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Been , a rebellion in a Turkish province , after exhausting Turkey , has always been followed by a [ Russian movement . JSven as that of Montenegro is followed by a Russian movement now ! Oftentimes the , reacquirement of Turkish sovereignty ] ias cost the Porte either some other province , inferior perhaps in geographical extent , . . or "has created occasions for suicidal stipulations in treaties , * which invariably led to fresh complications . Mahmoud unhappily afforded too many fa cilities for these Machiavellian movements ,
and that misguided monarch ' s confidence in Alexander was not only one of the great causes that assisted the enfeeblement of Turkey , but also one of the causes that led to the overthrow of European diplomacy in the East . These acts of . Russian , policy which I have just related , have only been selected because they are likely to be the easiest comprehended . Her long occupation of Moldavia and Wallachia would add an
interesting page to these developments Her present efforts in favour of the Armenians , her late attempts to raise Servia in favour of Montenegro , when her agents were dismissed from the country , would astonish and instruct , perhaps , but they are only the continuation of a course which the past has indicated , which will ever be pursued , and which we must be well prepared for if we would defeat .
The " Diplomatic . Revelation , published to assist in overthrowing Lord Palmerston , stated truly , that ever since 1815 , Russia has separated the European powers , and gradually advanced her influence into Italy , Spain , Turkey , Egypt , and Greece . In 1821 , Russia , Prussia , and Austria " pacified Italy {" England and France excluded . In 1823 , Russia , Erance , Prussia , and Austria established despotism in Spain , England excluded . In 1827 , Great Britain , Russia , and France erected that fertile field p f Russian diplomacy , Greece ; Austria , and Prussia
self-excluded . Iil 1840 , ^ Russia , Great Britain , Prussia , and Austria defeated the project of Mehemet AH ; France excluded . In 1845 , Grecian internal affairs . In 1849 , the invasion of Hungary ; England , France , and Prussia excluded . This , sir , is a very effective picture of Russian diplomacy , and , taken in connexion with her Eastern policy , may be regarded as the perfection of political wisdom . It is too successful to be termed cunning . In Rll these questions European diplomatists appear to have
been working with a veil over their eyes . Western Europe , it must be granted , understood Cracow clearly , but it could not unite to act , because of the non-intervention mania , and the bellicosity of the Governments on the Spanish marriage question . The intervention in Hungary was allowed to be consummated from reasons which we all appreciate now . The only great auestion , that of the refugees , where France and
England stood united and ready , and where , singularly enough , the importance of the matter at stake was infinitely less than on previous occasions , when we obtained neither concord , sense , nor agreement , is the one solitary recent instance of a brilliant success obtained by the united action of the Western powers , and by the enlightened Bpiritof the nations , which enabled them , notwithstanding the non-intervention cry , to accomplish it ! Let this result and this success be a beacon
for the future . This letter and the preceding one ought to have demonstrated two things : That Mahmoud not only offended and alienated his best subjects , but that he afforded Russia opportunities to assist thorn , and to establish intrigues and protectorates which have been continued to the present day , and which still continue . These letters shouldhave
shown too , what Kossuth and Mazzini do not appear to understand , that events , although they may bo fostered , must nover bo precipitated . Precipitation lost Mahmoud . Pationco and the nach wid nach policy havo erected Russia . Constitutionalists , rebels , despotic rulers , havo all successfully invoked Russia in the hour of need . " The end justifies the means . " This ought to bo emblazoned upon her standard , only that an emblazonmont would bo contrary to her principles .
