Our Special Correspondent at Paris communicates, in a letter published this morning, some intelligence which will be read with great interest. As our readers are aware, the Administration at Washington have given notice to Denmark that our vessels will presently refuse to pay the tolls levied by that power on ships passing through the Sound into the Baltic. In this emergency, Denmark resorts to France for assistance and support, and this the Emperor promises her on condition of her joining the Western Alliance against Russia. If she accepts that proposition, the attempt of the United States to send their vessels through the Sound untaxed, will be treated by the Alliance as a cause for war, and France and England will at once employ the menace of hostilities to bring us to reason and maintain the Danish imposition in its present flourishing state.
This project not only comes to us from good authority and is probable in itself, but is also indicated in the leading columns of The London Times. The Allies are very desirous to enlist Denmark in their League, and might naturally take advantage of the straits to which her Government is reduced by the danger of a forced abolition of this rich source of revenue to compel her into the crusade against Russia. But that the menace of war will be so effective with the United States is by no means so clear as his Majesty of the French seems to imagine. In a just cause we dare say the people of this country would not be terrified by such a threat even from so formidable an alliance as that of Western Europe.
The Sound Duties constitute an iniquitous imposition. There is no valid reason that can sustain Denmark in levying such a tribute upon us. Indeed, The Times only puts it upon the ground of Danish necessity—a plea that might be used to justify any corsair that ever extorted black mail from honest commerce. Other nations may continue to pay this tribute if they see fit, but so far as we are concerned it should be done away with at the earliest practicable day; and we trust that our Government will continue resolutely in the path on which it has entered with respect to this question.
Our correspondent also communicates some interesting information from Sevastopol. It seems that the Commission of American Officers, sent to study the works there and observe such warlike improvements as have been introduced, have completed their examination within the Russian lines, and have returned to Vienna prior to going, by way of Varney and Kamiesh, to visit the trenches of the besiegers—permission having finally been granted by the French Government. They report that the place is impregnable by the force now arrayed before it; and that in any event it cannot be taken without bloodshed unexampled in history.