The Sun.
London, England, 1853-10-06 00:00:00

matter appear to be settled th :t presented
herself with her demands, - ids she sup-
ported by formidable inh ions on her
frontier. Austria claimed ; they too
were granted ; and then cam i and totally
unprepared-for visit at Coi 'rince Men-
schikoff, with his numeroi in, and the
concentration of an enorre, lastopol. In
the first instance those dei be wholly
connected with the shrine in reality
put forth insidiously to hid, real inten-
tions. The demands made t spirit sim-
ply the same as if the Frei .e to insist
upon taking under his pJ tole of the
Roman Catholics in the BY use he was
at the head of the Roman ,n France. (Hear,
hear.) In a case of that sort, what would be the answer
of England? Why, the answer would be, that whilst—
as was the fact in Turkey—we extended perfect religious
liberty to our fellow-citizens Who were Roman Catholics,
no power on earth should interfere in matters which con-
cerned only the Government of the Queen and her peo-
ple. (Loud cheers.) What was the real object of
Russia ? It was notorious that she had kept the attain-
ment of that object in view for centuries. For centuries
she had had her eye fixed steadily on Constantinople,
ancl.had always intended to seize it. And it was a mat-
Ter of paramount importance to the civilised nations of
k ti
Europe, that ' e never should be permitted t0,,A0. so.
(Cheers.) But, e c demand she had put forward was
rendered all the ore odious by the mode in which it
had been sought to be enforced. (Hear, hear.) For
some three or four months the combined fleets of France
and England had been,lying in Besika Bay awaiting the
pleasure of the Russian to be informed what out of
his infinite goodness he intended to do—waiting for his
ultimatum, it was called ! Well, but where and what
was the ultimatum of France and England ? (Cheers.)
How were they supporting their friend and ally, the
Sultan ? Why had they not done what every intelligent
Englishman without exception of party had declared
ought to have been done—why had they not made the
passage of the Pruth a casus WU ? (Loud cheers.) Ilkd
they stated at the outset that they were determined to
regard the step in that light, the Pruth would never
have been crossed. (Cheers.) In short, if a firm as
well as moderate tone had been assumed by France and
England, Russia would not have taken the course she
had done ; whereas the timid, hesitating, and paltry
course adopted had rather invited than checked her
aggressions. (Protracted cheering.) He had long en-
tertained a strong feeling that immense mischief had
been done to the moral influence of England abroad by
a society here which was known as the Peace Society.
(Laughter.) Why, the very existence of a Peace So-
ciety in England implied what was not the fact, that
the people of England desired war. (Hear, hear.) Now,
he believed it would be difficult to find a single man in
England who wished for war, unless he felt it was abso-
lutely necessary for the honour and the rights of his
country. Therefore, when a number of gentlemen took
upon themselves to form a Peace Society here, they
seemed to him to arrogate to themselves a degree of
love for peace in which they did not excel the mass
of their countrymen. (Hear, hear.) But in estimating
the weight of the influence of those good people

abroad, when foreigners came to see at their head
certain gentlemen for whose talents all entertained re-
spect, who were amongst the most eminent men in the
land, and one of whom especially had closely identified
himself with the success of the greatest alteration in our
commercial code that had been effected during any
period of our history—when these gentlemen were seen
to be associated for the promotion of a principle which
was termed "arbitration," and recommending this
country to disarm in the face of Europe armed to the
teeth, with governments here and there ever prepared
and on the look out to take advantage of some weak
neighbour—when foreigners witnessed this then, he
contended, that so far from the society to which he re-
ferred promoting the interests of peace, it was really
and truly proving itself to be the most quarrelsome
body in England. (Cheers, and loud laughter.) He
held that no ministry could exist in this country—he
did not care who they might be, whether Tory, Whig,
or Radical—who dared undertake an unjust war. In
the first place, we were bound in too heavy bonds to
keep the peace, and also by the full consciousness that
the slightest act of war would be immediately felt in
the shape of increased taxation and other disagreeables.
