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    Mr. Cobden At Leeds. On Wednesday Mr. Co...

    Buu ( GJmn ^ But Russia , m ma ^^ "f £ Ott > igis # m % war mere ™ * defence of right , because that would Solve us . im this principle ^ that we are to gPJJ war whenever there is a quarrel anyw here and take that side wMebwe believe to be right . ( "No . ' )

    THK TURKS AKD THE ETSQTJSn . Wfrr -what is the constant complaint we hear universally that the Greek Christians are all opposed to . the En ^ istt ? We have been obliged to remove them from Baiaklava , they were so hostile to the English ; and even the Greeks in England have been so much opposed to the English that they have been warned to be more careful as to the expression of their sympathies with Rossis . Now , T want you to deal with this as an before

    element in this case . We shall have this question us for years to come , and I wish you to bear in mind that this will form a most difficult" element in the settlement of it . You axe dealing with a question in which youi have a Government representing only a small minority of the people . You have the Christian population ofi Turkey opposed to you in this matter , and you . are trammelled and impeded in your operations , in the war because you get no assistance from the populations . Even m the Crimea—where there are a great number of

    Christiana resident—you get no information from them * and they are the only intelligent people in the East- — and hence it ; arises that at this moment your generate ia command hardly know the names of the generals op > - posed . to them , and nothing aato the number of the troops-they have to encounter . You cannot deal with Tuskay , because when you have dealt with Russia , then will come up the internal divisions of Turkey ; and now I . ask , will you be able to settle them ? The proposition of our Government is this—that instead of letting Russia interfere , to protect the Christians of . Turkey , the five Great Powers shall together interfere for their protection , but , it appears to me that this involves the same principle , {"' Nono / " ) The Emperor of Russia , no doubt

    , witk _ sinister- objects in view ,, and to serve his own purposes , entered upon this aggression . ' ( Cheers . ) But by your adopting the same principle that she has done you go very far : to justify , in the eyes of the world , the course , she has been-pursuing . And mind , 1 do not much like the position we have occupied , because we deal only with Governments , and we never look to the people .. We do not allow any interference with a country where the object is to benefit a majority of the populatioa against a Government , however bad . We do not intermeddle with cases like that where you have

    interference to-prop up a bad Government , as in the case of the French troops at Rome , and the Russians in Hungary—where , in short , it is to put down a people aind not to aid them against their governments . There may be policy in all this , but , in my opinion , it tends to withdraw this question from the category of justice- in whieh ifc hasjbeen placed . Much might be said upon tliis aspect of the queition . Will my MenaFTiere hold out to you . that we are going to do the same thing which we are fighting against the Emperor of Russia for doing ?

    Mr . Cobden then , at some length , criticised the conduct off the Government with regard to the war , all of which he considered grossly mismanaged .

    BKASO 31 S FOB . PKAC 1 E . Now , is there no reason to suppose that there is a possibility ot effecting a safe and honourable peace ? Is there not ground for supposing that , at the present moment , the Governments of Europe have approximated by theito negotiations to such a state of things as may render- it possible to arrange the : terms of an honourable peace ? ' And now I would address a word to my friends behind me . They propose , I believe , to submit to this meeting a resolution calling for the vigorous prosecution of the war . (" . Hear , " and cheers . ' ) I have told you frankly , that if the war is to bo carried on it must bo carried on in a very different spirit , and : on a very difforent scale from what it has hitherto been , but I would put it to my friends around me , and I put it to this 1

    meeting , as representing so important a community , whether yon may not be throwing an obstacle in the path of peace—whether you may not bo frustrating the objects which the Government may now have in view in ' order-to effect a pence—by passing in the midst of this important constituency such a resolution as F understand has been prepared ? ( Loud and general cries of "No , noTy My own impression , drawn from thoso public sources of information which are open to us all ; ia that attempts aronow being made—which are not unlikely to prove * successftil , if they are not thwarted by the public opinion of thfe country—to arrive at an honourable pe « ee » and I ask- you and my friends behind mo , to comfta « r- » fril before you sny or do orio single thing-that can- by poerifeility impede the progress of thoso pacifla nogottfatlom .

