The Sun.
London, England, 1834-01-01 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Elsewhere will be found an article copied
from the Allgemeine Zeitung, and dated Con-
,!antinople, purporting to express the satisfaction
of a Turk at the (so called) peace and comfort
which his country enjoys under the protection
of Russia, but being intrinsically nothing more

than a remonstrance addressed by the Russian

Government to the maritime states of Great
Britain and France against the projected increase
of their squadrons in the Mediterranean, lest the
Czar Nicholas may by them be disturbed or
obstructed in the development of his rapidly
ripening schemes for the incorporation of the
Turkish empire with that of Muscovy. The
treaty lately forced upon the miserable Sultan,
by which Nicholas became his nominal protector,
but his real master, by which the Dardanelles
were closed against English, French, and other
European ships, while the keys of the two
castles, and of Constantinople itself, were de-
posited with the Muscovite Ambassador, was a
direct offence to every maritime power in Eu-
rope. The stipulations of that treaty, combined
with and construed by the relative position of the
contracting parties, were an announcement to
the whole world that Russia would suffer no

interference with her own disposal of the fate
of Turkey; hut that, whenever it might suit
her appetite, she would put the knife to her
poor prisoner's throat, and bolt the. door until
she had devoured and digested him. " The
Sultan Mahmoud," says the Russo-Turkish
scribe, " has effected what no former Sultan
could attain—he has changed the Russian ad-
versary into a friend." Ay, but at what price ?
for that is not adverted to. Russia would
doubtless be changed into a still more cordial
and devoted friend of Turkey, were Nicholas
once in possession of her capital, and of the sea
coast lying between the Danube and the Bos-
phorus, than now, when the possession is cer-
tain only, instead of actual. But would Europe
pay her share of such a price ? Has neither
France nor England any right to a voice in
the question, whether the territory of Europe
shall be so remodelled Is the great prin-
ciple so universally recognized throughout
the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries—before
Russia could be said to form a sensible portion
of the civilized earth—now to be suddenly thrust
aside in her favour ?—a magnificent empire,
with rivers, seas, and aggressive resources almost
incalculable to be cut off from Europe, and
transferred to that Power, from which the most
daring and outrageous abuse of such means is,
above all others, to be anticipated ? But this
abject and prostrate condition of Turkey would
it seems, be " entirely conformable to the in-
terests of Europe itself, did not the threatened
increase of the English and French force in the
Archipelago appear as an unexpected storm in
a serene sky." This is the Muscovite version ;
but we trust it will never be that of an English
Minister. The sky is serene enough—the po-
litical sky—in Siberia, perhaps ; but we do not
desire, nor does Europe, to see either the pre-
vailing atmosphere or regimen of Siberia trans-
ported to the Mediterranean shores, whence
they might be propagated further. The article
goes on. The two Maritime Powers are taunted
with " not having protected Turkey in 1828,
when Russia attacked her ;" whence it is

inferred that they can have no sincere anxiety
to do so at this moment. The sarcasm is
just, and the conclusion plausible. In the
ttheembse
learinneerscskosf
mthite
Wellington
being
olYerefaavriNnlgiBc th2hoBel'aeslE:untrghkieiasthi England
dmuikpdei rceoomtro
fairly overreached, as in 1831 she and France
together, from some similar mystification prac-
tised on the Whigs, barbarously deserted
Poland. They now reap the fruits of the
double crime. However, the design of Russia
is palpable, and fixed, we have reason to believe,
is her resolve to execute it, judging by her
known preparations. She has 23 sail of the
line in the Euxine, moored within GO hours'
sail of Constantinople, and she has a land force
ready to be embarked at a minute's notice, of
between 30,000 and 40,000 men. Russia has,
besides, a fleet in the Baltic of 27 ships of the
line. Is it then a question whether, when
Russia employs such arguments as 50 sail of the
line,—one portion of them almost within cannon
shot of the Mediterranean, the other within a
fortnight's sail of Liverpool or Hull,—to con-
firm and enforce the despatches of her nego-
tiators ?—do we live to hear it asked whether Great
Britain is to feel herself or her commercial in-
terests secure, with no preparations but an ad-
ditional ream or two of the raw materials of
diplomacy in our Foreign-office? The question
is critical, and is one of prudence. Is Russia,
or is she not, to have a present made to her of
the Turkish empire, and with it the supremacy
of the Euxine, the Mediterranean, and the
Adriatic seas? Disguise on such a subject is
utter childishness. We ask then once more, is
Russia to have this new and fertile world a part
of herself, or is she not F We doubt whether
there exists a native born Englishman,or French-
man either—save and except some imbecile
dreamers, whose brains are at all times wQaving
political millenniums—that will not answer briefly
and emphatically, " No, rather drive the Mus-
covites away by force." Another question
comes. If force must be resorted to, when is it
must likely to prove successful—before the Rus-
sians pounce upen Constantinople or afterwards?
Here, too, we presume, there can be little
doubt. Conquest is distinctly one of those evils
which it is easter to prevent than to remedy. It
may
,not prove a severe task for a British (less
hazardous still for a combined) fleet to strangle
the Russian enterprise in the cradle of
Odessa ; but whose fleet and whose army are
to dislodge the captors of the metropolis of
Turkey ? Let Englishmen bear in mind that
there is such a thing as settling a dispute in a
manner the most satisfactory by advpinistering a
good knock-down blow at once. If an eneutty .
o may,lp ,outnhsoaott: negotiations,b
hyes;p aattthiildee
believes that we are afraid to strike, he witi do
us, for
so for us. If Russia should have persuaded
oh
re
despatches,r: sveilllf,
barnd well i
ng osLhaoecrdti
rest of it, are the only force which England can
game is up already. But let her see a few
admiral's flags flying, some twenty sail of the
line or so, a proportion of heavy frigates, a divi-
sion of steamers throwing 84. b. shells, and ten
or twelve battallions of infantry and marines for
a coup de main, and v‘e are ready to lay a mode-
rate wager that the course of the negotiations
will experience a speedy change, or that a tew
broadsides, should such sort of protocols be neces-
sary, will soon bring Russia back to her guoil
manners, and possibly to her senses also. We
arc foes to war. We abhor it. The sole j usii-
able end of war is peace. But peace is hopeiess
through cowardice or dishonour ; for the enemy
who kicks us once with impunity will kick again,
be it but for sport. Let the country, then? lat