Within the last few days a very important question has arisen, the decision of which is a very difficult matter. It has been found that the commerce of Russia has not been materially diminished, as their great staples (hemp, &c.) have passed regularly through the Prussian ports, being brought there by land, and it is now desired to devise some means of putting an end to this exportation. Clarendon has written to Reeve about it, and Granville has obtained returns of the amount of hemp and linseed imported from Russia in past years and in the present, from which it appears that though there is a diminution it is not a very considerable one. The effect produced is only the inevitable consequence of the policy that was adopted deliberately and after great consideration at the beginning of the war; and how that policy is to be adhered to, and the consequences complained of prevented, is the problem to be solved. A blockade of the Prussian ports in the Baltic has been suggested--a measure, as it seems to me, very questionable in point of right and political morality, and certain to be attended by the most momentous consequences. Such a measure may not be without precedent, or something resembling precedent; but no Power with anything like self-respect or pride could tamely submit to such an outrage and such an insult, and as it would certainly afford a _casus belli_, Prussia could hardly, without abandoning all claim to be considered a great Power, abstain from declaring war _instanter_; and, whatever may be the sentiments of the Prussian nation and of the Germans generally with regard to Russia, it is by no means unlikely that such an arbitrary and imperious proceeding would enlist the sympathies and the passions of all Germans without exception in opposition to us, and to France if she became a party to it. _Newmarket._--Granville told me on Saturday morning that he was much alarmed at the disposition evinced by John Russell, and he expects an explosion sooner or later. _London, October 30th._--I returned last night and found a meeting of the Committee of Council settled for to-day, to consider the question of stopping Russian trade. Wilson has drawn up a paper in which he discusses the various modes of accomplishing this object, and recommends that the Queen should forbid all trade with Russia, and prohibit the importation of Russian produce, and require certificates of origin for tallow, hemp, &c. John Russell writes word that he cannot attend the meeting, but is ready, though reluctant, to vote for Wilson's proposal. Granville and Cardwell are both dead against it, after a discussion at the Council Office at which the majority were against the proposal.