The Press.
London, England, 1853-11-19 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1853. PRICE SIXPENCE.

DERBY. Hence the systematic attacks of the
journals under Russian influence on Lord
MALMESBURY, whose prudence, skill, and cou-
rage maintained our cordial relations with
France under as great difficulties as a British
Minister ever had to encounter. _

The moment that Mr. CANNING died, Russia
commenced those harassing manuiuvres against
Turkey which invariably end by forcing the
Porte into a declaration of war. The English
Minister for Foreign Affairs at that time was
Lord ABERDEEN. In what spirit ho acted, and
what disasters ho consummated, are recorded
in the secret despatches of the Russian Court,
which a revolution levealcd. It is a record
that should have consigned the principal agent,
if not to Siberia, at least to private life.
Though Lord ABERDEEN eventually prevailed
upon the Duke of Wl:Luxor" then Prime
Minister, not to arrest the progress of the
Russian armies, an attempt on his part sur-
reptitiously to tamper with the law of blockade
in favour of the Russians led to such a violent
misunderstanding between him and the Duke,
that the disgraceful retirement of Lord ABER-
DEEN from the Cabinet in 1828-9 was at one
moment in contemplation.
The" three glorious days," as we have before
stated, changed all this. The expulsion of
the elder Bourbons baffled long-matured ar-
rangements. The world was governed by a
cordial alliance between the two chief Western
Powers. The return of the Tories to office in
1811, with Lord ABERDEEN as Foreign Seere-
tiny, revived all the hopes of Russia. Sir
ROBERT PEEL, however, soon fell under the in-
fluence of the King of the FRENCH, whose throne
he thought represented the spirit of the age,
and who was the monarch of the middle classes
The Emperor of RessiA, a mall whose qualities
are equal to his position, unable to trust. any
one in such an emergency, himself visited
England during the Administration of Sir
ROBERT PEEL, in order that he might person-
ally confer with Lord ABERDEEN. It has been
stated, within this month, by the most brilliant
of the " foreign conspirators " whom Lord .101 IN
RUSSELL denounced in I NiO.7 as the confede-
rates of his present chief, the Primo Minister,
that, after what oceurred in those interviews
between the Czar and the English Secretary,
it was impossible that Lord A minims could
ever sanction war with Russia, so far as re-
garded Turkey.
Thus we See Lord ABERDEEN in 1828-9 the
searcely-disguised partisan of Russia, and the
real author of the treaty of Adrianople, while,
until the fall of Sir Roimity PEEL, we find him
pursuing a course which would reconcile an
understanding with the house of Orleans with
the undisturbed development of Russian pro-
jects in Turkey.
What was his conduct after the double fall
of Sir ROBERT PEEL and of the house of
Orleans? He entered into an active conspi-
racy with Russia, and the satellites of Russia,
to prevent the maintenance or renewal of the
united action of England and France. For
this object there is no art to which he has not
had recourse, and no machination which he
has not practised. He has corresponded with
foreign agents in every important country and
Court of Europe. He at length succeeded, by
a Court intrigue, which he devised and pri-
vately promoted, in expelling Lord PALMERSTON
from power. He failed in obtaining it him-
self; but he would have supported Lord
MALMESBURT, if Lord MALMRSIIVRY would have
relinquished the French connection ; and the

Government of Lord DERBY really fell because
they were firm in their adhesion to that sound
policy. At length, to crown all, amid a blase
of invectives against the French Emperor and
the French people, the author of the treaty of
Adrianople, the private correspondent of
Czars and Calsars, becomes, " not the Minister
" of Russia, not the Minister of Austria," but
the Minister of Great l3ritain

'Who could suppose that the designs of
Russia could receive any real cheek from a man
of such antecedents" Prince MENSCHIKOPI
went to Constantinople because Lord AnEa-
DNEN was Minister. So long as Lord ABKRDEEN
remained Minister, whatever might be the
phrases of diplomacy, it was certain that the
Russian system would develop... lord ARSR•
DERN has, in fact, been counselling Turkey for
the last six months to surrender at discretion,
intending, at the same time, to advance the
Russian policy, and yet avoid war. Tho
management of this "safe" Minister has ended
in the disgraceful, even if temporary, dis-
comfiture of his ally, and in a prospect of gene-
ral and enduring convulsion.
For let us not MiseolleCiVO what has
occurred. if anything could have rendered
inevitable one of those great struggles which
may hereafter rank with the thirty years' war,
or the campaigns of the revolution, it would be
the defeat of the. Russian arms by the Otto-
mans. An old race and an ancient civilisa-
tion might disappear in such a eontemt, but
danger develops the energies and multiplies
the resources of new communities. The
elesars would have fallen before tin' battle of
(*moue : it made the Conscript fall•l's the
masters of the world. The policy 111 Russia
will be precipitated ; she will embark in an
enterprise which she had intended to post-
pone ; she will stake her national eXiatellet, on
the die. Lord AUK...WEN, who told Us, when
he took office, that he had one foot in the
grave, will not probably live to see the triumph
of the Power in whose progress he has 11(4'11 MO
interested, but he may have at least the satis-
faction of passing his few remaining years
amid the roar of cannon occasioned lay the
blundering catastrophe of his own selfish and
malignant intrigues.

THE CITY CORPORATION.

Hurons the Norman conquest, of a sum of
80,000/. levied on the whole of England, more
than an eighth (11,0001.) was contributed by
the city of London alone. Had these sums
been assessed with reference to population
only, and were the same proportions now pre-
served, the country would derive between
seven and eight millions of its revenue from
the Mille city, of which the population now
would be about tlu•ce millions. It is singular
that in the latter respect the present popula-
tion of the metropolis should bear out this
calculation with substantial exactness, for
it is certainly nearer three millions than
two, while the City, which once contained
its population entirely, now includes no greater
portion of it than 200,000. The City, indeed,
is now to the L►►ndon of common parlance
what the city of the Isle of Paris is to the
Paris of the Place de la Concorde and the
Boulevards—the rotten little acorn whence
has spread the magnificent tree.