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

~
,/...-/-:/ ~....07-77-/ ~----7
_
_ , ......._ ..._.
.__ ,
-----c-,z/
__:___
..
... •
--(')r----),-------;/ .
_
, .
,
(---
.
,
•
,
..____:. _
.. • . .•
„h7fej-r
• .. ~ , 'ti,...1.P.10.),,,,,i... ,e: 4111 //07
.7/4/.. 7Z.0)
•
ig, ... •''il' .. ...
. ,
r
- ,
... 4. t
, -.• *,-,..4„,. i
...,.
," tt '.....*:' • .1. ~.., •°. —it -, P. ~...,t-,
,
...mg
------,-,4.? , , ,
~ ..,- ---,. 14 -.7.‘',,,
,__ • .. ,:::• '
iA. I •
__ .
1..
r
i ‘ 1..v)4; I , A ," ...
• ~ : , , cd 47"...
. ,
, ~
"i•
"`Fs ' .
IstfAtt % ;' ' '.4
'''''. k, 020w... 4-- - ' „..,,„
,•.t. ~
,--
v ~,... •
1 • „,
i, , A
1/44.111 . '
' 4 - 4. -
~ k • 04Alliejt, 41'. 'Z'-• 4'''' 14
~ . 1 , i t.,.,,,-.:,'F ' • .`.". t',
~,, ...',....-..-", ~ . ....
..--. . "r.../ ,‘" 'ti ..t.- 4' J °-i't , 4," 0 01% Y' $ ' v7l 71 '. 4 4-,
7i.,,,,,:: , )
,4/-. ~;4 "N-",k,,-,.., : ~ ; '-": ' ‘ ,r,...'', -Z...T. r., '• • -4 -S'. -,445;," —2l. OIT :.
..----' -"•',- "WO N''' •.' ' IT k' -.>---1."-#44i, j4/1/741 'IV '--
''' ' .
..2t?..tilik us ' ~i„, -, DIE
s tj effej sr) i ..-
N, ,s'';,ro' ..,:.s$ ' \ ' i /

[PRICE SD•

bury) said ti ,s was not respectful to Parliament ; it was
not respectful to Parliament ; it was not respectful to
the country ; and he would almost like to ask—he was
so much astonished that the noble lord refused to pro-
duce such A paper to that house—why it was sent to the
Times? He would not have thought such a thing pos-
sible ; but extraordinary rumours had lately been rife in
town that not long ago, when one of the principal
Ministers—if not the principal Minister in the Cabinet
—resigned his office, the first intimation her Majesty had
of that resignation was through the Times newspaper,
and that some of the noble lord's colleagues first learnt.
the circumstance from the Times newspaper, to which, of
course, it had been communicated by some very import-
ant colleague of the noble viscount. Now, if this was
true—he (Lord Malmesbury) did not say that it was,—
if this system was acted upon,—if newspapers, or if a fa-
vourite newspaper, were to receive official communica-
tions of so important a nature that the Foreign Secretary
declared it was dangerous to place them upon the table
of the house—if newspapers were to receive documents
of that kind before Parliament and instead of Parliament,
he could only say that they had four estates in the realm,
and that of those four estates the Queen was not the
first and their lordships were not the second. He thought,
however, that, in another point of view, her Majesty's
Government had erred in keeping the country and Par-
liament so long in ignorance of the negotiations. He
could understand that, under some circumstances, it
might be very inconvenient to be constantly placing pa-
pers of this kind before Parliament, but he believed that
on this occasion, if the Government had been mere can-
did in their explanations, they would have elicited from
Parliament a manifestation of that feeling which the
country of its accord had since displayed. Such a dis-
play could but have assisted the Government ; it could
but have armed their hands, and prevented a misappre-
hension, which he believed had long existed in the mind
of the Emperor of Russia—namely, that after forty
years' peace, commerce, and prosperity, this country
had so much degenerated that it had fallen into a state
of indifference regarding its treaties with its allies,
its own character, and its own honour, and. that it
was ready to purchase peace at any price. (Hear, hear.)
