The Sun.
London, England, 1855-01-09 00:00:00

THE FBEITCH BLACK SEA FLEET.

A letter from the Bay of Kamiesh, 23d ult., in
the Moniteur de la Flotte, says :—" Nothing of
importance has taken place in the siege operations
since my last letter. New batteries are being
raised ; the 70 heavy guns landed from the fleet
are in position, and supplied with ammunition for
a well-continued fire. The Napoleon arrived on
the 16th with troops and artillery materiel. She
has completely repaired all the damages she sus-
tained in the heavy gale ; she is a wonderful vessel,
and now looks better than ever. The construction
of the aqueduct which is to furnish us with spring
water is going on rapidly, and in about a fortnight
our boats will be able to get an abundant supply. The
Veloce has brought us good news from Eupatoria.
The small garrison of that place has been reinforced,
and on the south side the road which was formerly
open to the Cossacks is now closed to them, as it is
under range of the guns of the Henry IV., which has
become a complete citadel. Admiral Hamelinon the
21st received the account of his promotion. On the
23d he banded over the command to Vice-Admiral
Bruat, who published the following order of the
day :
" Officers and seamen—We are about to lose our
worthy chief ; his illustrious services have received their
reward. After' having called on me to second him, the
Emperor has called on me to replace him. Faithful to
the traditions bequeathed to us by a glorious past, we
shall continue to lend to our valiant army and to our
brave Allies that warm co-operation to which he has
already rendered such flattering and cordial justice. On
the day of combat the same patriotic cry will still rally
us round the flag of France—Vive l'Empereur ! '
" There are now stationed before Sebastopol the
French ships of the line Napoleon and Jean-Bart,
the Panama steam-frigate, and. the Primauguet
steam-corvette, and the English ships of the line
Agamemnon, Hannibal, and Algiers, as well as
two frigates of the English nation. In the interior
of the Bay of Kamiesh, there are the French ships
of the line Montebello, Marengo, and Alger, as
well as several frigates and corvettes. In the Bay
of Streletska (the nearest point to the entrance )f
Sebastopol), which is placed under the command
of Captain d'Herbinghem, there are the Vauban
steam-frigate, the Caton steam-corvette, and the
bomb-vessel Vautour. There are several English
,line-of-battle ships and other Yerssela in the Bay of

Kazatcb. These forces are sufficient to meet all
eventualities. The Russians have just disarmed
five more of their ships ; they have now only two
line-of-battle ships fully armed. Since the hurri-
cane of the 14th November there has been no more
bad Weather in the Black Sea, and the condition
of our ships of war is excellent. The greatest pre-
cautions have been taken, and whatever may be the
state of the weather and sea the communications
are secured for the whole winter between Constan-
tinople and the Crimea. All the coast from the
mouth of the Bay of Streletska, to the extremity of
Cape Chersonesus has been fortified by the navy
in a very remarkable manner ; lighthouses have
been placed there, and the service of the roadsted
is carried on in the most regular manner. '

ACCEPTANCE BY RUSSIA OF THE

POUR POINTS.

(Frain the Tinzcz.)
We have no doubt that the statement forwarded

to us yesterday morning by our Vienna corre-
spondent is strictly correct, and that a conference
was held on the 7th inst. between the Plenipoten-
tiaries of the allied Courts and the Russian Mi-
nister, at which Prince Gortschakoff at length de-
clared that he was authorised to tender the uncon-
ditional acceptance by the Emperor of Russia of the
Four Points, with the interpretation affixed to them
by France, England, and Austria, as preliminaries
for the negotiation of peace. Whatever may be the
result of this negotiation, on which we do not place
any undue reliance, the submission of the Russian
Government to the terms which it rejected with so
much indignation about four months ago is au
indisputable proof of the progress made by the
Allied Powers, and of the ascendancy their policy
has already acquired over their powerful adver-
sary. We pointed out yesterday in some detail,
the occurrences which have marked the successful

