The Express.
London, England, 1858-05-13 00:00:00

LATFOT INTELLIGENCE.

FRANCE, TURKEY, AND MI

By a telegraphic despatch dated Vienna, Tuesday,
May 11, we learn that the Turkish abeam-vessel, the
Bilistria, and a ship of the line, with 3,600 men and
12 field-pieces on board, had entered the port of
Meek.

The Moniteur of yesterday contains the following
article:

"At a moment when the Powers, animated by a
sentiment of peace and order, are occupied in com-
pleting and consolidating the work of the Treaty of
Paris, it is with great surprise that we perceive
Turkey taking up an attitude towards Montenegro
calculated to cause new embarrassments.

" The Ottoman Porte can neither appeal to incon-
testable rights nor urgent necessities in entering
upon this course.
" Two questions arise, the one whether the Porte
has rights of suzerainty over Montenegro, and the
other, whether osrtain districts occupied and ruled,
sometimes by Ottoman authority and sometimes by
the authority of the Prince of Montenegro, should
be held to form part of the territory of this small
country, or be united to the Turkish provinces.
" On the first poinr, the Porte invokes the right of
conquest ; it is, indeed, the only one which it can
allege with the least semblance of truth, for between
it and Montenegro no convention exists to support a
right of suzerainty. But the fact of conquest is
not converted into a real right except under certain
conditions, the most essential of which is the per-
manent and continuous occupation of the conquered
country, or at least its subjection u attested by acts
of sovereign administration, such for example as the
levying a tribute, the presence of a garrison, &o.
Bat it is an historical fact that the Turks, although
they may have sometimes attacked Montenegro with
success, have never been able to maiatain themselves
in that country : and it is also indisputable that for
nearly • century Montenegro has been almost
entirely closed against them.
" We see, then, that the Porte cannot place its
suzerainty with respect to Montenegro under the
principle of the integrity of the Ottoman empire.
And in this view of the subject one cannot help
deeply regretting that after the sacrifices which
certain powers made for her independence and in-
tegrity, Turkey should have allowed herself to attack
the national existence of a small and feeble country.

" It will be remembered that the chief Ottoman
plenipotentiary at the Congress of Paris, while
declaring that the Porte had no intention
of altering anything in the actual status quo
of Montenegro, made a reservation in favour of the
suzerainty of the Sultan over that country, and that
on that occasion Prince Daniel himself addressed
the Powers which had subscribed the Treaty of
Paris, in vindication of his rights to independence.
Shortly afterwards the Prince came to Paris, though
the government of the Emperor, so far from having
encouraged that step, had, on the contrary, endea-
voured to dissuade him from it, wishing, in
the interest of the Prince himself, to avoid
everything that could give offence to other
governments. The Prince, nevertheless, accom-
plished his journey, and the Emperor received
with kindness the chief of a little state, which
invoked his right in order to place himself under the
protection of the Great Powers. Undoubtedly
the existence of Montenegro is of little consequence
to the balance of power in Europe; but when the
weak invoke justice, it would be unworthy and un-
generous not to listen to them, and his Majesty
received with interest the account submitted to him
of the miseries of a Christian people and the suffer-
ings which they had so long endured for the main-
tenance of their faith and nationality, and was induced
to promise his support in such measure as should be
otherwise compatible with the just claims of the re-
spective parties. His Majesty's ambassador at Con-
stantinople was ordered to make a friendly represen-
tation on the subject to the ministers of the Sultan,
and at the same time to call their attention to the
necessity of bringing'about, if only provisionally, •
territorial settlement between Turkey and Monte-
negro which should put an end to the sanguinary
collisions which periodically arise between the two
populations out of questions of the right of pastors
and agriculture, and which are produced by the
uncertainty of the boundaries.
" Reduced to these terms, the overtures of France
affected no question of principle; they constituted
scarcely anything more than an act of humanity,
and the Emperor'■ government found other cabinets
disposed to concur with it at Constantinople.
" However, troubles having broken oat in the pro-
vinces nearest to Montenegro, the Ottoman govern-
ment resolved to send troops thither to re-establish
order. It moreover formally declared that

the despatch of these forces was not a move-
ment against Montenegro, with which it in-
tended to employ only negotiation. Notwith-
standing these assurances, Ottoman troop wens
phi/zed round about Montenegro, and, what is more
serious, they prepared to march into the district of
Grahevo, which is occupied by the Montenegrins.
Admitting that in the intention of the Porte this in-
vasion of the territory was not intended as en attack
upon Montenegro, it is evident that it might lead to
an armed collision, and that it constitutes at least a
violation of the atatu quo which the Porte had under-
taken by the month of its ambassador to respect.
" The Emperor's government could not remain
indifferent to this proceeding ; it made suitable re-
presentations at Constantinople, and it has invited
the Powers to come to an understanding as to the
means of preventing a conflict otherwise inevitable
between the Turks and Montenegrins. Its advances
have been received favourably, and England has
made a proposition which has been gladly accepted
at Paris, to the effect that the Great Powers shall
appoint commissioners, who, in concert with an
envoy of the Porte, shall proceed to a territorial
arrangement based upon the .tutu quo existing at
the date of the Treaty of Paris.
" It is reasonable to hope that all the governments
will rally to so moderate a proposition. Russia hes
uniformly displ►yed too much interest in the wel-
fare of the Montenegrins to allow us to doubt of her
assent ; and as for Austria, we are not permitted to
doubt of her adhesion when we remember that in
1853 she made strong representations at Constanti-
nople, by the mouth of Prince Leiningen, in order
to obtain respect for the territorial at till quo, at
that time menaced by the march of troops under
Omer Poch*.