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retirement of neutral cities to appeal , -with studied calmness of tone and an affectation of injured magnanimity , from the diatribes of political passion to " minds unswayed by the tumult of the crowd . " Brussels has become the classic and chosen spot wherefrom we inay obtain Russian views of the war and of the Eastern Question generally . Let us take advantage of a visit to that pleasant and lively eapital , to correct our prejudices and to disabuse our minds of erroneous and unjust impressions . We enter the library at the Place Royale ( where we are living surrounded by polished Muscovites en conge , and where even at the table d'hote our national animosities have been temperately rebuked in perfect French by a disguised Tartar ) , and ask for the " last pamphlet on the Russian question . " We are presented with an imposing semi-official looking publication in a
light : blue cover , consisting of some 170 pages , and entitled " La Guerre d'Orient , ses Causes el >> es Consequences , ] ) ar un Habitant de I'Ewope Conlineniale . " We are struck at once with the nobly vague and severely cosmopolitan designation under which the author of these pages shrouds his name from the vulgar . "An Inhabitant of Continental Europe on the Causes and Consequences of the War" surely promises all that we can conceive of most unbiassed and judicial . "We therefore propose to our readers to accompany the Inhabitant of Continental Europe through his agreeable and truthful survey , hoping to convince them how vilely Russian policy has been maligned and misinterpreted by the angry passions of the hour , and how penitently all who love mankind should pray for the success of the righteous cause of Nicholas .
In a few introductory sentences our Inhabitant commends his hook to Continental Europe and principally to France . * He would even have dedicated it to Napoleon III ., if it were permitted to dedicate an anonymous work to a Sovereign . He is not opening a political discussion , but a simple analysis based on the inflexible logic of history . He places his work under the auspices of superior minds , and . refuses to deliver up his name with his opinions to the outrages and caprices of polemical journalism . At the same time , having sincere convictions , and a conscience free from all past engagements , in his p 7-ese ? it position silence would be an ignoble tribute to the authority of the dominant opinion , tbe most tyrannical of all authorities . He will not expose himself to search after the truth , buried just now under an avalanche of falsehood and idle talk of the hour- He offers no solution
of -the great problem in which he sees the expiation of that crime of the nations of Western Europe in the fifteenth century , when they suffered the last bulwark of Eastern Christendom , that ancient capital of the regeneration of all Europe , to be thrown down . Time alone , ichose eternal light is somtimes lost for a moment .-in the darkness of human destinies , can solve this momentous problem . In the first chapter , "An Inhabitant of Continental Europe" considers the respective policy of-the belligerent powers since the Congress of Vienna . He will not allow the origin of the war to be attributed to tha quarrels of a few fanatical monks : to assign this trumpery cause to a sacrilegious war is but anew profanation of those sanctuaries- The Holy Places are , like the doctrine , of the integrity and independence of the Turkish Empire , a mere pretext and occasion : the real source of the crisis is to be found in an attentive study of the respective attitudes of the great European Powers since the Congress of Vienna . '
This overture is worthy of the baton of Mr . David Urquhart , The performance now begins . The key note is struck in the second chapter : the dominant theme that runs through the whole performance is the selfish and devouring mercantilism of England . Ever since the fall of Napoleon , we are told , the chief barrier to the commercial supremacy of Great Britain has been . — -Russia . As soon as Russia entered into the famil y of European states , the salutary effects of her influence were experienced at Paris and Vienna . England is too practical , to dream of the conquest of Europe : she is content with India . Her ambition is limited to the
reduction of all Europe to the condition of Portugal , politically , industrially , and commercially . And here we have a striking ; picture of the consequences of Free-Trade , which An Inhabitant of Continental Europe might almost haTe borrowed from the enlightened columns of a Protectionist journal . The new economical system inaugurated by Sir Robert Puel , the decay of agriculture , and the infinite industrial development ; in a word , all the tendencies of the new domestic policy of the United Kingdom , make the monopoly of manufacturing industry at the expense of the Continent a condition of life and of progress .
Tliis doctrine of Free Trade is a new political religion , invented for the exclusive profit of a country which , with one hand imposes commercial treaties , while with the other it reduces its tariff , and drawd up—flourishing rovcnue-tables . This religion has its adherents and imitators , who forget the fate of Portugal , of Turkey , of India , " and of all the countries whore a system so favourable to English commerce is already producing its infallible results—the paralysis of all industry , of all financial resources , the reduction of local trade and navigation to the tqU \ of purveyor of the industrial metropolis , imposing permanent tributes in the form of periodical loans to cover continuous deficits , and sapping the very foundations of national independence . Such are the consequences of Fxee Trade to all nations not strung enough , to bear it—to all but England . Such is the universal domination of that unrighteous Power who trusts to her floating citadels at
every station , to Jta bristling rocks at Gibraltar , at Malta , at Corfu , at Aden ^ at tha Capo , at Hong Kong 5 to her private dominions in North America , in India , in Polynesia , in tho Antilles ; to mnko the world her market , and all the nutiona of the earth her producers of raw material and consumers of her manufactured industry . There nro some men , exclaims tho Inhabitant of Continental Europe , with just surprise , who accept this theory as a benefit to mankind . We soo in it a real calamity , a material and moral obatnele to tho development of universal progress \ sinco every monopoly , even were it a benefit , in as contrary to tho divine law as it is to human nature . The render will not fail to follow tUo inflexible logic which , after denouncing th « HVBtciu of Freo-Tradoand the reciprocity of exchanges , condemns every monopoly in these forcible and oven solemn terms . Tho writer now strikes avnothor note : tho importance of a Russian ullianoc to France . Tho Jilmperor Aloxundor waa anvnyw anxious , in 1014 and
1815 , to preserve the integrity and influence of France , while England has always endeavoured to convert France iuto the instrument of her ' own purposes . It was England that conspired , in 1814 , with Austria and Talleyrand , for the dethronement of Murat ; England practised unsuccessfully every cajolery upon the prudence of Louis XVIII . and the chivalrous pride of Charles X . It was the providential accord of France and Russia that produced the noblest result of which contemporary politics can boastthe Hellenic kingdom—while England repudiated Navarino . Our writer sets us an example of unselfishness . Coz-Uially as he detests us , he points out the hidden dangers of our path . The following passage is Imost worthy of the most prophetic moments of Protectionism : — °
" We believe that this tendency to commercial domination is fatal to old England herself : it creates a factitious existence under the imposing apparatus of her metallic and territorial wealth , of a fabulous credit , of an industrial prosperity infinitely developed by the most powerful inventions of modern science . We believe that England is expiating her outrages on the liberti / of the ivorld by the progressive demoralisation of her own people , and by the inevitable decay of the very institutions which have home her to so great a height of prosperity . " A new Reform Bill is the inevitable consequence of Free Trade : and sonic fine day England will find herself in the hands of a Democratic Parliament , elected by a population of manufacturing operatives . This accounts for the desperate but instinctive and farsiguted opposition of the English aristocracy to a Reform of Parliament .
