The Sun.
London, England, 1856-07-25 00:00:00

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Passing on to the subject of administrative
acknowledged that it led to several important. imp
mei t 3, but confessed that he regarded it altrost'aS a
hopeless matter unless the Parliamentary coustituenc'es
would bestir themselves and give a strong and unmis-
takeable expressio❑ of the popular opinion on the sub-
ject. Mr. Layard, in conclusion, expressed a hope that
his votes in Parliament had given satisfaction to h •
constituents, and was much cheered at the conclusion c f
his speech.
Mr. J. GIBBS, an elector, expressed in flattering
terms his approbation of the Parliamentary conduct of
Mr. Layard, which, he said, had tended to advance
civil, commercial, and religious freedom, while he had
never given one vote adverse to the liberties of the
people. (Cheers.)
Mr. R. DICKENS, though deprecating the strong han-
kering which Mr. Layard had for the war principle,
nevertheless heartily approved his conduct generally, and
moved, amid much cheering, a resolution expressing the
entire confidence of the meeting in him as their repre-
sentative.

[PRICE 4D. STAMPED SD•

MB. LAYARD AND HIS CONSTITUENTS.

AYLESBURY, JULY 24.
Last night Mr. Layard, one of the representatives in
Parliament of this the county town of Buckinghamshire,
presented himself before his constituents, at a public
meeting held in the county ball, to render an account of
hie public conduct as their representative during the ses-
sion about to terminate, in pursuance of a rule he pre-
scribed for himself when they returned him to Parlia-
ment. The meeting was but thinly attended. Mr.
Acton Tindal wee called to preside, and that gentleman
having assumed the chair, and in a few brief observations
introduced Mr. Layard to the audience,
Mr. LAYABD, who on presenting himself was loudly
cheered, after a few preliminary remarks, said this year
had passed, like many others, without any great service
having been rendered to the country as far as home poli-
tics were concerned, but it was not so as regarded ques-
tions of foreign policy. Events had occurred within the
last few months which would tell on this country as long
as they lived, and of which the effect would probably be
felt for generations afterwards. He alluded, of course,
to the conclusion of the war with Russia, and to the
peace recently signed in Paris. His opinions on the war
had been to a certain extent justified, and the prognos-
tications he ventured to put forth about three years ago
had been realised. England, and not only England, but
the greater part of Europe, felt that Russia was assum-
ing a position in the balance of power in Europe which
was tending rapidly to destroy that balance of power,
and with it the liberties, not only of Europe, but even
of the world at large. (Hear, hear.) It was for that
reason that.the war was undertaken ; after the termina-
tion of that ever-memorable siege efforts were made to
bring about a peace.He „h4pper.ed,to be in Paris on
the day the peace was m,g:34de They *ere aware thet
the French Government iVere exceedingly anxious that
the peace should be signed, and that they scarcely con-
cealed their readiness to make every sacrifice to accorn-
OA that object. That feeling of the Government was
encouraged, if not brought about, by a general expres-
sion of sentiment in France, which manifested itself in
rejoicings on the occasion of its signature which he could
scarcely characterise as other than indecent and totally
unworthy a great nation. He did not mean to say that
peace was not desirable. No man could hesitate be-
tween peace and war in the abstract ; but, unfortu-
nately, in France, the abstract question was only con-
sidered, and the real interests involved in it were put
aside altogether. No one could contend that the peace
which had been conc'ude I had given entire satisfaction
to the country. (Rear, hear.) It was received without
enthusiasm, and was accepted only because we felt that
we were not in a position to carry on the contest single
handed. He knew it did not give satisfaction to him ;
bur, probably for the same reasons which influenced
public opinion, he did not oppose it ; and he would tell
them why. When the war was commenced he thought
we should have taken something more than the mere
cause of Turkey into consideration, and that we should
have done something more for the great European
principles at stake in the contest. (Hear, hear.) He
had hoped our action would have extended much fur-
ther than Turkey, and that many questions affecting
the happiness and liberties of millions of the human race
would have been solved by this war. That was a
reasonable hope, but it had been utterly disappointed.
We bad gained something, no doubt, but he maintained
that what we had gained was unequal to the sacrifices
we had made. (Hear, hear.) As respected the ques-
tion of the Danubian Principalities—Moldavia and
Wallachia—those two provinces were occupied by
' between 4,000,000 and 5,000,000 inhabitants speak-
ing a similar language, but differing altogether from that
spoken in Russia, and professing the Greek faith,. Tcose
two provinces were or rather had been—as the reign of
their princes bad now ended— governed by two semi-in-
dependent princes, under the suzerainty of the Porte.
Russia by certain treaties had a right, not of direct in-
terference, but of protecting or rather guaranteeing a
certain form of government in the principalities ; and
she used those treaties and those privileges to establish
a direct right to interfere in their internal affairs, which
led to very serious and fatal results. Whenever it suited
Russia to pick a quarrel with the Porte the first step she
took was to enter the principalities, which she did on
the plea of enforcing the privileges of the people, and so
to excite some popular commotion. One of the great
objects of the war was to prevent Russia having this
pretence of interference, and to abrogate the treaties
which furnished it. This first point, he thought, had
not been attained ; nothing definite had really been
done ; the question had been left altogether unsettled ;
aed that must also be attributed to the indecent haste on
the part of the French Government to conclude a peace
as quickly as possible. It was proposed at the conference
that the principalities should be united into one inde-
pendent province. That question was also deferred ;
so that, in fact, this question of the principalities had
been left entirely undecided--in Paris. Within the last
two months he had been in Turkey, and had conversed
with persons of influence connected with or well ac-
quainted with the paincipalities, and he was convinced
that the opinions he bad formed were correct, and that
what he bad stated to them would come to pass. They
were aware that a new frontier was to be given to Mol-
davia on the Russian side. The frontier line was settled
by Austria, and included above a third of the province of
Bessarabia. We could, and ought he believed, to have
demanded more ; we ought to have retained the old
Beesarabian frontier to the Dnie-ter, which furnished a
good military and weltelefin.-d line. The Russians ac•
cepted the frontieras proposed by Austria, which included
much valuable land, several places of importance, and
would have been an important acquisition to Moldavia.
But what happened ? At the conferences in Paris the
Russians pretended that the proposed frontier could not
be carried out, and they produced a map, which there was
every reason to believe contained a wrong delineation of
the o )untry. They proposed that we should give up nearly
two-thirds of that which we had already agreed to cede,
and adopt a frontier line suggested by themselves. We
had actually accepted those terms. The new frontier
line included no valuable territory, and it was so drawn
across the marshes formed at the mouth of the Danube,
that access could not be had from one point to the other
of the ceded territory, which would be almost u,eleßs to
Moldavia. The only acquisition was, that the mouths of
the Danube were freed altogether from Russian control ;
but she retained still a good military aggressive frontier,
and could always intimidate the adjoining principality.
(Hear.) With regard to the second point—the navigation
of the Danube—that had been undoubtedly secured te
Europe, and he was happy to find that English enter-
prise was already taking advantage of that great opening.
That was one of the good results of the war. Again,
surely we ought to have done something for the Circas-
sians. It was a most ungenerous policy, and utterly un-
worthy of this country, to leave a gallant people, who had
for 40 years fought with very powerful enemie4, to their
fate. (Cheers.) There was no country in which British
enterprise and capital would find a greater outlet than
in Turkey, and which would make greater returns to us,
and therefore it was essential that we should maintain
the very best relations with the Turks. But he regret-
ted to find that our policy towards them was only calcu-

