The Sun.
London, England, 1854-11-30 00:00:00

AUSTRIAN INTRIGUES iN THE

PRINCIPALITIES.

Since the occupation of Wallachia and Moldavia
by the Austrians the internal movements of these
provinces are almost an entirely withdrawn from
European observation as those of China. Austrian

ealousy sticks at nothing to prevent truthful re-

-ports of what is going on—tbere from reaching the
west of Europe. Letters, we have reason to believe,

are systematically opened by servants of the Aus-
trian post-office, and frequently prevented Irma

reaching their destination. Hence the uncertainty
that prevails respecting the movements of the
Turkish army in the Principalities, and the inten-
tions of Omer Pacha. One day it is reported that
the army is advancing upon the Pruth and Lower
Danube ; the next that it is going into winter
quarters, with the exception of a detachment that
is to be shipped for the Crimea. Letters which we
have received from Bucharest, from a reliable source
and through a special channel, positively affirm
that no warlike operations will commence in these
provinces till March. This delay is of less conse-
quence than it would have been a month or two ago.
Had a diversion then been made in favour of the
Allies on the Bessarabia,n frontier the risks and
labours of the French and English Generals in the
Crimea would have been materially lessened, and
the expulsion of the Russ►ans from the Peninsula
accelerated. In the present attitude of affairs iu
the Crimea, Omer Pacha will probably be doing
better service to the common cause by detach-
ing a portion of his army to co-operate with
Lord Raglan and General Canrobert during the
winter months, and by taking up such a position
on the Pruth and Danube as will keep Gorts-
chakoff on the alert, than by immediately assume
ing the aggressive. The demoralised condition
of the Russian army since the battle of Inker-
man and the rapid exhaustion of its stores, make
it plain that the game of the Allies is to hurry
up reinforcements to Lord Raglan and General
Canrobert, in order that they may be able to strike
a decisive blow at the enemy before spring again
opens the communication between Russia and the
Crimea. But, though these considerations may re-
concile us to the turn which affairs have taken in
Wallachia and Moldavia, it must not be forgotten
that the turn is owing to flagrant treachery on the
part of Austria. Our correspondent assures us that
notwithstanding all the fair and specious protesta-
tions made to the Western Powers by the Cabinet
of Vienna, Omer Pacha has been paralysed by the
systematic thwarting of Feldzeugmeister Hess and

Count Coronini.
And that this statement is true no one who is in
the habit of reading the Vienna jonrnils regularly
can entertain the slightest doubt. While the Aus-
trian post-office has been indefatigable in its at-
tempts to intercept all letters from WOlachia that
are likely to throw light on Austrian proceedings
there, the Austran newspapers—subject, be it re-
membered, to a rigorous censorship—have been
crammed, day after day, with false statements re-
specting the state of affairs in the Principalities.
That the proceedings of the Austrians and the sen-
timents entertained towards them should be repre-
sented en beau was to be expected. But it certainly
was not to be expected that the Austrian Govern-
, ment, which keeps such a tight bridle hand on its
newspapers, should allow them, day after day, to
publish the grossest and most calumnious falsehoods
respecting English interference in Wallachia. A
paragraph which we re-publish to-day from the
Presse, a Vienna newspaper, is a fair specimen of the
blended malignity, mendacity, and folly of these ate
tacks upon England. The paragraph to which we al-
lude contains nothing less than a revelation of a tre-
mendous conspiracy by the English in Wallachia un-
der the auspices of " their little Lord Redcliffe," as
the journalist decorously calls him, to establish
newspapers in the English interest in the four prin-
cipal towns of the principality. The defeat of this
conspiracy by the "energetic opposition" of the
majority of the Hospodar's Council is triumphantly
announced. That there may have been a wish on
the part of the more intelligent Wallachians to have
independent newspapers established in the towns
in question is highly probable; that the venal crea-
ture re-installed as Hospodar under the auspices
of Austria, and the Austrian nominees in his coun-
cil, would energetically resist any attempt to esta-
blish independent newspapers in that country is
certain. But that Lord Stratford de Redcliffe,
or any English diplomatic consular agent, had
any concern in the matter, with a view to create
or strengthen an English party in Wallachia, is
false. The story is only one of the numerous ro-
mances so sedulously disseminated in Austria at
his moment, with the sanction and connivance of
-,he Court, to excite jealousy and hatred of Eng-
land.

The plot is thickening in the Danubian Princi-
palities. The intrigues carrying on there are be-
coming more complicated. The reports of Omer
Paella's intended advance upon Bessarabia have
fluttered the whole Court and Camarilla of Berlin.
The utmost anxiety is expressed by the Junker-
partei lest such a movement should "involve Aus-
tria in entanglements " before the Federal Diet
has come to a decision on the resolution sub-
mitted to it by Austria and Prussia in conjunc-
tion. Messrs. Von Meusebaoh and Konig, the
Prussian Consuls-General for Wallachia and Mol-
davia, have been ordered off, post haste, to
Jassy and Bucharest. Their petty, meddling,
pragmatical interference will render the political
confusion in these little capitals more confused than
ever, and will help to carry into fulfilment the
prophecy uttered by an intelligent Englishmen at
Bucharest when the advance of the Austrians was
intimated to him—that all military operations were
at an end for the season, and that the winter in
Bucharest would be consumed in the most paltry,
complicated, and dishonest intrigues.
In this lamentable state of affairs the duty of the
English and French Governments is clear. It would
for ever disgrace them were they to acquiesce in
machinations, in consequence of which it would turn
out that the Danubian Principalities had only been
wrested from Russia in order that Austria might be
enabled to exorcise absolute sovereignty in them, in
its own name or in that of the Germanic Confedera-
tion. Austria wishes to annex these provinces to
her own dominions. Prussia and the German
States which composed the Bamberg Conference
are anxious that the " protectorate" over the Prin-
cipalities claimed by Russia should be vested in
the Confederation, in order that they may be able
to obtain some popularity by persuading the Ger-
man people that they have gained something for
Germany. In either case the provinces 'would be
permanently severed .from Turkey,
.and a system
of government, in every respect identical with that
which the Austrians have established in Lombardy,
inflicted upon them. France and England are
bound, on the one hand, to uphold the Wallachians
in the possession of those liberties and immuni-
ties guaranteed to them by their peculiar relations
to the Porte ; on the other, to protect the Sultan
against any attempt to wrest those provinces from
him, either by the force or fraud of any foreign
government.—Daily News.