The Press.
London, England, 1856-01-05 00:00:00

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No. 140.—VoL. IV.

LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 5, 1856.

STAMPED .... SIXPENCE. -
UNSTAMPED..FIVEPENCE.

Ot Vress.

course to be pursued. While Turkey is
allied to the Western Powers and fortified
by their support, the presence of a few Russian
ships of war, more or less, in the Black
Sea, can be a matter of no import whatever.
It is otherwise with Russian armies. We have
seen how much easier and quicker fleets can
be brought into action than a land force. Two
years ago the allied fleets were ready for uction
in the Black Sea, but not even yet have we a
land force to meet the foe in Mingrelia, nor
have our troops in the Cri►nea the means of
transport. Can it be doubted, then, that
Turkey is less exposed to aggression on her
sea-board than on her land frontier ?

AVA A HERAT.
THE last mail from has brought intelli-
gence of two severe s to our prestige—
the one, the rejection o .overtures by the
Court of Ava; and the other, the fall of
Herat. As regards the former, it will be re-
membered by our readers that we condemned
them from the outset, and predicted for them an
ignominious failure. Our anticipations have
been fully realised. The costly presents of
the Governor-General have been received with
contemptuous indifference; the prayers and
menaces of our representative have been
treated with equal disdain ; the looked-for
treaty has been refused most peremptorily by
the Burmese Government; and, after sub-
mitting to a series of indignities which the
envoy of the pettiest Rajah would have dis-
dained to tolerate, our Embassy has returned
weary and crestfallen to Rangoon. It way be
truly said, all things considered, that we have
not met with so severe a rebuff, and one that
will lower us so much in the eyes of the
natives, since we ceased to be traders and
assumed the office of rulers over our Eastern
empire. And the worst of the insult is, that
it is one of a kind that leaves us no shadow
of a pretext to avenge it, and which the Go-
vernment of India has brought by its folly
entirely on itself. By the commonest fore-
sight it might have avoided the dilemma, and
at the same time attained every possible
diplomatic end. All it had to do was to send
the Commissioner of Pegu to the frontier,

The sagacity of Mr. DISRAELI has discerned
the real peril of Turkey. He exposed it in
his memorable speech of the Bth June, 1855,
from which we lately made an extract. He
considered it essential to the security of
Turkey that her Asiatic frontier should be
fortified, and that the channel of the Bosphorus
should be fortified also. Until those pre-
cautions be adopted Turkey never can be
secure. Much as we desire Peace—earnestly
as we advocate it—we should resist an arrange-
ment which, while pretending to absolutely
secure Turkish territory, would in reality
leave it defenceless against a sudden irrup-
tion of her mighty and ambitious neighbour.
While in any Treaty much must be left to
the good faith of Russia, much may be done
to raise material barriers ' against her. Let
us, while depriving her of all pretext for future
quarrel, remove from her also all temptation to
engage in it.
We may be reminded that this discussion is
premature, that Peace is yet uncertain, and, in
the opinion of most persons, impracticable.
In that view we do not concur. We have
lately had a public declaration by the Emperor
of the FRENCH of the pacific disposition of his
Government ; we have now a yet more formal
declaration of pacific views by the Cabinet of
St. Petersburg. It is for the statesmen and
diplomatists of Europe, with these elements of
pacific settlement in their hands, to see if
agreement be not practicable. If Russia be
sincere in her desire to have Turkey indepen-
dent and her territory protected, she can have
no wish to see her frontier defenceless, and
can make no objection to an arrangement to
render it surely guarded. It is from a direct
meeting of the representatives of the belli-
gerent Powers that we can most reasonably
expect a satisfactory solution of the various
points in dispute. We can but indicate
those which are of the highest importance.
To the statesmen of Europe a magnificent
opportunity is now open for proving their
skill, their capacity, their moderation. With
interests so mighty at stake, they may merge
something of the peculiar policy of their
respective States in
.broad and generous views
of the welfare of mankind. There is no
State in Europe which is not raised to a sense
of the importance of the crisis. A Peaco now
would explode the barbarous notion that wars
can only be terminated through exhaustion,
and that all ideas of justice and polity must.
be abandoned when the sword is drawn, and
be trampled on by might. It would strengthen
those principles of international law which
have slowly grown up with, advancing civilisa-
tion; it would enlarge the range and scope of
their influence, and give promise to ever
member of the European family of the peace-
ful enjoyment of its independence.

there to meet any agent whom the Govern-
ment of Burmah might depute. By this
means every facility would have been afforded
to the Burmese Government to enter into a
treaty with us if so inclined, while a refusal on
its part would, under such circumstances,
have gained for it no triumph at our expense.
In Europe, the sending a pompous embassy
to a Court to obtain concessions from it with-
out previously ascertaining accurately the dis-
position of that Court, would be held a great
mistake ; but in Asia the evil is tenfold, the
failure being destructive to our prestige ;
while it is by the force of our prestige, as
much as by that of our army, that wa hold
the empire of Hindostan.
The capture of Herat by the Persians is
another blow to us of not less significance,
though it is the British, and not the Indian
Government that is responsible in this in-
stance. Considering the immense influence
that has been long exercised by Russia over
the affairs of Persia, and the inimical pur-
poses towards which this influence has been
always turned, the present crisis required that
our Ambassador at the Court of Teheran
should be a man of equal firmness and
sagacity, and more than ordinarily fitted for
his post. Instead of this, the duties were left
during the earlier months of the present war
in the hands of a locum tenens, who was a mere
adventurer, appointed to the mission by
haphazard, and who filled a consular office cf
the lowest grade. Afterwards, when an am-
bassador '
selected
and rest
not the

been sele
and least

The result

mittcd

or ;was appointed, a gentleman was
d who, however : iniable his manners
ipectable his • • :NA was certainly
• person •- • 74 any time
.11ected atA •'4 in Persia,
st of ally , *tilt period.
suit was,A,ll.„lrj :u.,4o4)pet ho sub-
patient7`_. iW^ .)1 Kshich that
AA464. Ft
111