The Sun.
London, England, 1867-11-08 00:00:00

" St. Petersburg, Oct. 30, 1867.
" You know the policy which the Imperial Cabinet
has followed in the Eastern affair.
" You know that since 1866 it has called the at-
tention of the Porte and of the Great Powers to a
situation which, according to its opinion, was daily
becoming more grave.
" In fact, on the one side, the Christian popula-

tion, seeing that the collective action of the Great
Powers, which constituted their sole guarantee, was
paralysed by the want of concert, gradually lost any
hope of a better condition and their confidence in
the support of Europe.
"On the other hand, their aspirations were
surexcited to the highest point by the doctrines
which triumphed elsewhere and by the facts accom-
plished in neighbouring countries.
" That double current acting on those popula-
tions could but render their situation more painful,
and their resignation more difficult. Partial and
successive explosions in Syria, Lebanon, Servia,
Bosnia, Herzegovina, Montenegro, and finally in
Crete, had confirmed our previsions and asserted
the imminence of a crisis, which became more serious
by spreading itself.
" Our counsels, however, remained sterile.
" Lately, when the rising in Candia revealed the
progress of that situation, the Imperial Cabinet
reiterated its efforts both at Constantinople and
with the Great Powers.
"It invited the cabinets to concert with it and
exhort the Porte not to let grow that insurrection
which could have its conere-coup in the whole of the
Christian East, and become the first spark of a
general conflagration.
"By preventing an explosion by means of wise
concessions to the claims of the Candiotes, by means
of an equitable satisfaction to the demands of the
Servians, and lastly, by means of serious reforms,
ensuring to the Christian subjects of the Sultan
tolerable conditions of existence, it was possible to
appease the Christian populations, and to leave to
time, to the progress of ideas, and to the develop-
ment of interest, the pacific solution of the social
and political difficulties of the Eastern question.
"In spite of our instances, the accord of the
cabinets remained incomplete, their language did
not produce on the Turkish Government the desired
effect. It pursued the rigour of a repression which
only rendered the conflict more ardent, the passions
more fierce, the transactions more difficult ; and its
partial essays at conciliation, tried at the eleventh
hour, lost both opportunity and efficacy. In those
conjectures the Imperial Cabinet has not deviated
from the path in which it had entered from the

beginning. That path was traced to it by the views
guiding the policy of our august master, by Russia's
traditions, and her interests of a limitroph power
and of a great European power, co-responsible for
the tranquillity in the East, and for the general
peace.
" The Imperial Cabinet's opinion was that there
is still a chance of preventing the imminent com-
plications by counsels tendered to the Turkish Go-
vernment. SUch a task exclusively pertained to
Europe, interposing her collective authority between
the parties at war and holden to them the same
language unanimously and with the same firmness.
" If that chance was lost, and the crisis had be-
come unavoidable, the duty and the interests of all
commanded to limit it by avoiding every interven-
tion, thus preventing the general peace from being
jeopardised by it.
" It i 3 what the Imperial Cabinet proposed on
November 28, 1866.
" Some of the Great Powers having given their
adhesion to our views, the first part of the pro-
gramme was fulfilled.
" The result is known. The urgent and reite-
rated demands of the Imperial Cabinet ar.d of the
Governments which adopted them have failed before
the resolution of the Porte. The personal efforts
of persuasion tried by our august master during the
mission of Fuad Pacha at Livadia also failed.
" Consequently the Imperial Cabinet came to the
conclusion that it only remained to the Powers to
fulfil the second part of their task.
" Such was the aim of the declaration it proposed ;
and it is that declaration which has just been handed
to the Porte by the representatives of Russia,
France, Prussia, and Italy at Constantinople, the
original draft having been slightly modified, accord-
ing to suggestions from France.
"In enclosing herewith the text of that docu-
ment, I think it is necessary that I should state the
exact signification we attach to it.
" Our august master is anxious to be no longer