NEWS OF THE WEEK.
Rums has definitively resumed her stand on the Menschikoff ul- timatum and we of England seem 120W to have arrived at that issue which we contemplated as a possibility two months ago *—to
be upon the eve of a great war, which may last long, and involve vicissitudes for thrones, states, and institutions ; or upon the eve of a great dishonour, not less destructive in its essential conse- quences. By her recent acts, Russia shows that the Conference at Vienna was a dramatic entertainment, to amuse Europe while she prosecuted her designs : it follows, that the parties to the Conference must have been either dupes or accomplices. One appears to have been an accomplice; the others were dupes. she prosecuted her designs : it follows, that the parties to the Conference must have been either dupes or accomplices. One appears to have been an accomplice; the others were dupes.
These new acts of Russia are embodied in two despatches, signed by Count Nesselrode, and addressed to the representatives of the Four Powers, in the form of a separate circular to each. The first represents, in effect, that the other Powers were not invited to give their good offices, and it is a great condescension on the part of Russia to listen to them ; that they, as the allies of Turkey, impressed with all that was necessary to her honour, were bound to present a final proposition and that if Turkey be suffered to object, Russia is released, and free to act as before. The second render declares an interpretation of the Vienna note which would
r it substantially a ratifieatkint of Prince Menschikors de- mand for a Russian protectorate of Christians in Turkey, with a recognition of immunities as obtained by the solicitude of the Em- perors and confirmed by the Sultans ; and upon that demand Russia still insists, refusing to listen to anything more, except the absolute acceptance of the note by Turkey.
According to probable accounts, there has been some difference in the mode of presenting these circulars : they were to be read to the Ministers of the Four Powers, but a copy was to be left with the Minister of Austria alone. The conduct of Austria justifies this separate treatment. Objecting, it is said, to the draught of a note proposed by M. Drouyn de Lhuys, as not sufficiently urging Turkey to accept the -Vienna note, Austria has withdrawn from the joint action. It now appears that the Conference was intended as an instrument for securing to Russia that object which she.had tried to attain through Prince Mensehikoff ; and as soon asthe Conference ceases to serve that purpose, Austria who had assisted in getting it up, abandons it. Her position is unhappy : between not two, but many fires, she naturally desired quietude above all things ; and, a slave to expediency instead of principle, she has suffered herself to be in appearance, if not in fact, the hypocritical tool of Russia. The two Emperors were to meet at Olmiitz yesterday ; perhaps, as the game of acting separately is unmasked, to arrange, without further circumventions, that partition of the Turkish territory which was contemplated long ago. It is an alternative, we say, of war or dishonour. Hitherto the insults of Russia have only reached us through Turkey : now England is slighted in her own representative, and the insult is direct. We have sent a fleet to Besika Bay, to maintain that which we declared and still declare to be the right : is the fleet now to be withdrawn, the right undefended ? That course would involve something more than a titular dishonour. It would involve the acknowledgment that henceforward Russia may dictate with absolute authority to foreign states—define her own sovereign claims over independent governments,- and seize territory at her own will and pleasure : and if it be Moldavia, why not Con- stantinople; if Constantinople, why not any other ? Each state in Europe would then be held in fee under the Czar, or by his tacit Sufferance. Is that England's choice ?
The electrio telegraph makes Lord Stratford de Redeliffe, even at this stage, propose, as a means of escaping the difficulty, a new "declaration "—that the Vienna note does not contain the dangers seen in it by the Porte. But if it be so, after the interpretation
* See Spectator of 16th July, page 679.
put upon that document by Russia, the same declaration might have, been made respecting the Mensehikoff ultimatum, and we might have been saved all the suspense, the turmoil, the cost, and the cant of these " negotiations " and their accessories. The course taken has been as well calculated as if it had been planned by Rus- sia to evoke that Mussulman fanaticism in the subjects of the Sultan which has added to the difficulties of the Porte,—that Sarawak: impatience for battle which has supplied a recent pretext, as spe- cious as it is unfair, for treating the contest as one between the Crescent and the Cross, and thus exciting Christian prejudices against Turkey. No such declaration as that imputed to Lord Stratford will now serve : it is impossible to our Government, whose representative has this week declared at Greenock "the sa- cred duty of England." There is but one declaration fit for the mansion now. Russia is on her way to Constantinople ; and the deelaration wanted is, that her march must be stopped. At least, we nilist have done with treacherous negotiations. Russia has disqualified herself for ne- gotiating, by her own avowal. Austria has shown how she repays trust ; and it is difficult to understand how any relations with those essentially hostile powers can repay the cost of maintaining the embassies at Vienna and St. Petersburg.
If Russia choose war, then, the consequences be on her and her allies : for on them assuredly, more than on us, will those conse- quences falL If they call forth war, England is not bound again tojoin in defending alien potentates against the results of their own misrule—dangers which never threatened her. We view war as a great calamity; but although it is we who detest war most in pros- pect, we have never flinched from it in action, and we know:well that its worst evils are not for us. We have no Poland, no Hun- gary, no Italy ; no "St. Petersburg party," anxious for a new regime, with hopes to be stimulated by a chance of obtaining it ; no ambitious officers, conscious that the army is more powerful than a government in the gay capital of a disjointed empire; no military adventurers trained to abjure patriotism and ready enough to ex- change commissions for possible principalities when crowns are in the market. On the contrary, compact, strong in material power, at peace with all the world save the lawless desecrators of peace, recent manifestations have shown that, if the stern necessity should come upon us, we need but the opportunity to prove that English- men have not lost the old spirit.
