The Sun.
London, England, 1855-01-26 00:00:00

THE BALTIC.

KIEL, Jan. 22.—This Bay is now entirely
covered with ice, and the navigation is therefore
completely closed. By great exertion the Danish
steam-packet, with the mails for Copenhagen, the
Islands, and Sweden managed to get out on the
18th, since which time it has been quite impossible
to force a passage. Outside the Bay there is still
open water, but if the frost should continue, of
which at present there is every indication, that
cannot long be the case.
Whatever may be the intentions of the Czar or
the views of diplomatists as to the issue of negotia-
tions at Vienna, there are some circumstances
which render it evident that the expectations enter-
tained by mercantile mon connected with the Rus-
sian trade are not very strong as to peace being the
result of them. The demand which has sprung up
here for vessels under the Danish and other neutral
flags to load at Prussian ports is unprecedented,
and float the high rates of freight already offering,
shipowners have a good prospect for employ-
ment in the spring. Some cause, however,
appears to have induced the owners of Russian
produce to give another destination to a great por-
tion of their trade which was last year carried on
through Memel, and to have recourse to other
channels. The present inquiries for shipping at
this and the neighbouring ports chiefly refer to
small vessels to load at Kiinigsberg, or for those of
a larger tonnage to take cargoes at Pillau, the
discharging ports, however, not being named
now, but to be declared at the time of loading, or
under certain conditions deferred until the ves-
sels clear at Elsinore on their downward passage.
Letters from Pillau describe the appearance of
that port at present as completely that of a Rus-
sian town. It is full of Russians and of Russian
goods, which are constantly arriving, and if this
continue it will soon be impossible, they say, to
find storage of any kind for such an unusual accu-
mulation of merchandise. The determination of the
Russians to get their produce forwarded is evinced
not by their preparations for its shipment at
neutral ports in spring alone, but by the exertions
0.1.0 which they have mad.e to get it despatched ass
long as the navigation continued open, which, ha,re
been both great and successful. lJp to a very
recent date, and since we prematurely raised the
blockade, many vessels have cleared from Bolderaa
(the Gravesend of Riga), and other Russian ports,
and have already made good their passages to
Stettin, Stockholm, and Lubeck. This last port,
indeed, seems to have been especially favoured,
and if a few cruisers had been left to watch the
coast, an ample return in captures would have
been the reward. These unusual exertions on the
part of the Russians are 'otherwise very significant.
The nobles cannot, in the present state of affairs,
receive the advances to which they have been so
long accustomed by the gale of their produce
on contract for delivery in spring, and, as they
are now strongly urged by the Government to
make their payments into the Treasury, no other
course was left open to them. If proper and pal-
pable precautions had been taken by the British
Government to have deprived them of this alterna-
tive, the Russian finances would have been brought
to a low ebb, the screw would have been applied
still more stringently, and an amount of dissatis-
faction would have been excited against the Czar
throughout the whole extent of his dominions
which would have compelled him to sue for peace,
and would have led to the attainment of that ob-
ject more speedily for him and more honourably
for the Allies than may be the case through the
delays and intricacies of diplomacy, in which all
are now involved.

P.S. The steamer with the mails from Copen-
hagen has just arrived at the outer haven, where
she has anchored. This shows that the navigation
in the adjacent waters is still unimpeded.