The motion was seconded by Mr. Gibbs, and after a
few words from Mr. IL Watson, was carried by accla-
mation, and Mr. Layard, ace unpaniecl by some of his
political supporters, retired from the hall.

lated to separate us from-Turkey and to throw her into
the arms of France. One of the first results had been

the introduction of the French system of government
and centralisation into Turkey, which was utterly op-
posed to the liberty of a people. After explaining in
some detail the reasons that led to his recent financial
mission to Constantinople, Mr. Layard proceeded to
state that already Russia had commenced violating the
treaty signed in Paris by destroying the forts of Kars,
Ismail, and Reni, which she was bound to give up to the
Turks. He also commented upon their cruel treatment
of the Tartars in revenge for the assistance they gave us
during the war, and ridiculed, as a thing for which there
was no precedent in history, the belief now so generally
entertained, even by such statesmen as Lord J. Rir osll
and others, that Russia would now suddenly abandon
her whole traditional policy and apply herself to the con-
struction of railroads and the like. Passing on to the con-
sideration of the Anglo-French alliance, he said our pre-
sent position as regarded France was utterly unworthy
of this country. No man was more anxious tban he for
a French alliance formed on an equal basis, but he would
never consent to that alliance if the condition was a sa-
crifice of the interest or the honour of England. (Cheers.)
Our position at this moment with regard to France was
exceedingly dangerous, and unless we took care it would
lea tus into great difficulty. (Hear.) He admired the
Emperor of the French as much as any man, but he could
not sympathise with the form of government he had in-
troduced. Adverting to the unhappy social and politi
cal condition of Italy, he (Mr. Layard) said no man in his
senses would deny the existing state of things there, ex-
cept a few who were under the lamentable domination of
priestcraft, which appeared to destroy the moral sense
I that enabled men to distinguish between right and
wrong. Mr. Layard then pointed out in some detail the
reforms required in our military and administrative sys-
tems, to which, now the war was over, he hoped the
country would apply itself ; and criticised, by anticipa-
tion, the forthcoming report of the Crimean Board of In-
quiry, which, he said, would whitewash everybody who
had been accused, and leave them in the enjoyment of
their rank and promotion, while the only persons that
would suffer would be Col. Tulloch and Sir J. M`Neil,
the commissioners sent to the Crimea, who had been left
unsupported by those whose interests they had made every
sacrifice to defend. He looked upon the Government of
this country as a pure monopoly in the hands of a family
party ; but for that the people themselves were alone
to blame, in not taking the bull by the horns and insist-
ing upon a change. In the military service men had
been taught that, unless they bad connexions and means
by which they could bring their merits before head-quar-
ters, they could alone seek for justice through the pub-
lic press. Hence men of every grade in the army wrote
to the Times and other newspapers, instead of applying
•to those who should be their protectors ; and it would
be found that in almost every case where promotion had
been given to such as gained it by merit alone it had
been obtained through the aid of the public press.
He would say all honour to the Times for having come
forward and supported those who deserved well of their
country. The people could never be too grateful to that
journal for all that it did for them duringa great na-
tional crisis. (Cheers.) The hon. gentleman briefly
reviewed the appointment of the Duke of Cambridge to
the chief command of the army—on whom he passed a
• high eulogium, from which appointment he looked
earnestly for an entire reform of our military 03rstem.