The Sun.
London, England, 1853-07-12 00:00:00

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Russian nation of the 26th of June by a further com-
munication to its agents at foreign courts, intended to
explain the position it has now assumed. The former
dispatch announced that it was the intention of the
Emperor to proceed to coercive measures if the ultima-
tum which he had then addressed to the Porte
was not accepted ; and this document was evidently
calculated to prepare Europe for that contingency.
The present circular declares that the event then
anticipated had taken place ; that the occupation
of the Principalities is decided upon ; that the
maritime Powers had responded to the former
declaration by, what Russia is pleased to term,
"a threatening demonstration ;" and that, under these
circumstances, it is more than ever impossible for the
Russian Government to modify the resolution taken by
the Emperor. So far the language of this dispatch is
sufficiently peremptory, and even warlike ; but in the
course of these transactions we have more than once had
o3casion to remark that Russian diplomacy has two very
distinct faces—the one stern, enthusiastic, and invin-
cible, for the gratification of its own loyal subjects ; the
other flexible, plausible, and pacific, for the consolation
of the world.
The immediate object of M. de Nesselrode's last cir-
cular is, therefore, to disarm the suspicions and the re-
sistance which the late measures of Russia have excited
all over Europe, He disclaims any idea of conquest,
and protests that the occupation of the Principalities
is a merely temporary measure, which will cease the
moment the demands of the Emperor are satisfied, and
that the maritime powers have withdrawn the pressure
they now exercise upon Russia. Meanwhile the pre-
sence of the Russian army in Moldavia and Wallachia is
not to be a burden on the inhabitants of those provinces.
The expenses of the army are to be paid out of the mili-
tary chest, and Prince Gortschakoff has published a pro-
clamation to the same effect at Jassy and Buchareat.
All this, as far as it goes, is satisfactory enough, but it
is but a small and partial view of the real state of affairs ;
and even in these adroit phrases there is one passage
which we cannot pass over without notice. The
Russian Government, having just committed an
act for which it does not allege any justification
beyond the satisfaction of its own demands, attempts in
this paper to represent the advance of the fleets of
France and England to the Dardanelles as an addi-
tional cause of complaint against the Porte and the
great Western Powers. It speaks of " the position
taken up by the two Powers in the ports and waters of
the Ottoman empire, within sight of the capital, as a
species ofmaritime occupation, which gives Russia a reason
to restore the balance between their relative situations
by taking up a military position." A more shallow and
unscrupulous misrepresentation we never met with in a
State paper. In the first place, the fleets only ad-
vanced to their present position after it had been
positively ascertained by the declarations of Russia
her-
self that she contemplated the occupation of the Princi-
palities, and the fleets were sent, not to disturb the
balance of power, but to restore what Russia had al-
ready disturbed. Can any fallacy be more gross than
the attempt to confound the military occupation of two
provinces against the will of their lawful Sovereign, and
as a measure of coercion applied to that Sovereign, with
the presence of a fleet off the coast of that empire, at
the express desire and request of the Sovereign and for
his protection, without the occupation of any point of his
territory and without even a deviation from the strict
rule which, in time of peace, shuts the Dardanelles
against foreign flags of war ? The use of such argu-
ments is really the best proof of the weakness of the
cause they are employed to support. The presence
of an allied fleet in the ports of a friendly power is in no
one respect analogous to the occupation of territory; and
in this case the state of affairs is diametrically opposite,
for the Porte has, in the exercise of its undoubted right,
solicited France and England to approach the Darda-
nelles—though not " within sight of the capital"—for
the express purpose of warding off an attack on its inde-
pendence, but, at the same time, the limitations imposed
by treaties have been respected by France and England,
though violated by Russia.
It is scarcely necessary to revert to the argument for-
merly used by M. de Nesselrode, that Russia already pos-
sesses, by virtue of her ancient and existing treaties, all
she asks for or requires ; for the answer to that assertion
is conclusive—if she has all she asks by former treaties,
of what advantage is it to her to ask or obtain a fresh
convention to the same effect ? The old treaties are as
binding as the new one could be. The old treaties have
not been violated, for, if they had, Russia would not be
driven to these puerile inventions to frame a cause of
war. We are perfectly aware that she has not demanded
a political protectorate of the Greek Christians in Tur-
key ; she contents herself with what M. de Nesselrode
himself terms " a sort of religious patronage." But
nobody knows better than the Russian Cabinet what
the political effects of this religious patronage are. It
is by the distinctions of creed and of ecclesiastical insti-
-1 tutions that the Christian subjects of Turkey form a
social body ; the Patriarchs are their chiefs, and who-
ever is the acknowledged head of their church is head of
the nation. These pretensions, however, are now re-
duced to their very lowest expression ; Count Nessel-
, rode says that all he requires is the confirmation of them.
If that be so, the solution of this difficulty will be easy,
I and will be pacific. No Power will object to sign a re-
cognition and confirmation of rights and privileges granted
under existing treaties, which have never been disputed.
The Porte has already published such a recognition in
the Trade of the 7th of June, and the Porte would cer-
tainly not hesitate to renew in identical terms the en-
gagements of Kainardji and Adrianople. But this line of
argument implies that the Russian Government does not
rely on the validity of its own treaties ; it speaks of the
rights alleged to be conferred by them as if they
needed further confirmation ; and it even tells the
world that this religious patronage, based, as it says, on
the immemorial usages of the Eastern Church, and on
great treaties dictated in the hour of victory, is lost or
impaired if the Porte refuses to corroborate its existence
by the note propounded by Prince Menschikoff on the
18th of May. We can only retort on the authors of this
bungling argument their own dilemma :—if they have
this religious patronage over the East they do not want
this note ; and if they have it not this note will not give
it them.

