The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1854-06-04

Of the city, the socla' condition . inhabitants,
the yitated state of its currency ia hospitals and
fiars, and the pleasures and annoysnces which are
to be met with by the stranger, are described in
most graphic and interesting manner.
Turkey and Cuba-The Detachable Lands OF
he Two Hemisphs res.
There is strikin ,nalogy between the pre-
sent p litical situation of Turkey an Cuba,
both as regards tn popularity Of their geo.
graphical position, and the pref ks which it
furnishes for foreign Intervention in their in
ternal affairs They may be said to form the
keys to the political supremacy of the Euro
pean and American ntinents, and we accord
ingly find them respectively converted into
sort of debateable ground, upon which the
struggle for mastery between the contending
forces Of both will probably be for some years
carried on.
As in all the great contests that have hither-
to desolated the world, we find in both cases
the most Pharasaical pretences put forth to pal
late resort TO force to carry out the i'll con-
cealed and selfish objects OF the governments
interested In the one, the alleged motive is
religion; in the other, it is philanthropy. Sin
gular Notifications for the enormous sacrifice
of life and the wide spread misery which the
ambition and cupidity of rulers entail upon
humanity
Great as has been the cutlery raised against
Russia for yelling her objects under a religious
guise, we do not look upon her conduct in this af
fair as whitmore hypocritical or dishonest than
that of England and France. Why, what are
the facts? 1t was the interference of France
with the regulations of the Porte respecting the
Holy Places that afforded the immediate pre-
text for the exaggerated pretensons put forth
by the Car through the medium of Prince
Menschikof. The former Power, with view
to Interior projects of its own, had in 1852,
through her ambassador, NJ Lavalette, de-
manded and obtained from the Porte the Goa
cessions that the key of the great gate of the
Church of Bethlehem should be restored to the
Patriarch of Jerusalem, who had been dele
gated by the Holy See to keep it-that star,
ornamented with a Latin inscription, which had
disappeared in 1s47 from the Grotto of the
Nativity, should be replaced there, and that
the Latin community should be accorded the
right of celebrating their religion in the Church
of the Holy Virgin. Now, these objects, i'm
portant and praiseworthy as they may be in an
abstract point OF view were certainly not of
sufficient general Importance to warrant tie
establishment of On additional precedent for in
teryention in the regulation Of the internal af-
fairs of Turkey. Russia had already mani
tested g sufficiently strong desigo to avail her
self of similar pretexts to carry out her designs of
territorial aggrandiSement, to render any move
ment of this sort on the part Of another Power
impolitic and ill-timed. But France, as we have
already said, had other motives for this show of
sympathy with the Eastern Christians than
she chose to assign and had the CONFESSIONS
that she demanded been refused by the Porte,
we should soon have seen the cloven foct de-
veloped. The truth is, that she had at the time
two powerful reasons for rendering her anxious
to pick quarrel with the Perte if decent OPP
portunity had offered. The desire to arrest,the
encroachments and to curb the growing power
of Russia on the one hand. and TO obtain foot
hold in Asia, by which she might cripple the
influence of England and cmbarrass her free
with her Indian possessions, |
were u doubt, the real objects of this prelini- |
nary move. Could she have decently exagge- !
rated her demands so as to render it impossible |
or the Porte to avoid rupture, it is certain
hat she would not have hesitated to do SO.
Russia, with q keen appreciation of the de-
signs of her rival, saw that there was no time
10 be lost in actively pushing forward those
projects which have formed the main features
Of her policy for the last century and half
The previous concessions extorted by her from
the Porte only served as stepping stones to
more exaggerated demands, and the limit ID
power of interference in the religious affairs of
the Turkish empire, obtained by the treaty of
Kainnrdj was made the basis Of the peremptory
condition of the spiritual protectorship over
twelve millions of Ottoman subjects. Au-
dacious and INSCRIPTIONS as were these new
professions of Russia, France at least had
no right to complain of them. She had set
the example of giving a fanatical coloring to
her political objects, and if she did not push
the latter to their full extent, it was owing less
to her modesty than to the difficulty of estab-
fishing plausible grounds for them. She had
no antecedent rights of prescription that
would have justified her before Europe in in-
sisting upon more than she obtained; and hay
ing got all she asked, she was obliged to assume
an appearance Of contentment.
The previous conduct Of England with re-
gard to Turkey, presents in no less hy,o
critical light the grounds Of her Intervention
in the present quarrel. In the credit accorded
to the English Cabinet for its alleged disincli-
nation not to entertain the proposals Of tn
Gar for the partition OF that country, it seems
to have been entirely overlooked that this idea
was neither very novel nor very shocking
one to the English mind. 1t should not be for
gotten that in 1907, when France and England
were engaged in hostilities, and when il was
feared that the Porte which was then al war
,r;tb pues;a uould hecoma an ally of France.