The Sun.
London, England, 1857-12-18 00:00:00

RUSSIA AND TIIK TRUTY OF PARIS,

( From the Daily Yon )
Two documents highly illustrative of the remarks
we male on Tuesday on the non-fulfilment of the
Twelfth Article of the Treaty of Paris appeared in
yesterday's Daily News. We then explained that
the real motive of this bad faith on the part of
Russia is-that she may, by the exclusion of British
commerce, British consuls, and the British flag
from the eastern coast of the Black Sea, the more
easily, and unobservedly, carry on- her present
desperate attempt at once and for •ever to subdue
the independence of Circassia ; that by the Caucasus
she would gain command • over Persia, and so
change, to our detriment as an. Asiatic Power, the
whole face of the Oriental question ; and that we
had consequently an interest of the highest kind in
insisting on the full and literal fulfilment of -the
Twelfth Article of the Treaty of Paris. In one of
the documents published yesterday, the Russian
Government, through its Mission at Constantinople,
has offered its explanations of the regulations
recently issued as to its Black Sea ports. In the
other document, the Chiefs of Circassia' with touch-
ing and affecting simplicity, point out to the Go-
vernments which were parties to the Treaty of Paris
the consequence to them of the faithless and in-
sincere course which Russia is pursuing. It is not
often- that such irresistible evidence so quickly fol-
lows the expression of an opinion. These docu-
ments establish beyond doubt the literal accuracy
of the views we presented three days ago to-the
public.
The circular of the Circassian Chiefs forces pro-
minently on our recollection the deplorable insuffi-
ciency of the Treaty of Paris at- a point where
British. interests were directly involved. It re-
minds Europe-how Turkey never had the coast of
Circassia to cede to Russia, how the Porte possessed
only a religious suzerainty over Circassia, and how
for thirty years the Circassians had successfully, in
the main, sustained their independence. Such was
the position of the question when the war of 1853
broke out. Immediately the Allied fleets entered
the Euxine, Russia buried her fleet in the harbour
of Sevastopol, destroyed the forts she had occupied
on the eastern coast, and retreated to her own
territory.
During the premature Conferences of Vienna
Lerd John Russell at least had his attention fixed
on this side of the Black Sea ; and would, had the
Conferences come to anything, have required nego-
tiations to be based, not on the status quo ante
bellum,, which Lord Clarendon adopted at Paris,
but on the existing status quo, involving the com-
plete abandonment by Russia of all pretensions to
the coast of Circassia. At the Conferences of Paris,
Lord Clarendon wholly and entirely neglected tins
subject. Prostrated as Russia then was, it is a
matter of notoriety that her Plenipotentiaries
would, had the representatives of England insisted
on it, have agreed to such abandonment. It is a
matter of public scandal that Lord Clarendon never
made it a condition of the Peace. The excuse is,
that France had no interest in suoh a condition, and
might not have supported England had she required
it. But this excuse only makes matters worse, for
it now impugns the good faith and loyalty of France
at the ivery time when Lord Palmerston boasted
that in all which related to the Peace the two
Cabinets formed only one Government, and were
but committees of the same organisation, one sitting
in Paris, the other in London. Moreover, we have
since seen, and now feel, that on points in which
England has no immediate interest of any sort or
kind Lord Palmerston makes no scruple in differing
with France, and pursuing a policy which must, if
persevered in, end in complete separation.
Instead of pursuing, in this respect, the simple
and safe course, by requiring Russia to resign and
abandon all pretensions to the coasts of Cir-
cassia, the Treaty of Paris neutralised the Black
Sea, forbade all hostilities in it, denied Rus-ia
the right of re-establishing arsenals or military
positions on its littoral, and declared its trade
free at every harbour and for every nation. These
were high-sounding stipulations ; as yet, however,
they are mere empty words ; for no sooner was
the Week Sea thus pronounced to be neutral,
hostilities in it forbidden, Russia denied the
right o' fortifying its coast, and the trade of the
Euxine thrown open to the world, than Russia im-
mediately re-occupied the forts on the eastern coast,
began to place them in the same military position
they were in before she or the Allies blew them up,
refused
issue to
drecee
regulations
consulswhich
except
helosedtoltvrhaeeh
drensote
only her
own ports, but those also which did not belong to
her, arid now dismisses, with a stroke of -the pen,
the obligations imposed on her 'at Paris. About
these facts there is no doubt or controversy, and
the policy out of which they arise is the desperate
effort which Russia is now making to dominate
over Persia by the conquest of the Caucasus.
