The Press.
London, England, 1855-12-08 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

1167

Neutrals are only neutral in the sense of not being i Sir Edward Blakeney is about to be presented by
at war;
they can never be impartial. They have 1 the Inhabitants of Dublin with a very handsome silo r
their own interests to attend to, and, even supposing shield as a mark of respect to the gallant general on
these give no sinister direction to their interference, his late resignation of the command of the army in
they incline them to propose terms of acc mmoda- Ireland.
tion suited to maintain the balance of power. But Sir Colin Campbell had the freedom of the city of
such terms must be contrary to the views of which- Glasgow voted to him last week for his gallant ter-
ever of the rival States is the aggressor—views vices in the Crimea. A award of honour is also about
which that State has determined to maintain at all to be presented to the gallant general by the principal
hazards. As the contest goes on this interest of the inhabitants of that city.
neutrals shifts from one side to the other, according The German Legion, by advises from Constanti-
to the fortune of war; and if the aggressor be nople to the 22nd ult., is described as rapidly im-
proving in health. It had changed its camp, and
defeated, a regard for their own safety will in-
stinctively impel them to take his aide, and strive to cholera had ceased.
bring about a peace more favorable to him than the The non commissioned officers of Marines lately
position of affairs warrant. But to the victors such returned, from the Crimea were entertained at dinner
attempts will appear unjust, if not treacherous, and by the Earl of MountEdgcumbe on Monday last at
will certainly be abortive. The contest will, there- his winter residence in Stone house, Devonport.
fore, continue with additional bitterne4s,—the victors
determined to exact more and more, and the van- Admiral Carthew, whose death has just bean re-
quished emboldened in their defence by the sym- corded, entered the Royal Navy as far back as 1780,
pathy of other nations. when he was eleven years old, and served with dis-
3. This is the first phase of neutral interference ; tinction at Martinique and other islands in the West
we now come to the second. The fortune of the war Indies. as well as in some gallant affairs in the
Channel during the last war.
continues the same; the power of the one party is
stil further reduced, and that of the other propor- Major General Blanshard's new escalading ladder
tionally aggrandised, until the balance which before was tried on Monday at Chatham, and found to
the war existed between them is totally destroyed. answer admirably. The peculiarity of their construe;
It now becomes the interest of neutrals for their own tion consists in being fastened together by pins and
preservation to abandon their neutrality, and by keys by a man placed to each joint. The experi-
joining the defeated party attempt to avert a develop- meats made were considered highly satisfactory.
ment of power which imperils their own indepen- In use they are perfectly steady, without that play
dence. Thus it happens that the most perfect in the description of ladders now in use in
justice of cause is no surety for the alliances which siege operations ; they do not require the same
may emerge out of a state of war once it is begun. space of ground as the old ones; they can be raised
Preservation is the paramount duty of nations; and on a piece of ground about ten feet square; they are
neutrals may often be called on to side with that lowered with ease, and as they are brought down each
party whose cause they all along have admitted to portion of the ladder folds one upon another, and,
be unjust, in order to check the preponderance of the with a pair of wheels, can be moved about as circum-
conquering State. Thus the war assumes altogether stances may require.
a new shape, with still less prospect of rational Captain Charles Eden, C.B. (1841),
to has been ap-
accommodation. It is this entrainment of neutral pointed Comptroller the Coast Guard, in the
nations into the vortex which constitutes the fearful •
the late Wi •
room of William H. Henderson. Captain
peril of a war between any two of the great European Eden entered the navy in 1821, was made lieutenant
powers. You set in motion a stone which gathers in 1832, promoted to commander in 1834, posted in
to itself in its descent the debris of the mountain 1841, and appointed in 1853 captain to the London,
until it becomes an avalanche. History is replete 90, in the Black Sea, during which time be was pre-
with illustrations, nor is it difficult to point the moral sent at the bombardment of Fort Constantine.
to the present crisis.
4. But besides these leading principles, which The new mortar-raft construct
tried last week off Shoeburyner
seem to me to account for the historical fact that
mortar and dead shell, weighing
wars never have been stopped midway by the reason
rounds were fired at an average
or moderation of the belligerents, there are numerous
4,000 yards, before any effect
interests growing up in a time of war which are
raft, except the starting of a few
inimical to peace, as it would involve their ruin. And
tam Sir Thomas Maitland, C.B.
thus while for the reasons above stated the wisdom
last at noon. He had under
and patriotism of the nation in vain endeavour to
men and the gunner of the
bring about peace, there are a set of men becoming
18, allace ; four rounds were fli
i
daily more influential as the war continues who un
leak was discovered n one of
hesitatingly advocate its perpetuity and resist all
magazines, and there were thi
efforts at accommodation. in a very short time, and in an,
5. I think, then, I have explained on rational
magazines there was! one foot. ._
principles what I may now term the " Outlawry of
cussion felt on the rant is considerab,
War," but to me there appears to be something more
felt. on board the mortar-vessels. _ .
in it than a mere exemption from human control.
is fired,. and
s her displacement by dip
Looking back on history, I think I can discern the
perceptible.
finger of Providence directing the issues of wars so
as to accomplish great changes in the history of the Admiral Sir William Parker has lately been suffer
world—changes of which the human actors had no ing from a severe attack of asthma. The gallant
foresight, and which if they had foreseen they would Admiral this week has been enabled to resume his
in general have opposed. War is the abjuration of duties.
our privileges as rational beings ; and it ought not to
excite astonishment that when man repudiates the
guidance of that reason with which God has endowed
him, He should bring into play a different order of
agencies than those under which the normal govern-
ment of the rational world is conducted.
I feel some difficulty in drawing any practical con-
clusion pertinent to the question in hand from these
observations, except so far as they prove that all
attempts at peace at present are premature and will
be abortive, and that hence we may deduce the
lesson that, resigning ourselves to the state of things
in which we are, we should bend all our energies to
the vigorous performance of our limited part in the
tragedy. In other words, let us try to bring about
as soon as possible that state of exhaustion on the
part of Russia which will enable us to dictate our
own terms, and beware lest by wasting our time in
futile efforts at peace we postpone the conclusion of
the war till the period of our own exhaustion.
Beyond this lesson there is no comfort in my
philosopby.—l am, sir, your obedient servant,
. 1 J. A. G.
Id-----

