The Press. — London, England, 1854-07-22 00:00:00

i/g040,„4/4- ee f/70-07' hie btit Ail t,41 PRICE SIXPENCE• No. 64.—VoL. 11. Eft Vress. LONDON, SATURDAY, JULY 22, 1854. "PRESS" OFFICE, Friday Night, July 21, 1854. Tn secret negotiations which we announced on the 27th May as actively carrying on, and to the course of which we have frequently called the attention of our readers, may be now said to have reached their acme. The Court of Vienna has not only an nounced to the Western Powers that it is not the intention of Austria to enter the princi palities, even " as an armed mediator," but it has expressed its agreement with the Court of Berlin, that the reply of Russia to the notes of the two German Courts contains proposi tions conducive to a general peace, founded on the maintenance of the political equi• lihrnm. Further, it nok. only recommends to ... the I Western Powers a revival of the Conference of Vienna with this object. but it expresses its wish, in unison with Prussia, that England and France should specifically intimate the terms on which, ill their opinion, the general peace may be satisfactorily negotiated and concluded. Referring to our intimation, in our last num ber, that considerable changes might now be expected in the personnel of the administrative and diplomatic bodies, in order tranquilly to withdraw from the scene individuals highly pronounced in their conduct and convictions, we have now to announce that his Excellency . the Comte WALEWSKA, the • Ambassador of . France, has offered his resignation to his imperial master, which has been duly ac cepted. His Excellency, as well as the accomplished Partner of his life, will leave at the Court of St. James's and in our circles lively recollec tions of many amiable qualities which had rendered them alike popular and esteemed. It will be remembered that his Excellency is of a Polish family, and has viewed the Eastern question very much with reference to this circumstance. THE country is in a mess. Lord ABERDEEN has gone to war with Russia as Sir ROBERT 'WALPOLE went to war with Spain,—against his will. In declaring hostilities he has taken a step contrary alike to his prejudices and his convictions. He is of opinion that the war is decidedly impolitic; *he is not sure that it is not unjust. Even in his late apologetical speech he did not scruple to express his opinion that, at the commencement of her quarrel with Turkey, Russia was certainly in LONDON, SATURDAY, JULY 22, 1854. the right. What chance is there of a war being carried on with spirit and success when the chief manager of it is acting against the grain, and has no faith in his cause ? The conduct of the Ministry with respect to this affair, during the whole period they have been in office, has been a series of blunders, or something worse. They criminally dis regarded the confidential communications of the Emperor's intentions in 1853, and then they scandalously revealed them in 1854. The negligence disgraced them as statesmen : one would have thought that gentlemen would hardly have descended to the subsequent breach of faith. A false assumption, on the part of Rusais,:to protect the subjects of the Porte professing the Greek religion, was the sole object and basis of the disturbing mission of MENSCHISOFF, which we are now at war to baffle, and yet that profound jurist, the Lord President of the Council, commemorated his brief career, as the head of our diplomacy, by a despatch of pompous twaddle, in which he announced the opinion of her Majesty's Ministers that the claims of the Russian Emperor over these Turkish subjects were not only sanctioned by law, but prescribed by duty! Either the Ministers have throughout been singularly miaknformed, or they have failed to apprehend the communications of their 'gems. It is now universally agreed that the Emperor of RUSSIA never seriously intended hostilities, and that the reports of his preparations were hyperbolical. The Emperor of Rums watched Lord ABERDEEN and counted on him. Bautiow had written repeatedly to his master that the English Minister was in the habit of reviling the French Emperor, and sneering at the French alliance. NICHOLAS observed that when the French fleet reached Salamis the English fleet, notwithstanding the appeal of General ROSE, remained at Malta. NICHOLAS complimented Lord ABERDEEN on the beau role he was playing in not acting with France. The compliment was accepted, and the Pruth was passed. The fifty thousand men who finally crossed that river were not only exagge rated by the Cabinet into a host of Attila, but one of the cardinal principles of their policy was that resistance of the Russians by the Turks was hopeless. It seems now pretty clear, as General ROSE always impressed on them, that if the English fleet had entered the Black Sea on the passage of the Pruth, the Russians would have been ignominiously expelled from the principalities by OMER PACHA, and some twenty millions of English treasure been saved. Instead of this, we had a Conference of Vienna, where the arbitrators had not the power of enforcing their award on those of whom they were the umpires. The autumn was passed in imbecility. When Lord PALMERSTON left the Cabinet the country was officially informed that his Lord ship was " a firebrand," which meant that he wanted to go to war, and his colleagues did not. Notwithstanding Sinope, it is clear that the Cabinet had not resolved to proceed to extremities when Parliament met. Mr. GLAD STONE, when he introduced the larger and second edition of estimates, urged by way of extenuation of his previous miscalculation, that when the troops were first sent to Malta, at the expense of several millions, absolute war was not contemplated ! In the meantime we were consoled for the delay, and even com pensated for it, by a gratifying assurance from Sir JAMES GRAHAM that we had obtained by its beneficial agency the co-operation of the German Powers ! Repeated notes of admira tion can alone point the exploits of our egre gious Ministers. We have impressed upon our readers from the beginning not to fall into this fool's paradise. We have apprised them in detail for the last two months of the continuous and secret negotiations which were taking place, as regards the German Powers, with very different views. The only reply of the Government organs to our state-' ments was that they were made under " Russian inspiration"! If the public find our information always authentic, they will care little who may be the prompter ; and, on turning to our memorandum of foreign in telligence to-day, they will meet a final confirmation of all for which we had prepared them. Misled by their agents at Vienna, or de vising delay, credulous or conniving, th• result is the same. The Coalitionists have lost another year. NAPIER, after all his fan faronade, after all the " Go it Charleys !" and the hiccupping harangues of the First Lord of the Admiralty, must soon return from the Baltic bootless. In the very words of its commander, BARAOUAY d'HILLIERS himself, " the French expedition to the north, if it Abst i t " attempts anything this ear, will find " another Mossese A - asmi- official announcements of the approac *ng siege au►cd capture of Sebastopol, this is only a variety of that " enormous lying " which, according to CHARLES BULLER, is a resource of a Ministry in distress. Our southern fleet may escape the sneers of Spithead, but it will only be by lying tranquilly anchored in the Bosphorus, while our magnificent troops, who left these shores amid the enthusiasm of their country men at the very moment that our Ministers had resolved they should not fight, may, we dread to think, moulder away in regions where their only foes will be pestilence and famine. The military expeditions to the Eas were undertaken against the advice, and in the teeth of the urgent protest, of the principal French leaders, especially Marshals Sr. Au- NAUD and MAGNAN. These expeditions were founded on the Aberdeen assumption that the Turks could not fight either by sea or land. They were objected to on the ground of the enormous expenditure which they must occa sion, and the very doubtful consequences which they might accomplish. Preliminary pre parations on the spot alone could justify them. There were none. The English expedition was despatched with a brace of commissar y generals as precursors, who went about as if they were purveying for a private family of distinction. We doubt whether the French were more prescient. So far as the present campaign is concerned, the thirty millions which have been expended by the two nations might have been thrown into the Golden Horn. After this prodigal strain on' the resources of both countries, what is the prospect of the third campaign? It is in the nature and necessity of things that the understanding which exists between the Czar and the Ger man Powers will mature into co-operation. The Crimea, which, had there been any fixed purpose in our distracted councils, might have ere this been in the possession of tl: • allies, will soon be occupied by the flower of the Muscovite armies. The Cireassians, in stead of holding aloof, might have been ardently co-operating with us. Tho Scandi- ..'t