The Press. — London, England, 1854-09-30 00:00:00

930 others, she was ever faithful to him. While his colleagues stood aghast at the boldness of his conceptions, and would if they could have tempered them, he threw their trembling council aside, seized the helm himself, and, as he piloted the vessel through the storm, laughed at the terrors and dismay ho had created. But the same recklessness of charm ler that distinguished Clive, not, however, un• mingled with a cooler examination of his resources than his colleagues gave him credit for, was the source of those errors which his admirers ever deplore. Having put his foot upon the neck of the natives, he did not hesi tate to crush them to an extent far beyond the necessity of his position. To them he was ever ruthless ; and he never. in pursuit of his great object of destroying them, hesitated to break his faith. But what in Clive's character were spots— which we would gladly pardon, if we could, out of admiration for his otherwise splendid qualities, and also out of consideration of the vast services he rendered to the State — became the adopted and settled policy of his pigmy successors when he left Bengal. Be cause he had snatched Fortune's cornucopia, and poured out its treasures at his feet, they deemed themselves authorised to scrape up gold by every low and dirty means their posi tion afforded them the opportunity of employ ing. He had boldly forged a signature in order to destroy a throne incompatible, as he deemed it, with his country's safety—they put up the powers of the State to auc tion, and, after knocking down kingdoms, belied their engagements when the cash was paid. He committed crimes to further his country's glory—they in order to fill their pockets with the proceeds of another and another kingdom's sale. The remainder of the history of that period is so well known to our readers that we m.ty be spared the task of recapitulating it. The infamies of a Hastings—the deeper infamies of an linpey—have been depicted in words of fire by a Sheridan and a Burke. The me diocrity of a Shore has' long consigned the name of Teignmouth to obscurity ; but we cannot pass over, without paying to it a warm though brief tribute of respect, the name of the amiable, the virtuous, the good Corn wallis. In later times it has been the fashion to un dervalue this excellent nobleman and not less excellent Governor-General. That he should not be appreciated by the modern school of Indian politicians is intelligible, for nothing was more opposed than his generous nature to the grasping of their sordid system. An English nobleman, he respected the rights and pitied the fallen state of the nobility of India, and did all he could to soften to them the pains attending the change of rule. The " perpetual settlement," as it is called in Bengal, was his act, and the wisdom of it has been shown by the fact of more advancement having been made under it than has taken place in any other part of India. To every landholder holding from the Company he gave a lease of his land at the then rental for ever, and this laid the foundation for that wealth and prosperity which so conspicuously marks the territory in which the system had existence. If the plan has not been - even more successful—as successful as the good Lord Cornwallis could have desired —this has been owing to the subsequent tam perings of the Company, who, jealous of the prosperity and envious of the wealth which it has created, have long sought to make it prove a failure, so as to justify their breaking the covenants, and resuming the lands which the Marquis Cornwallis thus leased away. There are some names in India that will never be forgotten ; but of all that have ruled there, there is none so worshipped by the natives as the great and good Cornwallis. • Here we pause for the present, reserving our further notice for another number. La Russie et tAngleterre. Par Bruno Bauer. Trad nit de l'Allemand. Charlottenbourg. THE author of this pamphlet takes a German view of the Eastern question. Ho has had access to the best sources of information, and though, from his local prejudices, and from his THE PRESS. love of abstract thought, many of his specula tions appear exceedingly strange to us, yet his views are in the main correct and sagacious. It is his purpose to elucidate the origin and progress of the Turkish imbroglio up to the moment that hostilities between the Western powers and Russia broke out. His work is suffi ciently remarkable to induce us to give a parti cular account of it, though we must guard against being supposed to endorse his opinions. The transactions to which he refers have now be come history, and, whenever truly related, will constitute a shameful chapter in our Minis terial annals. It is impossible to look back on them without a feeling of indignation at the weakness, the duplicity, the confusion, and the blundering they display. M. Bauer, refining too flu-, says the founda tion of the Eastern quarrel was laid in the eighteenth century, when Fox desired the alliance of France as the surest pledge of European peace. He also desired the protec torate of Russia ; and the passage quoted here from his speech of 27th of May, 1803, is curious, as showing that at that time there existed, in his estimation, but three States sufficiently powerful to disturb or to set tle the peace of the world : Fox, having learnt that the Emperor of Russia desired not only to take Malta under his protection, but to extend his mediation to the affairs of Switzerland, Holland, and spai,,, spoke on the 27th of May, and conjured the Minis ter if they had at heart the interest of their country and the p we of Europe, to seize this occasion to pluce the rights of all independent nations and the interests of Europe under the guarantee and protection of the prince who, by his power, his character, and his rank, was of all sove reigns the most proper to be charged with their care and the most skilful to protect them. If France," said he, " meances the smaller States, what other means have you to restrain her? What resources do you possess within yourselves? It is only an alliance with Russia which would give you those means, and, at the same time, the surest hope of seeing the peace of Europe for ever zonsolidated." Mr. Cobden, in the author's opinion, may in advocating the Russian alliance shelter him self under the authority of the great Whig statesman. " Fox a travaille pour lui." But, Russia having become too powerful by the results of the war, it was the policy of Can ning to raise in England the standard of revo lution as the veritable adversary of Russia. In his celebrated speech on the affairs of Por tugal he declared that England, notwithstand ing her moderate intentions, might not be able to escape the necessity of arraying under her banners the unquiet and discontented spirits of every country to