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    have "been arrested at Mehra , and three , viz . one doctor and two lawyers , at Lille . All these persons were broug ht to Paris by the railway , and lodged in the prison of Mazas . The Government indeed sees nothing but conspirators , secret societies , daggers , bombs , pistols , arid infernal machines in every quarter . Three ¦ working men , who were walking quietly in the Bois de Boulogne , in a retired alley , were" arrested ; the terrified imagination of the Bonapartists transmogrified them into three conspirators armed to the teeth . These gentlemen tremble so painfully for the safety of their herd , that it has been decided that Bonaparte shall not go to the South , where the secret societies are more powerful , more formidable , more menacing than ever . As I am on this topic , let me

    mention that it is pretty well ascertained that the prince de Joinville lately disclosed to the Government the existence of a plot to assassinate the Emperor . Only , this revelation was not made in the form of a romantic letter to the Empress , as our sportive imaginations described . The Prince simply , and quite prosaically , wrote to Lord Palmerston , who communicated the letter to the French government . This would only corroborate what I have always assured you , that the republicans had nothing to do with the matter . The Orleans family are now reconciled to the Cointe de Chambord ; it can only have been in their interest that the plot was laid . This reconciliation is as yet only known to a very select number of persons , but the fact is not the less asserted .

    The Due de Nemours is about to start for Germany , and there he will pay a visit to his cousin the Comte de Chambord , at Frohsdorf : on the other hand the latter has positively announced his intention to come to England to visit the ex-queen Amelie , at Claremont . This fusion , so often announced and so often contradicted , will change the face of things in France . The men who for fear of the republic had rallied to Bonaparte , will now turn round and rally to the cause of the " legitimate monarchy . " The officers of the army are already being plied in this direction , as you will perceive next month , on the trial called the Proces de

    Vincennea ; bnt now they will be far more vigorously worked upon than ever . Perhaps we may live to see a military conspiracy pull down the very-regime which a military conspiracy elected . For the present , however , this regime flourishes more luxuriantly than ever Jt is a flaming despotism . The trial of the Commune revolutionnaire has revealed a curious fact , which throws full light on our Government . You know , that on the pretext of his accession to the Imperial Throne , Bonaparte , on the 2 nd December last , decreed an amnesty for offences of the press . It seems there were a certain number of refugees in London included in

    that category . Allured by the rose-pink decree , they attempted to return into France , and were repulsed by the gendarmerie , who wrote on their passports , as I hear from actual eyewitnesses , the picturesque word , Mefoules 1 ( repulsed ) . I will cite another fact in illustration of the dominant system . Persigny lately sent ngain for the chief editors of the journals . " You are aware , gentlemen , " he said , " that the Government has granted you authority to speak more freely ( jplus largemcnt ) than before : you are at liberty to discuss

    every question , with the exception of two : — the Russian question , and the crops ( la question des subsistances ) . Don't be too Russian , and take enre not to spread any alarm about the harvest . " The Paris papers have beon cautious enough since this warning about opening their lips ; but in the provinces the name circumspection has not been observed . Not having been advised of the interdict laid upon discussion of the weather , they have exposed themselves to tho " warnings" of the Prefects .

    Just now we arc in full swing of elections . Who would believe it ? They are only municipal elections , to ho sure ; but it is a remarkable fact about them that nobody votes ! I told you in a former letter that a gentleman had l ' con arrested for tublo-moving , as a political ofl ' onco . Tho Bishop of Ronnes was consulted on tho Bubjcct of these tablc-movingtis , which are now an exploded foll y here . Tho Bishop condemns them as contrary to the faith , and an invention of the Devil . The Eastern question has entered upon a now phaso here . Bonaparte has lost all patienco at last . Ho hegins to understand that Russia only wnnt « to gain time , and ho has sent to your Government tho project of an ultimatum to bo addressed to Russia .

    This ultimatum imposes upon Russia the- obligation of evacuating tho Danubiim provinces immediately a j " t « r the acceptance by Turkey of tho Russian conditions ; sine qud , Franco and England would make it , without , more ado , a . question of war with Russia herscl f- Your Cabinet ( so says my informant ) less logical M » m ours , baa rofused to Hubticriho to this ultimatum ° « the terms I have described , and proposoB tho

    following contradictory nonsense— - to represent to the Czar that if he does not evacuate Moldo-Wallachia without delay , France and England will he obliged to - —take further measures ( aviser ) . This does not satisfy Bonaparte by any means , you may well believe . The Bourse , on the other hand , has just closed with a rise . It is really the old story of Jean qui pleure , et Jean quint . . . . By this time the actual reply of the Czar to the proposals of arrangement addressed to him in common by France and England is known . The Czar replies that he never desired , and never intended , nor does he desire

    or intend , to settle the dispute with any other Power but Turkey , and that Be does not recognise in France or England any right to intervene in the question . In fact it was the insolence of this reply which suggested to Bonaparte the project of his ultimatum . Let me add , that the Russians resident in Paris dissemble neither their pride nor their pretensions . " Turkey has been our vassal , " they , " for the last sixty years ; she is only kept alive by the breath of the life we vouchsafe to spare to her ; if it is our good pleasure to diminish that portion of vitality which We allow her , no power in the world has the right or the might to prevent us /'

