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crime of turnip-stealing is not provoked by want of wages or food ; whereas , crimes against the natural affections , like those of infanticide or desertion , do appear growing 9 Jp | # ) eo »» # 8 b . . Ong is inclined to ask what the clergy d& . oe aboutt whose special function it is to teaeft the people how to live . At the present day , tb& brand idea of the saints seems to be that the Iftxue of the English people will be seWred , if &ey can only
be kept out of the Crystal Palace on Sundays . As the rules against opening public-houses have not forced the people into church , and as they are not yet instructed by the sermonshowto avoidcrime , and as they remain very ignorant , —out of eightyfour persons convicted at Bristol , only two were set down as properly educated—perhaps it might be as well to try some new plan for promoting virtue and education ; and the Crystal Palace appears to us as hopeful as any .
But , how can we Wonder at the slowness to adopt plans for proper regulations which we know so well , when we see the most important buildings sacrificed to antiquated and clumsy arrangements in flues . The total destruction of Doncaster Church is followed by an invasion of fire into Windsor Castle . The highest in the land must
succumb to the common laws of the elements ., if they will not take the pains to set their flues in order ; and , if all the influence of royalty cannot secure a dining-rooni against a fire , from obvious causes , how can we expect our legislators to complete their long-deferred task of setting the popular mind in order ?
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LETTERS FROM PARIS . [ Fjrom otJB own Correspondent . ] ? " Letter LXV . Paris , Thursday , March 24 , 1858 . Nothing- has been talked of at Paris but the Turkish Question , apropos of recent affairs at Constantinople . You may remember that on announcing the settlement of the Montenegrine difficulty , I ventured to predict 1 that the vacillating attitude of Bonaparte would infallibly lead to further complications ; that the Northern Powers in raising that question first , were only trying his mettle , ( n ' avaient voulu que hii tdter lejlanc , ) that they had now taken the measure of bis want of firmness , that they had ascertained his uncertainties and his hesitations , and that they would not fail to take c advantage of this discovery to effect their own ulterior designs upon Turkey . Events have but too closely fulfilled my expectations . Prince Menschikoff , the Russian Envoy-Extraordinary , has arrived at Constantinople , and presented to the Grand Vizier the ¦ ultimatum of Russia . This ultimatum consists in the following conditions : — 1 . Indemnity of forty millions of piastres for the cost of occupation of Moldavia and Wallachia in 1848 and 1849 . 2 . The absolute Protectorate of the ChristianH of the Greek Chnrch throughout tho whole extent of the Turkish dominions . 3 . Nomination of tho Patriarch of Constantinople by the Czar , to the exclusion of the Sultan . 4 . The absolute Protectorate of tho ChristianH of all denominations in Syria and at Jerusalem , to the exclusion of France . 5 . Claims of certain territories and ports contiguous to the Danube . Prince Munschikoff at Constantinople assumed tho mont insolent attitude . Instead of going to tho divan in uniform , he presented himself in a paletdt , and all his Huite followed suit . A mob of Greek touters ( like our Decembrists ) luid been organized beforehand , to give the Russian Envoy a reception insulting to Turkoy . They welcomed him with uproarious shouts of bong live the JSmperor Nicholas ! Long live . Russia ! Jiussitt at Constantinople ! Tho pretensions of Russia are supported by a fleet and two armies . One of these nrmioH , thirty thousand strong , is divided between Odessa and Senti ' stopol , and is composed of the 13 th , 14 th , nnd 15 th divisions . Tho other , quartered on the l * ruth , nnd composed of the 4 th corps d ' urrtifc , under tho orders of General Dannonborg , is 70 , 000 strong . It has been IV WSl'M't' ^ W that General JDftnnenborg had ordoiH to crosw the Oil * . ^ - ^ ' ^ . PciiUi on the 20 th of March , come what might . The /" "T ^'" " ( \ I i ' , Ituitoiiiu licet is composed of thirteen ships of the line , fr ' '• , v - fpAuXol" 120 guim , and nine of eighty-four , eight [ " ' .. . VvJWra KUii frigates , find six corvettes , and ft large num-W r . V ' i ;• ^ Pffl transports . Prince Mormchikoff ( who , by-tho-1 •» ^ ' - '" ' Wvj ™ « hief admiral in the Russian Bcrvice ) took occn-^^^ - ^ £ L ' ' , \ ^ ouao review this fleet on his way , or rather out of his kML' i i yVVi n
