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    .Unuaky 19, 1856.1 THE LEADER. 6I _

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    THE COMMAND OF THE BALTIC FLEET. There a...

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    The President's Message. J It Is Difficu...

    The Central American case is really important ; but if our officials had designed to deprive themselves of any ground to stand upon , they could not have taken a better course than that which they have adopted . There is a single passage in the Bulwer-Clayton treaty that appears to us to settle the whole question . By that treaty , Great Britain and the United States covenanted that neither ii . "ii » . « . . ¦ .. -. ¦ ... JU . fifir nrkinni ap rvr assilltie .

    given to Cuba by the Secret Society which called itself the " Order of the Lone Star . "

    AVUX VjVCl UvUUMV j 1 KJL VM . IJ y \; vxv ***^^ j —— - or exercise any dominion over Nicaragua , Costa Rica , the Mosquito coast , or any part of Central America . " A question might be raised as to the effect of tlie last limitation , " Central America , ' * and some part of the Mosquito coast , not included in the six states , mirc-ht perhaps be considered not to come within the perview of the treaty ; but , certainly , Great Britain covenanted not " to occupy . " Now , the Mosquito coast has been extended at the expense of the State of Honduras ; has been carried down the entire length State oi aim « ji

    ot the ^ Nicaragua , a pn . vuom Rica ; and , since the treaty was accomplished , a settlement has been formed on the Bay Island . Great Britain claims to construe this Convention as being entirely prospective , and not retrospective—as permitting her to complete settlements already commenced , so long as she commences no other . We do not see how this interpretation is compatible with the one word " occupy . " Who occupies the Bay Tdor , /! 9 ' C ± rt \ i \ t Britain occunies it : but she

    has covenanted not " to occupy . " She has a perfect right to have occupied it , but no right to occupy it now . She might , indeed , claim to continue in possessions already taken ; but that must be by a liberal construction of the treaty ; and a liberal construction can only be conceded voluntarily by tlie other side . _ No one can make an absolute claim . ^ ta liberality ; it is in its very nature spontaneous ; and he

    ¦ who claims it must be prepared to make a cor-Tesponding concession . Now where is the concession that this country has made to the United States ? None . We object to tlie Walker encroachment , and justly , on abstract grounds . ; but most unjustly , when we have an encroachment under the identical name of Waucek—Patrick of that name having , in fact , preceded the general who now represents Yankee filibustering . Each " J _ xl * ^^ Wn 1 *** c « ifo W atvi ? i ? nnrl i ^ f * flr « f » f iiVA JLV *¦ + *¦¦¦

    SlCl " * lllCldUIV * il « . * i 3 ltd M ^» - * - ^ ) « - »» ** x ^*^ - *« v Britain claims liberality of construction to justify its own Walkkr , it can hardly refuse the corresponding leniency for the Yankee Walker . But by our opposition to Yankee encroachments we establish a harsh construction of the treaty , and then send to Washington claiming a liberal construction on our own side ! This , of course , puts our representatives entirely out of court ; furnishes the

    opportlinity IO 1 vjruutji . til xr li ' . icuii . tu Liitvu om-my grounds in simply standing by the treaty ; and since the living Walker of Yankeeism is stronger in his following than the . defunct Walker of the Mosquito coast , the Americans . are tolerably certain of securing practical success . Thero is a single phrase in the President ' s message ominous for the' future—his direct allusions to Cuba , all seems to favour the permanence of the Spanish tenure , lie states the compensations that have been allowed in the case of the Black Warrior , and of the ports prematurely closed against a temporarily promised free trade in certain commodities . Nothing ( longerons will bo found in this passage , Ik ' he is warm in vindicating the benefit to -he Union from having tnken to itself the State of Louisiana ; and ho asks what benefit to the Union , or to Texas herself , would have resulted if Texas had remained a "Lone Star ? " It is the very name

    .Unuaky 19, 1856.1 The Leader. 6i _

    . Unuaky 19 , 1856 . 1 THE LEADER . 6 I _

    The Command Of The Baltic Fleet. There A...

    COMMAND OF THE BALTIC FLEET . There are two good reasons against the appointment of Sir Edmund Lyons to the command of the Baltic fleet . First , assuming that the war is to be continued , he cannot be spared from the Black Sea . Second , there are no iust Grounds for superseding Admiral Dundas .

    In the Euxine , and in the Sea of Azofi , the Allies have not completed their task . Whoever compares , with the coasts that have been swept by our flotillas , the territory yet fortified and held by Russia , will admit that , after Sebastopol , only fourth and fifth-rate places have been reduced . The arsenals of Kherson , the stronghold of Nicholaieff , the entrepot of Odessa , remain even unassailed ; and it has been proved , by recent circumstances , that wherever the Allies relax their grasp , the enemy is ready to reoccupy his lost position . TVina tl-iP Tvr ^ seTioe of a powerful naval

    arraatrade . Even Admiral Dundas , however , appears to have been hampered by instructions respecting private property . The minds of Cabinet Ministers , especially Lords of the Admiralty , are fearfully and wonderfully constructed . What ordinary man , for example , can understand why , upon the threshold of a new naval campaign , seventysteam transports have been discharged from . Government employ , when their services might _ ¦*¦ _•'' i . « 1 -I-IT-I nominal cost

    have been retained at a r vv nea needed they may not be available . But this is only an illustration of the crudity of administrative economy . The Land Transport Corps despatched to the Crimea has virtually perished on the heights of Balaklava . Of the hundreds of mules purchased at high prices wherever there were mules for sale in Europe , scarcely one remains ;—and why ? Because , forage being dear , they were left to forage for themselves ; because they had no stables , bad attendance , poor nourishment , and insupportable work .

