The Press.
London, England, 1854-01-14 00:00:00

ortign anD dolonial

PRIV ATX COMISPONDENCE.
PARIS, January
ONE must always go from home, according to the
proverb, to hear news. The French Minister of
Public Instruction must have appreciated the value
of this saying when he received, through the benevo-
lent columns of the Times, the information that M.
de la Guerroniere, directeur politique of the Pays and
the Cunstitutionnel, was to be named to his Ministry.
What explanations have been thereupon demanded,
and what expostulations ejaculated, I leave you to
guess ; but it is satisfactory to know that eventual
satisfaction has been obtained, and the startled
Minister assured that there never had been any ques-
tion of M. de la Guerroniere as the occupant of his
berth. It is related, however, that on the strength
of his imaginary nomination M. Guerroniere received
some hundreds of aplications for appointments in the
department of the State.
The Academy of Moral and Political Sciences pro-
ceeded on Saturday last to the election of a pi esident
in the place of M. Damiron. M. Guizot, vice-presi-
dent during the year 1853, was elected president for
the year 1854. M. Ametlee Thierry was named vice-
president.
It would be with great regret that all well-wishers
for the " entente cordiale " between England and
Rance would learn the retirement of M. Drouyn de
l'Hnys from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Such,
however, is, I fear, about to be the case. A heavy
and painful family affliction is said to be the cause.
Every one who appreciates the manly straightforward
character of this eminent minister would rejoice if
this necessity for retirement may be averted.
Captain Laporte, who was recently acquitted by a
court-martial on the charge of murdering General
Count de Neuilly, has been dismissed from the army.
The art of carrying " court trains " with ease and
gracefulness is said to be lost in France. In the
reign of Charles X. four persons only were remarkable
for this faculty—two at the Court : Madame la
Duchess d'Angouleme and la Comtesse de Simeon ;
two on the stage : Mlle. Mars and Mlle. Levert.
Under the Empire, Queen Hortense, mother of the
Emperor Napoleon 111., alone knew how to manteuvre
this appendage with the science and agility it requires
to escape from the dangers crowded around it.

Considerable sensation has been produced in the
diplomatic circles of Paris by the omission of M. de
Kisseletf, the Russian Ambassador, in the invita-
tions given for the select ball at the Tuileries.
Every other member of the diplomatic corps has
been invited, and, although the cards are all issued
only in the name of the Empress, it is quite certain
that the name of M. Kissoleff would not have been
left out except under a special injunction front the
Emperor. Heretofore the Russian envoy has always
met with a most gracious reception at the Tuileries,
so that the present omission cannot he looked upon
as a personal slight, but is interpreted into a
political manifestation.
The Prince de Clumsy was received on Sunday by
the Emperor, and presented to his bNesty a private
letter from the King of the Belgians. This temporary
mission of the Prince de Chimay, it is stated, may
probably become a permanent one, by his super-
seding M. Rogier as Belgian Ambassador at the
French Court. The Indepiulince Beige authori-
tatively contradicts the report that the message en-
trusted to the Prince by King Leopold bears any
reference to the Eastern question.
The Emperor Napoleon also received on Sunday
last at a public audience M. Lucio Pulido, who
presented his credentials as Envoy Extraordinary
and Minister Plenipotentiary of the Republic of
Venezuela.
The Moniteur published a decree on the ith inst.
calling into active service all the young soldiers
available under the second portion of the contingent
of the class of 1k52.
A levy of 10,000 additional seamen is currently
spoken of, and the Minister of Marine is said to be
actively organising a third squadron, to be called a
reserve, and to consist of seven line-of-battle ships
and six frigates. The expense is calculated at ten
millions of francs.
The decree for the organisation of the Bakers'
Bank lately established at Paris appeared in the
Moniteur of Sunday. M. de Montulle, Chef de
Section at the Ministry of State, is named its
director, and is to be aided in his functions by a
consulting committee of six members, of which

THE PRESS,

Count d'Argout, Regent of the Bask of France, is

President.
The Emperor has bestowed a mark of his cons •
dence on M. de Turgot, now sulferina from the
wound received in the duel which be fought at Madrid
with M. Soule pore, by nominating him a grand officer
of the Legion of Honour.
On Sunday last a Meeting of bankers and
moneyed men took place in Paris, At: kuenigs*ater
in the chair. It was decided at the meeting that a
memorial should be at once drawn up and presented
to the Emperor, praying him to take into con-
sideration the great pecuniary interests engaged in
commercial and industrial undertakings in France
and throughout Europe, and not to allow himself to
be lightly engaged in the difficulties of a distant
war. The Emperor, it is said, replied to the per-
sons who presented this memorial, that undoubtedly
material interests possessed incontestable im-
portance in his eyes, but that he could never place
them above moral interests, and that a question of
honour and national dignity must always weigh with
him much more heavily in the scale than any mere
question of money.
The Count de Peyronnet, formerly Minister of
Justice under Louis XVIII., and Minister of the
Interior under Charles X., at the time of the famous
ordinances, has just expired at his seat of Mont-
ferrand, near Bordeaux, aged 77.

