The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-08-03 00:00:00

AN IMPERIAL THIEF DETECTED.

WHEN rogues fall out, sometimes the truth
appears. France and Russia, we are told, have
had a serious split anent the Syrian question ;
and it is in consequence of this disagreement, if
we are to believe the Paris correspondents of the
Daily News and the Express, that the Conferences
have been broken up sine die. Russia, it is an-
nounced, claimed the execution of certain promises
which the Emperor had made some time since, in
pursuance of which the entire Eastern question
should be raised at the first opportunity ; and, in
fact, insisted that the moment had arrived for the
partition of Turkey. Russia was ready to send
100,000 men to make a short end of the business,
but had no notion of a restricted intervention in
Syria. It did not, however, suit the 'Emperor's
purpose to come into this scheme 'just now.
We published yesterday a more vague statement
as to the demands of Russia—namely, that it
insisted upon inserting a clause in the conven-
tion giving the Powers the right to interfere not
only.. in Syria, but in any part of the Ottoman
Empire where disturbances might break out.
That report is. perfectly consistent with the one
now given forth, the latter being only a little
more explicit and better defined ; so that if we
are to believe our informant, Russia now avows
that some time since it entered into a secret
treaty with the •French Emperor for' the open-
ing up of the entire Eastern question, and' the
partition of Turkey at the earliest opportn,
,pity ; and justly holding that the present
disturbance affords an excellent opportunity for
carrying out the dishonest paction, if it is to be
carried out 'at all, it insists upon its immediate
fulfilment, or it will have nothing whatever to do
with the intervention in. Syria. Now or never,
says Russia. Not just now, says NAPOLEON:'
Then never, rejoins Russia ; and so the murder
comes out.. We had almost forgotten the report
which gained considerable currency many months
ago, to' the effect that a secret treaty had then
been entered into between France and Russia, the
object of which, it was asserted, nearly affected
England: It will be remembered that the
rumour led to some correspondence between the
French and English Governments, which
was put an end to by an apparently
satisfactory, but still ambiguous denial, on the
part of the former, as to the existence of " a.treaty ;"
but there was a mysterious reservation as to some
sort of agreement having been mutually arrived
at—but not " a treaty "—which, we were to
believe, England had no right to enquire_
after, and was slot entitled. to be officially
informed of. We are now, in all probability,
about' to receive some information which
will throw light upon that mysterious com-
pact. We can almost at once arrive at the cell-
elusion that the original story was substantially
true, and that at the time referred to, notwith-
standing the French denials, some such
arrangement was made between France and
Russia as that which the latter now throws in
Lops NAPOLEON'S teeth as a broken bargain...
What are we to think of Louis NAPOLEON'S
honesty if it shall appear that he has all this ,
time been under secret obligations to Russia to
upset all that England combined with France to
aceomplish at such enormous cost of blood and
treasure in the Crimea ? The Savoy and Nice
business was bad enough, but such a disclosure of
treachery would certainly out-Herod HEltop.'
The rupture with Russia, and the abandonment
of the secret treaty—if so it be-74hrows another '
light Upon the Emperor's letter to M. PER3IGNY--

a letter which was, no doubt,- written specially
and deliberately for the purpose of being publicly
circulated in England. Assuming the truth of
the report, we can now understand what his
Majesty means when he says, in his opening
sentence, " affairs appear to me to be so com-
plicated." We can more clearly perceive what
causes operated in the Imperial mind to make him
so anxious to conciliate and reassure us. Like a
criminal certain of immediate detection, he rushes
into the arms of the police, and assures them
that, whatever anyone may say to the contrary,
"he has had but one thought, one object—to
inaugurate a new era of peace, and to live
on -the best terms with all his neighbours,
and especially with England !" Thus about to
be prematurely unmasked in his wicked designs
upon the East, in which he could not fail to
encounter the English force, how whiningly he
beseeches us to believe that " his army and his
fleet have in them nothing of a threatening cha-
racter." In expectation of such a fact as that
alluded to being published to the world, it is all
very well for him to declare sanctimoniously, " I
have neither done, or even thought, anything
which could alarm any one." But Imperial men-
dacity reaches its climax when he winds up the
first and leading paragraph of his adroit letter by
solemnly and significantly asserting with guilty
prescience that "the interest of France is that
Turkey „should live as long as possible." Con-
summate hypocrisy! It is difficult to say whether
his treachery to England or to Russia is most
abhorrent. In like manner he proceeds to argue
that the crime laid to his charge is impossible,
because he has enough to do at home without going
abroad for plunder Or employment. " Don't, "he
says, " don't, pray, think harshly of me because
I offended you in the little affair of Nice and
Savoy. I really could not help myself out of that
fix. I won't do it again. Let us be honest men,
as we are, and not like thieves who desire to cheat
each other !" Who is the thief who desires to
cheat ? He never could have suspected England'
of desiring to cheat him ; but his own conscience
if he has one, may have told him that there is " a
thief desiring to cheat" in the question—and that
none other than himself. •

