The Sun.
London, England, 1854-07-03 00:00:00

TilE SUPPLEMENTARY SPEECH.

Lord Aberdeen complains of misapprehension
and misrepresentation, but, by his own showing,
the speech e; hick filled the country with astonish-
ment and dismay wag a speech which did not ex-
press his opinions fully and completely, and which
has been fairly judged according to its imperfect
terms and scope. If the speaker did not do justice
to his own views, he has only himself to blame.
And certainly no one could have divined that
Lord Aberdeen, while dissenting from Lord Lynd-
hurst's spirited argument, was so nearly in agree-
ment with him. That was the occasion to have
called forth the speech of last Monday, which in-
deed is neither a speech of explanation, nor of re-
tractation, but a sort of supplementary exposition,
showing that though Lord Aberdeen has acquitted
the Czar upon one felonious count, he holds him
guilty upon another of a graver cast.
Being a great lover of peace, Lord Aberdeen is
naturally polemic and disputatious, and the asser-
tion that Russia had doubled her territories within
the present century moved him to a contradiction,
in which he thought much more of confuting an
individual than of the impression his words would
convey, and their effect at home and abroad. Be-
cause an opponent somewhat exaggerated Russian
territorial encroachment, he made passing light of
it in the spirit of controversy, forgetting that the
position of a statesman is as incompatible with such
a handling of a great national question as a duel
would be with the duties of a general in the field.
Re says, truly enough, that Russian territorial
aggression was not to be feared, but that Russian in-
fluence for the same end was to be feared; and he gave
expression to what he did notfear, and locked up in his
breast what he did fear. This was not natural,
but what w.is suppressed would have brought him
into position with Lord Lyndhurst, which, in the
excitement of debate, the spirit of disputation for-
bade.

It is a point of good generalship to be prepared
with a reserve, but such a strength in reserve as
Lord Aberdeen has discovered is without parallel.
Another time he should be requested to say what
he has left unsaid, or to give those thoughts,
which are proverbially best, the first place.
There is one part of his speech, however, which
the context of the supplement does not correct or
improve, and that is the alleged kind service of the
Czar to the Porte in protecting it against Mehemet
Ali, receiving in return only the little advantage
obtained by the treaty of Unkiar Skelessi. But
besides this special consideration, there was an-
other motive for the friendly service, for the Czar
having a prospective partnership interest in Turkey,
was naturally hostile to any interference with the
property. Meaning to rob the house at suitable
opportunity, he was, of course, quite ready to bar
the doors against a rival depredator.
Another part of Lord Aberdeen's reply to Lord
Lyndhurst, which no subsequent statement can re-
concile with sense and consistency, is his wish for
another five-and-twenty years' peace, like that
which followed the treaty of Adrianople. His
views of that treaty, which he justly designates as
disastrous, are now before the world. The effect,
in his opinion, was fatal to the independence of
Turkey. How he could have spoken those light
words, denying the encroachments of Russia, after
he had penned these grave words on the same sub-
ject-matter, is utterly inexplicable
"The modes of domination may be various, although
all equally irresistible. The independence of a State
may be overthrown and its subjection effectually secured
without the presence of a hostile force, or the permanent
occupation of its soil. Under the present treaty the
territorial acquisitions of Russia are small, it must be
admitted, in extent, although most important in their
character. They are commanding positions, • far more
valuable than the possession of barren provinces and de-
populated towns, and better calculated to rivet the
fetters by which the Sultan is bound.
"The cession of the Asiatic fortresses, with their
neighbouring districts, not only secures to Russia the
uninterrupted occupation of the eastern coast of the
Black Sea, but places her in a situation so command-
ing as to control at pleasure the destiny of Asia Minor.
"Prominently advanced into the centre of Armenia,
in tho midst of a Christian population, Russia holds the
keys both of the Persian and the Turkish provinces ;
and, whether she may be disposed to extend her con-
quests to the east or to the west, to Teheran or to Con-
stantinople, no serious obstacle can arrest her progress.
"In Europe the prineipalities of Wallachia and Mol-
davia are rendered virtually independent of the Porte.
A tribute is, indeed, to be paid to the Sultan, which he
has no means of enforcing except by the permission and
even the assistance of Russia herself ; and a prince,
elected for life, is to demand investiture which cannot be
withheld. The Mussulman inhabitants are to be forcibly
expelled from the territory. The ancient right of pre-
emption is abolished ; and the supplies indispensable for
Constantinople, for the Turkish arsenals, and for the
fortresses are entirely cut off. The most important
fortresses upon the Danube are to be razed, and the

" It is true, my lords, that I have, perhaps, more than
any other man in this country, struggled to preserve a
state of peace. I have done so because I thought it a
duty to the people of this country—a duty to God and
man—firs,t to exhaust every possible measure to obtain
peace before we engaged in war. (Cheers.) I may
own—though I trust my conscience acquits me of having
done the utmost—that I only regret lest I have not
done enough, or lest I may have lost some possible
means of averting what I consider the greatest calamity
that can befall a country. It has been said that my
desire for peace unfits me to make war ; but how and
why do I wish to make war ? I wish to make war id
order to obtain peace, and no weapon that can be used
in war can make that war so sure and speedy, and attain
peace, as to make that war with the utmost vigour and
determination. (Cheers.) This, my lords, I have not
shrunk from ; on the contrary, I have been ready to
co-operate with my colleagues, and most urgent as to
our hostile and warlike preparations, and they will ad-
mit that I personally have been more urgent than per-
haps any other man in exhorting a speedy advance and
concentration of the allied forces beyond the Balkans, in
order to support the gallant army of Omer Pacha, and
to extend a hand to Austria, in order to enable her to
take a more active part in the operations of the
war. (Cheers.)"

