Nations of dissimilar interests and dispositions, cannot regulate their relations by that virtue of the sage, which does not even prevail in the legal state of civil existence. We may, therefore, assume, and the experience of all ages proves, that the idea of a perpetual peace belongs to those amusing dreams which mankind is not destined to see realized.

ON THE NAVIGATION OF THE DANUBE.

COPY OF A LETTER FROM MR. BACKHouse.

"Foreign Office, May 5, 1836. “Gentlemen,—In acknowledging the receipt of your letter of the 27th ultimo, upon the subject of the obstructions offered by the Russian authorities to the free navigation of the Danube, I am directed by Viscount PALMERSTON to acquaint you, that his Lordship has called upon the law adviser of the Crown for his opinion as to the regulations promulgated by the Russian ukase of the 7th February, 1836; but, in the mean time, Lord PALMERSTON directs me to acquaint you, with respect to the latter part of your letter, that it is the opinion of his MAJESTY'S Government that no toll is justly demanded by the Russian authorities at the mouth of the Danube, and that you have acted properly in directing your agents to refuse to pay it.

"To Messrs. G. Bell & Co., Fenchurch Street."

The interest, and we might almost say the commotion, excited amongst the commercial world by the posting of the above letter at Lloyd's, has been detailed and commented on by all the daily organs of the Press. The feeling which it has created has been at once decided and unanimous. It has been regarded at once as the most decided step that the British Government has yet taken,

and as an earnest of its intention to put a stop to the stealthy but unceasing aggressions of Russia on the territory and independence of all her neighbours. We sincerely trust that this intention will be more fortunate than good intentions generally are. We, however, see in this step of the British Government something more than an intention. We see in it a mode of procedure which we cannot help believing perfectly new in this country.

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The import of the last paragraph of Mr. Backhouse's letter seems unaccountably to have escaped observation. The Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs officially communicates to a commercial House in the city of London, the approbation of the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the instructions communicated by that House to their agents in the province of Moldavia, to resist certain acts of the Russian Government executed by Russian officers. This is certainly a most anomalous predicament for one Government to be placed in with regard to another. The Russian Ambassador in London must surely have acquiesced in the injustice of the demand; if he had not, the letter of the Under Secretary of State was a most

uncourteous declaration of war; but acquiescing in its injustice, then this letter exhibits a want, on the part of the English Government, of confidence in the language held by the representative of Russia; it is in this latter sense that we understand this communication. We congratulate the Government on its escape from that state of mental delusion in which all the Governments of Europe have so long invariably lain, but much more do we congratulate it upon appreciating so well the strength of England and the power of Russia, as to feel that it could commit itself to sanction the practical resistance of an unprotected Merchant against an act of the Russian Government.

In 1823, when the Russian Government declared the North Pacific Ocean a mare clausum, and endeavoured to force the American Government into acquiescence in such a pretension, the merchants of all the cities in the Union at once resolved to arm their vessels trading to those ports, and whatever was the decision of their Government, to repel force by force. The question was immediately closed, and the sea remained open.

This letter is most important however, not merely as an indication, but as an event. It proves oppo

sition on the part of England to Russia; and the demonstration of that opposition is a guarantee to all Eastern populations of their political existence. As the principal means of Russia's success has been the representing of England as allied with her, so now is the demonstration of opposition to her on the part of England absolutely necessary to sustain the resistance of Turkey, Persia, &c.

But again we ask, WHY are not British men-ofwar in the Black Sea? The Blonde' has sounded it, and in the depth of winter, and yet she came back safe. The best information we have been able to collect on the subject assures us, that there is no danger for a British man-of-war in it. This is, really, from a question of the deepest interest, become one of ridicule.