The Sun.
London, England, 1853-05-27 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY, MAY 27, 1853.

Information received up to the 19th instant,
pronounces one or two recent rumours to have
been rather premature in reference to the situation
of affairs in Constantinople. Instead of hastily
quitting that capital on his return to St. Peters-
burgh, it appears that Prince MENSCHIKOFF had
endeavoured to temporise still further with the
DIVAN, seeing that, immediately on the rejection
of his ultimatum, he had employed every device
to open new negotiations. How far this last
desperate effort to retrieve the position of his Im-
perial Master, the Russian AUTOCRAT, is likely to
prove successful, may be readily conjectured, we
conceive, under existing circumstances. Conces-
sions are not exceedingly probable on the part of
the Sublime Porte, now that REDSCHID PACHA has
been once more installed at the head of the Fo-
reign Department of the Turkish Administration.
It is tolerably well known that that eminent
statesman, the most gifted and energetic of all the
political advisers of the SULTAN, was some time
back thrust from power by the intrigues of the Em-
peror NICHOLAS through his Ambassador at the Court
of ABD-UL-MEDJID. And although we believe that
REDsCHID PACHA is altogether too noble and mag-
nanimous in his temperament to avail him-
self of an opportunity of indulging in a petty,
because personal, act of retaliation, we cannot at
the same time remain blind to the undoubted pro-
bability that his sentiments towards the policy of
the CZAR are anything but the complacent senti-

ments dictated by the feelings of friendship. We
do not say that he owes a grudge to the Cabinet
of St. Petersburgh. We say more—that he is
bound by the force of his patriotism, by the wis-
dom of his experience, and by the promptings of
his conscientious convictions, to withstand by
every means in his power the sinister advances
made by the Russian EMPEROR upon the Euro-
pean dominions of ABD-UL-MEDJID. SO long as
REDSCHID PACHA continues in office at Constanti-
nople, so long may the SULTAN rest assured that
the CZAR will find himself opposed at every
turn by all the energies of the Turkish Govern-
ment. Happily the councils of the Divan in this
respect are supported, not merely virtually, but
openly and practicallr, by the representatives of
the majority Of the crowned heads of Christen-
dom. Foremost, indeed, among these, of course,
are the British and French Ambassadors. It is
not any longer that the question- at issue is one
which the Court of St. James's regards with
simple indifference. The difficult and entangled
negotiations carried on for a long while in refer-
ence to the Holy Places have for a considerable
time past been definitively settled to general
satisfaction. The memorable firmans granted by
the SULTAN during the course of last April set
that matter at rest sby a series of amicable and
conciliatory arrangements. What is being battled
for now at Constantinople is not the question as
to who shall be the custodian of the keys
or cupolas of Jerusalem. It is not as
to who shall take precedence in conserving
the shrine of the Blessed VIRGIN. It is not
as to which order of Priesthood should be
allowed to have prior claims to the guardianship
of the Holy Sepulchre. It is simply the question
as to who shall be Sovereign of the European do-
minions of Turkey—the SULTAN or the AUTO-
CRAT ? It is the question as to which of these
two Potentates shall henceforth be regarded as
the Master of Constantinople.
MENSCHIKOFF is striving to gain an advantage
for the Emperor NICHOLA s, in violation of the
rights of nations, in defiance of the force of
treaties, with a flagrant disregard of the common-
est principles of right or wrong : but in this en-
deavour he finds himself suddenly opposed by the
genius and the patriotism of REDSCIIID PACHA,
resolved at all hazards to maintain the integrity
of the Empire of ABD-UL-MEDJID. It so happens
that at this identical crisis the imperial
councils of France and England are
presided over by Sovereigns not less reso-
lute in the preservation of what is called the
Balance of Power in a state of equilibrium than
ambitious of preserving with a strong arm the
blessings of a prolonged and honourable tran-
quillity. The development of a lawless and in-
satiable ambition on the part of the AUTOCRAT will
neverbe tolerated either byVicroitiA or NAPOLEON.
Of this, during a long time, the SULTAN has evi-
dently felt himself satisfactorily assured. His
principal support, in ease of any instant emergency,
would indubitably be in the British and the
. French Plenipotentiaries. However threatened