The Express.
London, England, 1853-12-30 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY, DECEMBER JO.

Teti: latest news from the Danube i, that a
Itusatan steamer had set two Turkish villages on Ere.
In respect of (outage and humanity the exploit may
be coma lend a repetition of the Sinope massacre, on
a smaller scale. The instruments of the ('7 In, on
the Danube and the Eosin', are identical in chime-
ter. The one bravely throws his red-hot bans, from
a safe distance, till Ire burns the houses of hellhas
and unoffendieg villagers about their ears ; the
latter, with an equally large instinct of seltpreser-
station, collects an overwhelmingly superior force
before he ventures to hear down upon the 'Turkish '
olilla. lie dues not indeed escape so easily as his
yoke-know in sillany ; for the Turks, with a
heroism not surpassed by that of Thermo.
vela-, stand to their guns till the last, some blowing
up their ship rather than surrender, ouly 1,000 I
wen bring lilt alive out of 3,000, but making their
enemies writhe under the dying efforts of brave and'
devoted men. 'their dastardly assailants. not yen-
beteg to beard the one or two vessels that, contain.
in only a few maimed and disabled survivors, had
drifted on shore, cautinued to poor in their shot upon
them till they were entirely destroyed. And yet
the coward li.iettieot i (no epithet could add to the
revolting images with which that name will hence-
forth be associated), by whose orders, and under
whom. eyes, this carnage was perpetrated, has the
caltou• audacity to pen, in the midst of the corpses
sad blood of hia victims, by the light of the blazing
houses of Sieve, a note that might have been
written be a member of the Peace Congress. Ile
prate, about the "deplorable necessity" of attacking
the Turkish ships " at the risk of causing injury to the
town and harbour;" he "sympathises in the sad
tate of the town and the inoffensive inhabitants ;"
Pit ere-like, he attempts to wash his bands of
the clime, and attributes it to " the obstinate
defence of the hostile inhabitants," and to " the
burning wreck of the Turkish ships, set on
fire mostly by their own crews." What an idea
det-a such language, in the mouth of a man
drenched and red with the gore of a weaker enemy
and of unollending civilians, while surrounded by the
wreck and ruin he had wrought, convey of the ref.
gatlS employed by NteitoLas! The whole letter
bum %bleb we have been quoting is a horrible irony,'
more shocking then that of GOMM'S " Mephisto-
Odes." The letter of the Russian Admiral combines
a Lyon laugh of exultation over his butchery with
unblushing mendacity (his superior force was able to
prevent the Turks from proceeding to their desti-1
ant ion without endangering the defenceless
townsmen); with cowardice (he dared not
attack them on equal terms); utter want of
geueroeity and magnanimity (he is incapa-
ble of feeling the heroism of the men who offered
such an " obstinate resistance," and set fire to their
own ships rather than yield to so superior a force).
But the climax of his savage, laughing cruelty has
yet to be noticed. The Greeks of Sinope implored
him to take them on board, fearing the Turkish in-
habitants, in the madness of their rage and despair,
might wreak their losses upon them, but NA( lII-
IOW I refused—" my instructions being solely to act
_ _

against the Turkish men-of-war, I recommended these
unfortunate persons to the European Consuls." He
left them in the hope that their fears might be
realised (to the honour of the Turks, be it remem-
bered, they have proved groundless), and that he
might thus have au excuse for returning to commit
greater outrages and havoc at Sinope. To find a
parallel for the sayings and doings of the Russian
Admiral, we must go back to the times of
Ttit.v and WAELEN,CEINt or those of TAMERLANE
and ATTILA. He has discarded the chivalrous huma-
nity of the modern European soldier. Sir WILLIAM
NAI It it indulges in a natural and energetic expres-
sion of horror at the cruelties committed on French
soldiers by Spanish guerillas in the Peninsular war;
but these were rude peasants, possibly Contra-
bandists, whose homes had been plundered and de-
stroyed, avenging themselves on the instruments of
a lawless conqueror. But the Russian is a cool-blooded
soldier, a polished gentleman who can write as senti-
mentally as Ho t: ssem: —yet being himself the invader,
out-Herods the guerillas even before hostilities are
well begun,—before the passions of the combatants
are roused. Here, then, we have a specimen of
the way in which NICUOLAS and his savage mer-
cenaries make war ; and let it be kept in mind
that the main object of these barbarians in ex-
tending their te tritory to the west is to enable
them to act with more effect against the liberties and
the wealth of civilised Europe. The sinking of ships
and burning of houses at Sinope—the incendiary
destruction of peaceable villages on the Danube—the
sound of these things ia the noise of the Cossack
knocking at our own door.

