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From the Spectator, 12 March. CONSTITUTIONAL LEAGUE IN EUROPE.

but to invite a mortal destiny for ourselves. To coquette in "friendly negotiations" with those powers, or with outlying confederates, is not to secure peace, but to disguise from our own sight the hostile intrigues which threaten

ALTHOUGH the mission which a sect of enthusiasts wished to force upon Lord Aberdeen last week has no practical bearing on the act-us. Lord John Russell lately boasted that he ual state of the Continent, on our relations was in peculiarly friendly relations with the with Foreign Governments, or the proper French government, and was in communication functions of diplomacy, it does not follow that with it" on the state of Europe." Now, how diplomacy might not be usefully employed can the Emperor of the French be the fittest in rendering the position of this country person for England to be consulting on the more secure and peaceable, and in ultimately state of Europe? What sympathy can he averting war by exhibiting the impolicy of have with Constitutional government? what those who are most likely to provoke it. Since community of interest? what experience? the settlement of Europe in 1815, the relations of diplomacy have chiefly centred in what are called "the Great Powers"; the majority of whom have for the most part set the fashion in the government of Europe. By this accident it has happened that the great party to which England naturally belongs has been merged in relations that cross each other and prevent its true distinction from the opposite party; and thus it has befallen, that to an unfortunate extent the Constitutional States of Europe, instead of being brought together, have been separated even more in appearance than in fact.

Other states there are, however, whose essential characteristics mark them out as proper allies for England to consult in the critical state of European affairs. Belgium, for example, is bound to us by family ties, by similarity of constitution, and, it may be added, by her perilous position. Holland is inclined to us by her moderation; Denmark has shown a great capacity for appreciating the actual state of affairs; Sardinia is our pupil, and would willingly be our ally. The view which the governments of these states take as to the posture of affairs is a subject that it would much concern our own government to know; and probably if they were specially in communication on such a subject they might not only recognize the exigencies of the time, but discover resources that are at present lost to view for want of means for

To this as well as to other causes may be ascribed the result, that the Constitutional interest of Europe has been losing ground, as the Absolutist interest has been gaining ground. In the conflict of extreme principles, one is now thoroughly thrown down concentrating information. and the other is triumphant; and in the open war of 1848, while we have seen the defeat ́of the one and the victory of the other, we have observed that the Constitutional principles, which were scarcely in issue, have been steadily declining. They have been so partly because their champions abstained from actively asserting them, or resolutely vindicating them where assailed; and so they sank out of view, as a quiet man is hustled between aggressive combatants into a corner. The influence of the Constitutional party has indeed declined so far that the actual political existence of some states, at the present day, is called in question; and all must now begin to feel that their safety, if not their independence, is menaced by the overgrowth and the gigantic encroachment of the Absolutist Powers. Passively to witness the undeniable progress of powers who, if not our enemies, at least hold principles incompatible with our political existence, is not to cultivate peace,

Were it known, for example, that Belgium, Holland, Sweden, England, Sardinia, and perhaps Denmark, were in council on the state and prospects of Constitutional organization in Europe, there is little doubt that other states, whose position is more equivocal would rally to the common standard. Spain would be very likely to recover from her coup d'état delusions. Nay, there are states in Europe that have not exhibited any sympathy with political principles, and yet that are so situated as to find their interests more promoted by alliance with the Constitutional League than with the Holy Alliance of extreme Absolutism. Bavaria, for example, who cannot be regarded as belonging to any proselytizing system of political freedom, might yet say to herself - "These immense empires behind me, animated by views of government from which I do not altogether dissent, are growing so gigantic, so overwhelming, and so encroaching in their develop

ment, that I run a very serious chance of being altogether submerged in their rise. On the other side, this Constitutional League is by its very principles, and by the commercial character of the people who belong to it, peaceable, non-aggressive, and trustworthy; and, therefore, it will be much more to my interest to throw my weight into that Constitutional League, than to encourage those allabsorbing powers." Prussia, which has grown from a duchy to be almost an empire, but which still has to undergo mortifying dictation from its imperial patrons, would be much tempted to take advantage of any influence that could counterbalance its compulsory

allies.

From the Examiner, 19 March.

AUSTRIA AND TURKEY.