way , to Constantino |» , and \ i is Sttfgerted that he roused the crews and troo $ to the highest pitch of enthusiasm by the promise atffne sack of the capital of Turkey . Ifou may readjj £ jHiiagine , then , the ^ anic at Constant ^ % 'SJte when tfefe 'de Ads of Ruai % were known , $ M tb » toenacilit prepittft-fcions of tfce fleets and armSfe of tW > Czar . Wliate \ leJr may have peeh asserted to the cdSkWary in toublic , . ifc is positively certain that the Wrfesh GovMrumei ) i Remanded me assSS&ance of the feets of ErigWi fend Frances , fend il was in c 6 tu £ r quence of such demands that the British charge d ' affaires , Colonel Rose , dispatched in all haste to Malca the Wasp steamer to summon the British squadron . Ati these tidings reached Marseilles by the Caradoc steamer that brought the despatches for the English Government from Malta . They created a dismay on the Bourse of Paris . Last Sunday at the petite Bourse dn C&siiio the funds fell from 81 to 77 . 50 . On the following day the official bourse fell ten francs , and the railway share * tnarket from 20 to 30 francs . The attitude of Bonaparte , and of the Bonapartists generally , has been strange , and full of contradictions . On Saturday evening a Council of Ministers was held , and nothing was decided . On Sunday morning Bonaparte sent for M . Drouin de THuys , the Minister of Foreign Affairs , and M . Ducos , the Minister of Marine , and informed them that he had just sent off orders by the electric telegraph to the fleet at Toulon to get underweigh for the Archipelago . But , at the same time , there appeared in the JMLonitewr a first note , in which we were informed that the news received from
the East were not of a gVave nature , and that the British fleet had not passed the Dardanelles , as rumour had announced . On Monday , the Moniteur maintained its discreet reserve , and confined itself to the announcement , that " the Toulon squadron had received orders to sail from that port for the Greek waters . " On Tuesday , the Moniteur , in order to arrest the fall of the funds , assured us that " private intelligence received from Constantinople gave hopes that the complications which had arisen , in the affairs of the East would be solved without compromising the good
understanding of the European powers . " It is now believed that in this note the French Government was alluding to news it had received from the English Cabinet . A Ministerial Council had been held , it is stated , last Saturday afternoon , in Downing-street , at which it was decided that the British Government would decline to interfere in any shape in the uettlement of the difficulties between Turkey and Russia , seeing that the policy of Eng land was in no sense interested in those difficulties . This attitude of your Government had a considerably chilling effect upon Bonaparte , and not a little contributed to embarrass him . In
effect , if the Turko-Russian affair were to come to a pacific arrangement , after Bonaparte had assumed an attitude in the least degree hostile to Russia , he would find himself in a false position with the latter power . If , on the contrary , Russia , as I have been sometimes disposed to think , should raise demands upon demands , to render a conflict inevitable , and France should not be ready to act energetically and usefully , the position of Bonaparte , at the head of an army and a fleet at once idle and useless , would be equally false . Do what he may , if he goes on trying to please both parties ( voulant mSnager , comme on dit villgairement , la chhvre et le chou ) , lie will find himself at last in a great perplexity . As I write , it is universally reported that the whole matter is arranged . The Turkish
ambassador , it is said , lias received dispatches from Constantinople via Belgrade , to the effect that the Sultan had accepted tho conditions of Prince Menschikoff . In that cuso the question would lie once more between Franco and Russia . France has for a long time l > eon in poBsesnion of tho protectorate of the Christians in Syria . Should Russia obtain that protectorate from Turkey , she would by thut fact alone be placed in untagonisin to France . Hut even in thut case there would bo no conflict ; Bonaparte would hack out , and so it would end . One cannot help confessing that throughout this afliur Russian diplomacy has once more given proofs of consummate dexterity nnd finesse . Tho very choice of conditions for the ultimatum attests the profoundest calculation . The claim of 40 , 000 , 000 o
piastres ( 8 , 000 , 000 / . ) falling in at the very moment when Russian intrigues hud prevented the conclusion of the Turkish loan , was not ill contrived to throw Turkey into the severest financial embarrassment . No doubt Russia would benevolently take Wnllftehiun Moldavia us security for payment . Then , again , the protectorato of tho Greek Christians—ton millions out of the fourteen millions of whom the population of Turkey is coui ] K > sed—hands over to Russia something more than the quasi sovereignty throughout Euroj > ean Turkey ; for in adl questions of imposts , of niul-treutment , Russia intervened and takes up the cudgels for tho Greek *) . Surely tliis condition of itwolf is a lover
