object. He was not so eager about
what should be done when the sick man died as what
should not be done upon that event taking place."
When Sir M. Seymour replied that they had no
reason to think that the "sick man " was dying, his
Majesty said that if they believed that the British
Government must, have been incorrectly informed.
" I repeat to you ist the sick man is dying, and we
can never allow such an enteute to take us by
surprise" :
" We must come to some understanding; and this,we
should do, I am convinced, if I could but hold ten
minutes' conversation with your Ministers—with Lord
Aberdeen, for instance, who knows me au well, who has
fall confidence in me, as I have in him. And, remember,
I do not ask for a treaty or a protocol: a general under-
standing is all I require—that between gentlemen is
sufficient ; and in this case I am certain that the confidence
would be as great on the side of the Queen's Ministers as

- -
on mine.„
An interview was then appointed for the following
day (February 21), when the missive from Lord John
Russell was to be read to the Emperor, and which
resulted, as Sir H. Seymour, reports, " in one of the
most interesting conversations in which I ever
found myself engaged." The purport was, indeed,
nothing less than to offer Egypt and Candia to Great
Britain, as the price of her co-operation or connivance
with the aggressions of Russia in other quarters of
the Ottoman empire :
" The Emperor went on to say that, in the event of the
dissolution of the Ottoman empire, he thought it might be
less difficult to arrive at a satisfactury territorial arrange-
ment than was commonly believed. The principalities are,
he said, in fact, an independent State under my protection :
this might so continue. Servis might receive the same form
of government. So again with Bulgaria. There seems to
be no reason why this province should not form an inde-
pendent State.
" As to Egypt, T quite understand the importance to
England of that territory. I can then only say, that if,
in the event of a distribution of the Ottoman succession
upon the fall of the empire, you should take possession
,of Egypt, I shall have no objections to offer. I would say
the same thing of Candle. That island might suit you,
and I do not know why it should not become an English
possession.
" As I did not wish that the Emperor should imagine
that an English public servant was caught by this sort of
overture, I simply answered, that I had always understood
that the English views upon Egypt did not go beyond the
point of securing a safe and ready communication between
British India and the mother country.
" The conversation now drawing towards an end, the
Emperor expressed his warm attachment to the Queen our
gracious Sovereign, and his respect for her Majesty's present
advisers. The declarations contained in your lordship's
despatch had been, he said, very satisfactory: he could only
desire that they should be a little amplified. The terms in
which your lordship had spoken of his conduct were, the
Emperor said, very flattering to him.
" In dismissing me, his Imperial Majesty said, ' Well, in-
duce your Government to write again upon these eubjects—
to write more Hilly, and to do so without hesitation ; I have
confidence in the English Government. Ce n'est point un
engagement, une convention, que je tear demande ; c'est
un libre eeharige d'idees, et an besoin une parole de
gentleman ; entre nous cela suffit.'"
The Russian Cabinet replied in a " confidential
memorandum "to Lord John Russell's letter. This
document is dated March 6th, and very voluminous.
Sir H. Seymour describes it as being "one of the
most remarkable papers which have issued, I do not
say from the Russian Chancellerie,' hut from the
Emperor's secret :cabinet." The document is partly
historical, partly argumentative, but the propositions
which it was designed to convey are these :
" Let England employ herself in making the Porte listen
to reason. Instead of uniting herself with France against
the just demands of Russia, let her avoid supporting, or
even appearing to support, the resistance of the Ottoman
Government. Let her be the first to invite the latter, as she
herself considers it essential, to treat its Christian subjects
with more equity and humanity. That will he the surest
means of relieving the Emperor from the obligation of
availing himself in Turkey of those rights of traditional
protection to which he never has recourse but against his
will, and of postponing indefinitely the crisis which the
Emperor and her Majesty the Queen are equally anxious to
avert. In short, the Emperor cannot but congratulate
himself at having given occasion for this intimate inter-
change of confidential communications between her
Majesty and himself. He has found therein valuable
assurances, of which he takes note with a lively satis-
faction. The two Sovereigns have frankly explained to
each other what in the extreme case of which they have
been treating their respective interests cannot endure.
England understands that Russia cannot suffer the estab-
lishment at Constantinople of a Christian power sufficiently
strong to control and disquiet her. She declares that for
herself she renounces any intention or desire to possess
Constantinople. The Emperor equally disclaims any wish
or design of establishing himself there. England promises
that she will enter into no arrangement for determining
the measures to be taken in the event of the fall of the
Turkish empire without a previous understanding with the
Emperor. The Emperor, on his aide, willingly contracts
the same engagement. As he is aware that in such a case
he can equally reckon upon Austria, who is bound by her
promises to concert with him, he regards with less appre-
hension the catastrophe which ho still desires to prevent

-

THE PRESS.

