Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 8th March 1856, Edition 2 of 2, Page 12, THEl DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. One of the...

Page 12
Page 12
12 of 24

On this page

  • Departments (2)
    • , ^terjr\ / 7$X\ a Vji| ^t/ Vq*! ^ ^rll htf>& o<^ d^ & / 4^* ' /~*~ >ir*^ s3 J& ^J^V " *V **w & ? f~* j{f (Oj^ ^-^ \S
    • ;...., . .. ' ==== *%\. f f* (ZtfC * Jt/ttullC ^Itfltr jSL * '
  • Text (8)
  • Transcript

    • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

      Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

      S?3 T: R.$ Leade K. Fno. 311. Saturn

      S ? 3 T : R . $ LEADE K . fNo . 311 . Saturn

      Notices To Cqreesp0n1m5nts, Nfo Jjptfpe ...

      NOTICES TO CQREESP 0 N 1 M 5 NTS , Nfo jJPtfpe can be taken of anonymous communications Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated Dytncuarae and address of jthe writer ; not necessarily fpr publication but as a guarantiee of his good faith . It 18 . impossible to acknowledge the mass of letters we receive . Their insertion is often delayed , owtng to a press ¦ of matter ; and > vhen omitted , it is frequently from reaj sons quite independent of the merits of the communication . " We cannot undertake to return rejected communications . During the Session of 1 ' arliament it is oi ' ten impossible to find room for correspondence , even the briefest . Ebbatcm . —In our last number , in " SadJeirour Witness , ' , for " Jame * Sadleir . " read " John Sadteir . " EBBATOM .-In the " JXeviow of the Week , " for " SirWHliaiii Heatlcote , " read 'Sir Gilbert John Heathcote . "

      , ^Terjr\ / 7$X\ A Vji| ^T/ Vq*! ^ ^Rll Htf≫& O≪^ D^ & / 4^* ' /~*~ ≫Ir*^ S3 J& ^J^V " *V **W & ? F~* J{F (Oj^ ^-^ \S

      _ '""• fir o ^ T ^ v »—

      Saturday, March 8, 1856.

      SATURDAY , MARCH 8 , 1856 .

      ;...., . .. ' ==== *%\. F F* (Ztfc * Jt/Ttullc ^Itfltr Jsl * '

      f faulit Mmts .

      There Is Nothing So Revolutionary, Becau...

      There is nothing so revolutionary , because there is ! nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain . to keep things fixed -when all the world is by the verylaw ; of its . creation in eternal progress . --i > B . Aunold .

      Thel Danubian Principalities. One Of The...

      THEl DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES . One of the most difficult of the questions deyeloped by the Riissian war > is that which involves the political settlement of the Danubiaii Principalities . The idea of Statesmen is to create ffbin the territories of Moldavia and ^ ajytachia -a separatej but not , strictly , an independent State which , by > forming the debateable ground of Austrian and Russian interests , shall ^ ct as a breakwater to the "KarMsh ^ mp ire . Austria and Russia have ib ^ g ^ cctotende ^ far supremacy on the Danube , the possession of which , by Russia , Would exclude -Austria from the East , and the possession of whicb , by Austria , would fix the limit of Russian encroachments . But neither oF /; ' | he . Hvai- p 6 w . ers '" is : fiiendly' to the Ottoman Empire ; by both has that Empire been attacked arid enfeebled ; to both , her mouldering decrepitude offers a prospect of political aiid- commercial gain , The problem is , then , to confer on the bordering provinces of the Danube such a constitution and such guarantees as shall be honourable to the Porte , which has Imperial claims , just to the Moldavians and Wallachians , who have national and natural rights , satisfactory to Russia and Austria , which , have conflicting interests , and Appropriate for the solution of the great European difficulty which has called the Plenipotentiaries to Paris . This is not a case in which the rights of the disputants admit of positive definition , or in * which any of the interests avowed can "be literally acknowledged . In point of equity , the first claim is that of the people themselves who inhabit those valuable provinces . They ar ^ r four millions in number , industrious , pacific , attached to the Christian faith , qualified in many respects for political franchises . As the ilower of the Roumanic race , the descendants of Tjkajan ' s legions , they stand full iix the light of history ; and though , wedged in between three great military empires , they have not been able to preserve their independence—they have lost only what it was impossible to keep . They have no Alps or Cau-< $ ? $ » , t 0 fortify their national liberties ; their territory is a rich plain , bordered by one of th & largest rivers in Europe , attractive to arn-* " &??> " wfith open valleys forming outlets to tW arynieg of the great monarchies aroiuid . ¦§ Mfe , r « P « ol ot the Corn Laws by Groat HRlW Principalities have acquired nn-FrS ? £ » # * twce as feeders of the trade \ n feuH ^ t' * h Q policy of Russia has been

      exerted systematically , and in defiance of international law , to diminish their exports , to repress the culture of the land , to isolate the people , and thus to confer a factitious prosperity on Taganrog and Odessa . Therefore England has a double interest in -securing the integrity of the Danubian provinces , —a political interest , involving the safety of the Turkish empire , a commercial interest involving the general freedom of trade .

