The Sun.
London, England, 1857-01-12 00:00:00

RUSSIA.

The following letter has been received from Si.
Petersburg, and as it enters into particulars about
the English alliance, I cannot avoid communicat-
ing it. It is described as emanating from a person
who has been long acquainted witb Russia, and
who is no stranger to the Russian Chancellerie.
It may be only a ballon d'essai, and one of the
many efforts put forth by Russian diplomacy to
attain her darling object. Ido not guarantee that
this letter is the analysis of any memorandum, or
the correct summary of conferences with the French
Ambassador ; but it is not improbable that if the
Russian Cabinet have really made or written com-
munications, they would probably express thein-
selves somewhat in the following manner :
"The wind is decidedly in favour of France. Since the
embassy of M. de Morny and his prolonged sojourn among
is, relations so intimate have been established between the
two Courts as to remind us of the best days of the Erfurt
interview. To be convinced of the fact we have only to hear
the adulatory language of the most intimate friends of the
Caar, and the expressions of profound esteem which he
uses towards the Emperor Napoleon ; but there are other
proofs of a more conclusive character, which I shall inform
you of in proper time and place. This good understanding,
however, will appear quite natural to any one who studies
the particular position of the two empires, and who under-
stands the many causes of affinity which subsist between
both nations.
" You are aware that the upper classes in Russia are de-
cidedly French in education, manners, tendencies, and the
language of France, which they prefar to their own.
Hardly have the young nobles issued from infancy when
French preceptors are given to them. The dancing-mas-
ter, the hairdresser, the cook—all are French. This is so
much the case, that a Russian writer has declared that his'
country belonged to the Gauls, from the sole of the foot
to the crown of the head.'
"It is true that the old Muscovite party long held it a
point of hollow to be opposed to France. Bat even that
party begin now to go along with the current, and to sacri-
fice their long-cherished prejudices to the general feeling.
Their sympathies towards France are no longer a matter of
doubt. Their profound hatred at this moment for England
and Austria has, it is true, a good deal to do in this trans-
formation. As for the people and the, army, who remem-
ber with pride the glorious struggle of Sebastopol, they
are equally disposed in favour of the French, and ready
to unite still more closely with them. Bat it is not now,
for the first time, they have learnt to know and esteem
them, and this esteem, formed on the field of battle, has
contributed to produce the new feeling of which I
speak. You must not believe, however, that I mean
by this to allude to a simple treaty of commerce. It is
something more—the preparation for a political alliance—
Russia and France anited by means of Prussia. Who
could have foreseen this some months ago ? But however
extraordinary it may appear, it suffices to reflect a little
to understand that such an event is produced by the force
of circumstances, and that it is reciprocally advantageous
to the contracting parties. Placed at the two extremities
of continental Europe, and separated by powerful States,
France and Russia have nothing to fear from each other
and have everything to hope from the union.
" If in alliances that is the best which imposes the least
burden, which guarantees the greatest security—if the best

ally is he who brings to the common cause the greatest ele-
ments of power and of wealth, and the least occasion for
irritating conduct, and consequently the least subject of
rivalry, misunderstanding, and quarrel, it will be admitted
that the two countries possess the requisite conditions of
reciprocal advantage.
" I am well aware that these arguments will not appear

conclusive in the eyes of those who are systematically pre •
judiced. There is a school of politicians who persist in
believing in the existence on the banks of the Nova of vast

designs, and of projects the most ambitious, and who will

till see the Colossus of the North' ready to fall upon
Europe. Those antiquated ideas are still found to subsist
in many minds. What can we do but leave to time to
prove to the most incredulous that the material interests
of Russia are in a direction entirely opposed to that which
some people assign to them.
" After what we have experienced there can be no doubt
that Russia has frankly and sincerely renounced all notion
of aggrandisement in Europe. She has admitted that she
could not any longer gain a single foot of ground without
raising against her a general crusade. Henceforth it is
towards Asia that the eyes of the Cabinet of St. Peters-
burg will be turned, and to which all her efforts will con-
verge : Asia, which must be tributary to Europe, and whose
subjection to its civilisation we ought to hasten by all the
means at our disposal. But are we to conclude that Russia
has the intention, at least at the present moment, to extent
her possessions in these countries ? That she is doing her
utmost, as some of the English papers pretend, to work
her way to Calcutta ? Certainly not the apprehensions
expressed on this point are simple nonsense. To convince
ourselves of the fact we have only to cast a glance on the
map. Before reaching Calcutta the Russians would have to
traverse vast, unhealthy, and barren steppes, some of them
scorched by the sun ; and for Russians heat is the most for-
midable enemy. They would have to combat warlike tribes,
against which so many powerful efforts have failed. They
would have to sacrifice whole armies. For such an under-
taking they should be richer than they are, and money,
which is indispensable for war, would fail them completely.
When, therefore, a systematic tendency towards the
North Pacific Ocean is attributed to Russia, and a won-
derful perseverance in shortening the distances which
separate her from it, greater honour is paid to her policy
than she deserves. The death of the unfortunate Vitko-
vitach is a proof of the fact. The English were long per-
suaded that, at Cabal as at Lahore, the Russian Envoy
had acted in conformity with his instructions, and yet on
his return, and after an audience with Count Nesselrode,
he blew out his brains ! The Minister reproached him
with having exceeded his orders, and dismissed him from
his functions. If the Minister had merely censured him
for excess of zeal the young officer world not have com-
mittee suicide. England, therefore, need have no serious
apprehensions for her Indian possessions. The only
struggle which she will have to sustain in Asia against
Russia is one of political influence—a rivalry of industry
and commerce.
" The development of the productive force of Russia
impels her to open a passage to the table lands of Central
Asia, and Continental Europe ought to rejoice at seeing her
take that direction. Europe has an essential and a para-
mount interest in preventing England from absorbing and
monopolising for her sole benefit the trade of Asia. Above
all, France has an immense advantage in encouraging that
expansion of Russia towards the extreme east. Her manu-
factures can supply Russia with many things which she is
still in want of, exchange them for her metals, her wood,
and other primary articles the produce of Russian soil,
and the products of India and Persia which she ro

