[Sidenote: TERMS OF PEACE ACCEPTED BY RUSSIA.]
_12 o'clock._--Payne has just rushed in here, to say that a telegraphic message, dated Vienna, ten o'clock last night, announces that 'Russia accepts _unconditionally_ the proposals of the allies.' The consequence of this astounding intelligence was such a state of confusion and excitement on the Stock Exchange as was hardly ever seen before. The newspapers had one and all gone on predicting that the negotiations would lead to nothing, and that the war would go on, so that innumerable people continued to be 'bears,' and they were all rushing to get out as fast as they could. It remains yet to be seen whether it is really true; if it is, the Russians will be prodigiously provoked when they find that this concession was superfluous, and that the allies would have accepted _their_ terms.
_January 18th._--Though the account in the 'Times' was not exactly correct, it proved substantially so. The right message came from Seymour soon after. There was such a scene in the Stock Exchange as was hardly ever witnessed; the funds rose three per cent., making five in the last two days. The Rothschilds, and all the French who were in the secret with Walewski, must have made untold sums. I have been endeavouring to account for what appears the extraordinary conduct of Russia in accepting the Austrian terms purely and simply, and this strikes me to be the solution of it, and if my idea is correct it will account for the exceedingly bad terms which Cowley and Walewski are on. The conditions offered to Russia contained none of the points insisted on by our Government. I believe that the French and Austrians believed, very likely were certain, that if they had been sent Russia would have refused them, and, being bent on peace, they resolved to leave them out, and excuse themselves to England as they best could; they therefore simply presented their proposal as it originally stood. Russia replied with a qualified acceptance, and then Esterhazy was obliged by the compact to say that he could only take yes or no; then, finding them not inclined to give any other answer, that he or somebody else told them the true state of the case, viz., that he had kept back the conditions _we_ had demanded, and that unless they accepted his proposition, it must of necessity fall to the ground, and that nothing would then prevent the English points being brought forward and made absolute conditions of any fresh preliminaries. This was very likely to determine them to accept the proposals as put before them, for although by so doing they accepted the fifth condition, which exposes them to further and not specified demands, the especial points on which we insist can only be brought forward as points for negotiation, and will not form part of those conditions to which by their acceptance they stand completely and irrevocably pledged.