as well known in May as in August that land | conduct towards Cuba. It is time to give up is not water, and fleets not operative against cherishing bones of contention when we can armies. only show our teeth, and turn tail. If, as the Times alleges, the moral influence We readily acknowledge the justice and of the four powers was their all, their only spirit of Lord Clarendon's despatch of July means of protecting Turkey, that naval dem-16th, in answer to the second Nesselrode onstration of France and England was a very note; but recognizing all the truth and force shallow and childish device for playing the of the reasoning (and an admirable paper game of brag, and playing it very badly. The last power to be bullied is Russia, for this simple reason, that, being a bully, she is too much practised in the art to be the dupe of a mere show of resistance.

It requires no force, either of persuasion, of earnest exhortation, or of covert menace, to induce a man to accept his own terms.

it is, in our opinion, in those respects), we are nevertheless utterly at a loss to discover its practical results. The Times indeed says, "The resistance to the claims of Russia was open and peremptory, and its success was Our contemporary speaks very emphatically complete, inasmuch as Russia acceded withof the resolution of the powers to throw every in twenty-four hours' delay to all the Conobstacle in the way of any power threatening ference of Vienna asked of her." But, alas! the order and tranquillity of Europe. But Russia, in acceding within twenty-four hours' what are the "obstacles" really and substan- delay to all the Conference of Vienna asked tially available? Not fleets, we are distinctly of her, only acceded substantially to what told, which are inoperative against the she had herself insolently and unjustly demarches of armies. France and England are manded. thus to be put out of the field; and for the other two powers, they have armies indeed, but Austria's would certainly never serve against Russia in any contingency, and Prussia And, certainly, had the Vienna note been is but a lay figure in the boasted combination, of a less yielding character, there was nothand is not prepared or disposed for any part ing in the presence of the fleet in Besika beyond entering an appearance in the cause. Bay, which alone backs the argument of The "obstacles," therefore, are reduced to Lord Clarendon's note in respect of the voie diplomatic notes. In short, the dreams of the de fait, to make the Emperor pause in his Peace Association are realized, and the ultima wrongful course, as it is anxiously, overratio is arbitration. The anticipated hitch to anxiously, shown that the fleet was not there this sort of settlement, however, occurs; and in a position of retaliation, or for a contre the arbitration, shaped to the pleasure and coup while the Times has since taken pains acceptance of the strong at the expense of the to show that if it had been, as it was not, in rights of the weak, is rejected as the worst a position for such purposes, it would have that can happen by the latter party. Well been inoperative and powerless to arrest the may Turkey say, defend me from my friends, invader's march. for sadly runs against her fortunes this game of All Fours. The difference indeed between the aggressors and the mediators seems substantially simply this, that what the one would take by force from the independence and honor of Turkey, the others would freely give away from her. We may be told that all this could not be helped, that, bad as it is, it was the best, in preference to the calamity of a general war; but we contend that, in fairness to Turkey, she should have been apprized of the inability of her allies to protect her by other means than diplomatic conferences and little notes, before she was emboldened to rely on the justice of her cause, and the support of the powers interested in its maintenance. If the last views of France and England had been their first views, it would have been well for the unfortunate Porte, which would, in that case, not have taxed its last energies and resources to take up arms merely to lay them down again, and yield. Let us trust, then, that this is the last affair of the kind involving England, and that it may have the one good effect of serving as a warning example against the same sort of

Lord Clarendon's despatch succeeds perfectly in putting Russia in the wrong, but there it leaves her, and hints at no measures of redress, studiously explaining that the approach of the fleets was within bounds far away from the place of a counter movement or reprisals. His argument is only of weight so far as it establishes the necessity for those very modifications which the Czar has now rejected. Substantially it is the condemnation of the original Vienna note, which in fact conceded all that Lord Clarendon reproves the Russian government for demanding.

The proposed compromise between two parties, then, upon the terms of which only one party was consulted, has ended as might have been anticipated. The members of the Vienna Conference, trumpeted forth so noisily as the only moderate and judicious conservators of European peace, find themselves at the close of their labors no further advanced. than at the beginning, and have little left to do but wish each other good morning. It is the proper reward for their discernment and good faith.

ment.

