The Sun.
London, England, 1855-04-09 00:00:00

LONDON, NONDAY EVENING A 1355,

KOSSUTH ON THE VIENNA CONFERENCE

(From the Allem )

Peiee is the cry. The horrors revealed before the
Roebuck committee ; the armies of the two greatest
poivers of Furope, clogged for six months in a corner by
a besieged town, half open when the besiegers came
there ; the promises of governments, the expectations of
victory—everything is absorbed by that one cry. The
very grief is mute, and the breath stands still. Peace
is the cry. About the terms, and the issue, few do care.
About Turkey still less. The third point is execrated'
as the difficulty. This point, in one form or another,
implies the abolition of the treaty of 1841.
-It is worth while recallicg public attention to what
that treaty means.
Mehmet Ali, Pacha of Egypt, having taken up arms
against sultan Nahmeud 11., at a moment when the
oak forest of the Janissaries lay prostrate, and the fresh-
planted vine of army organisation had not yet taken root,
the Turks were defeated at Koniah. - Ibrahim Pasha,
the commander-in-chief of the Egyptian army, accom-
panied only by his staff and his immediate retinue,.rode
up as far as Kutahya, and took up his bead-quarters in
those very barracks I have been detained in, by secret
diplomacy, for 18 months, after th'e guest, whose head
is sacred to the Moslem, has been transformed into a
prisoner by the advice of the Christian Government of
England.
Terror was the precursor of Ibrahim. The remnants
of the Turkish army and the detached garrisons fled be-
fore the shadow of his name ; the Turkish empire was
totter;ng to its very-foundation, and Constantinople itself
apprehend an attack. In this moment of supreme danger,
Sultan .Mahmoud appealed to England, France, and
Austria for aid. They refused. England refused !
The Sultan, in despair, thought like a Hungarian hero
of old—Flectere si nequeam superos, A etero2act movebo—
(l will move hell, if the Heavens prove deaf to my
appeal)—and turned to Russia. The Czar, Them- than
the statesman at Downing-street, landed an army
on the Asiatic ghore of the enchaeting Bosphorus.
Mehemet Ali stopped not before the English 'agent sent
to Kutahya (ho was certainly not a Popilus), but before
the Ruesians at the Bosphorus. Peace was concluded in
April, 1833. It is in consequence of these events that the
dangerous saviour of Turkey, in taking leave of the Bos-
phorus, carried home the treaty of Unkiar-Skeleesi (July
8, 1853). They call it a treaty of defensive alliance; in
fact, it stipulated to furnish such troops to the Sultan as
ho might demand for the defence of his empire, and the
treaty was restricted to eight years. But a secret article
was appended to it, engaging the Porte to lock up the
Straits of the Dardanelles to foreign vessels of war,
while leaving the Bosphorus open to the Czar.
I am not aware of England having objected to that
treaty. France did. France dec!ared she would act as
if the treaty did mot exist. Russia promised her to act
as if the protest of France did not exist.
The eases Paris was not slow in presenting itself.
The conflict between Mahmoud and Mehemet Ali broke
out anew in 1839. The defeat of the Turks at Nuzib, the
desertion of the Ottoman fleet, and the death of Sultan
Mahmoud mark its history. The Western Powers inter.
fered.