THIRTEEN years ago the preservation of the Turkish Empire in its independence and integrity was thought by the government of this country worth the risk of an embroilment with France, and a general war. We were told then that Russia, Austria, and England could not suffer France to protect a rebellious vassal against the chastisement of the Sultan, and that no matter at what umbrage to the French government and people, Mehemet Ali must be expelled from Syria, and reduced to submission to the Porte. To effect that object our fleet and troops were set to work But it is not only individual states that burning and destroying, and France, unable might rally to such a league if it existed and to protect her protégé, thwarted and humiliwere known to exist. In almost every coun- ated, was in a mood of exasperation, which try of Europe there is a moderate class; and any untoward circumstance might have pushed in the most arbitrary of the empires, Austria, to the extremity of war. Looking back the action of the government has been to with the knowledge we now have of that force that moderate class into opposition. period, and the elements of mischief which While it is pretended that the revolutions in were prepared for explosion, and waiting Italy belong only to extreme classes and low only a rash hand to fire them, it seems wonparties, the retributions of the Austrian Mar- derful that hostilities were escaped. But shal the fines on whole towns, the re- Louis Philippe waited his time, laying up the proaches addressed to the gentry, the punish-grudge in his mind like one of Homer's kings, ment inflicted on nobles and aged priests, in and he took his revenge in the Spanish marMantua as well as Milan - prove that the riages, aggrandizing his house and satisfying middle and upper classes are forced into op- his vengeance by the same unworthy transacposition, and that the administration of the tion. It was then England's turn to be supreme government has become most intoler- angry and alienated, and the loss of the friendable. It is the same in Naples. In Germany ship which had been a tower of strength to there is the party of Gervinus. To such the King of the Barricades greatly encourmoderate parties the existence of a Constitu-aged his domestic foes, and emboldened them tional League would be the revival of hope. to proceedings which, combined with other Now the first step towards the reorganization of the Constitutional interest of Europe, is to ascertain how it stands. English diplomacy could not employ itself better than in learning the sentiments, the views, and the council of the Constitutional States, as to the future of Europe. There would be no occasion for secrecy in such a mission. The information would suggest the proper course of action; but if it were known that England had taken the initiative in such a proceeding, the very fact might give pause to those arbitrary governments who are now incited to extremities of tyrannical rule by the absence of control or check who may force us into a war because our passive quiescence invites them to excess.

causes, ended in the overthrow of the monarchy. The coolness between the governments of the two countries is thus clearly traceable to the difference on the Syrian question, to which also must be ascribed whatever share that estrangement had in the downfall of Louis Philippe.

But how are matters changed now? What respect is now claimed for the independence and integrity of the Turkish Empire? Austria is now repeating the part which France would have played, but was not suffered to play, in 1840, with this difference for the worse, that the wrong is more naked, and for an incomparably more unworthy object. Consider what Mehemet Ali was, and what the Montenegrins are. Mehemet Ali, with all his faults, was a promoter of civilization; he established order, he gave safety to the desert,

and travellers traversed the country under his | Colonel Rose, her majesty's chargé d'affairs at sway with more safety and exemption from Constantinople, the effect of which was, that nothing should be done with reference to those annoyance than is now felt by the English- important territories Kleck and Sutorina without man who has to make his way through the Austrian dominions. But he was a rebellious vassal, the protection of whom by France against the chastisement of the Sultan could not be endured by three of the four coalesced powers, Austria amongst the number.

the knowledge of her majesty's government. (Hear, hear.) With respect to another condition, that which related to Hungarian refugees serving in the Turkish army, he might observe that the first demand had been modified, and that Austria now remained satisfied with their removal from the frontier. (Hear, hear.)

And to this complexion has come all the big talk, and all the risks and substantial saorifices for the independence of Turkey!

Well, what are these Montenegrins, the protection of whom against the chastisement of the Sultan is endured by the powers pledged to maintain the independence and integrity of the Turkish Empire? -a tribe of robbers And what has been the friendly part of and assassins, the match for whom in barba- our government to its old ally? Why we, who rism and iniquity is not to found even stirred the Sultan to muster all his forces amongst the Malays whose carcases clogged against Mehemet Ali, have counselled him the wheels of the Nemesis upon that admired that it was above his strength to move 50,000 occasion when Sir James Brooke so signally men against the miscreant Montenegrins. vindicated the rights of humanity, and gave a And to prove our words, we let Austria bully bloody lesson of civilization. Aggressed by him, countermand his armies, give impunity these miscreants, the Sultan despatches an and encouragement to his enemies, close his army against them to punish and coerce their detestable practices, but Austria covers the brigands with her shield, and insists on the Porte's leaving the horde of cut-throats as it found them; and the powers pledged to maintain the independence of Turkey look on and acquiesce. We say nothing of the other insolent and wrongful conditions, for we would direct sole attention to the comparison between what we did at such mighty risk in 1840, to support the Sultan's authority against Mehemet Ali, with what we are now suffering Austria to do, in prevention of the provoked punishment of a race of murderous brigands, and in contravention of the Sultan's rightful exercise of his power as an independent prince.

