The Conference held to consider the Eastern Question met on
Tuesday. Nothing was, of course, done in the way of modi- fying the Treaty of Paris, but it is asserted that all the Powers represented signed a Note expressly repudiating the right of any single Power to retreat from a treaty without the previous con- sent of its previous co-signataries, or a majority of them. This statement, if correct, is a great diplomatic triumph for Lord Granville, and a great security for the reign of law in Europe, which seemed about to be broken up. It would also indicate, as do some other facts, that the action of Russia was altogether pre- mature, and that the Treaty, if revised at all, will now be revised in a way to which all the Powers concerned can give a more or less cordial assent; perhaps by enfranchising the Black Sea, perhaps by fixing the number of ships which the Czar and the Sultan can keep there. This last seems to be the Austrian idea, as, if the Black Sea were free, French or English war vessels might close the mouths of the Danube.
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