Affairs of the East. [From the Dublin Evening Mail, April 29.]

Daily Southern Cross, Volume X, Issue 640, 16 August 1853, Page 4

Affairs of the East. [From the Dublin E vening Mail, April 29.]

Although Lord Clarendon has declined to give a detailed explanation of the negociations between the Sublime Porte and certain great European powers, we are bound to say that his general statement was both frank and unreserved; and if it is not calculated to allay apprehensions as to the peace of the world, the public, at least, have no reason to complain of being left in the dark. It appears, from what he has felt himself at liberty to communicate, that our Government did interfere with the Austrian court, and oblige it to eat the big words of the Leiningen mission: — " A large army arrived in Montenegro, which was the subject of well founded alarm to the Austrian government. In consequence the Austrian government sent Count Leiniagen to Constantinople. It was true, as his noble friend said, that his mission was somewhat of a peremptory character, and Lord J. Russell communicated with the Austrian government upon the subject, deprecating the use of any threatening language which might lead to hostilities. This was replied to in a friendly spirit by the Austrian government, who said they had no desire to interrupt their relations with Turkey, still less to depart from their traditional policy of respect for the Ottoman empire." ; The embassy of Prince Mentschikoff is still a matter of some uneasiness. The Foreign Secretary says, that her Majesty's Government confide in the honour and integrity of the Emperor of Russia; but we are not in possession of any information to show that it would be either dishonourable or dishonest in the Czar to press his -claims upon the Turkish government, with respect to that which is the object of contention — namely, the Holy Shrine. On the contrary, it appears pretty evident that French intrigue, subserving the domineering and encroaching spirit of Rome, had stolen a march upon him, and obtained a concession from the Porte inconsistent with a. previously established and recognised privilege of the Greek Church, of which the Russian Emperor is the temporal head and protector.^ Neither party has yet manifested an^ inclination to yield to the other on this point; which, trivial a cause of quarrel as men of sense may deem it, is not unlikely, in the present excited state of polemical feeling all over the world, to rouse some of the most fierce and implacable passions of the human breast. A war of opinion is one of the calamities which are most to be deprecated, as long as they merely impend, and which there seems least hope of controlling, after the demon has been unchained. It is admitted by Lord Clarendon that menacing demonstrations have been made on one side and on the other; nor does it -appear that those preparations have been withdrawn. France and Russia still frown upon each other. On the one part, that of Russia, the noble Lord says — " There certainly were naval and military preparations made at the same time that Prince Mentschikoff went to Constantinople, but he belicrcd they had been greatly exaggerated, and there had been no disguise whatever." On the other part, he allows that — " The French government thought proper to send their fleet to the East, but that did not arise out of any misunderstanding between the French government and her Majesty's government." Nobody -ever suspected that it did; on the contrary, the French Government had •calculated on the co-operation of England, and was grievously disappointed at not receiving it. For it was expected that our navy would be employed under the pretence of maintaining the national independence of Turkey, but, in reality, to aid France in enforcing the overweening assumptions of the Roman Pontiff. It is now confessed that we owe it, not to the foresight of Her Majesty's Ministers, but to the wisdom and resolution of the admiral commanding the Mediterranean fleet that the British flag has not found itself hoisted in such a service: — "With regard to the (British) fleet," says Lord Clarendon, "it was well known that after Prince Mentschikoff arrived at Constantinople, Colonel Rose requested Admiral Dundas to proceed with the fleet to the Dardanelles, and that Admiral Dundas did not think it expedient, to comply. He (Lord Clarendon) thought Admiral Dundas acted advisedly; but he must say, on behalf of Colonel Rose, that he had not got the information possessed by her Majesty's government, and it was not unnatural that he should feel some fear from the excitement which the first arrival of Prince Mentschikoff had caused in Constantinople." Thus, whilst Her Majesty's Ambassador was absent from Constantinople, his Charge was left without positive instructions how to act in a contingency which might have involved the whole world ia a devastating war. Whether he took his cue from the French envoy, or from his own natural mother wit, it is no fault of his, nor of the sages in Downing-street, that his Sovereign has not become hopelessly embroiled in a quarrel that would have been equally injurious to her crown and dignity.