The Sun.
London, England, 1856-11-21 00:00:00

Spirit of the Public Journals.

(Frees the 11Ioininy Post.)
When the Treaty of the loth April, 1834, was
signed between England. and France, the enthusi-
asm of this nation was at a white heat. We en-
tered into the war with the highest hopes and from
the purest motives, and for a period of two years
under the greatest discouragements and privations.
Our army, thousands of miles from home and
country, fought and conquered in a manner
worthy of the British name. At first, as is always
the case after a long peace, there were mistakes
and errors innumerable. But, as we got seasoned
in the !hard work, our hands improved ; and at
the beginning of 1856 there never probably was an
army more compact and serviceable—there cer-
tainly never was a fleet better prepared to sweep
the seas than the fleet of Great Britain.
Had the war gone on the fame of a country
that produced a Marlborough and a Wellington, a
Blake, a Nelson, and a Collingwood must have been
greatly aggrandised, and the power of Russia com-
mensurately humbled to the dust. The enemy,
' when we began to feel the mightiness of our giant
strength, and were preparing to use it, evinced a
disposition to concede and listen to reason, and
then this great Empire, disregarding every sug-
gestion of further national glory, hearkened only
to the voice of duty, and was prepared to listen
to conditions of peace. The army and the fleet,
disregarded everything like professional feeling,
acquiesced in the arrangements of diplomatists,
and even the nation at large, including the very
humblest of the people, after some significant mur
inuring, at length, though reluctantly, acquiesced
in consenting to a hurried peace. Sentiments of
generosity, after a time, succeeded in the popular
breast to the feelings of indignation that were
roused in 1854, and as the humblest tradesman and
labourer discussed the question, the conclusion was
frequently summed up thus :—" Well, we have
beaten the Roosians three times over, and now that
they have been properly flogged as they deserve,
the outlandish Offskis and Ouskis will surely con-
cede proper and fitting terms of peace."
This was the apparently rational reasoning also
of men in a much higher grade. But neither
our peasantry, handicraftsmen, faimers, nor squires
—neither our merchants, bankers, nor manufac-
turers, know the Russians or their policy
thoroughly. So long as the Muscovites are harassed
by difficulties, of surrounded by imminent and
eeadly dangers, there are ne concessions, however
humble, they will not promise to nie':e to procure
an alleviation of their miseries or a cher ge in their
fortunes. But once remove the pressure from their
necks—once give them the use of their hands, their
feet, and' their weapons, and they turn them all
three speedily against you.
Has not this been literally and truly the case
in the Peace of Paris, signed in the month of March,
1856 ? At the instance of the Russians we ac-
ceded to terms, and agreed to treat. We
granted conditions far more favourable than we
needed to have granted, or than was justified by
the conduct and character of the enemy. The com-
pact, however, is at length signed, and hardly is
the ink dry before the perfidious and faithless
Power which imploringly sued for a cessation of
hostilities iu January, endeavours to wriggle out
of the conditions nominated in the bond of March,
and attempts to render the instrument mere
waste paper. Yet this is the false, faithless, per-
fidious Power, with the questions of the Isle of
Serpents and Bolgrad branded on its brazen front,
that dares to talk by its mercenary organ, Le
.Nord, of the unanimous reprobation with which
the acts of England have been received on the
Continent. Certain newspapers on the Continent
for a valuable consideration paid in silver roubles
or the Dutch ducats current in St. Petersburg, have
no doubt attempted to sully the fair fame of Eng-
land ; but these newspapers are either under the
direction of Russian gerants or Russian editors, or
they receive the articles ready cut and dry from the
nearest Russian Embassy, and are counted out as
ninon in roubles or in ducats for inserting them,
either as a portion of correspondence or as a lead-
ing article.
For fifty years or more Germany has been inun-
dated with Russian Councillors of State—some of
them Greeks, some of them Wallachs, some of them
Courlanders, some of them Finns, some of them rene-
gade Germans, some of them Swiss, some of them
Pole 4, Frenchmen, and Italians—all engaged in
corrupting the German press, in writing articles—
a labour above greater skill than even these knaves
possess—in praise of the honour, honesty, and glory
of Russia, and in abuse and vilification of England.
When these men cannot accomplish the insertion of
an article editorially, they manage to secure its in-
sertion by way of correspondence, and thus it is that
those who do not know the carte du pays might
suppose that such diatribes were the spontaneous
effusion of the German mind. No ;it is not so.
Evay one of these articles is prepare" with a deadly
