While the result of the Russian attack at Sinope was
still unknown at Constantinople, a formal note requesting
British and French aid, was transmitted, on the 5th
inst, by Redschid Pacha to the English and French
ambassadors. After stating that Russian ships of war
had been seen cruising in the neighbourhood of Sinope;
and that it was presumed that the Turkish fleet had
been attacked, and that a great disaster had happened,
the Turkish minister makes the following appeal, "The
English and French fleets have been sent to the
Bosphorus with the sincere intention of protecting the shores
of the Ottoman empire. This recent occurrence proves
sufficiently, that it is the determination of Russia to
attack by means of her fleet those points against which
operations may be best directed. The impossibility,
however, of defending so vast an extent of coast without
a suflicient force in the Black Sea is perfectly evident;
and although the Sultan's government has the intention
of sending thither the fleet, it will be inadequate to the
object in view. Hence, the Sublime Porte considers
itself under the necessity of having recourse to the
effective solicitude of the two allied governments. This
notification is made accordingly and at the same time to
the ambassadors of England and France."

The war on the Asiatic frontier appears to be carried on
with great vigour. A number of conflicts have taken place,
but their results remain uncertain, each party claiming
the advantage. The most important battle seems to
have been fought at Akhaltzik, a place on the borders of
Turkish Armenia, which the Russian General Prince
Andronikoff, represents as a great victory. He relates
how he attacked and carried an inaccessible position of
the enemy near Akhaltzik, with the bayonet, after a
fierce cannonade. He styles it an unheard-of feat of
arms, and one such as could only be accomplished by the
dauntless courage of Russian soldiers. Their own loss
is described as slight, that of the Turks considerable.
However, they admit that General Freitag was killed.
But it appears that Prince Andronikoff was engaged
with only a detachment of the Turkish army, as he
states that the routed troops could not effect a junction
with the main body. This conflict is said to have
occurred on the 26th November. Te Deum was sung in
the Imperial chapel and all the churches of St. Petersburg
on the 8th instant, for the victories at Sinope and
Akhaltzik. The celebration in the Imperial chapel was
attended by the Emperor and Empress, the Imperial
Family, Ministers of State, Admirals, Generals, and
dignitaries present in the capital. A salute was fired
from the fortress, and the city illuminated in the evening.
"The most pious Czar," writes the St Petersburg
Journal, "thanked the Lord of Lords for the success of
the victorious Russian arms which triumphed in the
sacred combat for the orthodox faith." Prince
Andronikoff has received the order of St. George of the third
class, and other officers have been rewarded.

The accounts from Paris mention another conspiracy
against the Emperor. A number of arrests were effected
on the 10th and 11th inst. More than 100 persons were
taken into custody, among them twenty-two journeymen
tailors and shopmen employed at the celebrated
establishment of the Belle Jardiniere, on the Quay. It
appears that the Emperor was expected to be present
shortly at the inauguration of the works lately
completed in the bed of the Seine, opposite the Belle
Jardiniere, and it was alleged that it was intended to fire at
him from the windows. It is confidently asserted that
every one of the twenty-two persons above mentioned
had a loaded gun concealed among the clothes confided
to his care.

Placards have appeared in the streets of Paris announcing
on the part of the administrators of the royal domains
the sale of the château and estate Raincy, belonging to the
Orleans family, in virtue of the confiscation decree of the
22nd of January, 1852. The upset price is l,383,098f.

M. Bratiano, one of the prisoners tried in the affair of
the conspiracy of the Opéra Coraique, but who, although
acquitted, was detained in custody on some other minor
charge, has been removed to a maison de santé, in
consequence of the state of his health.

The official reports of the prefects, addressed to the
Central Administration, mention a frightful increase in
the number of incendiary fires throughout France. The
departments the most cruelly visited are those of the
Oise, Aisne, Ille et Vilaine, Ardennes, &c. Everywhere
the authorities are on the watch, and the gendarmerie
perform continual patrols, but hitherto only a small
number of incendiaries have been arrested.

The intelligence from Italy states that preparations
are making for the simultaneous evacuation of the
Roman States by the French and Austrian armies of
occupation. It appears that a secret treaty exists, by
which that double occupation was to last for five years.
The five years are about to expire; and the Pope is
anxious to get rid of his foreign protectors, and to trust
his safety to the safeguard of Italian troops alone. With
this view, the King of Naples is at the present moment
organising a body of 20,000 men, which he promised
Pio Nono, during his residence at Gaeta, that he would
place at his disposal. The whole of these troops are to
adopt the Pontifical cockade, and to protect the Holy
See, along with the 12,000 men whom the Pope has
already in his service.

Three outrages upon foreigners have taken place;
two in the Neapolitan dominions, and one in the Roman
States. Mr. Baggio, a British Ionian, who has long
carried on business at Naples, recently visited Paris and
London. On his return he landed at Leghorn,
intending to go thence to Naples; but the Neapolitan
Consul refused to visé his passport. He betook himself
to the British Consul; who immediately demanded a
permission for Mr. Baggio to enter Naples: but he also
was refused, on the ground that during his travels
Mr. Baggio "communicated with refugees in England
and France." This is looked upon as a violation of
existing treaties. The second case is that of an American
citizen, Mr. James Carbone. The Neapolitan authorities
at Messina refused to allow him to land, although
the United States Consul off'ered the fullest guarantees
for his good conduct whilst he transacted business in
Sicily. The charge against him was taking part in
political events; but at the date of the transaction
mentioned by the police, Mr. Carbone was in America.
Mr. Owen, the American Minister at Naples, has written
home for instructions. In the third case, the victim was
a native of Gibraltar, named Desain. He had gone
early in September by appointment to Rome, with a
British passport, countersigned by the Papal Nuncio at
Florence. On his way, he stopped at Arezzo; and there,
on the night of the 21st, he was taken from his bed by
gendarmes. Asking to see a magistrate, he was carried
to gaol, and told that the gaoler was the magistrate he
was to speak with. From that time he was taken from
prison to prison, and confined, for terms of three to
seventeen days, in Santo Sepolcro, Città di Castello,
Perugia, and Foligno. By bribing some one, however,
he managed to get a letter conveyed to the British
authorities in Rome; where he himself arrived, a prisoner, on
the 14th November. Mr. Lyon and Mr. Freeborn now
vigorously exerted themselves; and on the 17th November
Mr. Desain was taken to the Consular office, and
placed under British protection; where, at the date of
the intelligence, he was awaiting the result of negotiations
in his behalf.

Attention has again been drawn to the prison sufferings
of Poerio, the constitutional minister of the King
of Naples, whose cause Mr. Gladstone so eloquently
pleaded in his Neapolitan pamphlet. A letter from
Naples, dated the 4th December, says—I am sorry to
inform you that Baron Poerio, who has now worn the
chains of a galley-slave for more than four years, is
subject to fresh severities, which, if continued, will, ere
long, remove him from the troubles of this world.
Hitherto the police authorities have permitted the
ex-minister to spend ten ducats (£2) per month for such
necessaries as his state of health demands. Orders have
now been issued that henceforth he will be permitted to
receive from his family only one carlino (fourpence) per
day. Now, the prison in which this victim of the
Neapolitan constitution is confined, at Montefusco, is so
exposed, that without fire the prisoners would perish of
cold, and the 4d. per day will scarcely pay for wood;
independently of which, M. Poerio is in such a wretched
state of health as to require many comforts; such as are