THE CONFERENCE OF 1871.
THE RESULT OF THE DENUNCIATION OF THE TREATY OF PARIS BY
RUSSIA WAS THAT A CONFERENCE, SUGGESTED BY PRINCE BISMARCK,
WAS ARRANGED TO MEET AT LONDON.
Protocol No. 1.
At the Sitting of January 17.
Earl Granville expressed himself as follows:—
Earl Granville—
"The Conference has been accepted by all the co-signatory Powers of the Treaty of 1856, for the purpose of examining, without any foregone conclusion, and of discussing with perfect freedom, the proposals which Russia desires to make to us with regard to the revision which she asks of the stipulations of the said Treaty relative to the neutralization of the Black Sea.
"This unanimity furnishes a striking proof that the Powers recognize that it is an essential principle of the law of nations that none of them can liberate itself from the engagements of a treaty, nor modify the stipulations thereof, unless with the consent of the contracting parties by means of an amicable understanding."
The Plenipotentiary of Russia requested the permission of the Conference to read a summary which he wished to be inserted in the Protocol:—