The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-01-11 00:00:00

he will of 1

save in

mere

" ideas of PETER the GREAT hare found before
" them a regenerated Europe, drawing after it
" already the Eastern world into its principles
"of order, justice, and tolerance, by the sole
" attraction of the wonders of civilisation, and

raising aloft the Cross in the metropolis of
'' Islamism. The will of PETER the GREAT was

" from that moment accomplished." Our Author
is somewhat precipitate here. The " idea" of
PETER was, first to take possession of Constan-
tinople, and to inoorporate the whole of the
Turkish territories with the already overgrown
Russian Empire. And, although civilisation outrun
the " ideas" of those days, Russia is, nevertheless,
resolved to carry out her policy in Eastern Europe
at any cost. If we could discover less depth in
her designs, and were in doubt as to the magnitude
and the reality of her intentions, we might be
disposed to believe that she would be glad to
accept peace on any terms short of the bitterest
degradation.
But, the moment has arrived when the will of
PETER must be accomplished, or for ever aban-
doned The Cross has been raised in the Capital
of the false prophet, and with the fall of Islamism
the long cherished hopes of the CZAR must be for
ever laid aside. The struggle has not, how-
ever, assumed, as yet, the character of a
dying effort on the part of Russia. We
view her power and general resources through
precisely the same medium through which
she sees the strength and stability of Western
Europe. And, with all these errors, blunders, and
dangerous hypotheses running through political
and diplomatic minds, we must expect to hear a
good deal more than we have already of Con-
gresses of Crowned heads, peace conferences, and
mercy knows what besides. But, setting apart all
the groping, grovelling, and diplomatic specula-
tion of the day, let us make Russia's case our
own. Let us suppose that we had on the frontier
of our Eastern possessions a troublesome neigh-
bour, we had resolved to subdue; or a valuable
expanse of territory which we had determined to
subjugate and annex to our Indian Empire, and
that Russia, or any other European State, ventured
to interfere in the contest, should we abandon our
fixed purpose, and the even tenor of our way,
because we had to make war upon one, two, or
three Powers, who had thought proper to take up
the quarrel? We think not. The course we should
pursue would be to throw all our strength into
the contest, and resist all conditions of peace until
we were :fairly overpowered. This is exactly
what Russia has done and will continue to do.
Therefore, we must overpower her precisely as she
would prostrate us.

In the spring, the CZAR will tell us in very
intelligible language what he has gained by diplo.
matic pauses in war, and trifling with peace
negociations. The fall of Sebastopol gained him
a loan of 7,500,0001. from Holland, and six months
inaction in the Crimea will enable him to over-
whelm his enemies in the East in the ensuing
spring ; and, should diplomacy fail in everything
else, its triumph in these two respects will long
be spoken of with exultation by Russia, and
chaunted with delight by those who sympathise
with her cause. Meanwhile, we are informed by
our Paris correspondent, that there was great
indignation felt at Constantinople against OMER
PACHA for not having relieved Kars, and that
there was a talk of sending that hero before a
court martial, and confiscating his property !
This reads very liko a grand climax of intrigue.
OMER PACHA is the only chief upon whose honour,
energy, and genius, the Turkish nation can rely.
To remove him from his command, and openly
rob him of his property, would, indeed, be
Russian gratitude and sound Muscovite policy.
OMER PACHA will have nothing to fear, however,
from a court martial composed of anything beyond
Russian emissaries, and Turkish ribalds, maddened
at his brilliant career. OMER did all that any
general could do to relieve a besieged fortress.
He selected Redout Kaleh as a place of debarca-
tion, as from that point he was enabled to march
against the enemy's reserves, outflank MOURAVIEFF
on his extreme left, and, at the same time, cut off
all his communications with Gumri. That he did
attack the enemy's reserves, and rout them, and
advanced within a few miles of Kutais, and
threatened both the flank and rear of the besieging
army, is certain. And, if that was not relieving
Kars, we do not know what was. Had he marched
direct for Kars, he would have left a strong army
on the Ingour to have harassed his flank, and
presently to have taken up a strong position on his
rear, when, indeed, he might have been charged
with want of generalship and ordinary military
foresight. But, as it is, we hope to hear no more
of Oriental scheming, Greek treachery, and
Russian intrigue with regard to the conduct of that
really great man. His past career gives him an
indelible claim on the gratitude of the French and
English nations, and his future services may be
required when lofty genius, untiring energy, and
great military experience, alone can wrest the
Ottoman Empire from the grasp of Russia, or an
Austrian army of occupation.