ENGLISH OPINION ON THE POLISH QUESTION. THE meeting to be
held at Freemason's Tavern on Tuesday next is a sign that the public is by no means satisfied with what the British Government has done in the Cracow affair. There is reason to be dissatisfied. It does not at all appear that the Go- vernment has done what it can and ought to protect British in- terests or European interests, or even to fulfil the professions of the Whig party, the self-proclaimed defenders of" constitutional liberty."
The British Minister has recorded a complaint, denouncing the infraction of public law in terms that leave him no jus- tification in neglecting to act. It would have been easy to act effectually, and on every ground it was incumbent on him to do so. By the annexation of Cracow the Three Powers violate the commercial right of way to North- eastern Europe; a right precious to English interests, as well as to the progress of civilization. By suppressing Cracow, they are expunging the last relics of that warlike nation which was the frontier champion of civilized Europe against the despot barba- rian of the North. Sufficient reasons these for interference, in- dependently of mere "sympathy for the Poles."
The possibility of effectual interference is not less certain. Not one of the Three Powers is a perfectly free agent, or exempt from causes of doubting alarm. The imperative mover in the annexation was Russia, who is the least amenable to civilized influences ; but even she has internal difficulties that detract from her strength. The manufacturers of Russia are jealous of the manufacturers of Poland, or Russian Poland would have been absorbed long ago : any demand for the complete sepa- ration of the alien province would not be without sympathy even in Russia.
Prussia was notoriously outwitted in the Cracow affair. The annexation exposes the province of Posen to be taken in flank ; and the next Northern war will probably be fought in Prussian territory. King Frederick William is strengthening his army, without an ostensible enemy : the foe is his ally of the North. Anxiety about the Rhenish provinces also is a chronic feeling at Berlin. Prussia begins to learn that her real strength lies in con- stitutional freedom—that her true alliance is Western Europe - she would gladly draw closer the connexion in particular with England, who is allied to Germany by family ties. It is not improbable that Prussia would acquiesce in any definite and con- sistent course taken by Great Britain.
Cracow was forced upon Austria. No doubt, it consolidates her frontier ; but at the expense of mooting questions the most embarrassing. Austria would willingly have left the forbidden province alone ; but, unsupported by any determined demands from the West, she yielded to the will of the Autocrat, and con- sented to be the executioner for the Russian sentence—" Delenda est Polonia."
How, then, could the British Government proceed ? The way is clear. Lord Palmerston has at least refused to recognize the annexation of Cracow : it is not for England " un fait accompli." The question is still open. England has done nothing to vitiate her own rights under the treaty of Vienna. But the Three Powers have : by their infraction of the treaty in the matter of Cracow, the question of Poland is reopened—rendered more open than it was before. England is free to demand that Poland should be reconstituted. Were she to do this, as far as the re- cently-annexed territory is concerned, it is probable that Prussia would acquiesce, scarcely probable that Austria would dare to refuse. If Austria did, the withdrawal of the British Ambassador from Vienna would be coercion sufficient.
Why has not the British Government yet taken such a posi- tion ? Three reasons occur to us. There is a traditional deference for Russia, partly as an antagonism to France in " the balance of power"; a deference, blindly followed, which has betrayed English statesmen into a position so little foreseen by them that an alliance between France and Russia against England is far from impossible. England, the professed vindicator of constitu- tional liberty, halts between Russian despotism and European progress, because the routine of diplomacy says that such is the way to keep the balance of power ; and a mere accidental explo- sion may illustrate the folly in the most lamentable way. A second reason is, that English statesmen living in a comfort and quiet that induce effeminate views of political action, would hesi- tate in the course suggested, for the very reason that it is likely to be effectual : because it might be the means of freeing the alien provinces of Austria—Poland, Hungary, and Italy—Eng- lish statesmen would pause. They will not be so unpolite. The third reason is, that hitherto the English Government has prac- tically enjoyed irresponsibility in its foreign policy, the English people neither knowing nor caring about external affairs • and so they, the Ministers of the freest nation in Europe, have not scrupled to continue in the conspiracy of governments against peoples. A new period of European history has commenced. The Eng- lish people already begins to interpose. It saved itself one chance of a costly war by interfering to stop the idle Montpensier squabble. It will exact an account from Ministers of their con- duct in the Cracow affair. Such is the mission of the meeting on Tuesday next, unless it is to be a mere stale repetition of de- clamatory complaints on behalf of the "poor Poles." Complaint is always weak ; unfollowed by action it is puerile. The "wrongs of Poland" have been used up, as thoroughly as any hack ward- robe hired for private theatricals. If Poland is to exist again, it must be through renewed power in her sons, and on account of
practical necessity for the existence of an independent nation in that quarter. If the meeting is really to serve the Polish nation, and is to do any credit to the growing intelligence on objects of foreign politics, we shall hear less of this old-clothes eloquence, more of substantial argument and business.
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