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^ EIJSSIA,. AFTER.THE PEACE
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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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NOTlCliS TO CORRESPONDENTS , No ( notice oan bo taken of anonymous communications . Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated by tlie name and address of the writer ; not necessarily i ' or publication but as a guarantee of his good faith . It is impossible to acknowledge the mass of letters we receive , l u ir insertion is often delayed , owing to a press of matter ; and when omitted , it is fiequently from reasons quite independent of the merits of the communication . We cannot undertake to return rejected communications . Our Titxe- I ' age and Ikdex for Vol . VI , 1-855 , will be given < ne \ t week During the Sessi n of Parliament it is often impossible to find room-tor correspondence , even the briefest . Communication Bliould always be legibly written , and on one aide of the paper-only . If long , it increases thedifliculiy ot lindiug space for them .
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KUS 3 IA , AFTER THE PEACE . Assuming that the Conferences lead to a general pacification , the result of the Avar is , that Russia recoils before the powers combined in defence of Turkey . She surrenders her ostensible claims ,- '' . relinquishes some of "the fruit of former wars , and accepts , moreifreely than at anyanterior r eriod , the control of European ^ Liplomacy . It is indisputable that , in so far as she has not maintained her original pretensions ,
England . It has confirmed , amo » g the credulous and imaginative popiulations of the East , the rumours of her power . Ten cities of the first magnitude might be stormed in Europe , [ without producing on the Oriental mind an effect equivalent to that which was the immediate consequence of the reduction of Kars . It rests with the Plenipotentiaries , under the presiding will of the Tuileries , to decide how
far this success justifies . Russia in maintaining her Asiatic pretensions . We have no hope that much will be gained by Great Britain in that direction . Possibly , the question -. is not one of immediate importance- It must be obvious to all who have marked the course of the war , that the real struggle between British and Russian power and policy has not yet arrived .
Peace , i f now concluded , will leave Russia intact , as the citadel of the military system in Europe . Russia is a young , growing , compact empire ; with a political machinery which cannot be weakened except by Revolutionand there is not one Government in Europe that does not regard the unawakened Revolution with equal abhorrence and fear . That , then , is the issue of the war . It settles certain points of diplomacy ; it may affix its flying seal to the spurious imperialism , of France ; but ] it leaves , unappeased , unexhausted—the Revolution .
It leaves the Revolution , because it has not changed one condition in the state of Europe that-renders the Revolution necessary . What has this war had to do with the civilisation to which the appeal was made , or with the liberty on which the promises were lavished ? It found Europe bearing the burden of a military and monarchical system , the weight of which it has aggravated . In France , a lawless and violent despotism has been consecrated and strengthened by gratuitous complicity in
England . In England itself , political and social reforms have been postponed . In Germany , some of the lesser states have lost a part of their constitutional liberty ; Austri a has not abated , but increased , her pressure on Italy ; the Hungarians have been silenced ; the populations which , in 1848 and 1849 exhibited a sympathy with the highest intelligence of the age , lie in languishing expectancy ; in Prussia , where the Government is less oppressive , bxit not less arbitrary , the privileges of the electoral
body have been attacked . The Ottoman Em- * pire , instead of maintaining its integrity , has lost its independence , submits to the dictation of the Allies , to Austrian encroachments , and to the virtual divorce of the Danubian Principalities . Turkey , as a Turkish powei * , is bankrupt ; tlie Christian race is already half in possession . As for the Circassian cause , —which , at the outset , excited a ridiculous enthusiasm in England—it has vanished among the clouds of the Caucasus . Persia is subjected , in an increased ratio , to the influence of Russia . The Fins have seen the Baltic fleet come
and go , two successive summers , without a gun being fired for their nationality , and " the immortal Poles , " who have furnished sentiment for Tivorton , and satire for the House of Commons , arc once more consigned to the patronage of the Visionary . No Lord Chamberlain will again marshal the sympathisers on St . -Martin's platform . ? Thowar has been limited in scope , and can lead only to ephemeral results . Europe—that Europe which represents civilisation and liberty—awaits the isauo of a nobler Ptruggle . Events , not conspiracies , will create the opportunity , ltisimpossible not to believe in better national
destinies than can be developed under the rule of armioti and privileged ovders . Governments ¦— "even , the most ephemeral—confide in their
she has lost an position and prestige . But who has gamed ? Austria has gained , by the consolidation of her interests on the Danube ; Sweden has gained a territorial guarantee ; Sardinia has gained , as a . compensation for her burdens , dangers , and sacrifices , the frail benefit of recognition- —such recognition , probably , as Cracow obtained at Vienna . To France has
been conceded the initiative in- war and peace . Prussia has extended her German domination , enriched her people by the overflow of the carrying trade , and . established , in comparison with Austria , a financial superiority so decided that ir , is her intention to create a navy , and convert into a reality that which , in Secretary Granvillk's time , was a sarcasm . In eight years the flag of Prussia will rank no longer with " tho Hag of Frankfort . " Whether , however , the pl'ns of Frederick William will be accomplished in Holstein is a separate question .
