The Sun.
London, England, 1853-10-20 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 20, 1853.

THE EASTERN QUESTION.

( From the Morning Chronicle.)

The demonstration in favour of Turkey, which
took place a day or two since in Finsbury, will
probably not exercise any decisive influence on the
course of events. Mr. Duncombe appeared to have
scarcely made up his mind as to the side which he
should adopt, and the names of Bronterre O'Brien
and Julian Harney are not generally considered to
possess great political weight. A Mr. Shaen, who
entertains "the greatest respect for Mr. Cobden,"
politely criticised a recent speech of his hero, by
declaring that the two first arguments which it
contained were a tub for a whale. " Mr. Cobden's
third argument," he added, " was the argument
of a coward, his fourth that of a hypocrite, and his
fifth that of a demon." We must leave the cow-
ardly and hypocritical demon to defend his own
views against the admirer who entertains for him
so deep a respect. The only person present at the
meeting, who appeared to know anything of the
subject under discussion, was Mr. Urquhart, who
in Finsbury is a mere visitor and amateur. To
the utter astonishment of his auditors, the great
champion of the East came forward to protest
against that interference which he has so often
denounced English Governments for hesitating
to undertake. Let Turkey, said Mr. Urquhart,
fight her own battles, without the restraints
and limitations imposed on her by the coun-
sels of Western allies. The Turkish Ministers
apparently entertain different views of their
own duties and interests ; but Mr. Urquhart is one
of those politicians who understand all affairs bet-
ter than those whom they principally concern. It
is not amiss, however, that an enthusiast should
call public attention, even by his extravagances, to
the virtues and to the strength which yet remain
to the vilified and persecuted Ottoman. There is
honesty, and there is a basis of truth, in Mr. Urqu-
hart's wildest exaggerations ; and a sound popular
feeling accepts his conclusions without any curious
inquiry into his facts.

