The Sun.
London, England, 1855-06-04 00:00:00

question which had just been put by the honour-
able member for Finsbury, an inference had been
sought to be raised that it was inconvenient to discuss
the amendment of the hon. member for Kidderminster,

seeing that the Vienna Conference was closed. For
one, he (Mr. Gibson) was not responsible for the amend-
ment of the hon. gentleman ; and, if he Tressed it upon
the house, he thought, for various raisons, the house

ought not to agree to it. After the lengthened discussion
that took place on the motion of the right hon. member for
Bucks, and the amendment of the right hon, member for
Portsmouth, it was not, sincerely speaking, without some
regret that in consequence of the alteration which the
hon. member for Kidderminster proposed to introduce,
he felt it to be his duty to adjourn the further considera-

tion of his amendment. He did not assent to that

which the hon. gentlemen proposed, as he believed it
involved considerations of great magnitude, and thought
_ _ .

it moreover most undesirable that the house should be

asked precipitately either to adopt or reject. The pre-
vious debate was a party debate. The right hon. mem-
ber for Bucks had asked the house to pass a vote of cen•

sure virtually on the Government, in consequence of its
ambiguous language and uncertain conduct on the
gnat question of peace or war. The member for
Portsmouth undertook the defence of Ministers
and moved what he must say, considering the occasion,

was a very feeble amendment. (Hear, hear.) But he
listened to the speeches of the leader of the Opposition
and the Government party, and he must say, although
he found them both agree on the subject of the prolon-
gation of the war, he had great difficulty in discovering
that either was in possession of any definite views as to the
ultimate objects of the war. It appeared to him that
the objects of both parties was analogous to what was
cleverly said of two celebrated literary Reviews, that they
were "two opposition conveyances, both raining a great

dust, but both travelling the same road and to
wards the same destination. (Rear, hear.) But

