we know that his ambition is grand, system- those in whose estimation war is too terrible atic, consistent, and sane- because we an evil to be encountered for any cause short know that he understands thoroughly the in- of national independence - who regard the terests of Russian greatness and supremacy, obligations of alliance, the safety of our comand holds it a solemn duty to pursue them merce, and the preservation of our distant daringly and unremittingly- that we enter- dependencies, as unimportant considerations tain not the smallest doubt as to the ulterior when weighed against the horrors of a bloody designs which dictate his present proceedings and protracted strife. But we do not comand lie hid under all his protestations. prehend how those who stop short of this extreme conclusion; who admit that hostilities - though to be deprecated as costly, to be shunned as vulgar, to be avoided as foolish and unchristian -may yet become wise, just, and necessary, even when national existence is not immediately and visibly at stake; and who are prepared to face a grievous evil for sacred and adequate considerations - can hesitate to approve of the resolute and unflinching attitude of England at the present crisis. If she is not to risk war in defence of a faithful and unoffending ally; if she is not to risk it to prevent the perpetration of a great wrong; if she is not to risk it to prevent Russia from subduing Turkey, and, now or soon, seizing Constantinople she must proclaim that she has sheathed her sword forever. It is not likely that any dearer or more urgent case will arise in Europe. In the warning language of our marriage service: "Let her speak now, or ever after hold her peace." We can perfectly understand the ideas and arguments of those who hold that we ought to have no continental alliances whatever; that we should abstain from all interference either in the internal or the international affairs of Europe; that when we see barbarous and despotic sovereigns oppressing and murdering their subjects, or powerful states bullying and partitioning their weaker neighbors, we should simply "look on and pass by on the other side;" that we should hold ourselves aloof from what concerns no material interests of ours, and pursue our course of sublime and selfish isolation, regardless of the fate of others. But what we cannot understand is, that politicians who do not hold this hideous and shallow doctrine in all its nakedness, and who are not prepared to carry it out to all its consequences, should not at once perceive that if there ever was a case in which we could not honorably refuse to interpose-if there ever was an ally whom we were bound to support-if there ever were engagements which, on every principle, both of wisdom and integrity, we must adhere to such have now presented themselves in this Eastern dispute. But, in truth, this is not the question we have to decide. If England flinches now, she may bid adieu to peace forever. She has announced her conviction that Turkey is right, and her resolution to support her; and if she now backs out of the controversy, she We can understand, too, the reasoning of proclaims to all the world, in language which those who are of opinion that our Indian pos- the world will not be slow to take advantage sessions are a burden and not a treasure to of, either that she will not, or dare not, or us; that we should be richer, happier, more can not, maintain what she deems right, or peaceful, and more powerful, were we to cast carry out what she has resolved to do. This them to the winds, or to surrender them to is what Russia is now anticipating, and what Russia; that our influence in the Levant is has emboldened her to a course which a few mere moonshine; and that as long as we can years ago she would scarcely have ventured sail our ships and sell our manufactures by to take. She is deliberately calculating on reason of their superior cheapness -an ad-Jour weakness, our love of peace, our hatred of vantage of which no potentate can deprive us expenditure; and if, by receding now before we need wish for nothing more, and need her, we show that her calculation is correct, not care who possess this territory or that the same calculation will be made, the same port. But that any one who values India, game will be played, and the same result exand is prepared to retain and defend it, who pected, whenever any one of the great powers regards England as a great empire and not as finds it desirable to bully an ally or to trample a little workshop, and who knows how much on an interest of England. We shall not even of our safety depends upon our naval avoid war by such a course of yielding; we and especially our Mediterranean supremacy, shall invite it- entail it necessitate it. should profess willingness to permit Russia to The only difference will be that, whereas now plant herself on the Bosphorus and the Egean, we have a good cause, a high prestige, an and regard it as a matter of indifference honorable character, a formidable name-on whether the key of our Eastern communica- future occasions, if we yield now, we shall tion be held by a harmless friend or by a for- enter on our inevitable and self-incurred midable rival-this, we confess, passes our struggles with damaged reputation, with dipowers of comprehension. minished strength, and with the odds against us fearfully increased. We can understand, finally, the feelings of STAND AGAINST RUSSIAN ENCROACHMENT. To the Editor of the Spectator. Pimlico, 2d August, 1853. SIR-I, in common with many of your readers, have been much pleased with the decided tone in which you have shown the duty and necessity of making a firm stand against the encroachments of Russia; and it is to be hoped that a very short time will now suffice to inform us either that the Czar is about to disgorge the prey that he has seized, or that we are at once to take the most decisive measures to make him do so. But even if the present crisis is got over pacifically, it is quite clear that the equilibrium of European affairs will still be far from stable; and, with your permission, I wish to