Mr. MacVeagh to Mr. Fish.
Sir: In two days after the date of my last dispatch we received the news of the proposal of a conference on the eastern question, and as I am writing we are assured of its acceptance. The peaceable solution of the difficulty is regarded here as certain; indeed war has never been regarded here as anything but improbable; but, as much of this opinion rested upon the mistaken belief that in no event would England engage in war, it has not impressed me as profoundly as it otherwise might have done. What appeared to me far more important was what I learned of the attitude of the Sultan in the matter. I am tolerably sure that he has been resolved upon peace at almost any price, and I should not be surprised if communications to that effect had passed between him and the Czar. Indeed, the information I received leads me to suppose that the grand vizier, who is believed to follow implicitly the advice of England, has had great difficulty in persuading His Majesty to abstain from direct interference in the interests of peace.
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So many facts, however, from independent sources, have come to my knowledge, all tending in one direction, as to compel me to the belief that the Porte was very slow of movement in the first stages of the difficulty, and might even have been found impossible of control on the part of its allies, if an escape from war had not been discovered. Now that a conference has been accepted, the opinion in high quarters here is universal that it will result in the concession of the Russian demand, with possibly some slight counterbalancing concession to Turkey, and a new guarantee of all the other conditions of the treaty of Paris of 1856.
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I have, &c.,