The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-19 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 19, 1863.

The French Note to Russia.

The Moniteur publishes the despatch addressed
by M. Drouyn de Lhuys to the:Duke of Montebello,
the French Ambassador at St. Petersburg. It is as
follows :
M. le Due,--When the Government of the Emperor re-
solved, in accord with the Cabinets of London and Vienna, to
address its communications of 10th of April and 17th of June
to the Court of Russia, it was guided by considerations of
general interest and of humanity, which we put forward
with entire frankness. Its object was to induce that Power
to seek the means of re-establishing tranquillity on durable
foundations, and to prevent a return of perturbation which
has never broken out without troubling the public mind
throughout Europe and endangering peace. The Russian
Government at first appeared to acknowledge the justifiable.
ness of our observations. It had in some measure invited us
to offer our views, and we were bound to believe it disposed
to accept the deliberations we might consider it expedient to
enter into.

This state of things being common to us with the Courts
of Austria and England, we decided in concert upon the
basis to serve as a starting point for the negotiations ; and
the programme upon which we came to an understanding,
in conformity with the most elementary principles of equity
offers a striking testimony of moderation.

It was to us, therefore, a source of as much surprise as
regret to see the St. Petersburg Cabinet modify its first at-
titude, formally decline our overtures, and substitute inad-
missible propositions.

What, in fact, is its language in the communications re-
plying to the simultaneous steps taken by the three Powers?
According to Prince Gortschakoff, the present state of
Poland is only the consequence of incitement from abroad,
without which the agitation would have died out under the
action of the laws, in face of the indifference and repulsion
of the masses, It is solely this revolutionary character which
imparts an European interest to the question. and deter-
mines the object of the exchange of ideas in which Russia
consented to participate.
The Cabinet of St. Petersburg declares that the six points
indicated as the germ of the resolutions proper to pacify
Poland, contain nothing contrary to the intentions of his
Majesty the Emperor Alexander towards the Poles ; but it
insists that before taking them into consideration material
order and respect for authority shall be re-established. A
suspension of hostilities is said to be impracticable. The
only transaction compatible with the dignity of the Court
of Russia, as with the sentiment of the nation and the army,
is the previous submission of the Poles. The Russian Go-
vernment does not dispute the right of the Powers •who
signed the Treaty of Vienna to interpret the terms thereof
according to their own convictions, but everything has been
said relative to those clauses without leading to a practical
result, and the assembling of a conference would greatly
exceed the limits of the right of interpretation. The course
to be adopted is indicated by that pursued in the negotiations
of Vienna. General principles interesting Europe have alone
been inserted in the General Act of Congress. It is not at
present a question of those principles; but the administra-
tive details and the interior arrangements would usefully fur-
nish matter for preliminary negotiations between the three
Courts which concluded the separate treaties of the 3d of
May, 1815. . _

The argument that I have just summarised, as exactly as
possible, M. le Due, is in complete disagreement ;with the
most certain facts, and wanders no lees from the letter than
the spirit of the treaties. The Polish question, accord•
ing to Prince Gortschakofi, is only European by its origin
and its revolutionary tendencies, and the present events are
solely the work of a cosmopolitan demagogy. In our time
societies have been seen to be agitated by too many various
movements for us to confound under one and the same
appellation the desperate efforts of a people defending its
nationality and the disordered aspirations of evil minds
attacking the very bases of social order.
The disturbances in Poland spring from causes having
no factitious or accidental character. They are the result
of a state of things dating back for nearly a century, and
which has contributed more than any other conjuncture to
give rise to and maintain revolution in Europe.
The rising which we now witness was announced by evi-
dent symptoms, and provoked by a measure which in the
state of men's minds at the time could not fail to be at-
tended with the most serious consequences. Poland replied
to it by making appeal, not to revolutionary passions but to
that which is highest in the hearts of men—to their ideas of
justice, of country, and of religion. Is it not a fact of in •
congestible notoriety that the entire Polish nation, each and
every class, am/ding to its means, actively or passively,
according to place and circumstance, has identified itself
soul and body with the insurrection P