      Superficially , it is easy to assert the maxim that , aU nations having a right to independence , the ^ Roumanians should be endowed with a separate political existence ; but from this it would merely result , that the States would be torn in pieces , between the conflicting ambition of Russia and Austria . The only method by wbich they can be attached to the political system of Europe , without being merged into the Austrian or Russian dominions , would be by preserving a link between

      their government and that of Turkey . We assume , of course , that for some years Turkey will have Turkish rulers . " When that phase has disappeared , the Principalities might be incorporated in an Eastern Federation . But , dealing with de facto elements , the war , which was undertaken in support of Ottoman independence , could not be concluded ~ b j an act of violence -upon the Ottoman einpire . We can

      conceive , therefore , no better means of securing the new Daniibian frontier , than by constituting Moldavia and Wallachia . separate or united States , and restoring the relations that originally existed between them and the Porte . It was " through the gradual decomposition of those ties that the Russian protectorate encroached , tha £ . the Hospodars were corrupted , that the Danube fell under an alien sway .

      These relations date , in the case of Wallachia , from the year 1392 , and in the case of Moldavia from the year 1513 . The two Constitutions differed only in points of detail , — -the one being imposed by compulsion , the other accepted as an act of grace . That which was compulsory formed the precedent , stipulating that the Prince should retain the right of peace and war , life and death ; that his territories should be inviolate f that the Ottoman Government should not claim the extradition

      of Christian refugees ; that Wallachians and Moldavians emigrating into provinces of the Turkish empire should be exempt from the Haratch , or capitation tax ; that the Christian princes should be elected by the Metropolitan and the Boyards ; that they should render tribute to the Sultan , who , in return , should be their supreme protector .. The principle of this relation was—imperial supremacy on the one hand , domestic independence on the other . So long as the people elected their own princes so long the states flourished ; but when , through Russian and

      Austrian machinations , the elective system became extinct , and the Phanariote nominations supplanted it , the princedom of Wallachia or the princedom of Moldavia became a saleable dignity , and the highest bidders at Constantinople raised their nominee to the vicarious throne . Between Russian opulence and Turkish cupidity , only one result was possible , and this is the practice which the Councillors of the Porte , even beforo the declaration of an armistice , recommended to the Plenipotentiaries . They propose to restore the ancient constitution " of the Danubian

      states ^ so far modified that the Metropolitans and Boyards should elect three candidates , one of whom should be adopted by the Sultan . This would bo nothing more or less than to open a mart of princedoms , * in which if the highest purchaser happened to bo an agent from St . Petersburg , his candidate would obtain the investiture . But is the Avar to end

      by entrusting to the incorrigible cupidity of Turkish officials the safeguards of the Turkish empire ? Even this scheme , however , would be preferable to the inane device of inviting some tenpenny bastard of a German royal house to seat himself upon a Danubian throne . We do not want another " little kingdom" patched up from the ruins of Turkey . The idea has been favoured by a corrupt section in the Principalities ; but we have reason to think it has been positively rejected by the Western Powers . Some of the Ionian Greeks have

      also countenanced it , adding an invitation to the scion of royal Belgium to hold himself in readiness for the reversion of an empire . But these are infatuations not shared by statesmen . The frontier of the Danube and the independence of Moldavia and Wallachia w ere , in former times , secured by liberal constitutions attached to the central government of the Porte , and we see no better solution of the existing difficulty than the re-establishment of a system which , while it lasted , satisfied the provinces , and protected the empire .

      Fourteen Russian Treaties. Russia Has Co...

      FOURTEEN RUSSIAN TREATIES . Russia has concluded fourteen important treaties since the commencement of the century . If , by a fifteenth , signed at Paiis , she renounces , a strip of territory 'between the Dnieper and the Danube , it will be her first territorial concession within fifty years . An act of political abdication , in reality , contradicts the historical policy of that Empire . In former warSj when Turkey was a great power , she twice succeeded in extorting the submission of her ambitious neighbour , —at Faltsi , in 1711 , when the Czars surrendered Taganrog and AzofT , and at Belgrade , in 1739 , when they conceded the neutrality of the Sea of Azoff , and the independence of the two Kabardas . But , since that period , Russia has invariably gained by a peace . She has made two treaties with Sweden , —one in 1809 , at Fredericksham , by which Pinland and the Aland Islands were acquired—another under a clause in the General Settlement at Viennaf' by which these acquisitions were confinned , in addition to large conquests in Lapland .

      The course of her diplomacy in Poland is familiar to all historical students . At Tilsit she acquired the province of Bialystok , at " Vienna the investiture of the Polish crown , and five separate territories , successively conquered . With the Ottoman Empire she has concluded seven treaties ; some negotiated with Turkish plenipotentiaries , others imposed on the Porte as absolute decrees . By the first , in 1801-2 , she detached Mingrelia , Georgia ,

      and Imeritia from the feudatory territories of the Empire ; by the second , at Bucharest ; , she acquired Bessarabia , part of Moldavia , and the borders of the Pruth , which she is reqxiired , at the Paris Conferences , to surrender . Under this Convention , also , she eradicated the military supremacy of the Turks in Servia , brought the navigation of the Danube under her own

      control , and laid the basis of a mischievous influence in the Moldavian and Wallachian Principalities . All these privileges were ratified by the Treaty of Vienna , and by that of Alcerman in 182 C they were extended . Russia seized upon two of the Dnnubian islets , established a formal protectorate in the Principalities , and asserted a political participation in the affairs of Servia .

      In 1829 , the treaty of Adriaaoplc secured to Russia the mouths of the Danube , with largo territories in the Black Sea , and in Asia riveted her influence upon the Christian populations , extended her frontier on the Pruth , and con

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), March 8, 1856, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_08031856/page/12/