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provoke a war needlessly or unjustly , for that would be amoral suicide ; but , at the same time , they could not follow the counsels of the Peace Society , and allow themselves to be trampled upon by every despot ; and he trusted that in this particular case we should draw the relations closer between England and France . Tke French Emperor , whatever . might be his character , had , at least in this case , acted nobly . He had never shown any hesitation throughout the whole of this affair , and was ready , no doubt , to go whatever length England was inclined to go with him . "
The resolution declared , " That the invasion of the Danubian Principalities , and the continued occupation of those provinces by the army of the Emperor of R ussia , is an unprincipled act of aggression , contrary to the law of nations , and calling for the most decisive interference on the part of the English people ; and that the integrity of the Turkish empire being guaranteed by the most solemn treaties , to which Great Britain has been a party , it is the plain duty of the English Government to fulfil its engagements to the utmost , by preserving her territory inviolate , and by maintaining the Sultan in the full possession of his rights as an independent Sovereign . " A Memorial to Lord Clarendon was also agreed to . It wound up with this significant passage .
"And we respectfully request your Lordship , as an influential member of the British Government , to take such decisive and immediate measures as shall lead to the evacuation of the Danubian Principalities , to the full indemnification of the Sultan for the injuries sustained by the late invasion of his territories , and his future security against the recurrence of such an act of aggression . " The greatest unanimity prevailed at the meeting .
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THE ENGLISH PRESS AND AMERICAN OPINION . A long letter , having general reference to the points of common spirit between England and the United States , and particularly dealing with the question of " neutrality" in case of war , has appeared in the Times , from the pen of u General J . Watson Webb , Editor of the New York Courier and Enquirer , " a journal of Whig politics and large circulation . Last July the / "imes commented on an article written in the American paper by General Webb , on the subject of neutrality and privateering , and the American editor now discusses the topie with the editor of the Times .
" In regard to privateering , our laws are particularly stringent ; and , should this country become involved in a war with Russia , its commerce will be entirely sufe from depredations by " Yankee privateers , " or from privateers manned , in whole or in part , by citizens of the United States . The late Chancellor Kent , in his Commentaries , page 122 , vol . i ., of the edition of 1810 , thus describes the laws of the Union in relation to privateering : — " It is declared ( by statute ) to be a misdemeanour for any citizen of the United States , within the territory or jurisdiction thereof , to accept and exercise a commission to serve a foreign Prince , State , colony , district , or people , with whom the United States tiro at pence ; or for any person , except a subject or citizen of any foreign Prince , Slate , colon }' ,
district , orpeoplo , transiently within the United States , or any foreign armed vessel within ihe jurisdiction of the United States , to enlist or enter himself , or hive , or retain another person to enlist or enter himself , or to go boyoad the limits or jurisdiction of the United States with intent to ho enlisted or entered in the service of any foreign Prince , State , colony , district or pooplc , us a soldier , or mariner , or seaman ; or to lit out and arm , or to increase or augment the force of any aiined vessel , with intent that such vessel he employed in th ( j service of any foreign Power at war with another Power with whom wo am at peace ; or to begin , or sot on foot . or provide or prepare the means for any military expedition or
enterprise , to bo curried on tlienco against the territory or dominions of any foreign Prince or Stuto , or of any colony , district , or pooplo with whom we are at pence , or to liiro or enlist troops or seiimcn for foreign military or naval service ; or to bo concerned in fitting out any vessoJ , to cruise or commit hostilities ngttinst n . nation at pence with it *; nnd tho vessel in this hitter cuso is made subject of forfeiture , in the case of the Santissima Trinidad it was decided , ' that cuptiires made by a vessel so illegally fitted out , whether a public or private armed . ship , wero torts , and thnt tho original owner was entitled to restitution if tho property was brought within our jurisdiction . '"