Though the Peace Society might have employment else-
where then, there was no scope for their operations
here. (Cheers.) (A Voice—" They're a set of hum-
bugs.") He perceived that their next meeting was to
take place at Edinburgh. He would advise them rather
to visit the city of Florence, where they would find a
countrywoman of the people of Edinburgh, a young
Scotch lady, shut up in a dungeon at the command of
Tuscany's Grand Duke, for having been guilty of the
dreadful offence of giving a Bible, and a copy of dear
old John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" to an Italian
peasant. (Tremendous cheers.) Aye, let them go to
Florence. There they would find ample scope for their
pet scheme of negotiation and arbitration. (Renewed
cheers.) Here we did not want it, and they must try
it elsewhere. (Great cheering.) He begged them,
therefore, no longer to convey to the minds of foreign-
ers the idea that they alone were favourable to peace—
that the people of England were not. Above all, do
not let them induce other nations to believe that we
alone, of all the powers of Europe, were going to leave
everything to arbitration ; that we were to disarm
though others did not—that the manhood of England, '
like that of the nations of old, was destroyed, and
that we were to sink into utter insignificance in conse-
quence of our effeminacy and corruption. If Russia
should ever be permitted to occupy Turkey and have com-
mand of the Dardanelles, the most serious effects might
be apprehended to the rest of the nations of Europe.
If they looked at the geographical position of Russia
and the vastness of her territory, the importance of pre-
venting her obtaining possession of Constantinople
must be still more obvious. Her dominion extended over
190 degrees of longitude ; she possessed one-eighth of
the habitable globe, and one twenty-eighth of the whole
superficies of the earth. But vast as was her territory,
she was almost comparatively shut out from Europe.
For a long time she was destitute of a seaboard, and it
was always the chief aim of Peter the Great to constitute
his country a naval power. It was true she had an ex-
tensive sea coast in the Baltic ; but then for a consider-
able portion of the year that was closed to navigation by
the ice. And her fleets could only quit the Black
Sea through the narrow Straits of the Darda-
nelles. Thus, notwithstanding the enormous mag-
nitude of her territory, she had not the best
outlets for her fleets to the seas of Europe.
He abhorred war as much as any man, but there were
were some things even more horrible than war : there
was the total loss of a nation's independence—the
abnegation of a nation's feelings—the suppression of a
nation's patriotism ; and sure he was, that whatever
might be the petty quarrels, national or municipal, which
existed amongst ourselves, when a cause like the present,
in which the honour and dignity of the country were
concerned, demanded their sympathies, the minds of
Englishmen would be animated but by one spirit, and
if necessary their arms strung by but one nerve. (Cheers.)
The resolution was put to the meeting, and carried by
acclamation.
Mr. JAMES FRANCIS HOLLINGS moved the next reso-
lution :—" That the integrity of the Turkish empire
being guaranteed by the most solemn treaties to which
Great Britain has been a party, it is the plain duty of
the English Government to fulfil its engagements to the
utmost, by preserving her territory inviolate, and by
maintaining the Sultan in the full possession of his rights
as an independent Sovereign." Russia was the colossal
impersonation, as she was the avowed patroness, of ar-
bitrary and despotic rule—the uncomprising enemy to
constitutional principles wherever they could be assailed,
either by her influence or her arms—the sworn foe to all
freedom, whether political or religious, social or commer-
cial—the subjugator of every kind of separate nationality
and every form of municipal authority to a relentless
military absolutism—to the iron decrees of a single and
an irresponsible will. The favourite dream of her states-
men had far the last six generations been the establish-
ment of a dominion in modern times similar to that
which was once held by the great Kings of Persia and
Assyria, by Alexander of Macedon and by the Clesars of
imperial Rome. And there was not a noble or serf
within her territories that did not believe this was the
ultimate destiny of his country. Step by step this object
had been perseveringly followed, and in the estimation
of her people there now remained but one conquest to
effect its consummation—that was the wresting of the
city of Constantinople and the Turkish empire from its
present possessors, and the enthronement of her Czar
and patriarchs in that which was once the metropolis of
Christianity, and which seemed almost destined by na-
ture to be the metropolis of the world. Once established
there, and she would be at full liberty to complete the
measure of her iniquitous project of universal do-
minion. For the past twelve months we had seen
this subtle and unprincipled power undisguisedly,
openly, avowedly, working out her favourite design.
If ever a monstrous and an unjustifiable aggression had
been committed, it was clearly the march of the Russian
army across the Pruth—and if ever there was a nation
called on, promptly and with a strong hand, to repress
the contumelious insolence of Russia it was clearly the
people of England. (Cheers.) We had solemnly set
our hands to deeds which guaranteed to the Sultan the
perfect integrity of his dominions. (Cheers.) Were
the Turks tenfold the barbarians which it had lately
been the fashion in some quarters to represent them,
that was no reason why England should be false to her
engagements in their hour of peril. (Renewed cheers.)
But the Turks were not mere barbarians. There was
not a nation which better understood or more exten-
sively acted upon the principles of religious toleration
—none which carried out the principle of unre-
stricted
last
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