The Sun.
London, England, 1857-11-23 00:00:00

THE PRINCIPALITIES.

The Correspondence Bullier publishes the text
of the circular note of the Prussian government in
reply to the second Turkish note relating to the
Principalities. M. Manteuffel'spaote is dated Oct.
10, and is in the following terms :
I have the honour to transmit to you herewith a copy
of a despatch which the Turkish Charge d'Affaires has
just communicated to me, relating• to the affair of the
Danubian Principalities. You will see by it that the
Ottoman Porte renews its protest against the idea of a
political union of the two countries, which it considers
to be contrary to its most essential interests ; it is not,
however, opposed to the assimilation of certain adminis-
trative laws for the two provinces. There is nothing in
this new declaration of the Porteto induce his Majesty's
government to deviate from the attitude which it has
maintained throughout all the phases which the affair o f
the Principalities has already gone through ; it will wait
before pronouncing its opinion until the Divans shall
have expressed their wishes, and the Congress of Paris
shall have met. The Turkish circular appears to me to
be written under the influence of a feeling of great dis-
trust of the Divans. I regret this circumstance, for I
most sincerely desire to see the moral tics which bind the
populations of the Danubian provinces to the Sultan's
government strengthened as much as possible, but I
cannot the less regard the Divans as being the organs
of the eountry legally convoked and constituted, and as
having consequently the right to fulfil the task imposed
upon them by the treaty of Paris. Moreover, the
information which has reached us leaves me no ground
to fear that these assemblies are so ignorant of
their interests and duties as not to respect the
suzerain rights of the Porte. In any case it appears
to us that the Ports could not but contribute to assure
a happy result to the deliberations of the Divans if
she would abandon her purely negative attitude, and
take an initiative which, as coming from a suzerain
power, no one could contest, by pronouncing a more
explicit opinion as to the reforms which are desirable
and admissible in her own point of view. It is on
this account that we have observed with satisfaction
that passage in Aali Paella's despatch wherein he
speaks of the possible assimilation of administrative
laws ; and we trust that the Ottoman Minister will
enter into fuller and more distinct explanations upon
this head.—Receive, &o.
(Signed)

MANTBUFFEL.

RUSSIA.
A letter from St. Petersburg of the 12th says
" It has been stated that the representatives of
France, England, and Austria bad presented verbal
observations against the restrictions placed by the
Russian government on the commerce of the Black
Sea, on account of the war in the Caucasus. The
three powers have just presented analogous notes
on the subject. Prince de Gortschakotf will no
doubt give the same reply to them as he did to the
verbal observations—namely, that the restrictions
in question were only temporary, called for by the
circumstances of the moment, and that a change in
those circumstances will probably soon take place,
and enable the treaty of Paris to receive a complete
application. It is hoped that the powers will be
satisfied with that declaration, especially as Russia
has, on several occasions, proved her desire to exe-
cute the treaty of Paris faithfully.