which she declared war. It is to the vaunted policy of this states man, urges M. Bauer, and not to the political atheism of Mr. Cobden or the fearful scepti cism of Lord Aberdeen, that the existing crisis is to be ascribed. He justifies this view by reference to some of those diploma tic documents which display in a remarkable manner the subtle workings of Russian policy "It must be acknowledged," wrote Pozzo di forgo in his despatch of 22nd December, 1526, "that a revolution is working in men's minds in England : but, as regards that facility of causing revolutions of which the English boast, it is infinitely less than they represent. They may be able to provoke troubles or form conspiracies, but they will expose their % ictims without being able to de fend them, because they have not armies to support them with, and because those whom they devote to destruction will fail in either energy or means to help themselves." It is said here that Canning had so little faith in the principles he expressed, that, on the representation of Prince Lieven that language like his had not been listened to by Europe since the epoch of the French revolution, he consented to modify or retract it in a new edition of his speech. It is, in our author's opinion, a signal proof of the solid power of Russia that she has not only broken up old arrangements in Europe, but that she has forced the organisation of new. ones. The empire, he says, with a felicity of diction hardly capable of being rendered into our tongue, " qui passe pour l'empire des " façades et du prestige," has destroyed for France the illusion of a political autocracy, and for England the idea that she could be arbiter of the world. Russia has taken her part, and the other powers have grouped them selves about her. The success of Russia in 1829 tended mightily to increase her presumption, and by natural sequence has led to the present quarrel. The idea of Metternich to form a - SATURDAY, league against Russia found no favour in England. It was opposed, not only by Lord Aberdeen, but by the Liberal party. Sir James Mackintosh spoke of the danger of guaranteeing the integrity of the Ottoman territory ; and Lord Palmerston, insisting upon the mainte- nance of peace, argued that a Turco•Austriau policy would only tend to disturb it. The Russian envoys in London correctly appre• ciated the state of affairs. "It is from our " camp," they wrote from London in June, 1829, " that peace must be concluded, and, " when it is concluded, Europe may be in• " formed of the conditions. Protests will be " too late then, and one suffers patiently what " one is unable to prevent." It was (as we now know from the conversations of the Emperor Nicholas with Sir Hamilton Seymour) through a like belief that no league could be formed against the designs of Russia that the enterprise against Turkey was under taken, and there was a time when it seemed that the expectations of the Czar would be completely fulfilled. Lord Aberdeen's Govern ment was notoriously hostile to a cordial alliance with France : The invariable theme of the Times since the commence• ment of the discussion was—Russia and France have excited the contest by tormenting the Porte with their pressing demands: let them settle their quarrel themselves; England has nothing to do with it ; she will wait the issue of their dispute to act as she may think proper, consulting only her own interests. _ _ M. Bauer imagines that at the time when the attitude of Russia became more threatening, and our Ministry, alarmed, drew nearer to France, that speculations like these passed through the mind of Louis Napoleon : He said to himself—The subaltern position of France is, then, a fact so incontestable in your eyes that you think you can afford to yield to me the harmless honourof taking the first step. But it is I rather who will attach you to my career, and who will compel you to follow me. Since you cannot deny that, face to face with Russia, you are reduced to the second rank, you would take your revenge by humiliating France to the third rank, and by making her play the part of a satellite of Eng land. But I will rather make you the accomplices of what you call my passion, and will chain England as the satel lite of France. You have sacrificed me to Russia on the question of the Holy Places ; you ere bound to her by se cret promises ; and you hope to sacrifice me again to your engagements. But, by hazardous enterprises continually renewed, I will occupy you in such a manner that you shall no more think of traversing my projects by pacific nego tiations. You have reserved for yourselves the last word; but, by the aid of the opposition which is never silent among you, I will force you into a position so advanced as to leave 'you no choice, and, profiting by the confusion in your camp, I, the saviour of France, will finish by saving England also. The urgent manner in which you solicit me, in spite of your secret plans and your antipat h y against me—with the change in political relations—prove that the political system of the West is troubled. Does not the Anglo-French alliance which you have been com pelled to stoop to proclaim in your Parliament prove that the existing political system does not suffice for the greatness of the question which has arisen—that no confi dence is felt in its solidity—and that the point of gravita tion has yet to be found? And it is my pleasure to avail myself of this alliance that I may become the point of gra vitation. Following up this view, M. Bauer shows that the French Governinent has on all occa sions taken the initiative in the proceedings with Russia. It was the French Government which drew up the Vienna note—which first sent its fleet to Beicos Bay—which forced the English fleet to pass the Dardanelles, and, " with the aid of Palmerston's ministerial in " sumetion," to enter the Black Sea. Subse quently the English Cabinet, without a definite policy of its own, was forced by France into a position which admitted of no matured design or systematic action. The Emperor of France steadily moved forward in resistance to Russia, while Lord Aberdeen's Ministry , perplexed, divided, and uncertain, submitted to be dragged in his train, her solicitations to Aus tria being met with what M. Bauer calls the mistrust that she has only too well " merited," and to Russia with anger and contempt. If it be true that the expedition to the Crimea has been undertaken solely in consequence of imperative orders from the French Government, the fact would furnish a new illustration of M. Bauer's theory. We may say that this gentleman does justice to the accuracy of the information given in om columns. The assertion of the PRESS, he says, that Lord Aberdeen had entered into an engagement with Russia not to regard the occupation of the principalities as a easus belli, was proved by the result to be incontestably