The Press.
London, England, 1854-02-11 00:00:00

No. 41.—VoL. 11.

LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1854.

Vrtss.

disaster. The Government may not be re-
sponsible for all the calamities of the country.
They may not have occasioned the bad harvest,

LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1854.

which the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER per-
sisted in not foreseeing, although warned by
Mark-lane and the Bank of England ; they

“PRESS” OFFICE.
Friday Night, Feb. 10.
THE statements which have very generally
appeared respecting the mission of Count
ORLOFF to Vienna, and which, to a certain
degree, were repeated this night in the
House of Lordg by the Earl of CLABENDON,
are extremely inaccurate, and lead to a
false impression.

may not have caused the strikes, any more
than the shipwrecks. But, from out the con-
gregated circumstances of danger and distress

which on all sides gather round us, it is not

difficult to show that the most important are

directly occasioned by the policy of the
Government, and that that policy has been
the inevitable consequence of the heteroge-
neous materials of the Ministry. We are
involved in war with one of our most faithful
allies; we are menaced with " large " demo-
cratic innovations ; the securities far the
Protestant . Church and cause, devised, a
quarter of a century ago, by the emancipators
of our Roman Catholic fellow-subjects, are to
be abrogated. All these positive, or possible,
consequences have been caused, or are to be
carried, by the direct conduct of the Coalition
Cabinet.
No one can now doubt that, on more than
one occasion during the last eight months, the
Emperor of RUSSIA has been desirous of re-
establishing the peace of Europe, if he could
do so consistently with his personal honour
and the reputation of his empire. The Em-
peror, though pursuing his hereditary policy,
has been drawn into a war which he never
contemplated, and he has been drawn into
that war entirely by the vacillating and de-
ceptive conduct of Lord ABERDEEN. The plea
of the Coalition Cabinet, that they were de-
ceived as to the intentions of Russia, is not
tenable ; and, to use the discreet epithet of
Lord JOHN RUSSELL, when speaking of the
despatch of a foreign minister, it is " fraudu-
lent." The intentions of Russia were more
than suspected by the predecessors of the
present Ministers, and they were providing
against them. The present Ministers had not
been a week in office when they received
warnings from the British Envoy at St. Peters-
burg of the concentration of Russian troops
on the southern frontier, and of the unsatis-
factory explanations of Count NESSELRODE on
the subject. Even so early as January, 1853,
M. DRODYN DE LETS sent for Lord COWLEY,
and told him that " England and France must
"prepare for the occupation of the principalities
"by Russia." What was the conduct of the Coa-
lition under these circumstances ? After a
Cabinet Council of long duration, held on
foreign affairs, one of our Ministers went down
to the hustings of Halifax, and delivered a
ribald invective against the French Emperor
and the French people. Of course Sir CHARLES
Woo]) is as capable of forming a judgment on
questions of high policy as a clerk in a count-
ing-house is on celestial mathematics ; but he
is a shrewd man, of official experience, who
knows how to take the right tone. He was in
the habit, as all the Ministers in the country,
foreign or domestic, were in the habit, of
hearing Lord ABERDEEN speak of the French
Emperor in terms of insult and distrust, and
he followed his leader. Sir GEORGE Sr.rmoua

Count ORLOFF was not the bearer to the
Conference of the Emperor of RUSSIA'S reply
to the Constantinople note, though it
arrived during his presence at the Austrian
capital, and was formally supported by him,
being invested with full powers and being
cognisant of its contents.

It was specially provided that Count
ORLOFF should not be the bearer of the
reply, in order that the real object of his
mission might be disconnected with the
proceedings of the Conference. The sum-
moning of the Conference, and the protocol,
were almost a matter of form, as the reply
had been anticipated.

The object of Count ORT.OFF'S mission to
Vienna is, we apprehend, still unknown to
the Governments of England and France,
but we have reason to believe that the object
has been attained.