la Ischia and Asia Mioor the Russian soldiers ;
and sailors are playing on a grand scale the pert that
usedoto be played in Ireland by peep-of-day boys,
K ipparees, and other sanguinary, rapacious, skulking i
outlaws. They are not waging war as it is I
waged by generous and civilised nations : tbey
are committing burglaries, assassinations, arson.
The great chief of the robber horde is
boasting that he will not now agree to a pence
unless 'furkey makes great concessions, as a Roman
or Apulian brigand sends word to the frieads of his
captive that unless a large ransom is paid he will
pet them to death by peculiar torments. And in
the face of these horrors we are told the " nego-
tiations on the peace project have commenced" at
Constantinople. If this be true—if the two great
Western Governments have again obliged their luck-
less ally to go through the farce of negotiating with
lawless marauders, who have not the decency to in-
termit their atrocities while they parley—remon-
strance is in vain. To our owe Government, in
particular, it may be said they have made
their choice with their eyes open; they know
how matters stand between Russia and Turkey,
how the interests and honour of this country are
thereby affected, what the national feeling is. They
will of course follow their own devices: it were
sheer waste of time to persist longer in attempts to
rouse their puny spin's, or teach them the duty'
they are scandalously neglecting. The day of reck-
oning will come when Parliament meets ; or if not
then, as soon as the real voice of the people is beard
in Parliament. The duty of Ministers is too plain to
admit of their shuffling off responsibility by any
equivocation or fallacy. It is clear that the peace
and liberties of Europe alike demand that the pro-
gress of Russia should be checked. It is equally
clear what it is that encourages Russia in its rapa-
city and arrogance. The traditions of Pultowa and
Moscow have inspired the Russian Government
with the belief that they arc beyond the rev+ of a
foreign foe. They count upon being able, after
having wrought all the destruction, plunder, and
havoc they have a mind to in neighbouricg territories,

to take refuge, if they find themselves in danger of
being worsted, in their wide and thinly-peopled
country. They imagine they are as secure against
invaders as the people of the Ch,ittd States. They
are utterly mistaken. It would indeed be vain for
any Power to dream of conquering and holding the
Americans in bondage ; but this is nut merely because
the extent of territory and the scantiness of popu-
lation would enable the inhabitants to evade
it; it is much more owing to the circum-
stance that the American State or Government is
identical with the people ; that though New York,
or New Orleans, or Washington, were to fall, where.
ever American citizens remained there would be an
enterprising, wealth-accumulating community, effi-
cient government, self-recruiting armies.
The American people or State is all heart
and all head, vital in every part, incapable of
receiving lethal wound. Not so the Russian State,
which consists of government employes alone;
for the great mass of the people is an inert mass.
The depots of Russian wealth are few and
all upon or near the seaboard : the mach:-
nary of Russian Government is concentrated
in St. Petersburg and Moscow. With Rigs,
Odense, and some halt-dozen of other towns, block-
' sded or captured, and with St. Petersburg and
Moscow in the hands of an enemy, the whole State
machine would stop of itself, the population of
Russia would resolve itself into a heap of isolated,
poor, anarchical hordes. And fleets and armies, to
equip and maintain which would he a trifling effort
for France, England, and Turkey, would find easy
access to these vital parts—on the north by the
Baltic, the Gulf of Finland, the Neva, and Lake
Ladoga ; on the south by the Black Sea and the Sea of
Azoff. Russia can and ought to be made to feel that
after ravaging the territories of its neighbours, she
is not to be allowed to escape to its den and there
lurk in safety till another opportunity of renewing
its outrage' presents itself.