General Webb goes on to deprecate a war between the newspapers at each side of tho Atlantic ; nnd points out how unfairly the English press treat isolated and exceptional illustrative facts of American manners . " If a brute of a nlavoholdor outrages Immunity by beating his slave , our wholo peoplo nro held up to ccn . suri ) nnd condemnation , hy tlio Knglish press , as participators in tho nei ; > f nu ignorant , half educated backwoodsman , on tho confine * of civilization ( whoso life from the cradlo has boon spent with arms in bin hand * on nn Indian frontier thousands of milcH in extent ) seeks redress from an enemy ns Ravage n . i himself , by the use of the bowie-knife , ( ho wiia prens points to him with exiiltntion as n typo of Aiuorican civilization ; if , from a const
extending thotinttmlH of miles along tho Atlantic and Pacific shoron of our continent , a baud of adventurers ovadn our oflieern , and pirutically invade the territory of n neutral , tho Hiuno Knglinh press assures its readers that both our Government nnd our people are rrgnnllomj of treaty obligation )) , mid •> f the laws , of neutrality ; and even if a clover scoundrel in the , civili / . nd portions of our country commit * forgery and ¦ vvindloH thoMti who confide in him , tho frco press of England doeit not hesitate to prcnuut the «««« to tlm Knglinh public •> n one of American honesty ! ' An well might the American press argue ( lint iweauHo tho Tirneg newnpnper is iluily filled with tho details of brutal Englishmen boating thoir wives , Jh woforo it is evident tho whole Kngli » h people nro a set of brutes , who habitttally indulge in this Jimrlfoh unort ; or b >
cause Bell ' s Life in London gives graphic accounts of the favourite English sport of 'the ring , ' that therefore all Englishmen delight in that offspring of * a higher civilization ; or because the late investigation into the administration of prison discipline at Birmingham exhibits a state of things which would revolt the feelings of the most brutal of the slave-dealers of our extreme south , that , therefore , there is no such thing as humanity or philanthropy in all England ! Or if we deemed it expedient to call attention to your manufacturing districts , and invade the dark alleys and cheerless garrets of London , and drag to the light of heaven the horrible starvation and misery which exists there , and annually consigns hundreds of thousands of victims to an untimely grave , withotit even the consolations of religion to smooth their path ; or if we should attempt-to sum up the tens of thousands of human beings who in this Christian land
annually . perish without ever having received the benefits of education , or learnt that there is a God over all , a future state of reward and punishment , and a Saviour who died for sinners ;—if the American press were daily and habitually to present these isolated facts to the American people , and say to them— ' Such is England , and such the people who hate yon with so cordial a hatred that its press can only exist by abuse of you and your institutions , and by holding up your wives and daughters to the ridicule of such a people ' --if , I say , such were the course of the American press towards the land of our fathers . it would be quite as just as is the practice of the English press towards the United States ; and we too might create and foster a spirit of hatred and hostility towards England quite as sincere and far more potent than is , or can be the hatred and contempt which the English press foolishly , recklessly , and most unadvisedly is creating acrainst their Transatlantic brethren .
" But , thanks be to God and to our kindly feeling for the land of our fathers—to our recollection * of the past and our hopes of the future—to our common origin , language , literature and laws—and , above all and overall , to our natural love of liberty and constitutional freedom , the American press , while it has witnessed with . sorrow the injustice which we habitually suffer at the hands of our English brethren , has never yet sought to build up among our people a feeling hostile to England . Should the time arrive for such a proceeding—which God in his mercy Avert!—you know quite as well as I can tell you , Sir , that we hove among us a
million and a half of people w-ho have been driven by circumstances from the land of their birth to seek- an asylum on our shores—who attribute their expatriation to the injustice of England , and are ever ready to act as Propagandists ol every'charge which we might bring against her . We have but to indulge for a very short period in what you appear to consider the luxury of abuse , to accomplish what I would fain believe that up to this period Trollope , Hall , Dickens , and their associate slanderers of Amerien 7 united to tlic Times and its co-labourers in the same work , have not accomplished on this sido of the water . "
He disclaims any desire by the Americans to propagate Republicanism in Europe . " Call it vanity or whatever you please , hut they very sincerely , and , in my judgment , very correctly believe thnt we are the only people on the face of the . globe <>! ' suilicient general intelligence , united to a peculiar training and the antecedents of our political history , who are qualified to administer and sustuiu such u republic as that under which we live . " And then refers to Uncle Toni's Cabin nnd to tho spirit which English opinions on that book has roused in the United States i —
