The Press.
London, England, 1856-05-03 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

intentions, your bill was passed with promptitude. I ask
you, then, what did you do with the loin ? Did you furnish
the Sultan with money ; and, above alt, did you remit the
funds in time ? If not in time, why, Urn, was your pro-
position not made before? (Hear.) bit what did you
do? Your measure was opposed in this hoise on grounds
which, on reflection, I still believe to have ben sound and
constitutional. (Hear, hear.) Its policy, I .pink, cannot
be too severely impugned. In any case, it could only be
justified by the extreme urgency of the occasitn. There
are moments, I admit, when even the constituton must
be wrested to save an empire; and if the noble lard had,
by his sudden, crude, and unprecedented project, rescued
the Asiatic dominions of the Sultan, he would have found
that vindication which energy, and especially successful
energy, has a right to obtain. (Cheers.) But not a piastre
of your loan went to the relief of Kars.
The first instalment of the loan was paid in August,
'55, and yet, when Parliament met on the 31st January,
'56, three millions of the loan were then lying in
the Bank of England. Was this a display of energy
or foresight? Did any portion of the conduct of the
Government with reference to Kars display either
quality?—
Where is the display of those qualities proved? I am
not addressing the right hon. gentleman the member for
Carlisle, because, although he is about to support old com-
rades, he has, in a most crushing and effective speech,
demonstrated that they have exhibited neither energy nor
foresight. (Laughter.) I am addressing the Govern-
ment—the modern Chatham, the War Minister par excel
knee—and I ask him, in all humility, where iii this period
of the new Administration is foresight to be detected and
energy discovered? (Cheers.) On the sth of March
General Williams sent to the Government of England an
account of the force necessary to secure not only his
safety but his triumph. His demand for aid was mode-
rate, and might easily have been met; but how was it
treated? The facts are in the recollection of the house,
and I have no wish to pervert them. Why, sir, the com-
munication was bandied from public office to public office,
and tossed from one Under Secretary to another. The
two Under• Secretaries corresponded with each other from
either side of Downing•street like two wooden puppets
pulled by strings. ( A laugh.) The principle of exist-
ence was not necessary to such beings. (Laughter.) To
accomplish such results vital power was not necessary.
The animal° vagula blanduk—that evanescent thins—
animated not those mechanical and frigid forms. It
ought to have been one of the grounds of censure of the
Government that they should, with fatal accuracy, have
published this correspondence—that they should have
revealed to Sardinia, to which this country ought to be a
model, that this is the mode in which our public business
is conducted—that they should have damped the rising
energies of the Turks by showing that the great nation
which has saved them conducts its affairs in such a man-

ner. Well, the Under-Secretaries communicated from either
side of Downing•street, at intervals of about a fortnight,
the principal secretaries animating them with instruc-
tions quite worthy of the occasion. The demand of
General Williams was tossed back to Constantinople ;
ut Constantinople it was tossed back by our ambas-
sador to the Divan; and the Turks were asked to do
that which British gold and British valour ought to
have accomplished. I ask them this question—a very
simple one—was that energy? (Cheers and laughter.)
Is there a man in this house who will say that was energy ?
Will even the First Minister of the Crown rise in his
place and say that it was energy ? (Renewed cheers.) In
the month of August Lord Ellenborough. in his place in
Parliament, called the attention of her Majesty's Govern-
molt to the state of affairs in Asia, and asked for infor.
m ttion with reference to our policy. The War Minister
of England then assured Parliament that in the opinion
of her Majesty's Ministers the power of the Porte was
sufficient to maintain its authority and dominions in Asia.
Was that foresight? (Cheers and laughter.) If, in the
first instance, there was a want of energy, was there not
subsequently a want of foresight? A new Ministry was
formed upon the principle of conducting the war in Asia,
and from the period of their formation to the fall of Kars
there was an interval of nine months.. We find that at
last the Porte. wearied with the energy and foresight of
the British Government—(a laugh )—in its desperation
rallied its resources; it wade a final effort, and it offered a
plan of action for the approbation of the British Ministers.
That project of the Porte, after due deliberation, and
after many councils, was described by her Majesty's Go-
verntnent as an insane plan—( cheers )—but I find that a
month afterwards the same project was adopted by her
Majesty's Government. (Renewed cheers.) Well, is that
energy and foresight combined? (Cheers and laughter.)
We have had instances of energy and foresight; we now
find the finer qualities of genius brought into play; we
have prescience and vigour united, and the fall of Kars is
complete.
Lord J. RUSSELL said he thought the house would
be dispcsed to view the war as a whole, and consider
whether, having undertaken to defend Turkey for
the present and to obtain some security for the
future, these objects had not been fully obtained.
He was of opinion that the Governments of France
and England had acted with foresight and energy in
declining to order the Turkish troops to leave Eupa-
toria and Balaklava without the consent of the
allied generals, and thereby risking success at Sebas-
topol. He congratulated the present Government
upon the fact that a war conducted with success
had been terminated by an honourable peace, and
he could not but believe, be said, that it would
redound to our honour that we had, in the time of
her danger, flown to the succour of Turkey, without
the prospect of any reward but the satisfaction of

