The Sun.
London, England, 1856-04-29 00:00:00

TEIE PE .CE TREATY-.

Lord PALMERSTON laid upon the table of the
house, by command of her Majesty, papers relltive
to the conference lately held at Paris, and also a copy
of the treaty of peace. The noble lord than moved that
the papers be taken into cinsideration on Monday next.
Tue motion was agreed to.
DAY OF THANKSGIVING.

Lord PALMERSTON said, by an order in Cannel],
Sunday next had been apppinted as a day of general
thanksgiving for the return of the blessing- of peace.

WHITSUNTIDE HOLIDAYS.

In answer to the question of Lord J. MANNERS,
Lord PALMERSTON sail it was intended to adjourn
from Friday, the 9tb, till Friday, the 16th of May.

FALL OF KARS.

Mr. WHITESIDE then, in a full house, rose to move
the fallowing resolution:—

" That, while this house feels it to be its duty to express
its admiration of the gallantry of the Turkish soldiery, and
of the devotion of the British officers at the Siege of Kars, it
feels it to be equally a duty to express its conviction that the
capitulation of that fortress, and. the surrender of the army
which defended it, thereby endangering the safety of the
.Asiatic Provinces of Turkey, were in a great measure owing
to the want of foresight and energy on the part of her Ma-
jesty's Administration."

The hon. and learned gentleman spoke as follows :
I claim, sir, the indulgence of the house while I endea-
vour to prove that the resolution which I have risen to
propose ought to be affirmed by its members.,l have but
slender claims upon the notice of those lion. gentlemen
whom I address, but it is my hope that, owing to the
importance and the magnitude of the subject with which
I am about to deal, I shall receive that consideration
and attention which under other circumstances I might
not be entitled to expect. From inquiry into the fall of
Kars, and into the circumstances and the policy which
led to that event, it would be impossible to escape, and if
in the prosecution of that inquiry it should be found ne-
cessary to comment upon the political conduct or cha-
racter of public men, that duty, however disagreeable,
must be performed, if to discharge it be essential to the
interests of the country. (Rear, hear.) The hon. gentle-
man who opened our proceedings this present session of
Parliament alluded in an eloquent and graceful speech
to the position of that minister who by a glorious peace
should terminate a glorious war. He sail, arid with
some truth, that a minister so fortunate might well be
contented to repose upon his laurels. I accept the
sentiment, but I fear I must disturb the delusion which
seeks to apply it to the circumstances of our day. Mine
must to-night be a gloomy retrospect. I have to call
the attention of my hearers to a splendid opportunity
lost, I fear, for ever ; to the sacrifices of a gallant army;
to the abandonment of the bravest of our countrymen ;
to the military triumph of Russia ; and t the diem).
pointment of the fond hopes of the nation. The attitude
exhibited by Parliament during the last few months
must, I apprehend, have produced a feeling of respect
among the states of Europe for representative govern-
went. Calm, dignified, forbearing, Parliament has ab-
stained from observation upon questions of the deepest
political importance, when to debate or to make com-
ment upon them appeared to be prejudicial to the inte-
rests of the public. (Iltar.) That forbearance must
not, however, be confounded with indolence or with
apathy. This house can be alive and active in the per-
formance of its duties and in the assertion of its autho-
rity when a suitable time for the exercise of its high
fanctions has arrived. That time has now come. I can
conceive no responsibility more awful than that which
devolves upon a minister i.f the Crown who undertakes
to advise his Sovereign to embark upon that which may
be a bloody and a protracted war. No great war ever
left a nation in the same position in which it f iund her ;
and the advantages, the! efere, expected to be derived
from its prosecution ought to he proportionate to the sa-
&file and to the loss which it must inevitably
(Hear ) I can conceive a minister c.insulted upon this
queetion revolving in his mind theanswer which he should
give to his Royal mistress. I can conceive that minister
retiring into his closet, glancing over the history of
Russia—passing in review the provinces which she has
n exed, the kingdoms which she bits incorporated, the
mations she has conquered. I can then conceive him
t arniog his eye--the eye of a statesman—upon the map
of Russia in the East, and rising from its contemplation
with a feeling of consternation and amazement—of con-
sternation at the result, of amazement at the infatuated
policy by which that result was brought about. I can
further conceive that Minister !arriving at a clear and
saltisfactory conclusion that it was his duty to his Sore-
re:gn to advise her—under God's blessing—to grapple
with an eneniv ti whose aggression submission would be
dangerous.e
the h“u se c a
oel Titairnrhaostecti
ati question
ji;
commencedls(tico i whitch alt a m
onceal Ty t
an t o l a y before
immediate
reference to the blue book upon the tab:e. There are
arguments historic, political, and geographical, all tend-
ing to prove that. if war broke out between Russia and
was wouldal
ibveectoointehtehe responsibilityparam nt
odfu duty of a
position M i-
'Tniustrkereywihto
to assist
Power
w hat e
ht the
realityright
al
tailed
di
wmi.
us,
:sar
author
eupd
ntp t
ic‘oveori,ritt thecer g Et ei
nrargtoi
lgf
i:htr right
lh
tract
e means,our,t r
interests.ay
England, Russia, and Persia."
was to
I pli'll:ui-ibillule:)thit''.l3ehettoectayinterest which each of those states possessed
in re lation to the others, an I to establish that which
ought to be the true policy of England in reference to
Persial, and in opposition to the designs of Russia. He

