reins fa tit Lhitur.
THE WAR FROM AN UNPOPULAR POINT OF VIEW.
Beaconsfield, 26th November 1855. Stn—In Sir Arthur Elton's letter which he addressed to you last week, he asks " where do the advocates of war propose to stop ?" It seems to me no- wise difficult to answer this query. The "advocates" doubtless propose to " stop " nowhere short of their avowed end ; which, as all English people know or may know, consists in putting a check upon the power of the Czar in the South of Europe. Whether this be accomplished by driving Russia out of the Crimea, or by destroying her Baltic fortresses, or by gradually ex- hausting her resources, is not material. We shall assault and batter her in every way in which our armies and fleets can be employed to cripple and in- jure an enemy, with the view to compel her to accept such conditions of peace as the Western Powers deem available to the declared purpose,—namely, the prevention of aggressive acts towards Turkey, as well in Asia as on the Continent of Europe.
Thus much for the avowed aims and ends of this gigantic war. Now, then, I would beg to inquire who are the parties most interested in keeping Russia out of Turkey ? Is it not the Turks themselves, who have in fact shown that they are able and willing to repel Russian invaders ? They re- pulsed the Russians on the Danube, forcing them to retire, after a series of defeats, beyond the Pruth : and has not Omar Pasha beaten them at Ingour ; and has not the army of General Mouravieff received a complete discomfi- ture by Turkish troops before Kars ? If I am told that the repulse of the Russians may prove merely a temporary advantage, and that, without foreign assistance, Turkey will after no long interval succumb to renewed attacks, I rejoin, that it is not competent for a nation to go to war simply because she regards some other nation as likely to grow too formidable. If Russia has designs upon Constantinople, it would be easy for the Western Powers to watch her, and to furnish Turkey with means and appliances calculated to defeat such designs. That is, supposing it of vital importance that Turkey should be upheld in her integrity ; a point which I will concede, if only for the sake of following out the views of the War party and canvassing their merits.
Now, having conceded this, I will pursue the inquiry as to what European peoples, apart from the Turkish, are interested in preserving the dominions of the Sultan intact. Is it the Jewish or Christian subjects of the Sultan ? I doubt it. The majority of the subjects of Turkey in Europe feel no at- tachment to the Porte, by whose officials they are oppressed and insulted, and treated as inferior beings. Surely the example of Russian rule, as exhibited under the mild, just, and prosperous government of Prince Woronzow over South Russia, for the last nine years, up to 1854, must have had its effect in disposing those various races—over whom the Sultan reigns equally with Turks proper—to regard the advent of the Russians as anything but a mis- fortune. And, to say the truth, all impartial lookers-on must confess that the administration of which Odessa is the head-quarters offers a pleasing contrast to that of the Mahometan prince. Lord Stanley, with much frank- ness, recently exclaimed, "God forbid we should be fighting for Mehemet- aniam!" Taken on its own merits, no humane Englishman ought to do so. But neither would I have him fight to exterminate Mussulmen, as sueb. The Mahometan creed is there, with all its attributes, and its civil disabili- ties as enforced against such Of the subjects of the Porte as profess Chris- tianity,—a dismal spectacle enough for an European, certainly, but one which is conveniently lost sight of when we talk of "fighting for the inde- pendence and civilization of nations," as is now commonly done at our public dinners and meetings in England.
