The Press. — London, England, 1855-10-13 00:00:00

ri "er e ft,6s .~ No. 128.—VoL. 111. Vrtss. LONDON, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1855, ONE great point has been gained by THE Puma. The gravity of the existing situation is recog nised. On every side the question is asked— For what purpose is the war to be continued? This is a question which cannot be shirked. ' Those persons should be best prepared to answer it who are most anxious for the con tinuance of hostilities. But every man pre• tending to have an opinion of his own, and much more to guide or represent opinion, is bound to put this question to himself, and answer it to the satisfaction of his mind and conscience. We address ourselves to the plain sense of our countrymen. If peace cannot be concluded now, it is very unlikely that peace will ever be known in your time. You have to consider whether you wish to pass your lives in a state of peace or a state of war. If you determine to achieve the destruction of Russia Es a great Power, be sure that a war for that purpose will last out a generation. Every new European war since the artificial system of carrying on hostilities by funding debt begun, has been more desperate and more expensive than the last. Do not believe those who tell you that Russia will be exhausted in a year or two. She is rich in the first necessaries of warfare— food and men. She has not your capability of raising loans, but for that very reason she may be able to sustain hostilities for a longer term. Long wars were maintained before the funded system was known ; they will probably be waged after it has ceased to exist. Force Russia to battle for her existence as a great Power, and you enter on a contest of which no one can pretend to predict the result. It may materially alter the relations of Europe, though more probably it will follow the course of most modern wars, and leave the bellige rents at its close in nearly the same state in which it found them when it began ; but it will assuredly be long and desperate. There is great vitality in nations. They are rarely to be crushed by foreign force. One of the most powerful confederacies ever formed—France, Russia, and Austria—could not by the utmost exercise of their power succeed in vanquishing Prussia, though the forces of that kingdom were then scarcely consolidated. There may be reasons which should induce you to enter on a war of extremity against Russia. You must maintain the Right at all hazards—you must not abandon a Cause which you have once deliberately taken up. But you are entitled to know what those reasons are. Do not be satisfied with vague replies. Insist on a plain and explicit answer to the plain and explicit question—For what end is the war to be continued? On that vital ques tion we are without any information whatever. A journal of Wednesday last, in reply to THE PRESS, states that the war is to be prose cuted with Russia until " the intestine forces " at work in that vast empire are developed " into activity." Is it to be supposed that the plain sense of Englishmen is to be imposed on by such vague, problematical nonsense as LONDON, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1855. UN STAMPED . SIXPENCE STAMPED..FIVEPENCI. this? If it means anything, it must mean that we are to carry on the war to excite a , revolution in Russia. We ask rational men, are they prepared to support the war for an end so conjectural ? How, if the revolution — supposing it accomplished—were to take the shape of the great French Revolution, that the old Muscovite element predominated, and that the fanaticism of the empire exploded in a burst of warlike ardour ? Should we then gain by having aided to overthrow the power of a regular and restraining Government? All such probabilities are much too remote to speculate on; and nothing but a conviction that any bombastic form of words would do to impose upon the people in their present temper could have induced a respectable journal to admit quch wild rhapsody into its columns. It is hinted in the same journal that " after " the expulsion of the Russians from the " Crimea " a blockade would be sufficient to reduce Russia. War never has b3en, and never can be, carried on in such a manner. It languishes and dies out naturally, unless fed by *tinned sacrifice and animosity. While it is it keeps all the energies of the belliiiirents in a state of the highest tension, and demands the exercise of their -utmost strength. Supposing the Crimea conquered, how mßny troops would be required to gar rison it, and what troops should they be ? Would the Russian armies remain inactive? Should we not feel compelled to carry on the war in Asia Minor, or whatever other point of territory was threatened by the enemy ? If the war must last, it will be sound policy to prosecute it, not on a reduced, but on an extended scale. England must have an army of one hundred thousand men in the field She maintained this force when she was much less powerful