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Leader (1850-1860), 13th August 1853, Edition Town of 2, Page 775, Untitled Article

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      , him confidentially by his own ambassador at Vienna , Sa Baron-de Meyendorff . This first proposition was Imbst a transcript of the ultimatum addressed to the Porte by Prince Menschikoff . Now , the propositions 4 hat followed *™ the necessary correctives to this first j nee on tbe one hand , they prescribed limits to the isatre which the Czar should make of the concessions Lcorded to him , and , on the other , to the Christian communions in general extended the rights and advantages which the Czar intended to be conceded to the Greek Church in particular .

      Besides , the Conference of Vienna committed the signal error of not stipulating the instant evacuation of the Danubian provinces . Many persons , then , are still so obstinate as to persuade themselves that the affair is not yet settled : that even if the Emperor of Russia has accepted the first proposition , he may still verywell not accept the other and less acceptable proposition : that , moreover , he may yet very easily find a way to prolong indefinitely the military and adminisfrative occupation of Moldavia and Wallachia .

      As to thinking and serious people , they have observed with pain the immense abasement of public spirit , the immense degradation of public men in Europe . We are living under the reign of the bourgeoisie , but of the bourgeoisie in full decadence , of the bourgeoisie in complete dissolution . After the events of these last two months , it is difficult to doubt that society in Europe is little better than a corpse . The eagles and the vultures of the north may swoop upon

      their easy prey when they will ; they will find us nothing but a huge carrion . How long shall the punishment be delayed ? The religious journal , ZSUhivers , organ of the ultramontane and priestly party , has experienced the same impression , and has expressed it in an article that has created a sensation . For the first time , perhaps , in my life , I find myself agreeing with the Univers . I cannot forbear citing one or two passages from this remarkable article : —

      "If the latest news be exact , the affair between Russia and Turkey , or rather between Russia and Europe , is concluded , as it was but too evident it would be concluded . Russia triumphs . The Sultan is no longer but the lessee of the Czar , and for a very brief term . The kingdom of Greece becomes the Monaco of the East ; Austria falls into the rank of protegee . The other great nations having been unable to prevent this result , learn now that a Power which seemed to be as yet a- rival only , is already , and knows herself to be , preponderant . Russia advances with the

      strides of a giant on a path which the faults of Europe have smoothed for her . She will only halt for a moment to march again , with no long delay . She is not afraid of her forties being weighed , and her projects discussed . What matters it to her that they be ignored ? Constantinople was her end yesterday ; it is becomin g her means . Russia obtains nil the advantages of war , because Europe is too anxious for peace . Russia is self-possessed . She has a head that comin : uids , members that obey . She is a monarchy . In the rest of the world there are only republics , under

      different titles : aristocratic republics , and republics of shopkeepers . Russia depends neither on shopkeepers , nor on penmen , nor on stockjobbers . Her ministers , her ambassadors , her generals , havo no interests at fitako in foreign funds—do not fear lest their firmness creato a fall in public stocks at homo . This is why Russia advances , and nil the rest of Europe recedes . He ia getting to Constantinople without firing a cartridge , in spite of Europe , full of soldiors , rich in ships , in science , in tactics , but alarmed at the prospect of making cartridges out of the Grand Livre ( of the public debt ) .

      Such a conquest , thus accomplished , permits Russia to accep t no restraints upon her ambition , and to placo none upon her hopes . An old and prudent people , long Kutcd with glory , would indulge in the passiva intoxication of past success . It is perilous to inflamo the pride of the- Ruas , who but yesterday whs but an interloper in the European family , and a barbarianthe lust in Bcionco , in letters , and in military Sclat , —and wlio now feels himself the strongest . Assuredly Europe May need the exercJHo of virtues . But this new comer , this barbarian , is the pupil of the politics and civilization of the epoch -. „ they havo left him all his own y'WH , and ho has " taken theirs . Bohold him great , indeed , and his education is complete . Modern politics mid oivilimtion will soon tnnto tho fruits .

      ' And now Russia appears to us , with her unbelieving ttobloHHo uud her fanatical populace—with her Bcientiflo Kenernls and her barbarous soldiery—with her Einporor , who in tho high priest and tho visible god of sixty millions 01 believers , whom ho calls his Hsuntu , and to Whom h » RpealcH tho language of tho crufmdcrx , and whom ho " ¦ nutiflidCH by proumin g to have muss Bung in tho Umrch of St . Sophia . There is your now Knlifut "ratal aH Peter tho Groat ; oboyod like Mahomet ;

