The Press. — London, England, 1854-12-16 00:00:00

1178 by the self-inculpation of the culprits. Sen tence may be passed at any moment. But, for the time, this is a small triumph. Who can exult over the despair and fall of a wretched Coalition at a time when the onour of England is in question? . The Onfi i 'on have I a dmitted that they hays hrought a to nwo tional disaster, and ttin it t 4 their awl ct od national fortunes are, inhy be, pn the eve of some yet more terribli) datastroplta. We have scant time to think of thissi—whal til to be done for England? They are maundering over a Militia Bill. They knew when despatching the ill-starred expedition, that it was the advice and opinion of the highest military authOrity in the king dom that a reserve of at least 10,000 men should be kept in the Levant or at Varna, and that a reserve of 30,000 men should have been held in hand at home ready for embarkation at need. This counsel they rejected or neg lected, and instead of calling out the Militia in the spring, by which means a disciplined and seasoned force would have been at their command in this hour of need, they are calling it out now, when, like all their other opera tions, the process is " too late." Wretched, indeed, is the commentary af forded by Thursday's debate upon that of Tues day. The prepared devices, affectations, and sham pleas, of the first night having been all flung away, the naked case had to be stated in all its deformity. T.,ord I)ALMERSTON'S Wednes day clap-trap about our " reserve" being " the spirit of the country" was pitifully followed by the Puke of NEWCASTLE'S Thursday avowal that we oould not raise men in England, and must organise a foreign legion. If it were possible to add to the humiliation to which the assembling of Parliament has compelled the Coalition formally to sub mit, that object would be effected by the exhibi tions of the Home Secretary on Wednesday, and of the War Secretary on Thursday. But who cares to count the mud-blotches on the Coalition banner, while the standard of En gland may be in momentous peril? THE AUSTRIAN TREATY. For some fon; months and more the Opposi. tion, in and out of Parliament, has been un ceasingly charged with factiousness in every form by the organs of the Coalition,--our criticisms were captious, and our facts fables ; only let the first day of the session come, and — we shall see. The day luticome, and every solitary charge we made is admitted to be true with an almost ludicrous simplicity of confession. Not a syllable in the Queen's Speech claims for the achievements of her Majesty's Ministers any thing beyond a charitable forgetfulness. But one redeeming point is urged one great card is played, the Austrian alliance. And this sentence in the Speech was fated very early to acquire a somewhat unexpected notoriety. Lord DERBY, in the happiest phrase of a singularly happy speech, disposed of our con tinental politics at once. " Austria is doubt " fully neutral, Prussia is doub he tfully hostiad- le." Lord ABERDEER, a cting on t judicious vice, " When you have nnthing to say, say " nothing," refrained front making a speech, and contented himself with " saying a few " words in answer to the observations of the " Noble Earl," which, as the Noble Earl turned out to be Lord GREY, and not Lord DERBY, was a very innocent operation. Lord DERBY s ' virtual amendment to the Address, declining to pledge the House to an approval of a treaty it had not seen, thanks to the unmerited for bearance of the Opposition, was carried, and such of her Majesty's Ministers as are mem bers of the Upper House, Went to bed nothing worse than "humble and civil." We much regret that, in one instance, at least, a Noble Duke has already " returned to his bad habits" again. In the other House the same amount of " factious" forbearance and goodnature ani mated Sir JOHN PAKINOTON'S speech, and sub mitted to BOW 11QUX8 of Mr. SWEET HERBERT'S . THE PRESS. pompous self-satisfaction. It was felt that a great war imposed something like unanimity upon the House, however discontented it might be with tlw init diate managers of it. Suddenly, and late ip evening , a " scene" ocevred which le net .ikely to be forgotteß fluriug go present eatioration. Stung klif pine to filly seoleneeti or Mr. DISRAELI, Loti4 (AIN Ruapu, Nap impromptu, and—whether e wiks Is a M it or hit; natural intractibility gt 4 thO better of bhp ! or the lust Cabins% Council had left atrahrliotfe reminiscences — anyhow, Lord JOHN angae, plunged straight in medias res, and blurted out all about the Aus trian alliance. Lord Jens is not often deficient in " pluck ;" and never when it is n u ll-apropos. The House, at least the Ministerial side of it, was thunderstruck. After a few sentences, the long faces and wry mouths, and anxious " what next ?" looks of his startled supporters, seem to have recalled to his Lordship's recol lection the fact that, only a day or two before, acting under his oath as Lord President of the Council, he had solemnly advised her Majesty to describe, as a treaty from which she "anti " eipates important advantages to the common " cause," the engagement he was now making such unmerciful mincemeat of. Even Lord JOHN'S daring failed him for a moment, and he floundered ; two or three sentences are broken, and, in consequence, imperfectly re ported, because perfectly unreportable. But it is only a moment : he is up again, and at it—" in for a penny, in for a pound ;" on we go, mouthing and pounding, slap-dash, right and left, hit or miss. In line, Lord Jonx as tounded the House, sent the funds down head over heels, disgusted our allies, almost made alliances with " coalitions " henceforth impos sible, made the next Cabinet Council a parti cularly " happy family," and, very possibly, " Johnny has upset the coach"—not for the first time. Lord JOHN'S opinion of the value of our new treaty seems to be about this. Austria has pledged us to assist her if she should be at war with Russia : if we should be at war with Russia (as we are), she has pl edged herself to nothing : she will "consider. When plenty