The Sun.
London, England, 1855-01-13 00:00:00

THE CONFERENCES AT VIENNA.

The Journal des7Debats of Thursday, in an artiole
bearing the signature of "S. de Lacy" (a gentleman
supposed to have peculiar facilities for information),
gives the following details of the late important con-
ferences at Vienna :

"It is known that Prince Gortschakoff declared, in

a note addressed to Coont Buol on the 28th November,

that the Emperor his master accepted the four propo-
sitions of the Cabinet of Vienna as a point of departure
for peaceful negotiation, and that Count Buol replied
on the 30th •that the Emperor Francis Joseph had re-
ceived the communication with much satisfaction, and

that, appreciating to the fullest extent the intentions
that inspired that important zesolution, the Emperor
thoughtl he could not respond to it on his part better
than by hastening to communicate it to his Allies, the
Courts of Paris and London, in order to obtain a frank
and fair solution of the four points, thus recognised as
an indispensable preliminary to the re-establishment of

general peace.
" These commusicltions resulted in the conference
held at Vienna on the 28th of December, between M.
Buol and the representatives of France and Great Bri-
tain and Prince Gortschakoff. The business of that
conference was to make known to the Russian Minister
the interpretation given by the three Courts of Paris,
London, and Vienna to the four conditions laid down
in the note of the Bth of August, and to place in his
hands a copy of the protocol or memorandum contain-
ing this interpretation. In reality, it was more espe-
cially to determine the sense and bearing of the second
and third conditions that explanations were necessary.
The second condition declared that the navigation of
the Danube should be freefrona.ill liindranne and sub:.
jected to the application of principles established by the
acts of the Congress of Vienna. The third declared that
the treaty of the 18th of July, 1841, should be revised
in concert by the contracting parties with a view to the
maintenance of the balance ef Europe. [The treaty Of
the 14th of July, known as the 4‘ Strait's Treaty." re-
news the old closing of the Black Sea. By its stipula-
tions, entrance into the Black Sea is forbidden to vessels
of war of all nations. The effect was that the naval
forces of Turkey and Russia could alone navigate that
sea, whilst the navy of Russia was not allowed to pass
from thence into the Mediterranean.]
" As far as regarded the free navigation of the mouths
of the Danube, the protocol of the 28th December pro-
posed the formation of a mixed commission appointed by
the five Courts, the powers and duties of which could be
arranged in the course of the negotiations. As regarded
the revision of the treaty of 1841, with a view to the
maintenance of the balance of Europe, the protocol
stated that balance to have been disturbed by the pre-
not only by the treaty
many former treaties ; all these
tporfoenaldtBiee4rsal ,
pre-
ponderance a
would
obtained
b
eisneadtinybuyi i
tRc
ju.„i 1
he Black Sea would be
free ; but the naval strength to be maintained or pre-
videl for these by each Power would be determined on
a principle of equality that would form a basis for future
stipulations. The protocol of the 2Sth December stated,
also, that there was no intention of assailing the in-
tegrityprovince whatever. But the three Powers signing it
reserved
t o:
he
ems
eißussianves
the
priii or of depriving it of any
g.
t of profiting from what-
ever advantages might result from the existing war,
whenever it was necessary to settle definitively the
strength and extent of the naval and military establish-
ments hereafter to be allowed to Russia on the coasts
of the Black Sea.
" The first of the four conditions of the note of the

opftieethrale
Bth of August relates to the protectorate exercised by
Russia over the principalities of Wallachia, Moldavia,
and Se
uwgausst twoacseassoep.
reTcihsee
tlhanat-
ga g
ia.
the protocol of the 28th December added nothing on
eor fv note This
that point. But the protocol was explicit on the fourth
point. This had for its object the final abolition of the
special right of protectorate unceasingly claimed by
Russia in favour of those subjects of the Sultan profes-
sing the Greek religion. All the treaties appealed to by
Russia in support of this claim were to be annulled. For
the exclusive protection of Russia, there was to be sub-
stituted the joint protection of the Five Powers, who
would engage to respect the rights of the Ottoman Porte,
and to use their protectorate with the utmost delicacy,
so as neither to alarm its susceptibility nor weaken
its ~incleperience. The protocol then recited the re-
cent decreer of the Sultan, whose sincerity was be.
yond doubt. The signing Powers guaranteed the main-
tenance of these decrees, so favourable to the whole of
the Christial communities, and their impartial applica-
tion.
" The reading of the protocol was followed by a
warm discussion, which produced a clearer explanation
of the advantages reserved as possibly to be derived
from the actual results of the war prior to the signinee
of prelinaimries. It would not, therefore, be impossible
that the demolition of the fortress of Ismail, on the
Danube, might be required, and the construction in its
place of a neutral fortress, the property of the five
Powers, and under the guardianship of a mixed garri-
son. Possi)ly, also, there might be required the de-
struction of Sebastopol, with the demolition of its forts
and arsenals ; and their rebuilding might be for ever
forbidden, as would also the establishment of any naval
or military station that could threaten the independence
of Turkey. This proviso was energetically opposed by
Prince Gortschakoff, who declared that ho had no power
to accept such conditions. Ile added that he would im-
mediately transmit the protocol or memorandum to the
Cabinet of St. Petersburg, and request the orders of his
Sovereign.
"The next day Prince Gortschakoff again had an in-
terview witti Count Buol, and showed himself disposed
to accept a new version of the third condition, as to the
possible consequences of the war, not essentially differ-
ing from that proposed to him on the previous evening.
Count Boot, however, stood firm to the old rendering,
announcing that the reply would have to be plainly and
simply in the negative or affirmative.
" But on the evening of the 6th inst., Prince Gorts-
chakoff received from the Emperor Nicholas an order to
accept the protocol of the 28th without reserve, as a
basis for peaceful negotiations. On the morning of the
7th, M. Buol was informed of this resolve of the Court
of St. Petersburg, which was immediately communi-
cated to the representatives of France and Great Britain,
who met together in the evening. The Russian Minis-
ter was present at this meeting. Other conferences have
taken place since the 7th inst., and, if we are to rely on
later telegraphic despatches from Vienna, the Turkish
Ambassador has been invited to take part in them. '
"We confine ourselves here to a simple narrative of
facts. The field is open to wide conjecture, but at the
present critical conjuncture of the negotiations it is
doubtless wisest to wait the course of events."

(Front the Constitutionnel.)
Has peace come to surprise Europe at the moment
when everything seemed to intimate that the war was
about to become general, and to assume vaster propor-
tions, or has the telegraph once more thrown men's
minds into a deceptive and ephemorical delusion In
France and in England peace ought to be easily be-
lieved in, because all are anxious for it. The Western
Powers do not, in fact, combat for any material in-
terest, or for any satisfaction of self love ; they have
taken up arms to defend the rights of an ally, and
to preserve the balance of power in Europe. They