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    vances of Europe . Anally , when one concession after another &ad indeed the Emperor Nichoum * to believe that no power in Christendom would sincerely oppose his views , lie made bis flagitious Attempt on the territories of the Ottoman Empire . The crisis found the Governments of France and England united ; an overwhelming exertion of public opinion in the one country , and motives of personal policy in the other , impelled them to resistance , and the war broke out .

    Before that point was reached , an ominous murmur filled the camp of the " popular " liberals . Ministers were accused of treachery , because they delayed the declaration of war . The same men who now reckon the dead , and sum up the costs , and wave above their heads the palm of peace , passed martial resolutions , inflaming their compatriots to

    the conflict , and spurning all the devices of diplomatic moderation . Sinope accelerated the collision . The Allied expedition was armed , despatched , and brought into the field , amid impatient exclamations-from the " enemies of Russia . " A grand programme was drawn up , suggesting the remote or collateral objects of the struggle , and the occasion was offered for " a-war of principles . "

    But what course did our Liberal enthusiasts desire the Government to pursue ? They desired the Government , without delay , to insult Prussia , spurn the alliance of Austria , outlaw every existing power , cry havoc , and proclaim a crusade of natives against Sovereigns . They desired it to appeal to every European people— " the glorious Belgians and the immortal Poles "—tp arm

    them against their Governments , and pledge itself not to make peace until the world had been utterly revolutionised . On the part of Russia especially , they would consent to nothing short of its political annihilation ; they would restore Poland to the Poles , Finland to the Fins , every geographical item to the nation that had lost it in the course of former wars . How

    much , or how little , of this theory was wise we do not undertake to determine . No doubt the Holy Alliance partitioned Europe , ¦ with profligate selfishness , as the domain of a few domineering families ; but at present we only remark on the readiness with which these agitators would have entered upon a war of one year , or of fifty years' duration ; with what alacrity they would have plunged into a struggle of which no human forethought could have told the end . Two years pass , and the vast object is not fulfilled . The British and French

    Governments have not gained more than one allya third-rate power—and [ Russia is not subdued at a single point . There have been repeated victories , more or less g lorious ; the enemy has been damaged , at the extremities of his empire ; but no definite purpose has been accomplished . Suddenly , the working-class agitators , uniting themselves to the more practical speakers of the middle-classes , exclaim for peace . But peace upon what grounds ? There is not one journal inspired by

    these personages—there is not one personage among them that has not ridiculed the Four Points , and vituperated , the Minister who adopted them . The Austrian compromise proposed by Count Buoii , and grasped at by the staggering intellect of Lord John Rub-BEiii / , was still more mercilessly criticised . Not one whisper has been heard , out of Mr . Gladstone ' s circle , of any satisfactory terms of peace that have at any time been within eight ; yet the cry is — " Stop the war !"

    They are insignificant persona who utter this cry , and they represent only the noisy and heedless portion of the working-classes ; but the question that arises ie not the leas

    important . If peace were now concluded , what would be the condition of Europe ? ihe British forces would retire from both divisions of the field of war without a real success . Russia , as a despotic power , repressing the liberalism of Europe , would not come out of the contest , injured in any

    material respect . Her prestige , perhaps , would be increased , since four nations , leagued against her , would have failed to enforce , by a decisive victory , the terms she refused at Vienna . The war , however , as itcontinues , and as it entangles one government after another , may acquire a momentum of its own , favourable to the independent action of the several nations . At all events ,

    English and French success means injury to [ Russia , and injury to Russia enfeebles the despotic system of Europe . The war , though as yet a local conflict , is not designed for a temporary end . It is the practical protest against Russian aggression , and if it prove that Russia must succumb at any point at which she is pertinaciously attacked , it will have removed the weight under

    which liberty has lain , pale and hopeless , for a quarter of a century . Events aye often more logical than policy . Turkey , in its effete condition , and with its conflicting nationalities , cannot survive this war , as a pure Mahomedan Empire . It is not to prolong an expiring system that the forces of Western Europe have been roused . Turkey is defended merely because Turkey was attacked—as Greece would have been

    defended under the same circumstances . The clear meaning of the war is , that Russia had become so powerful , had grown so vast , had armed so many soldiers , had acquired influence over so many rulers , that she appeared to possess a dictatorial authority in Europe . Acting upon this idea , the Emperor Nicholas assailed a point which the policy of Christendom affirms to be inviolate . The Allied Governments undertook to demonstrate that there still remained an

    authority capable of resisting such an attempt , though supported by the material forces and moral influence of so mighty an empire . "Without their interference , the Porte must ultimately have been overwhelmed . Here was an occasion , and here was au object . The result is uncertain , but they who seek to arrest the war before any result has been attained , wpuld play into the hands of despotism , and leave the oppressed nations with whom they profess to sympathise without a chance or an opportunity .