The concluding passages of Count Nesselrode's note are
an eloquent and impassioned declaration of the ardent de-
sire of the Emperor Nicholas to preserve the Turkish em-
pire. The sincerity and the wisdom of the Russian Govern-
ment would have stood higher if it had omitted these assur-
ances ; for, if they were true, the whole conduct of the
Cabinet of St. Petersburgh would be at variance with
what it represents to be its own interest and its invaria-
ble objects ; and, as its policy has, on almost every oc-
casion, for upwards of a century, tended to precisely
the opposite result, we must conclude that the course it
has adopted is not that of repairing the ills of Turkey,
or of abandoning the remedy of those ills to what Count
Nesselrode calls "the blind accidents of chance." On
the other hand, we are distinctly told in this document
that if Turkey perseveres in refusing what the Russian
Government still urges as its fixed demand, the Emperor
will think himself compelled to extend his measures be-
yond the limited circle to which he means at present to
confine them.

(From the Morning Post.)

The circular which Count Nesselrode has addressed to
the diplomatic agents of Russia, and which will be found
at length in another column, fairly surpasses, in its
haughty contempt of right and justice, even the extra-
ordinary documents which have previously been issued
by the Russian Government.

Russia refuses to recognise the public law of Europe,
and boldly lays down new principles, with a code as
novel as it is contrary to every received notion of inter-
national obligations.

