The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-22 00:00:00

THE APPEAL OF TILE CIRCASSIANS.

The followm,g is the text of the address which
the Circassian deputation at Constantinople lately
presented to the Grand Vizir, and to the represen-
tatives of England, France, Austria, and the United
States in that city :--
"During thirty years, Russia has been carrying
on a wicked and atrocious war, for which she can
never be pardoned, against a people who have
always been free, independent, and great. She has
obliged that people to defend themselves in their
mountains, and to displace incessantly their homes ;
she has prevented security from being established
amongst them, and has caused the warrior who ex-
poses his life for liberty to tremble for the lives of
his wife and children. A few years ago, a treaty
of pacification, of which we have obtained informa-
tion, was imposed by the force of the magnanimous
warriors of the West on the great Northern power.
We have heard it said that by the will of the vic-
torious the sea which bathes the mountains of our
dear country has been delivered, and that com-
merce, which makes nations -wealthy and friendly
with each other, can be carried on freely. We have
rejoiced at this, because all the chief of our beloved
country have always taught us to offer to strangers
generous hospitality-, and guarantees for commerce
and for what they possess amongst us. But the
fact is, that even after the aggressor, humiliated in
war, was obliged to swear not any longer to violate
our sea, our ports have been closed and sur-
rounded, and that the resources we obtained by
navigation have been lost; and yet the justice
of men has not been awakened. The northern in-
vader had also resumed with greater violence the
combats in which our fathers gained distinction ;
and at the present moment our last remaining war-
riors are supporting an unequal conflict, in which
the sword exterminates, without vanquishing us.
We, who belong to their phalanx, and are the first
amongst our brethren of Circassia, are determined
to support the war, in presence of our children, un-
til the last man be struck down ; and yet we, from
love of peace, raise our last cry to the nation's of
the west, who are just, and who are the children of
liberty. God orders that these chosen nations whom
he has preferred shall learn that Circassia, glorious
in spite of its misery, demands a truce which will
give her repose, but she is ready, if she be disre-
garded, to bury herself in the tomb of her hopes !
For the Circassian there never will be repose in the
hands of Russia! (Here follow 230 signatures, and
the addres continues.) Being 250 in number, all
chiefs experienced in combats, we have weighed
before God the words we carry to strangers, and we
have each of us scaled them with our inviolable
mark, that they may appear the language of the
country."

TILE POLICY OP RUSSIA.

(FForn the _Yew York Iferald.)

The Inralide Russe, received by the Africa, con-
tains a significant article pressing the necessity of
a general congress for the settlement of European
.affairs, but more especially for the winding-up of
those of "the sick man." The existence of Turkey
in its actual form in the boom of Christianity it
contends is impossible, inasmuch as it will prove
periodically an apple of discord among the Euro-
pean Powers.

There is no mistaking the meaning of this inti-
mation. At a moment when all Europe is waiting
with anxious suspense the results of the Zurich
Conference, and when almost every one has arrived
at the conclusion that its ,action in regard to Italy
cannot be final, this tenacious urging of the propo-
sition originally made by Russia, and its avowed
connexion with the future of Turkey, prove that a
change of sovereigns has made no alteration in the
traditional policy of the cabinet of St. Petersburg.
In its concurrence of the schemes of Louis Napo-
leon, in the unqualified sympathy which it expressed
for the cause of Italy, in its equally unqualified de-
nunciations of Austrian misrule, it is now evident
that it had less in view the merits of the questions
to which it lent its countenance than the advance-
ment of its own particular interests, which it hoped
to promote through the political arrangements
which the expulsion of the Austrians from Italy
might be expected to lead to.
In taking a retrospective glance at the events of
the last half-dozen years, one is struck with the fixe:'..-
ness of purpose andsteady determination with which
in despite of all discouragements and repulses, Rus-
sia has been advancing towards the realisation of
the cherished policy of Catherine 11. The conver-
sations of the Emperor Nicholas with Sir Hamilton
Seymour, if they did not disclose the full extent to
which the designs of the Czar were pushed, at least
established the fact that no obstacles could divert
the attention of Russian rulers from the accom-
plishment of that policy. After fortyoyears of
peace, with resources and energies renewed and
multiplied, all that Nicholas felt that he required
was the consent of England to ensure it. When
the English Government, jealously watchful of its
own interests in the future, refused to listen to the
persuasions of the Czar, it did not the less prevent
him from making an energetic movement towards
the execution of his projects. He required but a
pretext to enable him to act independently of Eng.
land, and that was afforded him by the question
raised in reference to the custody of the
Holy Places. The Eastern war is, therefore,
to be regarded rather as one of a long series of
consistent steps towards the fulfilment of an ancient
and well-considered policy, than as a plan origina-
ting with Nicholas and destined to die with him.

