NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE Danubian question is reopened in a manner which brings us back to the very beginning, almost to the prai-Menschikoff period. The occasion for the disclosure, which is new in itself though the facts are not new, is thing so trivial as a report, and a false report, of a change of Ministry in Constantinople. The telegraph told us, prematurely if not incorrectly, that Aali Pasha was to be repliced by 'Redschid Pasha ; and then .came out, by one channel or other, the reasons for a change. At the Paris Con- ference it was arranged that the Allies should evacuate the ter- ritories of Turkey " as soon as possible "—" a.ussitot qua- faire se pourra " ; Turkey being left to take the initiative in demand- ing the evacuation. England and France have some time since completed the retirement of their troops ; but the Austrian forces continue to occupy the Danubian Principalities. M. Thouvenel, the French Minister at Constantinople, lately called the attention of the Porte to that important circumstance, and urged the Sul- tan's Government to demand the withdrawal of the Austrian army. The Sultan, it is understood, distinctly refused compliance with this requirement ; and it was some disposition to yield on the part of Aali Pasha that led to the talk of his resignation, and of his being succeeded by Redschid Pasha. The Sultan was supported in his resolve by the English Ambassador, Lord Stratford de Radcliffe ; and on grounds that appear to be sufficient. The difficulty which Russia had created. in " rectifying " the Bessarabian boundary has in fact prevented that rectification down to the present date ; and it would appear that the Danubian Commissioners will have to go back to the Conference at Paris with their task unfulfilled. It was held by the Sultan, and by those advisers on whom he rested, that until Russia shall have accepted. a complete adjustment of the Bessa- rabian boundary,. excluding her entirely from the waters of the Danube, it would be impolitic if not unsafe to withdraw the forces that protect Turkey against a fresh encroachment on the part of Russia. The anxiety of the French Ministry to precipi- tate the retirement of the Austrians has been ascribed to the Persuasion of the Russian Ambassador, who has talked over his French colleague. It is obvious, too, that M. Thouvenel is very desirous of sustaining his high repute, and of distinguishing his ministry in Constantinople by one of those brilliant successes which the Representative of France is always expected to achieve alternately with the successes of the English Minister. How it will all end in Constantinople, we do not yet know ; for Aali Pasha has not completed his resignation, and Redschid has not taken his place. The most important fact mule known to us by these ex- planations is, that there is a new division among-the parties re- presented at the Paris Conference ; England and Turkey being in close cooperation with Austria, and France inclining to Russia.
The inaction towards Naples can only be explained on the hy- pothesis that there is some discordance between the Western Powers in that quarter also. We have observed the lingering of the French fleet at Toulon ; it is now manifest, that although
the English fleet has orders to sail in parts of the. Mediterranean bordering upon Naples, the English Government is compelled by the state of the alliance to abstain from putting any direct foroe upon King Ferdinand. If we had no other evidence that France intends to prevent a severer pressure, it would be furnished by the official notes published in the Moniteur—the selected corre- spondence between Count Walewski on the one side and Signor Carafa on the other. The Neapolitan Minister evinces a total incapacity, even down to the end of August last, to understand upon what pretext the Western Powers could interfere in the do- mestic administration of his master. He shows a desire to avoid offending the Western Powers ; but the second note, which was intended to be conciliatory., is clearly designed to humour the two foreign Governments with that kind of equivocal language which a man in difficulties may use towards a dangerous lunatic. On the other hand, Count Walewski preaches the necessity of order and of clemency in the administration of Naples, and notifies that he will not tolerate any attack upon French subjects ; but also distinctly intimates that the worst result of the King's re- fusal would be a " coolness " between Naples and the Western Powers. The coolness is officially established by the withdrawal of the two embassies.
Was it for such results as this that the English Government took up-the quarrel of France in Constantinople, or accepted 14 proposal for a joint action in Naples ? The actual state of affairs wherever,the Western Powers are acting together implies that England has been outwitted, and that the same value is no longer attached. to the alliance in Paris.
In our last Postscript we gave the notification in the Moniteur warning the English press, that their " calumnies" would im- pair the good understanding between the two countries. The reply is a. burst of contemptuous indignation from the English press—first, because there was no general warrant for any such aspersion of our journals, whose spirit has upon the whole been friendly to the Government of Louis Napoleon ; and secondly; because that potentate must know as well as any man in the world that the conduct of the English press cannot be brought under any jurisdiction or official recognition. Meanwhile, the French journals have been filled with systematic misrepresentations of the actual state of affairs in the East and in England. They persevere in asserting that Turkey has called upon Austria to withdraw her troops ; and while the English journals which re- ply to the Moniteur are excluded from circulation in France, they are represented by the Paris papers as having cried pecoa- vimus The warning appears to be a blunder. Even in France it can only suggest to the people that the Emperor Napoleon is losing his most valuable support. In this country, of course, it is simply useless. The most tangible effect would. be to create the coolness which it deprecates ; and that coolness could be ser- viceable only to those lieutenants of the Emperor Napoleon who are speculating in Austrian or Russian railways, in Austrian or Russian patronage. The events of the week imply that the French Ministers are rather tiring of the alliance, and looking for advantages in other directions ; leaving us pretty near where we were when the war was first a project of the future.
