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

THE WEEK. TIM official declaration that Peace is concluded, is supposed to be near at band. It is certain that all points of importance have been settled, and that only the text of the Treaty has to be arranged. THE PRESS announced a fortnight back the signing of the Preliminaries of Peace would be immediately followed by the draft of a Definitive Treaty being drawn up, and we now hear : A sub-committee has been formed to draw up the terms of the Treaty, which will be signed as soon as they have completed their work. The subcommittee is composed of Lord Cowley, Baron Bourqueney, Count Buol, Count Cavour, Ash Paella, and Baron Brunow, being one representative to each of the negutiating Powers. When Peace shall have been signed, it is intended, we believe, that the Conitrence shall be dissolved, but that a committee shall be left sitting to carry out the details which there is not now time to arrange. The questiora of the Principalities and of the Turkish. Christians will probably receive the attention of this body.—Times, March 19. It is not doubted that the Treaty will be signed before the expiration of the term to which the armistice extended, the 31st of this month. Some persons suppose that the official declaration of Peace will not be delayed later than Monday next. The Emperor of the FRENCH, in re plying to the congratulatory addresses presented on the birth of an Imperial Prince, has said that he was born in the midst of the " hopes of peace," a significant expression calculated to dispel whatever doubts previously existed as to the satisfactory progress of the Conferences. Our journals, after a period of uncertainty, are beginning to take their tone on the new situation—that tone being dictated, as may be sup posed, mainly by party considerations, though there are people so simple as to believe that party is dead amongst us. Unfortunately, the declarations that party does not exist are used to mask the corrup tion which under a more distinctive system of principles and badges would be impossible. As may be supposed, the journals which were most in favour of War when Lord PALMERSTON related the " satisfac tion " he derived from reports of the Russian slain, and the sufferings of their sick, are now most in favour of Peace, and prepared to greet with flourish of trumpets the terms of the Treaty, whatever they may be. The Daily News is working itself up for a rapture of exultation, and we imagine will be the first to shout for a general illumination, and to advise the mob to prepare abundant missiles for darkened windows. The Times is more cautious. It hints in ominous phrase that we have been forced into an unsatisfactory peace by our gallant ally, France ; and it speaks of Russia coming out of the war unscathed, and of the difference between a well-grounded and an unstable peace. At the same time, it says that England is both willing and able to carry on the War ; that the country was never better prepared for hostilities ; and that Lord CLARENDON should have occupied a commanding position. Well, why does he not do so? Because France is eager for 'race ? Is not this strain of reasoning degrading to the Government which it professes to defend ? Is it not obvious that at the first our Government should have laid down such terms as were essential to a"we I I- grounded peace," and should have abided by them ? If it did not establish such conditions, whose is the fault ? And if it has departed from such conditions, after having fixed them, whose is the fault still ? It was right that our Government should have listened with deference to the suggestions and reasonings of France ; but was it necessary that it should have given up points it esteemed of vital ;m:rortance ? These are questions raised by the special pleading put forward in defence of the Government. It is to be hoped they will need no such defence ; but, if they should, they may rely on it that it Will very little avail them. If we imagined that in Poland there remained any vital principle of nationality, we should, on reading the account of the deputation to Lord PALMERSTON, exclaim " Poor Poland !" The melancholy farce must be kept up to the last. The whole proceeding was in the true " old old hat " spirit. It seemed the result of prescriptive usage. Lord BREADALBANE, a most estimable personage, must have consented to go through the performance for the same reason that honest Diggory would laugh at his master's standard joke, " I can't help laughing at " that for the soul of me ! We have laughed at that these twenty " years, ha! ha! ha !" It has become such a recognised and legiti mate proceeding for deputations to go up to Lord PALMERSTON to bespeak his intercession for Poland, that it would be viewed as an alarming circumstance if they failed. They are like the formal mourning on funeral anniversaries ; and when Lord PALMERSTON disappears from the stage it is probable that a dinner will be established to commemo rate the funeral proceeding, and that each person attending the banquet will wear crape in his button-hole, and drink to the memory of the departed practice in a silent but brimming bumper. It was a good joke of its kind that the Queen's Chamberlain should have headed the deputation; but how much better a joke was great PAM'S reception of it ! He would not commit himself by giving an answer at once. No ; he wanted time to consider the momentous question whether he would resuscitate Poland or not. "To be, or nut to be !" That was the question. Should he lay the views of the deputation before the Conference and insist on their adoption ; or should he, like the Sun, wait for a time which never comes, and trust to avenging justice and " all that sort of thing "? There was a time when Lord PALMERSTON might have interfered with effect in favour of Poland, and when France strongly urged such inter ference. He missed the opportunity as more lately he missed the golden opportunity of raising, by the direct offer of Austria, the territory of North Italy into an independent kinK i dom. Such opportunities never return. In the eloqu ent wor d s o f M. Ds MONTALEMBERT, Lord 1 1 / 4 tataittrrott hay in his foreign policy constantly sacrificed liberty that he might seem to favour revolution ! ihk. THE PRESS. SATURDAY, For some weeks past accounts have reached us from the Crimea of the deplorable state of the French troops, and of the mortal sickness that has raged in their