From the Examiner, 17 Sept.

RESOURCES OF TURKEY.

It is not to be forgotten in the history of this transaction that the acceptability to Russia of the Vienna note had been ascertained, and was even publicly known in this It is difficult to attribute entirely to ignocountry, at the time when the document was rance the misrepresentations from day to day officially forwarded to St. Petersburg and put forward respecting the resources of the Constantinople. In fact, the Conference had Turkish Empire, and the nature of its governbeen throughout in close communication with We were told, when the possibility of the Czar through one of his most confidential a collision between Russia and the Porte first envoys, while strict silence was maintained became apparent, that Turkey was in a condito the envoy or confidant of the Porte. Yet tion of absolute decrepitude, and that the disif the conference thought it for any reason solution of the state could be prevented only best to dispense altogether with the opinion by the intervention of the Western Powers. of the Porte, no honest man will doubt that By an appeal to facts accessible to all, such as it ought at the same time to have kept itself commercial returns, and the evidence of travequally independent of St. Petersburg. The ellers well acquainted with the naval and milfair course would have been to lay the pro-itary resources of Turkey, we showed that there posed note first before the Sultan and his was good reason to entertain the opinion ininisters, and, having their appoval, then which events have since abundantly confirmed, to despatch it to St. Petersburg. Instead that if Russia is to subjugate Turkey, it can of this, the conference hurried to make only be after a struggle of no ordinary duraknown its contents exclusively at St. Peters- tion. burg, ane, by the mere fact of its being virtu- The decrepitude of the Ottoman state havally accepted and well received there, at once ing ceased to be a theme that can decently be aroused the suspicions of the Divan, and al- dwelt upon any longer in the face of the formost challenged the modifications suggested. midable and well-disciplined army which, At any, rate the latter having been received, without assistance from any other power, she it was for the envoys of the powers at Con- has succeeded in bringing into the field-we stantinople either to declare without delay to are now informed that if Turkey is determined the Porte that its objections were unfounded, on resisting the aggressions of Russia, she and that it must withdraw them to retain must do so single-handed, because an English the support of the powers -or it should feet could render her no assistance, and nothfairly have been admitted that the objections ing short of an auxiliary land force could aid were just, and, being so, that the fact of the her; a force which it appears cannot be brought Porte having made them would not withdraw to her succor, although France is one of the from it the protection of the powers. The powers which professes an interest in Turkish real fact is, that the envoys at Constantinople independence. did think the objections so just that the envoys Now we believe it to be amply established, at Vienna were obliged to accede and send both by authority and experience, that an army them with the original note. cannot advance from the Danube upon ConThe Czar's rejection of a note so modified stantinople, supposing that the line of the Baland admitted has at least the effect of placing kan is defended by a sufficient force, unless the the causes of quarrel in the plainest possible provisions for the sustenance of the invading light. Previously it may have been difficult army can be conveyed by means of the Black clearly to understand them. But since the Sea. Hence Varnu, the port on the Black Sea explanation of Redschid Pasha, and the abso- at the extremity of the Balkan chain, is the lute rejection of his pretensions, it is plain as key of Constantinople, a sine quû non to the the noun-day that Russia demands a bona fide passage of that formidable range of mountains. protectorate over the Christian subjects of the Let us hear what Sir Archibald Alison, who T'orte, and that the Porte cannot and will not cannot be supposed a witness unfavorable to acknowledge that protectorate. In all the Russia, says respecting the natural defences Russian manifestoes this claim was implied, of Turkey. Speaking of the country on the but she now puts it forth wholly and openly in southern bank of the Danube, he says: rejecting the modified interpretation of the Porte. The other European powers have then no ambiguous question put to them. Do they acknowledge, or do they not, the claim of Russia to establish a protectorate over the Christians of the Turkish empire? If they do, and they must do so if they now turn their backs on the Porte, it only remains for them to stand spectators of the subjugation of Turkey.