By depreciating the French alliance during his (Earl
Malmesbury's) tenure of office, they had led Russia to
imagine that France and England would never act cor-
dially together, and had thus induced the Emperor tO
Make hi* aggrfgiOn. • Turkey. If Ministers had
shown from the first a etermination to resist that ag-
gression, in concert with France, he believed that peace
would never have been endangered. Almost during the
whole time for which his noble friend (Lord Derby) held
the office of Prime Minister, the press which represented
or was supposed to represent the opinions, not only of
what he might call the legitimate Opposition—the Whig
Opposition—but also of a smaller section of politicians
who had since formed a coalition with the present Go-
vernment, unremittingly blamed the foreign policy of
his noble friend's Government with regard to the ap-
parent eagerness and anxiety which that Government
had shown to confirm an alliance, not with France only,
but with the new dynasty established by the French
people. He (Lord Malmesbury) was constantly taunted
with being ready to sacrifice the best interests of his
country for the sake of an alliance with the French
Government. The accident of his (Lord Malmes-
bury's) personal acquaintance with the Emperor of
France some years ago was sufficient ground for
framing against him an accusation that, having a per-
sonal predilection in favour of Louis Napoleon, h wished
' to see him rather than any other man upon the throne
of France. He (Lord Malmesbury) felt little moved at
the time by those attacks, because he was certain that
no alliance could be of such vital consequence, not only
to this country itself, but to the general peace f Europe,
as an alliance with a powerful country like France—our
, nearest neighbour, and with a man who, he had every
reason to believe, was determined to remain at peace
with all other nations, and to maintain the territorial
distribution of Europe as it was arranged by the treaties
of 1814. The policy of the late Government had been
fully vindicated since that time, for the very newspapers
which abused them for such policy had gone even to the
length of saying that no other alliance was of such im-
portance to England as that of France. But the lan-
guage of the press to which he alluded made a very
I strong and lasting impression upon the Courts of Europe
with respect to our alliance with France. The eyes of
every Court of Europe were at that time intently fixed
upon the motions of the new-fledged Emperor and the
country which had been the first to recognise him,
and what was their impression ? Judging from the
language of the mouthpiece—not the real but the
apparent mouthpiece of noble lords opposite—foreign
Courts naturally argued that if the then Govern-
, ment were not in office, a different line of policy would
be taken by the then Opposition, who might succeed
them. The Opposition did come into office very soon
afterwards, and was it possible to believe that the Em-
peror of Russia would not consider that the same
anxiety did not exist in the new Cabinet to form an
alliance, not only with France, but with the new
dynasty of France, which had existed on the part of the
preceding Government ? The eyes of Russia, as well as
of other Powers, were fixed upon the conduct of the
new Government, and what was the first thing that
happened ? Within a month after the new Government
accepted office two of its members addressed their con-
stituents, in two different boroughs of England, in a
manner which, both in expression and in spirit, was
deeply offensive to the French people and to the French
Emperor. Those speeches were explained—how ex-
plained—he (Lord Malmesbury) did not know ; but he
was told by his noble friend last August that the Em-
peror of the French had sense and good feeling enough
to understand the motive of those speeches and not to
be offended at them. He (Lord Malmesbury) perfectly
believed that, for the Emperor of the French had this
advantage over other Sovereigns—that through a life
of vicissitudes he had milzed with society of all grades
and classes, that he had lived a long time in this
country and knew it well, that he was acquainted with
its peculiarities—he (Lord Malmesbury) would not
say its eccentricities—and he perfectly understood that
the speeches cf a Minister bad various meanings accord-
ing to the period at which they were uttered and the
place in which they were spoken. These speeches were
therefore excused by the Emperor ; but it was certain,
and he (Lord Malmesbury) knew it to be a fact, that
the circumstance of such speeches having been uttered
so soon after the accession of a Ministry upon whom the
eyes of all European Governments were fixed, made a
strong impression upon those Governments that, in
their inmost minds, some, if not all, of her Majesty's
Ministers were averse, if not hostile, to an alliance with
the new dynasty of France ; and he believed that the
Emperor of Russia was deceived by these things. He
(Lord Malmesbury) agreed with the noble marquis in
thinking that more energy and vigour in time might
have saved us from the impending war. God forbid that
he, or any man on that (the Opposition). side of the
house, should not be ready to praise her Majesty's
Government for doing all in their power to avert a war.
