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    684 The Saturday Analyst and Leader. [Ju...

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    FRANCE, SYRIA, AND ITALY. JT is gratifyi...

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    FRENCH EXPEDITION TO SYRIA. IN one of hi...

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  • 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.

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    Irritation And Fortification. Lord Palme...

    pose of aggression . T trust-it is not . But the possession of the power to aggress frequently gives the . desire to do so , and you are not entitled to rely upon the forbearance of : i stronger neighbour . " Speaking of the navy ol France , his .-Lordship > ai < l . in similar strain , " That is a navy which cannot be re-( juiredfor any purposes of defence for France , and which we ; iii- therefore justified in looking upon as an antagonist whom we mav have to encounter . " We should be the last persons to preach a foolish confidence in the hero oi' the coup d ' etat , but the country does not nerd (' lightening into precautions . Unless the . Admiralty deceives us , our navy ¦ is stronger than

    ihat of France , though the despi-oportion is less than we should like , and General Pf . ei ,, who lias no tendency to overrate ™ r forces , stated on Monday night , that , after deducting 80 , 000 men for India , and 40 , 000 for the colonies , we should have , including the possessions , " at least 160 , 000 regular troops available for the defence of the country . " " Then , " added the General , " with our army of reserve , the militia , and that magnificent army , or " Volunteers , which is now springing

    up on all sides , would , if properly organized , place us beyond the reach of all alarm whatever . " General Peel said nothing of the Irish Constabulary , of the Police , whojare now regularly drilled ; nor of the Coast Gtiard , all of Avhom put together would make a powerful addition to any force . If these preparations are so insufficient as to justify Lord Palmek-stox's alarming speech , what is he concealing from the people . And wh y does he not propose measures to popularize the Volunteer movement , which wbuld rapidly give him another 100 , 000

    men i When the French fleet is spoken of as not intended for defence we must not forget that England is occasionall y under the Tories , and that Lord Derby ' s Government evinced a strong disposition to prevent the French intervention in Italy , and that our neighbours may be right in attributing their safety on this occasion to the large preparations which they made . ' ¦ . .. ' ¦ ¦ ' ¦ ¦ - ' . '¦'' . - ; ' ' - ¦ ¦ . ¦ . ¦ . ' .. - ¦ ¦ ~ ¦ ¦ : ' . . ' ¦ . ' "

    Unless someproof to the contrary appears , we shall regard the Premier ' s , speech as a further indication that his policy is beconiing dangerously reactionary , —that he looks .-upon himself as a Tbrj r Minister , and is prepared to make the most unscrupulous rise of power , in order to make-wars and . . rumours of wars the means of diverting attention froiii the aggression of the Lords , and the . urgent need of measures of Reform .

    684 The Saturday Analyst And Leader. [Ju...

    684 The Saturday Analyst and Leader . [ July 28 , 1860 .

    France, Syria, And Italy. Jt Is Gratifyi...

    FRANCE , SYRIA , AND ITALY . JT is gratifying to learii that Sicily is now completely' free . The troops of the hated Bourbon have by this time left the fortifications of Messina and Syracuse , being wanted to de"fend their master on the mainlafia' 7 ~ td wlltcir"tlTiri \ Tn ^ of ^ trrdTf pendence is now to be transferred Thus far . Garibaldi 1 ms achieved a brilliant success , which all Europe will applaxid , and the " autograph letter " from Viotok Emmanuel will not prevent his capturing Naples , if he has the opportunity of so doing . The royal injunction to be quiet must be regarded as a concession to diplomatic remonstrances , intended as a demonstration of what the red tapists thought , and not of that which the gallant King himself desired . If Gakiualdi

    sueceeds as well on the mainland as he has done in Sicily , both Cavouk and Victok Emanuel will be ready enough to accept the profitable consecnienccs of his labours ; while if lie fails , they can point to the " autograph letter , " and say they advised him not to do it . We do not accuse the Sardinian King and his astute Minister of intending to deceive anybody in the transaction . Gakibaldi , no doubt , is perfectly aware ; of their wishes , and neither the diplomatists nor the King of On ? Sicily are entitled to believe the declaration they have managed to extort . It is a pity that diplomacy will never let anything be managed truthfully , but happily for Italy there is a higher kind of truth than that of words , and we ' trust she may still find it in the statesmanship . of Catch : it , as veil as in the soldiership of her favourite chief .

