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    sm THE LEA BE R. [Saturday,

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    A RUSSIAN PAMPHIlET:* IV. (Conclusion.) ...

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    Sm The Lea Be R. [Saturday,

    sm THE LEA BE R . [ Saturday ,

    A Russian Pamphilet:* Iv. (Conclusion.) ...

    A RUSSIAN PAMPHIlET : * IV . ( Conclusion . ) £ We repeat the caution that throughout these Articles it is the " Inhabitant of Continental Europe" who speaks . We do bat report . ] Howjbvjsr aaelancholy may be the prospects of the war for Europe , it may tie that the moral and political regeneration of the East will be the providential Tes-uit of the crisis we deplore , and which Russia is accused of having provoked . Russia -may claim tlie double glory of having served as the instrument of the divine decrees , and of having understood the Eastern question better than the statesmen of the West . What the Emperor of Russia tr & ated as : an . eventuality in 1852 , when he invited England , to come to

    4 m understanding to prevent t » e disasters which the decline of tbe Ottoman Empire involved , is an accomplished fact in 1854 . Though the principle of ¦ the ' integrity and independence' of Turkey is still in T / igour , we can scarcely believe in the political vitality ; of an empire whose capital is surrendered to . & formidable fleet—whose provinces . are held by an army of occupation- — whose populations are abandoned to revolt ~ whose central government is under the avowed protection of an ambassador , and whose local authorities . are . under the surveillance of consular agents who impose laws wJiich are incornpatible with . tJxe supreme-law of the preservation and even tlie existence of theiempire . What did Prince Metternieh . say in the Austrian note of April 20 , 1841 , ^ hlchmay ; Vefound'ini ; he [ Blue ^ The Forte had spontaneously claimed the . good offices of Austria to obtain the guarantee of her existence by reci-^^ ¦ r ^^ m ^ j ^^ " ^^ ^ ^ . " — 7 ^^^ ^^ ^ ' - —^^ — ¦ . ^^ ^ ¦ ^* . ¦ : " 9 *^ > ™»^^ r » ¦ , ¦ ¦ —wi ^* . ^^ *^ 4 >; ' ^ r ^^& - ^^ j ^ Tr r v ^^ 4 * . ^>^^ f ** : T » ^^ wA — .

    procal engagements between the great Bowers of Europe . , PH » ce Metteroidli'Twsrote , .. •« * < -A . State wHich plaxjes jitself under the guarantee of another ^ State , loses' ; the ftbwer rof its ; independence : submifjs itself to tjae wiU of i ^ e protestor ; fox * the guarantee , to be ;; efficacious , anust . include the right <> f ^ prateetoirate , and . If a single . protector is an incunAraiice , a collective piotectdnttte is / an intolerableV burden . " Events Jiave mar , clied rapidly since the date of that jiote ^ fo ^ independence , '' ah expression , never applied to a State ; -really independent , inspires the Turfcs ( those new adepts in the : public law of Europe ) with confidence-enough-tobrave the power of ^ Russia . - ¦ ¦ Itwas ^ he ^ pectacJepf this ^ slow ; wasting-. agony . of . a . ^ oyernni en"t at ; once ; un-|) tX 3 nciple 4 and Tash enough . to brave ; Eranceland JRussia ; in succession , that andux ^^ he Emperor

    ^ thatibhr 6 atehed the ^ ast , to <> f correspondence , 3 nte ^ 3 icity ; a 8 ifthey-exposed ambitious designs of Russia . Any one who' reads ^ r ith ^ sufficient attention the reports addiessed -by the English Minister after •^ ariotis . conversations he bad with = the Emperor , or \ yith the . ^ Russian 'Chancellor , will recognise on "the one side a m ^ acn ^ liheiran isness . of conduct in that last eHbrJ ; of . a . man , who , having convictions arid the courage to avow theno , spurns rtlipse / reticences and circumlocutions which idre . the resort of diploanacy ; and > -wlaose very language inspires ( confidence by ats xuiaccustpnied fanauaarLtyv On the other Side will be Observed a diplomatist who makes a principle of ! xUstriast , Teplyinrg by generalities and commonplaces , and employing Swords only to disguise his thoughts .