than she is at present, and she must do so again if she is to be a principal in a continental war, and if she is to maintain her influence in the East. The vague statement we complain of, as to the real purpose of the war, is noticeable in the Government journals without exception, and in the speeches' of the Ministers and their supporters. Only yesterday the leading journal writes :—" We fight for a principle, " and not for the point of honour." Well, for what principle ? Tell us what it is. Present to us something tangible, and we shall know how to reason on it, but do not hope to blind us by phrases to which it is impossible to attach a definite sense. Independent members of the Liberal party complain, as we do, of the studied obscurity in which the purpose of the war is involved. Mr. MURROIIOII, in addressing his constituents at Bridport, has, we see, plainly declared that "the war as at present carried on was an im " position on the people." This language is becoming general; men turn with disgust from the prospect of hostilities being continued without limit as to time, and without aim as to consequences. When opinions are expressed as to the objects to be pursued, nothing can be more discordant than the sentiments avowed. One looks only to payment for the expenses of the war, as if money were more precious than blood, or as if it were wise to continue spend ing thousands on the chance of getting back units ; another would continue the war that peace, when concluded, might be lasting ; another, that Russia might be deprived of all her acquisitions for the last century; another, that the Crimea may be given to the Bard nians, and so on ; while the Red Republican triumvirate rejoice, and with reason, in the prospect of lengthened hostilities, from feeling sure that they must weaken the force of every Government in Europe, excite discontent among the people, and afford a field for their barbarous designs. The great mass of those who are zealous for a continuance of the war, irrespective of its original aims, act, we believe, from a vague sentiment that it must in time deprive Russia of all' influenoe in Europe, and lead to some great political convulsion—of what kind they neither know nor' care—which will raise new kingdoms in existence, and overthrow estab lished Governments. If. the war is to be con tinued for this purpose, let us plainly under stand it, and let us take on it the decision of the Legislature and the country. But do not lbt.us be forced into a new war without the slightest comprehension of its purpose. We prefer to revert to the object for which the Western alliance was formed, and for which the sword was unsheathed. If the integrity of the Turkish empire can ever be assured, it can be a,wred now. In distinct oppositi4o politicians of every class who assert, on any kind of pretence, that now is the time to reduce or to conquer Russia, we !sty that now is the time to receive proposals which shall fairly and fully fulfil the objects contended for by all classes of politi cians when the war commenced. We en gaged in War for the independence of Turkey ; what has occurred which should induce us to change our original design?. No peace can be safe which is not moderate—no peace can be glorious which is not just. If we succeed in expelling the Russians from the Crimea, what then? Will peace be more practicable than at present—will it not rather be much less practicable? And what designs are to succeed to the Crimean conquest ? We are earnest, because we see that the war if continued must proceed on a new prin ciple. The independence of Turkey was an object to which we could easily see our way ; the reduction of Russia is an object which it may not be possible for us to accomplish. Will any one pretend to say that those objects are not essentially distinct? Are we not to pause and consider before the war passes from one stage to another? The moment is solemn—the fortunes of every member of our community are interested in the decision to be taken. Clearing our minds from passion, rejecting the wild rhap sody day after day addressed to us, because it is easier to declaim than to reason, let us calmly consider the course which Duty points us to pursue. We can afford to despise the abuse so lavishly showered on this Journal while conscious that we address ourselves to the intelligence of our readers, and that we speak from the purest conceptions we can form of what is truly public in the face of be recorded in should for the wait with confidence them by a future 13}/Can 11 ULU 1410 1...1V040 - - - of what is truly for the public good. We act in the face of history. Our arguments will be recorded in its page, and, even though they should for the moment be overborne, we shall wait with confidence the judgment pasimid - On them by a future and a calmer time. > THE PUGILIST PREMIER. THE display of Lord PALMERSTON fit Romsey the other day was intensely characteristic of the man. The mixture of vast pretensions • • ~~.,_.