On the death of Nicholas a change of Russian
policy, on this side at least, was expected. The new
Czar was described as a mild and beneficent soya-
reign, who saw and regretted the mistakes of his
father ; as a Prince who would devote himself to the
internal improvement of his country and the do-
mestic happiness of his people. The old Russian
party disliked, it was said, this interminable war in
Circassia which the German counsellor of the de-
ceased potentate had originated ; they mourned over
the hoes of sons and of serfs in its endless mortality ;
they received no recompense in its successes for the
treasurewasted on it; they saw that all the odium of
the struggle fell on. Russia, while all the glory and
romance went to Circassia ; it was, they assured
their English frier cls at German watering-places
and Italian winter residences, costly, destructive, un-
popular, and it would, to their certain knowledge,
be speedily abandoned. Their assurances or their
expectations have, however, been falsified; and the
Circassian war is at this moment more vigorously an.d
energetically carried on under the gentle Aletander
than ever it was even by the obstinate Nicholas. Ths
augmented perseverance isprobably to be traced to
two causes, for which our own Cabinet must be held
primarily responsible : first, the obvious defect al-
ready noticed in the Treaty o,f Paris ; and secondly,
the war into which England was recently plunged
in Persia. If England will assail the independence
of Persia from the East, we must expect Russia
to retaliate from the West, and thus, between the
rivalry of England and Russia, Persia is sure to
suffer, and never to the advantage of England.
Let us now see how Russia accounts for her dis-
regard of the Twelfth Article of the Treaty of Paris.
Exact'y as we supposed she would, she takes ad-
vatitap of the provision as to regulations for qua-
rantine, customs, arid police, to prevent consuls
being appointed and to exclude commerce. It does
not appear from the Protocols of the Conferences
of Paris, who proposed this provision. It is, how-
ever, certain that Lord Clarendon agreed to it with-
out a remark, notwithstanding the experience of
the previous 30 years had shown it was by such
regulations that Russia carried out her aggressive
and exclusive policy in the Euxine. Now surely,
if experience of the past be any guide for the regu-
lation and safety of the future, this was precisely
the kind of subterfuge to be guarded against and
prevented. Lord Clarendon did nothing of the
sort ; he accepted, with all the simplicity of a dove,
that which Russia proposed with all the wisdom of
the serpent. The consequence, as, an infant might
have anticipated, is, that the Twelfth Article, which
was meant to control Russia, and to give England
and France securities for the neutrality and pacific
character of the Black Sea, affords Russia an oppor-
tunity of completely dominating the eastern coast,
of excluding all commerce, and of more easily than
ever carrying on a savage and remorseless war
against Circassia.
There is no concealment of object, or attempt
at delusion in the notice issued by the Russian
Embassy at Constantinople. " Free from any
impediments," says the Twelfth Article of the
Treaty of Paris, " commerce in the ports and
waters of the Black Sea shall be subject only to
regulations of health, customs, and police, framed
in a spirit favourable to the development of com-
men '
ial transactions." "In consequence " says
the Russian Notice, "of the internal state
of the provinces of the Caucasus," three
ports only can be opened at present. If,
hereafter, circumstances shall permit the esta-
blishment of customs and quarantine authori-
ties at other points of the coast, where foreign
vessels can be admitted, due notice will be given of
the fact. In the meantime the approach to the
ports, bays, and harbours, with the exception of
the three abovementioned, is interdicted to foreign
vessels."
If this be not a most substantial breach of the
Treaty of Paris, it is' difficult to say what can be a
violation of it. The neutralisation and commercial
freedom of the Euxine were principles embodied in
that Treaty. But here a power is assumed by
Russia to use the Black Sea to carry on military
eoaspetorartniopnosrtsa, ~
gaiinnsetonCsoirqcnasesninao,
of the provinces of the . Caucasus." So that the
fulfilment of the Eleventh and Twe)fth Article of
ofatnhde itnotercnloaslesttahtee
the Treaty of Penis is made to depend, .not on
liberal regulations as to health, customs, and police,
as the Treaty contemplated, but on the conquest of
Circassia by Agstsia. Until that conquest is