    ment may be by no means superfluous in . the Black Sea , during the operations of the approaching summer . And for the command of this fleet , Sir Edmund Lyons is better qualified than any other admiral in the service . He is familiar with those coasts and waters ; he enjoys the confidence of the fleet in the East ; he has measured the resources of the Allies against the naval defences of Southern Eussia .: the field is his own , and there are

    tri-To resume , —Admiral Dundas knows best whether , with an adequate supply of gunboats , floating batteries , & c , and an auxiliary army , he would be prepared to undertake decisive operations in the Baltic . " We want no public disclosures ; but we have a right to ask that no admiral should be entrusted with this most important command , at that which might prove the turning point of the war , who felt unequal to the exertions and the iwu

    umphs to be accomplished in it which may well satisfy an honourable ambition . If Admiral Lyons shall do this year all that an admiral can do in the . Black Sea and the Sea of AzofF , Ms laurels would not grow dim in comparison with any that Admiral Duni ^ as—under the most fortunate circumstances—can . reap in the Baltic . The machinery for a Baltic campaign would not be purely naval . There to ilscjjt

    risks of a real campaign , we nave uau years of demonstrations ; we should have , at last , something more than a regatta of fleets . Without , therefore , raising a cry against any admiral , we must observe that he would have best consulted his reputation by declining the command , if oxir ponderous armaments were again to go into the Baltic , and to return mth news that they have " watched the enemy !"

    would be an army participate m > . ua » , its dangers , and its successes . Among responsible journalists , no duty is more sacred than that of dealing generously with the reputations of publics men — especially of those , who , at great sacrifices to themselves , have loyally served their country . Admiral Dundas , we have reason to believe , is one of the most popular admirals in the British Navy . By the officers , and by the men . as a bodv , who have served tinder him

    THE RUGELEY POISONINGS . Wellington complains , in some of his Peninsular letters , that he had to look after every tiling himself ; Napoleon gives the most minute instructions to the subordinate generals and kings who carried out his designs , descending even to their domestic affairs . The daily multiplying disclosures at Kugeley show how ramified were tlie labours which Palmer executed with his own hands . cnaracter tnat is iuj

    in the Baltic , he is ardently respected . They know what his labours and what his difficulties have been . He did not go out , like a " Surrey-side" hero , blustering and sharpening his cutlass . He took his fleet quietly and steadily into the blockaded sea ; life expended his time usefully , if not brilliantly , in xeconnoitering the several positions of the enemy ; and he is now possessed of the most valuable ovnpi-ipnop . That he was summoned to the

    J . 1 tne arawu . - us uy mew true novelist , the reporter of the inquests upon Palmer ' s friends and relations , h at all correct , there axe many of the elements of greatness—there is the decision , the clear memory of Wellington ; the unscrupulousness of Napoleon ; the power of combination that all ' conquerors possess . Nothing appears to ^ forgotten ; everything is in its place . The most respectable of nurses are stationed at the

    Council of War at Paris , is one proof that this experience will not be set aside . Admiral Dundas performed no dashing feats ; he had no means , and not a very wide discretion . In fact , from all that has come to our knowledge privately , and from what we gain through general channels , wo believe that in 1855 neither Great Britain nor Franco contemplated any extensive operations in the Baltic . Why were no gunboats—or scarcely any—prepared last winter ? Why was Admiral Dundas ' js licet sent out as inefficiently equipped with the inferior machinery of warfare as the licet of Admiral Naimkk ? Ditndas perceived the shortness of his means , and , without bravado , damaged the external defences of Sweaborg ; Nai'IKU collupscd , and played long bowls at Bomaraund . Ho left undone—possibly under Admiralty orders—that which his successor accomp lished—the almost complete destruction of the Russian coasting

    bedside of the wife ; a congenial -gram uagent , " with harsh features and a poVer of bullying off inquiry , takes charge of " poor brother Walter , " and plies him with gin . JNo sooner is Walter dead than an agent m one place is ordered to bet upon a horse , and . m another place upon another horse , and the bets are duly booked . The little inch -nnd-a-luJf bottle , ^ Yith liquor as limpid as water , is in the Tight pocket , Tho game is purchased for tSndon , " and duly sent by the liuthiul George Bates to the Coroner ; and the letter to dear Aonks , " iho widow , timcously recites- the " many , many times" in which William has aided poor Waltich , and suggests to her the propriety of paying his debts . Bui those grander traits were , not , beiuro Uic viow of the good folks at Kugeley , Stafford , or anywhere else , until now . They must liave been visible only to the mind of the man mmsclf . To las friends and neig hbours one elm-

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 19, 1856, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_19011856/page/13/