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

DEeEmtER 16, 1854 order to crush the germ of an aspiration for freedom. It is evident that a war of encroachment is more consonant to this system than a state of peace, and more conducive to the ultimate establishment of the absolute as a general principle of government throughout Europe, which is its end and aim. Russia upholds, in fierce determination, these iron canons of rule for the maintenance and for the pro pagation of the absolute. The Muscovite oligarchy is that power which is stronger than the autocrat, and is the throne itself. Disobedience to its interest is followed by imperial death. This prepotent faction has been apparently weakened by the admission of a foreign and Germanic element in its constitution; but an astute and well-worked policy, following out the spirit of the Bth, 10th, and 11th clauses of the will of Peter the Great, has converted that supposed weakness into a principle of strength. Short was the contest betwixt the Muscovite and Germanic dis- patents. The death of the Emperor Alexander was a warning to Nicholas to be fait:iful in his allegiance to the absolute, to that principle which is greater than the imperial throne. After the extinction of Poland, the ramification of the absolute was extended slowly butsurely through out the Germanic Confederation, and the Muscovite used the secondary and obedient faction for its own especial advantage. The object was to undermine gradually the federal influence in the fatherland, and to substitute the absolute in its stead. The means employed were family alliances, and the subordination, through them, of the Germanic Diet. Napoleon con tested for the supremacy of dominion with the Panschlaviet, whose designk he had detected. He failed by the union of all parties—autocratic, consti . tutional, and republican—against him, and in his fall he left the field open for the project of Panschlavism. The treaty of Bucharest, which was signed by the light of the flames of Moscow in 1812, served as a check to Austria. It ceded to the Mus covite Bessarabia, Eastern Moldavia, and the mouths of the Austrian river, the Danube. The treaty of Adrianople was a repetition of that of Karnadji, giving sovereign power to the Czar as protector of the Greek Christians within the dominions of the Sultan, and with the important addition of closing the Dar danelles against all other powers in the event of a war. The Black Sea, in defiance of Austria, was changed into a Russian lake, and Constantinople was in the fangs of the Panschlavist. Where was Lord Palmerston' But the silent extension of the absolute throughout Europe, felt from within although not seen from without, brought into play the antagonistic force of republicanism. The Congress of Vienna had appor tioned states and kingdoms without reference to race, habits, or nationalities of opinion and govern ment. Throughout this division of empire, the absolute was the real, yet concealed, agent. The undue pressure upon the people, being made by rough and inapt princes, produced an acerbity of discontent ; and this was the more perilous to the princes since the masses of central Europe were educated, and wielded an intellectual power unknown to the illiterate Panschlavist. The Muscovite fac• Lion, nothing daunted, and with the Czar its agent, sought to corrupt where it could not coerce. The faction worked darkly, and, with secret agents in the councils of the German princes, obtained a majority in the Frankfort, Diet. It acquired through this majority the nomination to various professorships in the universities. This brought the Muscovite face to face with the Republican and his Bnrschenschaft; and the murder of Rotzbiie, the Manheim professor, agent of the absolute, and chamberlain of the Czar, was the immediate result. Both as a poet, and a lecturer, Kotzhiie inculcated the advantage of a paternal absolute. The murderer, George Ludwig Sandt, having failed in self-destruction, was executed after a lapse of two years ; and there is this remarks ble in the circumstance, that the sentence was carried Into effect at the peremptory demand of the Czar through his Minister at Baden. Both the Govern• ment and the Grand Duke desired to avoid the exhi• bition of capital punishment, since the life of Sandt could not have been much longer prolonged. His death by the hands of the executioner, a just and righteous doom, two years after the committal of the trespass, by converting the murderer into a martyr, produced the gravest results, and strengthened the ranks of republicanism. France at length led the way in violent resistance to the absolute, and Italy, Germany, and Hungary, at successive periods, were prompt to follow the example. The Republicans, as is their wont, under the name of Liberty, installed the absolute of com monalty. They deified liberty, otherwise anarchy, without limit and without responsibility,—a state wherein, by the legalisation of evil, the bad alone can prosper. They published