declared that he had no information , and no other instructions from the Government but to do all that was agreeable to His Majesty . All the Russians of distinction now at Paris have probably received orders to hold the same language . They have all been insisting that the news from Constantinople was by no means of a serious nature , and that all would be arranged comfortably enough . England and France have been . very far from displaying the same adroit tactics in this business . England especially seems to have no perception at all that Russia at Constantinople means the Greeks made Russians ; that the Greeks have always been a maritime population , and that a new and formidable navy would spring up in the Mediterranean , when Russia , independently of the 50 , 000 sailors ,
with which ktiAMn wnl know how to demolish the Turki& Got 8 * b * ient within its own borders , or at least Itfeduc ^ « Xo an impossibility- Again , the protectorate of tftt Ofetians in Syria , to the exclusion or" France , ift pother fenare skilfully laid to bring about a , conflfct fefetweefc Russia and France , and to drive thte ttfeftir . fe 6 & shameful retreat . Let me remark , that while Russia fas laying down this menacing ultimatum at Con % * ftntiho | jle , her altitude at Paris was the most polite in the world . M . de Kisseleff pretended that he knew nothing about it at all . He had the air of a man supremely ignorant of all that is going on ; he
already in her service , could pitch upon 800 , 000 more in Greece and in the Archipelago . At present there are but two navies in the world—that of England and that of France . Before long there will be a third ; the Russo-Greek . Russia , coming down from the Baltic , to plant herself on the Mediterranean , would not give England ten years quiet occupation of Egypt , supposing that in the dismemberment of Turkey , Egypt were to be England ' s share of the booty . Before ten years Anatolia , swept round by the Caucasus , would be Russian , as well as Syria . Before ten years Egypt would be occupied by Russia , by land . Before ten years the Mediterranean would be closed to England . But your diplomatists are like ours ; they have eyes and see not , they have ears and hear not , they have hands and act not . It is high time that the
English Democbacy shotted organize itseuf seriously , to wrest power from the connivance of an accomplice Aristocracy , and the blindness of bourgeois imbecility . The most contradictory rumours continue to circulate about this Eastern question . To-day ( Thursday ) the report of a Russian corps d ' armee having disembarked near Scutari , right in face of Constantinople , has revived . After all , were it even true , it would but be the accomplishment of the determination of Russia to possess Turkey at any price . Such a disembarkment would enable the Russian fleet to pass the Bosphorus and to take Constantinople . I have already mentioned the rumour that General Dannenberg had orders to pass the PrUth on March 21 , just at the approach of spring !
Nothing else is stirring at Paris . The Pope has finally decided , we hear , not to come to Paris . Orders have been given by the Archbishop of Paris , to make all preparations for the Coronation to take place on the 5 th , 10 th , or 15 th of May . This repulse of Bonaparte by the Pope has astonished all the noodles , who trusted to the repeated assurances of the Government . It certainly cannot he said that Bonaparte has not done all in his power to persuade his Holiness to move : he even went so far as to propose ( as I told you weeks ago ) to suppress the civil marriage , or , at least , to make it subordinate to the religious rite . He sent no less than seven French bishops to Rome :
among others , a double Gascon , a Uearnais , M Salinis , Bishop of Amiens , with full powers to negotiate this affair . There wub a moment when these envoys began to shout victory 5 the Pope consented personally ; it only remained for him to con-Biilt the Sacred College . But the College refused it » consent . Bonaparte then perceived that he had l > een " sold , " and was considerably mortified at the repulse . In his disgust he gave orders that the NapoUon steam line of battle ship , which had been in tho hands of the upholsterers to prepare for the Pope ' s reception , and was waiting at Toulon orders to get up her steam for Oivita Vecchia , should sail with tho rest of tho fleet
for the " Greek waters . " Bonaparte , you may imagine , is discouraged , but as ho insists on being crowned in tho month of May , he has made u p his mind to do without the l \)] jc . The Empress has been on horsebaclc again during the last ten days . Sho had conned to ride since the middle of February . HciutdaloiiH tonftuen will have it that there has boon a mishap , or that tho " interesting situation" was a mere ruse de famine . Why not admit at onco that the rumour was purely gratuitous ?
The Legitimists continue to send in their resignations for refusing to take tho oaths to the "Emperor lloury V . goea on writing them letters- Bonhporte'u
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290 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ^ > ' : jik -i- « ' »! ' -a * W—» MMWfc . ——^——^^^ ^— " * — " * "
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Leader (1850-1860), March 26, 1853, page 290, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1979/page/2/
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