Excepting the Government of the Porte , which has been ruined , and Sardinia , which may have been betrayed , by the war , Groat Britain is the only power which has not gained a moral or material advantage . In the Crimea , notwithstanding the unrivalled prowess of the troops at Alma , Balaklava , and Inker maim , and their ported ; constancy amid the most appalling privations that ever tried tho virtues of an army , her military character lias not been raised . Radical defects have been exposed in her governing and administrative systems : the
. exposure will be a benefit , unless apathy returns with the star of pcuoc ; but , through those delects , thousands of our best soldiers perished , and disasters in the camp were followed by disasters in the field . Diplomatically , England has fullon into the rear of France , and has sacrificed groat opportunities , at , the Maine tirno time , that politically , she has sacrificed great principles . Jler influence in Asia , inutead of advancing , has retrograded , The fall of Kurs has been to Bussin , what the fall of Oanton , in the Chinese war , was to
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THE POLICE-BILL RESISTANCE . The resistance to Sir George Grey ' s Police Bill is a middle-class and coumtry-gentleman resistance . Its single motive is not the avoidance of rates—there are other purposes at work ; although probably it is dislike to rates that stirs farmers in the field , and the love of votes that primarily actuates shopkeepers in the town . The Bill follows up a former Act which laid down the rules for the
establishment of ponce in counties that voluntarily adopted it . That act has , therefore , been voluntarily adopted by more than half of England and Wales . It is one of those cases in which an injury is inflicted upon the communities that have adopted the law , when others refuse to adopt it also . In all counties that still hold out , there are numbers who desire to see th . e measure extended over their- own districts .
Those counties which have a police , naturally become proportionately comfortless abodes for vagrants or the ticket-of-leave class ; the vagabonds gradually wander into tlie counties that are guarded only by the inefficient force under the Parish Constables Act . Nevertheless , on that free ground the vulgar tribe of Robin Hoods Is kept up , and thus th-e neighbouring counties suffer for the laches of the . false
economists . Because the West Riding of Yorkshire , in its economical wisdom , refuses to appoint an efficient guard over highways and property , the next Riding , which has adopted such a guard , suffers by the contiguity with the thiefpreserve . Now , there is no question that a minority in the West fiidihg feel the inconve nience as well as the disgrace , and they would , therefore , gladly adopt the measure . Thus , there is the East Riding in favour of the
newlaw , and no inconsiderable part of the West Riding ; or , taking the two Ridings together , a decided majority in favour of an effective county police . Under the practical working of the Act , then , a large majority of the country is favourable to its extension over the whole j but because a minority divided into counties works as a majority , and resists the extension of the law , the country is exposed to the maintenance of the thief-interest . This is
not self-government , it is the obstruction of self-government . Again , in towns the real objection is not to the bill . There might be valid reasons why the Secretary of State should not have a control over the police , even to the extent of dictating the uniform and pa . y . But however jealous the Watch Committee of a corporation might be about its privileges in these matters , everybody knows that it would care comparatively little for that amount of interference ,
it were not for another clause in the Bill . The measure will extend to boroug-hs that ; prohibition which now prevents policemen from voting at county elections . Here is the great sting . Tho common-councillors are really the governors of the force ; although they may not by direct means purchase the votes , or send the men down to elections by word of command ,
any one can sec the degree of influence which such a position oilers . Now , common-councillors and aildermcn are always glad enough to reidace themselves by their friends , or to get themselves in again . The police is a great ; reservoir of votes for such a purpose ; and hero it is proposed to render that force as independent of borough ele-ction matters as tho county force . Mine illcv tac / tryma 1 / Many
^ Eijssia,. After.The Peace
power and in the constancy of fortune , and prepare their successions , as thoug h the throne of Usurpation stood under the sanction of an eternal law . Why , then , should Europe despair ? It has more resources than those oi Terror , more rights than those of a Coup d ' Etat ,
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SATURDAY , MARCH 1 , 1856 .
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There is nothing so revolutionary , because thexe is nothing so larmatural and coxnrulsive , as the strain to keep things fixed when all the world is by the very ^ aw of its creation in eternal progress . —Db . Arnoijd .
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March 1 , 1856 . ] THE LEAP M B . 203
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 1, 1856, page 203, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2130/page/11/
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