If these provinces were traversed by roads passable for wheel carriages, it would be an easy matter to reach the foot of the Balkan range from the Russian frontier while the plains are still healthy, and the yet green herbage affords ample pasturage for the horses. But the diffi culty of dragging the artillery and wagons over several hundred miles of uncultivated plains, where there are no roads, and provisions are so scanty that the army must bring its whole sup【plies with itself, is such that it is hardly possible

Hence it is necessary to the success of a Russian invading army that Varna should be in its possession, in order that it may receive by the Black Sea the supplies which cannot without so much difficulty be transported over land. But Varna, which at the commencement of the civil war in 1828 was fortified far less efficiently than at present, resisted the assaults of the Russian forces from the 2nd August till the 11th October. It was not even then conquered by the Russians; but was purchased from Jussuf Pacha, the second in command, who was rewarded with a large pension for his treachery, and long lived in splendid infamy at Odessa. Varna in its present condition, with its ample bay occupied by a friendly naval force, is absolutely impregnable.

render it difficult for an Austrian statesman to make any startling effort in that line), as he had astonished it previously by his recklessness and profligacy. But in the deplorable condition to which his country is now reduced mainly in consequence of his own counsels. we doubt whether he would not have been

obliged to forego the occasion he so ardently

desired.

The joint action of the European powers, on which so much reliance has been placed for maintaining peace and arresting the progress of Russia, was therefore necessarily confined on the part of Austria (placed in the leading position which should have been assumed by England) to a humble request, an appeal to the generosity of the Czar, for the sake of peace, and out of tenderness to his own reputation, to deal a little less harshly and unjustly with the Porte than he had proposed; and one of the strongest arguments for moderation addressed to the Emperor Nicholas is said to have been that a war would involve the Austrian Empire in incalculable difficulties. That The arguments which have been adduced to such a tone was best calculated to ensure the show that the Turks should not be supported success of the conference we might possibly by England because their religion is a fulse have thought, if we could think the Autocrat one, are hardly worth remark. Such subter- a pattern of magnanimity. Holding the opinfuges should have been thought of before the ion of him we do, nothing in our belief could preservation of the Turkish Empire had been have prevented the outrage of which he has proclaimed as a leading object of English been guilty except a joint declaration from the policy in speeches from the throne and in governments of France and England, that the the declarations of ministers in both houses occupation of any part of the Sultan's dominof Parliament. The employment of such soph-ions would be instantly followed by a declaistry at a moment like the present merely ration of war on the part of Turkey, and the shows how desperate a case is that of the de-entrance of the combined fleets into the Black fenders of the line of policy which has brought us to the point at which we stand.

From the Examiner, 17 Sept.

AUSTRIA NO BARRIER TO RUSSIA.

Sea.

From the Spectator, 17th Sept.

MODIFICATIONS PROPOSED BY THE PORTE

REJECTED BY RUSSIA.

RUSSIA has rejected the modifications proposed by the Porte in the Vienna note, and appears to have signified her rejection in a manner which shows how little the Czar is inclined to facilitate a reconciliation; but it would appear that diplomacy has not yet exhausted either its resources or its hopes.

WE have frequently had occasion to point out the essential error of the policy which assumes to rely upon Austria as a barrier to the encroachments of Russia. This fixed idea, which led to results highly detrimental to the independence of Turkey in 1843, when Russia interfered in the internal affairs of Servia, has The Emperor Nicholas is credibly reported led in 1853 to results still more disastrous. to have rejected the modifications on the very The Emperor of Russia cannot be ignorant of ground that they were proposed by Turkey facts familiar to every one who does not form one of the principals in the dispute. But his opinions respecting Austria solely on in- this arrogant demeanor is accompanied by the formation derived from Vienna or from Chan- specious concession of an offer to evacuate the dos House. He knows that Austria dares not Principalities so soon as the Sultan shall go to war with Russia, however great the have affixed his signature to the note as it provocation; that peace with the Czar must be was originally concocted. This again calls purchased, however exorbitant the price. We into activity the Vienna Conference; and it by no means doubt that Prince Felix Schwart- is intimated by a journal which has hitherto zenberg might, if he had lived, in accordance been particularly well-informed as to the inwith his reported boast, have endeavored to tentions of the French governinent, if not also astonish the world by his huge ingratitude of our own, that Turkey is to be urged to sign (notwithstanding the many precedents which the unaltered document; the advice to that

