The Press.
London, England, 1854-11-18 00:00:00

NOVEMBER 18, 1854.

These are the objects we are professedly
lighting to obtain. We are exerting our ener-
gies to the utmost to humiliate Russia that
we may exalt Austria. And what has this
latter Power done, or what is she doing, to
warrant all this sacrifice of men and of treasure ?
Her acts have been constantly in opposition
to her words. She has given the allied powers
her " good wishes," but refused them her co-
operation. That long diplomatic game, which
we were over and over again assured by
Lord ABERDEEN and his } oreign Secretary
would result in an armed alliance with Aus-

ma, has resulted in her occupation of the
principalities " exclusively in tho Russian
" interest," as she was careful to explain at St.
Petersburg. What sort of " occupation" it is,
and what miseries our Government has thus
been a consenting party to inflict on the prin-
cipalities, every letter from Bucharest informs
us only too painfully. Meanwhile the pro-
gress of OMER PACHA is obstructed, Bessarabia
is covered, and the Czar can concentrate his
troops upon the Crimea.
The motives that actuate Austrian policy lie
on the surface. If she allies herself with the
Western Powers, her frontier becomes incon-
veniently exposed to Russian invasion; she
must increase her army and her debt—the
latter not an easy task. If she joins the Czar,
unpleasant apprehensions arise about Hun-
gary and Lombardy (the Emperor of the
FRENCH has hinted as much), and then the
money question recurs again ; while by re-
maining quiet she incurs no expense, gains
possession of the principalities, and secures by
inactivity everything that she could gain by
war. Her views may extend further. A few
years of warfare on the colossal scale of de-
structiveness which has marked its commence-
ment, would cripple, if not exhaust, the
energies of the three great Powers of Europe
engaged in it, and Austria, all untouched,
is " mistress of the situation."
And this is the power which Lord ABER
DEEN denominates " the natural ally of this
" country ;" " thinks we have no points of
" collision, nor subjects of difference;" " that
" we can act cordially together in all the great
" affairs of Europe; " " that the interests of
"Austria and England are identical," &c. With
such credulity, what wonder that Austria has
been faithless and selfish from the beginning, is
faithless and selfish now? She has new reason
to congratulate herself on the result of
her policy with every month the war con-
tinues, and she will persist in that policy as
long as the Cabinet of England is the pro-
perty of Lord ABERDEEN.
But the last week's news from the Crimea
allows no more time to be wasted in fully of
this dangerous kind. This indecision and
weakness is no longer to be tolerated, because
it is no longer safe. The struggle is fast be-
coming one for national safety and the com-
mon interests of mankind. If we continua to
waste our armies and our fleets as they have
been wasted, may we not see—and at no great
distance either—a German-Russian league ;
Austria, Russia, Prussia, and the German
States united ; a new distribution of Europe,
in the interest of this new northern confedera-
tion ; and an overwhelming force let loose
upon the states of the East and the West of
Europe.

Unfortunately, the cause of all this imbe-
cility lies in the very constitution of the
Cabinet. Its accession to power first set
Russia in motion against Turkey. "It could
" be settled in ten minutes," said the Czar to
Sir H. SEYMOUR, " if I had one of your Minis-
" ters here—Aberdeen, or instance." Its whole
conduct of the war has inspired throughout
Germany a profound conviction that we were
not in earnest—that a Cabinet composed of
men who had been in constant opposition to
each other could never act cordially in union.
Its divided councils and its hesitating resole
tions have exposed it to the contempt of the
world.
The Opposition, at all events, has been no
party to this miserable drivelling. Throughout
the last session its business was, if pos-
sible, to urge the Ministers to something like
a fit sense of their position. The next cannot,
happily, be long delayed ; and we look
anxiously to its leaders fur such a declaration