The Sun.
London, England, 1854-02-20 00:00:00

BOARD OF HEALTH.

Mr. COLLIER wished to ask the Secretary for the
Home Department, whether the Government intend to
propose any alterations in the Health of Towns Act.
Sir W. MOLESWORTH said the Act of Parliament
constituting the Board of Health would expire at the end
of the present session, and therefore it would be necessary
fur him to bring in a bill to reconstruct the board, and in
that measure various improvements would be made iu the
constitution of the board.
GLASGOW POST-OFFICE.

I Mr. J. MACGREGOR asked the cause of the delay in
completing the Post-office at Glasgow ?
Mr. WILSON replied, the delay was chiefly attributable
to the people of Glasgow themselves, but the works would
be speedily resumed.
ADJOURNED DEBATE —THE WAR QUESTION.
On the order of the day to resume the adjourned debate
on Mr. L-IYARD'S motion respecting our relations with
Russia,
Mr. COBDEN rose and said, it was because, even after
the speech of the noble lord (Lord J. Russell) on Friday
night, which sounded to him (Mr. Cobden) like the war
blast before the crash of arms, he was still at a loss to make
out exactly our position. We had been now so excited by
the aggression of Russia upon Turkey, that we looked upon
it as an affront to ourselves, and so had nearly forgotten the
origin of this miserable quarrel. It should be borne in mind
that in 1851 a gentleman, M. Levallette, presented himself
at Constantinople, and shocked us by the " en, rgetic"
way in which he insisted upon the restoration of the Holy
Places, almost as rudely as Prince Meuschikoff did after-
• wards. That gentleman (M. Lavallette) represented the
• Republic of France, and he it was who first disturbed the
stratus ciao about the Holy Places. We were told that, in the
ceso of France, it was true she most handsomely withdrew
' her (lemand. (Hear, hear.) Bat still, it must be remem-
bered, that it was France that first disturbed the states
quo. It was heart-sickening to find that, after 700 or
8)0 years of Christianity, we were going to fight —the
world was going to be deluged in blood, not for Christian.
ity but for Mehommedanism. (Cries of " Oh.") The
hen, member read a proclamation from the Sultan, and a
counter-proclamation from Russia, about the guarantee
for the Holy Places. The Porte refused to give a
special, but agreed to give a general, guarantee on
this subject, and the four Powers then drew up
a note with this object, which was approved by the
nglish and French Governments, and accepted by
the Emperor of Russia, but refused by Turkey, and words
bearing an interpretation different from those previously
agreed to by Turkey proposed to be inserted in the note.
That being the history of the matter, the practical ques-
tion we have before us was, was it wise or prudent that
Turkey should have been advised not to sign
that note ? What did Russia want ? An oppor-
tunity of interfering in Turkey when she chose, pre-
cisely as wo did with Brazil, when we endeavoured to
make her respect her own treaties. It had been said we
were endeavouring to sustain the independence of Turkey;
but the question was, had Turkey any real independence;
and it cause to this—that we were going to deluge Europe
with blood on an infinitessitual ground of quarrel.
If Turkey were a country with a population all highly
civilised— if a similar thing occurred for instance with re-
gard to Prussia, and after helping Prussia to get rid of
her oppressors, we could then leave her to her own excel-
lent 0,, vern ;neut. But was that the case with Turkey ? lle
said, whether it came from _Russia or from England, the
Christian population of Turkey were looking for aid against
their own Government. He (Mr. Cohen) at the close of last
session, when this subject wss incidentally brought for-
ward, stated to the house what was now made clear, that
it was the condition of the Christian population of Turkey
formed the main feature of this quarrel. Lord Stratford
had left Constantinople last year not expecting to go back
to it, and he was then entertained at a dinner by
the British residents, and he made a speech there.
Lord Stratford was, however, specially re-appointed to
Constantinople, and he (Mr. Cobden) would read to the
house an extract from Lord Clarendon's despatch to Lord
Stratford, in which he was instructed to make strong re-
monstrances with the Sultan and his Government on the
reckless mal-administration of the Turkish empire as re-
garded the Christian population. On June Lord Claren-
don again wrote to Lord Stratford telling him to re-
monstrate with the Porte against the inferiority of
the position of the Christian population, inasmuch as their
evidence would not be recei-eed in the Turkish Courts of
Law. Lord Clarendon further instructed Lord Stratford
to urge upon the Porte that such a state of things " could
no longer be tolerated by Christian Powers. Now he (Mr.
Cobden) asked what good came of an alliance between two
governments, where the one asks the other to abandon the
dictates of the Koran—which entered into the civil law as
well as into the religious observances of the Turkish people.
About that very time Lord Stratford had very properly
caused inquiries to be made, through our consuls in
Turkey, as to the state of the Christian population. Lord
Stratford got a great number of these reports, which he (Mr.
Cobden) W3B sorry to find so garbled in the blue-books.
Those reports Lord Stratford submitted to the Turkish
Government, and he wrote twice to that Government
afterwards, pressing upon them again and again the
cruelties exercised towards the Christian population.
(Hear, hear.) He (Mr. Cobden) said when he
alluded last session to the state of Turkey, the noble
lord the member for Tiverton (Lord Palmerston) made
a declaration to this effect—" I assert, without fear of con-
tradiction, that Turkey so far from having gone back dur-
ing the last 30 years, has made more improvement in every
possible way than perhaps was ever made by any other
country during the same period." (Hear, hear.) Now,
he (Mr. Cobden) asked if the noble lord was still of that
opinion, and if he was, upon what intelligible grounds
he founded it—for certainly those reports of our
own consuls in Turkey, and the language used by Lord
Clarendon in his despatches to Lord Stratford, told a very
different tale. (Hear.) We were asked to form an alli-
ance with Turkey, or to use a commercial phrase, to go
into partnership with her, and he maintained that it was
the more necessary we should inquire into her present con-
dition and future prospects. It might perhaps be said
that the discontent of the Christians in Turkey was stirred
up by neighbouring countries ; but it appeared to him
that the sufferings and wrongs of the Christians in Turkey
were so great that they must explode, and we might expect
to hear oan insurrection among them. Ha (Mr. Coben) did
not mean to disparage the Turk because. he was of .a
different religion from himself, but he maintained that
the majority of the population of Turkey were themselves
Christians ; and they might depend upon it, if Tur-
key was invaded by Russia, and those consular
documents and ambassadorial despatches be true, we might
eels.' 20,000, or :'O,OOO, or 50,000 troops there, it would he
in vain for us, with the great body of the people of Turkey
;';4 host us. Lie hoped, at events, that the troops we wore
going to semi to Turkey would not he employed in settling
an internal dispute in that country. but that we would
carry out the non-intervention principle in that respct, at
all events.

(LEFT FiPEAKINC.)

C0171?T OF QUEEN'S BENCH--THIS DAY.

(Continued from our First Edition.)
LUMLEY V. G YE.
The remainder of the day was occupied with the exa-
mination. of witnesses, and the cue Ha, adjourned till
to-inorrow.