direct your attention to some points to which I think the efforts of diplomacy should be turned. ity of trade; and, as a final result, all our efforts should be directed towards the attainment at last of an entire reciprocity of the privileges of citizenship between the two nations. The Anglo-Saxon race would then form the greatest federal union the world has yet seen, and constitute the surest bulwark of liberty against despotism that has ever yet been erected. Hoping that your powerful pen may be directed to these objects, I am your obedient servant, DAVID THOMSON. From the Spectator, 30th July. NEW RUSSO-DANISH QUESTION. WHILE the Danish government appears to be taking steps which might, in certain not improbable events, precipitate the Russian to official papers made in Copenhagen call succession to the throne of Denmark, references forth a wish that the relation of our own 1st. I think that we should not go out of our way to secure the alliance of Austria; because any assistance that she can render would be nearly counterbalanced by our hav-vernment to the whole affair were more ing our hands tied in regard to Hungary and Italy, and perhaps we might thus be almost compelled to lend our active aid in support ing tyranny and misgovernment in these coun tries. distinctly explained. Our readers have already been made to understand the order in which the succession is fixed for the Danish throne-how, if the direct issue fail, as very likely it will, the Prince Christian of Glücks2d. In opposing the Emperor of Russia, we should fail, as it may, the case is once more burg is appointed; and how, if his issue also ought to take care that we do not commit to be referred to the powers who were parties ourselves to the achievement of impossibili- to the treaty of London.* The King of Denties; amongst which, I am afraid, we must mark, however, has proceeded a step further now reckon the upholding the independence than the convention of London, and has enof the Turkish Empire, and perhaps also driv-deavored to procure the repeal of the "lex ing the Russians out of the Danubian Prov-regia" of 1665; the result of which would have inces. But we might perhaps, without doing been, that if no proposition had been made either, find some means of establishing by to the Allied Powers, the Emperor of Russia degrees a better régime at Constantinople, and would step in to take the succession. The securing at once the free navigation of the Danube. 3d. In the event of another European war, it seems certain that the United States will have a powerful influence on its fortunes either directly or indirectly; and our efforts ought to be directed to securing their being at once received into the councils of the "Great Powers," so that, whether it is to be war or peace, they may take their proper place in the affairs of the world. If this can be accomplished, I believe it would do more for securing the peace and general progress of the human race than all the peace societies that have ever existed. The more numerous the great powers entering into any guarantee, the less likely is it that any one could venture to set the rest at defiance; and we would at the same time be no longer left alone as the only state attached to principles of liberty and progress. In every point of view, our true policy ostensible object of the London convention to the Duchies, where the Salic law is enforced, was to prevent that diversity in the succession and to the Danish succession, where the Salic law is suspended by the lex regia, and thus to prevent the separation of the Duchies from Denmark. That purpose was wholly answered and the repeal of the lex regia, therefore, is by the arrangement under the convention; surplusage, unless it is intended to answer made now too plainly to appear. Should the another purpose, which has perhaps been. not to be denied that Russia, by having present Turkish quarrel be hushed up, it is weakened the Porte, will still have made good a considerable advance in her encroachments towards the Dardanelles; she is now making covert approaches by a dynastic channel to the command of the Sound. The extract which the Copenhagen correspondent of the Times draws forth is one from seems to be to draw closer our connection with * Living Age, No. 480, article "The Darda the United States; first, by an entire reciproc-nelles and the Sound." a despatch by the Danish envoy in London to the Danish minister of foreign affairs, dated on the 20th May last; in which the writer reports Lord Clarendon to have made light of the alarm expressed by "good Danish patriots," when the Reichstag thought it necessary to reject the royal proposition. Lord Clarendon, says the report, insisted that the treaty of London would "remove those dangers by making the Danish succession an European question. Russia, however, has shown so great a pertinacity and skill in making use of accidents, that it is natural for "good Danish patriots" to dislike the idea of removing any barrier which exists against her encroachments; and when an English minister is reported to make light of apprehensions on this subject, such a report lends color of a disagreeable kind to other reports on the subject of Turkey. We do not attach the slightest credit to the representations that Lord Aberdeen and Lord Clarendon have shown favor to Russian ideas in the East; but many circumstances in the course of the Oriental question incline us to doubt whether English ministers are on their guard against such surprises as Russia is but too evidently preparing in the Baltic. From the Spectator, 6th Aug. THE exposure of the intrigues in Denmark has at last had the effect of calling attention to the movements of Russia in that quarter, Covert as those movements may have been. There has indeed been a disposition to make a feigned attack upon the Danish government for its irregular proceedings, so as to cover the real attack, and to pass off the intrigues of the court as much lighter matters than they really are. But a knowledge of the subject has gone beyond any single efforts to disguise it. Many of the journals are now taking up