    Consider ! consider ! great Powers ! ( avisez ! avisez J ) While you are considering , the enemy acts ; he takes , and he keeps . Russia is intriguing enormously in the Damibiau Provinces . She has succeeded in stirring up a revolution in Sei-via . The reigning prince has been forced to abdicate in favour of his nephew , who was educated in Russia . The first act of the new government has been to suspend the levy of Servian troops which Turkey was summoning to her aid .

    The British steamer Caradoc has just brought to Marseilles the note of the Turkish Government addressed to the other Government ? of Europe . The telegraph assures us ( to the rejoicing of the Bourse ) that Turkey yields on every point . S .

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    CONTINENTAL NOTES . The following is the Protest of the Turkish Government to which our Paris correspondent alludes . It is addressed to all the European Governments . " The Sublime Porte has ju 6 t been officially informed that the Russian army has crossed the Pruth , and that it has entered Moldavia , with the intention of also occupying Wallachia . This movement , effected without its co-operation upon an integral part of its empire , has occasioned it as much sorrow as surprise . It is painful for it to behold the inhabitants of those loyal and peaceful provinces exposed to all the chances of a military occupation . It is difficult for it to reconcile such an act of aggression with the pacific declarations and amicable assurances so often reiterated by the Cabinet of St . Petersburg . It is still more difficult for it not to be astonished at an operation which ia an infringement of tho principles established in the treaty of 184 , 1 . " The Sublime Porte , in expressing the sentiments which this event has caused it , cannot dispense with setting in their true light some circumstances to which the Ministers of his Imperial Majesty have in vain endeavoured to give a conclusion such as their lovo of justice and tranquillity made them desiro . " Tho negotiations which were opened in concert with Prince Menschikoff were restricted at first to the pointa which offered difficulties rolativo to tho question of tho Holy Places , and the differences which wero the principal object thereof speedily received a solution of a naturo to satisfy nil parties interested .

    " Wo have consentedj-morcovcr , to tho construction of a church and hospital at Jerusalem for the special use of tho Russians , so that tho concessions demanded in favour of tho priests and pilgrims of the * 8 amo nation have not been refused to either . " After tho happy conclusion of tho part of tho negotiations which related to the solo ostensible object of tho extraordinary mission of Prince McnschikofT , that ambassador hastened to press another demand , which , if it had boon admitted by tho Government of his Majesty tho Sultan , could not havo failed being a grave attack on tho interests of tho empire , and of compromising the sovereign rights which are its ornaments ana its supports . " It has boon seen by tho oflicial communications which tho Sublime Porto lias at various times mado to the Groat

    Powers , that it does not hesitate to give uuflicient assurances capable of dissipating tho doubts which led to tho discussions relativo to the rights , spiritual privileges , and otlior immunities attached thuroto , and which tho Greek churches and Greek priests possess , on tho part of his Majesty tho Sultan . Far from wiuhing to withdraw any portion of those privileges , or cvon of restricting tho onjoymont consecrated by their utility , bin Imperial Majesty makes a glory to confirm thorn , publicly , and , faithful to tho maxiiriH of justicoand mercy , of placing them safe from act bin

    all projudieo , by tho mcaiiH of a nol <; mn bearing hutti-iTiorif , and which wan made known to all friendly Governments . Such being tho case , it would bo an act of supererogation to encumber tins question with a heap of details . It suffices horo to demonstrate that , on tho one hand , tho demand of tho Russian ambassador , notwifchntunding certain modifications , either in tho terms or in tho form , remained inadmissible , in consequence of what ban juHt boon oxplainod ; whilst , on tho othor hand , it had no real object , in consequence of ( ho Kolomn guaraiiteoii given spontaneously b y tho Sovereign himself , in face of tho whole world . Those incontestable facts euifico to roliovo

    the Subl ime Porte from all obligation to excuse itself further on the subject of the religious privileges . It is incontestably evident that the independence of a sovereign State ia null , if among its attributes it does not possess that of refusing without offence a demand unauthorized by treaties , and the acceptance of which would at the same time be superfluous as regards its ostensible object , and no less humiliating than hurtful to the High . Party declining 1 it . ' < ' Nevertheless , the . Sublime Porte in no-way desists from its amicable and profoundly sincere desire not only to fulfil all its engagements towards Russia with , the most to it