    JLnithe'depths of the ' secret and confidential' ( the tiJJe bestowed uppii these Eng lish reppcts ) may . be -detected a predetermined treacliery which the published documents bring to light . In these the English Minister transcribes'the words of the Emperor , and interprets their meaning by has -own personal suggestions , not forgetting , as a man of shrewdness and experience , to leave himself a door of escape by "remarking wore than , once with graceful candour , that lie thinks he has forgotten the precise terms of the conversation . We 'may suppose that the opposition to any extension of the 'territory of the Hellenic kingdom , of which we- find no trace in the documents emanating from the Russian . Chancery , and . which , is neither consonant with the feelings of 'the > Emperor Nicholas nor wit ! Russian interests , is an instance of having forgotten the precise steums , ' if it be not an

    adroit invention o > f Sir : G . II . . Seymour , destined to produce its effect in due season . We fawwv that bosides" > the official despatches , ^ writte to appear , 8 Qoner -or later in the Blue Boobs , ilie i Englisji 'diplomatic agents make freguent use of private correspo ndence , which often leaves no trace in the Foreign-dmce . Perhaps it is there that the solution of -this ingenious problem .-may be sought . No doubt it became England , whose policy it is to ^ prolong ftlie flatus quo of the East , and to isolate Russia , to avow her belief in tlie vitality of Turkey , and to accuse iRaissia of seeking to precipitate the tfatal denotiment . The iBuxopean jn : css interprets the Emperor ' s words by 1 lho light . of , the amfoassado ^' s ' contidentiaV transcript , and even ascribes to . Russia the design of taking jpasaession , of ,. the Principalities and of Bulgaria . To give an / air of arojility itp . a phantom , it was necosuary to inwonfc a material interest . for RuBsia n ^ here'she had only a moral and religious interest , tlie restoration of Hhe J 2 < t $ tto 'CthruitianUy , and the suppression of a political anomaly and a permanent menac i to tie peace of the ivorld , What noither Sir Q , M . Seymour ' s veraion-of the Emperor ' s words , nor the bolder and less skilful

    interpretations of iihe press have yet been nbleto distort , is the clctw and ftwrniil declaration of the OSmpcwx ' Nichola 3 . I . That he did oiot moan to seize Constantinople , nor desire any territorial extension , any conquest . I'd / That Jho had not accepted thtj inheritance of p'ojects formed by liis ancestresB , * he Envppess Catlierino II This declaration -from Due mouth of a Sovereign wliom not even Us enemies ocm accuse : qf 7 iavi ? ig'broken . Ms word during tivenlyeiyltt years of his reign , is of immense sigp ? ficancc ,, ran . a suffices alone to -reduce to their proper worth nil those calumnious suspicions wluoh -have been iabriciitod out of the despatches of Sir G . Hamilton Seymour . The commentators on tlieso despatches luivo abstained from noting a noble aa » d / gewirous / thought , which soaped the diplomatist at the end of liis 4 capatoli . of January 22 , 185 J 3 . It . is thia : " It would be a noble triumph for jtho civilisation of the nineteenth century to succeed in filling up the vdia-wkieh theoxtonsion Qf . ieho Mahornefcan rdligion haa mude -in Europe , * La Guor «> d'Oriout . ' OesOwiaos dt' » ea ' Oona < Jquvnce » , 13 ar UnMibitaiftHo . l'JSmonB Cont % n < aUntc . Brusollea , 1854 . e

    and to do this by measures of precaution adopted by the two governments which are chiefly interested in the destinies of Turkey . " These are noble words , and they do honour to Sir G . H . Seymour . The diplomatist we perceive , involuntarily feels the influence of the noble frankness of the Sovereign who honoured him with his confidence . That despatch was written fresh from the Emperor ' s lips , and the minister forgot for a moment Talleyrand's precept , never to obey first impulses too often good . After riper reflection , he returns in the following despatch to his phlegmatic denial of any cause for apprehension in the East : at the very moment when tbe

    Montenegrine insurrection produced a crisis : when the French ambassador had coolly declared to the Porte , that the French fleet was ready to proceed to the Coast of Syria to settle the Holy Places dispute , after making a demonstration at Tripoli , which encountered tbe protests of the consuls of England and the United States . This avowal of the English diplomatist has since become a formal and eloquent condemnation of that government , one of the two most deeply interested in the destinies of Turkey , whose loyal and frank co-ppera * tion in . the policy suggested by the other government would have ensured that glorious triunip / i to the civilisation of the nineteenth century , and whose systematic malevolence towards its rival has abandoned that civilisation to

    the hazards of \ yai \ Facts . are , after . all , the surest interpretation / of words . If Russia had dreamt of the conquest of the East for herself instead of the Christian restoration of ' the East for the sake ojheriiationalities > Prince Menschikoff would have been escorted by a fleet with 15 , 000 troops : and instead of sending some time after SOjQOO men to occupy the Principalities , as a warning to Turkey and to Europe , a force of froiri 30 , 000 to 40 , 000 men would have crossed tlie Danube in one month ; would have deposed all the Turkish authorities in ; Rpiimelia i swept away the feeble garrisons that held the fortresses ; and , without ericountering any resistance , ; would have taken Constantinople . At that time there was scarcely a force of 12 : 000 men scattered over the whole

