NEGOTIATIONS WITH RUSSIAGENERAL IGNATIEFF'S MISSION.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5038, 17 May 1877, Page 3

NEGOTIATIONS WITH RUSSIA — GENERAL IGNATIEFF'S MISSION.

(Ooirespondent S. A. Advertiser.) While the Russian note remained as yet unanswered, our Government had, it appears, proposed to the other Powers that lurkey should be allowed twelve months respite to carrv .out the proposed reforms, and that if at the end of that time nothing adequate had been done, Europe should have the right to demand guarantees. This was the suggestion thrown out by Midhat Pasha before the Conference closed, and it was now resuscitated m a definite shape, in the hope that it would be "a trolden bridge" over which Russia might retreat from her present menacing position As mh-hthave been expected, Prince Gortchakoff demands a guarantee on his side, viz., that when the year had elapsed, all Europe shou.d be preDared to take common action should the Porte not then have fulfilled its engagements. Ere Ion" however, the negotiations assumed another shape. Soon after General Ignatieff reached St. Petersburg, the question of peace or war began seriously to be debated and on the 27th we had a report to the effect that the Czar had held a Council, and decided to demobilise his army as soon as peace with Servia and Montenegro had been signed. 1 he rumor was only partially true. _ It was decided to send General Iguateiff, who is of the Russia peace party, to Western Europe with the view of sbtaining some reasonable answer to the Knssian note, and obtaining such common action on the part of the Powers as would enable the Czar to retire from his awkward position. That accomplished diplomatist spent several days at Berlin, where he was much with Prince Bismarck, but no information has leaked out as to the drift of their conversatioas. He then started for Paris, where Count Schouvaloff.the Russian Minister at our Court, was awaiting his arrival. Together they sketched out a plan, and the latter returned wiih it to London. It is understood that the proposal is to the effect that, if the other five Poweri will join Russia in signing a protocol recording their common agreement as to the reforms which the Phrte ought to carry into effect, the Czar will demobolise and withdraw his armies on the Turkish frontier in Europe and Asia. According to report the draft protocol commences by a reference to the results of the late Conference, strongly urges the importance of continued European cooperation. It dwells on the necessity of watching the development of the reforms by means of the Ambassadors of the different Courts at Constantinople, and through other local agencies, and provides that if the expectations with respect to the Turkish reforms entertained by the Powers shall not be fulfilled, they shall, when they think fit, at some future date, determine what action is necessary for the attainment of the end they all have in view, viz., the more satisfactory government of the Christian subjects of the Porte. It is thought that Russia was anxious to fix a definite period during which the reforming promises of the Porte should be tested, but that our Government objected to|the suggestion; and, further, we are told that the St. Petersburg Government do not make the adhesion of Turkey to the protocol a necessary condition. The proposals, whatever their precise import, were considered at a Cabinet Council, and it is believed were accepted in principle by our Government, but that various alterations in the text and phraseology were adopted. In order to facilitate negotiations, General Ignatieff has accepted an invitation from the Marquis of Salisbury to pay him a visit at Hatfield House, which is about teu miles from London. The General already knows in Paris the suggestions and amendments which Lord Beaconsfield's Cabinet have proposed after a full _consideration of the piotocol, and in the main he is said to be disposed to conclude that the majority of these alterations can without difficulty be agreed to. Bat the chief point the pledge of demobilisation is a more serious matter. At present it is in the nature of a codicil to the protocol, depending more or less upon events. Our Ministers wish it to be made part and parcel of that document. According to report Lord Derby requires an assurance that Russia will not use the protocol for the purpose of hereafter taking the role of executing the wishes of the Powers. But this is hardly a likely demand. It is probable that the coming of General Ignatieff to London means that, having the power, he is resolved to settle the whole matter somehow. As the Paris correspondent of the Times, who yesterday had an interview with the general, says : —lt may be considered most unlikely that he will leave England without having succeeded, for hi* journey would be a considerable personal defeat if he did not succeed, and he would justify those who allege that they succeed better without his presence. But the immense advantage of this journey is that General Ignatieff is a man of rapid resolutions, that he takes upon him to solve certain questions which without his presence would absorb considerable time ; and in any case, whether it be peace or war, Europe will promptly know what is to happen, for once that last stage has passed without result the whole world will see that the hour of violent resolutions has sounded, and that a storm is bursting upon it. SCENE BETWEEN MR. GLADSTONE AND 3111. CH.U'UN. The same correspondent writes under this head a 3 follows:—While Mr. Smyth was speaking Mr. Gladstone, who had been away, returned to his seat, and listened with evident pleasure to the glowing sentences that fell from Mr. Smyth's lips. Mr. Smyth having made an end of what his friends among the Home Kulers will have it was a recitation, Mr. Chaplin rose from the other side. This gentleman (once celebrated as a leader on the turf) is a fise. tall, handsome man, with an intense air of self-satisfaction and self-sufficiency in his whole aspect and demeanor. With a fine presence, a pleasant voice, and easy delivery, he has made several successful speeches in the House, on the strength of which his party have flattered him into the belief that he is a great orator and a coming statesman. Nothing could have been more insolent and offensive than his attack upon Mr. Gladstone. In a series of carefully-prepared sentences, into which he had thrown as much causticity and scorn as he knew how, he taunted him with having gone about from east to west, from north to south, Beekiug the cheers of the populace at railway stations, &c, while he shrank from meeting his opponents face to face in the House of Common?. He then, in tones and with gestures as insulting as he could use, asked him a number of questions which he knew very well Mr. Gladstone could not, according to the forms of the House, answer. When reminded of this by the ironical cheers of the Opposition, he then said he would give him an opportunity of answering by moving the adjournment of the House. The moment he had done so Mr. Gladstone leapt to his feet, and said, " Sir, I rise to second the motion." This was the signal for a burst of cheering from the Libera] benches such as has been rarely heard within those walls. Again and again was it renewed, as if the members could never adequately express their mingled feelings of admiration for their great leader, and of indignation for the virulent attack that had been made upon hira. Then began one of the finest bursts of extempore eloquence that ever fell from human lips. In a torrent of scathing invective, he absolutely overwhelmed his adversary, until one began almost to feel pity for the unfortunate man who had brought down such a castigaliou upon himself. Nor did Lord George Hamilton, who is an uncommonly jaunty young gentleman, fare much better, when he attempted, by unseemly interruption, to stem the torrent. With one sweep of his arm, Mr. Gladstone brushed him aside—as one would a troublesome insect which comes buzzing about his head when he is seriously engaged. No other man, in either House, could have delivered them such an unpremeditated speech. The most marvellous thing was that though uttered with unusual rapidity and vehemence, every sentence came forth as rounded and perfect as if it had been carefully elaborated in the quiet solitude of his study. With regard to Mr. Chaplin's challenge to bring forward a distinct motion, Mr. Gladstone replied that he was too old to let himself be forced to reveal his plan of campaign, but he promised Mr. Chaplin that before the matter was ended he would have no occasion to complain of any