venomous political purpose—prepared for Russian
pay, printed for Russian pay, and published for
Russian pay. It is a well-known fact, and has been
so for more than half a century, that Russian gold
has been profusely distributed among newspaper
offices at Berlin, Munich, Vienna, Breslau, Dres-
den, and Hamburg ; indeed, we may say at every
Court, camp, and town iu Germany, Holland,
Denmark, and Sweden. In cases in which money
cannot be tendered, or would not be received, there
are snuff-boxes with the Emperor's portrait in dia-
monds ; Russian orders of the second, third, nod
fourth class ; presents of rare wines, books, or pic-
tures or statues ; or the appointment of sons,
cousins, or grandsons to cadetships in one of the
scores of Russian corps. It is by a system of the
vilest and most wide-spread corruption that Russia
succeeds in veiling and masking her own treacheries
and in raising a hireling cry against England.
Even in Brussels itself, within sight of our
shores, a Russian hireling organ has been estab-
lished—set up with the Emperor's money, and con-
ducted by the Emperor's mercenary tools ; and it
is the unceasing object of this print—Le Nerd—to
create jealousy and between France and
England. The Emperor of Russia allows no free
press in his own country, but lie avails himself of
the liberty of the press existing in Belgium to print
slanders against England, and to provoke ill-will
between this country and France. A policy more
diabolical it is impossible to conceive. But the sys-
tem deceives no well-informed person of any coun-_
try ; for every human being of intelligence and
education is aware that the opinions and sentiments
ventilated aro not German, or Belgian sentiments,s
but Russian sentiments, prepared. to order ftormantd.
Petersburg, and propagated with !.v!gou Ger.
venom proportioned to the pay. Belgians,
WADS, Dutch, Danes, hnd Swedes
andabhor, nayl loathe,
are well lmenough
everything savouring of Russia,
aches-
aware that if by Russian
imachinations an.
elism the English and } rench nlhance. is broken,
thev leaden hand of Russia will lie heavier ou Ger-
many and the smaller kingdoms of the Continent.
What, however, is the crime of England in the
opinion of the Russian scribe of Le Nord ? Her
crime is this, and it is inexpiable with a false and
fraudulent diplomacy. She has held Russia in Oc-
tober to the conditions which Russia was too glad
to sign in March, and she will not relax her grasp
till those conditions be fulfilled both in letter
and in spirit. England certainly does feel that
these are not English, but European questions—.
questions which put in peril the small States
of the Continent, and it is for that reason that
England will not bate one jot, one hairbreadth, of
the conditions of March, 1856. They are not hard;
conditions--they are not onerous; they are far better
and easier than Russia had any right to expect, or
than she deserved ; bUt whether hard or easy,oner-
ous or light, they are " nominated in the bond,"
and Russia must fulfil the conditions or pay
thpenalty. A Man, in the full sense and import of
the word, and not a mere diplomatic machine, now
fills the office of Prime Minister in England,hred
haen
isd
though courteous, conciliatory, and well-bred, earnest as to the faithful execution
.of a great
treaty, and, to use a homely andi express phrase,
d
"will stand no nonsense" ordiplomaticofmayssetliefiTchah-
tion. For thus insisting on the fulfilment
treaty, En gland is called audacious? covetous, jea-
sous, false. Visoouut n is prepared for
these Tartar amenitiesattt Busse. When Russia
calls our country perfidious and selfish we must
feel he has done his duty. We might indeed well
suspect he had erred had he incurred the damaging
infliction of Russian praise.
We are told, however, that if there is an alliance
awnhiacihliahnaese the Byrripathies of the French people, it is
with Rll.
bsia, because France hears in
Russia
an
echo loyalty ! of its own honour and its own
Hear this, shades of Bayard, Duguesclin, and
Francis I.Hear this, shades of St. Louis and
Henry IV.
The chivalry of gallant France com-
pared to the dastardly butchery
and ofSinope ! Is it
true, however, that Russia France naturally
concur together ? The Emperor Napoleon 1., it
will be admitted, knew a little of France and of
Frenchmen, and a very great deal of Alexander
and Russian politicians and statesmen. What did
he (say of Russia :—" Grattez le Russo et vous
trouverez le Tartar." What did he say of Alex-
ander :—" C'est uu homme tout a fait perfide—
c est 'un homme essentiellement faux—eufin c'est
un Grec du bas Empire." What did Napoleon I.
gay of the Russian hordes? Here are his words :
"The Cossacks, Calmucks, and other barbarians who
have accompanied the Russians into France and other
parts of Europe, having once acquired a taste for the
.luxuries of the south, will carry back to their deierts the
remembrance of those places where they bad such fine
women and fine living, and not only will nut themselves
be able to endure their barbarous and sterile regions, but
will communicate to their neighbours a desire to conquer

