NEWS OF THE WEEK.
Russia is making great progress in her active war upon Turkey ; for such is the true state of the Eastern question. The suspension of hostilities for the purpose of negotiation has been only on the side of the Porte and its allies. While the body of the Russian forces in Moldavia and Wallachia has been more concentrated to- wards Bucharest, a considerable force has been advanced in Besse:- rabia,-and new levies in Russia are preparing to back the advance. A neutrality secured by treaty stipulations has been violated by preparations on the islands in the Danube for a rapid passao.°emakingRussia, in short, is making such advances as an enemy would make in the absence of a resisting force.. But the invading power has proceeded much further. A RuSsian Government is now es:
tablished in the Principalities. The Hospodars have been deposed,
and Russian Commissioners have • been appointed to' govern in their place. The tribute annually sent to the Pate has been ar- rested and converted .to Russian.pirposes. Youth of the native gentry, who have expressed their discontent, ha been been pressed into the Russian army as soldiers—apparently. asivipmon soldiers. Russia, therefore, is already exercising the rightii of conquest, if
not of annexation. .
The only further tilt thrown upon the progress of negotiations shows that they are not so far advanced as they were reported to be last week. The proposition of the four Powers was not sent off from Vienna to St. Petersburg on the 24th of July, but was sent to Constantinople first, and the actual date of its leaving the Turkish capital is not specified. This state of matters has compelled the British Government to open what is in fact a new series of negotiations before the other has terminated—a new series, and apparently in a different spirit. Lord Clarendon announced in the House of Lords on Tuesday, that Petersburg messenger would be despatched that night to St. Petersbur with instructions for Sir Hamilton Seymour, to demand from the Rus- sian Government explanation of a matter which Lord Clarendon agreed with Lord Clanricarde in regarding as one that affected the interests and honour of those states who are parties to the alliance with Turkey. The messenger, it is understood, left London on the night of. Wednesday. Whatever may have been the reply of the Emperor to the proposition of the four Powers, this sterner de- mand will come upon him ; but it is to be anticipated, both from the course now taken by Lord Clarendon and the overt actions of Russia, that the Emperor has already returned an unfriendly answer to the conciliatory proposition. It appears that the warning which we expressed last week, on the responsibility which would attend a further continuance of dilatory policy on the part of our Government, was not premature. The intelligence now received shows, that valuable weeks have been lost on the side of Turkey and her allies, which have been turned to an advantageous if not to a base account by Russia. It is of course impossible that those who are responsible for the peace of Europe can suffer that state of things to continue. If our Mi- nisters can justify their own pertinacious trust in a power which has thus repaid them, they can do it only by alleging the hypocrisy and the elaborate care with which the deception has been carried on. Events have now come to such a pass that full explanation at least is due from Ministers. While there ap- peared the slightest probability of continuing negotiations in good faith, abstinence from discussion, probably of an irritating nature, in Parliament, seemed reasonable and prudent. But the close of the session must not be suffered to overtake us in total ignorance of that which our Government has done and is doing in so critical a posture of affairs. If Ministers do not put on record a survey
° aecordino. to their own view of the case, they will leave it to Mr. Disraeli to inform the public after his fashion, in that resume of
the se' ssion which he is now preparing, in imitation of the Lora Palmerston of a former day.