In answer to a question put by Mr. D'Israeli on Monday,

Lord J. Russell said, her majesty's government had received official information that a final arrangement had been come to between Austria and the Sublime Porte, and that the demands made by Prince Leiningen on the part of Austria had been agreed to by the Porte. It was demanded, on the part of Austria, that the territory of Montenegro should be abandoned by the Turkish army, and that, as previous to these events, no encroachment should be made by Turkey on the coast for purposes of trade or com'merce. That demand had been complied with. Another of the demands of Austria was, that the status quo before the war, as regarded Montenegro, should not be disturbed; and that, likewise, had been agreed to. On the subject of this last condition a communication had been made by

ports against ourselves, and regulate the internal management of his empire in the ordering about of the refugees. To what this is the preface is clear enough. When young Mirabel is in the bravoes' den, one of the thieves tweaks his nose, another treads on his toes, as gentle preliminaries to the consummation of robbery and murder. And so it will be with Turkey, which has to pass through the stages of insult and humiliation, before she has her throat cut for booty.

Would we have a war to avert this event? Certainly not. But never again should England be committed to a policy bringing her to so lame and impotent a conclusion. The folly has been in engaging for what we could not perform; relying on allies, the fit epithet for whom Mr. D'Israeli must supply. The fool's bolt, says the wisest of men, is soon shot. We shot our bolt in 1840; to what purpose appears too clearly now.

From the Economist.

THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE.

Ir has long been the fashion among thoughtless writers, and those who consider everything, even nominally, Christian as necessarily superior to everything avowedly Mahometan, to speak of Turkey as a decrepit and moribund empire, kept in existence only by the mutual jealousies or the precarious forbearance of the more powerful nations, and doomed at no distant date to dismemberment

But (we are told) the end justifies the means. It is a shame and a grief to see such splendid provinces as those which border on Constantinople and lie around Smyrna and Damascus in the hands of a worn-out and depressing despotism, under whose rule their

and dissolution. The prospect is viewed truth and force as against Turkey? If the with something of the same complacency feebleness of the victim is to be the plea, with which wreckers watch a magnificent why not parcel out Switzerland among contigvessel in danger of going to pieces on their uous States, or allot the smaller kingdoms rock-bound shore; and the speculations on of Germany to Prussia or Austria? If the the mode in which dismemberment is to be incapacity of the government is an adequate effected, are about as cool and unscrupulous justification, why not begin by the assignas those with which these same harpies divide ment of Sicily or Rome to worthier possesand appropriate in imagination the spoils sors than their present sovereigns? which the storm is about to place at their disposal. We have long been accustomed to hear this language among influential writers and talkers, who echo only what they hear; but it is something new and ominous to see it taken up and formalized by leading journals, by men who aspire to the character of population decays, their harbors lie empty, statesmen, and writers who are supposed not to be wholly deaf or blind to considerations of public morality and international policy. Yet this has been the spectacle presented in more than one quarter during the last fortnight, when the Ottoman Empire is once more threatened by the overbearing insolence of neighbors who think they may bully her with impunity, and who have long been greedy for her spoils.

their resources are undeveloped. Compare
what they are with what they might be―
measure the opening which they now afford for
European enterprise and commerce with what
they might be made to offer - contrast the
scanty produce of their ill-tilled fields with the
vast harvests they might be made to yield under
a wiser and more genial rule; - look at them
now benighted under the sensual and fatalistic
creed of Islamism, and think of them as they
would be under the mild and civilizing influ-
ence of the Gospel of Christ;
say whether the interests both of religion and
humanity do not demand that a transference
of sovereignty should be effected.

- and then

Such conduct should meet with no countenance from the English press not even that insidious support which consists in assuming that its success is a matter of certainty that the destruction of the Turkish dominion is a fated and inevitable thing, which no ef- To all such reasonings we answer: the fort can avert, and which there is no especial same remarks apply with equal force to the reason for desiring to postpone. It is true south of Italy. Take Rome, take Naples, enough that the Ottoman Empire depends take Sicily is it not deplorable to see them for its maintenance and integrity on the faith writhing and suffering under such besotted of treaties, on the wise policy, on the yet sway as that which now crushes them and lingering and decent morality, of more pow-disgraces Europe? Who can doubt that erful States. The combination of any two religion, humanity, material prosperity, soof her neighbors would suffice to overwhelm cial happiness, would gain immeasurably if her: - nay, she might even fall under the these countries could be placed under the assault of any one, if the connivance of the rule of England - ay, or even of France? others could be counted upon. But of what Yet who, on that plea, would hold either European State, except the five great Powers, England or France justified in taking possesmight not the same be said? Could Sweden, sion of them, even if Russia and Austria or Belgium, or Spain, or Portugal, defend were to be bribed or persuaded into connivthemselves, if France or Russia chose to at-ance or consent? But are we so sure that tack and absorb them, and if England and Aus- the provinces of the Turkish Empire would tria stood looking quietly down on the gigantic gain so immensely by a transference to other and high-handed iniquity? Would it not be masters? For ourselves we doubt it greatly. just as easy to dismember Italy as to dismem- There is no doubt that the Ottoman governber Turkey, if the leading States of Europe ment is in many respects anomalous and were so minded? And might not incapacity, feeble; but it has several good points ; — of decrepitude, and a benumbing rule, be alleged late, too, it has made great efforts to improve against the longer endurance of two at itself; it has two parties in the State, like least of the Italian governments, with equal most other nations, one bigoted, reactionary,