effect being accompanied by an important less in the right. In the present controversy, qualification. It is admitted that the modificutions proposed by Turkey are not contrary to the meaning and spirit of the note, and an assurance to that effect from the four powers will both secure the correct interpretation of the note in the Turkish sense, and will practically afford a guarantee by the four powers and against any pretensions on the part of Russia incompatible with that interpretation. This places the negotiations in a very peculiar position. Russia could scarcely object, and it is possible that Turkey may regard that species of judicial interpretation a quasi anticipative judgment at common law by a supreme European court pronounced upon its

own statute

Russia, indeed, has no rights. If she ever had any, on the minor subjects of the Orthodox Greeks or the Holy Places, Lord Clarendon shows that those rights were satisfied before this dispute began. She is not only wrong, but more wrong than she was at first, since she has more soldiers in the Principalities, and has so far perpetrated more invasion. If England had any duty in the spring, to support her ally or maintain public law, she has the same duty in the autumn. If there was any necessity to advance the joint fleet to Besika Bay, it could only be for the purpose of counterbalancing war by means of war; and that necessity has not departed, nor dias sufficient to render the orig-minished, but increased. inal draught harmless. Certainly it appears There may be, there are among us, those to be a very cumbrous way of effecting what who deny the duty and policy of interference might have been accomplished by much more altogether; contending that Turkey is dessimple and direct means. It is now admitted tined to fall and must fall-that Russia is that it would have been better if the Confer- destined to occupy Constantinople, and must ence had consulted the representative of Tur- be suffered to accomplish her march. But if key; and the progress of the negotiations that policy could be sustained on general appears to us to show, that, to use the very grounds, it is late in the day to urge it now mildest expression, the mediation has been in this particular dispute. If Turkey could carried out in a very imperfect manner. By lay her case before a court of law, she might permitting the draught to appear as a finished well show that England and France, who tied document, without having ascertained the her hands at the commencement, cannot now sentiments of the two principals upon it, and back out of the alliance into which they drew then by virtually placing in communication her, leaving her in a worse position than if with each other those principals, whom it was they had never interfered. But nations canmost important to keep apart, the mediation not be brought before courts of law; and has failed in its first attempt, and has ren- hence the efforts of the four powers to avoid dered the instrument of reconcilement the pro- the insolent disruption of an empire, and the vocative of a new altercation. To admit that warfare of a continent, by compromising a the Turkish modifications are reasonable, is to felony. admit that the text of the note requires emendation; and how much better would it have been to use the lights derived from Constantinople for the purpose of rendering that text as complete as possible, instead of falling back upon a make-shift arrangement, which calls upon the Porte to sign an equivocal text, and accompanies that text by an explanatory rider ? The acts of Russia continue to be as equivocal as the business of the allies is clear. Russia pursues her military advances, and has just added to the amount of her soldiery in the Principalities, where the Turkish preparations are zealous and extensive, but apparently little calculated, in resources or skill, to meet the military completeness of Russia. And the Emperor is making a move to confer with the young Emperor of Austria, for the purpose, it is supposed, of " talking him

From the Press, 17th Sept. ANSWER OF THE CZAR.

[This new paper is in the interest of Mr. D'Is. raeli.]

THE answer of the Czar to the recommendation of the Vienna Conference that he should accept the modifications of the note proposed by the Porte has at length been received. He positively refuses to concede those conditions which the Sultan has positively stated he cannot and will not dispense with. The labors of the conference have therefore come to nothing, and the prospect of a pacific solution of the difficulty is more distant now than at any time since the crisis began.

66

We are assured that our ministers are not ," while the four powers are still amused discouraged. over,' Nothing has occurred to with negotiations and compromises. The duty affect the substantial merits of the case of the allies was laid down with perfect dis- the question remains precisely as before," tinctness in Lord Clarendon's answer to writes one of their organs of yesterday; "the Count Nesselrode. Nothing that has occurred only fresh intelligence is favorable to peace,' since he penned that able despatch renders says another; while a third insinuates that Russia less in the wrong than she was when there is no new reason to prevent Russia she first entered the Principalities, nor Turkey | from acquiescing in a peaceful settlement of

the quarrel." We are told that" the dispute a full justification of the course the Sultan has has already been reduced to a question of hitherto pursued; and when he is requested form," though the facts before the writer's to abandon those modifications of the note eyes compel him to admit that" if the Porte which he conceived essential to the dignity insisted on supplementary conditions when it and independence of his government, what was less able to enforce its will, and less other reply need he make than to lay his findeeply committed to a policy of resistance, ger on this part of Lord Clarendon's despatch, there can be less expectation of its dispensing and say-You have my answer there? with these conditions at a moment when the war party is clearly in the ascendant."