the discussion, upon the whole, with sound knowledge and clear insight. Here again an explanation is due from our government. Whatever reasons might have been advanced, some months back, to justify a convention which collaterally tended to remove intermediate claims between the Russian dynasty and the Danish throne, the whole subject is now presented in a different light; and, deceived as our statesmen may have been, north and south, it becomes a question of great interest to know what they are doing in Denmark at the present moment. PROTESTANTS IN SYRIA. The number of professed Protestants in Syria it is not easy to state with exactness, inasmuch as no complete census has yet been taken. In Hasbeya, at the foot of Mount Hermon, there is a Protestant community, distinctly acknowledged and enrolled by the government, and embracing, it is supposed, not far from two hundred souls. But the success of the mission is not to be estimated solely by the number of church members, or by the number of declared Protestants now known. Their books and schools, their various public and private discussions, have had a wider influence. There are many, besides the classes of persons just referred to, whose minds are much enlightened, whose prejudices are weakened, and who acknowledge the Bible as the supreme authority, in matters of faith and practice. Thus, in various ways, light and truth have been gradually but widely diffused, and an important work accomplished, preparatory to still further results, which may hereafter be looked for among the inhabitants of this interesting country. The direct influence of the American schools, publications, and religious services, on the public mind in the Lebanon, is sufficiently encouraging to warrant increased exertions, and to excite well-grounded hopes that the cause of evangelical truth will at length be crowned with the most cheering success. The spirit of inquiry has been largely awakened. Copies of the Arabic Bible may be seen in most of the villages, in the Druse mountains, and the religious controversial discussions which are now so common, particularly amongst the lower orders, afford unquestionable evidence that they are anxious, whatever may be the result, to have reasons for the faith that is in them. Hundreds, though openly acknowledging the errors christian practices of their church, yet excuse favor of the purer tenets to which their consciences consent, on the plea of the difficulties of their position, and the disruption of family ties and relations, which would be consequent on their deviating from the usages and customs of their forefathers. themselves from an outward declaration in Such a state of feeling, however, cannot long exist in any Christian community, for it entails upon its possessors the painful necessity of attending religious ceremonies which they regard as fictitious inventions, and submitting to practices which their enlightened understandings have learned to reject as vain and superstitious. And, indeed, a very general opinion exists to this day, in the southern portion of the Lebanon dencies of the people who have just been adverted -grounded, no doubt, on the remarkable tento -that not many years will elapse before Evangelical Protestantism will have reclaimed within its fold, provided the means for its organization be ample and complete, no inconsiderable portion of its Christian population. Moreover, the disgraceful dissensions which exist in the Greek and Greek Catholic communities, tend greatly to alienate their flocks from a system of church government, which gives scope to irregularities so utterly at variance with the commonest principles of decency and decorum. Mount Lebanon, by Col. Churchill. LITTELL'S LIVING AGE.-No. 487.-17 SEPTEMBER, 1853. CONTENTS. 1. Memoirs, Journal, and Correspondence of Thomas Moore, Quarterly Review, Alexander Von Humboldt, 763 765 POETRY: The Listening Angels - The Little Shoe, 705; The Englishman in Venice-A Good Night, 706; The Sonnet, 747. SHORT ARTICLES: Demise of Lady Sale-Passage in Burial Service, 744; Encyclopedia Britannica, 751; Angelica, 756; The Fettered Press-Portrait of a Ci-Devant Jeune Homme, 764; Disk Steam Engine - Effigies with Folded Hands, 767. NEW BOOKS: Poems by Meditatus, Notes on Uncle Tom's Cabin, The Wigwam and the Cabin, &c., &c., 768. From Household Words. THE LISTENING ANGELS. BLUE against the bluer heavens Listening leant those silent angels, I heard the sound of many trumpets, Passed in order by. But the clang had ceased; the echoes Then I heard a fainter clamor : Forge and wheel were clashing near, When the sunset came in glory, Then, as daylight slowly vanished, COCCLXXXVII. LIVING AGE. VOL. II. 45 But the chant was done; and, lingering, Silent came the gathering darkness, Through the sounds of war and labor But the starry night was coming, Of a prattling voice, so sweet and clear, It tells of hopes that with her had birth, Of days of watching and anxious prayer - It tells of a form that is cold and still Like rose-leaves, loosed by the zephyr's sigh- Ye cannot know what a little thing dew, I found it this morning this little shoe. Corydon Ia., July, 1853. From the London Morning Post. THE ENGLISHMAN IN VENICE. Long I dreamed of proud old Venice Then I dreamed of golden Venice Venice rich, and learned, and wise; Saw, full-robed, her mighty masters, Sweeping by in lordly guise; Saw great Paul and glorious Titian But I woke in fallen Venice - But I woke in ruined Venice Aye! I woke in Austria's Venice From the Transcript. A GOOD NIGHT. BY MRS. H. J. LEWIS. WITH the day's garments lay As an o'er-wearied child casts down its toys; That broke thy heart's deep peace Take to thy darkened room Since angels gather there to guard thy rest; Some healing herbs to bind unto thy breast. Its memories, hopes, and prayers, Where shall the wakening be? Will earth or heaven the future harvest reap? Go, then, forgiving all, Life's crown of thorns no longer on thy brow; Fresh as the morning dew If such thy Father's will, upon the earth; To garland future hours, But leave the thorns in soil that gave them birth. September, 1853. |