progress of last year's campaign, and the gradual
but constant retreat of Russia from the terri-
torial encroachments she had attempted to
grasp, and the political pretensions she had
attempted to maintain. Of these, as they were
put forward by Prince Menschikoff in the spring
of J 853, not one remains. But it is a far more
important and significant step for the Emperor of
Russia to authorise his Minister to declare, not
only that ho surrenders his protectorate of the
Moldo-Wallachian provinces—not only that the
navigation of the Danube shall be free—not only
that the rights of the Christian subjects of the
Porto shall become part of the common law of
Europe—but that his own preponderance in the
Black Sea shall cease by the means contemplated
by those Powers which have invaded his territory
and besieged Sebastopol. Fourteen days had been
allowed by the Allies for this communication to be
made to St. Petersburg, and for an answer to ar-
rive at Vienna, but scarcely half that time had
elapsed when a telegraphic order was forwarded to
Prince Gortschakoff to negociate at once upon the
required basis. This order is therefore at least a
distinct admission on the part of the Russian Go-
vernment that the claims and conditions of the
Allied Powers'are just, and that peace may be re-
stored upon the principles for which they have
uniformly contended.
We do not lose sight of the fact that we have to
deal with an antagonist versed in all the artifices of
diplomacy, and unscrupulous in the use of them,
and that the real object of the Emperor of Russia
may be, not so much the re-establishment of peace
on equitable terms, as the dissolution of the power-
ful coalition, which is prepared, after a short inter-
val, to wrest it from him. Whatever may have
been said elsewhere of the treaty of the 2d of De-
cember, it is evident that this alliance of Austria
with the Western Powers has produced the most
powerful effect at St. Petersburg ; that the Czar
has acknowledged without delay the imminent
peril of a rupture with Germany, to which that
treaty exposed him, and that lie has hastened with
unexpected alacrity to conform, at least osten-
sibly, to the provisions of the sth article. The
Austria* Government had given every mark of.
a resolute determination to adhere to the great
objects of the alliance, and to employ the means
necessary to obtain them. In addition to its own
vast military preparations, it has recently called
upon Prussia to act upon the military convention
of the 20th of April, and it has moved the Ger-
manic Diet to call out half the military contingents
of the Confe leration. Every mark of confidence
and courtesy is shown to France, even to giving a
regiment in the Imperial service to the Emperor
Louis Napoleon ; and in the same spirit of cordial
assent to the triple alliance the lii,ihest military
honours were paid the other day in 'Vienna to the
reinains of the lamented. British Military Commis-

sioner General Duplat. The Emperor of Austria.
has -thus to,fified his conviction and his settled
policy, whether for peace or -forwar, to abide -by.
those securities which the alliance of Franco and
England can alone afford him ; and, if the imme-
diate effect of the treaty of the 2d of\December has
been to extort from Russia the concessions she

has already made, it may reasonably be expected
that a firm adhesion to the principles of that alliance
will accomplish all that it proposes to effect. If,
therefore, this acceptance of the conditions of peace
by the Emperor Nicholas is a mere artifice to
weaken the league which is opposed to him, we be-
lieve that he will fail in that object, and that his
sincerity will speedily be brought to some de-
cisive test.

But, on the other hand, the very arguments we
have ourselves used during the whole course of
these transactions are still in fall force to urge

the Emperor Nicholas to terminate this contest
He is fighting in a cause in which success is hope
less, and all he can expect to obtain by the greatest
sacrifices is the honour of a stubborn defence.
He has already isolated himself from Europe, and
stands alone against a host of enemies, who were
once his friends ; from the champion of order and
of peace he has become its most wanton disturber,
and he has annihilated the public engagements
he professed to uphokl. Till new each successive
concession which has been wrung from him came too
late. His position has gone on from bad to worse ;
and at the present moment, if peace be not re-
stored in the East, other questions are about to
arise, other Powers will ere long be engaged, and
all Europe will be involved in the conflagration.
At this solemn moment, therefore, when this tre-
mendous responsibility rests upon him, and an
obstinate persistence in war would justly expose
him to the execration of the world, it is not im-
possible that the experience of the past year, the
defeat of his armies, the blockade of his fleets, the
defection of his former allies, the sufferings of his
subjects, and the darker gloom which broods over
the future, may have bent the stern will and the
proud heart of the Czar, and taught him that the
most absolute sovereigns are still bound by the law
of nations and the rights of other States. At any
rate, it would ill become us, who have engaged in
this contest for a definite and limited purpose, to
attempt to persist in it for one hour after the
essential objects of the war have been obtained,
and, as the British Government has hitherto deter-
mined, in conjunction with it allies, what were to
be the limits of its intervention, so it will neces-
sarily participate in the resolutions they may adopt
when those limits have been attained. We cannot
too strongly repudiate the assumption, in which
none of the Governments of Europe have ever
shared, that this war is to bring about what is called
a revision of the map of Europe, by means of con-
quests or revolutions in which this country, at
least, has no sort of interest. On the contrary, it
is the pride of the English and French Govern-
ments that this war has been undertaken for po-
litical purposes only ; that it has been conducted
for no selfish objects, and stimulated by no pas-
sions of ambition or resentment, and that it may
be concluded when those political objects are de-
finitively secured.
At the same time, while we receive with satis-
faction the assurance of the Russian Government
that a negotiation for the re-establishment of peace
may now be commenced on the basis and interpre-
tation laid down by the Western Powers them-
selves, it is essential, while this negotiation is
going on, to continue, with, if possible, increased
vigour and promptitude, the military operations in
which the Allied armies are now engaged. It has
been repeatedly declared by the Allies that they
will entertain no proposal for a suspension of hos-
tilities until the preliminaries of a definitive treaty
of peace have been actually signed ; and one of the
articles of the treaty of the 2d of December in-
cluded a somewhat similar provision. At the point
at which the campaign in the Crimea has now ar-
rived, a strong hope may be entertained that, be-
fore the transactions to which we now refer can be
known there at all, some decisive success will have
been obtained by the Allied forces. The advan-
tage of such a victory would be incalculable, not
only for the glory it would shed over the Anglo-
French army by the accomplishment of one of the
greatest enterprises of modern warfare, but also
for the positive effect of the fall of Sebastopol in
the future independence of the East. When the
result of the campaign is achieved, it would be a
tOrtUnate event for the world if this contest ohould

