The Express.
London, England, 1853-12-20 00:00:00

TO TIM EDITOR OF THE DAILY NEWS.

Stn,—l would lose no time in supporting, as far
as the weaker can support the stronger, the manly,
just, and noble sentiments you announce this morn-
ing. Therefore Ido not wait another week to com-
municate with my friend the Examiner, who some-
times has inserted ieji opinions when at variance to
some degree with his own. By our procrastina-
tion and indecision the bultan has lost many good
ships and brave defenders. But there is a country
which at the same time has lost even more than
these : there is a country whose helmsman has
gone down, and submerged with himself its incal-
culable wealth of honour. Never did England
sustain so grievous and irreparable a loss. He
came forward under false pretences to assist the
Osmanli in case of aggression and attack; he vio-
lated this engagement ; he permitted and aggra-
vated the wrong; and knowing the naval force of
Russia in the Euxine, he advised the ministers of the
Sultan to send no more vessels of war into that sea.
The consequence was the carnage of several thou-
sands, the slavery of as many, the annihilation of a
fleet, and the loss of the best harbour in the Ottoman
dominions. Is this no treason ? Is the resignation
of office an indemnity ? Insult after insult had the
Czar heaped upon us, knowing what men he had to
deal within the cabinet. He might have called them
liars, for liars they were practically ; and the most
mendacious of men did accuse of mendacity in a
public manifesto the most honourable prince exist-
ing upon earth; the most confiding and the most
injured. Here is a christian who violates every
ordinance of christianity !—here is an infidel who
religiously observes them all! Sanctimonious men have
beguiled and deserted those who trusted in them •
and younger jockeys have driven a nail into the hoof
of the Sultan's horse; led him into the field, and
when the enemy came down on him, slunk away.
It France were still our enemy, she could never have
anticipated such a piece of good fortune as we have
thrust into her hands. We have placed her foremost
in power by giving her all she wanted, the confidence
of Europe, and unintentionally we have followed the
Scripture'
i " Let him who would be highest take the
lowest place." We have scrambled tor it, have at-
tained it, and keep it. The servants are now trying
to pull the chairs from under the masters, and the
butlers at the sideboard are contending which of
them shall get possession of the plate-chest. This
shuffle diverts our attention from what really inter-
eats us. Changes in the servants of the family are
much talked about : bat of what importance are they ?
Much, forsooth, have we benefited by them lately.
We push away a clever novelist and adroit debater, a
porcupine whose bristles make his body seem larger
than it is, to make room for a cringing
slave who tries the glass slipper on a
foot afraid of moving. We tie up a rash, un-
broken setter, and bring into the field an old pointer,
very stanch, but pointing as stanchly at a tomtit as
at a pheasant. We have, indeed, no Chatham, no
Pitt Minor, no Burke, no Wyndham, no Wellesley :
but have we nothing better left in parliament than
Palmerston, and Russells? If not, let us run to any
range of wash-tubs, and try to find another old
woman who may, at least, send us home clean linen.
Oars has been sadly soiled in the East.
Your opinion, sir, of Lord Palmerston coincides with
mine : never did mountebank play such a variety of
tricks in the market-place, or slip jacket on after jacket
with such rapidity. We have not forgotten his
feats at Oporto in the Cobourg Theatre ; and how on
the morrow :he bravest men of the nation, defenders
of the constitution we had sanctioned, were sent
aboard crazy and pestilential transports to perish on
the coast of Africa. Another such exhibition is an-
nounced, under the patronage of Russia Austria,
Prussia, Belgium, and perhaps under the e:dscititious
branch of the Cobourg climber. As the eggs of
snakes are not laid singly, but are held together by
a glutinous string, so are the spawn and seedlings of
despotism, and are hatched in like manner by the
heat of ordure and putridity. Some constitutional
princes are of opinion that by changing to the un-
constitutional they are more exalted in station, and
more secure; but when the unconstitutional are
bard pressed they shake off the incumbmnce
of such adherents, and seek their own safety by the
surrender. Perhaps the time is not far distant when
a memorable example will be given. Ono royalist,
it is reported, has received the first warning from a
powerful neighbour, who sometimes strikes without
any warning at all, and never misses his aim. When
he has restored by his arms what has been torn away
from other countries, he will recover what has been
torn away from his own ; and he has sow the plea.
When Power leads in a straight path to Honour,
then welcome Power, and God speed her; but
if, coming through dark and tortuous ways,
she leads only to a bad and barren emi-
nence, then blessed be they who arrest her
in her course. There is a potentate who may
consolidate his power by drawing nations round
' him, and certainly not otherwise. He may do now
what we did formerly; he may gain what we have
forfeited. The Czar is less formidable to him than
to us. What, in fact, is the Cur? A god in Mus-
covy ; out of Muscovy not even a man ; but merely
a steel instrument eachased with gold; a manifold
revolver of diplomatic lies.
WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR.