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Turkish question was not the cause of it—but that T rd Pa lmerston and his late colleagues remained n the most friendly footing . Wo do not know ° fat Lord Pal merston says to that assertion , but W e believe that it will turn out that this statement ' * as unfounded as any which have accompanied ... j t appears , then , that there has been a serious ' in the Cabinet , and" that Ministers are studiously attempting to hoodwink arid mislead the nubKc on the causes of the rupture . Certain circumstances tend to increase the uneasiness which this dispute and this studied delusion excite . " VTe are assured , by an organ hitherto well- informed on Lord Palmerston ' s movements , that he differs from the Oriental policy which has
prevailed in the Cabinet , and the effect of which L > have described above . Contemporaneously with this dispute in the Cabinet , we see a conspiviov amongst the Bourbon princes to recover the throne of France—a conspiracy against the throne of our chief ally in the East . It is said also , and this is a subject which is necessarily clothed with much mystery , that Lord Palmerston has been opposed , only by . Lord Aberdeen , but by the Court . The Emperor of Austria sanctions , almost with his presence , the conspiracy of the
Bourbon princes against the Emperor of the French . The King of the Bel g ians , who has recently cemented an Austrian alliance , is active in communications with our Court ; and hints have been very freely current , and have even found their way into print , . that the Ministers who have opposed Lord Palmerston in the Cabinet , have done so to indulge the taste of our Court for promoting dynastic projects and restorations . We are as yet without any substantial evidence which would enable us to convert these hints into direct
charges against the responsible Ministers of the Crown ; but when we see the course in the Black Sea tends to sacrifice Turkey to Russia—how a dilatory policy tends to sacrifice the French alliance— how it equally tends to sanction the Bourbon conspiracy—how the Minister who is regarded as the least likely to be pliant in the matter of Coburg projects is compelled to leave the Cabinet—and how the causes of his retirement
are systematically misrepresented by organs which speak under official inspiration ; we are compelled to admit that , although there is no evidence as yet to substantiate a . distinct charge against Ministers , there is the evidence of their own acts , their own tendencies , and their own misstatements , to justify the most serious uneasiness .
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MINISTERS IN THE NEXT SESSION . Hitherto the country has been remarkably passive on the subject of Turkey , and it has been more than passive on the subject of the Reform Bill . It is Ministers who have kept up the fire on the Reform , and Russia on the war question . Should the public ultimately be roused , the fault will be due , not to that harmless being itself , but to a Czar who is certainly not harmless , and to a Ministry which might have left the subject of ¦ Reform alone . Should Lord John Russell , wooing
a second suffrage revolution , incur the censure Jvhich Burns passes upon King David , it will be Ins own fault . The public has borne the provocatives with wonderful patience , but at last it does appear to be excited . I ho war question is becoming painful for any ¦ Eng lishmen who remember the old name of their country . Negotiating is all very well , — it is n great modern improvement ; but the countrymen ° t Nelson , Blake , and Jcrvio , do begin to ask Jnemsolves how . it is that Russia should ' attack our w ' and protege , almost within gunshot of the J < jll f ? hsh fleet , and how our fleet , nevertheless , should ; j } vait the dilatory " instructions" of diplomatists . , ° English , mind in not vo . f c ho cultivated an to
i ? v tlus Problem instinctively ; and the meeting '' Newcastle is , perhaps , the iir « t glimpse of h C ninno English feeling that we have hud . It vas Very numerously attended ; all parties wore presented . While the working cIuhhcn naturally _ "istjtntcd the most mimerouB nection of an open in 1 " * cetni £ > the middle diiHBcn wero not abHent ; ' »< l we believe that all gentlemen of any coiihoii !! ' 1100 xn tue neighbourhood were on the platlo M Somo luwl I ° ve < 1 the intorenfc which thoy 0 PI "y aw » ving half-an-hom- before tlio time in . !' to secure their seaUt . The roHolutioiw , i « ol " upon Government ' to act , worn iwii'luinly - # ' ' L enough , but . at the name tiino , lull <>»'
„; .. " . ^ "glish feelin g .- Now , thin tooling in l »<» - L , ? # to ^ c awakened ; the JhwUwuh'HM "" " unity of llusuinlmvc been udiuiUcd :
tiioJiiNtice and moderation of Turkev are equally confessed ; the duty of England to protect an ally and the law of nations are acknowledged ; how , under such circumstances , Russia should be free to cut up Turkey and massacre the Turks in the presence of an English fleet ; Ministers , perhaps , will be able to explain on the opening of'Parliament . ° They will then also , of course , explain how the promised Reform Bill stands . The public will expect that it shall at least equal Lord John
Rxissell s "Parliamentary . Representation Bill . " It is true that there has " been no demand for Reform ; but the intellectual friends of Reform say that it is desirable to anticipate popular clamour , and to arrange the question in a quiet way while the public mind is tranquil . Decidedly a just * idea ; but how will the public like to be awakened from its slumber , to receive the promised boon of a Reform Bill , announced with a flourish of trumpets , and rise" from repose only to welcome an abortion ? Better let the public sleep than that .
