The Press.
London, England, 1856-12-20 00:00:00

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No. 190.—VoL. IV. LONDON, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1856. USTAMPED .... SJXPENCY.._
NSTAMPED-FIVEPENCE.

ress.

Supposing this nassage to have come down
to us from one of the great orators of anti-
quity—as from the force of its sentiments and
the clearness of its expression it might well
have done—the question is, whether we should
now recognise it as wise and just, and as pre•
scribing the line of policy which a mighty
State, conscious of its obligations to right,
ought to pursue?
There are many statesmen of our own ccun•
try to whom this passage might be ascribed.
From its total freedom from all sectarian pre-
judices, it might have appropriately fallen from
the lips of almost any one of the great men
who have presided over• the affairs of this
country since the Revolution of 1888. In our
own day, it might be assigned to any of the
eminent statesmen who have led the parties
of Tory and Whig, to Lord CASTLE REAGH, to
the Duke of WELLINGTON, Lord GREY, Sir
ROBERT PEEL, or Lord DERBY. In reality, it
belongs to the latter. It was spoken by Lord
DERBY when he explained to the House of
Lords on the 27th of February, 1852, the
principles by which he proposed to regulate
the foreign policy of his Administration.
It is impossible to conceive a stronger con-
trast to the scheme of policy here laid down
than is afforded by the acts of Lord PALMRRS•
TON'S Foreign-office. The internal adminis-
tration of independent States is not respected.
No effort is made to preserve amicable rela-
tions with other Powers, and in the differences
which arise between our Government and
foreign Courts no attempt is made to
settle them by temperate representation of
the matters in dispute. Lord DERBY proposed
to live on terms of good neighbourhood with
the other Powers of the world, taking no
advantage of the weak, and not seeking to
irritate the strong. Lord PALMERSTON proposes
to keep our foreign relations in a state of
perpetual uncertainty and turmoil, and in place
of endeavouring to establish peace on a solid
basis, to create such confusion as leaves it
extremely doubtful whether war on a grand
scale may not break forth at any moment.
We believe it to be true that England can
better afford to maintain this turbulent atti-
tude than any other nation of the world ; but
is it for her true interests that even she should
continue to preserve it when all rational motive
for hostility has ceased ? Nine months have
elapsed since the Treaty of Peace was signed
with Russia. That period wisely employed
might have tended to heal the wounds of the
late war,—to have restored friendly relations
between our Administration and that of St.
Petersburg,—and to have allayed the appre•
hension of further• hostilities. As it is, every
opportunity is taken by Lord PA LME RSTON'S
Administration of insinuating distrust of the
Russian Government, and of manifesting direct
hostility to it.
The Persian war is one of the results of this
system. Had a good understanding prevailed
between the English and Russian Govern-
ments, their joint representations would cer-
tainly have been effectual to preserve peace in
Central Asia. It is, as Sir JOHN MALCOLM
observed thirty years ago, and as the Duke of
WELLINGTON sagaciously confirmed, the inte-
rest of both England and Russia to preserve
Persia as an independent monarchy, and as a
barrier between the Asiatic provinces of the
Czar and the Indian empire of Great Britain.
By amicable arrangement that object might
easily have be en effected which we have issued
a declaration of war against Persia, and, sent

forth an expedition to the Persian Gulf; to
attain.

If the policy of this country is to be one of
jealous rivalry with the other growing Powers
of the world, we shall have to be constantly
prepared for war, and to live in daily expecta-
tion of it. Their expansion is natural to them ;
if repressed in one direction it will burst forth
in another. The day for universal empire is
past, except as the result of wars which would
change the whole face of the world, and bring
incalculable disaster in their train.

LONDON, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1850.

