In the absence of any substantial intelligence, the correspond- ents
in Paris are collecting all available rumours. The sub- committee appointed to draw up the text of the treaty of peace is said to have found a hitch in its labours connected with the just pretensions of the Porte ; the terms upon which Prussia was to affix her signature are said to have occasioned another diffi- culty; the mode of arranging the Principalities, a third ; and subsidiary questions are talked about as if they loomed in the future. A great deal of this is nothing more than talk, substituted for actual information. It is quite possible that Prussia may make difficulties ; she is so fertile in the production of such commodities, that they grow up spontaneously in Berlin, Arid are exported by every Prussian statesman that passes the
frontier. The whole strength of Prussia seems to consist in the number of difficulties which she finds to counterpoise:each other, so that she is propped by the obstructions she mates. ' But no ground has been stated for any new dispute as to the relation of Prussia to the other Powers, and- that relation, we imagine, must have been settled before Baron Manteuffel arrived in Paris.
. We have scarcely anything more distinct respecting the Turk- ish difficulty—the question whether the Hatti-scheriff should, be recited in the treaty of peace or not. If it were, the five Powers would be taking a direct part in the internal legislation and administration of the Turkish empire ; and this consideration alone, we should think, would have precluded the Plenipoten- tiaries from contemplating such a step as the annexation of the Hatti-scheriff to the treaty of peace. Some question may be mooted between the Porte and the Conference, but we grelitly doubt whether a correct statement of it has yet been published.
The Principalities present a difficulty more obvious in they nature of things. It has not been easy to arrange the slipnlated. boundary ; the geographical traits of the country to be traversed not accommodating the diplomatist with the requisite distinctness of fence. The Roumans have, through certain semi-authorized representatives,. petitioned for a recognition of tlieir nationality; If their nationality were to be recognized, the two provinces . of Wallachia and Moldavia must be united ; and a proposal is ac- tively discussed in some places for constructing a perfectly inde- pendent state to be recognized in the European system. This would give to them. the guarantee, not of the five Powers, Russia included, but of the whole European commonwealth—if such a thing exists. The real Wishes of the populations, however, the practieabilities of any arrangement, the views of the Porte, and of Austria, are all subjects of speculation ; and the statement that commissioners will have to report upon this particular part of the qisestion, to the gub:committee remaining in Paris looks probable,- from the impoesibility inaking a complete arrange- ment in a hurry without consultations on the spot:
