The Sun.
London, England, 1854-02-01 00:00:00

Majesty's Government, but he would state that her Ma -
jesty had endeavoured, in conjunction with her allies,
to prederve and 'restore peace," and that she would
persevere in her efforts to accomplish that object. I
think, however, by the by, that before peace can be
preserved it should be restored. However, a state of
warfare has ensued from the failure of our negotiations. A
state of warfare has been proved. Are we engaged in that
war? (Hear, hear.) Are we partisans ? Are we carrying
on war openly, or ate we doing that which has a tendency
to war in an underhand and deceitful manner ? Ido
not mean to say that there is anything intentionally
deceitful ; but what are we doing at this moment ? I con-
fess I know not. Perhaps when the papers which the noble
earl has informd us it is his intention to lay on the table of
the house are presented we shall then at least be able to
know what is the treaty under which we are bound; and
we shall then know what orders have been given, and whe-
ther they have been given in the most distinct and formal
manner by the Government here to the admiral command-
ing the squadron in the Bosphorus or the Black Sea. I
shall rejoice to see what it is that we are, and what it is
that we are not doing. We are told in the speech that, we
are endeavouring to preserve and restore peace, but at the
same time we are sending an uncivil message to one of the
belligerents, and also, as yet one of her allies, telling him
that if his vessels of war should leave Sebastopol we
should consider that an act of hostility, and should in-
sist on his confining them to his port. But while such is
our conduct towards one of the belligerents, what, on
the other hand, are we doing towards the other belli-
gerent? ...km wo confining his fleet to his port, and
placing 'him under the same compulsory armistice ? Is
it not a fact that while we are calling upon Russia
to eonfme her vessels to her own port, we are at the
same time convoying the Turkish fleet with ammunition
and provisions of war to a distant port for the pur-
pose of enabling them mose effectually to carry on
the war. I don't mean to say that even if we
are doing all this—if we are giving that ample encourage-
ment and assistance to Turkey—we are acting in a manner
discreditable to this country; but what I do say is, that ,
• if we are giving that asistance by convoying the fleet of one
party, while we are, whatever you may call it, virtually
engaged in war—a description of war which, with all the
risks, all tho difficulties, and all the dangers which must
ever attend war, is undoubtedly accompanied with greater
risks, difficulties, and dangers than an open declaration of
war itself would iswur. I do not blame her Majesty's
Government for having used their best efforts to preserve
peace and prevent the calamity of war. There is no
man, not even the noble earl himself, who looks with
more apprehension and horror at war than I do. I
mean that apprehension which every man must feel
when contemplating the troubles arising from a state
of warfare, and when reflecting that war must ever be
accompanied with great calamities to the human race. I
do not, therefore, complain at the Government having
tried to avert war, but Ido complain—as far as my infor-
mation goes (and I should be convinced by a perusal of the
papers, one way or the other)—that the means taken by
her Majesty's Government were not the only or the best
means to effect their object, but that they were the means
best calculated inevitably to thwart it. (Cheers from the
Opposition.) The noble earl has said that it is not desir-
able that this country should adopt the language or assume
the attitude of. suspicion towards Russia. My lords, if
there is any country towards whom it is desirable that Eng-
land should not adopt an attitude attended with suspicion,
that very country is Russia. But, on the other hand,
there is no country in the world with whom, while we
should not conduct our policy with suspicion, it is more es-
sential that we should deal with a frank, open, and lucid
declaration of that which we will allow, and of that which
we will not allow ; of that which we intend to do, and of
that which we will not allow to be done. Then would
the ambitious and aggressive spirit of Russia be met by
the vigour of England's resistance. The whole policy of
Russia for the last 150 years has been a policy of gradual
aggression. It has at one time been by mediation, then
by offering assistance to whatever party would accept it,
then by .tendering to that party its protection till she had
one by one got all these states under its influence and
finally absorb them into one gigantic empire. It is in that
way Russia has succeeded in becoming the power she is.
That has been the one course which Russia has invariably
pursued. But your lordships wUI observe that, although
she has pursued this steady course for 150 years, although
from time to time she has desisted from her pursuit when
she felt she should be defeated in her object, yet she has
never carried this scheme into effect when she was certain
of meeting opposition from this country. Therefore, giv-
ing all due credit for the moderation and sagacity which
the Emperor has displayed, and the fairness which he has
exhibited in the course of the last few years—admitting
the prudence with which be has confined himself within
the limits of his empire, and extending to him all the
merit that may be his due for that policy, the object of
which is what he calls the maintenance of order—still, my
lords, I cannot but feel, notwithstanding that moderation
and that prudence which have been exhibited, that, such '
being the policy of Russia, the mode in which she should
be treated by this country is not by petty acts of
diplomacy here or there; but it is by a frank, and at
the same time a firm, a temperate, and a friendly decla-
ration of that point, beyond which it is desirable she
should not go, and beyond which it is impossible
consistently with the honour of England and the character
of the country, that Russia should be permitted to go. I
think the Emperor of Russia has great. cause of complaint.
