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Leader (1850-1860), 19th January 1856, Edition 1 of 2, Page 61, Untitled Article

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      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

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

      11 \! il \ ever occupy , fortify , colonise , or assume , 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 the last limitation , " Central America , ' * and some part of the Mosquito coast , not included in the six states , mig-ht perhaps be considered not to come

      wittun 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 of the State of Nicaragua , and a part of Costa 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 Island ? Great Britain occupies 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 tbe treaty ; and a liberal construction can only be conceded voluntarily by the other side . No one can make an absolute claim ^ tb . 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 lias made to the United States ? None . We object to the Walker encroachment , and justly , on abstract grounds . ; but most unj ustly , when we have an encroachment under tlie identical name of Walkeh—Patrick of that name having , in fact , preceded the general wlio now represents Yankee filibustering . Each side , therefore , lias its Walker ; and if Great 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 sido ! This , of course , puts our representatives entirely out of court ; furnishes the opportunity for General Pierce to take strong 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 , Tie states the compensations that have been allowed in the case of the Black Warrior " , and of tho ports prematurely closed against a temporarily protrack

      mised free ; in certain commodities . ' Nothing dangerous will bo found in this passage , hi ' he is warm in vindicating the benefit to : ; ho Union from having taken to itself the State of Louisiana ; and ho risks what benefit to the Union , or to Texas herself , would have resulted if Texas had remained a " Lone / SW ? " It is the very name

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      THE 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 just grounds for superseding Admiral Dundas . In the Euxine , and in the Sea of AzofF , 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 .

      trade . 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 , seventy steam transports have been discharged from . Government employ , when their services might have been retained at a nominal cost ? When .

      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 Baiaklava . 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 .

      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

      risks of a real campaign . We * have had two 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 our ponderous armaments were again to go into the Baltic , and to return -with news that they have " watched the enemy !"

      Thus , the presence of a powerful naval armament rnay 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 tlie confidence of the fleet in the East ; he has measured the resources of the Allies

      against the naval defences of Southern Russia ; the field is his own , and there are triumphs to be accomplished in it which ma y 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 , his laurels would not grow dim in comparison with any that Admiral Doin } AS—under the most fortunate circumstances—can . reap in the Baltic . The machinery for a Baltic campaign would not be purely naval . There would be an army to participate in its efforts , its dangers , and its successes .

      Among responsible journalists , no duty is more sacred than that of dealing generously with the reputations of public 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 im the British Navy . By the officers , and by the men , as a body , who have served -under him 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 ; lve expended his time usefully , if not brilliantly , in reconnoitering the several positions of the enemy ; and he is now possessed of the most valuable experience . That he was summoned to 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 France contemplated any extensive operations in the Baltic . Why -were no gunboats—or scarcely any—prepared last winter ? Why was Admiral Dundas ' js fleet sent out as inefficiently equipped with the inferior machinery of warfare as the Ik-el ; of Admiral iStaiMKit ?

      Ditnp . as perceived the shortness of his means , and , without bravado , damaged the external defences of Sweaborg ; Nai'IKU collapsed , and played long bowls at Boninraund . Ho left undone—possibly under Admiralty orders—that which his successor accomplished—the almost complete destruction of tho Russian coasting

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      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 Rugeley show low ramified were the labours which Palmer executed with his own hands . If the character that is drawn for us by that true novelist , the reporter of the inquests upon Palmer's friends and relations , is 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- be forgotten ; everything is in its place . The most respectable of nurses are stationed at the bedside of the wife ; a congenial '' grain hagent , " with harsh features and a poVer of bullying off inquiry , takes charge of " poor brother Walter , " and plies him with gin . No

      sooner is Walter dead than an agent m one place is ordered to bet upon a horse , and in another place upon another horse , a nd the bets are duly booked . The little inch -and-a-liall bottle , with liquor sis limpid as water , is in the right pocket . Tho game is purchased " for London , " and duly sent by the faithful Gkorgi Baths to the Coroner ; and the letter to " deal Aonks , " iho widow , timeously recites : th < " ninny , many times" in-which . William ha aided poor YValtkii , and suggests to her th propriety of paying his debts .

      But those grander traits were not , before th view of the good folks at Kugeloy , Stafford , o anywhere else , until now . They must liav been visible only to the mind of the man him self . To las friends and neighbours one elm

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      January 19 , 1856 . ] THE LEADER , 61 ¦ ' - — ¦¦ --- - . ' _ . ____ . _¦ T | M ,, r . ,. _ M— m ii ' an " ^¦ ^ ¦ ^»* v ? J « ¦¦¦¦ ¦ ¦ '' ¦ -. ¦ ri . m'V . i .. ^ .. *— ¦¦¦«¦¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦¦¦ ... ' .-:, ¦—— . — - M » ... —»¦ ., ¦ , ' .. "" T ' ¦ ¦ ; ... ....

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 19, 1856, page 61, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2124/page/13/