    It is one thing with inconstant impetuosity to declaim against the prosecution of the war . It is another to endeavour by calm and logical persuasions to give it a new direction , with high and permanent objects in view . Only a sincere , spirited , and rational expression of public opinion is necessary .

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    THE FIFTH POINT . The war with Russia has been one of growth and development . At the outset , the predominant portion of the British Ministry , shrinking from the responsibilities of their position , or ignorant of the true character of the contest , unfortunately took a low view of the " interests of humanity , " as the phrase went , and did their utmost to limit the area

    of the war . They did not , or could not see , that the true interests of humanity and the true interests of England coincided on this point—that the extent of the war should bo coequal with the extent of Russian power , because the satisfaction to bo exacted must bo exacted on nil points and in nil places where Russian aggression came in contact with the European aystcm . Russia , by force

    or guile , was master of the situation in Gei many , paralysing Prussia and neutralism Austria . Russia held the other Baltic powei in awe of her arms . Russia held the Caspiai controlled Persia , rode supreme in the Blac Sea , domineered at the mouth of the Danub looked out of grim fortresses and from b < hind one of the finest strategical positions ovc Europe , and menaced Paris from Warsa \ Russia , in fact , laid siege to Europe and Asi ever sapping onwards to the sources of the : power , and as she gained a foot of territor a mountain-pass , a rocky bay , or a com man (

    ing position on her neighbour ' s frontier , si secured her conquest by strong forts and rigid military system . Steadily onwards i all directions — now " surveying" on tli Jaxartes , now piling up a Bomarsund in d < fiance of treaties , at one time pressing dow the A moor into the Sea of Okhotsk , castin meanwhile longing glances at the Segaliei at another building up a Petropaulovsk Lord Ellenboeouqh said the war was

    statesman's war ; but the statesmen of 185 looked upon it as a war for the defence ( Turkey , when the people of 1853 , not c England only , but of Europe , felt insthi ( tively that it was a war for the defence c Europe . The statesmen wished to make exclusively an Eastern question ; the peopl felt that it should be European . The states men looked at the part , and called it th whole ; the people steadily fixed their eye on the whole .

    The question is not only how to deal vnt the preponderance of Russian power in , tli Black Sea ; that is but a point—the thir point even in the programme of the projectc Vienna settlement—it is , how to deal effe < tually with Russian power — everywher < That is the logical object of the war . Henc the law which has presided over its develop ment—the war refuses to be local . It lir grown from a simple defence of Constant

    nople—of Turkish territory—to an aggresaiv war , an invasion of Russia . Now the soonc our Government recognise this fact tli better , for in this fact lies the whole que * tion , not only of possible benefit to the or pressed nationalities , but of benefit to 111 nationalities weak , yet still ostensibly hide pendent , and to the whole European sy « tern .

    "What then must bo the next step in th war , if intrigue do not check its develop : ment ? The Conference at Vienna formulated third point , which really swallows up tin other three—the cessation of Russian pro ponderance in the Black Sen . That still re mains one of the chief objects of the war and wo may call it the first point , really tli >

    first , since danger threatens there more closer than elsewhere , and ainee it means not onl Russian Power in the Euxino , hut in Georgia Circassia , the Principalities . Sweep aw a ; the three nugatory points for the present and formulate a fifth , or , as we should on I it , a second point—what would that be ? Th cessation of Rtcssian preponderance in ( h , Baltic ,

    Here then is the next logical developmeni of the war . It involves many things , bu : first and foremost it involves an alliance wit I the Scandinavian Powers . In the weakness of ita faith , the ' Britisl : Government that begun the war talked o not diminishing the territory of Russia

    What a blow to the Scandinavian alliMixc What a bribe to neutrality , almost to aj > ath > and indifference 1 We have bombarded » S \ ve » v borg and laid wnsto its interior . Why wrn there not Swedish and Danish gunboats Swedish and Daniah troops engaged in thai battle ? Because the Sweden and the Dunct hco that at present tho war is regarded a * an

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    | S ^ fHE WM& . &W&- JJ » o ** & *** * isa ^ o ^ ax ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 25, 1855, page 814, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2103/page/10/