CIRCULAR NOTE OF THE FRENCH
GOVERNMENT.

The following is the text of the important mani-
festo issued by the French Government in relation
to the Eastern question. The document appeared
in the Moniteur of the oth instant, and a summary
of its contents was given in last week's PRESS :
" Paris, Dee :'O, 1H53.

" Sir,—The affairs of the East are assuming too grave
an aspect to allow me, at the very moment when circum-
stances impose new duties on the Government of his Im-
perial Majesty, to omit to remind you of the @flints that
we have nut ceased to make in order to prevent those
complications with which Europe is so seriously menaced.
" The question of the Holy Places, either badly pre-
sented or erroneously understood, had excited the alarm
of the Cabinet of St. Petersburg. We endeavoured to
allay that anxiety by frank and unreserved explanations.
It appeared to us that, while avoiding any infringement on
the rights of the Porte, a discussion of this nature would
be more satisfactorily brought to an issue if conducted at a
distance from the scene that gave rise to it. Our opinion
was not shared by Pours* and Prince Menschikoff received
orders to proceed to Constantinople. I shall confine my-
self to simply observing, that if our views had been exclu-
sive, as supposed,—that if the vindication of our ancient
and incontestable privileges had not been sustained with so
much moderation,—the mission of this ambassador extraor-
dinary would have instantly become the object of a conflict
that we have contrived to avoid.
" The affair of the Sanctuaries at Jerusalem having been
disposed of, and, front the testimony even of Count Nes-
selrode himself, satisfactorily arranged, another difficulty
sprang up. Prince Mensehikoff demanded guarantees for
the maintenance of the privileges of the Greek Church.
The Cabinet of St. Petersburg did not attempt to show,
by alleging any particular instance, that these privileges
had been violated ; and the Porte, on the contrary, so-
lemnly confirmed the religious immunities of his Chris-
tian subjects.
" Influenced by the desire of arranging a difference
which, if it concerned on the one hand the sovereign
rights of the Sultan, touched on the other hand the con-
science of his Majesty the Emperor Nicholas, the Govern.
ment of his Imperial Majesty, in conceit with that of her
Britannic Majesty, carefully sought the means of harmo-
nising the interests, at once so delicate and complex, that
were at stake. The Cabinet of St. Petersburg- cannot
have forgotten the zeal and the loyalty we displayed in
our endeavours to accomplish this difficult task; neither
can it deny that the resistance of the Porte to join in
the first plan of the transaction which emanated from the
Conference of Vienna was not the sole cause of our non-
success.
" Pending these different negotiations grave facts oc-
curred. A Russian army crossed the Pruth, and invaded,
in the midst of profound peace, two provinces of the Otto-
man empire. The squadrons of France and Englund were
obliged to approach the Haraanelles ; and from that pe-
riod, had the Government of his Imperial Majesty so willed
it, his navel forces might have anchored in the waters of
Constantinople. Nevertheless, if he judged it necessary
to establish his right, still more was he intent on further
displaying his moderation. The nature of the relations
between Russia and the Sublime Porte had become too
abnormal to prevent a state of war from succeeding to one
of peace, or rather, to speak more accurately, things could
not but assume their true name, and the aggression upon
the Turkish territory produced its necessary result. 'ibis
change in the state of affitirs obliged our squadron to make
a fresh movement, and, at the request of the Sultan, the
French flag appeared in the Bosphorus simultaneously
with that of England.
" Nevertheless, sir, we had not renounced the hope of an
arrangement, and, in concert with Austria and Prussia, as
we already were with England, we continued to pursue a
pacific object. New proposals, for the success of which
we shall not cease to employ our efforts, have been pre-
sented to the Porte by the representatives of the four
powers.
" No treaty concluded with Russia interdicted our ships
of war from navigating the Black Sea. The treaty of iuly
13, 1841, by closing, in time of peace, the passage of the
Dardanelles and that of the Bosphorus, resorted to the

