The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1854-04-20
The Issue Of the Euroucan War.


Strenuous endeavors are being made by the
press in Great Britain and France to persuade
people that the allied Powers must be victorious
in the war now commencing. The supposed
weakness of Russia is paraded before the public,
and the preparations made by her enemies are
magnifed by contrast. Victories both in the
Baltic and the Black Sea are as confidently an
ticipated as the repulse of the Russian invaders
on the Danube; some sanguine prophet has
even gone SO far as to foreshadow the future
partition Of the Russian territory and the re-
striction of the Gar to an empire scarcely
larger than that of his predecessors eight or ten
| centuries ago. AS usual, these anticipations
| have found a ready echo on this side thelAt-
lantic. American journals have been heard to
pronounce prophetic elegy on the fall of Rus
| sian ambition Nor has the task seemed I'M
| grateful. Here as well as in England, the con-
| test about to begin has been represented as
| struggle between civilization on the one side
and barbarism on the other and we have been
told time and again, that if Russia is success
full in the war, the whole of Europe will be Cos
sack, and the cause Of enlightenment will be re-
.
the Western Powers are victorious, we are no.
titled that their triumph will be the triumph of
civilization, and that liberty and the arts will
penetrate Russia several centuries sooner than
they would have done without this accident.
| We are not so sure about the correctness of
these views as some of our countrymen seem
70 be. There is no doubt that the complete
trim If nd i'm of will
sacks upon the central and western countries of
Europe, would be attended with consequences
which we could not but deplore. But no one
seems to ask the question, what effect would
the complete triumph of the Western Powers
have upon the United States
Let US suppose for instance that the antici
pated victories Of the allied fleets are followed
by similar victories of the Turks on land. Let
us allow that Sir Charles Napier not only
passes the guns of Cronstadt and Helsngfors in
safety, but captures those fortresses, bockades
St.. Petersburg and invests it-that the COM
bined squadrons in the Black Sea are equally
successful at Sebastopol and Odessa-that
Omer Pacha, reinforced by $4,000 English and
French troops, compels the Russians to re-cross
the Danube and Pruth, and marches victorious
ly towards Moscow-in u word, that the Car,
thunderstruck by the rapid march of his enc
mics, and paralyzed by disasters, negotates u
dshonorable peace, and leaves Turkey in the
hands Of France and England what will then
be the condition of Europe as far as this coun-
try is affected:
England will have secured beyond all dispute
the road to the East. Better than Egypt and
Gambia, she will hold Constantinople-if not
directly, in the shape of a protectorate and
the key to the Euxine will he hers, as the key
to the Mediterranean is now. On the Baltic she
will have secured valuable privileges. Russia.
her only formidable rival except France, will be
humbled; and in proportion to the injury in
ficted upon the one will be the benefit reaped
by the other. France will have enough to do,
at the end Of successful war to keep her army
and her revolutionary rabble in order: and be-
sides, France has no navy of any Importance to
compete with that of England. The latter.
paramount in Europe, and secure in her route
to the East will be fully enabled to carry out
the plans she is even now laying in China. TAX
ing advantage of the state of anarchy into which
that immense empire is being thrown, England
will make second India of its provinces, and
plant her nag on every fort, and at the mouth
of every river. Her national prestige in
creased, her army and navy in perfect order,
her popular spirit aroused, her commerce in
creased, her naval advantages developed to the
highest point-without any revolutionary fer
mentation at home to disturb, or any foreign foe
10 disquiet her---Great Britain would emerge
from such war greater than she has ever
been.
Could that greatness be ianoevoss 70 Us? We