The Press. — London, England, 1853-09-24 00:00:00

f r • I Xo t te lit 1)/t1.6,6 No. 21.—VoL. I. LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1853. PRICE StxrENcE. " are unimportant, and then the question • arises, why should the Porte unnecessarilT " make its acceptance &pendent on them: He regards the office of tie mediating Powers as terminated by the Nitetion of the original note by the Porte, and lids them allow Russia to settle its difference with the Porte as it pleases. "It is for Austria and the Powers to " declare to the Porto, 'lankly and firmly, that " they, after having in vain opened up to it " the only road that could lead to an imme " diate restoration of its relations with us, " henceforth leave the task to itself alone." The effect of this language on the Court of Vienna was decisive and immediate. Count Bum declared that not h i n g now was to be done but to urge Turley to the acceptance of the original note ; u proposal of the French Minister was rejected as nut being sufficiently pressing on the Porte ; anti Austria at last, act ing for herself; despatched a message to Con stantinople, advising prompt and unconditional aeceptance. This step virtually disaulved the Conference ; but a telegraphic despatch from Vienna of Sept. 21 informs us that, at the pressing instance of Lord SornArronu in: RED cunt, the Conference decided that the Ministers of the great Powers at Constanti nople should lie •ftsithakiiied to declare " that the Vieuna note does mot involve the duff " gers which the Porte appears to see in it to " the sovereignty of the Sultan." It is added that no other collective step would be taken. The mutter being brought to this issue, Russia and Turkey are straining every nerve to increase their armaments; deputations wait upon the Sultan, clamorous for war; and the Czar NICHOLAS and the Emperor FRANCIS met at Olmiitz yesterday. certainly to determine on an united course of action, and possibly to decide on a partition of the Turkish empire. Yet the paper which is supposed to red, et the sentiments of Lord AREIDEEN could on Tuesday coolly tell the country that " the " Turkish question has plainly become a ques " tion of words." The Ministerial journalists have to pay dearly for the livery th.y wear; for, while they no doubt earn the approval of their masters, they wholly loss the respect of the public. - . With probably the same intent that Lord JOHN RUSSELL delivered an unmeaning piece of rhodotnontade to the burgesses of Greenock, the Ministerial journals have ventured on some abube of the Czar N ICHOLAS. The public mind is to be diverted from the rent facts and bear ings of the question at issue, and, as affairs assume a darker aspect, the policy of Russia is to be assailed that the incapacity of our Government may be concealed. The policy of Russia I. undoubtedly aggres sive, but such policy is not new in the history of the world : it has animated the councils of every great nation we can van to mind, and we must expect to see it prevail so long as vigorous rulers are moved by the promptiugs of ambition and the desire to distinguish themselves in contributing to the power of the eountiies they govern. It is not to be supposed that the character of the Emperor\ tcuot.As hiem suddenly changed. His pmsperous reign is striking evidence of his capacity. and his statestnausiihip has been illustrated by the success of his enterprises. If he now threatens Turkey. it must be he caueo he perceives that a rare conjuncture of circmustauces favours his design. Cly V ress. LONDON, SATURDAY, sEI'TLitaLR4I, 1N53. THERE never was a quarrel which advanced more regularly than that between Russia and the Porte, since a wolf and a lamb met to drink on the banks of the same stream. It has proceeded, step by step, according to the most approved rules. Each week our columns have recorded some new incident, heightening the breach between the contending parties, and menacing more ominously the peace if Europe. It required no great sagacity to foresee, months ago, the course which events would take. On the 10th of .lune we wrote :—" Before us, at " the best, is a prospect of three or four " months of paralysis of our commerce and " finance, with the probability of a • general " war in the autumn or spring." At that date our Government must. .14,0 understood what was the policy of the Cabinet of St. Peters burg, and to what end its action was directed, or it must have ignored the existence of no torious facts. Since then—though struggling against the misrepresentation of a powerful press—we have insisted that the question became con• tinually more serious, till now a crisis has confessedly been reached, which must end in the complete subjugation of Turkey to