(Hear.) I think her Majesty's Government has deceived
and deluded him with regard to the course he might have
expected them to pursue. I don't say that this has been
intentionally done by her Majesty's Government. I pass
over what my noble friend behind me has said ; neverthe-
less there was a great deal of truth in it ; for an effect must
have been produced in the mind of the Emperor of Russia,
in the course of the last year, by the constant, the inces-
sant denunciations of a portion of the press encouraged by
the peculiar favours of the noble earl. (A laugh by the
Earl of Aberdeen.) If the noble earl says no, I will show
why I fear it is so. I ani far from desiring to affix to any
political party all the expressions or all the errors that
might be used or coennitted by the newspapers which
generally support the policy of that party; but, my lords,
I must draw an exception when I find one peculiar news-
paper is intrusted by her Majesty's Government with a let-
ter—with an important paper which one fortnight before
that Government had refused to lay before Parliament
on the ground that there was public danger in producing
such a document. When, too, I find that same news-
paper, upon a most extraordinary and remarkable occa-
sion, announcing the fact, not only unknown to his col-
leagues, but unknown even to his Sovereign, of the
resignation of office by one of the most important mem-
bers of the Cabinet—when I find, not only the announce-
ment of that fact before its coming to the knowledge
of his colleagues, and even before its coming to the
knowledge of his Sovereign, but that same newspaper
proceeds to discuss the Cabinet secrets, and the grounds of
difference between the members of the same Cabinet—
when I find that newspaper loading the Minister whose
resignation it had announced with vituperation, supported
by references to papers which must have been regularly
prepared before his resignation was absolutely completed
—and when I find that same paper, when it was discovered
that the place of that Minister could not be filled up
within ten days, afterwards congratulating the Govern-
ment on retaining among them that able Minister, on rid-
dance from whom it had equally congratulated them a few
days before—l say. my lords, when I find such essentially
important communications, which could only proceed from
the Cabinet itself, I cannot hold the noble lord wholly
irreponsible for the language adopted by that newspaper.
I said that those communications could only have proceeded
from the Cabinet itself, and in saying so I was referring,
first to a despatch which was in the possession of the noble
earl the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and in the
next place I was referring to the statement of the g rounds of
difference between that noble lord and other members of
the Cabinet. I repeat, my lords, that when I find that
statement made at the very earliest moment, and before
it was known to those most deeply concerned, I cannot
hold her Majesty's Government to be altogether
free from responsibility for the language of a newspaper
which undoubtedly and unequivocally enjoys a large por-
tion of their confidence. But suppose her Majesty's Go-
vernment bore no responsibility for the language used by
that nowspaper—yet when foreign Governments see these
things, and see official documents published in that paper
while the Government had actually refused to lay them
before Parliament, will not these foreign Governments
think that the language adopted by such a newspaper has
the sanction of the Government of this country ? The
paper I allude to seems to be engaged in exhausting every
effort to prove Turkey as a nation effete, and that the in-
tegrity of its dominions is a fit and proper subject for ridi-
cule. The noble earl had given out as his determination
that nothing should induce him to enter into a war, that
nothing was so distasteful to him as the mere thought of a
war ; at least, if this were not so, the party of the noble
earl had mach misrepresented him. If these, however,
were the sentiments of the noble earl upon this subject,
expressed not only by his followers, but encouraged
by himself, surely the Emperor of Russia had every
reason to believe that the noble earl, first of all, would
not go to war at all ; and, secondly, even if he did
BO that he would not at least go to war with Russia.
The whole conduct of the Government in the matter
seemed to be vacillating and unsteady; at one moment
there was a threat—in the next an atonement ; and even
it an offensive act were hazarded, it was accompanied by
so evident a weakness of intention as rendered it ineffec-
tive. All these matters but prove to my mind the exist-
ence of a fusion or confusion in the cabinet no less unac-
countable than to be deplored. It seems as if the noble
earl had some personal spell . upon him, him from taking which prevented
course which might have effectually
checked all the evils
far had arisen ; and therefore the
Emperor of Russia, as which
as
consider
Government were con-
cerned, had a perfect right tin oige der that, in relation to
his asreesion upon Turkey,
British Government
would put forth no active interference.
I do not intend
to dwell further upon this but
who
thelp saying
that it appears to me that those
rs
disrespect, haveand treated
Turkey with such unwarrantable
have re-
garded her empire as weak and feeble, must be s
surprised at the noble and manly part which she Csetwaken
hat
in the late struggles. To see her hemmed in and threat-
ened
by any enemy greatly superior in numerical force, sup-
ported by allies at least of questionable sincerity, anti
ready to make any sacrifice but that of honour—to see her
exhibit, as she has done, from the highest, to the lowest, a
moderation and firmness, a degree of endurance and a
power of resistance seldom equalled and rarely seen, are
some proofs of a capacity which speak volumes for the
patriotism of the nation, and are but a feeble proof of its
sinking-state. I quite concur in what has been said by a
noble lord to-night relative to this subject—namely, that
if we are really to be engages! in a war, it is now too
late to go ill-nataredly into the causes which led to it,
or to press upon the notice of the country how it could
have been avoided if more prudent measures had been
ailopted,,as they ought to have been, by her Majesty's
rtinisters. We' must look to the war itself, and, pro-
;hied the objet of it be laudable, and the cause worth
fighting for, we must enter upon the contest with our
might, and, 'instead of giving way to party feelinge and
party prejudices, devote all our energies to strengthen her
Majesty'e bands, and maintain and carry out our work in
a manner and a spirit Worthy of our reputation and name.
(Loud cheers.) If we are once embarked in the war, our
prinoipal deliberation must then be, how best to carry it
out to a speedy and successful termination, so as to avoid
'—'on tlirone lailhd the unspeakable horrors which accompany
the in& "vitahle calamities which must attend it. (Hear,
A''
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