The Sun.
London, England, 1854-07-10 00:00:00

THE ANSWER OF THE CZAR.

(Front the es.)
It was not till Thursday, the 6th ofJuly, that the
Russian Minister at Vienna communicated to the

Austrian Cabineta despatch containing the answer
of the Court of St. Petersburg to the demands of
the German States, and some further delay appears
to have intervened in consequence of tiaetemporary
absent® of the Emperor of Austria at that moment

from his capital. On the following day, however,
the Russian answer is said to have been eommuni-

cated to the British and French Ministers at

Vienna, and although the exact plira.seology and
tenour of this important document are still unknown

to us, its general purport and character have to a
certain extent transpired. Accoraing to the infor-
.

mation we have received from our correspondents,
and on which we think that reliance can be placed,

the Emperor Nicholas professes his readiness to
treat upon the basis of the protocol signed on the
9th of April at Vienna by the representatives of
the Four Powers ; he seems ready to admit that the

navigation of the Danube shall be free, and that
the rights and priyileges of the Christian subjects
of the Porte shall be placed under the safeguard of
the Five Powers ; . and it is added, that he will
agree to evacuate the Principalities on certain con-
ditions and securities, which are not fully known
to us, but which do not appear to be of a nature to
obtain the approval of the Western Powers or the

assent of the Cabinet of Vienna.
If this be a correct account of the last Russian
communication, and of the effect it has produced
at Vienna upon the representatives of the other
Great Powers, this answer is obviously evasive
,and intentionally vague. The Emperor of. Russia
appears desirous to claim the merit of making a
largo abatement of his former pretensions with re-
ference to the protectorate of the Christians and
the navigation of the Danube, but he attaches con-
ditions to the more pressing and immediate mea-
sure—the evacuation of the Principalities—to
which neither the Conference of Vienna nor the

Western Powers are at all likely to submit. Nay,

even if there were some prospectcof ag-reement on
these points, it is impossible to reconcile the re-
storation of the former treaties between Russia

and the Porte with that stipulation of the Protocol
of the 9th of April which binds the Allied Govern-
.

ments " to endeavour in common to discover the

guarantees most likely to attach the existence of
the Ottoman empire to the general equilibrium of
Europe." And when we say that those treaties
are abrogated, we mean that it is impossible
for the Western Powers to contemplate any
return to a state of things which would neces-
sarily restore the dominion of Russia over the
Eastern coast of the Black Sea, which she has been
forced to evacuate, place the administration of
Moldavia and Wallachia under her joint protecto-
rate, and, in short, leave her in the most favourable
position to renew this entire scheme of aggression
at the first convenient opportunity. Such propo-
sitions are as superficial as they are insincere, for
it is impossible to suppose that an astute Cabinet
like that of St. Petersburg can delude itself with
the expectation that such an overture would exer-
cise any influence at all upon the military operations
of the Allied Powers, or that any negotiation can
be commenced with a prospect of success which
does not go clearly and resolutely to the root of the
whole matter. The Emperor Nicholas is perfectly
aware that such communications can have no effect

upon' the Powers with which he is at war, and,
indeed, they are addressed not to us or to France,
but to the Germs' States ; but-crolroEcon -by such
means to stop the march of the Austrian armies
already assembled on the frontier, to furnish an
excuse to Prussia, of which she might be base
enough to avail herself, for withdrawing from the
Convention of the 20th of April, and to promote
the disunion of the rest of Gerniany. The proper
and effective reply of Europe to these fine-spun.
artifices is redoubled activity in the field. If
France, England, and Austria are united, and
united in defence of those principles and interests
which command the support of Europe, it is of no
matter what may be contrived at Stutlgard or at
Berlin ; for, although Prussia figures as a member
of the Conference of the great Powers, she can
exercise no control over their deliberations, and
still less oppose the execution of their will. Austria
has already concluded a separate treaty with the
Porte, providing expressly for the occupation of
the Principalities by the Imperial forces for the
purpose of restoring the legal authorities in those
provinces and of maintaining them until the end
of the war. But every act of Russia is a denial of
the existence of any legal authority in the Princi-
palities beyond the will of her own Generals ; for
she has not only plundered the peasantry and ap-
propriated the public treasure, but incorporated
the militia in her armies against their own Sove-
reign, and carried off the archives. Her retreat
has only been a movement from positions which
she found it impossible to maintain to a line of
operations more menacing to Austria, and nearer
has boen actively
and
dan
to her own resources ; and, though her diplomacy
shake the presentof Europe, her
aagdaviannsttageT,urraketyher combination
object in these intrigues is to carry on the war
employed in endeavouring to
ourselves
make
in fact, inconsistent with greater
It is
the first principles
both of politics and of war to enter upon negotia-
tions for peace when neither the pretensions nor
pweaitclel.
the relative strength of either, party in the contest
can be said to be changed. If a congress were
opened to-morrow, all the same questions which
have been so long b pending over Europe, and have
at last broken out into actual hostiliti • • •
es, would re-
main to be adjusted, and theycould
justed by engagements and promiseimilar to those
which Russia has so recently broken. The events
of the campaign have already decided the fate of
that invasion of the Trans-D anubian provinces of
Turkey which Russia threatened in the winter and
attempted in the spring ; but they have decided no
more, and even in this negative achievement the
forces of the Western Powers have borne but an
indirect and unimportant part. In order to answer
and confute the erroneous and injurious supposi-
tion that the Western Powers are in any way pre-
pared to suspend their operations, or to open nego-
tiations on such proposals as these, it is only neces-
sary to refer to Lord Clarendon's last peremptory
declaration in the House of Lord; that it was not
for an insignificant result that France and England
had sent out the enormous armaments now in the
field, nor would an insignificant advantage or a
hollow peace induce them to retire from the
contest.
On all these grounds, we not only deprecate ne-
gotiations at this stage of the war, as the deceptive
and dilatory means by which the enemy hopes to
slacken our activity and to cool our alliances,
but we affirm that it is impossible for any negotia-
tions to be now brought to a successful result.
The answer of the Emperor Nicholas to the Court
of Vienna is, in reality, a practical refusal, just so
far dressed up and disguised in conciliatory lan-
guage as to ensnare those partisans of Russia who
make it their business to be caught by her. In
the present state of these affairs, however, nothing
is to be gained by these subtleties and refinements,
and the first proof to be required from Russia of
the sincerity of her intentions is, that she should
declare them without reserve. The course of the
Western Powers remains, therefore, wholly un-
changed, and we trust that the policy of Austria
will remain equally firm. It is true that, on the
urgent representations of Prussia, the Court of
Vienna was induced to suspend the order given to
its generals to enter Wallachia until the Russian
note had arrived ; but the next' few days, or per-
haps this very day, must prove decisive on this as
well as on some other points. According to prece-
dent, and in pursuance of the express terms of the
Protocol of the 9th of April, Count Buol will pro-
bably again summon the Conference to meet, and
will inform the representatives of the other Powers
of the Russian proposals, on which they have a right
"to deliberate in common. But, in reality, the
decision of Austria herselfat this crisis is the most
momentous part of the question, and we have no
reason to believe that these proposals are of a nature
to be more acceptable to the Austrian Government
than those which preceded them. It is by firmness
and union that we have extorted from Russia even
the appearance of concessions ; the same firmness