those delicious countries, What I say to you Is eon.
Armed by the history of all former ages, during which it
has been invariably observed that whenever these bar,
barians had once got a taste of the south of Europe, they
always returned to attempt new conquests aLd ravages,
and have finally succeeded iu making themselves masters
of the country. It is natural-for man to desire to butter
his condition ; and these canaille, when they contrast
their own deserts with the fine provinces they have left,
will always have an itching after the latter, well know-
ing also that no nation will retaliate or attempt to take
those deserts from them." . .

The Emperer Napoleon 111. is a reader of his-
tory, and is more likely to listen to the voice of
the Great Napoleon than to the ravings of the hire-
ling organ of Russia printed at Brussels, but paid
for from St. Petersburg.

(From the Times.)
It seems hardly possible to take the French press
seriously. So far as a journal is official, or semi-
official, we may attach importance to its' state-
ments, as representing the opinions or impulses of
the men who are for the time the wielders of power.

But o'Lherwise an Englishman naturally glances at
the articles of the Parisian newspapers with indif-
ference and listlessness. He knows that written

under the fear of the censor's rod, they will con-
tain nothing but those stereotyped platitudes or
those narrow reasons which authority may safely
permit, since they are either favourable to itself or
likely. to have little effect on the opinions of readers.
Such writings have no importance in themselves,
and only derive an indirect value from the fact of
their being permitted to appear. When a French
journal adds to its meagre intelligence and its trans-
lations from the English press any original remarks,
we are not interested in them except as showing what
opinions the Government thinks may be safely or
advantageously disseminated among Frenchmen. It
is on these grounds alone that w© notice such a
journal as the Assembles Nationale. Let any to 0
or three practised continental writers come to-
gether with the intention of starting a newspaper,
and we may be sure they will agree that the first
requisite for success is to attack England for at
least the first six months. To unveil our perfidies
in the past, and to divine our schemes in the future,
is the task which each young "publicist" ambitious
of reputation sets before himself. If, added to its
other fez-tures, a journal happens to be an opponent
of the reigning dynasty there is so much the more
reason that it should continually denounce and
revile this country. England has wisely deter-
mined to cultivate friendly relations with any de
facto authority which may exist in Paris. On the
other hand, every one of the succession of French
Governments has found it well to keep on terms of
amity with us. Whatever may have been its prin-
ciples or sympathies beforehand, each has in its
day of • power felt the necessity of a good under-
standing with the free, powerful, and Solid com-
monwealth of England, the only country which no
dynastic intrigues were likely to alienate, no bank-
ruptcy to prostrate, no revolution to convulse.
Hence for 40 years we have generally had the
esteem, more or less freely given, of all French
Governments, and, consequently, we have been
successively vituperated by the respective Opposi-
tions, Republican, Bonapartist, Legitimist, and
Orleanist. The Assemblee Nationale is supposed t
represent both the Orleanist and Legitimist fac-
tious of the present day. We may fairly call them
factions, for, in spite of its name and the ante-
cedents of its party, the Assembles in no way sup-
ports the cause of constitutional government, but
devotes itself solely to the family interests
of exiled Royalty, which it endeavours to serve
by grasping at any alliance, however unprin-
cipled and unnatural. For four years the game-
of this party has been to interest the Czar in
the fortunes of the fugitive princes ; and ever since
it has been found that England was in no way in-
clined to forget her national policy in a crusade for
Bourbon restoration we have been the objects of
the most bitter dislike. The Assembles has for
some time past endeavoured to excite French jea-
lousy against our policy and proceedings in the
East. Not able to speak directly against the pre-
sent Government, it contents itself with inveighing.
against the nation which has been the French Em-
peror's steadiest friend. That such a course should
be permitted by an all-powerful censorship has
caused some surprise. But a sort of modified liberty
seems to be accorded to the disaffected press in
France. There are certain things permitted and
certain things forbidden. A paragraph against the
home Government would be followed at once by a
warning, but long diatribes against this country
have been part of the licensed programme all
through the war as well as now. From the coliimus
of the Assembles we are able to lay before our read-
ers a specimen of journalism ale& police.
" Let us be the Allies, and not the Tools of Eng-
land," is the heading of an article in which the theme
