POSTSCRIPT.
SATURDAY AFTERNOON.
We have already explained what we believe to be the truth respecting the relations between France and Russia,—relations calculated to give no just umbrage to Englishmen ; and we should not return to the sub- ject but for the following statement, which appears to day with all the weight of the Morning Herald, the Ministerial paper- " We have the highest authority for stating that no secret treaty or con- vention has been signed between France and Russia. The Russians have merely agreed to place 50,000 men in observation on the Galician frontiers of Austria, and out of this in all probability was concocted the false report that has spread consternation in commercial circles and caused the ruin of hun- dreds."
It will be observed that although this is a contradiction of reports in other pages, it does not affect our statement, except as affording an un- intentional corroboration. In the same number of the Morning Herald, however, we find another Ministerial report, on the same subject : ad- dressing not only the people of Horsham, but the people of England generally, Mr. Seymour Fitzgerald, Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs, reports the answer given by Prince Gortschakoff to the inquiries of the British Government : we extract the whole passage, unaltered- " I do not deny that there may exist a written engagement between France and Russia; but I can assure you, in the most positive manner, that such arrangement contains nothing that in the most distant manner could be interpreted as constituting a hostile alliance against England. If Lord Malmesbury should be questioned on this subject, he may answer with con- fidence in the above sense ; and I give you my personal guarantee as a man of honour that this declaration will not be falsified by the facts."
This precisely agrees with our first statement.
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