The Press. — London, England, 1856-05-10 00:00:00

U Eli f/ ( g 4 -,e- I)ert,6l LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 10, 1856. tion went on exactly as it would have done had they been shut up in an ante-chamber. We must admit that the line of the Liberal party has been sufficiently different from that which we have uniformly advocated. We argued that the tone of this country should be moderatebut firm; that we should avow our selves favorable to a pacific settlement of the Eastern question, but that we should insist on terms which would make that settlement com plete, and prevent future complications. Our opponents, on the contrary, demanded that wo should show ourselves adverse to peace, even at the moment of negotiation. They raised that difficulty of which Lord CLARENDON so pathetically complains, and now they approve him for yielding to it. The war-clamour of the Ministerialists has had the double effect of making this country appear ridiculous and of sacrificing conditions which should have been steadily insisted on as necessary to the neutralisation of the Black Sea and to the pacification of its shores. Lord CLARENDON, in his alarm lest he should be thought quarrelsome, not only gave up points on which he should have insisted, but forgot his position as the Minister of a free country, and assented to a minatory declaration against the independent press of a neighbouring State. For all that Lord CLARENDON did at the Con ferences we might as well have sent over his suit stuffed with straw to be tied in a chair at the Council-table. The arrangement would have been in some respects preferable, as the dummy would not have committed us to prin ciples which, with all respect for our great Ally, we must declare directly contrary to our policy. But Lord CLARENDON must be supported as the hope of the Reform Club, and the rising sun of jobbers of every degree, though nothing but a consciousness of the real strength of our country can prevent us from reflecting on the part he played in Paris without a sentiment of humiliation. , riH AH 'I No. 1 58.—VoL. IV. rot Vress. LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 10, 1850. LORD CLARENDON " drifted" into truth in his speech on Monday night, and allowed us to see the causes which, apart from his own weakness of character, compelled him to play a subordinate part at the Conferences, and, like the worthy candidate who cried " ditto ditto," to Mr. BURKE on the hustings at Bristol, to assent to whatever was urged by the other Plenipotentiaries. In moving the Address, Lord ELLESMERE, to magnify the achievements of Lord CLARENDON, related the difficulties he had had to encounter, specially enumerating among them the sentiment which prevailed on the Continent, that England did not desire peace, and that her representatives came to the Conference at Paris with a determination to disconcert the object for which it was sum- ned. Let us hear Lord CLARENDON'S own emarks on this statement : My lords, my noble friend who moved the Address has alluded to the difficulties of my position, arising out of a general belief in the insincerity of England, founded on the vast preparations which .he was making, as it was sup posed, for the sake of military glory, and on the warlike spirit which was manifested by the Parliament and by the press of this country. My lords, I became painfully sensible of the existence of that feeling after I arrived in Paris. There was a general belief there that we did not intend to make peace, and that it was our purpose to drag France on in the war, when she bel , .eved that the objects for which the war was undertaken had been attained. How did this belief that " we did not intend "to make peace" arise? Lord CLARENDON says, from the warlike language of the Parlia ment and the press; but had the boasting of the Government nothing to do with it? Who but those supposed to know the intentions of the Government were foremost in asserting that peace would not and should not be con cluded except on terms which all rational men knew to be impracticable? Russia must be made to pay all the expenses of the war ; the Crimea must be separated from her empire ; she must be deprived of her Asiatic provinces, and be driven back behind the Caucasus. On the Continent, and especially in Paris, it was believed that the Ministerial party which so clamorously insisted on these conditions, would never sanction a peace which not only left these, but more necessary though more humble, terms unfulfilled. Lord CLAREN DON, then, found his position, from the first, embarrassing. He protested his sincerity in vain. No one would believe him. To disarm mistrust, he gave up the right which belonged to him as the representative of England, of insisting on terms essential to the validity of the principles which