SATURDAY,

Sultan the power of opening them in time of war, and, from
the day on which his Highness had allowed us free access
to the straits, the entrance of the Euxine was legally ac.
quired by us. The same motives that had so long de•
tallied us in the Bay of Besika detained us likewise in the
roadstead of Beikos. The Government of his Imperial
Majesty sincerely desired to testify to the last those sen-
timents of friendship which it prefesses for litildßiEl, and to
display in the strongest light to the elk's of file world,
responsibility of an aggravation in a state of things ivhichh
all its forbearance had not succeeded in modifying. It felt
a pleasure, too, in thinking, in accordance with the most
recent despatches of General Castelbajac, that the Cabinet
of St. Petersburg, satisfied with the occupation, and which
it considered as a surety, would nowhere assume the offen-
sive in the cont( at it has so unfortunately commenced with
Turkey. It appeared to us sufficient that the presence of
our flag in the waters of Constantinople should attest our
firm intention of protecting this capital against any sudden
danger, and we were not desirous that its premature 4-
pearance on the coast too near the Russian► dominious
should incur the risk of being considered a provocation.
" The state of war doubtless rendered a collision between
the belligerent parties equally possible by sea as by land ;
but we had been authorised to believe that our reserve
would have been imitated by Russia, that her admirals
would have avoided with like care all opportunity for an
encounter, by abstaining from having resort to aggressive
measures within those limits, where our squadron wou:d
certainly have kept a more active guard, if we could hate
possibly supposed the Cabinet of St. Petersburg to be ani-
mated with different intentions.
" The occurrence at Sinope, sir, took place contrary to
all our expectations, and this deplorable fact equally midi•
fees the attitude which it is our desire to maintain.
" The accord which was recently accomplished at Vienna
between France, Austria, England, and Prussia has estate
fished the European character of the diffirence which
exists between Russia and the Porte. The four Courts
have solemnly recognised that the territorial integrity of
the Ottoman empire is one of the conditions of their poli-
tical equilibrium. The occupation of Moldavia and Wel-
lachia constitutes a formal violation of that integrity, and
it cannot be doubted that the chances of war may lead to
yet others.
" Some months since Count Nesselrode represented the
invasion of the Danubian principalities as a necessary com-
pensation for what he called our maritime occupation. hr
our turn, we consider that it has become our duty to mea-
sure for ourselves the extent of the compensation to which
we have a right, both as a power interested in the existence
of Turkey, and in consequence of the military position
already taken up by the Russian army. We require a
pledge nuns Put an gage) which may assure us that
peace will be re-established in the East, on conditions
which shall not change the distribution of the respective
forces of the great states of Europe.
" The Government of his Imperial Majesty and the Go-
vernment of her Britannic Majesty have consequently de-
cided that their squadrons shall enter the Black Sea, and
combine their movements in such a manner as that nei-
ther the territory nor the flag of Turkey shall aqain be the
object of an attack by the naval forces of Russia.
" The Vice-Admirals Hamelin and Dundashave received
orders to impart the object of their mission to all con-
cerned, and we feel a satisfaction in hoping that this loyal
conduct will prevent conflicts which we could witness only
with deep regret. The Government of the Emperor, I re-
peat, has but one aim, that of contributing to 1 ring about a
ropproehernenl between the two belligerent parties upon
honourable conditions ; and, if circumstances compel him
to take precautions against formidable eventualities, he
preserves the contleAsice that the Cabinet of St. Petersburg,
which has given so many proofs of its wisdom, will not ex-
pose Europe, at present scarcely recovered from convul-
sions, to trials from which the high intelligence of its so-
vereigns has preserved it through so many years.
" I authorise you to read this despatch to M.
(Signed) " DIIOVIN DE LEVIS."

GERMANY.
The Second Prussian Chamber has held a secret
sitting, to receive a communication from the Govern-
ment relative to the acquisition by Prussia of a
military post on the North Sea.
The New Prussian Gazette has been seized in
Berlin, on account of an article hostile to the French
Government.
The Emperor of Austria, during his stay at Munich,
had laid before him by his Ambassador the details
of the differences existing between the Government
of Baden and the clergy. His Majesty recommended
that Government to make certain concessions, at
the same time that he blamed, it is said, the re-
bellion of th 3 clergy.
The Archbishop of Friburg has suspended from
their functions six curates who had disobeyed his
orders.
The Count and Countess de Chambord are stated
to have paid numerous visits to the Duchess of
Orleans at Eisenach.
The report that Prince Napoleon, nephew of the.
King of Wurtemberg, will marry the Princess Sophia,
eldest daughter of the Margrave William of Baden,
uncle of the Prince Regent, is confirmed. The Prin-
cess will attain her twentieth year in April next.
SWEDEN.

A commission, composed of officers and engineers,
left Stockholm on the 20th ult., to visit different
parts of the coast, and put all the military points in
a state of defence. Sweden every day declares itself
more and more against Russian policy, and has
decided on making its neutrality respected by force
of arms, in the event of its being lielated.