" Allow me , in tins connexion , to say one word in relation to the influence which tlio ovations in this country , by the press nnd tho peoplo , to the authoress of Uncle . Tom ' s ( Jabin lias exercised in the United Stales . It lias roused for the moment the same feelings which so generally pervaded our country after tho war of 18 . 12 ; hut this will . subside before a higher and a holier fueling of fraternity , unless tlio press of England wills it otherwise . In the meantime , it has been to us a bond of union which whs not intended , but for which every man who loves his country is most grateful . The little band of secessionists at tho south , who have occasionally made themselves heard , on the principle that a gnat , may disturb the . slumbers of n lion , have always threatened a union with England whenever they seceded . , Mrs . Stowe ' s triumphal reception here lias entirely cured these madmen of
that Hohemo . 1 hen , again , the hardy lunatics and political schemers and demagogues of the north , who nre Abolitionists , or AiiiulgumntioniHts , or FreetJoilorw , as fanaticism , or political expediency , or honest purposes may dictate , are all devoted to thoir country , diiactiiiduuta of English ancestry , and deeply imbued with that John-JJiillisni which rebels ngainnt interference from nbrond with our internal afiairs . Uncle Toini » m in England , and your meddling with what does not con - cern you , has brought theno men to thoir sense **; and , much as they , nnd nil of us , abhor slavery , tliov will submit quietly ( o i ( s evils , not forgetting that it . is a legacy initialed upon us by English cupidity ; hut which , bnd ns it is , we do not consider as overbalancing a tithe of the blessings which wo inherited with our Anglo-Saxon laws and the constitutional freedom secured by tho union of the Stales .
" With the exception <> f n handful of the pronlavory followers of the late Mr . Cnlhoun , there is not a man in our country , from the St . John to the Itio Grande , and from tho Atlantic to tho Pacific , who does not consider slavery a curse to the ulareholdor nnd the States in which it ; exists , and who would not most cheerfully get rid of it if any person could he found nine enough to point out the remedy . EngliurJ gave 3 (> , 00 () , 0 ()()/ . to get rid of xlavory , and ruined her Went India poKsoHbions . Anmnm would give twenty times twenty to got
rid of thin English lunacy , if it could be uccnmplinhed without ruin to our . southern Stul . es . Jtutit may not bo . The racn . t cannot livo together in a state of freedom ; and wo , are of opinion that it is hotter that tho white man should bo master than ( he Negro . H would bo a great point gained , Sir , if you could prevent English brutes from whi pping , boating , and trampling upon thoir wives ; but your daily reports of ( lie doings in tho polieti-coiutH clearly demonstrate that it in morally impossible . And no Christian and eivili / . od England submits to this uboniiuutiou— which , » ho U . M » ot loum JVmu
our example , and which has not its origin in Yankee cupidity —simply because there is ho alternative but submission . "
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RUSSIA THE CIVILIZER . * The appearance of the authentic memoirs of an aidede-camp of Peter the Great happens opportunely , at a moment when Russia is challenging us to a close scrutiny of her pretensions to autocracy over Europe . To know what manner of men Russian Sovereigns are , it is well to study their characteristics as exemplified in the fullest proportions in the person of their greatest man . To know what is the value of the vaunted civilization of Russia , it is well to study it in itsfirst principles and its effortsThe
rudimentary . result of this enquiry will probably be that the specious system begun by Peter , and continued without modification by his successors , is essentially unsound , and that its fruits are unwholesome . Such a conclusion , if true , must be drawn from larger premises than are afforded by M . de Yillebois * desultory piges ; but these contain precious materials for Russian history , which no historical { student would willingly forego . We will extract from them some passages illustrative of the character of tlie great Czar .
The destruction of the Strelitz , the janissaries of Russia , is notorious ; but the detestable manner in which it was effected has been disguised by complaisant historians . After their numbers had been insidiously reduced in the course of a few years from thirty-five or forty thousand to less than half that Amount , by exposure to the hazards of war , and to the frauds of their officers in the commissariat , they at last revolted and marched on Moscow in two divisions . General Gordon , who commanded in the Emperor ' s absence abroad , defeated the first division , with a slaughter of seven out of their ten thousand ; the second division he compelled to lay down their arms , and decimated them on the spot . At this juncture Peter arrived in Moscow . The vengeance inflicted by Gordon on the rebels was not enough for him . He ordered all tho prisoners to be condemned en masse as robbers and murderers .
