The Sun.
London, England, 1856-04-18 00:00:00

TEE DA .NTIBIAN PRINCIPALITIES.

Amongst the various p.ints to be passed in re-
view before the delusive nature of the peace can he
properly understood none exceeds in importance
the Danubian Principalities ; for none hears more

directly at once upon the East and upon the Wes
Upon the West as the centre where the dominions
of Austria, Russia, and Turkey converge, and
tb rough which flows the greatest ofEuropean water-
clurses—great not merely from the importance of
the territories the Danube fertilises in its course,
but because, now that we depend on foreign coun-
tries for our supplies of grain, and have ceased to
raise food sufficient to feed our own populatior,
whoever holds the Danube holds also the harvests
on its banks, the key of the granaries of Europe,
and eventually the fate of the world. •
Under these considerations there was but one
course to be pursued in any conferences for peace
with Russia, which could be a guarantee that
neither food should be withheld nor pretext should
arise for another interruption of tranquillity on the
part of that power. This was, not an interference
with the territorial division or form of government
of Wallachia and Mob lava, still less any abrogation
of the suzerainty of the Porte ; but a simple resti.
tution of the delta of the Danube to the Sultan, a
real ratification of the frontier line, and the placing
of every opp..gtunity within the reach of Turkey of
competing successfully with Ru-sian trade.
With regard to the first, whatever may h© Lord
Clarendon's temporary arrangements, we know by
Vienna Conferences what has been arranged be-
tween England and Russia for the ultimate destiny
of Moldavia and Wallachia—the union, namely, of
the two provinces, the creation of an independent
state, the selection of a prince from one of the
reigning European families • in other words, a
Danubian Greece and a Danish Otho to be as a new
Russian dagger at the Sultan's throat.
As to the islands at the mouth of the Danube,
the treaty of Loudon of 1826 stipulated that Russia
should not thenceforward acquire any Turkish ter.
ritory, yet she obtained those islands by the treaty
of Xdrianople in 1829, in direct violation of the
former compact. Those islands are of paramount
. importance to the free navigation of the Danube ;

and as their restitution to the Porte would be an
act of justice to Turkey, justice to ourselves, and
also an invaluaible guarantee for future peace, it is
hardly necessary for us to announce that no stipu-
latiuni to that effec• have been as much as hinted
at by Lord Clare❑don.

As to the frontier line, Turkey would acquire a
real frontier were Bessarabia restored to her, or
even were the frontier fortresses of Ismail and
Ibrail once more placed in the possession of their
former lords.
As it is, tht3 sham boundary line, the sham range
of mountains, the debateable ground, the new
Caucasus " between Chotym and Lake S.-tpyk," is
an arrangement admirably calculated for the for-
mation of a border population of Russian tools and
co-religionists, ready at any moment to be slipped
into the Turkish territories, whenever it shall suit
Rus,ian purpose to get up an emeute, an insurrec-
tion, or any other pretext of quarrel and invasion
of her neighbour.
As to the development of Turkish trade in those
articles of raw produce wherein she might success-
fully compete with and undersell the Russians, the
matter is exceedingly simple ; but we do not deal
with it now, as it is our purpose to return to it on
another occasion, at some length. It would, how-
ever be preposterous to expect any arrangement of
this nature from Ministers, who, while this uncon-
scious nation believed itself to be expending trea-
sure' and life in a real war with Russia, were actu-
ally paying Russia s expenses by English gold
supplied through the neutral trade, and who, as
we ourselves have shown, even had the matchless
audacity to advertise to purchase Russian tallow
for the use of the British Admiralty—to trade with
our enemy while engaged in war !—Morning He-
raid.

7.—Boyers
STATE OF TRADE, MANCHESTER, April 1
continue to hold back at the extreme prices asked on
Tuesday, and rather less business has been done, but
with the pi esent ktate of the cotton market and the good
supply of orders in the hands of both epinners and ma.
nufacturets there is little or no disposition to make any
abatement. The prices of yarns are id. to per lb.
higher than last week, and manuf.cturers are asking
from 11d. to 3d. per piece higher for shirtings. There
is a more general demand both for cloth and shirtings
than of late, and the market maintains a healty tone.