THE CHARACTER OF MIRABEAU.
Popular leader though he was, Mirahean, no more than
Charles Fox and other Men of the People, was in love
with the populace. Necker called him an aristocrat by
nature, and a tribune by calculation. Even after the
decree had been visaed which abolished titles of honour, it
appears that he continued to " enjoy " the style of Mon-
sieur le Comte; arid it was noticed that his " menials "
retained livery after every one else, of the genus Jeanie.
(l la Francais), had cast aside that badge of all their tribe,
M. le Comte's flunkeys still wore their roe, without a dif-
ference. " No man," says Croly, " hated the rabble mote,
yet no man panegyrised them with more lavish adulation.
No man cherished every prejudice of noble birth more, yet
his whole profession of faith was a strenuous scorn of
nobility. If these things, faith and practice, are contrary
the one to the other, they are not quite so hard to reconcile
as the antinomies of Kant. He became a popular agitator,
as the only course open to his ambition, passions, exigencies
for the time being. Friend' and foes were all anent, and
the bravest held their breath for a whtle, to watch
this new Jehu spur the hot•mouthed horse,
Instruct the beast to know his native force,
To take the bit between his teeth, and fly
To the next headlong steep of anarchy.
PRYDY.N—The Medea.
All France seemed watching, at the tribune, the °my
look and gesture of that stormy orator, through whose
' shat beetle brows. and rough _hewn, scarred. carbuncled

NAVAL AND MILITARY INTELLIGENCE.
Major-General the Earl of Lucan has been gazetted
to the Colonelcy of the Sth Hussars, vice General
Sir John Brown, deceased. The Globe, in comment-
ing upon this appointment, regards it as a proof that
Lord Lucan's good services in the Crimea are appre •
ciated in high quarters.
Vice-Admiral Sir George Seymour, K C. 8., G.C.11.,
the future Commander-in-Chief at Purtsmouth, does
not officially take up his appointment before the end
of the mmith.

- -
acted at Sheerness was
yness with a 13. inch
ing 2001bs. Ninetpsix
'erage range exceeding
t on the framing of the
'ew deck planks. Cap-
-3., went down on Friday
his command, five sea-
e Sinbad, Mr. Henry
fired by them, when a
of the pontoon powder
three feet a water in it
another of the pontoon
oot of water: The con-
sideraVy less than that
ssels when the mortar
ent by dip is scarcely

" hhaggy beetle brows. and rotignriewn, MM. ......
face," as carl)le limns it, there looked out " natural ugli-
ness, email-pox. incontinence, bankruptcy—and burning
tire of genius." Ilis audiences felt, as a countryman of
Carlyle's has said, that nett to the power of a great good
man, inspired by patriotism, genius. and virtue, was that*
of a great bad wan, nverflowing with the furies, avid ad
dressfpf Paidemanium in its nip Pandemonian
Mitodititt. '.l