The unjust demands of the EMPEROR OF RUSSIA on the Ottoman Porte, and his subsequent occupation of the Danubian Principalities, occupied the earnest attention of the Parliament and the people throughout the year, and was the occasion of much inquiry and discussion. We cannot do better than add a summary of LORD JOHN RUSSELL's Speech, towards the close of the Session, in explanation of the position of affairs:-- "When he entered office, he said, his attention was called to the question of the Holy Places; and he instructed LORD COWLEY, at Paris, to give the subject his earnest attention. Soon after he, LORD JOHN RUSSELL, learned that a special Russian Minister would be sent to the SULTAN, to put an end, by some solemn act, to the differences that existed with regard to the Holy Places. He did not object to that; and PRINCE MENSCHIKOFF arrived at Constantinople on the 2nd of March. From this point, LORD JOHN RUSSELL went over the subsequent events--the resignation of FUAD EFFENDI; the message of COLONEL ROSE To ADMIRAL DUNDAS, sent at the request of the Grand Vizier, and subsequently retracted; and the notification by the Turkish Ministers to LORD STRATFORD, in April, that certain propositions had been made to them to which they were unwilling to accede. 'I should say,' continued he, 'that up to this time the Government of HER MAJESTY at home, and Her Majesty's Minister at St. Petersburg, had always understood that the demands to be made by Russia had reference to the Holy Places; and were all comprised, in one form or another, in the desire to render certain and permanent the advantages to which Russia thought herself entitled in favour of persons professing the Greek religion. LORD STRATFORD understood from the Turkish Ministers, that it had been much desired by the Russian Ambassador that the requests which were made on the part of Russia should be withheld from the knowledge of the representatives of the other Powers of Europe; and these fresh demands were as new to the Government of France as they were to the Government of HER MAJESTY.' The propositions were changed from time to time, until PRINCE MENSCHIKOFF gave in his ultimatum, and left Constantinople. 'I consider that this circumstance was one very greatly to be regretted. It has always appeared to me, that, on the one side and the other, there were statements that would be admitted, while there were others that might be the subject of compromise and arrangement. The Russian Minister maintained that Russia had, by certain treaties (especially by the treaties of Kainardji and Adrianople) the right to expect that the Christians in the Turkish territory would be protected; and he declared at the same time, that Russia did not wish in any manner to injure the independence or integrity of the Turkish Empire. The Sultan's Ministers, on their part, maintained that it was their duty, above all things, to uphold the independence of the Sultan, and to require that nothing