The Press.
London, England, 1854-07-29 00:00:00

c~ljc Alress.

LONDON, SATURDAY, JULY 29, 1854.

"PRESS" OFFICE,

Friday Night, July 28, 1854.

WE announced in our last number the retire-
ment of his Excellency Comte WALEWBIKA from

the French Embassy at the Court of St.

James's. A serious misunderstanding with
M. DROUYN DE L'Huvs on a subject of pars
mount delicacy and importance is alleged as
the cause of an incident which`will be much
regretted in this countnr. We have now to
announce that the retirement of another
diplomatic

character from our Court may

speedily be expected. His Excellency Admi-
ral VIRGIN, Minister of the King of SWEDEN, is
about to conclude his too short residence
►among us.

The negotiations between this country and
Sweden are at the present moment, and have
been for some time, of a critical character.
Her MAjesty's Government have proposed to
the Swedish Government to subsidise a
Swedish army for the attack of Finland.
His Majesty the King of SWEDEN has evinced
an unexpected indisposition to reannex Fin
land to his crown, but has communicated a
counter project to her Majesty's Government
for the guaranteed independence of that coun-
try. It appears that the British Government,
sufficiently embarrassed already with the
guarantees of Belgium and Prussian Saxony,
hesitates ; and that some members of the
Cabinet, involved already with the possible
contingencies both of subsidies and guarantees,
tremble at the abyss which they are ap-
proaching.
We do not feel at liberty to discuss at pre-
sent how far the recal of the Swedish
Minister from our Court arises from this

imbroglio.
The Austrian Government has positively
declared that its occupation of the Principa-
lities is incompatible with the presence either
of a Turkish force, or of the allied armies, in
those provinces. Thus it recurs to its project
of armed mediation.
We have reason to believe that, in conse-
quence of urgent intelligence, of a peculiar
nature, received at the Admiralty, Admiral
STOPFORD will be despatched immediately to
the Black Sea, and has, perhaps, already de-
parted for that quarter.

As assault on the Ministry by a section of
their own supporters, with respect to their

-~' ~,-.

foreign policy, and general conduct of
the war, has been, so far as the intentions
of the Government and the prospects of the
country are concerned, unexpectedly produc-
tive of considerable results. Our unsatisfac-
tory relations with Prussia and Austria, so long
ago, and so frequently, announced in this
journal, were at length unreservedly admitted
by the Ministers. A statement that the allied
armada in the Baltic could not attack any of
the great Russian forts in that sea, except
with the certain destruction of the conjoined
ships, was officially made by a Lord of the
Admiralty to a startled House of Commons,
and rivalled in interest the ingenuous confes-
sion of Mr. GLADSTONE, that, when our troops
were despatched to Malta, the Ministry had
no serious apprehensions of war taking place,
which accounts for our inefficient commissa-
riat. Finally, the Lord President of the
Council, after having declared to that assem-
bly—roaring, consequently, with enthusiasm—
that, in asking for further aids, the Ministers
were resolved never to cease prosecuting the
war until Southern Russia was a dream—until
Sebastopol was destroyed, the Crimea eman-
cipated, the mouths of the Danube freed, and
its principalities for ever liberated from
Muscovite protection—concluded the night,
and neutralised six hours of debate, by recal-
ling and recanting all that he had said ;
and, having carried the House captive by his
almost dangerous distinctness, apologised for
" the ambiguity of his language" ! The
bouncing words of Lord JOHN RUSSELL, oso
rapidly attenuated by explanation, the carriage
of the Ministers in the other House of Par
liament, the costive rhetoric and the grim re-
serve of Lord ABERDEEN, and the vague, im-
passioned feebleness of Lord CLARENDON,
combined to convey to the country a painful
impression that the Ministers have, at present,
neither plans nor prospects ; that their calcu-
lations have been baffled, their expectations
baulked, and their resources misapplied ; that
they have only been headlong when they
thought they were energetic ; and that their
violent purposes have never been digested and
defined.
When Parliament first met, members of the
Administration were assiduous in their pri-
vate declarations, that the war was to he " a
short war ;" just as, last autumn, when hos-
tilities began to be inevitable, we heard that
the war was to be " a cheap war ;" merely a
naval war, simply the employment of the
ships already in commission, and a few more.
Some remarks from a distinguished correspon-
dent will be found in our columns to day, im-
pugning the justness of an observation in our
last number with respect to Sir CHARLES
NAPIER. We are no decriers of that gallant
Admiral ; far from it ; there is no doubt that
the boastful view generally attributed to
him hefor3 he recently left these shores
was an echo and reflex of that of her Majesty's
Government. In official circles it was whis-
pered that there was to be quick work. The
contagion spread, and the idea of the corn
monalty was that in a few months the Czar
would bo brought here, perhaps in an iron
cage, as much to the satisfaction of his own
subjects as those of her Majesty.


Public passion on the subject of the war
having now somewhat subsided, and the
Ministers being self-confessedly quite incom-
petent to guide or form opinion in this matter,
one may, perhaps not altogether unusefully,
attempt to arrive at some clear conclusions
amidst the bewildering passages of events.
The political equilibrium can be sustained
by two modes,—either by driving hack Russia
to the north, or by developing the resources
of Turkey in peace to such a degree that the
Ottoman empire may eventually furnish a
sufficient barrier to Muscovite or German
encroachment. This latter plan has been
pursued, during the last ten years, with con•
siderable success, attested by the vigour and
resources with which Turkey unaided has
resisted invasion. A war, however, with
Russia, which, after being waged for some
years, is to terminate with the territorial
status quo, will not preserve the balance of
power, for while, it may, for the moment, re.
strain the designs of Russia, it will allow tlu m
ultimately to be directed against Turkey,
hopelessly exhausted and disorganised. Un-
less, therefore, we are prepared for one of
those energetic, sustained, and enduring strug-
gles, such as we have carried on against a
Bourbon, or a Bonaparte, a Lous XIV., or a
Napoleon, it is infinitely wiser, on all ac-
counts, for the sake of Europe, of ourselves,
and of Turkey, that we should encourage those
overtures of peace now, and long, rite, no
matter from what quarter they may emanate.
An ordinary war must, in the end, accomplish
the purposes of Russia ; peace may baffle
them.
We wish earnestly to impress these con-
siderations on our readers ; the more so be•
cause the tone of the Government makes us
fear that, while the Ministry entirely shrink
from a policy which would find a remedy for
the chronic disturbance of the world in a new
map of Europe, they are still not disinclined
to persist in a prolonged, teasing, exhausting,
and uneventful war, which, while it may he
an excuse for not dealing with any public
questions at home, and so keep them, perhaps,
in an unworthy seat, will drain the resources
and break the spirit of the Continental na-
tions, and leave the Old World in general a
more fitting prey, at the right season, for the
barbarous energies of the Scythian forests.

SIR CHARLES NAPIER AND ADMIRAL
BERKELEY.
Is reference to an allusion to the commander
of the Baltic fleet in our first article of last
week, we have been favours(' by a distin-
guished Correspondent with some remarks on
the language held by Sir CHARLES NAPIER
previous to his leaving our shores on his pre-
sent expedition. Our Correspondent asserts
that Sir CHARLES NAPIER is so far froth having
any political connection with the Ministry that
he is noteven agreeable to them. It is stated
by our Correspondent that'in the speech of
Admiral NAPIER, on occasion of the Reform
dinner, and in his reply to the Portsmouth
address, he not only did not encourage the
boasting tone of the Ministerialists, but
checked it simply and forcibly,as might have
been anticipated from his honest, earnest,
reflecting, and conscientious character.