POSTSCRIPT.
SATURDAY.
The spirit in which Austria undertook her pacific enterprise at the Court of St. Petersburg may be seen from the following despatch from Count Buol to Count Valcntme Esterhazy, enclosing the Austrian pro- positions. The publication of the document is due to the Russian organ at Brussels, Le Nord.
" Vienna, 16th Dec. 1855. " The words which 3-our Excellency has had the honour to hear from the mouth of the Emperor himself, our august master, must have convinced you anew of the intentions which have invariably guided the policy of his Ma- jesty in the different phases of the struggle which weighs so heavily upon Europe. Always faithful to those same principles, the Emperor would have deemed it a deficiency on his part towards his own people and towards Eu- rope to let the present moment pass, when a superior Power bids a truce to the combatants, without attempting a supreme effort to open new paths to a peace, which presents itself as the most urgent want of Europe. 'onvinced, on the ore hand, of the so-often reiterated declarations of the Emperor Alexander of his readiness to lend his hand to any peace that would not infringe upon his dignity or upon the honour of his country, his Imperial Majesty felt himself called upon to employ his best efforts to assure himself of the degree of reciprocity that those dispositions might meet with at the Courts of France and Great Britain. His Majesty therefore deigned to charge me to sound the Cabinets of Paris and London on the subject. Although we found them imbued with the firm resolution not to lend them- selves to the initiative of any overtures for peace, nevertheless, to our great satisfaction, we found such dispositions in those Cabinets as to lead us to hope that they would not refuse to examine and accept conditions of a nature to offer all the guarantees of a permanent peace, and to come to a clear solu- tion of the question which gave rise to the war. "Nay, more; we think ourselves authorized to express the hope that those Powers, while maintaining in full force the right of presenting such conditions of peace as they might deem suitable, would not the less be dis- posed today not to deviate from the principle established at the cominence- ment of the struggle, not to seek any advantage to themselves, and to limit their pretensions to the sacrifices necessary to reassure Europe against the return of so deplorable a complication.
" Encouraged by these indications, the Imperial Cabinet did not shrink from the task of making itself conscientiously acquainted with the situation of the moment, and to formulate a basis upon which, in its opinion, the edi- fice of a solid peace might rest. The four points already accepted by Russia appeared to us still to be the best ground to go upon. To assure the work of peace, however, and to avoid especially the reefs upon which the last con- ferences were shipwrecked, we deemed it indispensable to develop the four points (principes) in such guise as to make them conformable to the general interests of Europe, and to facilitate the final arrangement by a more pre- else definition. " The fruit of that labour is in the annexed document,* which, when ac- cepted by the belligerent Powers, will acquire the value of preliminaries of peace. The signing of these preliminaries would be immediately followed by,a general armistice and by final negotiations.
1 his labour having been honoured by the approbation of his Majesty the Emperor, you are charged, M. le Comte, to present it for acceptance to the Court of Russia, and to urge it most pressingly to consider its contents, and to let us know its determination, to which we attach the highest importance, as soon as possible. If, as we hope, our proposition should be favourably received, we shall lose no time in warmly recommending their acceptance to the Courts of Paris and London; expressing the confidence which animates us that they will not exercise the right of presenting eventually to thnne- gotiations special conditions except in an European interest, and in such mea- sure as not to offer serious obstacles to the reestablishment of peace. "We entreat the Court of Russia to examine calmly the propositions which we submit to it. We will not dwell upon the grave consequences which would ensue from a refusal to enter into the paths which we open a second time to effeet an honourable reconciliation ; a refusal which would entail upon itself the weight of an immense responsibility. We prefer leaving it to its wisdom to estimate all the chalices. " We think that we are in this instance the interpreter of the wishes and of the real wants of Europe. It remains for us to make an appeal to the elevated sentiments of the Emperor Alekander, whose supreme 'determina- tion will decide the fate of so manythousands of existences.
" His Imperial Majesty will talce, vi6",O real the confident hope,that it n decision which appears to us alone of nature to respond to the al inte- rests of his people and to the wants of humanity. " I am, BCC. Cot= Buo.t.' The propositions.
The expression in this despatch, that "a general armistice" will fo ow the signing of the preliminaries, does not mean that an armistice will follow the signature of the Austrian proposals by Nesselrode and Es- terhazy, but that it will follow the signature by the Western Powers. At present the Western Powers are not represented in the diplomatic field ; as yet, the " conferences " are only between Russia and Austria.]
The Paris correspondent, writing at six o'clock last night, transmits an important qualification to the bright reports- " I fear that the Cabinet of Vienna has received information from St. Petersburg which does not back up the meaning of the telegraphic assertion. I cannot, however, give you the substance of these communications, but I am assured that they affect considerably the ' pure and simple' acceptation as originally asserted."
Two Cabinet Councils have been held this week ; one on Wednesday, and a second yesterday. Both were attended by all the Ministers except Lord Panmure, who has been suffering from gout. The first Council sat three hours, the second two hours and three-quarters.
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