We have been favoured with the sight of a letter
from an English resident in St. Petersburg, written on the 2241 October, and recounting the results of two interviews between the Finance Minister of the Czar and certain of the principal British merchants in that capital. The oc- currence has already been reported in the English papers, but the letter fills up details and supplies the voucher of a known writer. The first meeting was held on Saturday, the 15th, immediately after the declaration of war by Turkey had been notified to the Embassies ; the second on the Monday following. At the first meeting, the Finance Minister stated as from the Emperor, "in order to allay the alarm shown in the correspond- ence from England, that British residents would enjoy the same protection as heretofore, and might continue their operations in perfect reliance on the inviolable security of their persons and property." One of the merchants put .the pertinent question, whether, in the event of war between Great Britain and Russia, ships would be allowed to leave Cronstadt; and whether twenty-four or even twelve hours' notice would be given ? The Minister replied, that, "though not instructed on that point, he felt sure that no- thing would be allowed to render his Imperial Majesty's gracious assu- rance incomplete." The same gentleman who had put the question, how- ever, explained, that there was still a good deal of Russian produce to be shipped ; and he would not feel himself justified in sending for British ships without a positive assurance from the Government, that they would be al- lowed to depart, whatever the political relations of the two countries might happen to be.
• This conversation between the Minister and the merchants," says the letter, "was intended, no doubt, to allay the alarms of the merchants, and to prevent as far as possible any sudden depreciation of Russian securities or Enssian produce : but it was a mere conversation, and seems to have been purposely deprived of anything like an official character ; for neither the British Minister nor the British Consul was present, or had any intimation even that such a conversation was intended to be made."
At the second conversation, on the Monday, the Finance Minister stated, "that he had laid the question before his Imperial Majesty, and was commanded to say, that no obstacle would be offered to British vessels leaving Russian ports if equal indulgence were shown to the Russian flag in Eng- land." Under all the circumstances of the case,—the prospects of war, and the informal character of the interviews,—the reply was regarded as very un- satisfactory. "Notwithstanding all these soothing and pacific assurances," says the letter, "I see no probability of the Russo-Turkish question being settled without war—with Turkey in the first instance, and Heaven only knows how soon the Western Powers may be drawn into the vortex." . . . . "The Emperor seems to me to have placed himself in a position in which. there is no retreating with honour, and now fight he must."—[A con- tingency which seems more positive than his promise to let British vessels come and go with safety to fetch the produce of his subjects !]
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