She started by asserting the right of a nation to re-
quire from another, completely independent, nation the
cession of one-half of its sovereignty. In virtue of this
hitherto unheard-of principle, Russia demanded of
Turkey the protectorate and civil jurisdiction over eleven
millions of Christians, subjects of the Porte.
Upon her demands being demurred to, she next affirms
that a nation, whose request, being such as we have de-
scribed, is met with non-acceptance, has the right to
enter the territories of the State refusing her demands,
in order to enforce them by holding certain large and
valuable provinces until they are complied with. In
pursuance of this principle, she invades and occupies
Moldavia and Wallachia.
Her respect for reason being as small as her regard for
right, Russia further roundly maintains that a nation
invading by force of arms the dominions of a neighbour-
ing Sovereign, in order to extort from him concessions
which he deems utterly incompatible with his own inde-
pendence and the integrity of his State, does not make
war upon that Sovereign, and, accordingly, defying
Vatel's, and all received definitions of war, she proclaims
that her military seizure of the Danubian Provinces is
an act of peace and good fellowship.
These new principles, so strangely enunciated, are
surprising enough ; but the grandest discovery of all
was reserved for Count Nesselrode's last circular. He
thus delivers himself :
" The position which the two powers have taken in the
ports and waters of the Ottoman Empire, and in sight of
its capital, cannot be regarded by us, under present cir-
cumstances, otherwise than as a maritime occupation, and
gives us, further, a reason for re-establishing the balance
of our reciprocal relations by taking up a military position."
Passing over the trifling fact that Besika Bay is at a
distance of 150 miles from Constantinople, and that,
therefore, Count Nesselrode's eyes or glasses must be of
the best if he can see the fleets from the capital, we come
to his amazing statement, that the presence of the
fleets of England and France at Besika is a " maritime
occupation" of Constantinople, and affords reason to
Russia for the military occupation of other portions of
the Turk's territories.

Surely ships of all nations are free to come and go as
much as they please in the Archipelago, and though the
presence of two powerful fleets at Besika is certainly a
demonstration, it amounts to no more than did the pre-
sence of a Russian corps d'armee on the Russian bank of
the Pruth, or the assembling of a Russian fleet at
Sebastopol, both which acts cannot be said to be occu-
pation, military or maritime, of a neighbouring State,
without a wonderful stretch of assertion and an actual
violation of truth.

However this may be, Count Nesselrode avows, in
the plainest manner, the fact, the object, and the pro-
bable duration of the presence of Russian arms in

~
L
Turkey. He says that Russia will occupy the Danu-
bian Principalities until* time--
" When Turkey shall/boie given to us tjie satisfaction
which is our due, andbNen' at the same time, the presser.)
which the attitude of the two maritime Powers exercise
upon us shall cease, then our troops shall instantly return
within the Russian frontier."
80 here we have the terms of the Czar dictated to lis.
He will not quit the Turkish dominions, till not only
Turkey shall yield everything he asks, but till Dundas
and Hamelin, striking the flags of England and France,
quit the free waters of the ./Egean, owning no right to
plough them save by permission of the Autocrat.
These, then, are the two latest laws laid down by
Russia—that the presence of two fleets in an open sea
is an occupation of the Turkish dominions, and that
Russia has a right to despoil our ally if our ships dare
to navigate free waters, belonging to none, but in which
it is the high and arbitrary pleasure of Russia that the
flags of the two great maritime Powers shall not appear.
We have seen falsehood in Russia's assertions ; we
have seen fanaticism in her appeals to the Almighty ;
we now find menace to our honour, and insult to our
flag.

England would fain have peace, but she is ready for
war ; and peace or war, whichever betide, her resolu-
tion is, that the faith of treaties shall be respected, that
the honour and safety of Turkey shall be insured, and
that international law shall be observed inviolate.

MERCHANT SHIPPING AMENDMENT
ACT.

