The Press.
London, England, 1856-03-22 00:00:00

THE WEEK.

TIM official declaration that Peace is concluded, is supposed to be near
at band. It is certain that all points of importance have been settled,
and that only the text of the Treaty has to be arranged. THE PRESS
announced a fortnight back the signing of the Preliminaries of Peace
would be immediately followed by the draft of a Definitive Treaty
being drawn up, and we now hear :
A sub-committee has been formed to draw up the terms of the Treaty, which will be
signed as soon as they have completed their work. The subcommittee is composed of
Lord Cowley, Baron Bourqueney, Count Buol, Count Cavour, Ash Paella, and Baron
Brunow, being one representative to each of the negutiating Powers. When Peace shall
have been signed, it is intended, we believe, that the Conitrence shall be dissolved, but
that a committee shall be left sitting to carry out the details which there is not now time
to arrange. The questiora of the Principalities and of the Turkish. Christians will
probably receive the attention of this body.—Times, March 19.

It is not doubted that the Treaty will be signed before the expiration
of the term to which the armistice extended, the 31st of this month.
Some persons suppose that the official declaration of Peace will not be
delayed later than Monday next. The Emperor of the FRENCH, in re-
plying to the congratulatory addresses presented on the birth of an
Imperial Prince, has said that he was born in the midst of the " hopes
of peace," a significant expression calculated to dispel whatever doubts
previously existed as to the satisfactory progress of the Conferences.
Our journals, after a period of uncertainty, are beginning to take their
tone on the new situation—that tone being dictated, as may be sup-
posed, mainly by party considerations, though there are people so
simple as to believe that party is dead amongst us. Unfortunately,
the declarations that party does not exist are used to mask the corrup-
tion which under a more distinctive system of principles and badges
would be impossible. As may be supposed, the journals which were
most in favour of War when Lord PALMERSTON related the " satisfac
tion " he derived from reports of the Russian slain, and the sufferings
of their sick, are now most in favour of Peace, and prepared to greet
with flourish of trumpets the terms of the Treaty, whatever they may be.
The Daily News is working itself up for a rapture of exultation, and we
imagine will be the first to shout for a general illumination, and to
advise the mob to prepare abundant missiles for darkened windows.
The Times is more cautious. It hints in ominous phrase that we have
been forced into an unsatisfactory peace by our gallant ally, France ;
and it speaks of Russia coming out of the war unscathed, and of the
difference between a well-grounded and an unstable peace. At the
same time, it says that England is both willing and able to carry on
the War ; that the country was never better prepared for hostilities ;
and that Lord CLARENDON should have occupied a commanding
position. Well, why does he not do so? Because France is eager for
'race ? Is not this strain of reasoning degrading to the Government
which it professes to defend ? Is it not obvious that at the first
our Government should have laid down such terms as were essential
to a"we I I- grounded peace," and should have abided by them ? If it
did not establish such conditions, whose is the fault ? And if it has
departed from such conditions, after having fixed them, whose is the
fault still ? It was right that our Government should have listened
with deference to the suggestions and reasonings of France ; but was
it necessary that it should have given up points it esteemed of vital
;m:rortance ? These are questions raised by the special pleading put
forward in defence of the Government. It is to be hoped they will
need no such defence ; but, if they should, they may rely on it that it
Will very little avail them.

If we imagined that in Poland there remained any vital principle
of nationality, we should, on reading the account of the deputation to
Lord PALMERSTON, exclaim " Poor Poland !" The melancholy farce
must be kept up to the last. The whole proceeding was in the true
" old old hat " spirit. It seemed the result of prescriptive usage. Lord
BREADALBANE, a most estimable personage, must have consented to
go through the performance for the same reason that honest Diggory
would laugh at his master's standard joke, " I can't help laughing at
" that for the soul of me ! We have laughed at that these twenty
" years, ha! ha! ha !" It has become such a recognised and legiti-
mate proceeding for deputations to go up to Lord PALMERSTON to
bespeak his intercession for Poland, that it would be viewed as an
alarming circumstance if they failed. They are like the formal mourning
on funeral anniversaries ; and when Lord PALMERSTON disappears from
the stage it is probable that a dinner will be established to commemo-
rate the funeral proceeding, and that each person attending the
banquet will wear crape in his button-hole, and drink to the memory
of the departed practice in a silent but brimming bumper. It was a
good joke of its kind that the Queen's Chamberlain should have
headed the deputation; but how much better a joke was great PAM'S
reception of it ! He would not commit himself by giving an answer
at once. No ; he wanted time to consider the momentous question
whether he would resuscitate Poland or not. "To be, or nut to be !"
That was the question. Should he lay the views of the deputation
before the Conference and insist on their adoption ; or should he, like
the Sun, wait for a time which never comes, and trust to avenging
justice and " all that sort of thing "?
There was a time when Lord PALMERSTON might have interfered with
effect in favour of Poland, and when France strongly urged such inter-
ference. He missed the opportunity as more lately he missed the
golden opportunity of raising, by the direct offer of Austria, the territory
of North Italy into an independent kinKidom. Such opportunities
never return. In the eloquent words of M. Ds MONTALEMBERT, Lord
11/4tataittrrott hay in his foreign policy constantly sacrificed liberty that
he might seem to favour revolution !

ihk.