It is a remarkable proof of the soundness of po-
pular instinct, that the desperate efforts which have
been made to excite a religious prejudice, favour-
able to Russia, have universally failed. On ordi-
nary occasions, an appeal to the supposed interests
of Christianity are at once met with general and
credulous enthusiasm ; yet neither journalists nor
peace orators have been able to persuade the coun-
try that the Emperor of Russia seized two conveni-
ently adjacent provinces for the purpose of spread-
ing among benighted regions the neglected truths of
the Gospel. The Northern Autocrat has, in truth,
followed with singular accuracy the example of an
ancient despot, who coveted a little Wallachia, in
the form of a vineyard, hard by the walls of Jezreel.
Some difficulties occurred in the accomplishment
of the older monarch's wish, but they were re-
moved by agents and advisers worthy of the
Cabinet of St. Petersburg. Certain false witnesses
were procured, and when the owner of the vineyard
was set on high before the public, who were to de-
cide on his fate, those men of Belial declared, with
unscrupulous volubility, that Naboth had blas-
phemed God and the King. Accordingly, the
infidel victim was stoned, the aggressor occupied
the territory which ho desired, but history does
not inform us that the affair ended either to the
advantage of Ahab or to the credit of his perjured
partizans.
The covetous neighbour, who desires the Turkish
vineyard, has numerous false witnesses at his com-
mand, who day after day repeat, with wearisome
iteration, the statement that the Mahometan Go-
vernment blasphemes the religion and political
order of Europe ; yet a well-founded impression
prevails, that Turkish profanity and misrule might
pass unpunished, if the Sultan had nothing to lose,
and the Christian champion nothing to gain. The
Israeli tish King at least abstained from taunting
his victim with weakness, and from declaring that
he who could not protect his possessions, fairly
deserved to lose them. For this new rule of law,
we are indebted to authorities who, nevertheless,
called the Hungarians rebels when they had driven
the Austrian armies beyond their frontiers. When
the Turks are contrasted with the races which they
govern, it must be remembered that the ques-
tion is not between the Mussulman and the
Rayah, but between the Sultan and the Czar.
It is perfectly well known to the officious advo-
cates of the Greek population, that the Court of St.
Petersburg has repeatedly declared its determina-
tion that no great Christian State shall be allowed
to exist between the Danube and the Mediterra-
nean. It was, perhaps, unnecessary to guard
against a danger altogether remote and problema-
tical; but it is certain that the same jealousy which
discountenances the modern liberality of the Otto-
man would equally disapprove of any permanent
combination among the O'nristians of Turkey. The
Greeks themselves form an inconsiderable minority
of the whole population, which they sometimes
affect to represent. The Sclavonic inhabitants of
South-Eastern Europe are more numerous, more
united, and more warlike ; and, with few excep-
tions, they prefer the Sovereignty of the Porte to
the crushing Northern despotism which is their
only posSible alternative. Many of the races which
occupy the valley of the Danube have experienced
the rule of more than one superior. Servia and
Croatia, although inhabited by kindred families of
men, have passed backwards and forwards between
Christian and Mahometan Sovereigns, and they
are still divided, like the Hungary of former times,
between Turkey and Austria. Yet neither the
national tradions nor the feelings of the people,
in the present day, recognise any- abstract prefe-
rence for the Kaiser of Vienna over the Padishah
of Constantinople. In practice, it is found that
the Ottoman is more liberal, more careless, and less
suspicious of provincial independence than the
more refined monarchs of Christendom.
If it were assumed that the establishment of a
Christian Government in Turkey was a fit subject
for the consideration of statesmen, we might fairly
inquire what ought to be the conduct of England
and France in the present emergency: The Em-
peror of Russia has advanced his frontier from the
Pruth to the Danube, certainly not for the purpose
of establishing or extending any empire but his own.
The alternative offered to the Porte, of a Protecto-
rate to be granted to the invader, would only serve
to extend his power, and to destroy by anticipation
the independence of the population of the future
Christian Empire. It is not by teaching the Greeks
and the Sclaves to appeal to the Emperor that their
national spirit will be encouraged ; and if, accord-
ing to Mr. Cobden's suggestion, England were to
support the demand of an aggressor strong m his
military preparations, the object which is hypocri-
tically proposed would become more remote than
ever. In short, England and France must deal
with the Turkey which they find existing—there is
no other Power to support or to betray. The French
Emperor may wish that the Sultan were a good
Roman Catholic, and the English Cabinet would
be delighted to find his subjects in communion with
the Reformed Church ; but as there is no such So-
vereign or people, both Governments must protect
or abandon the Mahometan victim of aggression
nominally carried on for the honour of the Greek
Cross. it will not have escaped the attention of
thoughtful politicians that the firnk and generous
policy adopted by the English Ministry may here-
after determine the fate of our Indian Empire, if
Russia should ever carry out her long-projected
scheme of grappling with England for the dominion
of the East. The Mahometans, who form the most
warlike portion of
the Indian population, are all
Sunnees, reverencing in the Sultan the representa-
tive of the Prophet ; and they would not fail to
distinguish between the persecutors of their breth-
ren, and those who hold that wrong and violence are
to be checked irrespectively of the professions of the
aggressor or of the faith of the victim. As far as
it is possible to judge at present, the resolutions
which have been formed are as safe and prudent as
they are undeniably bold and just.

(From',the Times.)
The summons addressed to Prince Gortschakoff
by Omar Pasha reduces the practical part of the
Turkish question to the evacuation of the Danubian
Principalities. It was by the occupation of this
territory that Russia communicated a formidable
and injurious character to her demands upon the
Porte. Had she confined her proceedings on behalf
of the Christians to requisitions, whether sincere
or otherwise, for rights of protectorship, and had
she left the decision upon this point in the hands of
the Divan, it would have been scarcely possible
either for Turkey to complain or Europe to inter-
fere ; but, by marching an army across her own
frontiers, and occupying certain provinces as a
guarantee for the concessions required, she corn-
mated an act of aggression upon a foreign State,
; and gave plain proofs that political, if not territorial
aggrandisement, was the true object of her demands.
If the Czar can claim to be invested with the Sul-
tan's prerogatives, or, in default thereof, to pos-
sess himself of the Sultan's territory, it is clear that
he needs no further facilities for the absorption of
of the Ottoman empire in his own. Nevertheless,
the invasion of the principalities is not an act pre-
; cisely analogous to the invasion of Turkey Proper;

