NEWS OF THE WEEK.
Norsawn has yet been received from St. Petersburg to terminate the suspense in which we are kept until we know the Emperor's decision, for acquiescence in political necessity, or for defiance of the Western Powers. While we write, the latest account does not come down beyond the 12th instant. Nicholas had then all the necessary information before him, and the formal notification that the French and English fleets now occupy the Black Sea. He is described as being in a state of great mental excitement ; and there, as well as here, the thing expected was a declaration of war.
The one important fact announced from the East, is the actual occupation of the Black Sea by the combined fleet of England and France. In some respects this proceeding is a more decisive act than at first it was expected to be ; for the fleet has not only taken possession of the Euxine in order " to protect the Turkish terri- tory from aggression," but has, by a peculiar though perhaps justifiable construction of that phrase, permitted the passing of a Turkish convoy with reinforcements, for the army in Asia. In fact, the squadron to enforce abstinence from hostilities acted as a cover for those hostile reinforcements. But this peculiar action is perhaps less remarkable than the terms in which the Ambassadors notify to the Governor of Sebastopol the marine occupation of the Black Sea. They express the pleasure they should feel in learning, that his Excellency, animated by the desire to prevent all collision tending " to disturb the amicable relations" existing between his Government and those of the Am- bassadors, had given the requisite instructions to the Admiral commanding the Russian forces in the Black Sea "so as to obviate any occurrence calculated to endanger peace" ! Down to the very moment of actually commencing war upon Russia—for such the act is—the Ambassadors still preserve the most pacific language ; and by the divorce of their acts from their expressions, they prove how reluctant their Governments must be to abandon the hope that Russia may renew a genuine friendliness. Such, we suppose, is the motive of the note. But it reads like a satire.