(Front the Morning Herald.)
We believe the Merchant Shipping Amendment Act
will to-night come under the consideration of the House
of Commons in committee, and, as we have ever taken
the greatest possible interest in the mercantile marine of
this country, we may be pardoned for dwelling a mo-
ment on the provisions of a bill to many of the prin-
ciples of which we are favourably inclined. On for-
mer occasions we have endeavoured to render a scant
justice to the excellent corporation of Trinity House,
a society which has long had the management of the
most important interests of the seamen and shipping of
England. The efforts of this corporation, whether in
apprenticing such boys of Christ's Hospital as evince
a predilection for the sea—in licensing pilots into
and out of the Thames—in settling the rates of pilotage
—in punishing seamen deserting—and also in, making
various bye-laws and regulations, to whicrit is not
necessary more particularly to advert here—have been
productive of the very best effect, both in our trade and
navigation. As a general principle, therefore, we should
ourselves wish the proceedings of the Trinity House, in
reference to purely nautical matters, to be interfered
with as little as possible. It should, however, also be
considered that the Trinity House receives, under various
acts of Parliament, certain ballastage rates—certain fees
and payments under the Mercantile Marine Act—and
other payments of which an account is kept at the Bank of
England, we doubt not under the most effective super-
vision and control. But with a view to the application
of these monies to the several services in respect to
which they are paid—and to the reduction of the charges
whenever circumstances permit—it is henceforth pro-
posed that all tolls, ballastage rates, fees, and payments,
received by the Trinity House or the Board of Trade,
shall be carried to one aggregate fund, to be called " The
Mercantile Marine Fund ;" and such aggregate fund is
to be applicable to the purposes of the services in re-
spect of which the tolls, rates, and payments are to be
levied. An account of the fund is to be kept
by the Paymaster-General, and the application of
it is to be under the direction of the Board of
Trade for the purposes of the act. In this provision of
the new bill the Commissioners of the Northern Light-
houses—who are really the commissioners in whom the
management of the Scotch lighthouses is vested by
the act of the 26th year of the reign of George 111.
—and the Ballast Board of Dublin are both com-
prised. Living in London, we are of course not in
a position to know a great deal about the manage.
ment of the Scotch or Irish lighthouses ; but if the
corporation of Deptford Strond, or, as it is more
ordinarily called, Trinity House, is rendered
amenable to these regulations, there can be no
reason on earth why they should not apply to
Ireland and to Scotland. There is no country in the
world produces a better race of sailors and sea captains
than Scotland, but even the hardy and thrifty sons of
the Tweed cannot complain of a regulation in an act of
parliament which applies to Kent and to Sussex, to
Hampshire and to Lancashire alike. As to our Irish
brethren they have ever been more famous and world-
renowned as soldiers than as sailors, but without unduly
depreciating our facetious friend Pat, in a matter in
which he has never been supposed to have any special
aptitudes, we must say that he cannot complain that his
ballast board, or corporation, or whatever it may be
called, is placed on a similar footing with Trinity House
and the Northern Light Commissioners.
It seems to be a thoughtful and careful provision of
the new act, at a time when the administrative ma-
chinery of these different boards and corporations is to
be interfered with, that for the purpose of the erection
and repairs of lighthouses, and of other extraordinary
expenses connected with the services, the Commissioners
of her Majesty's Treasury are authorised, from time to
time, to advance, out of the Consolidated Fund, such
sums of money as they may think fit, and to pay the
same to the credit of Mercantile Marine Fund ; provided
the whole sum due in respect of such advances shall
never exceed 200,000/. It is also properly and consid-
erately provided that the Board of Trade may raise
money by mortgaging the Mercantile Fund, of course
with a view to carry out the purposes of the act, though
this intention is not expressed in words.
Another provision is that the Queen in Council may
fix the toll to be taken for new lighthouses. But with-
out in the least questioning the wisdom of her Majesty
or of her Majesty's Privy Councillors, whom Lord Coke
tells us, in his Fourth Institute, are all grave and dis-
creet men—we think it may be well doubted whether
this high court is exactly the very fittest tribunal for
fixing tolls. For this purpose commend us to the Elder,
or even the Younger Brethren of Trinity House, to the
Commissioners of the Northern Lighthouses, or even to
the members of the Dublin Ballast Board, or the reformed
unreformed Dublin corporation. Upon complaint that any
lighthouse is improperly managed, or unnecessary, or in-
efficient, her Majesty may appoint proper qualified per-
sons to inspect, and the persons in charge shall furnish
such information and explanations as may be required.
The Trinity House may, with the sanction of the Board
of Trade, under the new system, direct the Commission-
ers of the Northern Lighthouses, and the port of Dublin
corporation, to erect any new lighthouse, or to remove
or alter any lighthouse, or make such alterations as the
Trinity House shall think fit. It is also provided that
the property belonging to the Merchant Seamen's Fund
shall be paid into the Exchequer, and the expenses of
the fund provided for by an annual vote.
In these days of cosmopolitan assimilation and frater-
nisation, it seems to have struck those who have re-
pealed the Navigation Act, and made an alteration in
the number of the seamen, born English or native, ne-
cessary to man a British vessel, that it might peradven-
ture happen that the British flag and national character
could be unduly assumed. To prevent this, the follow-
ing clause is introduced into the bill :
" And whereas it is expedient to prevent the undue
assumption of the British flag and national character : Be
it enacted, that if any person or persons use the British
flag and assume the British national character on board
any ship, owned in whole or in part by any persons not
being entitled by law to own British ships and navigate
them under British colours and papers, for the purpose of
making such ship appear to be a British ship, it shall be
lawful for any British cruiser, duly authorised by the
Lord High Admiral, or by the commissioners for execut-
ing his office, to seize and detain such ship on the high
seas or in any British port, and to bring her for adjudica-
tion before the High Court of Admiralty or any Vice-
Admiralty Court in her Majesty's dominions."
This is an exceedingly proper provision ; and if it is
made to appear to the court by competent evidence that
the ship has been navigated under the British flag and
British papers, though owned by persons not entitled to
own British ships, the court may pronounce the ship to
be confiscated to her Majesty. Other provisions of the
act there are for facilitating voluntary arrangements for
salvage services rendered by her Majesty's ships abroad,
which are clearly meant for the relief of the mercantile
marine. How these provisions may work in practice it
is very difficult at this stage to say ; but we confess from
a casual and perfunctory perusal of the bill, the provi-
sions appear to us somewhat circuitous and operose.

