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NOTIFICATION.
Diplomatic Department,
WHEREAS the interests of the Public Service require the temporary absence from this Colony of His Excellency Sir JOHN BOWRING, LL. D., Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary, &c., &c., it is hereby notified that the Superintendency of Trade will be removed until further notice to the Port of Shanghae, to which all communications must for the present be addressed. Such communications if sent to the Government Offices to the care of J. Hyndman, Esq., will be forwarded to their destination. By Order,
Superintendency of Trade, Victoria, Hongkong, 25th May, 1854.
W. H. MEDHURST,
Officiating Secretary to H. M.'s Plenipotentiary, &c., &e.
GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.
The Subjoined Message from Her Majesty The QUEEN to both Houses of Parliament, together with two Supplements to the London Gazette, are hereby published for general information.
By Order,
W. T. MERCER, Colonial Secretary.
Colonial Secretary's Office, Victoria, Hongkong, 25th May, 1854.
Message from the Queen to both Houses of Parliament, March 27, 1854.
VICTORIA REGINA,
HER Majesty thinks it proper to acquaint the House of Lord
Commons that the negotiations in which Her Majesty, in concert with her allies, has for some time past been engaged, with His Majesty the Emperor of All the Russias, have terminated, and that Her Majesty feels bound to afford active assistance to her ally the Sultan against unprovoked aggression.
Commons
Her Majesty has given directions for laying before the House of Lords copies of such papers, in addition to those already communicated to Parliament, as will afford the fullest information with regard to the subject of these negotiations. It is a consolation to Her Majesty to reflect that no endeavours have been wanting on her part to preserve to her subjects the blessings of peace.
House of Lords
Her Majesty's just expectations have been disappointed, and Her Majesty relies with confidence on the zeal and devotion of the faithful Commons, and on the exertions of her brave and loyal subjects, to support.her in her determination to employ the power and resources of the nation for protecting the dominions of the Sultan against the encroachments of Russia.
V. R.
TUESDAY, MARCH 28, 1854.
DECLARATION.
It is with deep regret that Her Majesty announces the failure of Her anxious and protracted en- deavours to preserve for Her People and for Europe the blessings of peace.
The unprovoked aggression of the Emperor of Russia against the Sublime Porte has been per- sisted in with such disregard of consequences, that after the rejection by the Emperor of Russia of terms which the Emperor of Austria, the Emperor of the French, and the King of Prussia, as well as Her Majesty, considered just and equitable, Her Majesty is compelled by a sense of what is due to the honour of Her Crown, to the interests of Her People, and to the independence of the States of Europe, to come forward in defence of an Ally whose territory is invaded, and whose dignity and independence are assailed.
Her Majesty, in justification of the course she is about to pursue, refers to the transactions in which Her Majesty has been engaged.
The Emperor of Russia had some cause of complaint against the Sultan with reference to the set- tlement, which His Highness had sanctioned, of the conflicting claims of the Greek and Latin Churches to a portion of the Holy Places of Jerusalem and its neighbourhood. To the complaint of the Emperor of Russia on this head, justice was done; and Her Majesty's Ambassador at Constan- tinople had the satisfaction of promoting an arrangement to which no exception was taken by the Russian Government.
But while the Russian Government repeatedly assured the Government of Her Majesty that the Mission of Prince Menchikoff to Constantinople was exclusively directed to the settlement of the question of the Holy Places at Jerusalem, Prince Menchikoff himself pressed upon the Porte other demands of a far more serious and important character, the nature of which he in the first instance endeavoured, as far as possible, to conceal from Her Majesty's Ambassador. And these demands, thus studiously concealed, affected not the privileges of the Greek Church at Jerusalem, but the position of many millions of Turkish subjects in their relations to their Sovereign the Sultan.
These demands were rejected by the spontaneous decision of the Sublime Porte.
Two assurances had been given to Her Majesty; one, that the Mission of Prince Menchikoff only regarded the Holy Places; the other, that his Mission would be of a conciliatory character.
In both respects Her Majesty's just expectations were disappointed.