New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-11-18
THE CZAR'S MANIFESTO.

AZ he takes care to do but rarely-we may he
sure that his statement is as cOgent and forci-
BILE as the facts will permit. And We think no I'M
martial person, having carefully peruscd hls
momcntous dispatch to Baron BrunnOw OF the
10Th ult. %. S., will say that we.do not fairly
present its substance as follows: " I'm 1896,
" Russia, fighting single-handed against Franco,
Great Britain, Turkey and Sardinia, found
"hersclf overmatchcd and well nigh exhausted;
$50 her yonng Emperor felt constrained
TO purchase peace by submitting 10
oncrous and humiliating conditions In
| $50, Russia, having recovered from the stag
"gcring blows dealt her in the Crimean war,
land seeing the strongest OF her antagonists
"in that struggle nearly PROSTATE under the
Iron heel of victorious Germany, gives nouce
| chat she repudatos and viii no longer con-
"form to the stpulations by which she bound
! "herself in 1867 We say this is Prince Gorts-
! chakoff's real case and that his talk OF sue
cessiye violations of tho Treaty of Paris by
other parties TO it is simply an able states
mans laborious and skilful assignment OF
pretcxts for an act of which they, manilcsty,
were nowise the Indictment, and cannot serve
as the justification.
Nor can any weight be given to his aver
mcnt that Russia purposes TO nullify and over
! ride those articles only Of the Treaty 0i Paris
which restrain her from launching ships OF
| war OH the Euxine and maintaining arscnals
upon its coast. What she does assume Gas
! Earl Granville Justly says is night to decide
/ for herself, without even asking the assent OF
the other parties to that Treaty, to nulliiy
| such portions of that Treaty as she sees tit, at
such times and for such reasons rs her own
| Government shall think proper. III she may
thus annul two articles to-day, she may surely
do the same by the residue tomorrow. ii she
had now given notice that she reclaimed, and
was preparing to occupy, that portion OF Bes-
sarabia which she retroccded to Turkey 10y the
Paris Treaty, her attitude would be no more
. beIligcrcnt and menacing than il is. Nay: the
accession Of q Prussian prince to the headshp
| of NoldO-Wallachia furnishes Il more plausible
pTetext for the reclamation of Russian territory
then surrendered to that quasi-Turbish princi-
pality than for repudiating a maritime adjust
ment which the destruction by her of the
Turkish feet at Sinopc had proved essential to
the reposc Of Europe. but nOwise related to
the navigation of the Danube or the bouuda-
rics of Moldo-Wallacha.
In stating tho case as it is, we are not pass
1
was tolerably clear to all parties, at the
moment of signing the Paris Treaty, that
Russia would be controlled by it exactly so
long as she should feel unable to do other
wise When Prussia was dismembercd by
NapoleOn after Jena, and compelled to resign
half her territory, she recognized no moral
| Obligation to submit 10 chat muilatiOn an hour
longer than she must If France should to-
morrow cedo Alsace and Lorraine to Germany
| as the price of peace, no one imagines that she
would not reclaim them at the lannon's mouth,
| if. ten years hence, she should see Berlin in
vested by a Russian or Austrian army and
! Prussia at the mercy OF her invader. If "a
| European coalition should worst this country,
| and conStrain it to cede Long Island and Maine
! as the price Of peace, we should surely medi
| tate their reclamation at the first favorable
cOniunctlue. 1t were absurd to exact of Russia
| a reverence for engagements contracted under
! duress whereof History affords few examples.
| The most glaringly exceptiOnable feature of
the demonstration is It's abruptness. Russia
has chosen to take without the decorous pre-
liminary of asking. Had she seen fit to pro-
pose European Congress for the primary
purpose of arresting the carnage and devasta-
ton now covering unhappy France with Hood
stained ruins, frankly stating that she should
| seek of that Congress a modification of the
| harsh conditions imposed on her by the Treaty
of Paris, she would have entitled herself to
general respect if not active sympathy. But
she disdains even TO solicit of Turkey a mutual
| application to Europe for u removal of re-
straints which (superficially) fetter them alike,
but bluntIy announces her purpose though
her will were the supreme law. She does not
even demand-she simply takes. Submission
on the part of England would be a confess
sion of weakness equivalent to an abdcation
of all future influence, all moral weight, in the
politics Of the Continent.
Yet England may well pause, in view of the
glaring weakness of her prospective allies.
Turkey is in truth "tle sick man that the late
Car Nicholas so truly declared her, and trem-
bles on the verge of dissOlution; her Sultan
little better than debauched, prOdigal idiot,
her ruling class corrupt and rapacious beyond
belief; Italy has not fairly completed her re-
construction, with her strength sapped by
sacerdOtal hate and intrigue and her finances
hOpelcssly disordercd; while Austria labOr5
likewise under chronic financial embarrass-
mcnt, and still reels from the blow dealt her
power and prestige at SadOwa barely four
years ago. II war against Russia should be
undertaken, every one OF these allies will ap-
peal 10 England for subsidies whercwitl 80
equip and move her armies, on will press loans
upon the London market M rates aud with nm