MELANCHOLY SUICIDE FROM CHARING-CROSS BRIDGE.
—Last night Mr. Higgs, the coroner for the Duchy of
Lancaster, held a brief inquiry at the Spotted Dog, in
the Strand, on the body of Theresa Swifthorne, aged 21,
who committed suicide under the following circum-
stances :—The evidence proved that the friends of the
unfortunate woman were highly respectable, but that
for some time past, in spite of their entreaties, she had
led a most abandoned life, frequenting the company of
private soldiers and drummer-boys. On Thursday night
last she was in the company of a drummer named
Thomas Watkins, of the Coldstream Guards, at the
White Lion public-house near Charing-cross. She there
complained of being without money, when the drummer
gave her a shilling, which she expended in gin. After
that she asked the drummer to see her home across the
water. They proceeded together on to Charing-cross
Bridge, when the deceased took off her shawl and gave
it to her companion, saying that she was only going to
the rails for some purpose. lie, therefore, went on,
and finding that she remained longer than he expected,
he looked round, and found her standing on the but-
tresses of the bridge, and holding on to one of the iron
rods. He ran forward to save her, but she instantly
fell into the water and disappeared. The drummer, in
answer to the Coroner, said that his belief was that she
had mounted the bridge merely to frighten him, bet the
thunderstorm set in, and a flash of lightning caused her
dnicemsd,ropwron
sastreientc, onsseevqeutie.
of 3,
been in a very melancholy state
proved
to let go her hold, and sEhaerlw
tEhlai zt atbheet hd e Fos,eeas
for some time, and on the afternoon of Thursday last she
took off her veil, placed it on her head, and inquired if
she (deceased) was dead whether she would wear it.
This and other evidence being conclusive, the jury re-
turned a verdict that deceased destroyed her own life
whilst in a state of temporary insanity, produced by
intoxicating drinks.
EMIGRATION.—The ships Statesman and Ellenborough
left Southampton on Sunday for Australia with about
700 Government emigrants, the former bound for Mel-
bourne, the latter for Sydney. The emigrants on board, the Statesman consisted of 16 families, and 240 young
and single Irish women.
Mr. John Wood, Chairman of the Board of Inland -
Revenue, and Mr. Pressly had an interview with the
Chancellor of the Exchequer yesterday at his official
residence in Downing-street.
Dispatches were received at the Colonial-office yester-
day from the Governor-General of Canada.

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