      —able , in a word , to command and to seduce at once ; to crush and to corrupt , having at his disposal tortures , sophisms , and gold ! He regards Europe , and beholds her divided and distracted by insensate antipathies and unnatural alliances . We have reached a time when man is , as it were , uprooted ( deracinf ) . Yes , alas ! ttprooted is the word : torn from the soil , holding no more by any thread to his double nationality of religion and country ; as a brother , following the opinion which he has formed for himself by following the interest which engages him , whether of the Englishman , the Italian , or the Russian ; but also willingly the enemy of his own brother by language , blood , and baptism ; - citizen of the world , if you will , but no longer citizen of his natal soil ; adorer

      in one place of force , in another of revolt , almost everywhere of success ; but here , there , and everywhere , unfaithful to God . Such is the man of the nineteenth century throughout all Europe . He floats from doctrine to doctrine , he runs from pleasure to pleasure , craven and inconstant even when he is not bad . He asks himself whether , after all , if he have no other God but himself , he has any country but the world . He has no tie to the past—before him he sees no future ; he is rooted up . Is it this dust that shall stand before the hurricane of fire and steel which is rushing on compact from the East , hurried onwards by the fanaticism of conquest ? Ah ! if God shall not , by some sudden stroke of his own will , call up a man for this exhausted Europe , we are riearing the hour of disgrace , and it will have struck for long . "

      Meanwhile , Bonaparte is quite proud of the results obtained . He has just created M . Drouyn de THuys Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour , as a recompencefor the signal triumph which that Minister has gained on the Eastern question . Will you not , for your part , also get up a subscription to present a civic crown to Lord Clarendon ? I doubt not the Czar will head the list . Lord Clarendon and his colleagues have deserved well—of Russia .

      We are busily preparing , just now , for the coming Fete of Monday , the 15 th of August , the fete of Na ^ poleon , the fete of the Emperor , as the functionaries say . A Te Deum will be sung in the churches ; a grand review of the National Guards and the troops in the Champs Elysee , the Place de la Concorde , and the Tuileries , held by Bonaparte . " His Majesty" will enter into Paris by the Arc de TEtoile , and betake himself to the Tuileries through a double line of troops , composed on the one side of the purged and picked national guards , on the other of troops of the line .

      All the cavalry regiments from the neighbouring departments are ordered to assist on this occasion . The Cuirassiers from Versailles , from Melun , Meaux , Beauvais , and Amiens ; the Dragoons from Rambouillet ; and the Lancers from Provins . A decoration , in Mauresque style , has been constructed for the illuminations in the Champs Elysees : four hundred and fifty thousand lamps , jets of gas , and electric lights will compose the ensemble . The Court ( official style ) will proceed to hear the Te Deum in Notre Dame , in great pomp . All the Imperial carriages havo been re-decorated for the day .

      Finally , we are promised a surprise , in the Moniteur for tho 14 th inst .: some say it is to be an announcement of the coronation , others of tho "interesting situation" of the Empress , others an official notification of peace . At present , however , Bonaparte goes on imprisoning his people aa usual . A professor of philosophy , M . Morin , has been thrown into prison for having refused to take the oaths of allegiance . Ho was arrested on Saturday last at the Hotel Corneillo .

      At the request of Jasmin , the perruquier poet of Agcn , Bonaparte baa granted to M . Baze , sometime Questor of tho National Assembly , authorization to return to Franco unconditionally . M . Ba / . e has uddresscd to the journals a protest of a rather nhnrp flavour , requesting M . Jasmin to attend to his own buainoss of wig making , and not to beg pardons for people who havo given him no authority to do so . Yestordny ( Wednesday ) commenced tho trial of tho affair called tho Complot de Vincennes . About four months ago I told you of a Legitimist secret society , having a military organization . Thin is tho society in

      ' question . . Tho polico has been utterly utiablo to get at tho society itHolf ; it has only Hcizvd certain indivividuals . From evidence alroady given in court , it appearH that two formidable organizations exist , one Legitimist , tho other O rleanist , ready to act as soon as tho moment arrives . In ft letter seized at tho residenceof Jeanne , tho Htntionor of tho Passage Choifioul , tho following passage relating to th « Legitimist conspiracy appeal's : — " The Orleans family havo an immenso organization , in which may bo found very high functionaries and influential personages . They arc ready to attack boou . The enmity of the Orleans family is

      so much the more to be apprehended that it grows daily in the heart of young men , of whom some are brave and determined soldiers , it must be confessed . " As to the intentions of Henry V , the following passage occurs : "It is above all absolutely necessary to establish frequent communications with Vincennes , therefore faint not and fail riot-e-every thing depends on it . The patron ( Henry V . ) is resolved to begin ( debuter ) by Paris en maitre . No one must know the intentions

      of the patron . He has shaken off his apparent indifference , and now he speaks as a master and a king , disposed to emulate Henry IV ., and that too very soon . " Here , then , for any one who can ! reckon accurately , are four secret organizations , including that of the Decembrists of Bonaparte who are still in existence . Out of the Decembrists came the Empire—what shall come out of the other three ? S .

