On this page
- Departments (2)
-
Text (8)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
_,, : _. Sr f^/ST" ^ ' C^UhfiiTN mS ^ V rf&'h$l 1& °4& lOf £% ^y~' ^-< *~5* >!**& ^fy 1 \sty"Qr'$ w ' & ? C2/^ \ ^ J ^ o
-
Untitled Article
-
' - -- • ,'' . '"— VC+*f*f* (tf-rV" * JyllUlir JxUllItlL ' —
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
FOUETEEN RUSSIAN TREATIES . Russia has concluded fourteen , important treaties since the commencement of the century . If , by a fifteenth , signed at Paais , she renounces a strip of territory between the Dnieper and the Danube , it will be her first territorial concession within fifty years . An act of political abdication , in reality , contradicts the historical policy of that Empire . In . former wars , when Turkey was a great power , she twice succeeded in extorting the submission , of her ambitious neighbour , ^ -at Faltsi ,
in 1711 , when the Czars surrendered Taganrog and Azoff , and atBelgrade 7 inl 739 , when they conceded the neiitrality of the Sea of Azoft * and the independence of the two Kabardas . But , since that period , Russia has invariably gained by a peace . She has made two treaties with Sweden , —one in 1809 , at Fredericksham , by -which Finland and the Aland Islands were acquired—another tinder a clause in the General Settlement at Vienna , by which these acquisitions were confirmed , in addition to large conquests in Lapland .
The course of her diplomacy in Poland is familiar to all historical students . At Tilsit she acquired 4 he province of Bialystok , at Yienna the investiture of the Polish crown , and five separate territories , successively conquered . With the Ottoman Empire she lias concluded seven treaties ; some negotiated with Turkish plenipotentiaries , others imposed on the Porte as absolute decrees . By the first , in 1801-2 , she detached Mingrelia , Georgia ,
and Imentia from the feudatory territories o ? the Empire ; by the second , at Bucharest she acquired Bessarabia , part of Moldavia ,, and the borders of th < 3 Pruth , which she is required , at the Paxis Conferences , to surrender . Under this Convention , also , she eradicated the military supremacy of the Turks in Servia , brought the navigation of the Danube under her own
control , and laid the basis of a mischievous influence in the Moldavian and Wallachian Principalities . All these privileges were ratified by the Treaty of Vienna , and by that of Akemmn in 1826 they were extended . Russia seized upon two of the Danubian islets , established a formal protectorate irx the Principalities , and asserted a political participation in the affairs of Servia .
In 1829 , the treaty of Adrianoplo secured to Russia the mouths of the Danube , with large territories in the Black Sea , and in Asia riveted her influence upon the Christian populations , extended her frontier on the Pruth , and con
Untitled Article
, NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS , Wo notipe can be taken of . aponytnous communications 'Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated by the name and address of the writer ; not necessarily _ for publication but as a guarantee of Us good faith . It is impossible to , acknowledge the maesof letters w « rc-- cfeivfe , Their insertion is often , delayed , owtng to a press - of matter ; and : wliien omitted , it is frequently from , rea-Bons quite independent of the merits of the communication ,. .. . ..: " We cannot undertake to return rejected communications . During the Session of Parliament it is often : impossible to find room for correspondence , even the briefest . EttSATPM- —In our last number , in " Sadleir our Witness - for " JameiSadleir , " read " John ^ adleir , " Ebb atom .-In the " Heview of the Week , " for " Sir William Heath cote , " read ' Sir Gilbert John Heathcote . "
Untitled Article
exerted systematically , and in defiance of international law , to diminish their exports , to repress the culture of the land , to isolate the people , and thus to confer a factitious prosperity on Taganrog and Odessa . Therefore England has a double interest in securing the integrity of the Danubian provinces , — a political interest , involving the safety of the Turkish empire , a commercial interest involving the general freedom of trade .
Superficially , it is easy to assert the maxim that , all nations having- a right to independence , the Roumanians should be endowed with a separate political existence ; but from this it would merely result , tliat the States would be torn in pieces , between the conflicting ambition of Russia and Austria . The only method by which they can be attached to the political system of Europe without being merged into the Austrian or Russian dominions , would be by preserving a link between
by entrusting to the incorrigible cupidity of Turkish officials the safeguards of the Turkish empire ? Even this scheme , however , would be preferable to the inane device of inviting some tenpenny bastard of a German royal house to seat himself upon a Danubian throne . We do not want another " little kingdom" patched up from the ruins of Turkey . The idea has been favoured b y a corrupt section in the Principalities ; but we have reason to think it has been positively rejected by the Western Powers . Some of the Ionian Greeks havu
also countenanced it , adding an invitation to the scion of royal Belgium to hold himself in readiness for the reversion of an empire . But these are infatuations not shared by statesmen . The frontier of the Danube and the independence of Moldavia and Wallachia were , in former times , secured by liberal constitutions attached to the central government of the Porte , and we see no better solution of the existing difficulty than the re-establishment of a system which , while it lasted , satisfied the provinces , and protected the empire .