(From the Daily News.)
It appears impossible to doubt that Prince Gorts-
chakoff has been authorised to enter into negotia-
tions at Vienna on the basis of the four points, as
they have been interpreted by the Allies. The
telegraphic messages of our own correspondents
coincide, in their announcement of this news, with
the telegraphic intimations on the same subject
received by our principal morning contemporaries,
and a number of the first firms in the City. And.
yet there is something quite unaccountable in the
promptitude with which the Czar has consented to
negotiate on this basis. On the 26th of last August,
Count Nesselrode, in a despatch to Prince Gorts-
chakoff, characterised the four points as " condi-
tions which, if they were to remain as they have
been actually submitted to us, suppose Russia to
be already enfeebled by the exhaustion of a long
war, and which, if the force of temporary circum-
stances forced us to submit to them, so far from
assuring to Europe a solid, and especially a dura-
ble peace, such as the Austrian Government ap-
pears to expect, would only expose that peace to
complications without end." And yet on the ith
of january—seven days earlier than was required
of it—the Russian Government is said to have pro-
fessed its readiness to negotiate on the basis of
these conditions. Are we to understand from this
that Russia is "already enfeebled by the exhaus-
tion of war ?" or that it submits to the conditions
because its acceptance of them cannot load to " a
solid and durable peace ?" Some recent demon-
strations in the Court of Prussia may throw a little
light on these dark questions.
The Austrian Cabinet, we are given to under-
stand, has, within the last few days, forwarded a
note to Berlin, calling upon the Prussian Govern..
ment to mobilise its army, according to the terms
of the treaty of the 10th of April. This request
the Prussian Government has declined to comply
with, on the ground that the terms of the treaty
do not warrant it. At the same time orders have

been issued to strengthen the artillery regimenta
by the addition of a new battery of eight guns to
each. The King has also been heard to declare
that he will abide by his neutrality as long as ho
can ; but that, if events shall render it advisable
_ .

to mobilise his army, he will take that step solely
and exclusively with the view of enabling himself
more effectually to urge moderation upon both par-
ties. By consenting to negotiate on the basis of
the four points, the Czar obtains the advantage of
confirming the King of Prussia's faith ix his mode-
ration, and renders it probable that the Prussian
army, when mobilised, may be rendered serviceable
to Russia. By consenting to enter into negotia-
tions, which may be broken off at any time, the
Czar gains the advantage of engendering and per-
petuating discord between the two great Powers of
central Europe.
There are circumstances connected with the rela-
tions between Russia and Austria which rather
tend to add probability to this interpretation of the
ready consent of the Cabinet of St. Petersburg to
negotiate. On the side of Austria there is the well-
grounded conviction that it will be exposed, in the
event of a breach with Russia, to the most invete-
rate hostility of the Czar. What Nicholas regards
as simple hostility on the part of France and Eng-
land, he would consider defection and revolt on the

