The Sun.
London, England, 1857-01-14 00:00:00

RUSSIA.

The _Nord publishes the text of a despatch
addressed by Prince Gortschakoff, the Russian
Minister of Foreign Affairs, under date of 30th of
December last, to Baron Budberg, the Russian
Envoy at Vienna, in reply to a communication from
Vienna on the Neuchatel question. It says :
"We fully share, M. le Baron, the opinion of the
Vienna Cabinet as regards the perfect legality of the
rights claimed by his Majesty the King of Prussia—
rights guaranteed by the act of the Congress of Vienna
and solemnly sanctioned by the protocol of London.
" We do not the less desire to see a pacific settlement
of the question. The counsels we have all along given to
the Berlin Cabinet have been with that object in view;
and we have se en with sincere satisfaction that the
Prussian Government, after keeping constantly in the
path of moderation, while preparing at the same time
for more efficacimas measures, still kept open a door to
conciliation.

"Nevertheless, IL le Baron, we derive from the very
circumstances which gave rise to the Neuchatel affair in
September last the conviction that it is our duty to leave
the Government .of his Majesty the King of Prussia
perfectly at liberliy to appreciate what its dignity, its
rights, and its int srosts demand."
The despatch then enters into a discussion of the
London Protocol(, -to show that all the recent mea-
sures adopted by Prussia were justifiable.
As regards the attempted Royalist insurrection
at Neuchatel the despatch says :
"Moreover, some devoted subjects of the King of
Prussia having recently attempted to overthrow the de
facto Government existing at Neuchatel and to restore
the authority of t'aeir legitimate Sovereign, they were
seized, ill-treated, sent into a severe imprisonment, and
submitted to the jurisdiction of the de facto authorities
at Neuchatel.
" His Majesty the King of Prussia could not remain
indifferent to such acts nor abandon the defenders of his
cause. His Majesty demanded the immediate liberation
of the Royalist prisoners. But he deemed that his
dignity required that he should insist that they should
be liberated unconditionally before entering into any
ulterior negotiation ;. and it is only after having ex•
hausted the means of conciliation in his power, and, on
the obstinate refusals of the Helvetic Government to
comply with that demand, that his Majesty has come to
the conclusion that he mast necessarily have recourse to
more efficacious measures than a purely diplomatic in-
tervention.
"The Imperial Cabinet cannot but admit that in act-
ing thus his Majesty the King of Prussia has remained
within the strict limit of his rights. It, therefore, does
not think that the slightest restraint should be put upon
the freedom of action of his Majesty, whatever may be
the measures he may think fit to employ to obtain the
satisfaction he asks for.

"In our point of view if the Powers which signed the
London Protocol, equally anxious to procure a peaceful
solution of this question, feel themselves called upon to
intervene, their action should be brought to bear 121

virtue of the engagements contracted upon the Federal
Council so as to make the Etslvetic Government hearken
to the voice of ju,tice and of reason.

"Such is, M. le Baron, the constant object of the
effort 3 which we have not ceased to prescribe to our
Minister at Berne, and we are persuaded that, on its
side, the Austrian government will not refuse to share
them."