equality, which is impos sible in practice, and contrary to the divinelyconsti tuted nature of man ; end they professed a fraternity of love with their faces and hands smeared with the blood of their brothers and victims. And this applies to the Republicans of France, Italy, (ley many, and Hungary. The- Archbishop of Pans, THE PRESS. Count Rossi, Prince Lichnowsky, and General Count Latour, bear witness in death of the project to estab lish the principle of the absolute in blood and anarchy. The Muscovite bided his time. Austria solicited his aid; he accorded it, and became her master. He incited Prussia to manceuvre for a pre ponderancein the Germanic Diet, and, having gained his point in abasing Austria and strengthening Prussia for his own future benefit, he then, and not till then, extinguished republicanism throughout central Europe. In revenge for the suppression of anarchy, assassination, and commonalty, Mazzini, Kossuth, and Ledru-Rollin now shout "Mort aux Rois!" Although she absolntely had triumphed over re publicanism, there was another power still greater, and greater because its justice was in proportion to, and linked with, its might, which had been consoli dated for centuries. This foe was vigilant, resolute, brave, and virtuous. It was constitutionalism, equally hostile to the tyranny of absolutism, and to the tyranny of republicanism. All that is great and good in this system, which is based upon popular representation, is centred in England, and on this account her place, by prescription and hereditary right, has always been in the van of the allied enemies to absolutism. These may do battle under another name, they may nominally attribute an other cause, whether in support of Turk, Jew, or Infidel, but the real warfare springs from a funda mental incompatibility and utter disunion with the absolute and republican principles. France, emerging from the pollution of democracy, called to her assistance the imperial power to save her from anarchy and the absolute of the guillotine. The middle classes and owners of property, the friends of order, were the foremost in the inter pollution of imperialism. Their confidence in the man of their choice was proved to be well judged, and led instantly to an intimate and cordial alliance with England. But the latter country was not free from the taint of the absolute. Sir Robert Peel, in withdrawing from the aristo cratic party, and in constant opposition to the Whig, formed a middle party upon the principle of Divide et Impera. He died. Lord Aberdeen and his fol lowers, now universally designated by the name of Peelites, compassed and seized the Ministerial rule. Few in number, without possessing constitutionally the confidence of the country, they carry on the Government unconstitutionally by the mere accident of position, and in themselves represent the abso lute in spirit, although not in appearance. The High Church, and religionists of all classes, condemn Sir William Molesworth and his clique, the Low Church fear the Romanism of Mr. Gladstone, and the merchant princes dread his financial adventures. The Indian empire holds Sir Charles Wood in con tempt, the Duke of Newcastle is disliked by the army for his cruel incompetency, and the navy do hot believe or hold in estimation, for other reasons, Sir James Graham. Lord John Russell is not trusted by any, from his blind sacrifile of everything for a vain and phantasmal sebserviency to the possible praise of posterity; and Lord Palmerston laughs at the joint stock company. Amongst the above, Sir James Graham, Mr. Gladstone, and the Duke of New. castle, are the arch Peelites, with whom Lord Aber deen acts as the leader and the Minister. These men, in fact, reign. Let not the truth be garbled. These men, the representatives of the absolute, reign against the will of the people. To preserve their seizure of power, they have allied themselves to the republicanism of England, and have amalgamated with its leaders by stithying them into Ministeral office. The chief of the Peel faction, and the Minister, personally and officially acted in strict accord with the Russo-champion of the absolute. Then immediately proceeded, and with amicable consent, the Muscovite aggression on Constanti nople, the first imperial sten to the entlimnisation of the absolute in Europe. France, with the popular and conetitntional voice of England, Palmerstonianly expressed in Council, forced the unwilling Peel Minister to declare war against Muscovite abso lutism. The Manchester Republicans joined the Peel-peace and Russian party, and devised Frank- Imperialism, but the national heart was sound at core. It mistrusted the Peelites, individually and collectively, and compelled the gang, despite of Manchester Republicans, to act in accordance with national will and national honour. The constitutional principal of England, aided by Imperial France, is doing battle with the absolute to the death. Russia is virtually supported by the good will of Prussia, and a large majority of the