their government and that of Turkey . We assume , of course , that for some years Turkey will have Turkish rulers , Wlien that phase has disappeared , the Principalities might be incorporated in an Eastern Federation . But , dealing with de facto elements , the war , which was undertaken in support of Ottoman independence , eould not , be concluded by an act of violence upon the Ottoman empire . We can
THE I > A ^ tJBIA"W ^ EmpiPALITIES . One of the most difecultof the questions de-T ^ ped * by ^• ¦ the ;; . Ilitisaan- ' - ^ iax- is that which involves the ; political settlement of the iDariu-M ^ PriiicipaUties . The idea of Statesmen is to CTeate from the territories of Moldavia and Wallachia a separate , but not , strictly , an ^ dependent State whichj by forming the debateable ground of Austrian and Russian
interests , shall act as a breakwater to the TurkisTbL Empire . Austria and Russia have l ^^^ dn tendecl ; for supremacy on the Danube , i ^^ jppssessi on ot ; which , by Russia , would exclude Austria from the East , and the posse || ibtf of ^ ic ^ i , by Austr ia , would fix the l ^ mQit ' ¦^ Ifcussian encroachmiEjnts . But neither P $ $ & £$ ? ' & Posters is friendly to the Ottoman Empire ; by : bo $ h has that Empire been attajpked : and enfeebled ; to both , her motilderi ^ g < ae ^ pitTiide offers a prospect of political
andfcoijpLniercial gain . The problem is , then , to / coiiler on the bordering provinces of the Danube such a constitution and such guarantees as shall be honourable to the Porte , which has Imperial claims , just to the Moldavians and Wallachians , who have national and natural rights , satisfactory to Russia and Austria , which have conflicting interests , and aI >|>* opjHate " # > r the solution of the great European difficulty ; wnich has called the plenipotentiaries to Paris / "' . ' . '
r Tliis is not a case in which the rights of the disputants adm ^ t of , positive definition , or in whipb ; any of the interests avowed can be literally acknowledged . In point of- equity , the first claim is that of the people themselves whV inhabit those valuable provinces . They ar& , foiir millions in number , industrious ,
pacific , attached to the Christian faith , qualified in many respects for political franchises . As the flower of the Roumanic l'ace , the descendants of Tkajan ' s legions , they stand full ii ^^ ev ^ ght of history ; and though , wedged in '^)!^^^||]^ 'J ^^ t military empires , they haye n , pt : b , e ^ n , ab ] l e ifco preserve their independer ^ ce- ^ they have lost only what it was impossible ' to keep . They have no AIds or Can
jK ^ l ^ . ^ Wy ^ W national lib erties ; their *^ W * 9 ?? y i 8 ii * xjich ; plain , bordered by one of ¦ S&WB ^ 'rivers in Europ e , attractive to am-SSfe' ^ K ° ^ valleys forming outlets to , W ; : $ BW ;' $ /* gtetfi monarchies around . 8 Sfl % i ^ P ^ of the Corn Laws by Great fffira ^ W ^ P *!**^ have acquire d un ~ m Wri ;^ butvJ t ^ policy of Russia has been
conceive , therefore , no better means of secur ing the new Panubian frontier , than by constituting Moldavia and Wallachia separate or united States , and restoring tlie relations that originally existed between them and the Porte . It was through the gradual decomposition of those ties that the Russian protectorate encroached , that the Hospodars were corrupted , that the Danube fell under an alien sway .
These relations date , in the case of Wallachia , from the year * 1392 , and in the case of Moldavia from the year 1513 . The two Constitutions differed only in points of detail , —the one being imposed by compulsion , the other accepted as an act of grace . That which was compulsory formed the precedent , stipulating that the Prince should retain the right of peace and war , life and death ; that his territories should be inviolate ; that the Ottoman Government should not claim the extradition
of Christian refugees -, that Wallachians and Moldavians emigrating into provinces of the Turkish empire should be exempt from the Haratch , or capitation tax ; that the Christian princes should be elected by the Metropolitan and . the Boyards ; 'that they should render tribute to the Sultan , who , in ! return , should be their supreme prot&ctpr . The principle of this relation was—imperial supremacy on the one hand , domestic independence on the other . So long as the people elected their own princes so long the states flourished ; but when , through Russian and
Austrian machinations , the elective system became extinct , and the Phanafiote nominations supplanted it , the " princedom of Wallachia or the princedom of Moldavia became a saleable dignity , and the highest bidders at Constantinople raised their nominee to the vicarious throne . ^ Between Russian opulence and Turkish cupidity , only one result was possible , and this is the practice which the Councillors of the Porte , oven before the declaration of an armistice , recommended to the Plenipotentiaries . They propose to restore the ancient constitution of the Danubian
states , so far modified that the Metropolitans and Boyards' should elect three candidates , one of whom should be adopted by the Sultan . This would be nothing more or loss than to open a mart of princedoms , in which if the highest purchaser happened to bo an agent from St . Petersburg , his otuTdidnte would obtain the investiture . But is the war to end
_,, : _. Sr F^/St" ^ ' C^Uhfiitn Ms ^ V Rf&'H$L 1& °4& Lof £% ^Y~' ^-≪ *~5* ≫!**& ^Fy 1 \Sty"Qr'$ W ' & ? C2/^ \ ^ J ^ O
< 9 | p " ^ j ^ C
Untitled Article
SATURDAY , MAECH 8 , 1856 .
' - -- • ,'' . '"— Vc+*F*F* (Tf-Rv" * Jyllulir Jxullitll ' —
^ Wir Mara .
Untitled Article
^ f&w nohmg B £ * evolutooiiary , because there is RPttjing ^ o , unnatural-and convulsive , a 3 tlie strain •^^ p e&t ^ jags fiyed wfceii all tiie . ^ orld is by the very layrof ata cxeatum rti eternal progress . —Da . i » Nou . i > . ¦
Untitled Article
23 $ ? HJ 3 ^ lADEiB , [ Nq . > SATORDAr ;
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), March 8, 1856, page 228, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2131/page/12/
-