415

obtaining the independence of a friendly power, and
thereby securing the balance of Europe.
Lord PALMERSTON said the chief charge against
the Government was that they did not send men
and money to General Williams. But it was a total
misrepresentation to say that they undertook to
carry on the war in Asia. The Administration of
Lord Aberdeen decided, and wisely, that in a war
with Russia for the defence of Turkey the part to
strike at was Sebastopol, the great centre of the
Russian power as aggressive against Turkey, and
that it was futile to assail its extremities. The real
cause of the fall of Kars was the want of provisions
and of a relieving force, and the cause of the want
of provisions was the misconduct of the Pacha of
Erzerouin, who had sufficient money to purchase an
adequate supply of provisions for Kars, but who
omitted to pay the carriers, and the supplies fell
into the hands of the Russians. In justifying the
route by Trebizond and Erzeroum, chosen by the
Government for the relief of Kars, Lord Palmerston
pointed out its comparative facilities, observing that
it was not only calculated to turn to account the
forces of Omer Pacha, but bad this advantage—that
if the expedition failed in relieving Kars, it would
provide for the supply and defence of Erzeroum.
In reply to the objection that the Turkish Contin-
gent should have been employed in the expedition,
he insisted that it would have been madness to ex-
pose raw troops against a Russian force, and that
the Government were right in upholding the decision
of the generals, who declined to allow any of their
troops to be taken from Sebastopol before it fell.
Mr. WHITESIDE replied he could not understand
the statement of the noble lord, that the war in
Asia was never seriously entered upon. He had
ascertained that Kars might have been saved by the
purchase of provisions at the mere cost of 27,0001.,
and was it possible that Government conic' say they
had not incurred this expenditure becar.se the siege
of Sebastopol was at that time going on
The house then divided, when there appeared—

For the amendment .. 52
Against .. 451
Majority against the amendment 399
The houso then' divided on Mr. Whiteside'l4
motion

Ayes
Noes

Majority . .
TREATY OF PEACE.

.. 170
.. 303
. • -127

The Earl of CLARENDON, in the House of Lords on
Monday, rose and said:—

I rise, my lords, to lay on the table of your lordships'
house a copy of the treaty of peace concluded at Pads,
which has been signed by the plenipotentiaries of England,
France, Russia, Austria, Prussia, Sardinia, and Turkey.
The ratifications of this treaty were exchanged on Sunday,
and have been received to day. There are three separate
conventions annexed to it, which will also be printed with
it. There is also a declaration respecting maritime law,
and the course to be pursued with reference to neutral
during a war, which has been signed by the plenipotenti-
aries on behalf of their respective powers.
Lord BROUGHAM: To do away with privateering!

The Earl of CL ARENDON replied in the affirmative,
and continued :

I have likewise to lay before your lordships copies of all
the protocols of the sittings and conferences, during the
time of the sessions of the Congress at Paris; and I have
now further to move, that this treaty he taken into con-
sideration by your lordships on this day week.

Lord P. 11.14 EASTON, in the House of Commons on
Monday, laid upon the table the protocols of the
conferences which were held at Paris relative to the
general treaty of peace between Great Britain,
France, Austria, Russia, Prussia, Sardinia, and
Turkey.
The noble lord immediately afterwards arose,
amid loud cheers from the Ministerial side of the
house, and said that one of the papers which he had
just presented was a copy of the treaty of peace, the
ratiticatioes of which had been exchanged at. l'aris
in the course of Sunday. He should beg leave to
move that those papers be taken into consideration
on Monday next.
The motion was agreed to.
THE NEW BESSARABIAN FRONTIER.

Lord PALMERSTON, in reply to Sir H. Willoughby,
on Thursday, said that the boundary remained yet to
be laid down upon the spot, and a commission was
to be appointed to proceed thither for that purpose.
Tt would be found from any good map of the country
that the new boundary left the city of Ismail and all
the islands of the Danube, as well as the salt lakes
to the north ; ascending then, parallel to the line of
the Pruth, it left the lower and navigable pert of
that river within the province of Moldavia. The
islands known as the Delta, at the mouth of the
Danube, were excluded from the Russian territory,
and would belong to Moldavia.