Page:Wallachia and Moldavia - Correspondence of D. Bratiano whit Lord Dudley C. Stuart, M.P. on the Danubian Principalities.djvu/2



,—Since my return to England, the line of conduct which I have considered it my duty to adopt, has forced me to remain in retirement, and has interdicted me from every relation with the politicians of this country. Notwithstanding the strong inducement I have had to act otherwise, in my remembrance of the gracious reception I met with at the commencement of the year 1849, from the noble viscount, who was then at the head of the foreign office, and from those members of the two houses with whom I had the honor to be in communication at that period, I do not now depart from the rule which I have laid down; and I take the liberty of writing to you, only in obedience to an almost imperative mandate, so pressing are the solicitations addressed to me by a great number of the most notable inhabitants of the Danubian Principalities, begging me, at the earliest opportunity, to call the attention of the English Parliament and Government, to the new misfortunes that threaten these unfortunate countries. The news from Constantinople, in the journals of yesterday, will not suffer me longer to delay the accomplishment of my duty.

Assuredly my constituents still have faith in the efficacy of English diplomacy. England, they tell me, is the only great European power capable of understanding the cry of liberty and right amongst other peoples, for she is the only great power in Europe that rests upon right and liberty; and her material