The Sun.
London, England, 1854-03-29 00:00:00

ROYAL DECLARATION,

(From a Supplement to last night's Gazette.

DECLARATION.

So long as the negotiation bore an amicable
character, her Majesty refrained from any demon-
stration of force. But when, in addition to the
assemblage of large military forces on the frontier
of Turkey, the ambassador of Russia intimated
that serious consequences would ensue from the
refusal of the Sultan to comply with unwarrantable
demands, her Majesty deemed it right, in con-
junction with the Emperor of the French, to give
an unquestionable proof of her determination to
support the sovereign rights of the Sultan.
The Russian Government has maintained that
the determination of the Emperor to occupy the
Principalities was taken in consequence of the
advance of the Fleets of England and France.
But the menace of invasion of the Turkish terri-
tory was conveyed in Count Nesselrode's Note to
Reschid. Paella, of the 19th (31st) May, and re-
stated in his despatch to Baron Brunnow, of the
20th May (June 1), which announced the deter-
mination of the Emperor of Russia to order his
troops to occupy the Principalities, if the Porte
did not within a week comply with the demands of
Russia.
The despatch to her Majesty's Ambassador at
Constantinople, authorising him in certain speci-
fied contingencies to send for the British fleet, was
dated the 31st May, and the order sent direct from
England to her Majesty's Admiral to proceed to
the neighbourhood of the Dardanelles was dated
the 2nd of June.
The determination to occupy the Principalities
was therefore taken before the orders for the advance
of the combined squadrons were given.
The Sultan's Minister was informed that unless
he signed within a week, and without the change
of a word, the note proposed to the Porte by Prince
Menchikoff, on the eve of his departure from Con-
stantinople, the Principalities of Moldavia and
Wallachia would be occupied by Russian troops.
The Sultan could not accede to so insulting a
demand ; but when the actual occupation of the
Principalities took place, the Sultan did not, as he
might have done in the exercise of his undoubted
right, declare war, but addressed a protest to his
allies.

Her Majesty, in conjunction with the Sovereigns
of Austria, France, and Prussia, has made various
attempts to meet any just demands of the Emperor
of Russia without affecting the dignity and inde-
pendence of the Sultan ; and had it been the sole
object of Russia to obtain security for the enjoy-
ment by the Christian subjects of the Porte of their
privileges and immunities, she would have found it
in the offers that have been made by the Sultan;
but as that security was not offered in the shape of
a special and separate stipulation with Russia, it
was rejected. Twice has this offer been made by
the Sultan, and recommended by the Four Powers
once by a note originally prepared at Vienna, and
subsequently modified by the Porte, once by the
proposal of bases of negotiation agreed upon at
Constantinople on the 31st of December, and
approved at Vienna on the 13th of January, as
offering to the two parties the means of arriving at
an understanding in a becoming and honourable

manner.
It is thus manifest that a right for Russia to in-
terfere in the ordinary relations of Turkish subjects
to their Sovereign, and not the happiness of Chris-
tian communities in Turkey, was the object sought
for by the Russian Government ; to such a demand
the Sultan would not submit, and his Highness in
self-defence declared war upon Russia, but her Ma-
jesty, nevertheless, in conjunction with her allies,
has not ceased her endeavours to restore peace be-
tween the contending parties.
The time has, however, now arrived when the
advice and remonstrances of the Four Powers
having proved wholly ineffectual, and the military
preparations of Russia becoming daily more ex-
tended, it is but too obvious that the Emperor of
Russia has entered upon a course of policy which,
if unchecked, must lead to the destruction of the
Ottoman Empire.
In this conjuncture her Majesty feels called upon
by regard for an ally, the integrity and independ-
ence of whose empire have been recognised as essen-
tial to the peace of Europe, by the sympathies of
her people with right against wrong, by a desire to
avert from her dominions most injurious conse-
quences, and to save Europe from the preponder-
ance of a Power which has violated the faith of
treaties, and defies the opinion of the civilised
world, to take up arms in conjunction with the
Emperor of the French for the defence of the
Sultan

Her Majesty is persuaded that in so acting she
will have the cordial support of her people ; and
that the pretext of zeal far the Christian religion
will be used in vain to cover an aggression under-
taken in disregard of its holy precepts, and of its
pure and beneficent spirit.

Her Majesty humbly trusts that her efforts may
be successful, and that, by the blessing of Provi-

It is with deep regret that her Majesty announces
the failure of her anxious and protracted endea-
vours to preserve for her people and for Europe
the blessings of peace.
The unprovoked aggression of the Emperor of
Russia against the Sublime Porte has been per-
sisted in with such disregard of consequences, that
after the rejection by the Emperor of Russia of
terms which the Emperor of Austria, the Emperor
of the French, and the King of Prussia, as
well as her Majesty, considered just and equi-
table, her Majesty is compelled by a sense of what
is due to the honour of her crown, to the
interests of her people, and to the independence of
the states of Europe, to come forward in defence of
an ally whose territory is invaded, and whose dig-
nity and independence are assailed.
Her Majesty, in justification of the course she is
about to pursue, refers to the transactions in which
her Majesty has been engaged.
The Emperor of Russia had some cause of com-
plaint against the Sultan with reference to the
settlement, which his Highness had sanctioned, of
the conflicting claims of the Greek and Latin
Churches to a portion of the Holy Places of Jeru-
salem and its neighbourhood. To the complaint of
the Emperor of Russia on this head justice was
done ; and her Majesty's Ambassador at Constan-
tinople had the satisfaction of promoting an arrange-
ment to which no exception was taken by the
Russian Government.
But while the Russian Government repeatedly
assured the Government of her Majesty that the
mission of Prince Menchikoff to Constantinople was
exclusively directed to the settlement of the ques-
tion of the Holy Places at Jerusalem, Prince
Menchikoff himself pressed upon the Porte other
demands of a far more serious and important cha-
racter, the nature of which he in the first instance
endeavoured, as far as possible, to conceal from her
Majesty's Ambassador. And these demands, thus
studiously concealed, affected not the privileges of
the Greek Church at Jerusalem, but the position of
many millions of Turkish subjects in their relations
to their Sovereign the Sultan.
These demands were rejected by the spontaneous
decision of the Sublime Porte.
Two assurances had been given to her Majesty
—one that the mission of Prince Menchikoff only
regarded the Holy Places ; the other that his mis-
sion would be of a conciliatory character.
In both respects her Majesty's just expectations
were disappointed.
Demands were made which, in the opinion of
the Sultan, extended to the substitution of the
Emperor of Russia's authority for his own over a
large portion of hissubjects, and those demands were
enforced by a threat; and when her Majesty learnt
that, on announcing the termination of his mission,
Prince Menchikoff declared that the refusal of his
demands would impdse upon the Imperial Govern-
ment the necessity of seeking a guarantee by its own
power, her Majesty thought proper that her fleet
should leave Malta, and, in co-operation with that
of his Majesty the Emperor of the French, take up
its station in the neighbourhood of the Darda
nelles.