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Airwnrr 9,1856.] THE LEADER. 757
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LA TRAVIATA. AND THE TIMES. Tiieke has b...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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The New Easte11n Question. The Lulo Of S...
fleets into the Black Sea . From that time to the establishment of peace , the island remained unoccupied , except by a few Turkish soldiers , and the keepers of a new lighthouse built by the Ottoman . Government . Upon the ratification of the Treaty of March , however , and upon the formal cession by Russia of the territories which had locked the entrance of the river , the Turks construed the concession clauses so as to include the Isle of Serpents , and placed sixty men , in charge of an officer , to guard the lighthouse , which has already proved of considerable value to the
traders between the Danube and Odessa . But the Russian Government denying that the surrender of the Isle of Serpents was implied by the Treaty , sent a detachment to take military possession of it . The island was literally invaded by armed men , and the Turkish officer , not choosing to become responsible for a conflict , simply protested against the intrusion , applied to the Porte for instructions , and took up a position not far from the new Russian quarters . . Thus a joint but rival occupation has been established on the Isle of Serpents .
The negotiators of the Paris Treaty are responsible for leaving this question in doubt . They but half performed their duty when they left the cession or retention of any territorial point to be implied , instead of incorporating in a declaratory clause the name of every place to be evacuated by Russia . Doubtful interpretations result from incapable diplomacy . Still , it is impossible to believe that it was the intention of the
Western Powers , while rescuing the main stream of the Danube from Russian control , to leave her in possession of a fortified island at the mouth . The terms of the article are vague , but their very generality is inferential evidence in favour of the Turkish claim . All territories -within a certain line being abdicated , under the stipulations of the Treaty , it is certainly a strange proceeding on the part of the Russian Government to assert that a particular exception is implied , when no exception at all is suggested .
Collateral circumstances render this discussion one of considerable importance . No alacrity has been exhibited by the Russian Government in fulfilling the conditions of the Paris Treaty . Not only is Kars still unevacuated , its garrison has been reinforced by a corps of twelve thousand men . The demolition of Ismail and the border fortresses , carried on after the conclusion of peace , was an act of offence and hostility , and clearly showed in what temper Russia was preparing to renew her relations with Turkey . Not that the destruction of those woi'ka is of
import to the Ottoman Empire . Onco in possession of the ground , the Turks may fortify it as powerfully as-they desire , and create a line of Silistrias along their extended frontier . We should be glad to learn , however , what reply has been returned to the representations of the Porte on this subject . That such representations have been addressed to the JVench and British Governments wo are in
a condition to know ; we believe it may be stated , moreover , that communications havo passed between the Cabinets , but wo aro anxious to be assured that they arc of a satisfactory nature . Wo aro bound by moral obligations and by political necessities to assert to the full the few advantages that were
gained from the Russian war . It is no secret that the Ottoman Government considers the attempt to regain possession of the Isle of Serpents in the light of a scheme to break through the regulations of the rocont Treaty , and it is no exaggeration to say that , unless the Turkish claim bo enforced , the liberty of the Danube becomes a fiction , and the Convention of Paris an act of hypocrisy .
The first point proposed for deliberation will be the separate or united government of the Principalities . The amalgamation is virulently opposed by Austria and by Turkey , neither of which Powers is likely to refuse any means , however corrupt , of giving effect to its policy . Austria opposes the amalgamation on the ground , virtually , that it would create a bar against future aggressions and intrigues ; Turkey opposes it , because it forces the growth of a vigorous state , developing itself towards independence , on the borders of a
Russia is not the only Power that desires to retard the settlement of the questions pending between Turkey and the rest of Europe . The Turkish Government itself betrays a suspicious reluctance to elicit the opinions of the Roumanian inhabitants of the Principalities . Having dismissed the Hospodars and appointed the Kaimakans , who are to hold temporary authority in Wallachia and Moldavia , however , there can be little further pretence for delaying the assembly of the International Commission .
decaying empire . To Russia the project is not so obnoxious . By England it is regarded with favour . Prussia and Sardinia are believed to share , in this respect , the opinion of England . But all the Powers are under an obligation to consult the -wishes of the population through their representatives , convoked in full Divan . It is true that various political sections exist , that Turkish corruption has found a Turkish party in the Principalities , that Austria by similar methods has obtained similar results , and that therefore the local assemblies
cannot be expected to express a unanimous assent to the idea of the governmental union of Moldavia and Wallachia . Local jealousies , also , prevail to some extent , the people of Jassy hesitating to accord pre-eminence to Bucharest by acknowledging it as the capital of the United Provinces . Nevertheless , in both those cities the resolutions of the existing assemblies have been unequivocal , and almost unanimous in favour of union .