fort is the same distance from Hoe that Kars is from
Gumri—namely, about 23 miles. The constant policy
of Russia in that quarter of the world has been that after
she has made war upon another state she exacts an ire
demnity at its termination, and if the indemnity cannot
be paid she takes a province as a "material guarantee"
for the fulfilment of the engagement. In fact, she obtains
a mortgage which she intends to foreclose, leaving the
mortgagor no equity of redemption. But her position
now is that she holds the fortress of Abarrabard, within
23 miles of Hoe, and that whenever she pleases she can
extinguish your trade by seizing on the town of Hoe.
That was the state of things at the outbreak cf the war in
1853. Now a word with respect to the condition of
Asiatic Turkey. It is not necessary to remind the
house of the territory which Russia has already seized in
Asiatic Turkey. It is a principle of ,her policy, never
lost sight of or forgotten, that the vital strength of Tur-
key consists in her Asiatic provinces, and that, there-
fore, whenever a war begins between her and Turkey she
must strike at that Asiatic territory. That is a funda-
mental principle of Russian policy. But there is a
geographical consideration in the case, and a very serious
one. What is the route of Russian power as against the
Eastern empire of England, against Persia, and against
Asiatic Turkey ? It is Georgia. But how can she get
to Georgia She gets across the steppes of Southern
Russia, passing along a causeway constructed by the
Empress Catherine; and the defiles which her troops
have to traverse in that quarter are commanded by hos-
tile tribes. Her great difficulty, therefore, has ever
been to maintain a sufficient force in Georgia to enable
her to carry out her designs against Persia and Turkey.
The consequence was that the late Emperor Alexander
d..clared he had no object of aggression, that he had
already too much territory, and that he only wanted to
concentrate the power be had already acquired. He
looked about him and saw on the Black Sea) Pitte,
Anapa, and the river Rion. They suited his purpose
and he took them. From their neighbourhood a road
passes on to Georgia, and thus Russia obtains an en-
trance to that province which she could otherwise
only enter by the perilous passes of the Caucasus.
These are facts which cannot be disputed, and to
which any British Minister must at the outbreak of
the war have directed his attention. I believe
there is no more interesting or instructive study
in connection with this question than that of the
campaigns of Prince Paskiewitch in 1828-9. Military
men have written volumes upon that subject, and have
expatiated at great length on the consummate ability
with which Russia has worked out her plans in that re-
gion. They tell us how Prince Paskie witch seized on
the strongholds of Asiatic Turkey in a shorter time than
had ever before been known, and conquered one fortress
after another until he was left in a difficulty as to whe-
ther he should march from Erxe-outa ou Ginstantinople,
or whether he should, as the Emperor, it is said, in-
tended, conquer all the vast countries stretching towards
the Persian Gulf. Those provinces he ultimately left
untouched, in consequence of the apprehended oppo-
sition of England to their Bemire. It has been asked
why Prince Paskiewitch did not march on Trebizond ;
and the question is important on account of some
astounding revelations contained in this blue book.
He had instructions to march on that city ; and
why did he not do so with his victorious army ?
The reason why he did not do so was that he
found the road to Trebisond almost impracticable for
artillery. I am not aware whether any doubt has
been cast on the authenticity of that singular docu-
ment known as the will of Peter the Great. I am not
in a condition to say whether or not it be genuine ;
but it, is at least a remarkable circumstance that the
author of that document bequ ,aths to the successors of
Peter, as a policy never to be forgotten, that Russia
was to march towards the East ; that she was to
overthrow Persia; to conquer Turkey ; and then, it
was added, that the power which ruled at Constantinople
must govern the world. All there facts were patent to
the
war English ministry, who had to consider, when
h
war broke out between Russia and Turkey, what_ course
they they should advise her Majesty to pursue.. I forgot to
state that the lieutenant of Prince Paskiewitch, thatt,
famous campaign, was an officer knovvn
tb,3; theput tnhaem( right
Mouravieff, and Russia, knowing how
at the head of her
man in the right place, placed
bar the outbreak of the
army in the same quarter
late war, leaving
him to accomplish the work which
Prince Paskiewitch had left undone. (Hear, hear.)
I do not feel it necessary to enter, upon this occasion,
into any review of the origin of the war. I will
adopt upon that subject the views of the statesmen who
first embarked in it, and treat it as essentially a de-
fensive war—a war undertaken for the purpose of main-
taining the independence and integrity of Turkey.
What was our policy at the commencement of the war
in the year 1853? A French gentleman said to me last
autumn—" I so admire the book of your Seymour ; it
is so droll." However this might be, there was one
thing in these despatches which was not droll. The Res-
Sian Minister had said to Sir H. Seymour that it would be
impossible to settle with Turkey till she had been set-
tled with by a defeat. To this the reply was, a reply
which he (Mr. Whiteside) could not admire—that
as long as the ends required wire attained, it did
not matter about the means. This was au answer
he could not reconcile with justice or policy.
What hail been the condition of Turkey in 1829 ?
Her troops were disorganised, her spirits broken,
her people dispirited. In 1853, on the contrary, the
people were enthusiastic, the name of Mahomet was in-
voked, the people threw money into the Treasury, and
the universal feeling among the Turks was, that it was
better to negotiate with Russia on the Pruth than on the
Danube. England had interposed and prevented this—
it might have been right for her to do so, but it then be-
came the bounden duty of England ssist her ally in