When, after the death of the Czar, a termination
was suddenly put to the war by France, greatly to
the annoyance and mortification of England, the
world was puzzled as to the motives by which the
French Emperor was influenced in acting thus in-
dependently of his ally. The interview at Stutt-
gard between Louis Napoleon and Alexander eon-
tribUted to mystify men's minds still more as to the
nature of the understanding which had sprung
up between the two monarchs. From the fact
that since that time they have acted cordially
together on all questions of European policy, and
that in regard to the Italian campaign they entered.
into an agreement amounting almost to an offensive
and defensive alliance, .we must conclude that
Alexander has been guaranteed a quid pro quo for
the countenance which he lent to French projects.
in Italy. What the exact nature of the compensa-
tion is we can of course only infer. It will be re-
collected that when the proposition of a Congress
for the settlement of the Italian question was first
made by Russia, we stated that the Court of St.
Petersburg made that suggestion less in the inte-
rest of the Italians than of own. It was evident
that the revision of the treaties of 1815 must lead
to the reconsideration of those subsequently made,
and this in itself was sufficient to account for the
eagerness which Russia manifested to another Con-
gress convened. The unexpected termination of the
war, without the interference of the neutral
Powers, caused her, if we may judge from the tone
of her organs, the greatest disappointment and
chagrin. The treaty of Villafranca seemed. for the
moment to be a deathblow to her hopes, and the
effect was immediately visible in a sudden coldness
towards France and a disposition to renew with
England the old ties of friendship that had for-
merly existed between them.

The obstacles that have since presented them-
selves to the satisfactory settlement of the Italian
question, in the position taken by the populations
of the Duchies, have imparted fresh vitality to the
Russian project of a congress, and we accordingly
find the St. Petersburg organs urging it with an ear-
nestness and vehemency that prove the deep stake
they have in it. It is plain that, pacifically disposed
as he is Alexander is bent upon carrying out the
traditional policy of his predecessors through the
aid of this body. What his father failed to effect
by argument with Sir Hamilton Seymour, he him-
self hopes to carry by discussion with the combined
representatives of his brother sovereigns. To make
Constantinople the southern commercial capital of
his empire, and to increase the already vast
,area of
his dominions by the European territories of urkez-,
appear to him, no doubt, to be within the possi-
bilities of a skilful diplomacy, fortified by the con-
currence of France. He would do well, however,
to Jr:collect the prudent advice of Pr "Metternich,
who used to say that the acquisition of
~Constant-
inople would add a fresh thorn to the Crown of
Russia by arraying against the throne all the old
Muscovite nobles, who would lookwith displeasure
on the transference of the capital to the south.
Russia, however, would not probably attempt this;
she would strive to in3.ke it a great commercial
emporium, There is but one disposition of Con-
stantinople which, in our opinion, would defeat the
ambitious designs of Russia, and at the same time
reconcile the, n .va carious interests that claim a share in
it, and that is by guaranteeing its independence and
making it a free city, like the Hanse Towns.

At a meeting of the Commercial Bank of Sydney,
at Sydney, on the 12th of July, a dividend for the half-your
was declared at the rate of ltlYer cent. per annum, absorb-
ing £23,511, an addition of £4,000 was made to the reserve
fund (thus raised to X 54,000), and £4,005 was carried for-
ward,