J reticence or suppression on his part. As to the speech at Taunton, Mr. Gladstone said he still continued of the same opinion which he there expressed that the policy of the Government required watching. In conclusion he said : —lt is the duty of every man to feel that he is bound for himself according to his opportunities to examine what belongs to this question, with regard to which it can never be forgotten that we are those who set up the power of Turkey in 1554, that we are those who gave her the strength which has been exhibited in Bulgarian massacres, that we are those who made the treaty arrangements that have secured her for twenty years from almost a single hour of uneasiness brought about by foreign intervention, and that therefore nothing can be greater and nothing deeper than our responsibility in the matter. It is incumbent upon us, one and all, that we do not allow any consideration, either of party or personal convenience, to prevent us from endeavoring, to the best of our ability, to discharge this great duty, that now at length in the East, in the midst of this great opportunity, when Europe has been called to collective action, and when something like European concert has been established—when we learn the deep human interests that are involved in every stage of the question—that, as far as England at least is coucerned, every Englishman should strive to the utmost of his might that justice shall be done. (Loud cheers.) Sir Stafford Northcote stilled the tempest a little ; but he, too, flashed into a for him unwonted flame, as he demanded as a matter of right that Mr. Gladstone should state what policy he intends to propose, and bring his views to the test of a division. Again the excitement broke out, but Sir Stafford discouraged it, and when the Marquis of Hartington rose, there was a calmer mood upon the Chamber. But, as may well be imagined, the noble lord had caught a little fire, and he charged the Government with changing its policy in a tone as loud and a manner as emphatic as Sir Stafford Northcute had used. Mr. Hardy objected to the adjournment of the debate, and Sir Win, Harcourt rose to tell the Government that they could not vote down the Eastern Question, " It was too big for their majorities." In a few minutes he had got the House again in a state of excitement. "You (said he) are not the war party now, because you cannot fight the people you want to fight." Then followed a long discussion, and eventually the storm ended by an adjournment of the debate for a week. It was not, however, destined to be renewed. Both Ministers and leaders of the Opposition desired that there should be no more talk on the subject, but one waited for the other to say so, with the result that neither spoke ; and on the following Thursday the House was drifting into a difficulty, when private members interfered. The first to speak was Sir Charles Dilke, who called attention to the technical difficulty under which the unfortunate debate labored, owing to the fact that there had originally been no resolution before the House upon which to base it. The Speaker, whose strong common sense and appreciation of the fitness of things frequently stand the House in good stead, announced that he was prepared, in case any member having a notice of amendment on going into Committee of Supply should rise on Friday, to give him precedence. Even this left the matter unsettled, and the House had to thank Mr. Mitchell Henry for getting it out of the difficulty—a debt of gratitude somewhat rare in its incidence. Mr. Henry appealed to the leaders of the Opposition to state what course they would take. This interference brought up Mr. Trerelyan and Sir William Eraser, who each had notices on the paper for Friday, and who, on the one part, somewhat unwillingly agreed to give place to the adjourned debate, and, on tliK other, declined unless a distinct issue were raised by a resolution. Thus adjured, the Marquis of Hartington rose and made one of those happy speeches with which he sometimes astonishes his enemies and delights his friends. Nothing could have been better than the brief speech with which the noble marquis set forth the position of his own party in view of the iepeated challenge to declare a policy. It is not, as the noble lord said, the duty of the Opposition to d&fiue a policy for the Government ; their function is rather critical than creative. Lord Hartington was, therefore, not able to accept the challenge of Sir William Fraser, which settled the matter, and the debate was dropped as it stood on the preceding Friday night.