SOUND principles of policy are independent of
time and place. They can be separated from
the accidents which have led to their utter.
ance, as a gem, detached from its setting, can
stand alone, and shine by its own lustre. We
can imagine that the following exposition of
the policy which should guide the external
relations of a great and generous nation might
have come down to us in an oration of
DEMOSTHENES or of CICERO :

THE RAILWAY MURDER AT DUBLIN.
IT is absolutely impossible to tell how much
the peace of society and the security of life
have been endangered by the fact of the railway
murder at Dublin being still left shrouded in
such secrecy. Here was a bloody deed, crying
aloud for retribution, perpetrated long before
midnight (while the cashier was making up
his books), daringly done in a large building
not five minutes' walk from the public post-
office of the second city in the empire, and
almost within earshot of several Dublin
journals, with their staff of active reporters.
And the man who did that bloody and savage
act still roams unmolested by the law I It is
easy to imagine how confident hardened
villains must grow at the bare fact of such a
murder being done in the centre of the city of
Dublin, and at the criminal for weeks defying
the authorities. The desperate and the de-
praved take increased courage at such a
lamentable spectacle of the frustration of jus-
tice; they prowl through their haunts of
infamy with feelings of security, and they
plan and brood over fresh raids on society
with unabashed nerve and unshrinking hardi-
hood. The gallows seems farther off than ever
from their destiny while the murderer of Mr.
LITTLE lives undenounced, and skulks in
safety, defying the police.
We are sorry to say that it is our conviction
that this mystery about the murder of Mr.
LITTLE has (with good intentions) been most
injudiciously assisted by the authorities at
Dublin. From the first we gave it as the
opinion of THE PRESS that publicity of exami-
nation would serve rather than impede the
course of justice. We have now increased
reasons for believing in the soundness of that
opinion. We think that Government has
faltered and acted weakly on this occasion.
Be that as it may, there can be no doubt that
all that can he effected by secret examinations,
and by the whole apparatus of detectives, has
been achieved ; and while the blood of a
murdered man calls for justice, we do think
that a public imp'
free examinations in

"With regard to the foreign relations of this coun-
try, I am sure there is scarcely one person in this
assembly who does not earnestly desire to see main-
tained the blessings of universal peace. In my
bumble opinion, the desire of preserving peace is
not best supported by the display of large military
and naval establishments, by the assumption of an
attitude of hostility, and by the making offensive
preparations; while, on the other hand, it receives
no advantage from the adoption of the theories in
which some persons indulge of universal disarma•
went, or, if not of universal disarmament, of placing
the country in a position in which it is incapable of
defence. I believe that peace will be best main-
tained by observing to all foreign States, whether
powerful or weak, a calm, temperate, deliberate, and
conciliatory course of conduct, not in acts alone,
but in words and expressions also ; by adhering, with
strict fidelity, to the obligations imposed upon us by
treaties, and by respecting the independence of
nations, whether great or small, as well as by ad
mating their full right to regulate to their own will
the internal affairs of their own administration. I

hold that we have no right as a nation to entertain
,particular prejudices on particular sympathies for
this or that form of government which other coup•
'tries may think fit to adopt, be those forms of govern-
ment absolute despotism, limited monarchy, con-
stitutional republic, or unconditional democracy.
'That which is the choice of any country, as
?regards its internal government, that, I say, is
the choice which the statesmen of this country are
bound to recognise. In the conduct of our affairs with
other nations, there is more dignity, if any of the
subjects of the State conceive themselves injured by
a foreign power, in acting with forbearance than with
violence. The dignified course in public as in pri-
vate lite is, in case of necessity, to require as well as
to offer such reparation as in our conscience we deem
desirable. Such is my opinion as regards our own
fellow•countrymen. On the other hand, I am con-
vinced that if we have reason to complain of the
course taken towards us by a foreign country, the best
•course to adopt is to calmly, without malignity, or
vituperation, or intemperate language, to submit our
,cause to the honour and justice of the tribunal to
which we make our complaint, and to require from
that tribunal that meed of justice which we should
'he prepared to concede ourselves. I cannot but
think, that acting steadily on that principle, alike in
'reference to powerful as well as to weak nations, we
should be able, not merely to preserve the blessings
of peact, but also be able to place this country in an
attitude of friendship with most of the other nations
of the world." • .

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