and avert as much as it shall depend on him to do so. No
less precious to him are the proof% of friendship and
personal oonfidence on the part of her Majesty the Queen,
which Sir Hamilton Seymour has been directed on this
occasion to impart to hint. He sees iu them the surest
guarantee against the contingency which his foresight had
deemed it tight to point out to that of the English Govern-
ment." •
Lord Clarendon, then become Foreign Secretary,
transmitted on March 23rd a further expose of the
policy of England. The letter was, however, written
before the receipt of the new memorandum. His
lordship says :
" Her Majesty's Government persevere in the belief that
Turkey still possesses the elements of existence, and they
consider that recent events have proved the correctness of
the opinion expressed in the despatch of my predecessor,
that there was no sufficient cause for intimating to the
Sultan that he cannot keep peace at home, or preserve
friendly relations with his neighbours.
" England desires no territorial aggrandisement, and could
be no party to a previous arrangement from which she was
to derive any such benefit. England could be no party to
any understanding, however general, that was to be kept
secret from other powers ; but her Majesty's Government
believe that no arrangements could control events, and that
no understanding could be kept secret. They would, in the
opinion of her M ajesty's Government, be the signal for pre-
paration for intrigues of every description, and for revolts
among the Christian subjects of the Porte. Each power
and each party would endeavour to secure its future interests,
and the dissolution of the Turkish empire would be preceded
by a state of anarchy which must aggravate every difficulty,
if it did not render a peaceful solution of the question im-
possible.
" The main object of her Majesty's Government, that to
which their efforts have been and always will be directed, is
the preservation of pence; and they desire to uphold the
Turkish empire, from their conviction that no great ques-
tion can be agitated in the East without becoming asource
of discord in the West, and that every great question in the
West will assume a revolutionary character, and embrace a
revision of the entire social system, for whinli the conti-
nental Governments are certainly in no state of prepara-
tion. •
"Her Majesty's Government believe that Turkey only re-
quires forbearance on the part of its allies, and a determi-
nation not to press their claims in a manner humiliating
to the dignity and independence of the Sultan—that
friendly support, in short, that, with States as with indivi-
duals, the weak are entitled to expect from the strong—in
order not only to prolong its existence, but to remove all
cause of alarm respecting its dissolution.
" It is M this work of benevolence and of sound European
policy that her Majesty's Government are desirous of co-ope-
rating with the Emperor sthey feel entire confidence in the
rectitude of his Imperial Majesty's intentions; and as they
had tiv satisfaction of think'ng that the interests of Russia
and England in the East are completely identical, they
entertain an earnest hope that a similar policy there will
prevail and tend to strengthen the alliance bet',ieen the
two countries, which it is alike the object of her Majesty
and her Majesty's Government to promote." •
When the memorandum arrived, the Foreign
Secretary acknowledged the event in a brief despatch
dated April 5, in which he stated that it was
" received by her Majesty's Government with feelings of
sincere satisfaction, as a renewed proof of the Emperor's
confidence and friendly feelings; turd her Majesty's Go-
vernment desire to convey their acknowledgments to his
Imperial Majesty for having thus placed on record the
opinions he expressed at the interview with which you
were honoured by his Imperial Majesty."
The Czar on his side expressed equal satisfaction
with the result of the communications, affecting to
believe that his own views bad been thoroughly
adopted by the English Government. After a palace
dinner on April 20th the Emperor stated to Sir H.
Seymour
"the real and sincere satisfaction which he received
from Lord Clarendon's despatch. It had been, his
Majesty said, most agreeable to him to find that the over-
tures which he had addressed to her Majesty's Government
had been responded to in the same. friendly spirit in which
they were made ; that, to use aformer expression, there was
nothing in which he placed so much reliance as /a parole
d'un gentilhomme ; that he felt that the relations of the two
Courts stood upon a better basis, now that a clear under-
standing had been obtained as to points which, if left in
doubt, might have been productive of misintelligence."
The imperial idea of the result of the negotiations
is more formally expressed in afresh "memorandum,"
with which the series close :
(Translation.)
"The Emperor has, with lively satisfaction, made himself
screminted with Lord clarendon's despatch of the 2Ard of March.
his Mo.i• sty congratulates himself on perceiving that his views
and those of the English Cabinet entirely coincide on the subject
of the political combinations which it would be chiefly necessary
to avoid in the extreme case of the contingency &sliming in the
East, which Russia and England have equally at heart to pre-
vent, ot, at all events, to delay as long as possible. Sharing
generally the opinions expressed by Lord clercndon on the ne-
cessity of the prolonged maintenance of the existing state of
things in Turkey, the Emperor, nevertheless, cannot abate n from
adverting to a special point which lends him to suppose that the
information received by the British ilrovernmentis not altogether
in accordance with ours. It refers to the humanity and the
toleration to he shown by Turkey in her manner of treating her
Christian subjects. Putting aside many other examples to the
contrary of an old date, it is, for all that, notorious that recently
the cruelties committed by the Turks in Bosnia foroed hundreds
of Christian families to seek refuge in Austria. In other respects,
without wishing on this occasion to enter upon a discussion as
to the symptoms of decay, more or less evident, presented by the
Ottoman power, or the greater or less degree of vitality which its
internal constitution may retain, the Emperor will readily agree

