Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-02-09 00:00:00

I'ALMERSTON ON MARITIME WAR,

1856 AND 1860.

The Kerning Star confronts Lord Palmerston with
himself in the following extracts from speeches delivered
three years asunder. His lordship is still capable of
rapid growth. 1

Lord Palmerston (Feb. Lord Palmerston (at Li-
3, 1860) said he would not verpool, Nov. 7, 1856) : I
flatter the deputation by pro- cannot help hoping that
fessing to agree with them. these relaxations of former
He considered that the very doctrines, which were esta-
existence of this country blished at the beginning of
depended on its possessing the war, practised during
the command of the seas, its continuance, and which
and that it was necessary have since been ratified by
for that object to retain the formal engagements, may,
power of seizing the ships, perhaps, be still further
and especially the seamen extonded ; and that, in the
navigating the ships of course of time, those prin-
foreign powers. War was ciples of war which are ap-
an enormous evil, but still plied to hostilities by land
it was sometimes necessary may be extended without
to go to war in self-defence; exception to hostilities by
and a naval power like Eng- sea, so that private property
land ought not to surrender may no longer be the object
any means of weakening of aggression on either side.
her enemies at sea. If we If we look at the example
did not seize their seamen of former periods we shall
on board their merchant not find that any powerful
vessels, we should have to country was ever vanquish-
fight them on board their ed by losses sustained by
ships of war. He denied individuals. It is the con-
that private property was flicts of armies by land and
spared in war on land any fleets by sea that decide the
more than in war at sea. • great contests of nations.

On the contrary, armies in
rights of property,
as we should find to our cost if a hostile army should
enemy'swanithout thecosulingtptes' took whatever wgarhadtetvoertthbeey wanted or desired
ever succeed in landing in this country.

LORD DERBY'S WARNING TO THE
FRENCH EMPEROR.

The following warning words to the French Emperor,
which possess a deep significance at the present con-
juncture, form the conclusion of Lord Derby's ad-
mirable address in the House of Lords, on Tuesday
night, in the debate on Lord Normaaby's motion, for
an address to Her Majesty, protesting against the
annexation of Savoy and Nice-to France, and praying
her Majesty to direct her Government to use their best
endeavours to prevent the transfer of those territories
to France:— '