    • j * ® 8 * wmaJcks were followed by an eloquent do-BCr t ] ptlon of _ thQ Buffering ; endured by the British force Intho-Crimea , ajad b y an appeal against taking

    withstanding , that during the present Czar ' s lifetime he has not taken a slice of territory from Turkey , but one of the parties engaged in this war for the assertion ; of justice has taken a very large slice of the Turkish empire during the lifetime of the Czar . We know that in 1830 France seized upon Algiers , and has kept it ever since . We know that Algiers waa a Mahomedan dependency of Turkey , and I believe up to this moment England has never recognised the right of France to Algiers by sending consuls there , simply because the British Government did not like to offend Turkey by recognising the . appropriation of her territory . ( "Bear" and a laugh . ) I know what my friend Mr . Baines vrSL say . He will tell you that it is all very well far Mr . Cobden to talk in this , way , but that two blacks do no * make ; one white . Let me remind Mr . Baines that I set out

    i Sebaateeoly witfe dxeadfaUasa o £ life * merely "foe tbfr k *> k . o £ tbetlung . " ,,, THE POWCr OF EBTCHCSNI * AND BUSSIA H > BNTXCAr ~ You have heard of Russia ' s having taken territories from various countries ? Now ,. I will undertake to say that for every square mile of . territory that Russia has taken , from any power by ferce of arms during the last 150 years we have taken five . I am gjad to see you hear the statement with so much good humour , tor we should have gone very far . towards despotism in this country if a man was not listened to- because he spoke the conscientious truth . We are told , moreover , that Russia has been encroaching latterly upon the Turkish empire—that is to say , the present Czar has had a very strong disposition to meddle with what was not his own . ( Laughter . ) Now it is a singular fact but a fact not' ——————^ Ml——^—^— - - ¦ ¦ ;

    with the position taken by some persons , that we were the judges and that the Caar was the criminal , and that we were doing justice in the interest of all Europe and of the whole civilised world . I think before we mount the judgment-seat it ^ is necessary that we should have clean hands . I do not think a judge who was known himself to be given to pilfering as much as the culprit in the dock would be very likely to be sustained on the judgment-seat by public opinion , or that he would be allowed to exercise the . functions of a judge for a single day after his delinqueney was discovered . ( A laugh . ) That is thejpredicament in which we place ourselves when We come to this argument of justice . We are taking a position in which the werld does not recognise us . Be assured , gentlemen ; of the West Riding , that however complacently we may lay our hands upon our hearts , and thank Heaven we are not as other men

    who invade and annex their neighbours' territory , other nations , recollecting that we have possessed ourselves in India during the last 150 yeara of the territory of a Mahomedan sovereign—the Great Mogul—containing a population of 100 , 000 , 000 or 150 , 000 , 000—remembering what we have done with the Dutch at the Cape , and with everybody else somewhere or other—{ great laughter )—will not regard us as the disinterested , just , and perfectly immaculate people we allege ourselves to be . They believe we are just another Russia in , that respectjust another Russia , nothing better , nothing worse ; we have taken territory wherever we thought it was worth having , and the parties who held it Avero not J 3 uificiently strong to prevent our taking it . Now , what is the consequence ? We find that not only Russia does not acknowledge our tudtliority as a judge , but that the rest of the world doeanot acknowledge it . That is our anomalous position .

    Mr . Cobden then reviewed the aspect of other countries with regard'to the war , and remarked that aa they were neutral they did not , at all events , agree with us . He then adverted to his ( Mr . Cobden ' s ) former triumphs of unpopularity , his opinion against tlie anticipated French invasion three years- ago , and his advice on the lX » n Pacifico affair . These , and other cases , made him most unpopular , but he was invariably right in the end .

    MINISTERS AND THE CZAK—PEACE . When the secret conference was going on at St . Petersburg between Sir H . Seymour and the . Czar , Lord John Russell was Foreign Minister for a fow months , and knowing , as he did , tho proposition made by tho Czar about the " sick man , " ho thus wrote to Six H . Soymour : —" Upon tho whole , hor Majesty's Government aro persuaded that no courso of policy can bo adopted more Aviso , more disinterested , more beneficial to Europo than that which his Imperial Majesty has so long followed , and which will render his namo more illustrious than that of tho most famous sovereigns who havo sought immortality by unprovoked conquest and

    cphomoral glory . " That ia tho way Lord J . Russell spoko of tho Czar on tho Oth of February , 1863 , less thantwo yoara ago , after the secrot and clandestine proposition made to Sir H . Seymour as to whether wo should like to go shares for 1 tho goods of " tho sick man . " Lord Clarendon followed Lord John Russell ; and how docs ho spoak after ho knows of this proposition of the Czar , who is . now looked , upon as the very incarnation and embodiment of ovory thing wicked ? Ho says ,. — " The generous confidence oxliibited by the Emperor" —tlunt is , tho gonorous confidence with which ho whispered " tho Sultan is going to die , will you go snacks with me ? " ( great laughter )— « ' tho generous confidence oxliibitod by tho Emperor entitles hia . Imperial Majesty to the most