    surface of Europeans Turkey , excepting the weak garrison Of the capital : the Mussulman populations ^ vere not fanaticised , and would have received the Russians with alacrity ; As soon as the Russian ambassador reached Constantinople , Europe expected resolute and energetic acts on the part Pf Russia . ; and such , would have been the surest and nipst rapid solution of the crisis which only / assumed . mote ser ious proportions wlien Russia hesitated and temporised . Even the u ^ suggested to Russia the designs she had . ijo / , and the mearis of reaUsiiig them . More than one plan Pf campaign Svas fuTnislied to ilussia : by the "journals . If we are accused of exaggerating the opportunities of Russia for a campaign in Roumelia , or iix Asia , in the spring of last year , yve have only to refer tp

    the assertions of the English Government itself : notably to tin declaration oj Lord Aberdeen . We say , then , that facts prove the purely peaceable intentions of Russia in the East—as the first condition of a pacific settlenie-ht , she insisted on the emahpipation pf the Christians . This measure would have gradually but ¦ •¦ infallibly- produced , without shock or violence , the suppression of the Turkish regime which survives the existence of the Ottoman Empire , considered as an independent polity . ' To : this Christian restoration of the -East the Western Powers have preferred the resurrection of the Mussulman body politic ; of a Power whose decease is clearly enouigh manifested by the efforts of those who take credit for \& miracle when they produce some galvanic convulsions in a corpse . They prescribe an heroic remedy for the Ottoman Empire by depriving the Sultan of the principal attribute of sovereignty , the prerpgative pf making peace , by condemning his people to fight for a dead cause , and to falsify their ancient faith and institutions at the bidding of a civilisation which , to them -is . dissolution . That civilisation has developed new energies of life in a neighbouri ng state . _ But that state was Christian , and God committed the desbinies of civilisation to Peter I . and not to the Sultan .

    Lord Palmerston said in Parhameni last , year that no nation had made more progress in the last thirty years than Turkey . Christendom Las little cause to'feel flattered l > y this compliment . It would have been mox * e exact to say that no nation 3 xas more self-denyingly sacrificed herself to Manchester . Take one instance . Thirty years since Damascus and Aleppo possessed more ithan . thirty . thousand looms of excellent silk and cotton stuff ' s . Now there are , perhaps , from a tbousand to twelve hundred in those two cities .

    A former member of finance , Salveti-Eaoha , who was governor of Damascus in J 846 , struck with the destitution of a city once the most floiu'ishing inthe Ttimpire , calculated that Damascus alone had lost about 120 , 000 fmncs of net labour profit per day . Everyone knows the present state of Turkish finance though the taxes ha ^ e been tripled dur ing the present reign . 'The moral progress Pf Turkey is represented by that pvostration of au < thoritv find that consciousness of impotence which aTQ the sure signs of decay . Mussulman'fanaticism is saitlto be extinct because it buries under the ashes

    of its gvandeur its hatred of Christiana . Is Lord Stratford , albeit omnipotent in the councils of the Porto , sure that his Turkish porter , a well-paid menial rises when his Lordship passes by , and £ oes that porter , when ho ftddreasos tho anribosaaddr , craploy oven the most modest of epithets in the ordinary parlance of true believers ? The social condition Pf the East may ho violently changed ; tho Ottoman Emniro is founded on the essentially exclusive principle of a religious dogma . Even . ihe Christian communities in the East feel tho cfKjcts of this exclusive principle and show it in their religious hatred . How shall the Turks , whose political and social code , nay , whose country is the Koran , accept tho principle of equality and of political union with tho rai ' as ? In > vl » it sense can the idea of iious law

    ' progress' bo appliod to a people whoso relg proscribes : I . iPolygamy ; JX , Slavery ; III . Conversion by fbxco to tho law of Mohoomdt ;; IV . Contempt for 'infidels , ' , consequently , tho inequality of civil and political rights ; V . The annual ransom of his life by every subject who professes tibe law ot Islam ; VI . Death to every apostate from Islam , and to every man convicted of having spoken ill of tho ' Prophet ; ' VII . Tho necess ity of Joining tho infants of Roynl blood for fear of conupromiaing tho succession . IThia laat law is obsorved more strictly than tine law agitmsL wino . Sultan Mulintoud , wlio even died of delirium tuemcns-, endeavoured , from ' -his excessive affection for hia daiighter , married -toHtflib Puohsv , to make an exooption to tho laiy-whrch condemns the princes and princesses to dio within forty days after birth . The young Sultana was . indeed , allowed

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 9, 1854, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_09091854/page/18/