Lord John Russell, on his way to Vienna, has had
interviews at Berlin with Monarch and Ministry ; and while he is negotiating, military action on both sides of the great controversy continues. Omar Pasha, on his first appearance in conjunction with the Allies, has maintained his repute by vigorously repulsing a powerful attack upon the Turkish army at Eupatoria. Not the less do the Russian forces concentrate in a menacing man- ner upon the position of the Allies at Sebastopol; while the approaching departure of the Emperor Napoleon for that scene of adventure appears now to be hardly questioned. The declaration of war which the Czar thought it worth his while to put forth against a state so remote and so small as Sardinia, was a confession that he began to feel the pressure which was coming upon him ; a confession strengthened by the studiously courteous manner in which the threat is clothed : and the hint at past favours which the Sardinian Monarchy has received from Russia, per- haps explains the character of the speculation that has made Naples join in a neutrality hostile to the Allies. Russia wishes the minor states of Europe to gather from her threats and promises that they will profit by being on her side. Upon the whole, however, the tendency in Europe seems to be to consolidate and strengthen the alliance; and the ohief anxiety is, to ascertain whether the negotiators at Vienna will sustain with sufficient vigour and courage the responsibility that has been thrown upon them.
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