ceivee every year in the greatest quantity; and these pro-

ducts can be advantageously purchased with French mer-
chandise.

" This, however, you will understand, is but the weak
point of the question. Its political meaning has far greater
importance. Let us admit, and this supposition has nothing
rash in it I assure you, that to-morrow the union of the
two nations was an accomplished fact, and let us see what
would bo the result, and what should we then see ? France,
as the ally of Russia, could considerably reduce the
expenses of her army and employ the surplus in giving to
her industry, her commerce, and her navy all the extension
of which they are capable. France, as the ally of Russia,
would become a naval power of the first order—the
centre and pivot of a great maritime confederation. The
freedom of the seas would have nothing more to fear from
the audacity of the British flag, whose relative superiority
would then be effaced and its gigantic proportions lost.
All chance of a struggle by sea would thus disappear, while
by land an armed conflict would not be possible. Whop
in fact, would dare to attack France and Russia united—

RUssia, moreover, having at her disposal the whole force
of Prussia, when the aggressor would be most assuredly
crushed ! It is then, but only then, that the words spoken
at Bordeaux, L' Empire c'est la paix,' would be a truth.

" The alliance of Russia, would secure to France elements

of grandeur and prosperity which England can never give
her. As I have already _:.,served, that alliance is in the
force of circumstances, because it is a necessity in every
point of view of the situation. It is in the friendly ten-
dencies of the two nations, in their political and commercial
interests ; it exists in the secret wishes of the two Emperors,
who have more than one point of resemblance with each
other—more than one bond of sympathy. Both are cold
and reserved in manner, and uninfluenced by prejudices
in the choice of their political relations. Moreover, the
Czar, in whom resides absolute power, is pleased with the
ideas, and especially with the form of the Imperial Go-
vernment of France—that supreme authority which alone
premises consistency of design, and permits independence
in the accomplishment of great ends.
" I will now say a few words as to the bases and the ob-
ject of this expected treaty of alliance. These bases are no
longer the same which were settled by common accord in
the latter times of the restoration, and which consisted in
remodelling—by force, if necessary—the map of Europe.
The object proposed is of a far superior kind. It is the
establishment on the continent of three preponderating in-
fluences, whoSe mission would be to secure peace, the con-
solidation of thrones, and the well-being of the people.
This was the first idea of Pozzo di Berge, who, after the
struggles of the empire, conceived the project of a grand

European protectorate, which should be exercised in concert

with France, whose alliance appeared to him indispensable.
But the protectorate of the present day has proportions
still vaster. Its application would be more equitable,
more moral, inasmuch as it would not tolerate any future
oonquests in old Europe. If, indeed, some modifications
of territory should be found necessary, if claims should be
presented on the part of some Power, they would be taken
into lconsideration in a general Congress, which would
decide in the last instance on all demands and on all in-
demnifications to the parties whose interests had been
affected. Some modification must take place sooner or
later in the Treaties of Vienna, which, in point of fact,
were but the solemn confirmation of the absolute supre-
macy of Great Britain.
" England had two things to do in order to appropriate
to herself alone all the advantages of her great victory of
1815, namely, to keep France, her formidable rival, as
long as possible crushed beneath the weight of her defeat,
and to arrest the development of the coalesced Powers.
She proposed to herself that twofold object, and she has
attained it without difficulty. She turned against France
the terror of the arms and the ambition of France itself
which then existed in every mind and inflamed the ge-
neral resentment. She made to every State its portion
of the general spoil a cause of weakness, au element of
dissolution, a principle of decay; and nothing ever became
a more fatal source of revolution and misery than the Trea-
ties of 1815. The Northern Powers were not then aware
of the snare which was laid for them by England, They
lent themselves, blindly, to that construction of bastard
monarchies constructed of pieces and fragments, and in
which hostile nationalities were constantly coming into
•ontact. From France thus put up to ransom, and bowed
down under many humilations, were taken even the fron-
tiers of 1789. And as if this deed of debasement was not
sufficient, she was inoculated with the virus of a constitu-
tion u l' Anglaise, which produced the two catastrophes we
have witnessed.

