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

force, and which side must inevitably suffer
most, not in material losses only, but in repu-
tation, from a continuance of the contest. It
proved that the supremacy of Russia in the
Black Sea rested on no 'solid foundation, but
had been merely tolerated ; and it seemed UQt
unreasonable to conclude that she would be
prepared to yield pretensions which it had bee
proved in the face of the world she was totall
unable to maintain.
The Eastern Question was, in act, settled,
as far as force of arms could settle it. Not
only had it been shown that Russia was
unable to succeed in her aggressive designs,
but it had been proved that she was powerless
to protect her own territory from invasion.
Were the War to be continued through the
obstinacy of Russia or the ardour of the
Allies, it would, if its original principle were
observed, only lead to a wanton and cruel
loss of life and waste of resources on both
sides, as it was apparent that Russia could
never hope to recover the ground she had
lost, and that the Allies would never consent
to yield the advantages they had won.
If, on the other hand, the original purpose
of the War was to be lost sight of, or exceeded,
there was imminent danger that what was at
first a war of policy would degenerate into a
war of passion, and be continued in the hope
of reducing our enemy to the last extremity of
exhaustion and distress.
We might have withheld these considera-
tions, and have indulged, like some of our
contemporaries, in vague nonsense or rampant
bombast. We preferred to submit to our
readers frank views and plain speech. Our
course was not taken without serious con-
sideration, nor without lights, which we
affirm, with perfect freedom from vanity or
exaggeration, this Journal alone possesses.
On a question vitally affecting the welfare of
our country we thought that silence was de-
nied to us. A continuance of the War would
deeply wound the enemy, but it would cer-
tainly damage the Allies also ; and if Peace
were practicable, on the basis of such a settle-
ment as would take from Russia all pretext of
future encroachment, and oppose an insuper-
able barrier to her aggressive policy, we felt
that no narrow views of party interest, and no
rage of popular passion, should he allowed to
st mil in the way of its realisation.
It has been charged against us, that the
tine we have adopted has a tendency to divide
the Conservative party. To what does this
charge amount? No great party can exist in
this country without much diversity of senti-
ment on leading topics of the time. For a
journalist to be silent on such topics, would
be to betray his trust and destroy his in-
fluence It is his part to endeavour to form
opinion; but if this be beyond his power, at
ltast to place before his readers the most
authentic information he can obtain, and the
soundest conclusions he can form.
Our articles have been accused also of
basing a tendency to derange the French
Alliance, and to retard the Peace we professed
to desire. We can now leave those accusations
to speak for themselves. It has become ap-
parent that the Emperor of the FRENCH, with
his accustomed sagacity, has discerned that
the period has arrived when a rational pro
tweet exists that a solid and satisfactory Peace
may be established. The writers who hazard
the French Alliance are not those who would
confine the War to its original and legitimate
purposes, but those who would recklessly ex-
tend it, and whose arguments, if fairly carried
out, would give to it a revolutionary character
and -hake every Throne in Europe.
We are at a loss to conceive bow arguments
which had tor their object to show the evils
wiiich must inevitably attend a continuation
of the War, to prove that Peace was now prac-
ticable, and to explain the means by which it
3night be accomplished, could by any miscon
struction be supposed likely to prevent or
retard the growth of pacific influences. If the
negotiation now in progress should be brought
to a happy conclusion, the result will be
mainly due to the conviction entertained both
by our enemy and our Allies, that there is in
England a party with just aims and moderate
♦iews, strong enough to control the bluster
which would perpetuate the War for the sake
Of Mir, and ready to support a Peace which