" Accordingly , they were brought out from the several prisons in which they had been dispersed and incarcerated , and on their arrival at Mo . scow they were collected to the number of seven thousand , in a place surrounded with paHsndos , where ' was read to them the sentence bv which two thousand of them were doomed to be hung , and the other live thousand to bo beheaded . The sentence was executed in one day , iti the following manner : — " Tht'y were marched out ten by ten from the pulisndcd enclosure into a plain in which there had beau erected gibbets enough to hang two thousand men . There they wero tied up by tens , in presence of the Czar , who counted " them , and of all the personages of tho Court , whom he had summoned to his s i 1 b , that they might be witnesses of this execution , in which , moreover , it was his pleasure to employ tho soldiers of his gtinrd us hangmen .
" Alter the execution of these two thousand Strelitr . enmn the turn of those who were to be beheaded . They , too , like their comrades , Mere brought out hy tens from the enclosure in which they had been penned , and led into the plain , whuru hud been laid opposite the gibbets a sutlicieut number of beams to serve us blocks for these live thousand culprits . As they arrived in succession , they wen ; brought in line , made to lie down at full length , and lay their necks on tho beams , and then tho whole file was beheaded . Tim C / . ar did not content himself with employing only the soldiers of his guard for this execution . Armed " himself with an axo , he began by cutting oil ' the heads of a hundred of these wretches , after which , having caused axes to be distributed to all the princes , lords , and oilieers of his suite , he ordered ( hem to follow hi * example .
" None of the . so personages , among whom were the Grand Admiral , Apraxine , the Grand Chancellor , Prince Menshikof , Prince Dolgorouky , &c ., had the hardihood to disobey . They were too well acquainted with the Czar ' s character not t <» know that it was as much ns their lives wore worth to evince tin } least repugnance on that occasion , and that ho would have . consigned them without mercy to the same fate as tho rebels . " Tlio fiio thousand heads Mere conveyed in carts to tho city , and Ntuelc on iron spikes imbedded in the battlements of the walls of Moscow , where they remained exposed during the wholo reign of thin sovereign . " As for tlio Strelitz officers , they wero gibbeted on tho city walls in front of and on a level with tho grated window that admitted light into tho prison of tlio Princess Sophia ( Peter ' s sister ) , who always had that spectacle before her evos during the live or six years sho survived ( hose unfortunate
men . " It only remains for mo to tell the fata of those who , having Inkou flight nftvr their defeat hy ( Jcucrnl Gordon , had dispersed in dilfercnt . directions . It was forbidden on pain of death throughout the wholo extent of the Riinmiiii empire , not only to afford them an asylum in nnv house , but oven to supply thorn with the least aliment , not even water exempted . Hence it may bo in / erred that they all perished miserably . " The Women and children of the Slrrlil / . e . s wore tramtported to desert anil uncultivated places , where a limited , extent of ground wiim assigned them lor their abode , under a prohibi - tion that lluiy or thoir descendant * should ever quit it . " Poter ' H iirf ) fc wife wn « Euriochiu Foederowim , " mi-
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* Afmini rex turret * pimr rrrvir A t'hixtoire de In ( uwr tie Jtusnir gout lex rt't / nes <• I'irrre le ( Irand ft de . dutlieriiur /» " « rfdi t s <•( jtufrltiis pour lu / VcwiV / v Join d ' aprt ' a Irs iiiununcrittt ori f / iiKtnx du tirur dr Villrtioh , Chef d'J'Jscudn' i < t Aide-dc-C < tnii > ( It : , S . M . le- Czar Pierre />'* , par M . Theophile Halloz . ( Swret Memoirs of the Court of Ituimia under Peter the Great and Qutht-rinc I . ) Paris . 1 MU %
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OCTOBUft : 8 , 1853 . 3 THE LEAD EE , 963
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 8, 1853, page 963, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2007/page/3/
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