and that its import may be correctly understood,
we subjoin a brief exposition of the facts involved
in the proceeding.
The territories of the old Byzantine monarchy,
which the Turks appropriated, had been bounded
on the north by the Danube, but, as the power of
the Ottoman Sovereigns increased, they carried
their conquests beyond this frontier, and established
themselves for a considerable period even in the
capital of Hungary. Among the States in these
parts which they reduced to obedience were two
principalities of some antiquity, termed Wal-
lachia and Moldavia, governed by rulers of their
own, and comprising very nearly the same dis-
tricts which they include at the present day.
These were brought by the great Solyman into a
species of subjection to the Ottoman Crown.
That the conquest was in itself incomplete is not
very probable, considering the strength of the
Turks at that period ; but, for some reason or other,
the provinces in question were never actually
incorporated in the Ottoman empire, but
,were left
under their own princes, with a reservation only
of sovereignty and tribute to the Sublime Porte.
The other conquests of the Sultan to the north
of the Danube were all ultimately lost, but the Da-
nubian Principalities, as they were now denominat-
ed, remained under these relations with the Turkish
monarchy until its fortunates began to be affected
by the ascendancy of Russia. Peter the Great was
contented with obtaining the support or connivance
of their Princes in his contests with the Sultan ;
but, as the ambition of the Czar expanded, it became
a leading object of Russian policy to detach these
semi-independent States from the Turkish dominion
altogether, and to transfer to St. Petersburg, by
gradual encroachments, the allegiance due to Con-
stantinople. These designs were aided by a con-
currence of favourable- circumstances.- As the
"Ottoman power declined, the independence of Wal-
lachia and Moldavia became somewhat more sub-
stantial, and, as their population was exclusively
Christian, the pretext of a protectorate was brought
plausibly into requisition. The Russian Govern-
ment affected, therefore, to defend, against the
Porte, the rights and immunities constitutionally
reserved to the Principalities, and so successfully
were her operations conducted that, in the end,
the authority of the Sultan was practically divided
for the benefit of the Czar. Every victorious war
was made to contribute its impulse to this con-
summation. As long ago as 1792 it was stipu-
lated and agreed that the governors, or, as
they are styled Hospodars of the Danubian Princi-
palities, should neither be appointed nor removed
without license obtained from the Russian Court,
and so rapidly since that time has the work of en-
croachment proceeded that the Sultan now stands
debarred by his own surrenders from most of the
privileges of a supreme Lord. The "sovereignty"
of the provinces, it is true, still nominally pertains
to him, but no Turk can settle in them, nor can
any Turkish troops be quartered there, except
under specified circumstances, insomuch that,
if at this very moment the Czar were to re-
tire from the Principalities, the Sultan could not
march into them except at the cost of another
breach of treaty and another embroilment. We
have before remarked that within the last 30 years
the good offices of Great Britain were employed at
the instance of Russia to procure the evacuation of
these very provinces by the Turks.

As yet, however, the Danubian Principalities
are not Russian. The Court of St. Petersburg
has hitherto contented itself with simply detaching
them from their old allegiance without openly
claiming any sovereignty of its own. It has pre-
tended merely to secure their " independence' " but
the reader will easily discern to what this state of
transition is destined to lead. Meantime, the
provinces in question have been incessantly turned
to the purposes of Russian aggression, exactly as
they are at this day. On the first difference with
Turkey Russia "marches an army into the Princi•
palities," a proceeding which, while it insensibly
promotes the great object of the Czars, is attended
with fewer inconveniences than an actual invasion
of Turkey. In the first place, as the Principali-
ties have been dexterously brought to a position
resembling independence, it can be argued, as was
done on the present occasion, that the occupa-
tion does not necessarily constitute a cause of war,
while, at the same time, the coercion put upon
the Porte remains undiminished, for the jealousies
of the Turkish Government have naturally increased
in proportion as its authority has been under-
mined. In the next place, the occupation not only
lays the Porte under material pressure, as alarming
her for her remaining prerogatives, but familiarises
the population of the provinces with Russian
troops, habituates these troops and their generals
to the country, and enables Russia, in short, to
perform to admiration that process which is often
made to precede actual deglutition. Lastly, the
invasion of the Principalities can be effected with-
out any military difficulties, and, practically
speaking, without opposition. To invade Turkey
Proper Russia would have to cross the Danube—
always an arduous operation—or to effect a land-
ing at some point of the Black Sea coast, and in
either of these cases she would be brought into
inevitable collision with the Ottoman forces. But
by simply occupying Wallachia and Moldavia she
confines her expedition to an unresisted march,
encounters no enemy, and can reckon upon retir-
ing without damage when her desires have been
satisfied for the time.