We have our apprehensions . The fate of this Reform BUI , in connexion with the Eastern question , appears to be curious . There is no statement that Lord John Russell abandoned his position , but we heard , a week or two back , that Lord Palmerston had succeeded in clipping Lord John Russell ' s proposition very seriously . The general tendency of the Ministerial organs indicates that the basis of the franchise is not to
be extended below the ten-pound scale . The grand coup is to consist in the disfranchisement of certain boroughs , whose representatives are to be given to great towns , or , in some cases , to county constituencies . In short , it is only to be a redistribution , with some new . checks against corruption , we suppose ; but this is not the Reform Bill that will satisfy the public . Although Lord Palmerston has taken exception to particular points in the Bill , he has succeeded in cuttin g down the dimensions of Lord John ' s
design . The result is , that Ministers are in a strange perplexity : although Lord Palmerston leaves the Cabinet because the Eastern policy is too puny , he has succeeded in crippling their Reform Bill , and obliging them to adopt his own puny standard . Thus we have an Eastern policy measured by the Aberdeen standard , which is puny ; and a Reform measured by the Palmerston standard , which is also puny . We do not , of course , venture to assert , that Ministers will meet Parliament in what Sir
Frederick Trench would call that mutilated and degraded condition ; but the manful way in which he stood by his candles , is not to be expected on subjects like Europe and Turkey . It is to be doubted whether Ministers will be able to struggle out of the nightmare of littleness which is fastened upon them no less by their resident Premier , than by their departed Home Secretary . But should they , have only irritated the country
on the subject of Reform ; should they have acknowledged a duty in the East only to betray it ; the public , though long dormant , will at last rise to demand that its recreant servants be driven from their place , and abler men called to do the work . The feelings aroused in Englishmen cannot bo better expressed than in the letter which we received from an esteemed correspondent , Mr . George Crawshay , one of the leading men at Newcastle and its meeting .
( To trie Editor of the Leader . ) " GatesJiead Iron Works , Guteshead-upon-Tyne , Dec . 20 tli j 1833 . i « q , n _ To say ( lie least , it is hujliry probable that the nntiou inny Hliortl y have to choose between a Government with n Iteform Bill , but without an upright foreign policy , and il Government with nn upright foreign policy , but without a Reform Hill . It can do n <» Imnn to coiwiJer what m ¦ uich n c « so Bhould be done . Unt . l I ' arha . nent meets , we cannot , lwirn tho facts which wo must know to enable us to rfocido whether wo will follow l ' jilineroloji or Lord John ; but I ] av « not a moment '* hesitation in saying that at the prewibcmHnaio to mat oi
, Kent time every other question is « ur ZX . li'T ' . When tho Ifafbrro Bill « pe . n ., I doubt not but ft will bo easy- eupurfi to excite the contempt of tho " no omtio party in K » t& »* towards it ; but 1 will not an-Uciimtoits ' provi ^ ioiiB or whHtitfl value . nay prove to bo to V i , h « of lllwrty . I will Htoop to no nrta . I prefer to " xiirwm my conviction plainly , that any Government proposiinliiiiy Uefonn Bill , however-liberal , and leaving ua »» any clLbt L to tho iii » ri « litne «» of its foreign policy , ought to bo iue
driven from office without delay . paramount uuiy o tho dmi . on-atio party in England ia to oppose ltussu , and hitrrrlv will tlit'V lament the day when tlicy suflcr them-« " lv « 'H to »¦« divortwl from thi « by any ronaidcration whatever . » ' form our in » titnli » iis as we may , if Kussian inflaencc is II n 1 to prevail on the contment-if lurkcy ts l » c rayodmSl wH . ii Jiavo to choose at homo between enslavement / ind revolution .
