The Sun.
London, England, 1854-02-04 00:00:00

interests of the Porte as if a Similar act of aggression were
committed against those parts of the empire directly admi-
nistered by this Government. It may be added that, in a
military point of view, resistance could not be offered to
Russia in that quarter, under present circumstances, with
any prospect of success. Reasoning from the above dis-
tinction, the Porte, I conceive, may defer the commence-
ment of actual and reciprocal hostilities without discredit
or increase of risk."—(P. 317.)
The interval, however, was of course to be turned to
advantage, and while the Turks were unobtrusively
making defensive preperations, and providing for the
security and good-will of the Christian population by
special edicts, the chances of negotiation were to be
earnestly tried. Accordingly the Russians crossed the
Pruth, the boundary of their proper territory, and in-
vaded the principalities ; the Turks made no resistance,
and the European powers betook themselves to the work
of negotiation." At an early stage of the proceedings it
was discerned that Austria, from her less antagonistic
position, might prove a favourable mediator, inasmuch
as though she admitted the indefensibility of the Alen-
schikoff demands, she had not assumed any offensive
attitude towards the Court of St. Peter.sburg. At first,
however, almost every Court and every Ambassador
had projects of their own founded on the hopes of re.
reconciling the ultimatum delivered,by Prince Menschi.
koff with the offers made by Redschid Pasha. These
schemes will be found discussed between pages 350.370
of the Parliamentary papers ; but it will be unnecessary
to notice them, particularly as they all subsided into a
single and more formal proposition. On the 25th of
July Lord Westmoreland, (our Ambassador at Vienna) in-
formed Lord Clarendon that Count Buol, the Austrian
Minister, had called upon the representatives of the
great powers at Vienna, "to consult together with
the view of arriving at the adoption of some proposal
which could be submitted to the Porte with the sanction
of all Governments," This suggestion produced a recog-
nised "Conference of Vienna," and here the work of
negotiation was conducted while the Russians occupied
the Turkish dependencies without let or hindrance. Lord
Stratford, indeed, in a remarkable despatch of July 4th,
had already spoken of stronger measures as among pro-
bable contingencies ; but Lord Clarendon, in a reply of
July 28th, communicated the anxiety of the British Go-
vernment for peace, "not because we have any doubt
that the policy of Russia has been unjust and ungenerous
and is indefensible—not alone because we think that war
would be an additional danger to Turkey." The same
Minister, however, in writing a few days before to Lord
Westmoreland (p. 354), impressed upon the Austrian
Government that this forbearance had its limits, and
that "it would be impossible for the Porte much longer
to remain at peace while a portion of its territory was in
the occupation of a Russian army."
We conclude this article with the celebrated Note
which has given rise to such protracted negotiation, and
the persistence in which threatens to break the longest
peace Europe has ever enjoyed :

(Translation.)
" Pere, April 23 (May 5), 1853.
"The undersigned, Ambassador of Russia, had the honour
of forwarding to his Excellency the Minister for Foreign
Affairs of the Sublime Porto on March 10 (22) a confiden-
tial communication which accompanied the draught of an
act purporting to afford to the Government of his Majesty
the Emperor solid and inviolable pledges for the future in
favour of the Orthodox Eastern Church.
" The Ambassador considered that he might rely on
meeting with an earnest desire on the part of the Sublime
Porte to re-establish upon that basis relations of frank and.
cordial amity with Russia. He is obliged to confess, with
deep regret, that be has been disappointed in this convic-
tion, which the gracious reception of his Majesty the Sultan
had the very first led him to indulge.
" Animated, nevertheless, by the spirit of conciliation
and of goodwill which forms the basis of his august mas-
ter's policy, the Ambassador does not reject the prelimi-
nary observations which were made to him by his Excel-
lency Rifaat Pasha, both as regards the form of the above-
mentioned act, and as regards the tenor of some of the
articles which wero to form part of it.

" As regards the form the Ambassador abides by his de-
claration that a long and painful experience of the past
requires. in order to avoid all coldness or mistrust between
the two Governments for the future, a solemn engagement
having the force of a treaty.
" In order to settle the contents and the terms of that
act, he required that there should be a previous under-
standing ; and seeing, with great pain, the delays of the
Ottoman Government in the matter, and its evident wish
to evade the discussion, he found himself compelled, in his
verbal note of April 7 (19), to recapitulate his demands,
and to put them forward with the utmost urgency.
"The nete of his Excellency the Minister for Foreign
Affairs, dated the 26th Redjib (April 23—May 5), accom-
panying the certified copies of the two sovereign orders as
to the sanctuaries and the cupola of the Holy Sepulchre,
only reached the Ambassador to-day. He considers that
communication as a compliance with the first two demands
made in his note of April 7 (19), and he will make it his
duty to place those documents before his Government.
" But not having, up to the present time, obtained any
answer upon the third and most important point, which
requires guarantees for the future, and having very re-
cently received orders to redouble his exertions for the im-
mediate settlement of the question which forms the prin-
cipal object of the solicitude of his Majesty the Emperor,
the Ambassador Ends himself constrained now to address
his Excellency the Minister for Foreign Affairs, strictly
confining his demands on this occasion to the orders which
he has received from his superiors.
" The bases of the arrangement which he is instructed
to obtain are substantially the same.
" The orthodox Eastern religion, its clergy and its pos-
sessions, shall enjoy for the future, without any prejudice,
under the protection of his Majesty the Sultan, the privi-
leges and immunities which are assured to them ab antiquo,
and, upon a principle of perfect equity, shall participate
in the advantages accorded to the other Christian sects.
" The new explanatory firman respecting the Holy
Places of Jerusalem shall have the force of a formal en-
gagement made with the Imperial Government.
" At Jerusalem Russian monks and pilgrims shall enjoy
similar privileges to those enjoyed by other foreign nations.
"These points, here briefly stated, shall be the object of
a sened, which shall attest the reciprocal confidence of the
two Governments.