    scrupulous exactitude , but , moreover , give any new proof of its cordial dispositions compatible with the sacred riglits of its sovereignty , and with the honour and fundamental interests of its empire . " It is always ready to reiterate the assurances promised in the letter dated 4 th ( 16 th ) June , written in reply to that of his Excellency Count Nesselrode , bearing date 19 th May ; and it is still disposed , if an arrangement of a nature to satisfy Russia can be arrived at without prejudice to the sacred rights of the Sultan , to send an ambassador extraordinary to St . Petersburg to seek in concert with the Russian Cabinet the means of arriving at that

    end . "As regards the passage in the letter of his Excellency Count Nesselrode relative to the eventual invasion of the Ottoman territory , the Sublime Porte has already declared that it cannot accept it ; and as that letter , as well as the reply of the Ottoman Ministry , was at once communicated to the Powers that signed the treaty of 1841 , it evidently becomes needless to enter into details on so painful a question . " In consequence of these circumstances , and in virtue of these considerations , the Government of his Majesty had reason to hope that the founded motives which , he never ceased to allege to justify the refusal of his consent , the impossibility in which he finds himself of according it , and

    the sincere desire which at . different times he has expressed to see a renewal of the cordial relations between the two High Parties , would be finally appreciated , and that the Court of Russia would return to more equitable sentiments towards it , the Sublime Porte feels the more sorrow , in finding itself deceived in this hope , as the eminent qualities of the Emperor of Russia , his known justice and moderation , did nofc allow it to suppose that his Majesty would be capable of wishing to ground his demands ^ upon other bases than those of reason and common right , as he had but recently given , both to the Sultan himself and to the European Powers , positive assurances of his desire to respect the dignity and maintain the independence of the Ottoman Empire .

    " And it is in this state of things that the Sublime Porte has just received the official notice that the Russian troops have crossed the frontier . " If the Court of Russia persists in founding the demand to consecrate , by a document obligatory towards it , the ~ religious privileges of which it is question on the treaty of Kainardje , it must "be observed that the promise contained in the first part of Art . 7 of that treaty , relative to the protection of the Christian religion and its churches , is a generality ; and that degree of importance attributed to it by Russia can scarcely be found in it , still less a speciality in . favour of the Greek religion .

    " However this may bo , if the Sublime Porte omitted to protect the Christian religion and churches , it is then only that it would be time to remind it of its promise by quoting that treaty ; and it is no less clear that this new pro - position cannot be founded upon that treaty , inasmuch , as the privileges and immunities of the Greek religion havo been granted ( octroyS ) by the Sublime Porto without tho demand or intervention of any ono whomsoever . It is , in fact , a point of honour for it to maintain them at present and in the future , and a duty imposed upon it by its system , full of solicitude for its subjects . Tho firmans which havo recently beon promulgated , and which confirm tho privileges and tho immunities of all religions , publicly testify to " tho firm intentions of the Sublime Port © in this respect , in such manner that without the slightest doubt a

    foreign intervention is not at all required for the purpose . Only , whereas tho Court of Russia , whatever may be the motive , has conceived suspicions with regard to those religious privileges , and as tho Greok religion is that of the august Emperor , and of a great portion of his subjects , tho Sublime Porte , moved by theso considerations , and also from deference to tho amicable relations which still exist botwoon tho two Powers , does not retire before tho resolution of giving sufficient assurances to his subjects . But , if a government contracts , on tho rights and privileges which from its own movement it has accorded to tho churches and priests of a nation of so many millions of boiiIs submitted to its authority , exclusivo obligations with another Government , it would bo to share its authority with that Government ; it would bo nothing less than the annihilation of its own independence .

    " Tho treaties concluded between tho Sublime Porto and tho Court of Russia , concerning tho two principalities , do nofc authorize in any manner tho sending of troops by Russia into these two countries ; and tho article relating thereto , which is in tho Senod of Ualta-Liman , is subordinato to tho caso of tho breaking out of internal disturb - ances ; which is by no means tho caso in tho present instance . " Tho fact is that this ag ^ ressivo proceeding on tho part of Russia cannot in principle bo considered in any other

    light than a declaration of war , giving tho Huhhnio Porto tho incontcstiblo right of employing military force in return . Hut tho Subhmo Porto is far from wishing to push its righto to tho oxtremo . ' Strong in tho jtmtico which rogulatos its policy towards tho Powers , it prefers reserving thorn in tho expectation of a spontaneous return of Russia to a lino of action moro conformable to its declarations It is with a viow to roinovo every obstacle to that return that it restricts itself at present to protest against tho aggression of which it has such just right to complain . It thinkn thereby to offer to tho whole world an additional

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    J 0 tr 30 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 727

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 30, 1853, page 727, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1997/page/7/