The Sun.
London, England, 1855-12-29 00:00:00

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AUSTRIA.
VIENNA, Dec. 25.—When Count Buol visited,
says the Times correspondent, Prince Gortschakoff
on the clay preceding that on which Count Es-
terhazy left Vienna for St. Petersburg, he did
not communicate to the Russian Minister the
conditions on which the allies were prepared to
conclude peace, but, gave him to understand that
he should be at liberty to do so as soon as he
received telegraphic information of the arrival of
Count Esterhazy in the Russian capital.
The prince, who is one of the most resolute
champions of the old Muscovite party, and carries
the flag of Russia remarkably high, is not likely
to approve of the propositions which have just
been sent to Russia, and it is, therefore, the
wish of Austria that the Emperor Alexander
should have an opportunity of examining into
their merits before they are communicated to his
representative at this Court, who still proclaims
the resolve of Russia to stake her last man and her
last rouble rather than agree to terms "incompa-
tible with her honour and dignity."
If Russia should reject the conditions of peace,
which she probably wili do, Count Valentine Ester-
hazy will quit his post ; but it is by no means clear
that the diplomatic relations between theßussian and
Austrian Governments will be entirely interrupted.
Austria will not, under any circumstances, give her
material assistance to the Western Powers next
spring ; but if the war should be prolonged another
year, she may possibly be induced to send an ulti-
matum to Russia during the winter of 1856 and
1857.

No great importance is attached to the mission
of Baron Seebach to St. Petersburg.

RUSSIA.
PLAN OF NEXT YEAR'S CAMPAIGN.
A letter has been received from Moscow, dated
Dec. 20th, whi:h says :—lt was amusing enough
for an impartial observer to witness the excite-
ment that prevailed in this ancient capital of
Muscovy on the receipt of the Invalide with
General Mouravieff's despatches about the surren-
der of Kars : for the inhabitants of this city, in
their ignorance, firmly believe their favourite Mou-
ravieff—who belongs to the old Muscovite party—to
have achieved a most brilliant victory and covered
himself with glory, and cannot see the difference be-
tween taking a fortress by storm and waiting pas-
sively at a distance till the garrison are obliged to
surrender for want of food. The Muscovite or war
party are loud in expressing their enthusiasm and
extolling the present Emperor's foresight and saga-
city at superseding Count Woronzoff and giving the
supremo command of the army in the Caucasus to
General Mouravieff, from whom they expect great
things. Their great object is now no other than to
get him the command of the army in the Crimea, vice
Prince Gortschakoff, and to effect this various in-
trigues are being spun and different important in-
fluences called into play, which have their ramifica-
tions at St. Petersburg amongst the very highest per-
sonages in the empire. In spite of the flaming
Imperial "orders of the day," so industriously
spread by the _Northern Bee, and praising the state
of the army in the Crimea, it is no secret here that
the Czar was most deeply affected at what he saw
with his own eyes, and on his return here expressed
his astonishment that after the immense losses they
had sustained, and the almost incredible privations
to which the survivors were exposed, there should
be any army left at all.
The grand council of generals lately convoked at
St. Petersburg under the personal presidency of
the Emperor have settled the principles on which
the forthcoming campaign shall be carried on. St.
Petersburg and Moscow am in hw
togetner with Warsaw, will form the three first-
class fortresses :of the empire. General Todtleben
has arrived here, and, notwithstanding the extreme
rigour of the weather—the frost having set in here
with all the proverbial violence of a Russian winter
—may be seen every day, accompanied by his staff
of engineers, all wrapped up in bears' skins, sur-
veying the ground and fixing the poles to designate
the line of circumvallation, which will be com-
menced on the breaking up of the frost.
Besides this, other fixed principles of strategy
have been agreed on for the prosecution of the war,
though it must be confessed that as it is so essen-
tially a defensive war on the part of the Russians,
all these plans may be completely upset, or at all
events greatly modified, by any change in the sys-
tem of attack on the part of the Western Powers.
It is fully expected in Russia that next year the prin-
cipal seat of the war will be transferred to the north,
and the greatest exertions are making for an effi-
cient defence. For the safety of Cronstadt and Hel-
singfors no fears are entertained, as the experience
of the last two years has shown that the enemy are
not able to inflict much damage ; nor is it feared
that even if the fleets are increased by a couple of
hundred steam gun-boats they could take either of
these strongholds unless with the co-operation of a
numerous and well-appointed army on shore. The
system of tactics resolved on by the great council
of war may be summed up as follows :—The forti-
fication of St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kiew, War-
saw, and Nicolaieff; secondly, the concentration
of few but imposing armies ; and, thirdly, the
abandonment of all the minor places, so that Lie-
ban, Riga, and even Odessa, will be deprived of
regular garrisons, and left to their fate and the
tender mercy of the enemy.
The cold is so severe that several sentinels have
been found frozen to death in their sentry-boxes,
although they are relieved every half-hour.