"In this act the objections and difficulties expressed on
different occasions by his Excellency Rifaat Pasha and
some of his colleagues have been taken into consideration,
as his Excellency will see by the draught of a Boned which
the Ambassador has the honour to annex to the present
note.

" The Ambassador flatters himself with the hope that
the just expectations of his august master will not be dis-
appointed, and that, laying aside all hesitation and all
mistrust, by which his dignity and his generous sentiment
would be aggrieved, the Sublime Porte will no longer de-
lay to communicate to the Imperial Ambassador the so-
vereign decision of his Majesty the Sultan in reply to the
present notification.

"In the hope that this will be the case, the Ambassa-
dor begs his Excellency Rifaat Pasha to be good enough to
let him have that answer by Tuesday next (April 28—
May 10). He cannot consider a longer delay in any other
light that as a want of respect towards his Government,
which would impose upon him the most painful duty.
" The Ambassador offers to his Excellency the assurance,
Sze."

" (Translation.)
" His Majesty the Emperor and Padishah of the Otto-
mans and His Majesty the Emperor of All the Russias,
being mutually desirous of maintaining the stability of the
orthodox Greco-Russian religion professed by the majority
of their Christian subjects, and of guaranteeing that reli-
gion against all molestations for the future, have named—
His Majesty the Emperor and Padishah of the Ottomans
and his Majesty the Emperor of All the Russias
who, after having communicated together, have agreed
upon what follows :

"Art. 1. No change shall be made as regards the rights,
privileges, and immunities which have been enjoyed by,
or are possessed ab antiquo by, the orthodox churches, pious
institutions, and clergy in the dominions of the Sublime
Ottoman Porte, which is pleased to secure the same to them
in perpetuity, on the strict basis of the status quo now
existing.
" Art. 2. The rights and advantages conceded by the
Ottoman Government, or which shall hereafter be con-
ceded, to the other Christian rites by treaties, conventions,
or special arrangements, shall be considered as belonging
also to the orthodox church.

" Art. 3. It being acknowledged and proved by histo-
rical tradition, and by numerous documents, that the
orthodox Greek Church of Jerusalem, its Patriarchate,
and the bishops subject to it, have been since the time
of the Caliphs, and under the successive reigns of all the
Ottoman Emperors, particularly protected, honoured, and
confirmed in their ancient rights and immunities, the Sub-
lime Porte, in its solicitude for the conscience and religious
convictions of its subjects of that faith, as well as of all
other Christians who profess it, andwhosetopraleatyinhtaal andbeen
alarmed by several occurrences, premises
to cause to be respected those rights and those immunities,
both within and without the city. of Jerusalem, without
any prejudice to the other Christian communities of na-
tives, rayahs, or foreigners, who are admitted to the
adoration of the Holy Sepulchre and of the other sanc-
tuaries, either in common with the Greeks or in their own
separate oratories.
ado
"Art. 4. His Majesty the Sultan, now gloriously reign-
ing, having judged it necessary and equitable to corroborate
and to explainhtihsesonvnedrdeilgne
offi with the Hatti
rm
thea adomoonrned
i(ltreineanYd of Jan. of
Jan. (05.,) 1852), by his sovereign fixman of
ut
lhcaehnrrdee
repair
to
hi
r. oor
osdefe rtt,hweboegsrifiedraei
firmans
a cupolanbsysahna
ololtfhbteehrelifirm.tteerailmapnlye,
dated ,
sepulchre,
faithfully observed,
so as to maintain for
ever the strict status quo of the s
coafrrthieedhooulyt
anctuaries possessed by
the Greeks exclusively, or in common with other rites.
"It is agreed that an ulterior understanding shall be
come to with respect to the regulation of certain matters
of detail which are not mentioned in the abovenamed
firmans.

" Art. 5. As the subjects of the empire of Russia, secu-
lar as well as ecclesiastic, who are permitted by the treaties
to visit the holy city of Jerusalem and other places of de-
votion are to be treatedand considered on an equality with
the subjects of the most favoured nations, and as these, as
well Catholic as Protestant, have their special prelates
and ecclesiastical establishments, the Sublime Porte pro-
mises, in the event of the Imperial Court of Russia snaking
such a demand, to assign a suitable locality in the city or
environs of Jerusalem for the construction of a church to
be set apart for the celebration of divine service by Rus-
sian ecclesiastics, and of an hospital for indigent or sick
pilgrims, which institutions shall be under the superin-
tendence of the Russian Consultate-General in Syria and
Palestine.
" Art. 6. It is understood that by the present act,
called for by exceptional circumstances, none of the stipu-
lations existing between the two Courts are impaired, and
that all the previous treaties, corroborated by the separate
act of the treaty of Adrianople, retain their full force and
value.
" The sistreceding articles having been settled and con-
cluded, our/ ignature and the seal of our arms have been
set to the present act, which is delivered to the sublime
Porte in exchange for that which is delivered to us by

" Done at
Hegira,

aforesaid
, on the

1853, and of the

"(Signed)
"Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of
His Majesty the Emperor of All the Russian to
the Sublime Ottoman Porte."

THE SHIPMENTS OE SPECIE.—The shipments of specie
by the Peninsular and Oriental steamer Indus amount
i
to 90,508/., of which 6G,5391. s silver for Bombay,
Madras, Penang, Singapore, long Kong, and Canton
and 23,669/., gold, for Alexandria, Ceylon, Singapore:
and lion XoDg.