Russia, and, by consequence, in the virtual extinc tion of the Ottoman Empire, or in A WAR, whose proximate bearing, in the present distracted state of European councils, it is not easy to perceive, awl whose ultimate issue it is impossible to divine. This much is clear : in the event of war, we must, abiding by our engagements with the Porte, be pre pared to take an active part in it, or consent to be cast aside us one of the great governing States of Europe, and sink into a mere mer cantile nation, degraded by perfidy towards a faithful ally, and by dastardly submission to the threatening attitude of a hostile and semi barbarous Power. Two notes by Cou n t NESSELRODE, which aceompanied Russia's refusal of the Turkish modifications to the Vienna note, place us in possession of the Czar's views. Whatever may be the faults of the Cabinet of St. Peters burg, it cannot be aeeused of attempting to disguise its sentiments by verbal jugglery. It, speech is decisive and trenchant—haughty in consciousness of strength, and scornful in contempt of the weakness to which it is op posed. The patty subterfuge (which it is now acknowledged was suggested by our Govern went) that the Vienna note, if signed by the Porte, should be read in the sense of the pro posed modifications, must have appeared ridiculous in the presence of the plain and emphatic language of the Russian despatches. " Either;' says Count N IMELRODE, " the al terations which the Porte requires are es important, in which case it is very simple ‘. that we refuse to accede to them or they We are, as a people, fond of facts, and this one fact is too significant to bo passed by unnoticed. The: formation of the ADERDIEN Ministry was the signal for the Cabinet of St. Petersburg to commence its attack ou the in dependence of the Porte. Thu policy of the Czar, however objeetion able on moral grounds, is natural to his posi and to the traditions of his race and country. He haA inherited it with his crown. as English Ministers, until AUERDEEN, in herited the duty of stubbornly opposing it. If he now makes a dari n g t`tiort to snatch the long-coveted prize of Russian statesmanship. shall we blame him, or the Ministers whose treachery has encouraged his daring?—their treachery, even if we suppose then► well. meaning, as weakness is treachery when na• tional interests and honour are at stake. If it should be asked what our flovernment is doing while the Continent is heaving with momentous events.the answer must be shortly —nothing. No Cabinet Council has been held. Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT is hospitably entertain ing—as we learn by the fashionable intelli gence—several members of the Russian Kris toerary at his .seat in Wilts, Lord JOHN ROO. SELL is nt Balmoral, Sir ,JAMEM GRAUAM an Admiralty cruise to the Cove of Cork, and other members of the Cibinet tire left to plea santly pursue their favourite erutehets, that Lord ABERDEEN may be uninterrupted in his friendly conferences with the Russian Ambet,e sador. PROGRESS OF THE CHOLERA. THE authorities still continue to oppose the cholera in a Chinese style. There are words in plenty ; "notifications" of the Board of Health which are binding on no one , anal pro clamations " given under our hands " by the Chadwicks and Southwood smiths, which, though they may be obligatory Enough, have the accompanying drawback of bring unintel ligible. There seems to be an effort to get up, under the influence of it panic, an univer sal consentanrous action, which is W sup' ly the place of a well-devised organisation. Ex cept in sudden and spontaneous revolutions, such general evnibinations have never been known to succeed, and they have generally collapsed when the immediate excitement was over. While the prelitninariem are being settled on paper, and while Loan tinarressuay on his way buck from the Continent to pre4tde at the Board of Health," the enemy is at the gates. — nay, within the citadel. The death'. at New castle on the 20th instant amounted to the enormous number of 118, of which 108 were from cholera. The report of the 21st from the same place is certainly a little more en couraging, inasmuch as the total of &JAIN is 84, of which 80 were from cholera ; but. 4,11 the other hand, die gross mortality, since the cow mencement of the disease, has been such u to lead to the inference that, should it generally spread, it will assume a form more virulent and fatal than during its fi)Ellier visits. In Newcastle alone there have been iu fifteen days 235 deaths, while in 18:11 :! there were obiy 155 ! From Gateshead the accounts are healed,. less terrible. The total dentin during the first fifteen days in 18314 was 125 ; durint; the same period in 1555 they have II to :I'4l. Its