; , SATURDAY,

that the best means of upholding the duration of the Turkish
Government is not to harass it by overbearing demands, sup.
ported in a wanner humiliating to its independence and its
dignity. His Majesty is disposed, as he has ever been, to
the
upon this system, with the clear understrunling,however, that the
same rule of conduct shall be observed, without dititinotion, and
unanimously, by each of the great powers, and that none of them
shall take advantage of the weakness of the Porte to obtain from
it concessions which might turn to the prejudice of the others.
This principle being laid down, the Emperor declares that he is
ready to labour, in concert with England, at the common work
of prolonging the existeuee of the Turkish empire, setting aside
ail cause of alarm on the subject of its dissolution. He readily
accepts the evidence offered by the British Cabinet of entire con-
fidence in the uprightness of his sentiments, and the hope that,
on this basis, his alliance with England cannot fail to become
stronger."

jouign 6011 M at 4uttiligente.

FRANCE.
The secret despatches between the Ruisian and
English Governments, just issued by the latter, are
republished in most of the Paris papers, and com-
mented upon by many of them. On the whole, the
result seems to have been to produce a favourable
impression on the French public. Thursday's
Moniteur, referring to this correspondence, says ;
" As regards the French Government, there is only one
observation to make upon the care with which Russia left
her aside in its plans of territorial rearrangement—it is,
that it returned to her as soon as it failed at London; and
that in her turn France bad to decline advances, more or
less direct, which are not without analogy with those first
made to England."
In the Constitutionnel we find the following re-
marks on the same subject
" A just sentiment of indignation will arise, both In
France and England, on reading these documents, which
attest, at the same time, the contempt of Russia for right
and equity, her pride, her audacity, and her ambition, and
the great precision of the views and the pert ct loyalty of
sentiment which for a long time past have inspired the
conduct of the British Government in its relations with
Continental Europe on the subject of the Eastern ques-
tion."
Lord Raglan is expected in Paris on the Ist of
April, or soon alter, so as to coincide as nearly as
possible with the departure of Marshal St. Arnaud,
which is now fixed for the oth, as that of Prince
Napoleon is for the 15th. The Pays repeats and
adopts the rumour that 2,000 cavalry and 1,000
artillery from England are to come through Paris en
route for embarkation at Marseilles.
General Canrobert, and the first portion of the
troops destined for the army in the East, left Mar-
seilles on Sunday evening.
The Austerlitz screw man-of war, 100 guns, left
Brest on Monday for the Baltic. Admiral Perceval-
-I)uchesnes left Paris on the same day for Brest, to
take the command of the North Sea squadron. The
Trident and Zenobie sailed from Toulon on Tuesday
for Brest, where they are to form part of the fleet.
The Courrier de Marseille of the 14th says :
" One hundred vessels have been freighted in our port
for the conveyance of troops ; 9,500 workmen arc at work
in the arsenal at Toulon from five a.m. till ten at night.
The Municipal Council of Marseilles has voted the sum
of 10,000 f. for the more urgent wants of the troops on
board the transports."
The Abbe Parabere, who has been appointed
principal chaplain to the army of the East, is a
Father of the Company of Jesus. The Government
has applied to a leading Jesuit to select a certain
number of zealous and devoted priests to afford their
succour to the army, independently of the chaplains
officially attached to the expedition.
The Patrie announces that the Sultan intends to
place at the disposal of the expeditionary army, on
its landing, 1,200 horses and 1,800 mules.
The imperial signature has been affixed to a
report from M. Ducos, Minister of Marine, recom
mending that an allowance should be made to the
children of all sailors called out to serve the State at
the present juncture.
Marshal Valliant, the new Minister of War, in
order to rid himself of all responsibility, has sent in
a report to the Emperor on the state of the French
army, which represents in a most unfavourable light
the state in which he found the military service on
his assumption of office.
The interest on Bons du Tresor was again in-
creased on Monday, being fixed at 4 per cent. for
there whit!) have from three to five months to run,
41 per cent. from six so eleven, and 5 per cent. for
those which have a year to run.
The Moniteur denies the rumour that the Govern-
ment intends to retain the amount of the subscrip-
tions exceeding 250 millions fixed for the new loan
as an addition to the gross amount.
The Government has authorised the publication of
a new evening (Ministerial) journal, to be called the
Monitettr Parisien.
The Union has received a first warning for " per-
sisting, notwithstanding the non-official recommenda-
tions given to it, in a system of attacks, marked by
bad faith, and of an insulting nature, towards the
allies of France." The articles alluded to were di-
rected against England. The Presu has received a