" Belgium (Catholic in creed and French in language)
was placed under the yoke of Holland, Protestant and
speaking a foreign idiom.
" Austria, Prussia, and Russia accepted blindly the com -
mon drag-chain of Poland. If to the first of these Powers
Lombardy and Venice were ceded, it was because the im-
placable hatred of the Italian peninsula was attached to
the fatal gift. To Prussia were accorded the Rhenish pro-
vinces, with the Civil Code of France into the bargain;
not to speak of the principality of Neuchatel, which was
destined to become a fertile source of embarrassment and
conflict for the future.
" England restored their crown to the Bourbons of

Naples ; but she had taken the precaution to endow Sicily
with a constitution of her manufacture, and she has seen
this province rise against Naples to exact the execution of
that same constitution. In a word, we witness every-
where the leading thought and the hand of England in the
elements of disorder placed with infernal art under every
throne of the continent.
"All this was more than sufficient to occupy the Sove•

reigns in their own dominions, and it condemned them
for over to the regime of an armed peace ; but this
1 regime is the augumentation every year more onerous
of public expenditure ; it is the progressive discontent of
populations, the permanent menaee of trouble and of re-
volution, the decline a d the decay of all the continental
Powers, the sentence of annihilation passed on their
industry.
"One country only profits by these eternal embarrass-
ments. That country is England,whom her insular position
exempts from the maintenance of costly armies; England
whose manufacturing industry enables her to profit by the
obstacles created by the armed peace against the deve-
lopment of every class of industry which could rival her
own. Do people really know how much this system has
cost continental Europe for the last 40 years ?—ne arly
€0,000,800,0:Mf., of which the greater part has entered t
0 lifers ( f Great Britain ! It is England only that h•s
grown rich by the general disaster; and it is still Englan
which is alone benefited by the Treaties of 1815!
" At last, thank Heaven, this abnormal system, the
causes of weakness, anarchy, and ruin to all, and of pros-
perity to one, have fixed the serious attention of several
great States. They have mutually declared that they have
been dupes and victims of the Machiavellic policy of the
Cabinet of St. James, and they have admitted the necessity
of changing at any cost and radically such a state of things.
They are actively preparing to do so. Notes have been
drawn up on the question, overtures made, communica-
tions exchanged, and, in a word, negotiations are at this
moment carried on in the silence of Cabinets.

" When will they produce a result ? Or, at least, when
will Europe bo made acquainted with that result ? It is
impossible to tell you anything positive or precise on the
subject. It is subordinate to a number of circumstances, to
the ulterior march of events to new complications which
may arise. But whatever may happen, whatever obstacles
may occur to this great act of reparation, to the conclusion
of that alliance which is to regenerate the face of Europe,
—J repeat, for the last time, atsuch an alliance is suited
to too many interests ; it is too much the necessity of the
situation not to be realised. It is inevitable. The future
—a future nearer at hand than people suppose—will prove
that my information has been acquired at excellent
sources

" SL. Petersburg, Dec. 31."

FRANCE.
PARIS, SUNDAY EVENING.

The following telegraphic despatch from Berlin
would be of great importance if it were reliable,
but the news is wholly discredited in Paris.

" BERLIN, JAN. 9.

" The Correspondance Prussienne publishes an
article which contains the following declaration :
" For several days past the official journals of
foreign countries have given the news of a Franco
-
English mediation in the affair of Neuchatel. This
news, although of apparent authenticity, and al-
al-
though given and repeated with details, is wholly
unfounded. The Prussian Government persists
the conditions laid down in its despatch of in
Decem-
ber 28, and is firmly resolved not to change
them."'
The Debuts and Oalignani, considering, prob-
ably, that this despatch is too much conflicting
with the latest news from Berne to bo worth no-
ticing, do not give it, but it is published without
comment by all the French
0.11/b
so:qviut
etc:
o oft
toe- dAaly• c hi bpi aiasgphele'rlps:
of Tthhee
super-
seded, for the English reader, by thooefffilPec leial
tter
occfo our
tParis Correspondent.
Therte smart
ehisalsna decree fixing at the sum of 2,000
francs
money payable by such young men
as may be comprised in the contingent of 1856, for
their exemption from military service. Another
decree fixes the exoneration of those who have
already been enrolled, at the sum of 350 francs per
annum for the term of service remaining uncom-
pleted.
Apropos of Neuchatel. the Independance Beige
of Sunday says that there will be a new " Con-
ference of London," to " render formal this infrac-
tion of the principles laid down by the Congress of
Vienna." Such is the phrase employed to qualify
the abandonment of the suzerainty, or " sove-
reignty" of Neuchatel. All the Powers represented
at London. in 1852, and, of course, Switzerland,
will be admitted.
The Debuts says that, in an interview of the
King of Bavaria with the foreign ambassadors at
his Court, and also with the State Council, and
several members of the Legislature, that Monarch