The report from Vienna, that conferences, at which M. Gort-
sehakoff will be present, would take place on Thursday, is re- garded as throwing light upon the mission of Baron von Usedom to our own Government. It is understood that the Baron has come to make some representations of the reason why Prussia demurs to subscribe the treaty of the 2d December. Whether it is some consideration of dignity, as to not having been specifi- cally invited to the preliminary negotiations—or whether it is, as somebody has reported, a formal difficulty arising from the fact that the treaty embodies stipulations to which Prussia has not pre- viously been a party—or whether it is that Prussia desires still to have some last words with Russia before taking the final plunge— does not greatly matter. There seems no reasonable doubt that the Western Powers will persevere in the course which they have so long and so firmly sustained, and that Austria will join with. them more completely just as they are marching on that course with an accelerated pace. The hesitancies of Prussia, therefore, are not likely to affect the progress of events materially. On the other hand, neither the Western Powers nor Austria have ever announced that they will turn a deaf ear to any reasonable over- tures on the part of Russia, taking "the four points" as their basis ; and it is probable that, while M. von 17sedom has learned how impossible it would be to turn the Allies from the object for which they are united, the interpretation which the three Powers put upon the four points proposed by France and England has been explained at Vienna to Prince Gortschakoff.