From the immense rubbish of paper wasted in the
negotiations thereupon, two facts deserve recollection at
this particular moment.
The French Government proposed that the Eastern
question should be discussed at a conference of the five
powers at Vienna. Metternich (despatch to Count Ap-
pony, June 14, 1839) reminded the Tuileries that in, a
protocol signed at Aix-la-Chapelle, 1818, it had been laid
down as a rule, that the great powers should never deal
in conference with any question concerning the rights
and interests of a third state, without the participation
of that same state.
Now, mark the history of the " four points" of these our
days. The same old Metternich framed them ; Drouyn
de l'Huys stood godfather to them ; England nodded to
them ; Austria, of course, grasped at them. Why, they
are framed expressly for her. If there is peace, she gets a
protectorate over Moldo-Wallachia and Servia, and the
right of meddling with the internal affairs of doomed
Turkey ; if war, she keeps Moldo-Wallachia, having.had
not so much as to fight for the profit in either case. But
was Turkey, the principal party, the party for whom
England pretends to fight, even so much as asked
whether she consented to negotiate on the basis of the
four points ?By no means. She is only admitted to the
regulation of the details, after Lord Palmerston had de-
clared " that the four points have to be the law—nothing
but, the four points, and nothing besides the four points."
Is nobody to remember Aix-la-Chapelle ? Nobody to
remember justice and right ? No, nobody—corruption
of diplomacy has its progress, just as virtue has. Bad
enough as it has been, it was not the worst when Met-
ternich was 16 years younger than now. Poor Turkey,
ill-fated land ! Allah has not saved thee' from thy
friends, and thou art lost !
The second fact is, that in those transactions of 1839,
the Porte proposed that the great powers should gua-
rantee the integrity of the Ottoman possessions. Hear
the declaration of Austria ! (despatch of Prince Metter-
nich to Baron Sturmer, April 20, 1841). "No state
should ever accept services from another which is not
capable to reciprocate. A state placed under the gua-
rantee of another power becomes by that very fact lA-
diatised, and has to submit to the will of the protecting
power."
Today they are negotiating a quintuple protectorate,
not for, but against Turkey, and that as a sufficient and
honourable issue of a war undertaken for the mainten-
ance of the independence and integrity of Turkey.
In the course of the said negotiations Great Britain
proposed (despatch of Lord Palmerston to the Marquis
of Clanricarde, Oct. 25, 1839), that, " It being a general
and fundamental law of nations that every indepen-
dent state has a territorial jurisdiction over the sea for
three, miles from its shores, the Sultan has. an in-
disputable right to exclude foreign vessels of war
from the straits of the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus.
This right has been formally acknowledged by Great
Britain in the treaty of 1809, and the engagement
taken to respect, and make respected, that right of the
Sultan." Great Britain, therefore, desires that Russia
should take the same engagement, abandoning the one-
sided stipulation of Unkiar Skelesei.

Russia finished by agreeing to it. A convention was
signed July 18, 1840, at London, by which it was stipu-
lated that, should Mehemet Ali undertake to march on
Constantinople, the high contracting parties, upon an ex-
press requisition of the Sultan, will enter the Straits in
defence of his thrOne. But that this is to be considered
an exceptional measure, adopted on the requisition of the
Sultan, and in no case meant to derogate to the ancient
rule of the Ottoman Empire, according to which foreign
vessels of war bad been at all times forbidden to enter
the Straits of the Dardanelles and of the Bosphorus.
In the course of time the difficulties with Mehemet
Ali, which prevented France from being a party to this
convention, having been brought to a close, all the five
great European powers, in concord, stipulated a treaty
with the Porte, July 13, 1841, by which the Sultan de-
clared his determination to maintain the said ancient
rule of his empire, and the five powers enacted their
solemn engagement to respect this determination of the
Sultan, end to conform themselves to its principle.
This is the famous treaty of 1841, which the European
powers are busy in overthrowing at Vienna.
• But by all that is left of justice on earth, if you touch
that treaty, which has not created but only recorded a
right as old as the words " mine and thine," you commit
the most flagrant violation of the law of nations, and yo.o
stab the independence of Turkey at its very heart. Just
imagine some kind "allies " at Vienna negotiating to
deprive England of her jurisdiction over the Solent ; and,
the Straits are more to Turkey than the Solent to Eng-
land ; they are as much as the Thames to England.
Tfie most revolting point in the matter is, that to cover
the pernicious bearing of that design, they pretend to do
it for the benefit of Turkey and for aggravating Russia.
They say the treaty of 1841 was but a confirmation of
that of Unkiar Skelessi. I have sketched the nature of
both. The public may judge. The treaty of Unkiar
Skelessi shut the Straits of the Dardanelles to Europe,
but left the Bosphorus open to the Czar. The treaty of
1841 shut him out, and restored to the Stiltan that ter-
ritorial jurisdiction over both, without which no state is
sovereign or independent—a jurisdiction, the right of
which does certainly not date from_ that treaty. The
hoary castles of the Dardanelles, and the fortresses which
fine the Bosphorus from Kilia to the Seven Towers, and
from Riva to Chalcedon, speak of its date.
It has been officially reported that receiving the com-
munication about the intention of the Western powers
to abolish the treaty of 1841, Nicholas answered with a
smile, "If only Turkey consents to it, I certainly will
not object." There is a deep irony in these words. The
Straits opened are open to Russia likewise. That is all
Russia wants. The point of her hereditary ambition is
gained. The possession of Constantinople itself has only
an importance because it means the Bosphorus.
If you have not the resolution to do what both France,
by its ministerial organ Le Pays, and England through
the medium of the Times (July 17, 1854), pompously
promised to the world—viz., " that it is not by simple
declarations drawn up on a sheet of paper, but by driv-
ing Russia back within those limits which will not per-
mit her to aspire to the empire of the seas, it is by con-
.straining her to the limits of a continental power, that
a 33•1 France pledge themselves to turn for ever
easide,the Iswqad which the hereditary policy of St. Peters-
bug holds suspended over Europe"—if you have not the
ke§ollition tolct up to these promises, then if you really
cl'aiinAb'qg..lat for Turkey against Russia, and not for
against Turkey, the world would at least expect
Tour tryirtg to lock up Russia in that inland lake called
the Black Sea. Instead of that, you negotiate the let-
..ting her, out Diplomatic duphcity tpay sontrivolo mac
this.astortnaieg fact by some means or other level.-
. •
theiess,, . a rs fact, that any stipulations; 17.,hich *15644
'hofleave intact the territorialnrisd.ictitinOf 41reS'illfins
over the Straits britig down the Czars.to the open seas,
and absolutely destroy the independenCe or the. Turkish
empire.
To force five protectors upon, them=to arrogate the
right of incessant interference in their internal affairs—