Our advices from Constantinople of the
24th of January intimate the possible con-
tingency of some remarkable events. It is
far from unlikely that direct negotiations
may be opened between Russia and
Turkey.
Count PISANI, First Drogeuman to the
British Embassy at Constantinople, has
arrived in London.

We can state from the highest authority—
not, of course, friendly to Russia—that the
amount of AVAILABLE Russian troops in the
principalities is, at this moment, probably
not less than 120,000 men, in good con-
dition.

IT is about a year since the attempt was made
to form an Administration of men eminent for
their parliamentary talents and their official
dexterity, without any reference to the par-
ticular principles which they professed, or
any consideration for the identity of their
public views. The twelve months of this
perilous empiricism have terminated in strange

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PRICE SIXPENCE.

tells us that, after the accession of Lord
ABERDEEN to office, there was a striking
change in the tone of Count NESSELRODE.
Then commences a series of hostile expres-
sions whenever France is mentioned, combined

with skilful compliments to Lord ABERDEEN.
" The salutary impulse which Lord ABERDEEN
"has given to the English Councils" is highly
praised by the Russian Minister. The refusal
of Lord ABERDEEN to join in the French de-
monstration, and send our fleet from Malta, is
landed as a masterpiece of statesmanlike dis-
cretion. The Emperor of RUSSIA is charmed
with the renewed proofs of " the confidence
"of Lord ABERDEEN in his intentions." He
desires Baron de BRUNOW personally to ex-
press his thanks to our trusty Minister. He
absolutely compliments Lord ABERDEEN on
the " beau role" that England is playing, in
leaving France " isolee ;" the congratulations
are received with a grim smile of self-satis-
faction, and—the Pruth is passed.
We express our conviction that if Lord
ABERDEEN had not been Minister of this coun-
try the Pruth would never have been passed ;
but, being passed, what happens ? The anta-
gonistic element now begins to work in
the alarmed Coalition, and, having encouraged
the inrasion of Turkey, we now proceed to go to
war with Russia.
It is the same with the democratic innova-
tion. Lord JOHN, exhausted in 1850, began
again to mutter Parliamentary Reform, mean-
ing that some " large measure," after a due
term of exile in opposition, should restore him
to another lease of power. In process of time,
with this view, he formally and repeatedly iden-
tifies himself with this "progressive" policy,
and takes his seat Rs Leader of Opposition,
with his sagacity as a statesman staked on the
necessity of Parliamentary Reform, and with a
five-pound franchise as his ticket. Unable, in
an evil hour for the Whig party, to resist the
seductions of an abnormal section, who had
the offer of office without a parliamentary
party, he condescends to become the subordi-
nate of Lord ABERDEEN ; and to compensate
for the degradation, and effect, as it were, an
equality of disgrace, he prevails upon the
minion of CAsmEaxiou and the " pupil " of
METTERNICH to endorse the democracy of the
Perth manifesto, to beome the colleague of
Sir WILLIAM MOLESWORTII, and the boon compa-
nion of Mr. BRIGHT.
A general war is to take place when every
country wishes for peace, and Parliament is to
be reformed when every party is against change.
Such are the fruits of Coalition !
But the picture is not yet comlete.
Some seven years ago Lord JOHN RUSSELL,
in consonance with those principles of reli-
gious liberty which he has always advocated.
proposed the admission into Parliament of
those of her Majesty's subjects who professed
the Jewish religion. His measure, though re-
peatedly sanctioned by majorities of the
House of Commons, has been hitherto unsuc-
cessful. In Mt, however, the country being
much agitated by Papal aggression, Lord JOHN
RUSSELL, still Prime Minister, came down to
the House of Commons and announced his
belief that there was, and had been for some
time, a great conspiracy of the Court and See
of Rome against the Protestant religion, and
the civil liberty which is its fruit, and he
immediately proposed some measures of a de-
fensive character. These, carried by, over-
whelming majorities, were opposed in
an
uncompromising spirit by Lord ABERDEEN, Sir
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