THE BALTIC.
KIEL, Dec. 25.—We have already had a return
of mild weather, and frost and snow have quite
disappeared. The upper portion of this bay,which
was a few days ago so completely frozen over that the
ordinary winter sledge ferry had superseded the one
generally occupied by boats between the opposite
sides, is now so far open again that the mail steamer
which arrived from Copenhagen this morning had
no difficulty in reaching her usual berth in the
harbour, and the regular communication between
the continent and the Danish islands has con-
sequently been re-established. It can scarcely
yet be expected that navigation should not again
be interrupted, but as it is always considered a
sure sign of the open parts of the upper Baltic
being open when the bays here are free from ice,
there is good ground to believe that the intercourse
of the Prussian as well as the. Swedish ports with
those of Russia, will at this time be carried on
without any impediment, and indeed we already
know that in some quarters this is actually the
case, several vessels having arrived both at Bol-
deraa and Port Baltic with cargoes for Riga and
Revel, which had for some time been watching
their opportunity when the English and French
cruisers should have left the coast. A double
temptation is at present offered for such enterprises,
for not only do those engaged in them derive
large profits from their importations of salt and
other comforts and necessaries, but they have an
almost equal advantage from the very favourable
conditions on which they are granted the privilege
of exporting rye and linseed, of which the stocks
in Russian ports are very large, and of which, as
the general exportation is prohibited, the proprie-
tors are glad to find any opportunity of disposing,

A letter from Cassel, in the Moititeur, says :—"M.
de Baumbach has just been named Envoy Extraordinary
and Minister Renipotentiary to the Emperor Napoleon.
The idea of the Elector in raising his legation at Paris
to the rank of a mission of the first class is considered as
an evident mark of his wish to be agreeable to the Em
peror Napoleon,"
TURKISH REFORMS.—Lieut.-General Stephen Lake-
man, with respect to the legal reforms in Turkey, says
that the present laws are very much on a level with the
morality of the Turkish population ; and if at present
you were to enact other laws, founded even on the
strictest principles of justice, they would be but little
appreciated either by the servile Chri,tian or haughty
Turk. A most favourable opportunity now presents
itself to supply in a great measure a remedy for this de-
plorable state of the Turkish population, and which
might, under proper management, be immediately °p-
plied—namely, to enlist the Christians of Turkey in our
Contingent. Nothing would be so likely to raise those
people to a proper sense of their own dignity as the
manly pride engendered by being called to arms by
Christian nation such as England. No Rayali who had
once fought in our ranks and experienced ourh sef impartiall
to
treatment and justice would ever after allow himself
be trampled on and brutalised by a Turk or any other
human power.

sia thinks too rigorous, but merely to impress
on the Russian Government the necessity of listen-
ing to reason and adopting a conciliating policy.
It is supposed in certain high quarters that Aus-
tria, in her desire to obtain peace, will submit new
propositions from St. Petersburg. Should such be
the case, I believe it will be found that the French
Government will refer to the original terms as the
only admissible bases for negotiation. France cer-
tainly desires peace, but only on such terms as past
sacrifices demand and future security imposes.
BOURSE, Dec. 28.—The following are the last
quotations :