The Press. — London, England, 1856-03-22 00:00:00

rtl,s k r ..MARCH 22 1856. , STAMPED , UNSTAMPE. g4t Vrtss. supposed to provide, in concession of such of further success of t! them to expect. To that reserved e' LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 22, 1856. of providing for an t gerents, we alway' objections. Reg' it presented thi' REPORTS are spread abroad that the conditions reserved would of Peace, when published, will be much less worth insisting satisfactory than the public had been led to and therefore expect. This is likely enough. The organs very commer would have of the Government have, since the negotiation land, under was acknowledged, asserted that Lord PAL brought for NERSTON would have everything his own way. when it v . Our Plenipotentiaries were, according to the positi terms we , expression of a continental contemporary, to honest enter the Conference with swords at their have st sides and blunderbusses in their hands. They would were not to discuss, but to dictate. If, it she 7 was contended, the clause of the Propositions othe reserving the right of introducing terms, not to ( expressed, did not suffice to break up the If Conference, it would yet he made to impose be on Russia the most stringent and humiliating b conditions. Lord CLARENDON, dismayed at the bluster ing tone of his chief, and with some faint per ception that he should never be able to accom plish all that was expected from him, refuse' to leave London without written instructions but, once seated at the board of the Conf ence, he found his instructions useless, had to send home for carte blanche. C blanche in the hands of Lord CLARENDON ! wonder the leading journal should fee the expectations entertained by the pe England " would be larger than were we "by the state of affairs." We hope, I that, even with Lord CLARENDON to us, the ease is not quite so bad as t.l will, " after an unbroken series " retain practically all that she " before the War." We think it impossible tha founded as it confessedly is c sion of Russia to the demand can be otherwise than subste tory. If it does not afford a' we had a right to expect, v look for the cause of disappi On the 17th of Novemb enabled to announce the Peace had been considr of the FRENCH, and had on the attention of the In the following week. THE PRESS announce the FRENCH, in intro(' to the " consider' " Government, has " the contemplate These proposals v "Austrian Prop( mark the dates The fortress the 18th of N knwn in th' December. therefore, d state of off/ on the respectin gerents Govern ducinr gly supposed to provide, in part at least, for the concession of such other advantages as the further success of the Allies might entitle them to expect. To that reserved clause, except in the sense of providing for an altered position of the belli gerents, we always entertained the strongest objections. Regarded in any other light, it presented this dilemma The conditions reserved would be trivial, and therefore not worth insisting on; or they would be important, and therefore ought to be expressed at the very commencement of the negotiation. It would have been extremely difficult for Eng land, under cover of this stipulation, to have brought forward any reallyimportant condition, when it was understood that all important terms were expressed on the face of the Pro positions. Evidently it would have been more honest and more statesinanlilae for England to have stated clearly and firmly what conditions would satisfy her, than to have intimated that she reserved a right to bring forward what other terms she pleased, and thus to keep a:- to depart from the engagement at her pleasure. If any points of real importance intended to be insisted on by reason of this stipulation have been overruled at the Conference, the fault must rest with the Cabinet which ne glected to insert them in the text of that document, acknowledged on all sides to be intended to form an explicit, binding, and indisputable basis of negotiation. As regarded any right of modification arising from a change in the position of the belli gerents, that right must, in equity, have existed on one side as well as on the other. The Allies might have *lamed more, had their generals, while the negotiation was in its first stage, cap tured the northern forts of Sebastopol with their garrison, and by a skilful movement have driven the Russians from the Crimea. As it happened, the advantage was on the side of our foe ; Kars—opening to the Russian army the whole territory of Turkey in Asia—was captured, with its garrison, at the very time that the Proposals of Peace were settled by our Go vernment; and when the Conference was opened, it was found that this decided success had so far altered the relative position of the belligerents, as to give to Russia a foir ground for opposing any new demands, and for re sisting any harsh or stringent construction of the Proposals she had accepted. LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 22, 1856. REPORTS are spread abroad that the conditions of Peace, when published, will be much less satisfactory than the public had been led to expect. This is likely enough. The organs of the Government have, since the negotiation was acknowledged, asserted that Lord PAL NERSTON would have everything his own way. Our Plenipotentiaries were, according to the expression of a continental contemporary, to enter the Conference with swords at their sides and blunderbusses in their hands. They were not to discuss, but to dictate. If, it was contended, the clause of the Propositions reserving the right of introducing terms, not expressed, did not suffice to break up the Conference, it would yet he made to impose on Russia the most stringent and humiliating conditions. Lord CLARENDON, dismayed at the bluster ing tone of his chief, and with some faint per ception that he should never be able to accom • plish all that was expected from him, refused to leave London without written instructions ; but, once seated at the board of the Confer ence, he found his instructions useless, and had to send home for carte blanche. Carte blanche in the hands of Lord CLARENDON ! No wonder the