I

I

JANUARY 14, 1854.

SPAIN.

The accouchement of the Queen of Spain took
place on the sth inst., when a Princess was born,
who, however, lived only three days. The Queen's
condition is reported to bo satisfactory. Indisposi-
tion prevented both the English and French Minis-
ters from being present., according to etiquette, at
her Majesty's delivery. Lord Howden was repre-
sented on the occasion by Mr. Loftus Otway, first
secretary of the Legation ; and M. Turgot by M.
Montherat.
Sartorius, the President of the Ministry, has quite
recovered. M. de Turgot, at the date of the last
advices, continued to go on well.

PORTUGAL.
It is stated that the young King is about to marry
his cousin, the Princess Charlotte of Belgiuni.

RUSSIA AND TURKEY.
A collective " note" from the representatives of
the four powers was presented to the Divan at the
Grand Council held on the 20th ult., and accepted,
as forming the basis for possible negotiation. This
note was conceived in the following terms :
"1, the undersigned Ambassador of her Britannic
Majesty, in accordance with the representatives of France,
Austria, and Prussia, have the honour to make known to
the Sublime Porte that the Governments of the four
powers, having still reason to believe that his Majesty the
Emperor of Russia does not consider the negotiations
broken and put aside by the declaration of war and its con-
sequences, and knowing, moreover, from the declarations
made by his Imperial Majesty, that he is anxious merely
ti see ensured an equality of rights and privileges conceded
(octroyes) by his Majesty the Sultan, and by his glorious
predecessors, to the Christian communities, subjects of the
Sublime Porte ;
" The Sublime Porte having answered such declarations
by saying that she would consider it her decorous duty to
continue to maintain the said rights and privileges, and
ti be always willing to put au end to existing differences be-
tween the two empires ;
"The proposed negotiations to be based :
" First: On the evacuation of the principalities as soon
as possible ;
" Secondly: On the renewal of the former treaties ;
" Thirdly : On the communication of the firmans relative
to the spiritual privileges conceded by the Sublime Porte
to all her subject. not Mussulmans, which communication,
male to the powers, would be accompanied by proper
declarations given to each of them.
The arrangement already made to Wing to a close the
question of the Holy Places, and the religious establish.
ments at J-misalein, would be definitively adopted. ( This
arrangement concerns the construction of a church and the
furatation of a Russian ospezio at Jerusalem.)
" The Sublime Porte would make known to the repre-
sentatives of the four powers a readiness to name a pleni-
potentiary, to establish an armistice, and to negotiate on
the above-mentioned basis with the concurrence of the
lowers, in a neutral town.
" The declaration made by the powers in the preamble
of the treaty of the 13th July, 18-11, would be formally
confirmed by the same powers interested in the integrity
and in the independence of the Ottoman empire, and in
that of the European convention.
"The Sublime Porte would declare her firm resolution
to give a further development to her administrative system,
and to her internal improvements, such as will meet the
wants and just expectations of her subjects of all classes.
" Vera, Dec. 12, 18:113.
(Signed)

" STRATFORD DE REDCLIFFE.
BARAOVAY D'HILLIERS.
L. DE WILDENBRUCK.
B. DE BRUCK."

The reply of the Porte was conceived in the follow-
ing terms :—Turkey, moved by a regard for its allies,
consents to treat for peace, but on condition that the
independence of her sovereign rights and the inte-
grity of her empire shall be guaranteed both for the
present and the future. _ _

The Paris Moniteur on Wednesday published a
despatch from Constantinople, dated the :31st ult.,
announcing that the Divan adheres to the proposi-
tions suggested by the representatives of the four
powers. A private despatch received yid Trieste
from Constantinople, dated the 2nd of January, an-
nounces that an imperial irado had been published
announcing the acceptance of the propositions.
Alustapha Paella, commanding the Imperial Guard,
had resigned.
Two I'oles have been appointed generals of bri-
gade in Asia.

It was anticipated that a firman would shortly be
Published accurately defining the privileges of the
Christian subjects of the empire, as likewise their
civil rights.
A great fire had occurred in Constantinople which
consumed several houses in the Greek quarter.
An army has been concentrated on the Persian
frontier, under Amadi
Osman Pitch a, commander of the Turkish squadron
destroyed at Sinope, has died of his wounds at Sebas-
topol, after having suffered two amputations.
The Sultan has founded an hospital for wounded
and decayed soldiers and Bailors, upon the plan of
Chelsea and the Invalides. The men who have
suffered amputation in consequence of the wounds
received at Sinope are already designated as the first
inmates.

The iacha of Egypt, on bearing of the affair of