Kings and Princes of Germany; Austria, in the secret truth, not excepted. Prussia, the outpost of Russia, occupies the identical position of extinct Poland, and is utterly incapable of free action. On one side appear the battalions of the Czar, whilst to the west rise the phantoms of the warriors of Jena. The dread of a French army is greater than that of Russian guards. Austria, hating England as the centralisation of the constitutional principle, holding France in hereditary abhorrence, fearing the Czar, 1181 Lombardy, by whom the is regarded as the proto type of evil, seeks only to preserve, at any cost, her disunited possessions. Every loss of the Anglo- Frank army is to her a gain. She looks on quietly, full of deceit and ill-will, and will afford no effectual aid except under compulsion. Even her armed assistance is not to be trusted. She belongs to the absolute. Leagued in fellow-insincerity with Prussia, she will oppose any arrangement that will tend to increase the power of France and England. What ever compact, containing four or more conditions, may be patched up by diplomatic device, care will be taken that, in the articles of a just, honourable, lasting, and Aberdeen-Peel peace, such an equivocal wording shall exist as to enable the Eastern powers at any moment to break ground against the objects of their hatred—France and England. In the mean time the flunky of the absolute wields the Minis terial power of England. STAZZA CAUINO. Court anb fas4irs. Her Neje:4y left Windsor for London on Monday, and on the following day opened Parliament in state. The Queen quitted town shortly after the ceremony, and arrived at Windsor before seven o'clock in the evening. A Privy Council was held at Windsor on Monday, at which nearly all the Ministers attended, when the Royal Speech on the opening of Parliament was arranged and agreed upon. Cabinet Councils were held on Saturday and Wednesday last. Lord John Russell, as Leader of the House of Commons, gave a full dress dinner to a numerous party of his colleagues on Monday evening at the Foreign Office. Letters from Vienna state that Lord Westmoreland was received by the Emperor on the sth, to deliver an autograph letter from Queen Victoria. Some days before, Baron Bourqueney, French Ambassador at Vienna, had also delivered an autograph letter from his Sovereign to his Imperial Majesty. The overland mail has brought the melancholy intelligence of the death of Lord F. FITECLARENOt, Commander-in-Chief at Bombay, and colonel of the 36th Regiment. The deceased was second eon of King William IV. and Mrs. Jordan ; was born in 1799, and in 1821 married Lady Augusta Boyle, daughter of the Earl of Glasgow. Lord Frederick entered the army in 1814, and at his death hold tho rank of lieutenant-general. '4 TO THE EDITOR OF " THE PRESS." Sir,—Your remarks on " The Campaign in the East" are perfectly jnst, and you point out correctly the two couttes which lay open for onr Government to pursue. Had the firkt been adopted, and aim tually carried out, it would probably not have been necessary for this country to tire a shot, and we should have been spared the loss of that noble army which has been sacrificed. But bow have our Government acted? They beguiled the country by declaring a blockade of the ports of Russia, and the consequence has been a larger importation of the produce of that country this year than usual. The enemy has been allowed free intercourse with us in neutral ships, and up to the present moment vessels continue to arrive at London, laden with Ruasidn produce, direct from Odessa and other ports of Russia. No wonder people marvel, as, with all our boasting, we, jointly with France and Turkey, have shown ourselves incapable of block ading the few ports of the Emperor ; but I suppose a ' blockade of the ports of the enemy and an endeavour to cripple his commerce would be contrary to the doctrine of " free trade." The siege of Sebastopol is an exact type of the pre sent war. We are attacking one side of that city, whilst the other sides are left perfectly open to the resources of the enemy ; and, in the same way in the general conduct of the war, we are making demon strations on a few points of his dominions, and leaving the rest open to him to push out his vast productions and obtain in return the sinews of war." I fancy the Emperor of Russia is nothing the worse, and his means are not crippled, by the returns for his produce being made chiefly in our bullion instead of, as hithetto, in manufactures, colonial goods, &e. Gold is, indeed, better than all these things for a nation resolved on a stout fight, and we have supplied it to them this year to an unusual extent. You have, more than any other journal, pointed out the treasonable connivance of our Ministry in this respect, and if the matter be not remedieil before your next number appear I trust some strong remarks on the subject will not be wanting therein.—l have the honour to remain, sir, your moat obedient servant, London, 11th Dee., 1854. B.