' Anrtbing more rtckless , anvthicg more desperate than such a course , I cannot pqsablv ' conceive . " Sjicli an endless traiD of calamities do I see attending tipoait , that I deliberatel y say that any Government not annoancmg a foreiga policr sataksictory to the cation g ^ n ^ Td not be even , listened to oa anv otier subject"I will go fhrther . I do" cot think'it wise to mtroduce any measure for Parliamentary T ^ form at all until the question of vrar or peace with Russia is definitivelv decided . Any measure worth a moment ' s consideratioa will iare to be carried in spite of the House of Lords and at the cost of a domestic struggle . To enter upon such a struggle whilst we are undecided as to our foreign po ' licv . would be a mistake of the first magnitude . Public attentioa being diverted from foreign affairs , Bussia will gain her ends , and will be in the ascendant long before our Reform Bill can be carried in both Houses ; and then—we shall get just such a Eeiorm Bill as we shall deserve .
" If it should turn out that Lord Palmerston opposes Parliamentary reform at present for any such reasons as these it will be only a reason for believing in the sincerity of whatever conviction he may express as to our foreign poiiev on the meeting of Parliament . —Yours , &c ., " George Crawshay "
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PERSIA AS AN ALLY OF RUSSIA . Reports -which reach this country by various channels , and "which therefore appear the more trustworthy , state that Persia has declared war against England . The sbark might almost as well declare -war against the eagle ; for , a bird in a sea of deserts , Persia can make but a feeble approach towards England . The most she can do is to subserve the treacheries of Russia , with whom we shall have to deal in a direct way . But , absurd as it is , the declaration of "war on the part of Persia does not surprise us , nor is it "without significance . There have before been differences with the Court at Tehran , and there have also been friendly relations . During the protracted war which the Persian Government carried on against the rebellious province of Khorassan , by an army under Abbas Mirza , brother of the late Shah , an English officer served with that prince ; whom we remember previously as the companion , of Sir John Malcolm , and who astonished that
accomplished officer by the audacity of his ndmg . The Englishman who accompanied Abbas Mirza to Khorassan was named Yernon , and was the last of the English officers deputed to assist in the drill and improvements of the Persian army . Wearied out by the insolent inattention of the officers placed under his tuition , and by the impossibility of getting his money , this gentleman came away from Persia about the year 1849 . rather
He had a successor ; and that successor is a remarkable man . It was Count Karaczay , a Colonel in the Austrian army . This officer was formerly employed as Commandant de la Place at Mantua . The Commandant de la Place is charged with the duties that pertain to the keeping of the fortress , town , town-gates , keys , jails , police , &c . For some reason , to us unknown , the Count excited the displeasure of his Government ; and from the language employed , we are inclined to suppose that lie was suspected of a leaning towards the patriotic party ; the more probably , since he is by birth an Hungarian . From the
sequel , however , it is to be supposed that he confessed his fault , and was pardoned ; and the circumstances may account for his having been deputed to a distant mission . He is a very agreeable man , about sixty years of age , an excellent officer , well acquainted especially with the scene of war in the East , and author of the best existing map of the district of Montenegro and Herzagovine . He was sent out about two years ago , with a staff of Austrian oflicers to Tehran , to renew the services relinquished by the Englishman , Vornon . Persia , therefore , has received into the staff of her army an Austrian infusion , and she is now openly subserving tho treacherous advances of Russia .
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OUGHT MAJOIilTIKS IN ALL CASES TO BE OMNIPOTENT ? In ji letter , undtii * this heading , published in the Open Council of last week , ' ¦ Kust icus" proposed for our consideration a problem wInch we said was of practical interest and constant difficulty . The case , as stated by "liusticus , " is this : "A readingroom or Athenaeum for ' the intellectual and moral improvement of its members , ' by reading and lectures , has just been formed in a town of a population of about 2600 . Books are to be bought for circulation among its members , but the rule for the selection of them has not yet been framed , a minority being of opinion that each member ought to be at liberty to put in one volume in turn , if not above a certain price , thereby se-
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December 24 , 1853 ] THE LEADER . 1235
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 24, 1853, page 1235, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2018/page/11/
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