The Sun.
London, England, 1854-03-09 00:00:00

POLICY OF RUSSIA.

The Times correspondent writes under date of
yesterday :—However ill or well founded their
fears, it is certain that the Government are not
quite at their ease, on account of the hesitation of
Prussia with respect to the Eastern question, and
particularly the ultimatum addressed by England
and France to Russia. Austria, it is said, will
sign the ultimatum, the notice to Russia to quit
the Danubian Principalities, on condition that
Prussia signs it with her, but Prussia, whether
influenced by feelings of attachment to Russia,
arising from family connexion, or out of the
old jealousy to her great rival, hesitates, and
doubts, and pauses, " willing to wound, but yet
afraid to strike." The events that will take place
soon after the opening of the campaign on the
Danube, or wherever the allied forces will first face
the aggressors, may put an end to that hesitation
one way or the other ; but for the present it pro-
duces a most unpleasant effect, which is visible in
the changed tone, and even discouragement, of of-
ficial people, and the corresponding joy of those
who have predicted the disappointment of the allies
of Turkey. lam led to believe that in a day or
two something positive will be known, and the
next authentic information from Berlin is looked
forward to with much impatience.

You must not believe, however, that the French
Government are on that account the less resolved
to maintain the bold attitude they have assumed.
That manly feeling pervades the whole Legislative
Corps, and the language addressed by the Emperor
Louis Napoleon to_th:Deputies has been responded
to as it ought.
On the same subject, the Paris correspondent of
the Morning Chronicle says :—A telegraphic des-
patch has been received here this morning, which
announces, on the faith of the Correspondance
Prussienne, an event which has for some time past
been expected, that the King of Prussia has declared
his intention to remain neutral in the struggle
about to commence between Russia and the
Allied Powers. The accounts received from Ger-
many add that it is supposed that Austria
will assume a similar attidude, and they found
their belief in the fact, of which there appears to
be no doubt, that Austria has refused to join
in the treaty of alliance entered into between
France, England and Turkey, declaring at the
same time that she wishes to remain quite at liberty
to adopt any plan she may consider advisable in
the course of events. I understand, however, on
the very best authority, that both the French and
English Governments are perfectly satisfied with
the attitude assumed by Austria, and that they feel
certain that in declining to join the treaty, her
refusal does not proceed from good will towards
the Czar, or from disapprobation of the policy
pursued by the Western Powers. In fact, the
position of Austria is a very delicate one, and the
course which she seems to reserve to herself appears
to be that of an armed mediator, determined to
step in, and to put an end to hostilities as soon as
the opportunity offers.

The latest accounts from Constantinople state
that the Ottoman Government has at last given the
necessary authority for the formation of foreign
legions. At the present moment General Wysocki
is organising a Polish legion at Constantinople of
2,000 men.
A letter from Hamburgh, of the 4th says :

" The fear of war has seized in a very marked manner
on Russian shipowners. The journals are filled with
advertisements for the sale of Russian vessels. The
English Government has concluded with certain Hun-
garian and Polish contractors a contract for the delivery
of 2,000 pigs for the supply of the British fleet. The
Secretary of Legation of the Russian embassy at Copen-
hagen passed through here yesterday on his way to
Asia, where he is to act as aide-de-camp to Prince
Woronzoff. Lately a number of horses purchased for
the French Government, have passed through this
place."
The Wallachian Monitor publishes a decree of
the Russian General-in-Chief, to the effect of giving
a forced currency, in Wallachia and Moldavia, to
Russian paper money. Merchants and other per-
sons, who should refuse to receive that paper, are
to be considered as in a state of rebellion, and
punished in the most severe and rigorous manner.
Letters from the frontiers of Poland of the 22d
ult., state that General Count de Pahlen had re-
viewed all the cavalry regiments about to leave for
the Danubian army. They are to proceed thither
by easy journeys, and were not expected to reach
the Pruth before the beginning of May.
There bad been of late a great movement of
troops in the neighbourhood of Warsaw.

Letters from Vienna of the sth contain intelli-
gence from the Danube of the 28th ultimo. No
great engagement had occurred, but minor encount-
ers were becoming both more frequent and more
serious. From Galatz we learn that the Turks
had succeeded in erecting a battery above Matschin,
although the Russians had done their best to
hinder them. The right bank in that neighbour-
hood is now in a good state of defence, and the
Turks are able to keep up a continuous and
damaging cannonade on the Russian battery at
Ibraila. The Russians had been making repeated
excursions in the neighbourhood of Tultsoka, with
the object of destroying the batteries which the
Turks had raised at the mouths of the small rivers
on the right bank of the Danube. These expedi-
tions had uniformly failed. Both Russians and
Turks had accumulated large quantities of mate-
rials for bridges.