The Abbeville banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1847-1869, 1856-02-28
lSGHAA q III &WWS
From the Arr York Citizen.
PEACE.

land has apparently borne its fruit-that o
humilia,ing and patched up peace;
peace that leaves the prestige of militar,
glory around the brow OF Russia-Turke,
as dcf,ncclrss as ever at her feet, and tho
E,st more than heretofore impressed witt
her power and greatness.
Should the present peace rumors riper
Snto realitics-should no "slip" mar tho
slippery negotiations do they amount
to? Illuminating concession on the par,
of the Allies, and serious injury to one oi
acknowledgement.
It must be rccollcctcd that the Western
Powers entered on the war with the open
declaration of humLling Russia, and ma
king her sue for peace.
1t is the Allies who sued for peace, and
Russia that has granted it after repeated
applications.
Lord John Russell stated that the libera-
ton of the Danube was sine qua non.
The liberation Of the Danube remains
more, far more, than questionable contin-
gency.
Lord P;.lmcrston proclaimed that Russia
must bc annihilatcd in the Black Sea rs Il
naval power
Instead of that, it is Turkey that has
been annilla,cd-Turkry that has been
driven out of its own waters. for the Sultan
lis to have in the E,,xine only sufficient
number of armed vessels to chastisc pirates,
and all his large naval stations are to hc
commercial ones; but, not so on the side
Of Russia: Nicllolaicif is not to be en-
braccd in the stipula,ions. What is this,
virtually, but a complete surrcndcring Of the
Black Sea to Russia? All foreign armed
vessels are to he cxcludcd-tlc Turks are,
practically, to have nonc-but Russia is to
retain it's CHEF arsenal. This amounts, we
repeat, to a surrender of the Euxine to the
Car. For what purpose does Russia want
war fleets! TO keep out hostile navies, to
crush the Turkish fleet. TO land an army in
Turkey. But the very treaty keeps out
hostile flccts-and before they could arrive
and break through the treaty, Russia might
have crossed the Black Sea with floating
armies from end to end :; the treaty cruslics
the Turkish navy; the treaty !ea:cs an in
.exhaustible naval arsenal to Russia, whose
armies can be securely waited across the sea
in transport ships, since no Turkish navy
would be there, no foreign navy could enter
in time, and the great thrcc-leckcrs lying
in Nicholaicif docks could be launched and
manned before any one could provide
against the contingency. No wonder that
the Gar should agree to sucl, terms.
The Baltic offers as favorable an aspect
as the Euxinc; the Aland isles, the stand
ing menace to Stockholm; Bomarsund,
whose cannon can be heard in the Swedish
capital, are to remain in Russi:.'s Keeping
and the Car is at liberty to restore the for
tifications, and make them stronger than
Cronstadt or Scbastopol. Yet, the Aland
isles were to have been wres,cd from Rus
sia, and, at any rate, Bomarsund was not
u hive DccI sS'"It. 'IuCH NIS tllC putSC
of the Allies-syct, they have n.cedcd from
their position like defeated braggarts.
Russia was to have borne the expenses of
the war. Does it! No! not one word of
this does the Western Powers venture to
whisper. Yet, Palmcrston and Russell,
Grey and Clarendon, alike proclaimed it as
an Indispensable condition Of peace!
On the other hand, Russia said: No terms
will be listened to that do not stipulate an
immediate evacuation Of Russian territory
by the Allies. The Allies evacuate it.
Russia, it is true, gives up its recent con-
quests in Asia, but then it never announced
its intention to retain them. and leaves the
Principalities-but it proclaimed at the
outset that it occupied them merely as a
strategic measure, and voluntarily yielded
their occupatIon-not to Turks, French or
English, but to friendly power-Austria.
Russia stands tcrritorialy just as it did !;
morally, on far higher elevation than be-
fore, since the Allies have abandoned their
terms to accept those of their antagonist
strategically, it is stronger, for the capture
of Kars and Herat, even should the former
he restored to Turkey, have secured the al
]egiance Of almost all Asiatic powers; NOR
ally, it is not weakened, 70. in the Baltic il
has not lost ship, but built new ones: in
the Black Sea it has lost fleet. Lut 50 has
the enemy, Turkey, and the Euxine is more
completely at its mercy than i: was before :;
commercially, it has gained, for its trade
has increased, while that of England has
diminished, and that Of France shows every
symptom Of artificial forcing and real iuse-
sscurity; and financially, it is relatively
stronger than its opponents, having suffered
Al.