The reader will have no difficulty in understand-
ing how, under such circumstances, the Russians
have repeatedly invaded the Danubian Princi-
palities. They have been in and out of them,
in fact, for the last 50 years. As long ago as
1806 they were there, and found means to prolong
their occupation in spite of opposition. They were
upon the point of entering in 1821 ; they actually
entered in 1828 ; and in 1848 they entered again.
It was on the last occasion that a special treaty was
signed between Russia and the Porte, stipulating
the particular circumstances under which either
Power might occupy the provinces in question for
the future, and it is this treaty which the Czar has
now violated. The objects of Russia have been
the same throughout. Excepting in 1848, when
she interfered with undoubted sincerity to crush a
democratic rising, she has always designed to coerce
Turkey, and to prepare the Principalities of the
Danube more and more effectually for absorption
into the empire of the Czars. Hitherto, however,
she has been always ultimately dislodged, and we
trust that a like result may be effected now.

LIFE ASSURANCE.

The following is the report of the select committee
appointed to take into consideration the subject of As-
surance Associations.
Your committee have considered the subject referred
to them, and have examined the Registrar and Assist-
ant-Registrar ofJoint-Stock Companies : the Registrar
of Friendly Societies ; Mr. Finlaison, the late actuary to
the Commissioners of the National Debt ; Dr. Fan-, at
the head of the statistical department of the Registrar-
General's Office ; and many of the most eminent actua-
ries connected with insurance offices of every class.
2. So far as regards the Joint-Stock Companies Act
of 1844, your committee have confined their inquiry
chiefly to that portion of it which affects insurance com-
panies, and more particularly the business of life insu-
rances. From the evidence of the Registrar and Assist-
ant-Registrar of Joint-Stock Companies it appears that
the law as it now stands, is extremely defective, and that
the provisions of the Act of 1844 are very imperfectly
carried out ; many of which they have no power to en-
force if not complied with.
3. With regard to provisional registration, it appears
that the law, as it now stands, does not afford the
security which was contemplated by the Act of 1844 ;
inasmuch as the representations made by the pro-
spectuses and advertisements issued by new companies
often vary very materially from the objects for which
they have been provisionally registered ; and there
appears to be no means at present to prevent de-
ception and misrepresentation being practised on the
public in this way. Nor are the regulations required
in order to obtain complete registration more perfect
for that purpose. It is required by the law that-the
deed of settlement should be signed by shareholders
equal to one-fourth in number, and representing
one-fourth of the proposed capital of such companies ;
but it appears from the evidence of Mr. Whitmarsh that

this provision has been extensively abused by means of
false and fraudulent signatures, and has thus proved to
be a very insufficient security for the objects contem-
plated. It appears, also, that it has been frequently
evaded by companies commencing business with a very
small capital, and immediately upon obtaining complete
registration, greatly increasing its amount, which they
are enabled to do without further recourse to the office
of the Registrar. These observations, however, apply
to joint stock companies generally.
4. After joint stock companies are completely regis-

tered, one of the chief securities contemplated by the
act of 1844 for the safety of the public is the duty im-
posed upon them to return annual balance-sheets repre-
senting the state of their affairs to the Registrar's-office,
where they are open to public inspection.- But from the
fact that that act prescribed no form, and furnished the
Registrar with no power to enforce a compliance with
the spirit, or even with the letter of the law, it appears
that this provision has been very imperfectly complied
within many cases, and in others altogether rneglected ;
so that it cannot be said that it has afforded, in a ma-
jority of cases, either the information or the security
which was intended. Much doubt, indeed, has been
expressed by some witnesses whether the publication of
accounts in their present form has not rather tended to
mislead than to inform the public, in which view your
committee are inclined to acquiesce ; and if the system
of publishing accounts is in future to be persevered in,
your committee express a decided opinion that the law
must define more clearly what it requires ; and that a
greater power should be given to enforce whatever pro-
visions are thought necessary for the purpose.
5. There is 'one subject which has formed so promi-
nent a feature during your committee's inquiry, and
which has partly arisen from the act of 1844, that they
cannot pass it over without some remark, viz., the diffe-

rences of opinions and views entertained by the two
great classes of offices, the one including those esta-
blished since the passing of the act of 1844, and com-
pletely registered under that act, and the other those

established prior to that date, and not so registered.