and to deprive them• of the territorial jurisdiction over
the Straits, is certainly a strange issue in.a war ostenta-
tiously, undertaken for the integrity and independence of
Turkey —and in a war, besides, wherein whatever Eng-
land and France may be, 'Turkey at least has been the
victor until now.
It is the story of the physician who knccked out the
brains of his patient to preserve him from the pains.of a
future possible disease ; if it be not something still worse,
the story about the constables who punished the robber,
by dividing between him and. themselves that which he
intended to extort. KOSSUTH.

ICA VAL AND MILITARY INTELLIGENCE.

Portsmouth still has a very powerful force of ships
left, notwithstanding the departure of the bulk of the
Baltic expedition. There were yesterday the follow
ing :
Neptune . Captain Hutton.
Captain Eyres, C.B.
Captain Erskine.
Captain J. J. Stopford.
CalcuttaOStio n
George
Powerful Captain Massie.
Hastings Captain Coffin..
Pembroke ............ Captain Seymour.
Retributi0n.............. Captain Fisher.
Pvlades .............. Captain D'Eyncourt.
Malacca ............ Captain Farquhar.
Odin
Centaur ............... Captain Clifford.
Cruiser Commander the- Hon. Gs Douglas
Falcon Commander Pared;
Ariel Commander Luce.
Gorgon Commander R. B. Crawford.
Driver
Sampson
Lightning Lieutenant Campbell.
Fetter
This force received an unexpected and important ad.
dition yesterday morning; by the return of the flagship
Duke of Wellington, Captain Cald well, to repair the
damage sustained by the collision with the Ame-
rican ship Hurlbut, also in Portsmouth harbour under
similar circumstances. The damages of the latter we
reported, on Saturday. She seems to have struck the
Duke amidships on the port side, taking the bower
anchor and carrying away the stock right in half amid-
ships, got foul of the forechains and took them right in
half, took the end off the foreyard, lifted the sheet anchor
right up in the waist, carried away the hammock net-
tings in the forecastle and waist, stove in the port, enter
ing that and seven others, then smashed part of the
admiral's stern walk and the ward-room quarter gallery;
the swinging boom, of course, went too. The Duke
let the Downs on Saturday at noon, and arrived at
Spithead yesterday morning at 8, when Captain Cald-
well landed and sent in his list of defects, to repair which
dockyard artificers were at once sent off. It is supposed
the refit will occupy a week ; the new foreyard, to re-
placo the one lost in the collision, will be taken out to
her to-day. Rear-Admiral Dundas in the interim shifted
his flag and returns to the Nile, 91, Captain Mundy.
He had held an inquiry into the cause of the accident,
and fully acquitted the Hon. A. G. Hobart (the lieute-
nant in charge of the watch on board the Duke) of all
b'ame. The uselessness of such large ships as the Duke
of Wellington for uncertain waters may be best instanced
from the fact that although Sheerness dockyard is so
much more contiguous to the Downs than Portsmouth,
the Lords of the Admiralty ordered her to the latter
port, because she drew too much water to go over
the flats to the former ; but forgetting (as it would ap-
pear) that the same course might have been adopted
with Sheerness as with Portsmouth, viz., the Fending
away artificers to her in a steamer to obviate the neces-
sity of her going into harbour. Much surprise and
some discontent prevails in the navy, especially with
those officers who hare a second time been sent out in
the Baltic fleet, at the continued re-issue of the old-
fashioned and " established" anchor, or, as it is more
familiarly called, the " Admiralty mudhook," after the
practical experience resulting from last year's cruise in
the Baltic, and demonstrated by the heaps of broken
anchors (about 60,0001. worth !) returned into store at
the various dockyards from the several ships, compar-
able in trustworthiness and utility to the wretched in-
trenching tools supplied to our army before Sebastopol.
On Friday evening the Trafalgar, 120 guns, Captain
Henry F. Prreville, arrived at Sheerness from the Medi-
terranean, last from Portsmouth. All the marines,
marine artillery, and the available portion of the seamen
forming the crew of this ship are left in the trenches at
Balaklava with her long 32-pounder guns. It is ex-
pected that she will be ready for paying en Wednesday
next, when the crew will be granted leave of absence,
ank,oa return, those who have entered for,-continuous
service, and whose term of service has not expired, will
be draughted to other ships.
The Britannia, 120, lately paid off at Portsmouth, is
ordered to be immediately fitted to receive sick and
wounded men as they arrive from the seat of war in the
East or North.