" The British Government has , we think , a clear duty to perform . The Treaty of Paris is now public law , and in the interest of commercial liberty , as well as of the future peace of Europe , Russia must be prohibited from creating , in the Black Sea , new sources of jealousy and dissension . In the Principalities , the inhabitants have a right to be consulted whether or not they coincide with the views of the Austrian and Ottoman Governments .
Airwnrr 9,1856.] The Leader. 757
Airwnrr 9 , 1856 . ] THE LEADER . 757
La Traviata. And The Times. Tiieke Has B...
LA TRAVIATA . AND THE TIMES . Tiieke has been a sudden explosion in the press of diatribes against divers theatres , and Her Majesty ' s in particular , for producing pieces which turn upon certain vices supposed to be prevalent at tlic present day , or at least against a particular shape of those vices . The grand point of attack is the performance of Vjeudi ' s opera of La Traviata , with attacks also upon tho original story by Ajlisxandbe Dumas the younger , La Dame aucc Camc'lias , and upon Mademoiselle
Piccolomini for consenting to perform the part of Violetta . Several papers have joined in this assault . One suggestion has been made that there should bo a committee of lady patronesses to act as a censorship on the pieces to bo performed , aided probably by " a dowager Bishop or two . " Tho proposal looks extremely like a sarcasm , as il the writer of that particular paper designed to take * in its great contemporary the Times ; and veritably it has dragged out that journal as an organ of tho old fosail " Society for the Suppression of Vice . " Tho Times , however , cannot handle questions of this kind entirely without ability , or
without some responsibility on the score of its own power : it must remember good sense . In attacking La Traviata it is obliged to let the reader know , lest he should suspect it of imbecility from whatsoever cause , that it does recal certain works more illustrious than La Traviata where the aberrations aZ the passion of love are especially the subjects of the dramatic art . We have Axfiebi , several
of whose plays more or less turn upon the subject ; Goethe , in his Wilhelm Meister as well as his JFaustj Shakspeabe , CaiiDEBON , Cobsteille , are also mentioned by the Times with the more ancient writers of tragedies . But " there is a wide step from these representations to the impersonation of all that is most foul and hideous in human nature , and its exhibition upon the stage with all the alluring additions of scenery and song . " La Traviata—" The Strayed One , "—is a girl
belonging to the class of Paris lorettes j she forms a genuine passion , and dies for love ; and "it is for her , " says the scandalized Times , " that pifcy is asked , it is to her that pity is given . " This , it seems , is , morally speaking , " most hideous and abominable . " There is something hideous in the style of literature which has lately crept upon the capitals of the civilized world ; but it appears to us that our contemporaries do not grapple with the real evil , either in its origin or its nature . Others besides the Times object to
La Traviata because it is " prurient : " the epithet is a total misconception . It would be more correct to say that the whole state of things represented is depraved ; and there might be some truth in that . The Times , indeed , thinks that it is harmless to perform Lucrezia JBorgia , or Don Juan , because neither " the Messalina of Mediaeval Italy , " nor the heartless seducer , " is likely to invite imitation . But as little likelihood is there that any of the characters in La Traviata
would be " imitated . " The Times carries its censure " deep and unmitigated , " not only to the novelist , the composer , the manager , or the actors , but also to the audience . It appears to us he might have carried his deep and unmitigated censure further back- —probably to the homes of the audience—to the body of society which furnishes that audience ; and then , indeed , any writer possessing the power and opportunity of the Times might assist us in eradicating the evil .
There is one redeeming point in La Traviata , and in some other works of its kind , though not in all of them . The Times has marked it , but has marked it as the climax of the wrong . Violetta belongs to a particular class : " it is for her that pity is asked , it is to her that pity is given ; " and
here is tho abominable portion of the wrongdoing . The Times repudiates pity for a Violetta , and is offended at its being asked . To us it appears not a tenth part so wrong to say that such creatures exist , that they may be unfortunate , that they ask our pity , as to suffer the existence of such creatures at all . To create them .
We may question the taste of an artist who selects subjects which are neither powerful nor beautiful ; but after all the stage has generally been recognized as " tho mirror of society "—as that mirror in which society , looking , will see its own defects as well as its beauties . Tho Times desires the _ mirror in which the distortions and deformities of over-civilized lifo , the haggard look of city depravity , shall be erased ; a beautifying mirror , where society shall boo itself as if it were » till living in the woods and the iielda with all its rustic freshness . This is an effeminate
morality—like official treatment of sanitary reform—which shuts its eyes to tho disease , and hopes to gefc a cure by assuming health . AVo know tho valetudinarian , weakness well .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 9, 1856, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_09081856/page/13/
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