Your committee have arrived at the conclusion that in

many ways that distinction has operated prejudicially,
and that it would be eminently to the advantages of the
offices themselves, as well as to the public at large, if
all insurance companies could be brought under one
law, leaving each company to recommend itself to the
public upon its own merits.

6. With regard to the general condition of existing
companies, so far as any evidence has been laid before
your committee, they feel it their duty to report, that
it is more satisfactory than they had been led to believe
before they entered upon their inquiry. No doubt in-
stances of great abuses and flagrant frauds have been
disclosed by the witnesses examined, but in general
these consisted of an open violation of all law, more
akin to swindling than to regular trade, and such as it
would be difficult for any Legislature to prevent, so
long as private persons exercise so little precaution in
the conduct of their own affairs. But while the com-
mittee are enabled to speak in these satisfactory terms
of existing offices, so far as the evidence has gone,
their attention has been called to the great facilities

which exist under the present state of the law, for in-
surance companies, in common with others, being
brought into existence with no re•lsonable prospect
of, or guarantee for success, and not unfrequently
without any bond fide intention of transacting business.

It appears by a return made to your commmittee
from the office of the Registrar, that since the passing
of the act in 1844, no fewer than 311 insurance com-
panies of various kinds have been provisionally registered,
of which only 140 were completely registered, and of
which only 96 continue to exist at this time. And
while your committee have reason to believe that some
of the companies which have ceased to exist during that
period, have been absorbed in other companies by whom
their business has been taken over, yet at the same time
they have no doubt that considerable traffic has been
carried on in the mere creation of companies which never
had any real prospect of a bona fide existence.
7. So far, then, as regards the present state of the
law, as established by the act of 1844, it appears to be a
very general, if not a universal opinion, that it requires
some amendment, and in which your committee fully
concur. They are deeply impressed with the opinion,
that as the law now stands, it does either too much or
too little ; too much, inasmuch as any legislative enact-
ments professing to protect the public in such matters,
have a certain tendency to weaken and impair that indi-
vidual vigilance which would be more surely exercised,
if no such attempt was made ; and too little, inasmuch
as the securities which the law provides are ill calculated
to effect the object at which they aim. On the part of
all the witnesses examined, your committee found a
laudable desire to improve the existing state of the law,
differing, no doubt widely, in their views, as to the best
mode of accomplishing that object. On the part of the
old offices of extensive business, the witnesses who more
particularly represented them, expressed their desire to
be placed under one general rule, to make such annual
returns, and to afford such other tests as could be given
without an undue interference with their business, for the
purpose of securing one safe and uniform system, by
which a reasonable security may be afforded fur the re-
spectability and solvency of insurance companies.
8. In approaching the question of what alterations in
the present state of the law your committee are prepared
to recommend, they feel that it is one which is sur-
rounded by great difficulties. The two distinct princi-
ples in respect to subjects of this nature, viz., that of
interference by the Government for the protection of
the public, and that of no interference whatever, have
been very fully and ably discussed by the witnesses exa-
mined by your committee. On the one hand, even ad-
mitting the general wisdom of the principle of the non-
interference on the part of the Government in matters
of trade, it has been contended that the question of
life insurance differs so materially in its general charac-
auter from ordinary trading transactions, that it may
fairly be considered as an exception to that rule. This
exceptional treatment has been justified and supported,
on the ground that the obligations undertaken by such
associations, have reference to a very remote and uncer-
tain period ; that the object which persons have in view
in effecting insurances upon their lives is generally of an

important and solemn character, viz., the provision
for widows and orphans after the death of their natu-
ral protectors ; that, unlike any ordinary transac-
tion of trade, a contract once entered into cannot
be discharged or abandoned, if doubts of the sta-
bility of an office should arise, without a great sacri-
fice of premiums paid in past years, and the necessity
of effecting new policies in other offices at increased
rates of premium, owing to the greater age of the as-
sured ; and that in the present state of uncertainty which
arises from the imperfect knowledge as to the real
condition of assurance offices, persons are thus placed
in the anxious and unhappy dilemma of being com-
pelled to persever® in paying premiums from year t