In calling the attention of a warlike friend to these inconsistencies on our parts, he replied, "Yes, I allow that to uphold the actual regime in Turkey, would not, properly speaking, appear to be promoting the civilization and Illilependence we talk so much about : but, you see, we intend to press hu- mane and equitable changes upon that Government; changes calculated to ittengthen its hold upon the various fractions of its subjects, and to improve lla internal position." Now to the force of this plea I demur, on two grounds. Firstly, because I conceive that the real power of the Sultan would not be reinforced, but rather the contrary, by letting in the Christian element, thereby arousing violent jealousy in the minds of " the faithful " ; secondly, because I would deprecate interference with the interior administration of another country, on principle. Furthermore; it is exceedingly probable that the interests of Russia would be promoted by placing members of the Greek Church in situa- tions of influence and authority in Turkey. What more natural than that the religious affinity which subsists between the Russians and the inhabitants of some of the fairest provinces on the Danube should operate in favour of the protector and head of that particular section of Christian believers ? I cannot, therefore, help concluding that the Porte would lose rather than gain, by relaxing their actual political disabilities, and admitting Greek Christians to official charges. If, indeed, the national sentiment of England were sincerely bent upon en- forcing humane and civilized government upon a neighbour for its own sake, we need not travel so far to find a fit occasion for displaying that sentiment. An ample field presents itself in the South of Europe, where two peoples, highly favoured by nature, inhabiting two countries, each capable of bearing kind of fruitful produce, lie, people and land, beneath a withering, baleful despotism, which excites the pity and arouses the ire of all gener- ous beholders. If we must go forth to redress the wrongs of suffering fellow men, by all means let us have a crusade to the shores of Parthenope and to the city seated on the seven hills! But no : one of these odious despots is under the special protection of our supposed German ally ; the other, under that of a power whose aid we are unable to dispense with in the prosecution of the present war. Let us then drop the flimsy pretence of a chivalrous purpose, and avow that the real mo- tives for attacking Russia lie in the alarm we feel lest she should stretch her dominion, first towards Egypt, and next towards the frontier of Cau- bul, and so, doubly threaten the possessions—I might perhaps say
the ill-gotten possessions—of Great Britain in Asia. Clearsighted Frenchmen are perfectly aware that these fears constitute, with us, the impelling causes of the war. " We understand them," said M. de L to me in May last ; " and we accordingly do not wonder at the extrava- gant homage which you islanders lavish on our master,* since he lends you powerful armies to fight, your battles : for yours they unquestionably are, and not ours." " Well,' I replied, "if he does so, he doubtless finds his account in it." " True," rejoined M. de L., " he does so find it; but France has not the slightest interest in this conflict. She •onght rather to -wish for the maintenance than the destruction of a maritime power capable of holding your domineering navy in check in the Mediterranean : and then France has no Oriental conquests to defend. But Louis Napoleon was glad to enter into alliance with a first-rate European power,. on any terms. Your Court alone, on the occasion of the coup d'etat, manifested a disposition to • It is rare to bear Frenchmen of any class use the words Emperor, Sovereign, 01 Monarch, in reference to their present ruler. They habitually say " celui-ci,' or " noire monsieur," and sometimes " noire maitre —seldom " Louis Napoleon" even. recognize him and his dynasty ; and in return, he has expended freely, for English objects, the blood and treasure of his helpless subjects. The French have, it is true, always a certain relish for war; being, as we ourselves say, born bataillears ; and since, probably, this contest will, sooner or later, bring some territorial advantage with it to France, it may tend to popularize the present reign : and military enterprises being, as I have observed, the fa- vourite vocation of the French, it suits the personal motives of Louis Napo- leon to carry on some such ; for, whilst the public is excited by prodigious external operations, plots and factions at home are, in a manner, hushed and shelved, and the national vanity overrides all other feelings." " All that you say may be well founded,' I said, "but, somehow or another, it seems to me that you Frenchmen act as if you believed, along with my countrymen, in the generous aims we talk of? " "Not so," answered M. de L.; "we fight, as you have commonly done, equally well without a good cause as with one : we have, however, no voice in the matter. Our present ruler consults only his own will, and disposes of his subjects' life and pro- perty with quite as little concern for what they wish or feel, as does the ruler of that nation whom he proposes to advance in civilization' and in- dependence,'—after the mode of the old saying, lucus anon lucendo,' I pre- sume." .
Having disposed of the false pretences on which the war was undertaken, I propose, in another letter, to consider the real objects ; the importance of which, to England, I am far from denying, whilst I regret to think them uncertain of attainment.
I remain, Sir, your obedient humble servant, H. G.
Previous page
