The Sun.
London, England, 1855-09-20 00:00:00

WESTMINSTER.

MURDEROUS ASSAULT BY A MAN ON HIS WlFE.—This
day Thomas Todd, a coal-porter, No'. 33, New Peter-
street, Westminster, was placed at the bar before Mr.
Faynter by policeman B 85, charged with awaiting

Maria Todd, his wife, by violently striking her, so that
her life is in danger.

The constable stated that between 11 and 12 o'clock
last night he received information that the prisoner had
committed the most violent assault upon his wife. He
went in search of him, when on taking him into custody
witness told him that be was charged with inflicting a
serious wound on his wife, by kicking her. He observed
that he only pushed his wife. Witness took her to the
Westminster Hospital, which institution she is unable
to leave in consequence of the severe injuries on her
person.

Tho prisoner observed that his wife had an old wound
from which she suffered the loss of blood, and which
arose on her confinement six years ago.

Mr. Paynter said, that what ho had now referred to
was much against him, as he must have been aware of
the situation his wife was in. It is a very serious charge

against you.
The prisoner was remanded.

THE THIRD GUARANTEE.

A letter from Vienna of the 14th, in tho Consti-
tutionnel, says :—" When, during the Conferences
of Vienna, Prince Gortschakoff incessantly re-
marked that it was impossible for the Czar to com-
promise the dignity of his crown, M. Drouyn de
l'Huys exclaimed one day quite indignantly :
'Do you then think that the Emperor Napo-
leon 111. can compromise the military honour of
his nation ? It is you who have provoked us, and
you must submit to the consequences.' The inter-
pretation of the third guarantee laid down by the
Western Powers reposed entirely on the sense of
that reply. It is that which explains why Austria,
who had so many times declared that she thought
herself interested in the solution of the third guaran-
tee, quite as much as the other powers, could not
decide on accepting the formula presented by
France and England, who in addition the general
interests of Europe had to protect the particular
honour of their arms. In other words, Austria as
much as the Western Powers admitted the urgency,
for the general interest of Europe, of putting an
end to Russian preponderance iu the Black Sea by
means of the reduction of the Muscovite naval
forces ; only as the amount of that reduction there
existed between the arrangement proposed by the
Cabinet of Vienna and that demanded by the
Courts of the Tuileries and St. James's a difference
of about six vessels of war. The fall of Sebastopol
giving ample and vast satisfaction to the military
honour of the Western Powers, the question of the
third guarantee returns into the domain of the
general interests of Europe, on the ground of which
it is almost impossible for France and England not
to obtain, not only the moral assistance, but the
active co-operation of Austria. The immediate
consequence of the taking of Sebastopol and of
the destruction of the Russian vessels of war
sheltered in its port, is to have completely re-
moved the divergence which existed between
what are called the Austrian propositions and
the exigences of the Western Powers. While
the latter persisted in reducing the naval
forces of Russia in the Black Sea to four ships of
the line, four frigates, and a proportional number
of smaller vessels, and vessels not armed, Count
Buol, in the sitting of the 4th June, laid before
the Conference of Vienna the following combina-
tion The Russian plenipotentiaries and those
of the Sublime Porte will propose to the Confer-
ence, in common accord, the equal effective strength
cf the naval force which the two Powers will keep
up in the Black Sea, and which must not exceed
the actual number of Russian vessels now afloat in
that sea.' Now, that the victorious eagles of
France float on the ramparts of Sebastopol, there
does not remain a single Russian vessel of war
to which can be applied the term afloat,' which
served, as the basis of the interpretation which
the Cabinet of Vienna would hat,* desired to
apply to the third guarantee. The propositions of
Austria being no longer of any practical applica-
tion, there is no need to add that the Court of
Vienna will probably be the first to abandon them,
in order, in concert with France and England, to
seek for a new combination for the solution of the
third guarantee. Such is the great practical utility
of the maintenance of the alliance of the 2d De-
cember. I think that it is sufficiently proved that
the third guarantee has now returned into the
sphere of a question of European order. As it
equally interests all the groat powers, it may be
added, without exaggeration, that it interests Ger-
many even more than France and England, since
the Danube, the vital artery of the commerce of
Germany, falls into the Euxiue. It much less be-
comes the Western Powers to offer peace than it
belongs to Europe to exact it from Russia. The
most narrow party.spirit alone can still maintain
that the third guarantee only looks to the satisfac-
tion of the amour pro pre of France and England,
since to reduce the Muscovite power to just limits
is at once to guarantee the independence and the
integrity of Turkey, and to consolidate the politi-
cal equilibrium of Europe."