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Emperor Leopold ,, the timid policy of Pitt , and the strange support which the Whigs of that day , with Fox at their head , gave to the Messalina of the Worth . Pitt failed to support the King of Sweden , who was reconquering Finland , while his brother was hunting the Russian fleet , again officered by Englishmen , from port to port , and while the Turks were contending against fire or six armies , operating on the whole line of their frontier from Servia to Ismail . It is true that Leopold abandoned the Russian Empress before
the close of the campaign , but by that time Turkey had been crippled ; nevertheless , the Crimea was finally won only by the assistance of the Criin Tartars . All this time the Russian armies had the advantage of European discipline , and they were under officers like Potemkin and Suwarrow , who cared not a straw for human life . Turkey has been weakened by the repeated attacks of Europe , and Russia has reaped the fruits . In 1828 , when the Russians penetrated to
Adrianople , the Turks were in the lowest stats ot national abasement : Europe had just destroyed their fleet ; and the Sultan had just slaughtered the Janissaries . Even then , Turkey kept Russia at bay with raw troops for two campaigns . Now , according to Sir Charles Shaw , Captain Nolan , Sir Charles O'Donnell , and several other British officers , Turkey has a strong and regularly disciplined , army . For the first time these four hundred years Europe is with Turkey , not against her ; and we may fairly expect proportionate results .
As to the power of the Russian armies forty years ago , before we admit that they were powerful we must be shown some of their exploits . Tacked on to the continental armies they went to Paris and elsewhere ; in their own country , it is true , they stood to be shot down and sabred by Napoleon ' s soldiers , and they harassed very gallantly the-rctrcat-frorii Moscow . But of all the arguments used to show the weakness of the Turks , commend us to the stifled rebellion of Mehemet Ali . Was England proved to be a weak kinp-dom because Cromwell
conquered and beheaded Charles I . ? Is France a powerless nation because the mol ) of Paris has driven out two kings within twenty years ? Far from Turkey being weak , this is the first time , since Peter the Great accepted the terms dictated by Baltaji Mahomet , on the Pruth , that the Turks have had a fair chance against Russian troops and European tactics . Without laying too much stress upon the
reported successes of the Turks in Wallachia , as proofs of the efficiency of their army , let us note how the news from Asia supports those proofs . Selim Pasha has actually defeated a Russian army under the south of the Caucasus ; and if reinforcements do not speedily reach Prince Woronzoff , whoso head-quarters were at Teflis , the Russians in those parts will bo assuredly cut off ; for Schamyl is behind , and Selim Pasha before the Russians . And an reinforcements and
ammunition can arrive by sea alone , a few ships of war could not be better employed than at Batoum . They would break the blockade of Circa . ssia ., and intercept the reinforcements hont ; from Sebastopol to WoronzofF .
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TOUCHING THE RUSSIAN COMMISSARIAT . Accounts aro conflicting and contradictory as to the relative military A'alue of the Turkish and Russian forces on the Danube , bul , all accounts agree in representing the . Russian army as disaffected , disorganized , diseased ; decimated by . sickness , the result of " . short commons" and miserable equipments . The fact ; is , that ; with the exception of the Imperial Guard ami . the troops stationed in Poland' —the flower of the Iviissian army—the soldiers of the Czar are nothing better than herds of soulless and mindless brutes , trained to stand fire , and dogged i" daring death as human
« . nimn . lH ma ; y well be who have no home , no country , and no God—save Nicholas . But these Avretches are the victims of that corruption which in the gangrene of the Russian system- — social , political ' , and administrative . Tno Commissariat is farmed by contractors who are public robbers , to a man . Every now and then sonic grossercasoof peculation than usual innnkonnelled ; down swoops the Czar upon the delinquents who have had the clumsiness to get found out , and a , batch of unpronounceable notabilition are packed ofi' to Siberia , pour awourayer leu < nUrcs . But the warning if ) never taken , and tho example in never felt . To extirpate tho disoaHo you must
kill the patient , and in this case the patient is the whole empire . In the highest Russian society cheating at cards is thecorrect thing , not the . exception . If a whist-player is so clumsy as to be found out he is not kicked as a scoundrel ; he is only stigmatised as maladroit . ¦ Corruption , we repeat , pervades aU Russian society , all Russian administration . As to the Commissariat , ask that distinguished gentleman who has so long represented the Czar at the Court of St . James ' s with so much astuteness and efficiency that we felt disposed to put his name at the head- of our series of the " Governing Classes . " Ask
Baron Brunow ! A better authority could scarcely be found on the probity of Russian statesmen , ambassadors , and army contractors . We invite journals falsely accused of Russian predilections to apply to Ashburnham House for an authentic statement on this interesting subject . M . de Brunow ( we will riot call him Baron , a title only worn by Jews and bankers hi Russia ) will , doubtl ess , be able to inform the eager British public how a certain army contractor , by name 7 $ ru . nau