The Bellerophon, 78, Captain Lord G. Paulet, was put
out of commission at Portsmouth on Saturday. The
officers were paid off, and crew paid down, being granted
only 15 days' leave before being again required for ser-
vice in the fleet.

The Pembroke, 60, Captain G. H. Seymour, went
out of Portsmouth harbour, on Saturday, to Stoke's
Bay, to test her speed and engines at the measured mile.
The mean of four runs was 7.618 knots ; revolutions,
80 and 84; steam, 601 b. She went; 8 knots exactly by
the hand log, which was tried several times. This
eclipses even the unexpected and gratifying result
achieved on the previous Thursday by the Hastings,
sister ship, the speed of which was 6.7, and whose en-
gines are by the same successful maker (MandslaY).
The Russell, 60, screw steam-ship, Captain F. Scott,
was put out of the fitting-basin, Sheerness, on Saturday.
Her Majesty's ship Hornet, of 17 guns, arrived at
Singapore on the Bth of February; all well. She had
made a most favourable passage from the Cape of Good
Hope, having sailed from that place on the 16th of De-
cember.
• On, Saturday the Geyser, paddle-wheel steam- sloop,
Commander R. Drew, arrived at Sheerness from the
westward, with officers and seamen to take charge of two
of the gun-boats now riding in thediarbour.
The Mer!in, 4 guns, paddle-wheel steam-vessel, Capt.
B. Sulivan, will take charge of two gun-boats now at
Sheerness, and to-morrow is named for the departure of
these'three vessels and the six gun-boats for the Baltic
direct.

• MAIL FOR THE CRIMEA.
This eveninz mails for the army in the Crimea, Greece,
Turkey, and fleet and transport service in the Black
Sea, will be despatched via Marseilles. Letters for
Scutari or Smyrna ought to be specially addressed
" Hospital, Scutari," or " Hospital, Smyrna," as the
ease may be. All letters must be pre-paid.

the newly-trained horses. The head-quarters of the 7th
Hussars remain in York.

MILITIA.

---------
The 4th Royal South Middlesex Militia, in spite of its
recent loss, still musters.s9o men.
A number of the Nottingham Militia now assembled
at Newark, having completed the term for which they
could be legally kept, and having signified their inten-
tion of returning home, a bounty of one sovereign a man
has been offered, and many of them have been induced
to stay. The ranks, however, are much thinned. Re-
druits still continue to enrol.

The Northumberland Light Infantry. Regiment of
Militia was reduced on Saturday week by the operation
of instructions issued by Lord Panmure, Minister of
War, to less thtn half that effective strength, about 200
only remaining.
The number of men embodied in the Leicestershire
Militia does not now amount to above 400 men.

The Royal *Wiltshire Yeomanry Cavalry will assemble
at Warminster for eight days' permanent duty early in
May next.

The Royal Radnor Rifles—Only nine men out of 78
have declined to serve their Queen and country.
Of the West Suffolk Militia, now assembled at Bury
St. Edmund's, 400 men were entitled to their discharge.
Of that number between 150 and 200 have been re-
attested. '

The West Norfolk force mustered at Norwich loses
200 men, who have returned to their homes, and the
effective strength is reduced to 460 men, including the
staff. In the Edst Norfolk corps 300 men are thus
fiberated, having completed the 56 days' drill.
The West Essex Militia has been greatly reduced,
more than 200 having claimed to be dismissed, and have
consequently been sent to their homes. 190 volunteered
and were reattested, and these have been allowed a
fortnight's holyday.