What are, before such a manifestation, the agitations of a
few emigrant committee ? The Cabinets have not, therefore,
been mistaken in the true character of the insurrection.
They pointed out its import to the Russian Court. in the
French Chambers, in the English Parliament, in the Aus-
trian Reichsrath, the opinion of the three countries has made
itself heard through its most accredited organs, in order to
encourage the Governments to persevere in the path on
which they had entered. Throughout Europe, wherever
there exists deliberative bodies, the s ime accents have re-
sounded. Besides the Constitutional Powers, free and spoil-
taneous deliberations have everywhere testified to thevivacity
of the public impressions, the unanimity of which is daily
confirmed by the press. Bound by the consciousness of
their responsibility to observe greater reserve and circum_
spection, nearly all the Cabinets, from the Court of Rome
to the Ottoman Porte, from Stockholm to Lisbon, have re-
corded in despatches, with the tenour of which the Russian
Government is acquainted, the expression of opinions
agreeable to those of which the three Courts have more
particularly made themselves the interpreters.
The Governments, far from outstripping public opinion,
have followed, and at the same time moderated it. 'this is
what has been done, as far as it is concerned, by the Em-
peror's Government ; and this duty accomplished, it does
not hesitate to affirm that it would be obstinately clingibg
to a fatal illusion to continue to explain the formidable con-
vulsions which stain Poland with blood by reasons so little
in harmony with the testimony of history and contempo-
raneous facts.

The Cabinet of St. Petersburg is disposed, it informs us,
to take into consideration the six points which have been
recommended to it on the basis for deliberations, but it
puts forward as a condition that the revolt must be previ-
ously suppressed. We believe, on the contrary, M. le Due,
that the surest means of appeasing the public mind would
be the application and immediate development of a com-
prehensive system of concessions really proper to give satis-
faction to the national sentiment. The perpetuation of daily
conflicts in which so much blood has already flowed can
only render resentment more implacable, and close every
way to conciliation.

Profoundly moved by this spectacle, the three Courts
flattered themselves that in the suspension of arms, ar-
rangements acceptable to both parties might be concluded,
and that the provisional suspension of hostilities would only
precede a definitive pacification.
The Cabinet of St. Petersburg sets this suggestion aside
in the name of the Russian nation and army ; but is the
dignity, then, of a great empire interested in the counten-
ance of an unequal struggle, neither did we think that the
idea of an armistice destined to facilitate the work of nego-
tion would be impracticable.
The most irreconcileable adversaries of Russia would not
have dared to refuse or violate this truce. In the contrary
case the responsibility would rest on them. Such a trial
was worth making, and even if it had failed there would
have been, in our ideas, honour and profit for the party
attempting it.
We could not expect the same result from an amnesty
which would be made subordinate to the political conve-
nience of the Russian Government, and of which his Ex-
cellency Prince Gortschakoff makes prospective after the
entire submission of the insurgents.
We are in a position to judge by the last amnesty of the
influence which a simple promise of clemency would have
on the arrangements of the Poles.
In fact, the Cabinet of St. Petersburg substitutes for the
acquiescence which it appeared to have given in its preced-
ing declarations to the assembling of a conference of the
Powers signing the Acts of Vienna, the proposition of pre-
liminary negotiations between Russia, Austria, and Prussia,
on the questions of interior administration raised by the
state of things in Poland.

The Powers would only have besides a tight of interpre-
tation which could not bind Russia, and there would be
nothing useful to expect from a fresh discussion of stipula-
tions so often argued without any understanding being ar-
rived at.

I do not propose, M. le Due, to enter now into a profound
examination of the doctrine professed by the Cabinet of St.
Petersburg relative to the negotiations of which Polish
affairs were the object in 1815, and on the clauses of the
treaty of the oth of June of the same year, whereby the
Congress believed it had settled the destiny of the Polish
nat ion.

I append to this despatch a memorandum, which recapitu-
lates the facts and defines the idea of the Plenipotentiaries.
I refer you to this and limit myself to state the essential
data which appear to me to issue therefrom.,,

The signature of the general Act of Vienna was preceded,
it is true, by the conclusion of special treaties between the
three frontier Powers of Poland ; but these treaties were
prepared by long and laborious negotiation, the truly Euro-
pean character of which it is impossible not to recognise.
Besides, the Congress did not establish so absolute a dis-
tinction as the Cabinet of St• Petersburg supposes between
the general stipulations and the particular arrangements.
If the former are introduced textually in the final Act the
latter aro expressly annexed to it.
Neither is it the task of the Powers to revise the details
of the administrative regulations, and put them in harmony
with the progress of the age.
The general principles themselves are on their trial, and

the object of the Cabinets is to restore peace to Poland,
either by determining the proper application of the stipula-
tions of Vienna or by suggesting the modifications of which
they are susceptible, in order to better meet the necessities
of the future. The Powers who signed the Acts of Con-
gress are, therefore, competent to deliberate, in concert with
Russia, on the questions of public right and general inte-
rest which the Polish insurrection places in some sort on
the order of the day.
The Austrian Court which the Russian Government in-
vited to become a party to this separate negotiation, from
which we, together with her Britannic Majesty's Govern-
ment, Spain, Portugal, and Sweden, were to be excluded
was the first to acknowledge that this proposition could not
be entertained, and rejected it without hesitation, as con-
trary to her dignity.