to separate Persia from Turkish interests: This
letter was written in August. One of the points
with which General Williams was to inquire into was
to discover a great general. He observed that Lord
Clarendon was in want of a filet-rate general, and he
hoped Lord Clarendon would have foaled him. LTo would
have been of great use in the ensuing campaign. There is
another letter from General Williams describing the state
of the supplies, and above all the arrears of pay then due
for the nine months. In the letter was a most important
fact, that of General Williams pressing upon the attention
of Government the state of our relations with r ersia. This
letter was written in September. About December arose
the quarrel between our ambassador and General Williams.
What were the motives of Lord Stratford he could not
pretend to ascertain, but the quarrel then began—if quar-
rel it could be called—in which one party gave no cause of
offence, and the other never explained the reason for his
feelings. He explained that General Williams had order(
to mind copies of his despatches to Lord Stratford and to
Lord Raglan, and then to have them forwarded to London,
but the roundabout plan was wisely abandoned. At Erze-
roum, General Williams met with that excellent young
officer Teesdale, and two other officers were sent him by
the Government, so that the total of the contribution of
the Government to the great war in Asia was five men and
a doctor. These were, however, men such as could rarely
he found elsewhere; these noble specimens of their race
and country had gained the affection of an army which had
declared themselves ready to follow them to death; and
these wero the men who had been abandoned to a dismal
fate. (Lout cheers.) In December, 1854, General Williams
addressed a letter to the Secretary of State. It appears
that the only or der given by the Ministry was touching the
release of some ladies taken prisoners by Schamyl. This
touched the gallantry of our Secretary. It would be ob-
served that General Williams had addressed fifty-four de-
spatches, and to them he had no answer. He (Mr. White-
side) held the Ministry responsible for these things, and
when he said the Ministry, he meant the Prime Minister,
whose duty it was to read all important documents. Gene-
ral Williams talks about the golden opportunities they
were losing ; what were these golden opportunities but the
opportunities of striking a blow at the power of Russia in
Georgia, at Tiflis, and attacking that stronghold of Russia
against Turkey and Persia. In January, 1854, Lord Cia-
renden wrote to Lord Stratford. In his letter Lord Claren-
don requested that the insult to General Williams as a Bri-
tish envoy should be redressed, and that his proper title
should begiven him. No iv this was the only casein w hich Ge-
neral Williams was wrong; for the title given him in the Turk-
ish document referred to was as long as his arm. And yet this
was the only thing in the whole course of the preliminaries in
which our ambassador got the better of the commissioner.
Now there were bold avowals in Lord Stratford de Rad-
cliffe's despatches that he had disobeyed the instructions of
the Foreign Secretary, and this would give the house an
opportunity of investigating the constitutional constitution
to which he would further advert after he had read one or
two more extracts. He understood that Lord Stratford de
Redcliffe made some defence to not having replied to the
54 unavailing despatches. but that was before he condes-
cended to write to Col. Williams. On the 28th of Decem-
ber he wrote a letter, in which he stated Col. Williams had
been hasty in his desire to obtain answers to his letters,
and because he did not write to him as fast as he wished
he communicated with Lord Raglan on the subject. The
noble lord must be of a vary phlegmatic temper to write
such a letter as that. (Hear.) It was plain from these and
other letters that the documents alluded to were sent to
Lord Raglan—it was plain that that noble and estimable
lord had sent his opinions upon the question in dispute, and
it was plain that his lordship's letters were suppressed.
