THE DENUNCIATION OF THE TREATY OF PARIS.
Earl Granville to Sir A. Buchanan.
FOREIGN OFFICE, Nov. 10, 1870.
Sir,—Baron Brunnow made to me yesterday the communication respecting the Convention between the Emperor of Russia and the Sultan, limiting their naval forces in the Black Sea, signed at Paris on the 30th of March, 1856, to which you allude in your telegram of yesterday afternoon.
In my despatch of yesterday I gave you an account of what passed between us, and I now propose to observe upon Prince Gortschakoff's despatches of the 19th and 20th ult., communicated to me by the Russian Ambassador on that occasion.
Prince Gortschakoff declares, on the part of His Imperial Majesty, that the Treaty of 1856 has been infringed in various respects to the prejudice of Russia, and more especially in the case of the Principalities, against the explicit protest of his representative, and that, in consequence of these infractions, Russia is entitled to renounce those stipulations of the Treaty which directly touch her interests.
It is then announced that she will no longer be bound by the Treaties which restrict her rights of sovereignty in the Black Sea.
We have here an allegation that certain facts have occurred which, in the judgment of Russia, are at variance with certain stipulations of the Treaty, and the assumption is made that Russia, upon the strength of her own judgment as to the character of those facts, is entitled to release herself from certain other stipulations of that instrument.
This assumption is limited in its practical application to some of the provisions of the Treaty, but the assumption of a right to renounce any one of its terms involves the assumption of a right to renounce the whole.
This statement is wholly independent of the reasonableness or unreasonableness, on its own merits, of the desire of Russia to be released from the observation of the stipulations of the Treaty of 1856 respecting the Black Sea.
For the question is, in whose hand lies the power of releasing one or more of the parties from all or any of these stipulations?