The Government of the Emperor, M. lo Duc, could
neither subscribe to the combination presented by the St.
Petersburg Cabinet nor to the considerations put forward
for support in Prince Gortschakors despatch.
We are convinced that in pursuing the course upon
which it has entered the Court of Russia departs equally
from the councils of a wise policy and from the stipulations
of the treaties. But, not having succeeded in making it
share the conviction by which we are impressed, we can now
only state the inutility of our efforts. It will not have de-
pended on the Powers that the solution of the Polish ques-
tion, so closely bound up with the peace of Europe, has not
from the present time been discussed with the necessary re-
flection and maturity. Divested of all views of private am-
bition, without passion as without preconceived ideas, they
were actuated by the sole desire to contribute to the pacifi-
cation of present troubles, to.aid Russiaby a profound exa-
mination of the state of Poland, and to remove the cause of
the constantly reviving complications.
We should suppose that the Russian Government, ani-
mated by tendencies in conformity with those of the Powers,
would not refuse to associate itself with their idea. After
having given this hope, it has chosen to repel their over-
tures and to dispute their competency,
In claiming the absolute independence of its resolutions
and the full exercise of its sovereignty, the St. Petersburg
Cabinet leaves to us the entire liberty of our judgment and
of our conduct, and we cannot do less than avail ourselves
of it.
At the same time, there still remains an imperious duty
for the Government of the Emperor to fulfil. It is to call
Prince Gortchakoni most serious attention to the gravity
of the situation, and the responsibility which is thrown
upon Russia.
France, Austria, and Great Britain have pointed out the
urgency of putting an end to a deplorable state of affairs
full of danger to Europe. They have besides indicated
the means which it appeared to them ought to be employed
to arrive at this end, and have offered their concurrence to
attain it more surely. If Russia does not do everything in
her power to realise the moderate and conciliatory inten-
tions of the three Powers, if she does not follow the path
pointed out to her by amicable counsels, she is responsible
for the serious consequences to which the prolongation of
the troubles in Poland may lead.
You will be good enough, M. le Due, to read this de-
spatch to Prince Gortschakoff, and leave with him a copy
of the same. DROUYIS" DE LRUYS.

be no change in the seasons, and even mountains instead of
rising into a colder zone would probably rise into a hotter.
In a word, the Sunites must in all probability pay for
their central position by being quite ignorant of it, and of
thousands of other phenomena to which the alternation cf
night and day, summer and winter, are absolutely essential.
A glorious privacy of light is theirs, if glorious it be. Illu-
minated by a mighty spherical chandelier, rather than a
sun, which they can never turn down, which roofs in their
universe and roofs out the infinitude of worlds, they might,
it they had any suspicion of the truth, say, with the poet—
" Oh I who could tell such darkness lay concealed
Beneath thy beams, oh Sun? Or who could find,
When fly, and leaf, and insect lay revealed,
That to such countless orbs thou mad'at us blind ?"

—nay, to more than countless worlds outside them,—for to
the varieties of torrid and frigid zone, of spring-time and
harvest, of morning and evening—probably even of work
and rest—and to a large proportion of that which makes
countless worlds of thought and reflection within, the same
dreadful uniformity of splendour would equally blind them.
Then, too, shadow would be as rare there as it is frequent
here,—for the light always flowing equally from north,
south, east, and west, it would be only at a door, window,
or a cavern's mouth, where the other quarters were pro-
tected from the light, that shadow would be seen. Imagine
all the intellectual fruits of such varieties struck out of our

literature and history, and what would the human mind be?
The sun may be a dwelling-place for beings whose inner
world has begun to develop itself regularly without the
stimulus of outward variety and change, but scarcely for
any nature less advanced. That which knows "no vari-
ableness nor shadow of turning" must either be God or
nothing,—the highest life or the most absolute nonentity.
If we did live there, wo should soon, perhaps, prefer being
bombarded by fragments of planet rushing sunwards, even
at the risk of annihilation, to the hot changeless uniformity
of such an orb. We almost wonder no one has suggested
the sun as the physical locality of the place of tor-
ture. That it would make evil the root and centre of our
system, would only be an additional recommendation to a
very popular form of modern theology.