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"A STRANGER" IN PARLIAMENT . When at two yesterday evening , Lord John RuhhoII , his olbowH in hi « harida , his voico at its tiniest , that is
highest key , and all his phrases being solemnly broadened for eflect ( when in a great mood he speaks thus for instance— " they aagsaample awf Anglaand" ) —was eloquently assuring the senate and the world ( not calculating that of late the reporters don't tln ' nk it worth while to report him ) . that Great Britain was deeply interested in India , and had conferred ( as compared with the government of Alexander ) the greatest blessings on the " anhaabitaants of Aandia , " when Lord John , amid the assiduous cheers of Mr . Robert Lowe and Sir Charles Wood , was talking to this effect , one contradictory circumstance was very noticeable ^—a
third of the House was asleep , and the rest was yawning . The British Senate was bored with India , and wanted to go to bed . The British Senate was perfectly aware that the British Government of India has been the British plunder of India ; and that the intent and very probable consequence of the vote it was about to give would be to hand over the people of India to another decade of villanous oppression . But the British Senate was-bored with the subject , wanted to go to bed , and therefore could with difficulty maintain a decent suppression of weariness while Lord John was sounding the praises of the British Senate , and rhetorically arguing against a contingent two years '
agitation , which might turn up Hindoo Hampdens and Mohammedan Sidneys ; and the British Senate , conscious of the dishonesty of its intended vote , could not , nevertheless , be bothered with a protracted session , and a possible new crisis , so handed over the 150 , 000 , 000 to another generation of satraps , who are only clerks and warriors , who are only engineers . Did this , too , without a . twinge , remarking only , as it lighted its cigar as it went out after the division to go home ,-r" By Jove , its grand to have India done with at last /' That is the observable tone of these memorable debates , and of this great historic occasion throughout . Mr . Bright and Mr . Disraeli have in turn had the hardihood to declare that the House of
Commons has proved itself , at this point in its annals , unworthy of the mighty trust which it has inherited from the great Englishmen who built up the British empire ; and tacitly , that dishonourable desertion of sacred functions is admitted , and should be made the most of by commentators who , like the writer of this , seek to convert the House of Commons , by radical reform , from an aristocratic club into a national convention . It has , in fact , been used as an argument against delay by Sir Charles Wood ( who did not know that Lord John would threaten Parliament with an agitation ) , that a House is not to be got together on India ,
and that , while we have so careless a public , a postponement of legislation for two years would bring us practically no nearer either knowledge or earnestness . The debate has been a protracted one , not because of the excitement of the subject , but because there is an Indian Reform Society , whose committee is oratorical , and because there are Secretaries nnd ex-Secretaries of Boards of Control who have regarded it as their duty to speak on an average of two hours each to audiences of tens and twenties , and to stenographers reposing on tho belief that Great Britain would not buy papers for the sake of essays on Hindostan . On any night of
tho debate the House could ( from five to ten o ' clock ) have been counted out ; and it is only a miraclo that one of the Scullys , considering their country neglected , did not make that numerical observation which the Spenkor always regards as the most pointed of the week . Great Britons , who havo a belief in tho blessing * of Great Britain to dark haired races in different parts of tho world , may not be eager to recognise the fact of the day—that , as Mr . Disraeli said , tho good government of India has been sacrificed to the temporary convenience of a Cabinet in a hurry : but thero tho fact remains—for use by the classes who consider
that England has never gone out to conquer but for revenue , and has never kept a conquest but for patronage . But tho fact is not a new one . Wo wore not to expect a sudden interest in India—a by-the-byo swearing of eternnl friendship to dusky millions whom wo associate with street crossings , nnd addiction to serpent-taming , nnd a daring life of tossing balls , in jungles , nnd whom—Christinn nnd bonovolont peoplo that wo arc—wo send out Methodist gentlemen to convert to Protestantism . Tho British peoplo . is notorious for never having cared for a colony ; and tho British
House of Commons is celebrated for never making a House on n colonial question . Governments havo , as n rulo , cartes blanches about colonies ; and thoro was no national horror when a- Yorkshire squire was appointed by tho coalition to govern India . On Thursday night , wh « n ton members of tho Commons were doing nominal listening to Mr . Rich , ( who was talking nt Lord Aberdeen , nnd showing what a capital Secretary of tho Bonrd of Control ho would hnvo made ) , —Mr . Rich being'in tho act of showing" to an attentive clerk at tho table , thnt to pass tho India