he should not be doing justice to his own
opinions if he did not say that there were views enun-
ciated in the speech of the right hon. member for Bucks
which did not entirely exclude all hope of an early and
satisfactory peace as compared with the announcements
contained in the speeches of the Government, which
indicated a policy that would lead them to a
war of thirty years' duration. (Hear, hear.) The
hon. gentleman then proceeded to read the amend-
ment of the hon. member for Kidderminster, who he
said professed to be the mouthpiece of the so-called, war
party, contending that, after all, the hon. gentleman
scarcely represented the expressed sentiments of that
party in the terms of his amendment. But, he continued,
was the house prepared to agree to the proposition
of the hon. gentleman which pledged the house to the
principle of thedimitition of the maritime force of Russia
as the only sine qua non of peace. Lord Palmerston said
that he would agree to the first part of the hon. gentle-
man's amendment, but that he should object to the latter
portion as interfering with the prerogative of the Crown.
Now he (Mr. Gibson) thought a doctrine of that sort
ought to be received with great caution, as the preroga-
tive of the Crown was exercised under the advice of its
Ministers. He could not agree to this doctrine himself,
and he would advise the house not to give way to it.
He brought forward a motion converse to that of the
hon. member for Kidderminster during the existence
of the Conferences, the withdrawal of which had
subjected him to the charge of having entered
into some intrigue for party purposes to avoid a
discussion on the subject ; but he begged to
state that the responsibility of withdrawing that motion
rested with himself, never having had any communica-
tion with the Government respecting it, and because he
thought that by so doing there would be some risk of
his injuring that cause he was professing to support, and
therefore his sole object in not going on with it was that he
conscientiously believed he would be injuring the cause
of peace. He viewed this war to be a war in support
of a political theory, which he took to be that the rule
of the Sultan in that particular part of Europe where
he now exercises his power as a political neces-
city, and that this country was bound to de-
fend him against his enemies, and which
was totally apart from the consideration of the question
whether Russia was right or wrong in the commence-
ment of hostilities, and which, if they adopted, they
came to the conclusion the Tiik could do no wrong.
(Hear.) He was not strongly impressed with
the faith of that necessity, and• without de-
parting from the soundness of that theory,
on which the war was undoubtedly placed, he would say
that he thought the theory of always supporting Turkey
against all enemies, and that they meant from, all time
to support the rule of the Sultan in those dominions
would have the effect of alienating from them the
sympathy of the whole of the. Greek Christian
population of that country, and drive them into the arms
of Russia, and the allie, and of enervating the Turkish
Government, and removing it from the obligation of
attending to those duties of good government, and
the necessity of producing contentment amongst
the people, which was the only way, in fact,
of forming a peac3 upon which the strength and
independence of Turkey would permanently rest.
(Hear, bear, and cheers.) The honourable gentleman
then referred to the statements made in that
house by the honourable member for Aylesbury
and other members, that the war was caused
by hen. members sitting on that side of the house pro-
ducing an impression that the people of England were
averse to the war, which he said was not the, fact, and
adverted to the statements which had appeared in the
public prints as being the most likely cause, and
asked the noble lord at the head of the Go-
vernment if he had not himself advocated peace notions,
which he found on a correspondence bearing the name of
Mr. Addington, which had emanated from the Foreign-
office, from which it would appear an engagement had
been entered into by the noble lord with.M. Wikoff to
represent to the world that the policy of the British
Government was liberal, but especially - pacific—thereby
producing an impression throughout Europe that Eng-
land was disinclined to engage in war, and would not
defend Turkey. The noble lord the member for London,
in order to distract their attention, stated in his speech
before the recess that when Turkey was secure we ought
to have no hesitation in making peace with Rus-
sia, so that he would have us believe the
war was carried on for Turkey alone. He
Iwas surprised to have read what passed in another
place, uttered by the Foreign Secretary, upon the sub-
ject, that while Europe was really standing upon a mine
the influence of Russia was extending, her railroads were
increasing, and her interests progressing. Now he be-
lieved that this country was interested in Russia carry-
ing out her railways, as the brotherhood of nations re-
quired it. Why then were they to be frightened by the
statement that Russia Ts as able to overbear all Europe, he
believed that Russia had no such intention, because he
had invariably noticed that when Russia came to the
west and interfered with that part of Europe it had
always been in consequence of an invitation that she
had done so. Had not this country requested
Russia to bring her arms here to prevent French
invasion, and had not France upon several
occasions sought her assistance also ? The truth was,
and it must be told, that Russia had never forced her
alliance upon unwilling Government 4, but had been
drawn into all she had done by the solicitations of the
Western Powers. No man had praised the policy of the
late Emperor of Russia more than the noble lord at the
head of the Government ; and was it to be permitted
now that he should come down and discard all he had
said before ? The noble lord the Secretary for Foreign
Affairs bad adopted a similar course. It was clear that
neither party believed the rumours that had been spread
far and wide, that it was the interest of Russia to extend
her territory to Turkey, and it was too bad to frighten
the country with such idle notions as had been put forth
as to the intentions of Russia. Then, with respect to
Poland, he thought the noble lord at the head of the
Government ought not to holdout any hope to the Poles,
or to allow misunderstandings to be circulated, be-
cause it was clear that this country could do
nothing for her at the present moment at least,
because if the Western Powers were to reconstruct
Poland, they would be bound to preserve her inviola-
bility, which they could not do. A celebrated Pole had
said, that the reconstruction of Poland and the regene-
ration of Turkey were events far distant. He believed
them to be so ; but Russia, in his opinion, was
not to be blamed for that, but Turkey herself.
The noble lord said he did not wish to diminish the cha-
racter of Russia, and it had been repeatedly said that
they were proposing no jurisdiction for Russia. But
how did they reconcile that with the demand that Russia
should only keep a certain number of ships in her porte.
The noble lord said we should still leave Russia
a great power ; but he (Hr. Gibson) could not
understand the doctrine of two great countries not pro-
posing - to disarm themselves going to a third great
power and saying that it was consistent with its honour
that the two countries in question should decide what
should be the amount of her maritime force. He thought
the proposition was puerile, but insisting 'upon it
as a sine qua non was placing a great war
upon a foundation as narrow and unworthy as it was
unheard of in history. But the noble lord did not go to
Vienna to negotiate—he went to decline an ultimatum.
To negotiate, implied to treat on both sides, to give
and take, in order to settle some common ground.
(Hear, hear.) But the noble lord's instructions were
t_eoxbdaeon_st_needot,uhsaienndg of the kind ; he went there with
something to be agreed to or rejected ; or that when
toe accede, he said his instructions were
proposed
by
the
litusdeliedenpoleteispteoreettoiacroyn.sider the plans
(LEB'T BPEAKIN(.)