The Sun.
London, England, 1856-03-21 00:00:00

2,006 Loss by sinking... $BO,OOO
1,000 `Loss bydamagss.. 20,000

Total loss

$lOO,OOO

THE MOLDAVIAN
.FRONTIER.

The following petition has been addressed to tLe
Porte relative to the Moldavian frontier :
"On the eve of the important Conferences which are
to regulate, in Paris, the general conditions of peace, and
to insure, by a new and definitive fixation of the frontier
in the East, the repose and security of Europe, we ad-
dress ourselves with confidence to the benevolent pro-
tection of the Sultan, our august Sovereign, humbly ex-
pressing to him our wishes, in order that he may promote
their realisation, which is not less important to the com-
mon interests of the great European family than to the
private advantage of the Austrian propositions, aces pled
by Russia, this power is to surrender the portion of the
territory of Bessarabia, beginning at:Chotym and following
the line of mountains as far as Lake Sasyk. We take the
liberty to observe that the mountains therein mentioned
are a succession of low hills, which become still lower as
they approach the south, where they decline into an
immense marshy plain, without any natural boundary,
fortress, or obstacle calculated to serve as the basis of
defensive operations. Such a frontier, which a great
military power could with difficulty defend, would offer
but an illusive protection to a feeble State like Moldavia,
and would not even admit of the establishment of a Cus-
toms line. But, independently of these reasons, of which
it appears impossible to questiou the exactness, a more
grave and important consideration, involving a question
of high morality, appears to us to point out the Dniester,
our former limit, as the only prudent, rational, and poli-
tical solution that can be arrived at. Bessarabia, au in •
tegral purti n of Moldavia, was violently separated from
it by the treaty of Bucharest in 1812, to be incorporated
with the Russian empire. Nevertheless, by the conven-
tion of 1512, enter into by Selina IL, of glorious memory,
with Iltglan, son of Stephen the Great, Prince of Mol-
davia, the Sublime Porte bound itself to defend and
maintain the territorial integrity of Moldavia, the pri-
vileges and immunities of the inhabitants, and the in-
termal independence of the Principality. The treaty of
Kainaroji, concluded between the Sublime Porte ang
Russia is 1774, and the treaty of Jassy, signed in 1791
between the same Powers •conferred on Russia the rigil
of protect ng the Principalities. Now, that right of pro-
tection, such as it results from the very stipulations of
treaties and of several hatti-sherifs, particularly that of
1802, issued at the special request of Russia, has been
expressly recognised, in order the better to secure and
guarantee the territorial integrity of Moldavia, the north.
eastern boundary of which, agreeably to those conven-
ventions, was to be formed by the Dniester.
" How then could Russia, the protectress of the Prin-
cipalities, the voluntary guardian of their privileges and
their territorial integrity, have legitimately despoiled
them of that same territory which she has so solemnly
guaranteed I
" How, after so many precautions against the Porte,
with the object of confirrniug still more the principle of
our integrity, could the protecting Power have recog-
nised the right to violate it by an exe:nptfon in its own
favour and in its special interest?
" How could the state of war between the Porte and
Russia have, in 1812, been the just motive, to the pre-
judice of our Principality, for the violation of rights for-
mally admitted by the first of these Powers awl guaran-
teed by the second I
" Good faith, equity, the security of Europe, which
is interested in giving us a frontier which can be easily
defended, and which by a fixed sad natural limit may re-
move all chances of dispute, the community of origin,
languege, manners—all, in fine, prove our indefeasible
right to recover our ancient limits to the Dniester.
" We supplicate the Sublime Porte to weigh well
those considerations, and to support them energetically
with the Allies, with Russia herself, which, thanks to
the spirit of wisdom and moderation that now seems to
direct the councils of her young and august Sovereign,
may reconsider a measure arbitrarily adopted at a pe-
riod of crisis and of violent wars. She cannot but admit
that it behoves a great nation to repair an act of injus-
tice ; that it becomes the ancient protectress of a weak,
but a Christian and orthodox people like herielf, to re-
store to her entire the province whose security had been
placed under her guardianship."