PARLIAMENT is to meet on the 31st of January.
A proclamation to that effect, we learn from the
Court Circular, was ordered at yesterday's meeting
of the Privy Council. The day of explanations
approaches. Lord ABERDEEN will have to explain
(if he can) his policy in regard to the Eastern ques-
tion. Lord PALMF.USION will have the double task
of explaining at the same time why he went out
and why he came in again. Lord Jons RUSSELL
will have to explain whether his Reform measure
is to be produced, and if not, why not. And after
these noble lords, and such of their colleagues as
may think it necessary to speak, Lave had
their say, it may appear whether there
is among themselves, or between them and a ma-
jority of the Commons such a unity of sentiment and
such reciprocal confidence as will enable them to,
keep their places. It is indeed affirmed in credible
quarters that this question has already been solved—
it might be too much to say "to the satisfaction "
of the parties moat immediately concerned—in some-
thing very like a negative. If this be the case, it is
to be hoped that the really Liberal members of the
moribund Coalition will take care so to dissolve the
partnership as to keep themselves right with the coon-
try on the two card inal points of Parliamentary Reform
at home and resistance to despotism abroad. There are
in fact only two phases of the same question, whether
an effete aristocratical influence, by refusing to open
its ranks to recruits from the energetic, intelligent,
and aspiring among the people, is to continue to
dawdle instead of governing—obstructing or inef-
fectively trying to promote necessary reforms in our
domestic institutions—sinking or ineffectively
attempting to keep afloat our old reputation among
the nations of the world. The various sections of
the exclusive caste which has for centuries
ruled this country are now so equally balanced
in their incapacity, that unless one or other of them
honestly ally it self to the people, and by so improv-
ing the constitution of the representative Legislature
as to admit of the people's voice being heard in it with
effect, render the admission of new and able men to a
participation in Administrative Government possible,
the machine may shortly stop of itself.
The only chance for the present Ministry, or for
any portion of them, rests on their practical admis-
sion of the fact that the House of Commons must be
made to reflect more literally than heretofore the
sentiments of the people. If they, or the
best section of them, are content to trust the
good sense of the bulk of their countrymen, they may
either continue in place, or, if put out, may hereafter
return to office with new and greatly increased power.
But the only real source of new legislative vigour is
in the people. The cliques of the governing party
are too narrow for the times we live in. That " flood
of democracy" which was Lord DERBY'S horror, and
which Stems to be Lord PALMERSTON'S dread,—that
" public" which does England's work and wins
England's wealth, must be permitted to have its
fair and honest share of Parliamentary representa-
tion. In short, the Cabinet has but one chance of
national support, and that chance consists in the
production of a rational and honest measure for the
improvement of the representation of the people in
the House of Commons. For the Cabinet to go out
of Downing•street upon such a measure would give
them a position in the country they could in no other
way hope to secure. " Reform" and " Progress" may
be taken to be synonymous terms—progress meaning
the cultivation of all those civilising influences to
which reactionary despotisms like Russia are the
great antagonists. Let us, therefore, have on the
opening of Parliament at least such a scheme of Re-
form as shall redeem the pledges on that be-
half of Lord JOHN RUS,ELL and the Cabi-
net of which he is a member; and let us find in
that scheme such a measure of justice to the people
as shall offer &practical compensation for Ministerial
shortcomings in other respects. The Ministry that
offers to revivify the House of Commons by
strengthening the popular party within its walls
will be the ono to deserve and to receive the support
of the best and largest section of the whole commu•
nity.

MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.

-

Yeaterday at the Privy Council held at Windsor
Parliament was ordered to be further prorogued
from the 3rd of January until Tuesday, the Stet of
January, 184, and a proclamation waa issued sum-
moning Parliament to meet on that day " for the
despatch of public business."

SABBATH AND RAGGED SCHOOL BENEVOLENT
SOCIETY.—Mr. Henry Vincent delivered a lecture last
night en the School.room,Cowper•street, in aid of the futile
of the above society, Mr. T. Challis occupying the chair.
The subject of the lecture was on " The Progressive Ten
dencies of the Age." The first greet agent in developing
the work of civilisation, raid Mr. Vincent, was industry
fur with the advance of industry the vilifies of the feudal
lord decreased, whilst the busy hives of labour increased As
the necessary result of labour, first the rude waggon, then
the coach, and, lastly, the railway and the stiamship
were successively invented in order to exchange the pro-
duets of that labour. As industry was the great agent in
developing the material interests of man, so the pct.'s was
the great agent in opening up his spiritual and intellectual
faculties. Before the inflation of printing the spiritual
power was completely monopolieed by a cute, and if the
printing press had done nothing else than to give them the
Bible as it was, leaving it to tell its own tale, it would have
conferred incalculable benefit on mankind. Public meet-
ings, the diffusion of Itnuwle•lg •. arid free induetry natu-
rally succeeded, leaving to he sail acc,.mplished the nohlest
work of all—the oriral and It.•! swim reFeneratiln of the
people. Mr. Vincent illustrated his text with a happy va-
riety of historical references, and with a warm colouring of
language, which drew forth treTaent applause from his lie-
tenon.