of English aggression and perfidy is treated with
more than the usual amount of bitterness, and the
alliance of Russia covertly recommended. The
writer begins by stating his appreciation of the
strength, power, and patriotism of the English peo-
ple. Worthy of regard in many respects we are,
however, chiefly admirable for one great quality—
the genius with which we enter into all the schemes
of our aggressive and Michiavelian Government.
Whatever may have been the opinions of Parlia-
ment, press, or people, we no sooner have a new
word of command from the Foreign-office than
we at once turn round and give the whole
weight of national support to the' Minister
whom we so miraculously comprehend and
trust. Uuiting Punic faith to Roman confi-
dence of greatness, we have the force of both the
rival nations of antiquity, and are thus buiAldliluLuisp
universal domination by land and
sea•
in opinion
of course, in allusion to that agreement
with Austria which has becomeh
last few weeks. It appears
Treatyta of s Paris or not
tp public within
d s tlie
desirous of executing
n the
the Danube ; that Bol-
keeping the Ressia-ssfereopments are matters of small
grad and the Isle of
alternate
es"; but that we wish to at-
importance in 011 r ey
t e direct object
twinFr entooh
being in the present case to keep the Sultan in a
universal
and Aus t an influence
I by
ye
means
h
state of vassalage for as long a period as possible.
France, on the contrary, aspires to no such domi-
nation, "in which there is something incompatible
Let the
allow
Englisho
with her sincere and generous nature." But the
n."
supremacy on the continent belongs to her " by
pt hr ee
ppoonwdeerr
aohf c
eh e rh
uit h
d e a se ,r"
oaw t
n h w
o oofund
e‘
tfi`
oat hn
tee
hse eec
osa
miffe eevcs
atti
otti,
iossnsi sue
jo
tof,
fb sec
oZ:oaAirity,
iie
ssn
ii ass bpp
laoansyidt
e
ttthhh
nts.
The Assembles Nationale saw from the first in
the war only the increase of British power iu the
Mediterranean, and its
forebodings are realised.
English fleets isweep the sea from Gibraltar
to the
to
Circassian coast. England is anxious
show the
world, both East and West, that everything bends
before her. She has humbled the Sultan and
forced him, laying aside the sword of °Liman, to
gird himself with that of the Order of the Garter.
All these are only
Shall France assist in the
us be the allies, but not the tools of England."
Now, we will be plain with the Assembles and
the continental world. The Anglo-Saxon race, by
which we mean England and her progeny, is
growing up to the exercise of almost universal
supremacy ; but it is not one which good and
honest men of any country needt. regret.
It is, we believe, the destiny of this country to
hold a place in the world's annals to which no
other land can aspire. In fact, all history has been
as id were a preparation for the advent of the peo-
ple who are uniting all the nations of the earth into
a single family. Already our language is spoken
by the two most energetic and powerful communi-
ties of the globe, and in the southern hemisphere
another branch of our race is rapidly growing up
to the dimensions of a nation. As for the barbaric
world, it is falling almost wholly under our influ-
ence. The vast reg •as of Asia, inhabited by two-
thirds of the human race, are being penetrated by
the ceaseless energyof the English people. The re-
ligions of Mahomet and Brahma count the great
body of their votaries among the subjects of the
English Queen. Does there appear anything extra-
ordinary in the fact that we should successfully
tender advice at Constantinople, when it is consi-
dered that England is the first Mussulman Power ?
In the remote East China is being brought into
communion with the rest of mankind by the energy
of Englishmen. The empire is convulsed by doe-
' trines borrowed from our missionaries ; and in our
Australian colonies there are Chinese by tons of
thousands, who duly carry back our language and
civilisation along the banks of unknown rivers
into the heart of regions hitherto closed to the
light of knowledge. Our railways and telegraphs
will soon be extended from the Mediterranean and
the Indian Ocean into the heart of Asia. Egypt
has been civilised by our overland mail. Asiatic
Turkey and the shores of the Persian Gulf will soon
feel the regenerating influence. Our travellers ex 033
Africa from ocean to ocean, and a bright future is
dawning on the unhappy race of Ham from the set-
dements 'which we have thickly planted on its coasts.
The immense islands of the Indian seas will soon be
brought into usefulness as stations on the road to.
Australia ; their populations will be civilised, if
capable of the change, and their resources made
serviceable to man. This is the kind of supremacy
in store for England. These are her peaceful
triumphs. lier mission is not to intrigue at Courts
or to flatter factions. She cares little about diplo-
matic influence, or the opinions of narrow and
ill-informed coteries. The Assemblee is right in
saying that our statesmen follow one policy, and
that the nation by a wonderful instinct compre-
hends and supports them. In this country there