and conservative

the other enlightened, re- | the order of a Vizier ; - but this is a liability, forming, and liberal. Under the sway of the not a constant and normal position. Despotlatter (now temporarily overthrown) several ism, too, in the Ottoman Empire is tempered amendments had been introduced; and a by the two most effectual modifications it can gradual approach to European notions was ever have - religion and municipal institubeing made. Are we - because Turkey is tions. The Sultan is bound to govern accordstill in the crisis of an internal struggle which ing to law-i. e., according to the Koran, of we all of us have had to pass through in our which law the Ulemas are the self-constituted time, and in which some are yet involved judges in the last resort. If he violates that to pronounce her hopelessly incurable, and fit law, remonstrance and sometimes rebellion only for the executioner? But, if she be ensue if his subordinate Pachas violate it, dismembered, what is the character of the an appeal to head-quarters is often answered two governments which would divide among by the head of the offender complained them the chief portion of her rich and beau- against. Then, in no country in Europe tiful territories - Austria and Russia? Is it (except Hungary before the late catastrophe) so certain that either Czar or Kaiser will gov-is so much left to municipal management as ern her better than the Sultan? She has long in Turkey. Her municipalities resemble in had the most liberal commercial policy of any their completeness those which we found European State -no prohibitions no pro- existing in India. The chiefs of a village tective duties no heavy customs- no bur-distribute the taxation among their fellows, densome or cramping regulations- no selfish and conduct their affairs, both of social and narrow navigation laws; - all foreign arrangement and of judicial decisions, in the articles are admitted at an ad valorem duty of first instance with little interference from three per cent., and may then circulate all higher authorities. It would be a great over the empire unimpeded by octrois or question whether individual liberty and habits transit dues. Would Russia or Austria con- of self-government would not suffer by the tinue a tariff like this, which so shames their substitution of Austrian centralization · of own? Again: we admit and we deplore the all others the most deadening for a system despotism which reigns through Turkey as such as this, imperfect and ignorantly conthrough all Mahometan countries; of such ducted as it may be. we shall never constitute ourselves defenders. Nor must the substitution of Christianity We have seen the grievous operation of this for Islamism be set down at once as clear gain despotism upon the agriculture of perhaps without some further investigation. For what the most magnificent and fertile lands which is the form of nominal Christianity which the sun shines upon; -we would be among would be introduced, or rather established, in the last to wish for its continuance. But we dismembered Turkey? Unquestionably, that have no desire to see one tyranny replaced of the Greek Church, to which considerably by another, more powerful and more unmiti- more than half the population already begated. The government of Austria in Lom-longs. What is the nature and what the bardy is as absolute and more oppressive than operation of that awfully degrading superthat of the Porte, because more resistless, stition may be learned in part from the books more vigilant, more ubiquitous. Theoretical- of travellers in the Levant, but can be adely, the Turks are as much slaves as the sub-quately conceived by no one who has not jects of the Austrian dominion — practically, himself in person witnessed its monstrosities. they are far less so. The pressure of extreme It is, we think, almost impossible even for the absolutism reaches few in Turkey, and strikes sincerest Christian to live long in Turkey only occasionally in the countries subject to without being compelled to admit that in the leaden rule of Austria, it lies like an point of purity and sublimity the Koran, as incubus every hour and upon everybody. there taught, has a marked advantage over The Emperor of Russia is at least as great a any other creed as there practised and tradespot as the Sultan of Turkey; and, what vestied; and that on the whole its fruits are, is not the case in Turkey, all his nobles are to say the least, not inferior. The Turks are so too. The Russians are serfs, salable by dignified fatalists, and simple and sincere their masters, seizable for military purposes monotheists; the votaries of the Greek by the Czar the Turkish subjects are liable church are slaves of a puerile and almost to be robbed by a Pacha, or beheaded by pagan mythology, which it is really disgrace

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