leading journal should fear that the expectations entertained by the people of England " would be larger than were warranted " by the state of affairs." We hope, however, that, even with Lord CLARENDON to represent us, the case is not quite so bad as that Russia will, "after an unbroken series of defeats, " retain practically all that she possessed " before the War." We think it impossible that the Peace, founded as it confessedly is on the submis sion of Russia to the demands of the Allies, can be otherwise than substantially satisfac tory. If it does not afford all the advantages we had a right to expect, we have not far to look for the cause of disappointment. On the 17th of November THE PRESS was enabled to announce that the question of Peace had been considered by the Emperor of the FRENCH, and had been by him pressed on the attaniioa •f the English Government. In the following week, the 24th of November, THE PRESS announced that the Emperor of the FRENCH, in introducing Proposals of Peace to the " consideration of her Majesty's " Government, has declared his opinion that " the contemplated terms are satisfactory." These proposals were what are known as the "Austrian Propositions." It is important to mark the dates of the above announcements. The fortress of Kars did not surrender until the lMth of November, and its fall was not known in this country until the latter end of December. The Proposals of Peace were, therefore, drawn up without reference to the state of affairs in Asia Minor. They proceeded on the supposition of what was known respecting the actual position of the belli gerents ; and the clause proposed by our Government, reserving the right of intro ducing other conditions, was, it is probable, What was Lord CLARENDON under these cir cumstances to do? His chief said, "Do the " best you can." Kars was the fatal obstacle to the faint attempts made by our Foreign Secretary to " ride the high horse." Kars was politely whispered into his ear by the Russian Plenipotentiaries, when he attempted to intro dtp:e a new stipulation or insisted on a strict construction of the recognised terms. Lord CLARENDON, who had so often insisted on the extreme importance of this military position in the papers now printed, could not deny the magnitude of the success gained by Russian arms ; he could not dispute that as it had been won since the Propositions of Peace had been framed, it placed Russia in a better posi tion than she would previously have occupied ; and thus it happened that this great blot of the War—so far as England was specially concerned—came to exercise an adverse influ ence against our representatives at the Con ference. •• - ney practising in pate in it was "n. then, as the Times only the second sot perary, and he had Parliamentary life! after five years' In the midst of conflicting representations the country now trembles with impatience to know what the Treaty really is. We cannot made a Lord of the Armed with the courtly title, the trebly aided for co ....SIXPENCE. ?.D..FIVEPENCE. conceive that it will be otherwise than conclu sive as regards all essential points. We cannot conceive that it will be otherwise than honourable to the Allies. But we confess the hints thrown out in Ministerial journals are of a nature to inspire some alarm that—notwith standing all the boasting of the Government, and notwithstanding all the support it received from the firm and temperate attitude of the nation—some opportunities of advantage have been lost, which we shall have reason to re gret at a future day. We did not desire material advantages—we did not desire the humiliation of our foe—but we did desire a final settlement of all those points which would be likely to give occasion to further dis pute of even a diplomatic character. Frank views on the part of our Government in the first stages of the negotiation, and frank lan guage on the part of our Plenipotentiaries sub sequently, we had surely a right to expect. A great trust was reposed in the hands of the Government. We sincerely hope the result may prove that they were worthy of it. RESPONSIBILITY FOR SADLEIRISM. AMIDST the general indignation excited by the huge frauds of SADLEIR, it is well that public attention should not lose itself in the vague ness of surprise. A most serious questiun arises as to the responsibility of certain politi cal personages for their ostentatious patronage of SADLEIR and his allies. "Responsible go vernment " has long been a cant phrase in the mouths of some political purists ; our ears have been stunned with the necessity of making "responsibility" a principle, and let us see how it can be applied in this instance. It is impossible, for various reasons, to avoid this discussion. The enormous amount of ruin caused by SADLEIR'S conspiracy has been well described by the Times as " a national calamity." The injury done by him has been prodigious, and people ask with wonder how he came by the power of committing such gigantic frauds. The answer is plain. SAD LEIR and his associates obtained seats in the House of Commons through the folly of Irish constituencies. If the evil had stopped there, the mischief might have been small. But great official personages in tins country, leaders of a Parliamentary connection, had the temerity to select SADLEIR and his allies from amongst sixty Irish " Liberal " M.P's. The Noble Lords and statesmen to whom we allude acted with infatuated credulity. They made no inquiries about SADLEIR and his gang of the Brass Band. Yet if they had taken common precaution they must have ascertained that neither JOHN SADLEIR nor Mr. WILLIAM KEOGH were qualified by their antecedents for the eminent official stations given to them. JOHN SADLEIR, when made a Lord of the Treasury, was aged thirty-nine _ ne years. He was an att,or- his profession •• I i •-• none of th 6. .in id g L ,-, has truly EV - )n of a tent °- . a ." 1 " 1 ..-4 ' - ',= .--..,,.. I but five xela nr A .,,„.. '7-7-' . .- 4 , cr . ! An atto, , • e...., , ... ' ..,.,, hr.' experieneft, . 1 ' •' rr- r* '` - ... e Treasuro' 9o i. ~ V; e magic fi - . -?.• }- r , .:.... vja ...,. ; 1... - , arch-swinWeri (.- ' '.47 , :ommitting dep ' • is