You are aware, my lords, that by a special treaty--
the treaty of Turin—to the provisions of which. I be-
lieve, the assent of the Powers of Europe was obtained,
Switzerland and Piedmont reciprocally bound themselves,
under no circumstances, and 'upon no conditions, to cede
to any other Power the territory in question ; and Pied-
mont, having accepted that territory, not simply by way
of exchange, or with the object of promoting the peace
of Europe, but by way of affording mutual security. as
between Switzerland and herself, would, in my opinion,
be guilty not only of an interference with the general
law of Europe, but of a violation of a clear and well-
defined contract, if she were to make over to another
State that province, the maintenance of whose indepen-
dence and neutrality is the very key-stone of the
treaty, to which I allude. (Hear, hear.) lam not
however, prepared to attribute to Sardinia conduct at
once so discreditable and so inconsistent with the profes-
sions which she has made. I trust, on the contrary, that
she will have the firmness to say to France—" This is a
question with respect to which I am unable to comply
with your wishes. lam bound not alone by the gen-
eral law of Europe and the treaties of 1815, but by a
i;pecific engagement which I have entered Into with
Switzerland, never to yield up to a third Power this par-
ticular territory." Could France, my lords, in opposition
to such a plea as that, by force, and without the consent of
Piedmont, take possession of Savoy ? (Hear, hear.)
If she did seize upon that province, must it not be either
byiresorting to an act of the most unscrupulous violence
—an act of which I am far from suspecting that she
would be guilty—or as the result of the base and un-
principled connivance of the Bing of Sardinia, who
would thus be despoiling his dominions of that portion
of them which furnishes its best troops to his army and
the most loyal and attached subjects to his throne ?
(Cheers.) I do not, indeed think, my lords, that the
question is.one in dealing with which it becomes this
country to, use the language of menace. lam never-
theless of opinion that it does befit England, as one of
the great Powers of Europe, and by the free expression
of the sentiments of this, the highest assembly of a free
nation, to have it placed upon record that the unani-
mous verdict of the members of that assembly is, that
such conduct on the part of France as I have described,
would be inconsistent with the due maintenance of the
treaties of 1815 (cheers),—that they deem it important,
even in the interests of France herself, that she should
do nothing to shake that confidence which it is so desi-
rable should be established throughout Europe and with-
out the establishment of which no good security for the
permanent peace of the Continent can be °afforded.
(Hear.) It is not, my lords, the armed force of France,
great as that undoubtedly is,—it is not the impoitant
fact that the great resources of that great country are
wielded by one absolute and despotic authority,—it is
not those combined circumstances which create appre-
hension. No, it is this which causes alarm,—that she
has never yet been able to succeed in inspiring Europe
with perfect confidence in the steadiness of her 'policy,
or in the pacific character of her intentions (Hear,
hear.) Let her, then, show but the slightest design
to annex to her own territory, small in extent, but
great in strategic iinportance—(hear,, hear)—let her
but exhibit the smallest indication, now that she
has so far succeeded in • expelling Austrian in-
fluence from Italy, to perpetuate her own domina-
tion in that country by means of large standing
armies—maintained I know not for what purpose—and
I speak not now of the garrison at Rome—let
her, in snort, out evince the most trifling disposition to
transfer to herself the authority which Sardinia at pre-
sent possesses over Savoy, thus securing for herself a
passage into Italy, and obtaining a resting-place whence
her armies may overrun the territories of an ally whose
dominions she has been the means of aggrandizing,—
but under such circumstances of aggrandizing, I would
say, to the danger of that ally—let France, I repeat,
my lords, but pursue such a course of policy as that,
and then, indeed, that confidence which is a plant of
slow growth, especially among nations, can hardly be
expected to be re-established between the powerful
French empire and the rest of Europe
~ which is looking
on and watching her movements, in an attitude of
anxious and suspicious hostility. (Cheers.) I must at
the same time observe, my lords, that a great opportu-
nity is now afforded to the Emperor of the French to
maintain unimpaired his character for scrupulous adhe-
rence to.the principles of good faith. (Hear, hear.)
Let hiM thent declare that he concurs with her Majesty's
Government in • the view which they take of the evils
which would be likely to flow from any infraction of
those territorial limits which have been so long estab-
lished, and that he desires the maintenance of the
balance of power and the peace of Europe. (Hear,
hear.) Let him prove to the world that he went to war
—as he declared it to be his intention to do—for the li-
beration of Italy from foreign control, and not with the
view to wield,hunself that power, the exercise of which
he condemned, in another ; let him show that he respects
England, and that right of self-government and inde-
pendent action'which we freely recognised in the case
of that mighty empire, over which he reigns by the
choice of its people; let him make it plain to Europe
that neither upon the aide of the Rhine nor the Alps
is he to be tempted by any vain idea as to what may
seem to him the natural boundaries of France, to depart
from those just principles which are far more patent than
any natural limits whatsoever (cheers) ; let him frankly
and avowedly take that course, not under menace, for
menace no nation would venture to offer him ; but acting
on the friendly representations of a country, with which
it is his boast that-he is
-on terms of close intimacy and al-
liance, whose policy he declares to be identical with his own,
and with which he does nothesitate to announce that he
acts hand in hand and side by side. (Cheers.) Let him
my lords, I repeat, pursue that course ; let him proclaim
to the world that no violation of the existing bounda-
ries of Europe is to be apprehended at his hands, and
that he has given England the most solemn assurances
that, in common with her, he will proceed upon the
principle of absolute and entire non-interference with
the affairs of other countries. (Hear, hear.) If he so
acts, then, indeed, my lords, will he have nobly availed
himself of the opportunity which is now presented to
him of' reaping that best and most priceless fruit of the
victories which he has won—the establishment over the
minds of his fellow men of that moral authority which,
unlike his great military power, is only to be attained
by the observance of good faith, by scrupulous inte-
grity, and by -a strict adherence to the principles of jus-
tice and the rights of nations, (Loud cheers.)