    cordial declaration of © pinion am the part a £ han Majasfcy ' s Governments who are « fully awaro that in . th * era ** , of any . tuiderataauiag with , reference , to , firtare continaenci « 6 being expedient , or , indeed , possible ,, the word of his Imperial Majesty would be prefe »« fcla to any convention , that eeuid b * fraraad I" That ia yow opinion of the- Czar as expressed by your Foreign ; Minister less than two years ago—mind , after tha suppression of the Polish revolution , with all it * horrors , in 1 . 830—after the suppression of the nationality of Cracow , and ' after the invasion of Hungary—after all these things , and ; after the Emperor had been nearly thirty years on the throne * this is the way he is spoken of by our Foreign Mmistezs . Now what revolts me is the subsequent conduct of these me % ¦ -. ' ¦ _ .. . ,, . _ . j ; •»* m

    and that of Lord John Russell im particular , w-hw has made speeches greatly calculated : to rouse the war ^ -spirit in this country . I do not stand here for the Czar , because there can hardly be conceived two men * on-the face of the earth who can so little sympathise with each other . 1 regard him aa a man of towering intellectual capacity , but the very incarnation of physical force . ( " Keep him back . " ) Keep him back I That brings me again to the question , how will you keep back a . power like that ? I am afraid the very course you have taken in going to Sebastopol will have the effect , which I will ' deeply regret , of raising the j ^ esti ge of the power of barbarous countries

    Russia in the eyes of all . ( "No ; no" ) It will be said , notwithstanding the AOLma and Inkernian , that England and France came to invade Russia , but that she was more than a match for them both . This arises from the mistake of having gone there at all . If you want to fight a nation or an individual , do not go where you give themtenfoldi advantage ; rather go where you will meet them on equal terms . The language I have always held ; is , that for purposes of aggression . Russia , is weak because she his poor ; but for the purpose of defence look at the Napoleon example ; He entered Moscow on the 14 th of September , 1812 . Yeu embarked for the Crimea on the 14 th of September ,

    1854 , and the mistake in both cases consisted in going to seek the enemy among his own impregnable fastnesses . Here is the opinion given by Lord Palinerston on this , subject : " There never has been a great state whose power for external aggression has been more overrated than Russia . She may be impregnable within her own boundaries , but she is nearly powerless for all purposes of offence . " Now , I hope , my dear friend , Mr . Baines ,. will not try to frighten us by telling what Russia is-golng to-do provided we let Mm take possession of Turkey . I don ' t think it would be __ so easy a thing to take possession , of Turkey—so difiicult does Russia find it to move from home at all . Now ,

    I know my friend ' s argument exactly . He is going to say , that if you allow Russia to take Turkey , then shewnl become so powerful , having possession of such , rich territories , that she will next come and take other neighbouring countries , and take possession of England also . That is the argument by which we were recommended to go to war with Russia . Now Turkey is a country that has been most barbarously misgoverned for the last 400 years , and it has been brought to a state that I cannot describe better than in the words of-Lord Carlisle , your . late worthy- representative ,., jwho has just been in Turkey . He says :- — " But when you leave the partial splendours of the capital and the great state establishments , what is it you find over the broad surface of a land which nature and climate have favoured

    beyond all others , once the horns of all art and all civilisation ? Look yourself—ask those who live there : deserted villages ,, uncultivated plains , banditti-haunted mountains , torpid laws , a corrupt administration , a disappearing people . " With respect to Russia taking possession of neighbouring , countries , I should like to know how long it will be before that Power could construct the roads and bridges necessary to enable it to cross the . morasses and deserts that lie between it and the nations , of Western Europe . It takes about seven years to restore a farm to fertility that has been left neglected ; and I believe it would take a century at least to enable Russia to make any progress in such a direction aa we are told it is likely to take . At all events , I certainly do not like to continue this horrid war , to avert dangers that aro not greater than tho war itself . ( " Oh , oh / " ) Wo havo got into the war now . It has

    carried desolation into your homes , from tho palace to tho cottage , and could you havo had much worso if all that ray friend may state could possibly happen ? Seeing , then , that thoro is a prospect of peace , all I ask you to do is not to commit yourselves to tho passing of any resolutions whatever . ( " No , tw . " ) I thank you for your kindness iu having so long listened to mo on this occasion , especially as I know many of you aro advorso to tho opinions I have expressed . I am surrounded by men' of all political parties , and I was led to expoct groat discord , but I never believed that among . Yorkshircnvon I should not havo full freedom to express my honest convictions . ( Chewa . y I felt that all thoy would look for from thoir representative waa . that ho should bo truthful and sincere in his statements * and that so long as ho was so thoy would not grudge him tho tuuo ho had occupied in stating his opinions , ( Cheers ^) ¦

    Mr . J . Gi Marshall then moved tlio fblkrwiag reeo lution , which was seconded by Mr . Baines-and ! supported by Mr . Milnos .

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• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 20, 1855, page 6, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_20011855/page/6/