(Hear.) Well, Lord Redcliffe employed a certain gentle-
man of Constantinople—a Count Pisani—to obtain answers
to a long series of queries. He performed that duty much
to the satisfaction of the ambassador; but the Foreign
Secretary would be a very innocent man if he believed a
tenth part of the answers to the queries so reported to him.
It was a somewhat remarkable circumstance, but one no
doubt which would be well understood, that when Lord
Stratford wanted anything done he went himself, but
whenever he wanted a thing not to be done he sent this
Count Pisani. Pisani trembled before a pacha. The pasha
told Pisani what he liked, and Pisani told the ambassador,
who immediately said " Pet that down ;" and in such a
form it came to the Foreign Secretary at home. It 2413-
peered to him that from the beginning Lord Stratford de
Redcliffe understood that he was violating his duty, and
this view of the case received a strong confirmation from
o mat
the fact that, at the close of the volumeuantity whichf
contetarienoeld.
these despatches, he found a large q
lected together for the purpose of defence. This circum-
stance reminded him of a man who committed a murder.
e pur-
He made his escape and
ewehneteahiodmlen.:awentnd
manner, u
fboeri nt gh
whilst
asked
t
L
the reason for going hum , _
corresponding, Pisani was
liffreant hv'c'etta trial which he knew must
posemoai d S
making
nogf t rupaprtef
tpo
bar
edr
dnd
ege f
eltn ecYde cde f
take place.
Mr. IeA.BOUCHERE—Count Pisani is a dragoman.
Mr. WHITESIDE—Yes ; be was aware of that fact.
What did this country pay, he should like to know, for the
large force of officials which we kept up at Constantinople ?
First, there was the ambassador ; then the secretary, Lord
Napier, who appeared to be equal to the ambassador him-
self; then an oriental secretary, and six or seven attaches.
Why, then, should not this business have been transacted
by one of those gentlemen, instead of by a Levantine
count? For aught he anew the ambassador did not speak
to any one of those gentlemen, or perhaps Count Pisani
would undertake matters to which they would not for a
moment consent. ( Hear.) He had been told that three
English gentlemen had been specially appointed there on
account of their knowledge of the Turkish language, but
they never seemed to be employed in the performance of the
duties of their soustry. Now having disposed of Count
Pisani, he would turn to Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, who
after going through the queries, said :
" But the well-known proverb, which contrasts the faci-
lity of bringing a horse to water with the impossibility of
forcing him to drink, is no less true at Constantinople than
in London or Pails. Unfortunately, too, the horses whose
reluctance I have to overcome, are not without circum-
stances to excuse, though not entirely to justify the slow-
ness of their pace ;"_ and then to this were appended some
thatw which was.
would
remarks upon Lord Bacon and other writers. Now he (Mr.
this—did
ddeL)
owrdousltdravteronrtdurdeetßo
alas'
le he pursued such a
ever have any hold on public opinion, or that any respect
would be attached to his office wheat.)
course of conduct as this ? (Hear, hear.) Could hiappeaL
eratlaclkieffeg'breelimes'''ork
to public opinion in the present day, if the acts he cam.
mitted in plain violation of histtinel pub,lic. hdim uty
i were protectedn an office for
by the Government, which re
which he had clearly proved himself unfit. Of what use
was it to be moralising about Bacon, except to prove that
a man might have great talents, and at the same time great
vices, and that while cultivating lighter literatare be was
neglecting the heavier concerns of State. And then he
used thew remarkable words :
" It. remains for me to say a word about my release to
Colonel Williams. It originated in my desire not to an-
nounce measures which might not be carried into effect,
for I preferred giving him an answer in full, and then
found I had not time."
Why, word every that the noble lord wrote was iuconsis•
tent with something ho had written before, Sometimes