of time has been wasted in " considering," if England and France propose conditions of peace "in conformity with the four bases," in whatever sense Austria may think fit to put upon them, and Russia refuses to accept them, then she will probably " consider' again—will discover that the terms " would " reduce Russia too much," and holds herself quite clear to back out of anything and every thing at any given moment. " lie did not " wish to overstate the engagement in any " way ;" the treaty was " certainly not very " precise," any conceivable course was alike open to her " without any breach of faith." It wasn't quite clear to his mind whether the treaty was better than nothing ; on the whole, perhaps, it was as well as not. For his own part, he believed Austria was a simpleton, and would fight when she might safely let it alone. So here we are, with our famous Austrian treaty. We wasted the autumn of 1853, allowed the massacre of Sinope, spent winter and spring in diplomacy, marched out our troops in the summer to die of cholera at Varna, delayed our attack upon Sebastopol until it had been rendered—thanks to Lord ABERDEEN and the Times—almost impregna ble, have shed our best blood like water, all to gain the alliance of the German. Powers. And now, what have we gained ? One of them, Prussia, has been driving so thriving a trade between the Greeks of Russia and their brethren of England, under favour of our ludicrous " order in council," sending hemp one way and lead the other, that the Monarch's maudlin sympathies with his Imperial Brother in law have been a profitable speculation to his subjects ; and, between sentiment and cent. per cent , Prussia is likely to remain neutral for ever. The policy of Austria is not, strictly speaking, of a sentimental character. The maxim of her policy described in the old epigram— Bells gerant alii; tu, fella Austria, nube." might seem to indicate a tenderer tone ; but her matrimonial as well as her other alliances have been of a strictly practical sort. 0 young shoulders she has an old head—as old • gATUIiDAY, as METTERNIOWS—Iooks very accurately after her own interest, and takes plenty of time to ascertain which way those same interests lie. In the promint 08,40 4440 has everything to gain by thp war, if abs can Only avoid taking an act r e dare in it. The " four points e expittsiVvily in hev inte at. Under them e lltintibp and the Plaek pa are opened to er ttliflic i she gaiiiii a ye in the Pro tectoriitp , the Chrietiollii subjects of the Porte, pa the cbipf Moire as the nearest neighbour. At the same time she must keep tolerably straight with Russia, Vienna is too near to the Russian frontier to make the pros pect of a Russian war an agreeable one. In short, she must " run with the hare, and hunt " with the hounds." According to Lord Joart's account of the matter (which the efforts of the Times, after two days' deliberation, wholly fail to invali date), we have obligingly covenanted to Austria an entire carte blanche. We have accepted terms which were offered to us months ago, and which we then rejected as insufficient and unworthy. If she is invaded, we give her " an affiance offensive and defensive, &e." If not, England and France are to do the fighting, and she is to mono polise the rewards. Finally, when the three great Powers of Europe have worn out themselves and each other in the war, she is to remain " mistress of the situation." What an agreeable prospect, and what an " advan tageous alliance!' Into the full demerits of this Austrian treaty we fear we shall have too much occasion to enter hereafter. The detestable selfishness that has won for Russia a year of preparation, has held the allied forces in the Dobrudscha until they were decimated by disease ; has then, after the retreat from Silistria, " occu pied" the Principalities so ferociously' that the unhappy inhabitants even wish the Russians back again; that at last "allowed" OMER PAULA, by great favour, free passage into the swamps of Bessarabia in the winter ; and that has all the while been covering the transfer of thousands of Russian soldiers into the Crimea—all the delays of a tortuous diplo macy, all the cost of an obstinate struggle, all the whole bloody debt of Inkermanu, are Austria's precious gifts to us, Lord AIIERDEEN'S " natural ally of England." " I say, for me no Austrian assistance, no four points,' no secret article. Let France and England together solve this great question, and establish and secure the civilisation of Europe." We need not add these were not the words of Lord John RUSSELL, though they I,3gitimately follow from his admissions. They conclude the deftly-aimed and statesman like speech of the leader of the Gentlemen of England. England, by the way, is asking, and somewhat indignantly, after this last escapade, who, what, and where is the Government One Minister makes no secret of his dislike to France ; two others libel its Emperor in what a colleague appropriately denominates " miserable election "speeches;' another stumbles out with his extempore conviction that Austria is a humbug ; another proves in a speech a yard and a half long that everything that has been done in the war is perfection ; another admits we (Ministers) have made a mess of it, but borrows a defence from " Jacob Faithful " " Better luck next time, missus." The Treaty was last night presented by Lord JOHN RUSSELL to the House, and, from the extract of it we subjoin it will be seen how truly his Lordship has described its purport: — I. The three I'owers are nut to treat separately with Russia. IT. The Austrian forces in the principalities are not to in terfere with movements of English and French troops. A commission is appointed (which the Twits are to be invited to juin) to regulate Finch matters. In case of war between Austria and Russia, they England, Austria, and France will conclude a treaty of fensive and defensive.. They will subsequently arrange as to the number of troops and the operations is be inderi taken. Iv. .t Nearly to $$ s 411 Article I. leo boktss , Od. ) to.tt ot '$ Ili sf ~~~ NIF : % li.