The Press.
London, England, 1857-01-31 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

this is a practical scheme or not, we do not
undertake to determine; but such seem the
only conditions on which penal prisons could
be maintained in this country with advantage.

THE DAN LIB lAN PRINCIPALITIES—SHALL
THEY BE UNITED.
SMIE weeks back we received from a native of the
Danubian Principalities a logical and eloquent
argurnnit in favour of the union of the tAv.) provinces.
At that time the question was in abeyance, owing to
the dispute on the Bassaraiiian frontier, but it has
new become of practical and pressing importance ;
and it is very proper that the persons most interested
in the decision to be taken should have an opportunity
of making their views and wishes known. This corn •
munication first discusses tie question of the legality
of a union of the Principalities, and shows from the
admissions of the Turkish Government, and from
the treaties between the Porte and the Principalities
on record, that there can be no objection to union on
that ground. Ho asks
If the Princitialitia, as they fully intend, continue after
their union to do honour to their engagements towards
the Porte, to pay their anmial dues, and Cause their prince
and his heirs to be recognised at his accession by the
Sultan, will the Porte have any cause of complaint?
He then proceeds to show that there are precedents
in favour of the project he advocates, and iu eloquent
terms states the advantages which he believes would
result from the union :
The Principalities have not only right, they have also
precedents in favour of their union and the extension of
hereditary right to their prince. Both before and after
their recognition of the suzerainty of the Porte, Wallachia
and Moldavia were more than once united under hereditary
princes—under Mircea 1., in 13139; under Stephen the
Great, iu 1199; and under Michael the Brave, in IWO. lint
more important still, and nearer to our time, the Porte
itself, in 1830, admitted the necessity of the union in the
371st clause of the organic statute, where it qualifies that
step as a union which circumstances alone have hitherto
prevented, but the advantage of which cannot be denied
for a moment. Need I add that yet more recently, in
1854, the Grand Vizir, Aali Pacha, also desired the union,
which he then considered quite legal, and most advan-
tageous to the Turks. As regards the right of the
Roumans to choose a foreign prince rather than a native,
the Porte surely cannot deny it, seeing that she gave them
foreign rulers on every occasion on which she usurped the
right of appointing those princes. This right of the Prin-
cipalities to be united being once proved to be legal and
not contrary to those of any other power, diplomacy, one
would think, should be satistled; but as diplomacy desires
also that the Principalities should show the advantages
they anticipate from the union, as it wishes to know why
we Routnans of Moldavia and Wallachia wish to be united,
I will give the reasons. We desire the union because we
are one people, ho noienous, identical as no other people
in the world are or can be ; because we have the same
origin, root, language, Intl religion; the same traditions
and history ; the same institutions, customs, laws, and ad-
ministrative regulations; the same tendencies and aspira-
tions, hopes and fears, interests and wants, to satisfy; the
same frontiers and purpose to defend, because there is less
difference between the two Principalities than there are
between two English counties, two French departments,
or two Turkish villages. There is no natural barrier, and
no visible sign of their separation. Everything tends to
unite, nothing to separate them, unless it be the illwill of
those whose wish it is to see them divided and weak, in
order that they may make the country a stepping-stone for
the conquest of the Ottoman empire. Should these
reasons appear yet too vague and indefinite, 1 would add,
we wish for union under a Western hereditary prince, that
we may give the Government that stability which the
political system of Europe and the particular circumstances
in which the Principalities are placed require. We desire
it that we may in return spare our country the convulsions
and foreign intrigues incident to the elections of our
princes; for these might become the cause of our destruc-
tion, as tlniy always have been of our misfortunes. We
believe that none amongst the candidates named for the
Throne would have the personal authority or family prestige
to cause his acceptance by competition, or enable him
to stand clear of all foreign influence. We consider it
cheaper, better to have one yearly grant to the Throne, one
Court, one Administration ; we shall have a better chance
of a good prince, a good president over our legislative
body, a good metropolitan archbishop, an able commander
of oar army, a first-rate chief of the staff, clever repre-
sentatives at Constantinople,minister of finance, and comp•
, trollers. We believe it easier ti find capable men to fill
one legislative assembly, one court of supreme appeal, one
ministry, and one staff—more advantageous to have one
board of customs, one direction of luarautines, one post.
otlice, one board of public works. Having one capital, we
should bring our resources together ; and we may have at
, less expense a bank on a good basis, a university,
military school, a commercial agricultural class institution,
a college of arts, a tine public library, a national museum.
The union of our military forces under one flag and one
command would enable our army to provide efficaciously for
the national defence, and erect it into an advanced guard of
the Ottoman army.
We specially desire the union, because it already exists
in our hearts, because we have the conscience of our cow-

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mon destinies, and of onr identical mission; because we have
but one mind, which will be tortured if possible to all
eternity, but which cannot be divided. In other words, we
want it because we require tranquillity to augment, under
the shade of peace, and for the mutual interest of ourselves
and of humanity, the moral and material resources cf our
country, and live in good friendship with the Turks. If,
however, ignerance or the bad faith of some few l'achas
should prevail above the legal wishes of a people of five
million souls, sepported by the greatest powers of the
world and all intelligent Europe, we should be fatally
thrown into endless agitations, and instead of becoming an
instrument of defence and civilisation, we should become
a meats of destruction against the Ottoman empire.
This is no threat; it is a real and imminent danger for
Turkey as well its rr the Principalities. We earnestly
ask those who have the power, to set it aside, while there
is yet time.

Without committing this journal to any decided
opinion on the subject, we mast say that wa think it
difficult to resist the force of these arguments in
favour of union of the Principalities.