The Sun.
London, England, 1855-07-14 00:00:00

No. 22.

Lord Clarendon informs the Earl of Westmoreland that
Count Colloredo had read to him a despatch from Count Buol
expressing his regret at the termination of the Conferences,
and his surprise at the objections made by the Cabinets of
London and Paris to the proposition which he had brought
forward at the Conference on the 4th inst., which proposition,
he said, had originated with M. Drouyn de Lhuys, who, hav-
ing been in direct communication with her Majesty's Govern-
ment, was considered at Vienna to be the special representa-
tive of the policy and views of England and France.
Lord Clarendon declares his total dissent from the state-
ment and opinions of Count Buol.

(No. 23.)

CIRCULAR DESPATCH ADDRESSED TO HER MAJESTY'S REPRE

SENTATIVES AT FOREIGN COURTS.

Foreign-office, June 19,

Sir,—On the 4th instant a Conference was summoned at
Vienna by Count Buol, the proceedings at which are recorded
in the protocol of which I enclose a copy.*
This protocol, together with the protocols of the Confer-
ences held at Vienna between the 15th of March and the 26th
of April, of which copies have been transmitted to you, will
place you in possession of tho details of the negotiation in
which her Majesty, in conjunction with her allies, has recently
been engaged, and which, to her Majesty's great regret, have
not resulted in the conclusion of a peace with tho Emperor of
Russia.

I consider that the present will be a fitting opportunity to
state for your information and guidance the views of her Ma-
jesty's Government upon the negotiations which have thus
been brought to a close.

The stipulations for which, while reserving to themselves
the right of insisting upon other special and additional con-
ditions, her Majesty and her allies considered it more parti-
cularly incumbent on them to provide, were as follows :-
1. That the exclusive right to interfere to a certain extent
in the internal affairs of provinces belonging to the Turkish
Empire, which Russia had in former times wrung from the
necessities of the Porte, should no longer be exercised by that
Power.

2. That the channel of the Lower Danube, and more espe-
cially the outlets of that river into the Black Sea, should no
longer be subject to the exclusive control of Russia, but
should, on the contrary, be confided to the superintendence
of delegates appointed by other Powers as well as by Russia,
and who should take measures for freeing and keeping free
from obstructions the great water communication of Central
Germany with the rest of the world.
3• That the Turkish Empire should become part of the
system of European equilibrium, and that means should be
taken to put an end to the preponderance of Russia in the
Black Sea.

4. That the pretensions of Russia officially to protect the
Christian subjects of the Porte should be renounced, and that
the Powers should use their influence to obtain from the Sul-
tan, by an act of his own Sovereign authority, the confirma-
tion and observance of the religious privileges of his Christian
subjects.

A communication to this effect was made to the Court of
Russia at the close of last year, and was accepted by that
Power as the basis on which negotiations might be entered
into.

Negotiations were accordingly commenced at Vienna, but,
unfortunately, it is only on the first and second points that
anything approaching to an agreement was arrived at ; for,
the refusal of the Russian Plenipotentiaries to accede to the
reasonable proposals made to them by the Plenipotentiaries of
the allies on the third point stopped the progress of the nego-
tiations upon that point, and the fourth point was, in conse-
quence, not brought under discussion.
It satisfactory, however, to her Majesty's Government to be
able to appeal to the protocols on the first and second points
as an evidence of the anxiety shown by the allies to devise
terms of settlement advantageous to the general interests of
Europe, and more immediately conducive to the development
of the prosperity of Germany ; and her Majesty's Government,
therefore, regret the more that the refusal of Russia to accept
the proposals of the allies on the third point should have stood
in the way of the advantages which would have resulted from
the arrangements which might have been made in regard to
the matters to which the two first points related.
Her Majesty's Government are aware that Count Nessel.
rode, in a despatch which he has recently addressed to the
Russian Ministers at Foreign Courts, has sought to place in
a favourable light the course pursued by Russia in the dis-
cussions on the two first points, and to persuade foreign Go-
vernments, and more particularly those of Germany, that the
continued preponderance of Russia in the Black Sea has no
direct bearing on the questions which relate to the Principa-
lities and to the navigation of the Danube, nor on the inter-
ests of Germany, and that Germany, therefore, ought not to
co-operate with the allies in their efforts to reduce that pre-
ponderance.

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serve to dispel the illusion which it was the object of Count
Nesselrode's despatch to create. Her Majesty's Government
have no desire to undervalue the importance of the matters
to which the arrangements in regard to the first two points
sketched out in the protocols of the Conference relate ; but
her Majesty's Government must be permitted to observe
that, as regards the Principalities, any rights which Russia
might possess or claim under her former treaties were at
once extinguished by the abrogation of those treaties on
the breaking out of the war, and that, consequently, the
exemption of the Principalities from the exclusive protec-
tion of Russia is not the result of any concession made by
Russia to the interests of Germany, but is the direct con-
sequence of the violent act of aggression committed by
Russia on the Turkish empire; and, as regards the naviga-
tion of the Danube, it is to be observed that although the
arrangements proposed in the fifth protocol would be, to a
certain extent, satisfactory, yet it was mainly owing to the
refusal of Russia to accede to the reasonable suggestions put
forward by the Plenipotentiaries of Austria in the fourth Co-
nference, that those proposed arrangements were not made
more complete, and more in conformity with the general in-
terests of Europe.

But the arrangements proposed in regard to the first two

* See Eastern Papers, part XIV,