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      CONTINENTAL NOTES . We are told that the Turkish difficulty is overcome , and that war is now improbable ; but we are absolutely without authentic intelligence respecting the mode of settlement . The best authority throughout this transaction has been the Morning Post , and from that journal , therefore , we extract the only regular statement before the public ; - — "We have every reason to believe that the event will prove our prediction correct , when we say that the evacuation of the Danubian Principalities will be effected by Prince Gortschakoff during the first week in September . It was on the 19 th . ultimo that we were enabled to inform the public that one of the projects for the settlement of the Eastern question had been favourably received at St . Petersburg , and it was on the 27 th of July that we announced exclusively that , on the 24 th , a project of settlement had been agreed on by the representatives of the four great Powers at Vienna . Later , we foretold that before the 10 th of this month we should know the answer which the Czar would g ive to the proposition laid before him . We calculated on this because , on the 26 th of July , M . de Mayendorff transmitted to his imperial master , not indeed the formal propositions , but an account of what had passed at the Conference of the 24 th . To this despatch of the Russian ambassador , an answer , as we have already informed the public , has been returned , dated St . Petersburg , the 3 rd of August , conveying tho Czar ' s approbation of the project about to-be laid before him , which , by this time , has probably received a more formal assent .

      "We have thus far been correct ; and we think we shall be found not less accurate , when we affirm that the definitive project of settlement was sent from Vienna to Constantinople on the same clay that it was sent to St . Petersburg , that is , on the 2 nd inst . The acceptance of the Czar will be received at Vienna about the 14 th . This will , of course , at once be despatched to Constantinople , where it will arrive about the 20 th . A Turkish ambassador will be ready then to start for St . Petersburg ; and , we understand , that as soon as the telegraph informs the Russian Cabinet of the fact of the ambassador being on his road , the Emperor will telegraph his orders to Prince Gortschakoff to evacuate the Danubian provinces . These telographs , being for the most part old semaphores , will , of course , not work with tho same speed as tho olectric ; but they and the course of events will be sufficiently rapid to warrant us in expecting that by the 10 th of September tho last Russian soldier will have re-crossed tho

      Pruth . " And the j&urnal adds an account of tho probable settlement : — " Wo believe wo shall be found not to bo far wrong when wo confidently affirm that tho affair is settled in such a manner as to preserve intact the independence and integrity of tho Ottoman empire . This mode of settlement will be thus : —Redschid Pacha will address to Count Nesselrode a note , in which ho will inclose the Firmans in which are accorded to tho Greek Christians , subjects of tho Sultan , more privileges than even Russia had asked for thom > He will say many civil things to tho Czar , and assure him of tho oxcellent disposition of tho Sultan towards his own subjects , to whom ho has accorded such and such rights . This note will bo presented by a Turkish ambassador , and tho affair will be at an end . "

      This is all that is known on tho subject , except such bare revelations as havo been made in tho IIouso of Lords . But a correspondent of tho Morning Chronicle furnishes an interesting glimpse of Omer Pasha ' s army . Tho letter is of an old date—July 11—but its contents aro now : — " I write to you from tho head-quarters of tho Ottoman army , and hasten to give you all tho particulars that ; I havo been ablo to gather , and tho result of my personal inspection of tho actual stato of tho Sultan ' s army . Jlifl Excellency . Omor Pacha , commandor-in-chief of tho army , has established a military cordon of 70 , 000 men , which oxtondfl from Babadah to Schumla , and thoro joins tho entrenched camp formed thore , composc < l of 18 bafctoriofi , and

      each numbering from 40 to 50 guns , heavy artillery , defended by ' 50 , 000 men , forming the contro of tho army . Tho right wing of this army has itn quarters at biliatrui , and is composed of 30 , 000 men ; while tho roav-guard is formed of a similar number of men , and is lit Altos . Schumla has boon rondorod next , to impregnable . E \\\ r fltrbnghold , which is well wituated hh a strategical point , and on account of tho climate , winch ih good , contains alroady provisions for 100 , 000 mon and 40 , 000 horned for tho term of two years . Oinor Pacha has had lf > 0 ovona and as many mills uonHt . rucl . od , in which tho bread for tho troopH is biikod . J To oblige tho officers of ovory rank to loavo fchoir baggage thoro , and to curry with thorn but . ono chango of cloUios , and ono camp kotfrlo for ovory ton mon . All tiiioso things prove that tho fortress of Schuinla and tho ontronohed camp aro dostined in Omor Paoha ' a plans

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      AtTGirsT 13 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 775

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 13, 1853, page 775, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1999/page/7/