part of Austria. On the side of Russia, at least in
,the army, there exists the greatest contempt for
the military force of Austria. It is their custom to
call the Austrians " men in uniform," and not
"soldiers." With perhaps the solitary exceptions
of Rudiger and De Berg, there is not a Russian
general who does justice to the Austrian army.
Here, then, we have great fear on the aide of Aus-
tria opposed to overweening confidence on the part
of Russia. There remains one important point to
be noticed in connection with the two which have
just been adverted to. Some ten or twelve months
ago Russian agents are known to have been engaged
iu sounding some of the Magnates of Hungary,
with a view to ascertain whether they would be
prepared, if the Czar were ready to guarantee the
independence of their country, to take the Grand
Duke Constantine for their King.
Looking to the relative positions of Russia and
Austria, and to the attitude assumed by Prussia, it
is evident that Russia will enter upon the renewed
negotiations with no inconsiderable advantages. It
will require the sternest decision, the most peremp-
tory language, on the part of France and England, to
keep the courage of Austria up to the sticking point,
and prevent its sneaking out of its half-promises.
Now what guarantee have we that the French and
English Governments will show themselves ani-
mated by a spirit of stern decision, and that they
will use peremptory language ! There has never
been any explicit, official announcement of the in-
terpretaiien put by the Three Powers, parties to
the treaty of the 2d of December, on the four
points. The four points, as at first announced,
embrace the discontinuance of Russia's exclusive
protectorate of the Principalities ; the establish-
ment of the free navigation of the Danube ; the
revision of the treaty of thel3th July,lB4l ; and the
relinquishment by Russia of its claim to protect
the Sultan's subjects of the Greek rite. Subse-
quently France and England have declared tliz..t
the revision of the treaty of Kutchuk-Kainardji
must be " in the sense of a limitation of the naval
power of Russia in the Black Sea." In this inti-
mation there is an approach to precise and definite
meaning winch elsewhere we look for in vain.
This—the limitation of the naval power of Russia
in the Black Sea—is the sheet anchor of the hopes
of the nations of Europe in the present squally and
uncertain weather. If the Allied. Governments
part from it—if concessions are made to the sen-
sitive vanity of the Czar on this point—it will be
utterly vain to hope for an honourable and
lasting peace.
Were we sure that the Allies would stand firm
on this point, we would regard with utter indiffer-
ence the renewal of negotiations at Vienna, pro-
vided the war continued to be carried on with
vigour while they were in progress. We feel con-
vinced that the Czar has not yet been sufficiently
beaten to induce him to accept of this, to him,
mortifying condition. But there is something
about the language attributed to the English
Cabinet which necessarily inspires misgivings. The
readiness of the Czar to renew negotiations on the
very terms which less than 6 months ago lie pro-
nounced inadmissible throws light on the confi-

deuce with which an approaching peace was talked
of in certain City circles on Friday last—a

dente expressly attributed to expressions used by
Ministers. Can Ministers expect that the Empe-
ror of Russia will consent to au equalisation of the
naval forces of France, England, and Russia in the
Euxine ? Or are they prepared to purchase a peace
by departing from that demand ? Do they imagine
that the lugubrious articles in the Tim,es have in-
timidated the nation, and rendered it disgusted
with the war, to an extent that will render it
happy to have peace patched up on any terms f
The present is, perhaps, the most anxious crisis
through which we have had to pass since the com-
mencement of the war; for never before have we
appeared to be drifting so close to the shoals of
national dishonour.

ARCHDEACON DENISON'S CASE.

On Saturday the inquiry was resumed at Cleveden,
the Archdeacon being present for the first time.

Dr. Haggard, on the part of the Commissioners, de.
Glared that they were unanimous in declining to hear any
evidence as to the motives of the proprietors of the suit,
or of its being the result of a conspiracy to procure the
deprivation of the Archdeacon of Taunton.
Dr. Phillimore then announced that it was his inten-
tion to adopt the following line of defence on behalf of
the Archdeacon, namely, to show that the prosecution
was the result of a conspiracy of certain persons belong-
ing to a particular party of the Church to procure the
deprivation of the Archdeacon of Taunton ; and that he
should also contend that there was no legal proof of the
preaching or publishing the said sermons, written withia
the diocese of Bath and Wells.
The Commissioners ruled that Dr. Phillimore should
not be allowed to give evidence, by cross-examination or
otherwise, as to the existence of the alleged conspiracy
or the motives of the prosecutor.
After a great deaf of legal quibbling,
Dr. Bayford summed up the evidence he had adduced,
contending at great length that it bad been fully estab-
lished that the patronage of the livings held by the Arch.
deacon of Taunton was in the gift of the bishop of th
bishop of the diocese—that the necessary statutory notices
had been given, and that the sermon which formed the
subject of inquiry had been preached and published is
the diocese of Bath and Wells.
The Rev. Wilson redder, late Vice-Principal of the
Theological College at Wells, was called as a witness,
and expressed his opinion, founded upon the examination
papers presented
showted no
to candidatestende tendency efy in orhetlhye least toorders,
degreethat the
Archdeacon
the H
adopt theeitylo Eucharist.
The of the Church of Rome in reference
to
The Rev. Dr. Wolff, vicar of Isle Brewer, another
witness, said he had often preached in Archdeacon
Denison's Church at East Brent. He was informed
that the Archdeacon carried on his worship as a rank
Puseyite. He found that to be a lie.
Some other testimony of a similar character having
been given
Dr. Phillimore replied upon the case, and the Court
was adjourned until Wednesday next.

The Royal Mail Ship Lightning►, Captain A. Enright
was left at noon on Sunday off Wicklow Head, b
the steam-tugs Independence and Constitution. WIC
W. by S., strong.