The writer is iiot a pessimist in respect of England ; he accords a long respite to us yet : but . he sees the signs of our moral , preceding our material , decadence . England will long weigh on the destinies of the world 5 and never has she better understood her interests than now . Unfortunately those interests are in direct opposition to the interests of Continental Europe . The peace , the prosperity , and the union of the nations composing the great European family would evidently be the ruin of England . This is another singular conception of the effects of reciprocity of exchanges—in other words of that Free Trade of which England sets " the example . The conduct of England in the last great war was purely selfish : she combated the Revolution without earnestness , rather for the sake of prolonging a struggle than For preserving the monarchy ; but wlien Napoleon threatened her commercial supremacy , she threw her -whole strength into the struggle , and sought to seduce Charles ¦ X . into a war against Russia in 1828 , when Russia fought , as now , upon the Danube , to avenge ber honour
and her Church bathed in the blood of two patriarchs , of thirty bishops , and many hundreds and thousands of her fellow Christians . " The taking of Algiers was the proximate cause of the rupture between England and Charles X . The British Government rejoiced in the fall of a Government which had been able to restore to France the continental influence won for her by Louis XIV . and Napoleon . Louis Philippe was obliged to clirig to the English alliance ; the first effect of which was the quadruple alliance , resulting in the vassalage of Portugal and the revolutionising of Spain , while in the East a new era was inaugurated by the Treaty of Adrianople and the generous conduct of Russia to vanquished Turkey . In 1833 the revolt of Slehenxet Ali was encouraged by England and , in pursuance of the servile policy of Louis Philippe , by France . It was then that Russia found herself compelled to put an end to tho insurrection by sending a fleet and an army into the Bosphorus . No doubt the Treaty of Unkiar Skelessi was less disinterested as a moral result than the material
result 01 the occupation of the Bosphorus ; but nevertheless it was foreign to any thought of invasion or to any menace to . the security of the Porte . No enlightened person ever credited the designs attributed to Russia , and tho Inhabitant only writes for the enlightened . England tried to get up a coalition against Russia ; but all she could obtain from France was a protest considering the treaty null , as Russia considered , the protest null . England was repulsed , and compelled to yield to the just rights of Russia in the afiair of tho Vixen , which was a simple seizure o £ contraband of war on a blockaded coast . This repulse , however , England has never forgotten , and she now calls Europe to anus to avenge it . Thus , continues the Inhabitant of Continental Europe , was the peace
ot the world preserved from 1833 to 18-tO . In the mennwhile the policy of the English Government completely wore round . That policy had been to separate Egypt from Turkey and to acquire complete control of the PacUulic , preparatory to future possession . The writer here proceeds to expose the designs of England upon Egypt , studiously concealed , while tho importance of Constantinople is exaggerated . England would , perhaps , even give Constantinople to Franco for the foundation of a Latin Empire which Kussia would spend her hist rouble to resist , on condition of taking Egypt for herself . Of Egypt she would muko a military and commercial station , which she could keep , with from 10 , 000 to 12 , 000 men , ngainst all contingencies so long as she retains her maritime supvcinncy and her Indian Enipiro : it would be only s \ new proof of her mercantile perspicacity to seize a possession which would bring her a revenue equivalent k > tho cost oi Constantinople to France . Independently of the national , commercial , and political advantages of Egypt to England , it would fortify her nystem ot Free Trade .
The chief productions of Egypt are wheat and cotton . England id gradually renouncing the cultivation of wheat , which was committed to the race of Adam us a divine law . in 1833 England was at tho mercy of tho Emperor of Kussia for food . As to ootton , tlinfc other daily bread oi millions , she is dependent on tho United States of America- Imagine , thon , tho importance of Egypt to England ! In 1851 another Eastern Question was on tho point of arming in Egypt . England had invented enormous capital in tho const ruction of u railway , after dissuading Abbas PauUn from tho project of dyking tho Nile , which had already absorbed innuonao huiiis . J'liu Porto protested nguinst the pecuniary cngngcimmts contracted by her vassal in duliuneo of tho fundnmcntal law ol tho umpire . Tho Frunoh Government warmly Hoetmdod the protorit of tho 1 ' orto , while England was dispoyud to take tho purl- of Abbn . Pasha . At that moment tliu cordiality now existing between tho French and English CJovernmonts did not , exist . English diplomacy , however , through tho medium of l ' and Eilbudi , solved this question ainiuiibly , and
Untitled Article
786 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 19, 1854, page 786, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2052/page/18/
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