-no

Will England dare to withdraw from the side of her old ally, should he persist in acting on those principles of policy which she has taught him are essential to the maintenance of his kingdom as a sovereign and independent state? No art of sophistry verbal juggling · can get over those recorded words of our foreign minister. There they stand, shaming the dastardly counsels which are now urged on the Sultan, and justifying him in adhering to the views he has already firmly expressed.

As Russia will not yield to the reasonable conditions of Turkey, it is now assumed that Turkey inust yield to the unreasonable conditions of Russia. The conference, on the receipt of the Emperor's refusal, sent proposals to the Sultan that he should recall his words that he should sign the note he had refused to sign, and be content with an assurance that the conference would put an interpretation on the note agreeable to the Sultan himself. Our government conceives that he should He has not taken exception to any merely accede to this request; that, as he is the verbal formality; it is to the substance of cerweakest party in the quarrel, it is only reason-tain conditions in the Vienna note, affecting able he should give way to the stronger; and his rights of sovereignty over large bodies of that, discarding all considerations of right and his subjects, that he reasonably and conhonor, and all respect for the opinion of his people, he should humble himself at the feet of the haughty enemy who has wantonly invaded his dominions, and whose troops, encamped on Turkish territory, are savagely clamoring for the extermination of himself, his nation, and his faith. "It will be well if the Sultan sign the note." "We trust that the Turkish government may be induced to defer to those representations which the mediating conference will be called on to It is hard to expect, that they (the mediating powers) should support Turkey in a declaration of war." We lay the Danube that attention must now be directed, more stress on these sentiments, as it is rather than to the Conference at Vienna. notorious that they proceed from leading The wisdom of our government has brought members of the government. They are not the belligerent powers face to face. On one light words heedlessly written, but the delib-side the success of unprovoked aggression has erate opinions of men who now hold the reins intoxicated the troops with confidence in the of empire.

renew.

In the same papers in which these counsels are given, the intelligence from Turkey emphatically states that the Sultan would lose his life if he were to accept of dishonorable conditions.”

Can any one doubt what his answer will be, what, in fact, it must be? The publication of Lord Clarendon's answer to the Russian manifesto shows what language our foreign minister held only two months back. On the 16th of July last Lord Clarendon wrote to Count Nesselrode "If ancient rights exist, and are observed by Turkey, Russia has no cause of complaint against Turkey. But if she seeks to extend those rights, then is Turkey justified in closely examining the nature of such fresh demands, and IN REFUSING THOSE FROM WHICH HER INDEPENDENCE AND DIGNITY WOULD SUFFER. In this sentence is contained

sistently objects. The proposal of the conforence is, that those conditions should be read in a "non-natural" sense; that they should not be taken to imply what the words do imply; that the Porte should give up the point now, and trust to the moderation of his formidable foe, and the protection of the mediating powers, for an interpretation of the clauses in a sense essentially different from their plain and obvious meaning. Is it likely that this insulting 'sophistry will be favorably listened to?

It is to the armies on the banks of the

might of their arms, and maddened them with desire for conflict and victory, and on the other a sense of insult and wrong has aroused a storm of indignation which the efforts of diplomacy will scarcely be able to repress. While we have been deluded by expecting peace from negotiation, Russia and the Porte have been actively preparing for the last and desperate issue of battle. At the moment when we were assured that orders were about to be given for the evacuation of the Principalities the Russians were actively engaged in fortifying themselves in their "conquests;" and, as we learn by the latest telegraphic despatches, were concentrating a vast body of troops on the line of the Danube. The Sultan reviewing his levies at Unkiar Skelessi, and with a manifesto of war urgently appealing to the courage and fanaticism of his people ready for publication, is not less omin