Naval and Military Intelligence.

THE NAVY.

VALETTA, Sept. 14.—Her Majesty's iron screw
troopship Orontes, 2, Capt. Hire, arrived last night
from England and Gibraltar, having on board from
the latter place the 2d battalion 7th Regiment, con-
sisting of 25 officers, 832 men, 73 women, 6 ladies, and
97 children, under the command of Major R. Hibbert.
She also had on board Assist.-Adjt.-Gen. Maude.
Capt. Clarke, R.A., Dr. Clarke, R.A., Capt. D arn-
ford, R.E., and 15 naval officers supernumeraries
for the fleet. The regiment will disembark to-day
and relieve the 4th battalion Rifle Brigade, which
is to embark in the Orontes on Tuesday or Wed-
nesday for Gibraltar. Her Majesty's iron paddle-
wheel sloop Trident, 3, Commander C. J. Balfour,
arrived to-day from Gibraltar to be employed in
victualling the fleet. Her Majesty's screw corvette
Cossack, 20, W. R. Rolland, arrived at the Piraeus,
from Malta, on the 26th ult., and was to leave on
the Ist inst. for Beyrout, to relieve the Chanticleer,
17, Commander C. Stirling. Her Majesty's ship
Marlborough, 121 (bearing the flag of Vice-Admiral
R. Smart, K. 11.), Capt. the Hon. F. Egerton ; the
Trafalgar, 70, Capt. T. Mason ; the Meeanee, 60,
Capt. G. Mr odehouse ; and the Icarus, 11, Comman-
der N. Salmon, V.C., which last arrived on the 29th
ult., were anchored in Phalerum Bay. The Cossack
remained in Phalerum Bay till the 29th, when she
went into the Piraeus, and took up her berth along-
side the Orlando, 46, Capt. G. G. Randolph, the
only other English ship there. The French ship
Magicienne, and two other French war vessels, one
Turk, one Greek, and one Italian, were also lying
in the Piraeus. The Austrian frigate Novara and
another Austrian vessel left early in the morning of
the Ist inst., soon after the arrival of the mail. The
English frigate Magicienne, 16, Capt. W. Army-
tage, called in at Phalerum Bay on the 28th ult., to
communicate with the Admiral, and the Surprise,
4, Commander C. M. S.,ytnour, left for Patras the
same day. A court-martial was held on board the
Cossack on the Ist, to try a private of Marines for
striking a sergeant. The prisoner was found guilty,
and sentenced to penal servitude for five years.
Her Majesty's ship Queen, 74, Capt. C. F. Hillyar,
leaves after the arrival of the mail from Marseilles,
due to-night, for Athens, with stores and provisions,
and L 20,000 in specie, for the use of the fleet.
Her Majesty's screw steam corvette Scylla, 21
guns, 400-horse power, recently commissioned by
Capt. S. G. Cresswell, was this day removed from
Sheerness dockyard, where she has completed her
fitments, to moorings in the harbour, for the pur-
pose of being swung for the adjustment of her com-
passes, preparatory to being taken on trial of her
machinery at the measured mile off Maplin Sands.
The Medusa, paddlewheel, tender to her Ma-
jesty's steamship Cumberland, 70, guardship of the
Sheerness steam reserve, Master-Commanding J,
H. Allard, was yesterday taken into the dockyard
at Sheerness to be examined and cleaned, and to
have some small defects in her machinery remedied.

The Wrangler, 4, screw steam. gun-vessel, 80-
horse power, Commander Henry H. Beamish, re-
cently returned from the West Coast of Africa, will
be paid off at Sheerness dockyard on Monday next,
and will be placed in;the third division of the steam
reserve at that place.

The following appointments and promotions were
made yesterday at the Admiralty :—Lieut. Richard
M. Blomfield to the Cumberland ; Arthur Heath-
cote, nominated to a naval cadetship ; John Weir,
engineer, to the Wasp; Alexander Stewart, of the
Asia, promoted to first-class assistant engineer; and
George M'Lean, in the Ringdove, promoted to
acting first class assistant engineer.