The Sun.
London, England, 1840-07-28 00:00:00

THE EASTERN QUESTION.

(FROM A DISTINGUISHED CORRESPONDENT.)
A few observations must, perforce, be made in elucida-
tion of the recent statement, as regards the affairs of the
East. The author of the statement must first be allowed
to explain who he is, for from his personal position must
be determined the animus with which the news was com-
municated. Let it, then, be known that he is a Whig of
the old school, who, himself and family, have always sup-
ported the opinions of their party, both in and nut of Par-
liament. The warmth of his loyalty to the most interest-
ing of all living Sovereigns increasing on every occasion
on which he has had the good fortune to approach the
Throne, he would, if possible, support the " Ministers
of predilection" for her august sake alone. But the
majority of her Majesty's advisers, particularly the
Secretary of Foreign Affairs, inspire by their way-
wardness a perfect tesror to all true lovers of their
country, and their acts must be resisted by every lawful
means. The above is more than sufficient as to personal
considerations ; as to the course of policy chalked out by
the author of the statement, it must be allowed that, not
being Russian, it should still a fortiori be English ; and
true British policy must always be that which a Christian
nation peculiarly favoured by the Almighty should follow
in the use of her paramount power for the good of mankind
at large, as well as her own : therefore, perhaps, was it
that the spirit of the statement on the affairs of the East
was objected to as being inimical at one and the same time
to all the subjects of the Ottoman empire. Such, hart_
' ever, is not the fact. The author of the statement, and
the immense majority of much greater statesmen than him-
self, did and said ail they could to urge Lord Palmer-
ston to use the power of England in favour of the
Sultan against the Pacha, before the moment when the
Russians descended the Bosphorus to perform England's
part, and destroy Turkish nationality. But now, Mah-
inoud being dead—his son governed by a woman, who
never saw the world but from the top of a balcony or of
a litter, through the loopholes of her Yamash—his armies
mostly commanded by eunuchs, cowards, or traitors—now,
it must be repeated, the Ottoman empire cannot be sup-
ported against the insidious invasions of Russia by the boy-
Sultan alone, and hence should the wily and energetic
Pacha be interested in upholding his suzerain. In the
House of Commons, and elsewhere, persons have inveighed
against the Pacha's system, which but too clearly pene-
tra'es through the exaggerated praise whh which
his English and French admirers have striven to
conceal it. The Pacha, however, must not be com-
pared to any but Turkish leaders, whose horrid
wholesale murders Scio and other places will for
ever testify before Ged. If you even compare
Mehemet Ali to his own deceased Sovereign Mehmoud,
who, in cold blood, butchered 20,000 of his Janizaries, his
recklessness of human suffering will not be deemed so ex-
traordinary for his country. Besides, Mehemet Ali is
forcedly, as well by policy as by inclination, an imitator of
the habits of the Franks, and must succumb to the opinion
of the European world. He is now doing so with regard to
the suppression of torture, so barbarously exercised lately
(according to the customs of the country) against the
suspected Jews of Damascus. The Pacha's principal
cruelty arises from the necessity of keeping up a dispropor-
tioned standing army, and having recourse to monopolies
to support it. It is to sustain his rebellion that the wretched
Fellalis are dragged from the plough, and that the agri-
culturists who remain to till their native fields starve amidst
plenty. This state of things will cease when peace is
made between the ruthless vassal and his Sovereign.
That Lord Palmerston should pretend that the question
is merely to pacify the East is too flimsy a desire to de-
ceive even a tyro in politics. Lord Palmerston had to
choose betwixt an old rival—Framie, and a constant enemy
—Russia. He preferred the latter. The only danger from
France in the present affair is her uniting with Mehemet
Ali against England, possessing as she does such
o`
an ex-
tent e. coast in the Mediterranean. But Algeria is, and.
will ever be, but an incubus, exhausting the vital energies
of such mercurial, unsteady colonists
.r.s the French ; whilst
Russia is to England a vampire suciaing up the very juices
of her body politic, whilst with itsA wingsth ouh it. fans
her into treacherous somnolence,.
;c of' France,r' acci-
dentallyand advocating the actual
incidentally lauding the pre-.Pni.iiyient
charactr of
Court, the author
its present Ambassador at this
of the " Statement" has no less. regard to the interests of
Austria and Prussia, forced into a false line of policy by
Government and
England. Austria, with its paternal
crossed by the nature of its //mi.
gifted Ministers, only
lovfithaolul
tini;
subjects—Prussia, the excellent
enl,igilieneyu trophic
ternal governments, whose toil
only counteracted by the. necessities
.its political topo-
graphy—might at all times be kept siticere allies, and
used as powerful levers by an an.e English Minister. The
latter might read in the triumphs of Ru.sia a lessen as to
the effects of a vigilant and uns..verving system. The in-
roads of Russia on the constitution of Europe are like
those of Time on the vital powers of man—as imperceptible
at the moment as they are fatally manifest later—and
withal irrevocable. As to Lord Palmerston's an parent ig-
norance of the quadruple compact, perhaps he does not
himself know what he has done. This is, indeed, very
probable. lie never suspected the treaty that sealed the
Dardanelles against British policy, until an article in an
English newspaper of the morning was made the subject
of parliamentary questions in the evening sitting of the
House of Commons. It is needless to say that the state-
ment furnished was true in every point, and that, as the
French Government was fully acquainted with the corn-
pact, there teas no breach of trust in communicating an act
by the ignorance of which the public opinion of England
alone was deluded.

Since writing the above explanation, your informant bas
seen an article in a Treasury journal which, in two re-
spects, requires an answer. The first is the assertion that
the quadruple compact was not secret I How otherwise
could he'qualified the settled determination• to sign, and
the actual signing of, an inimical protocol on a subject at