Bill would be to commit a colossal fraud on India —about seven peers in . the Upper House were listening to a Colonial Secretary , who is a Duke , while he detailed the circumstances of a protest against British rule in Jamaica . And of the seven , peers , three were spiritual ; one the Bishop of Oxford , ' who likes legislation , and thinks that when the Lords are washing their hands of their duties , he is just the man to be of use . Of the whole House of Lords , there were only three or four who had a word to say about unhappy and misruled Jamaica Earl Grey , because , on the St . Nepomuck principle , having been a dead failure himself , he is entitled to be
critic of the Duke of Newcastle ; Earl of Derby , because the Earl of Derby thinks it is statesmanship to snarl and bite at the heels of successful men , as they pass him by ; and Earl of Derby seems to know that the Duke of Newcastle , who had the advantage once of being a colleague of the Earl of Derby ' s , has a hearty contempt for a pretentious nobleman who sits alone on a long bench , and talks with the air of leading a great party , which , as for instance , that very evening was in the Coalition ' s lobby . The Duke of Newcastle did not suffer from the criticism nor from the snaps ; a man of the world , he knows that Colonial Secretaries can get on when only seven peers come down to hear about the colonies . Charles Buller
used to expatiate finely on the beauties of this let- ' emalone principle in colonial policy ; and his clever grace of Newcastle seems to understand the point . He has immense advantages in the observation of the careers of his two immediate predecessors at the Colonial Office . Earl Grey ( Sir William Molesworth called him . Procrustes , and the clerks got to call him Crusty , for short ) insisted on cutting down his colonies to suit his beds . Sir John Pakington was always happy to oblige by cutting down his beds to the measure of his colonies . The Duke of Newcastle leaves the beds and the
colonies to be tortured and tumbled into a fit for one another ; and the result is , he is becoming a popular Secretary of State . The feather bed of Sir Charles Grey wouldn't suit at Jamaica ; so he pitches them a spring mattrass in Mr . Barkly . As members of the House of Commons went home on Friday morning , after the most perplexing division of a perplexed session , the talk was not of the people of India , but of the parties of England ; and the results in this direction will monopolize metropolitan attention too . The division is the conclusive chaos of political confusion ; and we may now expect the work
of recreation to commence . Mr . Disraeli has completed his most meritorious labour—he has destroyed the country party . When he so graphically sketched Thuggee on iMday morning , why did he not see that he was but reminding the House of the great Tory Thug ? There now , prostrate , lies Derbyism—Lord Stanley chief mourner , Stafford and Mackenzie mutes . When Lord Derby was speaking his dying speech as Premier , he sketched the state of parties , and ho announced his own following as 300 gentlemen , vowed to his banner ( the tablecloth on which Mr . Stafford gave the private dinner the public paid for ) . Marmion , gashed and bleeding , and solitary in tho
Lords , cried " On" to Stanley in the Commons ; and Stanley collects his knights in the St . James ' s-squaro dining-room , where tho enlightened British peoplo is so often served up ; and the knights , out of habit , obey tho young trumpet , answer the summons , and then leisurely ride into tho camp of tho Scotch foe who heads the Coalition . Lord Derby leads the Tories one way , nnd Mr . Herries beckons tho Tories another way ; and tho Tories follow Mr . Herries , as tho wiser and more reliable leader . " Tho idea of a young fellow of twenty-five leading us , " said tho Tory interest , credulous of Herries ; and so Lord Stanley was snubbed , and Mr . Disraeli flouted . But it is to be remarked
that Mr . Disraeli can fool * u > surprise at the catastrophe , nnd perhaps glories in it . Ho has sedulously separated himself from his old party , Binco Christinas ; and in his Thnrsdny ' B speech , he plainly spurned tho nnoient-ways Tories , sneering at Sir Robert Inglis , at whom thero was " a laugh , " and actually repudiating 1 tho presumed right of Herries to speak of the past intentions of the Derby Government as to India . Mr . Disraeli is in search of a new party , and on Thursday ho threw off all dieguiao . On the church rates and
on tho . Tows ho led the quasi-Tory party against Lord Derby . On this occasion , ho leads the Tory rump , with Lord Derby approving ^ and Lord Stanley us tentative thin end of tho wedge . The Carlton . Club , though it is doubtful , may understand all this j but tho outsiders have only to look on with bewildered astonishment , and to hope that Mr . Dinraeli sees his way ; meanwhile , exulting in the disappearance of a party which only succeeded in tho disreputable , and only for a timo in that , and which was not rccommondod na an . intellectual confederation , by tho lead of one ofT
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July 2 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER , 639
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"Vsoo tho account of Princo MonHchikofFa ondoavoura to complete a Hoorofc treaty boforo tho arrival of tho British and Eronch Ambassadors !
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 2, 1853, page 639, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1993/page/15/
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