the Treaty affirmed. It is of no great consequence now to inquire whether the other members of the Conference were really deceived as to Lord CLARENDON'S intentions, or whether they only pretended to be so. They must soon have perceived their advantage, and seen to what account it could be turned. The English Plenipotentiaries were muzzled, and the whole work of negotia- LATEST EDITION. THE CASE OF CIRCASSIA. WHATEVER may be thought of the case of Cir cassia now, the time is not far distant when the neglect of our Government to insist on the freedom of the eastern coast of the Black Sea will be esteemed among the greatest blunders ever committed by a British Ministry. It was an object directly included in the legitimate aims of the war, and it was an object of easy practical attainment. The coast of Circassia is stated to extend for two hundred and thirty miles on the east coast of the Black Sea. To that coast Russia has no just claim, either de jure or de facto. It can only be hers by right of occupation, but that occupation she has never achieved. By her war with the Caucasian tribes she has made that coast debateable ground. But is it for the interest of Europe, now that the Black Sea has been taken under European superintendence, that so large a tract of sea board should continue unsettled—that it should remain a doubtful point whether that coast belongs to its natural masters, the occu piers of the land, or to Russia ? Can it be said that the Black Sea is pacificated when the contest for the sovereignty of this long line of coast will certainly be resumed as soon as AV3HO .3HT 1 f STAMPED .... SIXPENCE. UNSTAMPED..FIVEPENCE. Russia has again made preparations to in vade it. _ . Thc coast is the key to the conquest of the whole Caucasus. The Russian forts were built to cut the people off from all communi cation with the Western world. On three sides they are completely surrounded by Russian power ; and, if their Black Sea coast can be blockaded also, their reduction is cer tain, though it may be long delayed. If that coast were open, there would, by means of the various tribes, be a communica tion kept up through the whole extent of the Caucasus. If that coast be closed, the tribes, completely blockaded by Russia, will be com pelled to submit to her dominion. Had the position been taken up when the negotiation commenced that there could be no pacification of the Black Sea without an entire abandonment of the Russian forts on the Circassian coast, it is very unlikely that Russia would have refused a condition so reasonable in itself, and requiring no surren der of her actual rights. The whole coast of the Black Sea would then have been open to com merce and the independence of the Cauca sian tribes by that simple provision would have been secured. As it is, the coast will soon be in a state of blockade, the Russian forts will be reoccupied, the war in the Caucasus will again break forth, and perhaps, as the war between Turkey and Russia which terminated in the Treaty of Adrianople was caused by the alleged assistance given by Turkey to the Caucasian tribes, a like cause may again pro duce a similar result. MOCK " LIBERALS." Tua conduct of certain " M.P.'s " in the " Liberal Party " ought not be overlooked at the present time; ; The fact that there are about a score of gehtlemen who advertise themselves to the world by blustering speeches and brawling votes as M Is-dependent Liberals," but who always rapidl i iijush to Ministers when in real peril, is a fact often discussed in poli tical circles. The members to whom we allude, taken singly, are of third-rate importance, but when Mr. Hansa artfully amalgamates them they have considerable force. It is time that some of their constituencies should take , ob jection to their flagrant insincerity. They talk in the House of Commons a political patois which might almost pass current for the corrupted dialect of every party in the State, but on emergency their conformity with Ministers has something wonderful. It is worth while taking a close view of these gen tlemen, who represent nothing so faithfully as the lubricity of Liberalism. In some . these gentlemi notorious Iris , nse was mad -- - house Liberal that cannot swagger san inipracticabb about " jobs in harmlesss let the Whit and they act were born .... ____________ of their Parliamentary features .men painfully resemble the too isli " tail," of whi •..,,•-. • ; ective lein othei diljt . .9• 111 1 , ;* eld- -4 ..„.. als. They tit. .s:' liif.r >,....... •Os be effeete&la j i , L • • " 7 . 77 ° ind icily with - ;112 . ive, II: - n le hobbies. 'W cry •• (t`,-. , lei 1 th ••as, Y i",and"jobiq , . A . . ,14,•„„ I n, i e 3 minorities • , ;L,l ?'. ' : 4.1' , ' ."... ut ig Family ' • 7411214` • r , t with as m • • 5° ,1i..,i:•t 1 .ey members of i. lITTF!Ii oli-