It was not for endeavouring to avert a war that he
blamed them, but for not having taken the best means
to avert a war-(bear, hear)—for exhibiting vacillation,
for not having taken the ball at a bound, for not having
seized the proper moment when they might have given
Russia to understand that France and England were
determined to resist the aggression. The noble earl
then passed a warm eulogiam on the patriotic spirit
which Turkey had exhibited, and concluded by depre-
cating the introduction of any of the measures of reform
which were suggested in the Royal speech.
Lord GREY reserved his opinion upon the Eastern
question until the papers were before the House, but in
the meantime, he thought the course pursued by her
Majesty's Government stood greatly in need of explana-
tion and vindication. (Hear, hear.) So far as he was
yet acquainted with the facts, he confessed that, in the
first place, he was not satisfied that they ought to have
interfered at all in this matter. (Hear, hear.) He con-
curred in opinion with the noble Secretary for Foreign
Affairs that, the flames of an European war once lighted,
no man could tell how far the conflagration might ex-
tend, or foresee the depth of human misery which might
be occasioned. He argued that, even if the war were
ever so short, it would be attended with infinite
injury to the interests and welfare of mankind. All
those measures of improvement which in this country
and in others had made such wonderful progress within
the last 40 years, if not absolutely arrested, would at
least be materially retarded when men's energies and
thoughts were occupied in devising their mutual de-
struction, when the country would be called upon to
make the greatest sacrifices, and when misery would be
carried into many families by the loss of their friends
and relatives. These considerations struck him with
horror and apprehension ; and, knowing the character
of the Turkish Government, knowing to what a condi-
tion the fairest region of the earth had been reduced
by four centuries of Turkish rule, knowing, too, that
to this day the Christian subjects of the Porte were
labouring under an oppression as severe as that to
beforet
on etghrios s
lhpaovo
hour
rruyltahl
Nt ion in our own colonies were
e.
which
et c
event edeasevaibdoelincsheeodf
a(focrhrhiestbiaenliewveacsi
subjected
not received against a Mahomedan in a Turkish court of
justice, whatever might have been the wrongs that he,
or his family, had endured); and remembering what the
calamities of war were, it would take much to convince
him that this country had any interest in supporting
Turkey against what he admitted to be the entirely un-
justifiable demands of Russia, which could for one mo-
ment be set against its immeasurably superior interest
in the maintenance of European peace. If, however, we
were to go to war, he urged that young and intelligent
officers should be appointed to the principal commands,
and justified his recommendation by the examples of al-
most all the great names in our military annals. Colonel
Eyre, who had distinguished himself in the Kafir war,
had been promoted, and he hoped that precedent would
be followed until both the army and navy were efficiently
officered. He thought the question of reform by no
means pressed for immediate solution, and hoped that it
would not be allowed to interfere with whatever might
be necessary for the vigorous prosecution of the war.
The Earl of DERBY, after briefly alluding to the
" most awful crisis" in which we were now placed, ad-
verted to some of the minor topics in the Queen's Speech,
expressing his opinion of the difficulty of dealing benefi-
cially with the law cf settlement, declaring his strong
doubts of the advantages anticipated from the measures
proposed for the Universities, and remarking on the omis-
sion of all mention of the great subject of general education,
the negotiation still pending with the United States, and
the conclusion of the treaty by which the River Plate had
been opened to the commerce of the world. He then en-
tered into a criticism of the long negotiation with Russia.
I confess, he said, I could have wished that the language
of the Speech had been more distinct and clear on this
point. lam left, as the noble marquis who alluded to the
question, has observed, to conjecture whether we are at
this moment at peace or at war. If I were to presum
that wo were actually at war, not only would it be hum
digest- repudiated by the noble earl it the head of