The Express.
London, England, 1853-08-19 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING, AUGUST 19, 1853.

r 0 CORI:kSrONDENTS.

—.—....
& •.c•tod !tittle.: •f " Vaprroo," emtait.aas —ca atm neat• el
totrottr," la I...,bliatcd trery Tuesday aaol Ifrolay .taut, 'II time
'or runt
& ran '.,.rtarrt.. Wooled ,or Ennronr,"Looloa Et ming roper,
art .t air thiloo, li,, Bouretio.stror., Tyro o'elook ea the
lay of pub!. Lion.

ElOll WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Taw Del-11Oraing. 21. 102............Aftermace. 21. S.
To.resaaw —Monks& 21. U. .Jllierases. 8%.184a.

LONDON, FRIDAY, AUGUST 19.

IT is impossible to read the note addressed by the
Turkish Divan to Count NESSELRODE—a transla-
tion of it will be found in the interesting letter
from a Constantinople correspondent which we pub-
lish to-day—without feeling that its language is that
of the indignant irony of high-minded men. " Con-
nsissant," it commences, " le profond interet que

8. M. l'Emperenr de Rolm, ainsi que la grande
majorite de son people prennent A tout cc qui con-
cerne in reliyion peon protease, et apprtleinnt en-
tit,renient les motifs de cetinteret." Whether intended
or not, this is polished and withering sarcasm.
It is clear from our correspondent's narrative—and
he has from his position access to the best sources of
information—that the sanguine expectations of those
who talk of the last Russian soldier re-crossing the
Truth on the 10th of September, are utterly base.
less. The EMPEROR has accepted the proposition
suggested by England and France, and adopted by
Austria ; but meanwhile a new proposition suggested
by the Porte, and adopted by the four Powers, is on
its way to him for acceptance in its stead. It is
clearly the wish of Russia, even though it should
I ultimately have to evacuate the Danubian Provinces,
at present to seize upon every pretext for putting
off the evil day. The contracts for provisions, the
formation of intrenched camps, all indicate that the
unwelcome guests will postpone their departure
as long as possible. This substitution of a
second and different declaration by the Porte,
received after the first has been accepted, will
eagerly be seized upon by the Russian Court
as a pretext for renewing cavils and inter-
change of protocols. The Russian dignity will affect
to take offence, explanations will be asked, apologies I
required. And while the wordy war is waging, the
Russian troops will be strengthening their position
in Wallachia and Moldavia.

One blunder after another has been committed by
the European Powers. If they had sought to play
the game of Russia they could not have done it bet-
ter. First, they wasted time, allowing Russia to get
the start of them and seize the Principalities. Next,
like men who are conscious of being too late, they
made matters worse by a pottering excess of haste.
They first send off a proposal for accommodation,
sure to be accepted by Russia, without previously
consulting the Porte, and then send off the Porte's
offered proposal after it, although they might
be sure that the latter could not reach fit. Petersburg
until the former had been eagerly clutched at and
accepted.
Russia cannot but laugh in its sleeve at these fruits
of the collective wisdom of the diplomacy of Western
Europe. But it is upon the diplomatists of England
that the full phials of its contempt and scorn must
be poured out. The truckling of English diplo-
=fists to Russia on other occasions, as
well as the present, is pitiable beyond con-
ception. The correspondence between the British and
Russian Governments, relating to tho Salina mouth
of the Danube, which has been presented to Parlia-
ment, and was published on Tuesday last, though it
adds little or nothing to what was previously known
about the obstructions to navigation in that quarter,
contains a curious illustration of the tone which Russian
diplomacy has been allowed to assume habitually in
its communications with British agents and ministers.

On the 20th of October, 18M, Sir O. H. SET-
YOUR writes from St. Pttersburg to Lord PALMER-
STON :—H At this moment I am convinced that fresh

remonstrances upon the subject on my part would
only produce an angry reply from the Russian
Chanceller."

Now the subject on which our Minister at St.
Petersburg was afraid to address the imperious
Russian Minister, lest he should be scolded for hi
importunity, had been in agitation from November,
1848, and to the present moment is left in quite as
unsatisfactory a state as at the beginning. It is more-
over a subject of the highest importance to British
commerce, inasmuch as it involves the safety
of all our ships and crews trading to the
Danube, and indeed our means of communi-
cation with all the territories on that river.
And it is clear that Russia has been mysti-
fying and laughing in her sleeve at our agents, con-
sular and diplomatic, throughout the protracted cor-
respondence on the subject. In October, 1831,
Count NESSELRODIS had the assurance to maintain.
in a communication to the British Minister, that the

navigation of the Bolin& channel was actually in a
better condition under the Russian than it had been
wider the Turkish Government. According to
his statement or ly light vessels traversed
the passage when it belonged to the Turks,
and their primitive mode of keeping it
1 clear sufficed ; but commerce having extended

under Russian sway, and vessels of deeper draught
being employed, more costly means were required, and
had been used with effect. In the same month of
October, 1831, Count NESSELRODE, writing to Baron
Bitursow, assumed • totally different ground.
Ho admitted the fact that the depth of water on
the Selina bar had diminished since the right of
property in the channel passed from the Turks
to the Russians, and gravely argued that
the change was the consequence of a law
of nature, by which the mouths of all
great rivers get sanded up in time, which man
cannot control. The obvious meaning of these con-
tradictions was, that the Russian Government were
determined to allow the navigation of the Salina to
go on deteriorating. The trolly-sanctioned rights
and interests of English commerce were violated by
the Russian Government ; the itish Ministers were
openly scorned and mocked by the Russian Govern-
ment; and matters standing thus, the British Envoy
at St. Petersburg writes to his Cabinet that he dare
make no further remonstrances to the Russian Chan-

.
oellor, for fear of awakening his ire, and the
British Cabinet tacitly sanctions this poltroonery.
When the Russian Court sees the rulers of Great
Britain address it thus, in behalf of their own coun-
trymen, " with bated breath, and whispering hum-
Nimbus, even in a boadgoods key," it would be

I strange if that Court ptid much attention to remon-
strances from the same rule rs in behalfot a foreign State.
The Russian Government no doubt believes that the
representations of the British Cabinet respecting
the evacuation of the Danubian Provinces may
be evaded as safely as its representations
respecting the navigation of the Sullies. And, if this
I be the case, at what time before the Greek Kalends
are we to look for that evacuation of the provinces
of which Ministers and their abettors talk so
confidently ?
The question to which we have just been adverting
is a curious commentary on that superior zeal in
opening roads for the facilitation of commercial
intercourse, which Mr. COBDEN attributed to Russia
over Turkey on Tuesday last. The Salina Channel of
the Danube is an important highway of commerce ;
it was effectively kept open by the Turks; it is
allowed to become impassable by the Russians. The
question of the comparative amount of taste and
talent for road-making possessed by the two nations
is, it is true, one of very secondary importance.
The nation which is our best customer—which takes
the largest quantities of goods off our hands, and
makes the promptest payment-- best deserves to have
its amity cultivated in commercial regards; how it
distributes these goods throughout its own territory,
or transmits them to other countries, is for us a
matter of marvellously little consequence.