    A curious plan is now put forth by some friend of Austria , in the shape of a proposal to sell Venotia for five hundred lnilh"ons of francs , provided' Sardinia will agree to restore Tuscany to the lToitso " of "Tjorranio An Tinooiiditioual sale of Venetiu would be the wisest move Austria ceuld make , and would , no doubt , bo well met at the Court of ^ fu rin ; but the restoration of an Axistrian pro-Consul in Tuscany would be a fatal step for Sardinia to take , as it would amount to a betrayal of the national cause , and the creation of an obstacle to the great design of Italian unity , which the patriotic party are determined to cany out . It is not at nil unlikely that Austria will be anxious to come to nt lcn > t u terrmoi ju ' v ^ 'ttlenieni : of her Italian business ,

    as France must have alarmed her by so readily preparing an expedition to Syria , and thus manifesting a desire to interfere with the affairs of the last , on which the House of Hapsburg has its own designs . It : is to be hoped that the peace between the Maronites and Druses , and the effbi'ts of the Sultan to punish the guilty parties will remove ail pretext for active intervention ; but if not , the effect of French meddling will be to weaken the little

    authority remaining to the Porte , and confusion in Syria will soon be followed by troubles in other places , and perhaps on the Danube , which more French assistance will be required to redress . The Sy rian intelligence is too contradictory to be reliable , and we trust it is not true that the Sijltan- only intends despatching 6 , 000 troops to the scene of disturbance , and that Damascus , with its 150 , 000 inhabitants will not suffer itself to be the prey of the Druses .

    The renewed attacks of the French Government on the Press , and the strange doctrines laid down by M . Billault indicate a sense of danger which the Imperial manager will try to ward off by directing attention to some startling effects of continental policy ; and thus Europe will be kept in alarm until a crash occurs , and the second Empire furnishes a story with a moral not less striking than that which historians have drawn from the first .

    French Expedition To Syria. In One Of Hi...

    FRENCH EXPEDITION TO SYRIA . IN one of his cleverest pamphlets M . About affirms that of all the questions which affect the peace of Europe , the Eastern question is the most urgent . ' * The sick man , " he says , " is on Iris deathbed , the succession may open at any moment . " Unfortunately * the progress of events in Syria seems likely to hasten the decease of " the side man , " and add to the complications of the Eastern questions , by introducing upon the theatre of conflict the mightiest nations of the West , whose eyes have long been fixed upon the fertile province now convulsed by civil-strife , where the local Government seems totallyunable to-put an end to the petty warfare of two mountain tribes ,

    whose united population does not much exceed a quarter 6 F a million ,. The Druses , who are more warlike , and better organised than their Maronite rivals , though inferior iff number ^ have obtained a decisive advantage in the recent struggle , which they are pursuing-with such ruthless ferocity that the total extirpation or expulsion of the Maronites must be the result , unless they receive speedy and powerful assistance . They have , indeed , been much to blame if ( as a correspondent of the Times twenty years resident in Bey rout asserts ) the present onslaught of the Druses has arisen from the discovery of a Maronite plot to put an end to their national existence ; still they are a CHristian tribe , who foTiourteBir eenturies have maintained themselves in their mountain strongholds . For the sake of humanity , therefore , and for that of a

    common Christian faith , the nations of the West must come to their aid ; especially as the Government to which they pay tribute , and from which they are entitled to look for protection , has not only refused to aid them , but has also betrayed them into the hands of their hereditary and . merciless foes , and , even in some cases , assisted these foep in their work of treachery . But interference with the sovereign rights of a monarch with whom they are at peace , even when that monarch is unable to assert his supremacy by maintaining order within his own dominions , is a matter of great delicacy and difficulty . No one . can object to ships of war being sent to the coast of Syria to afford protection to Maronite refugees flying from the exterminating nword of tho Druses ; but France now proposes , without the consent of tho Sultan asked or obtained , to invade

    Syria , an integral part of his dominions , with an army of 13 , 000 men , iii order to assist tho Maronites , whose conduct may , after all , have been the original cause of tho strife from which they havo since so fearfully suffered , and to chastise the Druses , who , in attacking their adversaries perhaps only anticipated tho assault prepared for themselves , though their subsequent atrocities admit of no justification . Now , such a stop on the part of France , oven with tho consent of thy other Western Powers , appears to us a flagrant breach of interimtiomu law . S ^

    to deliver her from the iron g-rusp of Russia ; she is bound to hor by treaties Unless , therefore , hov intervention jh distinctly called for by tho Sultan , tho despatch of an army into his dominions to assist one body of his subjects , and to make war upon another , is tho act , not of a friend-but of a foe , not of an ally but of an nffgnessor . But , besides being a violation of the law of nations , this expedition , part of which h « w already sailed , is n political blunder . It will be costlv : and the finunees of Franco arc not- in n flourishinpr state .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 28, 1860, page 4, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_28071860/page/4/