The decision of the Government in liberating from
active duty the men who enlisted under the act of‘ 1852
has been taken advantage of by a large number of the
men of the Monmouthshire Militia, and, unfortunately,
much insubordination has been evinced in consequence
of the discharge not having been immediately granted,

DEDUCTILVG INCOME-TAX DUE TO FOREIGN

HOLDERS OR COLONIAL STOCKS.

On the 22d of February attention wan directed to the
unjust practice of deducting income-tax from the divi-
dends due to foreign holders of colonial stocks payable
through an agency in this country. The case then
brought forward was ably stated by Mr. Leverson, the
solicitor of a French gentleman entitled to certain divi

donds on Canadian stock, from which Messrs. Baring,
under their interpretation of the law, considered them-
selves bOund to deduct the tax. Subsequently the an-
nexed correspondence has passed with the Government,
whence it will be seen that, although the letter of the
law is still held to warrant the deduction, the Treasury
have resolved to allow an exemption in all such instances
for the future :

" To THE RIGHT HON. THE COMMISSIONERS OF HER
MAJESTY'S TREASURY.

"London, 12, St. Helen's-place, City, Feb. 2G.
"My Lords,—l have the honour to forward a copy of a
correspondence that has recently taken place between the
Messrs. Baring, the Messrs. Fresh6eld, and myself, by which
your lordships will perceive that M. Posno, a foreigner,
residing abroad, has been subjected to a gross injustice, for
which practically he has no redress, except that which he
may obtain by an application to your lordships, Messrs.
Freshfield having finally refused to return either the divi-
dend warrant, of the SI. 15s. deducted for pretended in-
come tax, on the ground that Messrs. Baring had been as-
sessed to it, and that the Commissioners of Inland Revenue
insisted upon the payment. My client would bring his
action against Messrs. Baring, but that I fear they are pro-
tected by the very comprehensive indemnity clauses of the
Income tax Act, while to commence litigation for 81. 15s.
against the Crown, under such a system of judicial proce-
dure as our own, would be a remedy infinitely worse than
the original wrong. I will not trouble your lordships with
a repetition of the argument contained in my letter to
Messrs. Freshfield, a perusal of which I trust will satisfy
you that the construction put upon the Income tax Act by
the Commissioners of Inland Revenue is not merely wrong,
but a gross violation of international polity.
" I have learned also, and with considerable surprise,
that the construction put upon the act inthis case is by no
means uniformly adhered to. Messrs. Reuter, Messrs.
Fiest, and Messrs. Levin and Adler have informed me that
in general they have succeeded in getting the income tax
returned from the commissioners, or not deducted in the
first instance by Messrs. Baring and other agents for fo-
reign Governments.

I trust that calling your lordships' attention to these
facts will ha sufficient to procure an order for the refund-
ing of the amount improperly and, as I respectfully sub-
mit, illegally retained by the officers of the Government,
and will also procure the establishment of a uniform rule
consoiant to justice.

"I have the honour to, be, my lord;
" Your lordships' most obedient humble servant,
" MONTAGUE LEVERSON."

" Treasury Chambers, April 5.
"Sir,—The Lords Commissioners of her Majesty's Trea-
sury have directed me to acquaint you, with reference to
your application for return of income tax paid upon divi-
dends upon colonial stock held by a foreigner residing
abroad, thht there can be no doubt that the dividends in
question, although due to a person living abroad, if paid in
England, are liable by law to the income tax; and that the
cases of exemption to which you refer have application not
to colonial but to foreign stock, in respect to which, though
by the act such stock is equally liable to income
tax, my
lords were pleased by a minute of this board to direct the
Commissioners of Inland Revenue to allow an exemption.
" I am, however, to state that, upon a consideration of
your application, ray lords are not prepared to recognise
any distinction between foreign and colonial stock, and they
have been pleased therefore to instruct the Commissioners
of Inland Revenue to make the exemption common to both
in future.
" Their lordships have also directed the Commissioners
of Inland Revenue to repay to you the sum deducted on
account of income tax in the case referred to in your ap-
plication.

" I remain, sir, your obedient servant,
" To M " JAMES WILSON.
ontague Leverson, Esq., solicitor,
12, St. Etelen's-place, City."