We strongly suspect that this latest version
of the cause of breaking up the Conferences,
affords the real key to the interpretation of the
Imperial missive to the English people—for as
such it must be looked upon. Louis NAPOLEON
always falls back most fawningly upon England
when he is in his greatest difficulties. This time
he has done so, no doubt, with the double hope of
securing her aid against Russian indignation, and
of averting the wrath of England in the prospect
of her discovering his base arts to betray her.
He has either found it impossible at present to
carry out his designs against us, or has adopted
some new scheme of mischief, or partly
both ; and, anticipating his inability to conceal
his Russian intrigue, he would anticipate
the irritating disclosure, and seek to allay our
fears only until he find quiet and leisure to re-
arrange his plans, and enter upon some new
course for the attainment of his unscrupulous and
unhallowed ambition. This reckless and dia-
bolical process of playing at shuttlecock with
the peoples and governments of Europe cannot
last long. The truth will out, and LOUIS NAPO-
LEON_beCOMeS more exposed to Europe in all his
naked deformity and ugliness; and it becomes
more and more clearly the painful but irritable
mission of England to remove this imperial mis-
creant from the exercise of a power which he
knows only how to abuse.

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

PARIS, Thursday, August 2, 1860.

I find I was quite right in the statement which
I gave you yesterday of the obstacles in the way
of concluding the Convention relative to affairs in
Syria. England is much cooler in the matter
than either France or Russia, and she finds in
the demands put forward by Russia for extend-
ing the intervention to Bulgaria and Bosnia, the
• means of gaining time, and thus indirectly
befriending the policy of the Porte, while France
at the same time finds her projects hampered and
neutralised by this antagonism. Hence the order
for the departure of her impatient troops from
Toulon is still delayed. The semi-official Paris
journals have affected to pooh-pooh these difficul-
ties. They hays asserted that the settlement of
one or two matters of insignificant detail alone
stand in the way of the signature of the agree-
ment ; and in yesterday.evening's papers, beyond a
parting hit on the part of the Petrie at the Morning
Post, for laying suck ridiculous stress upon the
treaty which has been signed between the Druses
and the Maronites, the subject is not even alluded
to by any of them. The Morning Post seems to
have remarked that " theindependence of Turkey
constitutes the first principle of the treaty of
183:6, and this treaty permits the Ottoman Govern-
ment to demand that its authority be respected,
so long as it shall not be demonstrated that it
cannot control the acts of its own subjects ;" and
to this the Patric, punning on the word "controler,"
observes that, " what the Porte can control at this
moment in the mountains of Lebanon, is the
number of assassins by the number of victims ;"
and it asks, "can this bloody contra then satisfy
Europe ?" But it is important to keep in View
that it is now alleged, on what appears tolerable
authority, that the Maronites are quite as much
to blame as the Druses for originating these dis-
orders ; and that as regards sympathy, except
for the Christians who are not Maronites, there
is very little, if any, to spare between the savage
belligerents. According to the latest accounts
received ri a Genoa, the Christians in Damascus
are indebted for their protection to the
bravery of Abd-el-Bader and his Algerines.
It is pleasing; though certainly singular, to note
the varied liberality which "Jews, infidels, and
Christians" evince towards the distressed and in-
humanly treated victims of these outrages.: Be-
sides the generous contributions from the Chris-
tians of Ilrestern Europe, King Otho has autho-
rised the formation of committees to collect
subscriptions ; and a considerable relief, both in
money, clothing, and food, has already been for.:
warded. M. Cremieux, a noble-minded Hebrew,
has collected 50,000 francs for the same purpose ,
and, finding that his co-religionists in Bourdeaux
had handed their contributions to the Archbishop
of that city, he has imitated their example by
transmitting the whole of the above amount to
the Archbishop of Paris ; at the same time inviting
all the members of his persuasion, for the future
to join their subscriptions to those of their fellow-
citizens in thin city, Catholic and Protestant : and
to crown a 11; the members of the Moorish Embassy
here have just forwarded to Syria the handsome
donation of 10,000 francs for the same object.
I still think it prudent to reserve expressing
any definitive opinion, respecting the convention
alleged to have been signed by Garibaldi and the
Neapolitan General. I Cannot bring myself to
believe that the always victorious Dictator would
act so contrary to the advice of his best friends
-and his own conviction. It is to be rem irked
also, that the, news comes from Naples, a fact
which is the very reverse of a guarantee of its
veracity ; and that the account which is given of
the terms of the truce, are vague and most un-
likely. Matters seem going on much as usual at
Palermo. M. Mongo has been appointed
War Minister, and is pushing forward
the organisation of the army as rapidly,
as the scarcity of money and the amount
permit.
that the 'renchl'
it is
antageof the pre-
sent intendsrtnointaoinzereaddy
of liabilities heretofore incurred, will
sent bill, to despatch M. Benedetti on a " special
general " mission to all the Governments of Italy,
'including the Sicilian, and that, as Francis
has positively offered to give up Sicily to Sar-
dinia, provided .France and England guarantee
him in the possession of Naples, which it it
declared they are ready to do, it is conjectured
that the object of the efforts of that eminent
diplomatist—whose naive somehow always seems
to turn up at critical junctures like thP i#fsCl47-
ill be to get effect given to this' mode of settle-
ment, by all the parties cOncerned•
Before going further, let • mel revert to the sub- i

THE FRENCH FUNDS.
PARIS, August 2.
3 20 P.M.—The Bourse bas been quiet, and
close at 68f. 15c., or 30c. lower than yesterday.