More than any other man my Lord Aberdeen
has struggled to preserve peace ; more energeti-
cally than any other man my Lord Aberdeen
has urged on the movements of the war. And
has not every other adviser of our Sovereign
performed this same duty to the country, to
God, and to man ? Is it to believed that any
one has been backward, or less zealous, less
earnest than another, in exhausting every honest
and just expedient for peace before recourse to the
sword ? What right can the First Minister have
to claim pre-eminence in the discharge of this
clear and imperative duty both of the Christian
and the statesman ? lie may have performed his
part more ably than others, but not more conscien-
tiously, for there are no degrees in the realm of
conscience. Why is he to arrogate to be first in
virtue, first in duty to his sovereign and his country,
first in duty to God and man ?
And hardly less invidious and objectionable is the
boast of urging on the war " more than any other
man," implying that all are not equally earnest, re-
lute, and, energetic in her Majesty's councils, and
that there are divisions of the backward and the
forward, or at least such distinctions. Lord Aber-

deep should surely refrain from thus exalting him-
self at the expense of his colleagues, for it neither
consists with justice nor good taste ; and as little
does it become the dignity of a statesman charged
with the honour and fortunes of a mighty empire
at a most critical, juncture.
It may be, however, that in this as well as in
other instances, Lord Aberdeen appears to say what
he does not mean to say, and that it is another
example of that imperfection in expressing himself
to which ho ascribes his previous miscarriage. It
was not always thus with him, for we remember,
.and with respect and gratitude, the services he
rendered to the free trade cause by his argumenta-
tive and statesmanlike speeches, which were
amongst the most weighty and earnest on that
great theme.—Examiner.

Lord Aberdeen, " with one foot in the grave,"
to adopt his own self-description, has recently
thought fit in his place in Parliament to vindicate
some passages of his busy though not memorable
career. The necessity for such " explanation" in
one filling the most eminent post in the kingdom,
alone proves how unworthily it is occupied. The
conduct and opinion of a Prime Minister should be
of that evident and sign-al character that, though
they may be opposed, they should not need to be
explained. It is only when high places have been
illegitimately obtained, not by fair parliamentary
influence, but by backstairs intrigue, that there can
be a necessity for such a humiliating performance
as took place on Monday last.

A young member of Parliament, without follow-
ing, and we should think without concert with any
individual, gave notice of a motion condemnatory
of Lord Aberdeen, which, both in its form and
spirit, was so irregular and unconstitutional that
its sanction by the opposition was out of the ques-
tion. Yet no sooner is he menaced by this Bashi-
Bazouk than the Prime Minister of England, in a
panic, hurries to the House of Lords to anticipate
his House of Commons' assailant by an exposition,
which was received with invective and derision by
some of the friends of Lord J. Russell, but by his
opponents with the contemptuous silence which it
merited.

Notwithstanding the controversial obscurity with
which the subject has got involved, the relations
between Lord Aberdeen and Russia are simple.
Early in life the present Minister of England im-
bibed the idea that Russian power was the conser-
vative element of European society. It is, in fact,
the destructive element. In 1828-9, notwithstand-
ing all the efforts of Prince Metternich, then in
his zenith, and who had formed a correct estimate
of the military means of Russia, Lord Aberdeen
refused to resist the efforts of the Czar, then en-
gaged in the same operation on Turkish integrity
and independence which we are now witnessing.
More than this, he endeavoured to assist those
efforts. He consented t• the blockade of the
Mediterranean 'forts of Turkey by the Russians
without the cognisance of his colleagues, and was
forced to retract his assent. He succeeded in pre.
venting the entrance of the English fleet into the
Black. Sea, which would not only have hindered
:s_idaluA.sbc:heerdweietnz:
the success of the Russians, but would have
tshes-
cured the triumph of the Turks. In one
secret despatches of this period, which, at
othoef_slck
of Warsaw, were rifled from the portfolio
_f Con-
stantine, is a despatch from CountL
the Russian Envoy at the Court of
_St. James's
(1829), informing his Court that
while he' dwelt on the difficulties with Which he
had to contend, had acknowledged his wish
that the Russians
campaign against Lord No doubt, if
shouldthe Turks,
be
. s
Aberdeen had
in their
any other person that had been
Secretary of State at this period, the treaty of Ad-
rianople would never have been
concluded,
and, in
that sense, ho may be said to be the author of that
disastrous document. many
ekors aitfateoronittenwta?
signed he produced that ddespatchfor a copy of which he has recently moved in Par-
liament. It is a comment on the past, conceived
in the spirit of the traditionary policy of our Cabi-
net, very just and un• inswerable but quite useless.
It was of this despatch that Prince
Metternich ob-
served, " Apparently Lord Aberdeen has com-
menced his career as an hi to i "
s r an.
This State
paper was a very convenient record
to have at hand •in vase there had been any stir of
indignation in
Parliament ; but in 1830 Parlia-
ment was in another cue, and events, very soon
after, swept Lord Aberdeen from that scene where
lie has reappeared, in his old age, to plunge Europe
in confusion, and to burden his own country with
taxes, from the same causes that previously in-
fluenced his impolitic career, namely, an exagge-
rated estimate of Russian power, and a most mis-
taken and morbid assumption of Turkish weakness.
But in the interval, also, Lord Aberdeen has been
a Minister, and no sooner did he seem rooted in
power than in 1844 the Emperor of Russia per-
sonally visited this country to confer with Lord
Aberdeen on the possible partition of Turkey. It
is somewhat strange that such propositions should
be made to the author of such an " acrimonious
despatch" ! We hold that the proposals for par-
tition 'were not only made, but were accepted, as