ranks: but we were unwilling to be the first to publish the intelligence. The fact, however, can now be concealed no longer. The correspondent of the Times, in his letter in that journal of yesterday, reports : The mortality in the French army is said to amount to 170 men a day, and although the exact number cannot be, positively ascertained, there is strong reason to believe that the above statement is near the truth. Jam assured that in three days 570 me n died. There may be exaggeration in this ; but it is certain that the number of sick is very large, and that the French commissariat is badly off. Our own letters, without pretending to give exact details, speak of the "awful mortality" in the French army, and this while the British army is "ridiculously healthy." Can there be any rational explanation given of this strange contrast, now that the severe labours of the siege are over, and that their Governments at home have equally had time to provide for their wants? We think there may, ‘ittid we turn for it to the outline of what appears to have been a most able and instructive lecture, delivered by Mr. Auouszus STAFFORD, M.P., at Stamford, on Monday last, relating the results of his experience in the Crimea and at Scutari, during the last two winters. Mr. STAFFORD said : It was told him by a French officer on board, and it had been confirmed indirectly by many persons who had opportunities of ascertaining the same statistics, that the French had lost between July, Issl, and July, 1855--slain iu battle, left dead on the field, 1'2,000 ; died afterwards of wounds received in battle, 7,000 ; sent home with loss of limb or broken in constitution, 25,000 • died of disease, chiefly diarrhcea, cholera, and dysentery, 60,000 ;—total loss, about 105,000, exclusive of all who had been killed or died during the last seven months. " But," added his informant, "we do not put this in the news. papers ; we only report a loss of 20,000. You English know too much about your army ; we know too little." This was " making things pleasant," and the result has been that, hile, by the unsparing exposure of the abuses in our system, defects have been remedied, and ample precautions taken against a recurrence of the like evils, the French abuses have met with no corresponding check, and have continued long after all excuse for them has ceased, Of course, unlimited publicity is not without its drawbacks, but the good so greatly predominates over the evil, that we ought to be thankful it prevails among us ; instead of crying out, as some gentle men afflicted with weak nerves, inveterate prejudices, and bureau cratic sympathies do, that the press should be subject to restraint, and all newspaper correspondents be hung From various quarters accounts still reach us of the increasing activity of our recruiting agents, particularly of the Anglo-German Legion department. Up to a certain' period this activity might have been commendable, but it really seems time that it should be checked now that peace is all but concluded. Such operations must be attended with enormous expense, and must shortly cause our Govern ment great embarrassment. We do not at all wonder at the freedom with which recruits come in. It being well understood that peace is at hand, there is a rush for the enlistment bounty offered by British agents ; only short and pleasant service will be required in return, or perhaps we shall have to give the prudent recruits a second bounty of a more substantial kind to get rid of them. We are inclined to think that in this way our first loss would be the best, unless, indeed, there should be a scheme a-foot to make a German Legion a permanent part of the British army. Lord DALHOUSIE has fitly terminated his Indian administration by the annexation of Oude. For this act of colossal spoliation there is no direct pretext. The King had not defied our authority. His rule was not in any way dangerous or hurtful to our contiguous posses sions. The official proclamation admits that the " Royal race, what " ever their faults towards their own subjects, have ever been faithful " and true to their friendship with the English nation." But the King has not fulfilled, it is said, the provisions of the treaty made in 1801, to establish such " a system of administration as would be conducive "to the prosperity of his subjects." He is charged with misgovern ment, and on that charge, not only is he deposed, but his family are deprived of their rights, and the Kingdom of Oude annexed to the territories of the British Government. Of all cases of annexation, we recollect not one parallel to this. If a mere charge of misgovern ment is sufficient to justify the seizure of a kingdom, no State could be safe from the aggression of its more powerful neighbours. It is exceedingly doubtful, after all, whether Oudo was not in at least as prosperous a state as any part of British India. Sir ERSKINE PERRY, late Chief Justice of Bombay, in his " Bird's-eye View of India," records—" The people we met on the road (between Cawn " pore and Lucknow) were a fine-looking well-fed race, and to " the eye no appearance of suffering or misgovernment presented it " self." He relates, "The King made a more favorable impression on "me than I had been led to expect." But annexation was determined on ; so Sir E. PERRY informs us, " Colonel SLEEMAN, the Resident, has " prevailed on the Governor-General to allow him to make a tour " through the provinces, which he has been engaged in for the last " three months, and during which he has been encouraging applies " tions, and the receipt of petitions from all quarters. This, no doubt, " is an extraordinary interference with the native Government, and " not warranted by any treaty—indeed, is contrary to them all—and, " therefore, can only be justified by the strongest of all reasons—sub!s " populi." One reason for Colonel SLEEMAN'S zeal may be found in his own description of Oude. "There is no part of India with "so many advantages from Nature." Colonel SLEEMAN ad mits :—" It has the boldest and most industrious peasantry "in India, and a landed aristocracy too strong for the weak " and wretched Government," and he says, that the countryis, for " the most part, well-cultivated," but then " numbers of suffering and " innocent people approached him with the hope of redress," &c. Had Lord Dattiousis's only object been the welfare of the people of Oude. it is not probable that the King would have opposed any measures the