( a more Russian and less diplomatic termination than wow ) , was at Odessa in 1828 , blessed with a beautiful wife , and caressed by the favours of the Governor-General of the province . Alas ! it is a delicate task to write Russian biographies . So many reticences , such a careful adjustment of light and shade , are required . How can M . de Brunow speak , without offence , of M . JBrunau , who , in 1828 , was imprisoned by superior orders for the frauds he had committed on the
commissariat department in the campaign against the Turks . Implacable history compels us to state that " M .. JBrunaai was in a sorry plight indeed when Count Orlof arrived to sign the Treaty of Peace . How fortunate that Count Orlof was dissatisfied with the incapacity of all his secretaries ! How lucky that one man of capacity was to be found ! True , he was in gaol ; but a certificate of morality was not desired . No hand so adroit and ready to pen deftly and rapidly a glozing report as that of Brunau , the army-contractor , in gaol for fraud . After all , his offence was not strictly political , and the Russian Government wants men of
conviction . The rest of the story of Brunau is soon told . He was whisked off in the carriage of Count Orlof to St . Petersburg , and there pardoned by the Emperor , and , in virtue of his capabilities , appointed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs . Many years passed : he received the cordon of St . Anne ; and to one of the employe ' s who congratulated him on this new distinction , Brunaw
replied : " My happiness consists in having received a greater honour than all—the Emperor has . spokoi to me for the first time these twelve years" Soon after , Baron de Brunow appeared at the Court of one of the Great Powers , to sign the treaty of July 1 . 5 , 1840 ; and ever sinco , he has represented at that Court tho policy of Count NcsRelrode , with an influence and authority which Lord Abordecn will not be tho first to
dispute . JNow , wo believe this story of Bruna // might be told , with change of names , of half the distinguished officers in tho civil or military service of the Czar . A capacity for fraud , a genius for robbery , is the best passport to political , especially diplomatic , eminence . And hero a reflection occurs : how shall our honest English gentlemen , born to diplomacy like lap-dogs to blue strings and milk , —how filial ! our indifferent aristocratic fiddlers
compete with Russian convicts in tho trickeries which are the soul of the system by which Europe is mystified and bullied ? Compare the education and the morality of u Stratford Hodel i He or a . Westmoreland with that ; of a lirunaw Hut tins digression would lead us too far at pre-Hcnt ; wo shall return to tho whole subject of diplomacy . Perhaps the . Emperor of . Russia , autocrat ; as he is , is often the blind instrument of his own subordinates . Tlicrv . is tho weak point of that tremendous political and administrative unity
which , from a distance , looms like the perfection of despotic will . In the campaign ot 1828 , against Turkey , the Emperor thought to crush the revolutionary spirit in his army which had burst around tho steps of bin throne in ' 25 , and inaugurated his secession in blood . What if he was only the tool of bureaucrats who neither eouhl nor would luuul in their accounts , and for whom war conveniently embarrassed with frorth complications the difficulty of detection , and was , in fact , a delay of HeitlemontP So enormous was tho robbery of tho
State by the army contractors in that campaign of ' 28-29 , that entire cargoes of corn were thrown into the Danube , utterly unfit for use . Thearmv almost perished for want of provisions ! Sixty thousand cavalry horses a fortnight without forage is one of the reminiscences of that ca m paign . The chief malefactor is now at the head of one of the most important embassies inEurope Ask Baron Brunow , we repeat , how the Russian commissariat is managed . If we mistake not that distinguished diplomatist will be disnoserl + A
whisper confidentially into your ear , that if the English Government offered to purchase the officers of the commissariat department of the army of the Danube , Nicholas , who knows the morale of those gentlemen , would instantly sue for peace , and lay down his arms . A " pacific solution" we have the honour to recommend to the indefatigable impotence of Western diplomacy .
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PBOGRESS OF OPINION RESPECTING STRIKES . The facts connected with the strike in the North establish some important truths . It appears that neither side can permanently coerce the other , however a present victory may- appear to crown coercion . " A child may take a horse to the water , but a thousand men cannot make him drink ; " and a hundred thousand men cannot ; make a master continue to pay in wages more than he receives in prices ; but they may make him close his mill . On the other hand , masters may combine to put down the combination of the men , and they may make them give up some particular union if they starve them long enough ; but it appears that in point of fact they cannot prevent unions . Attempt has been made ever since the black Combination Acts , which were repealed , and wMch have been succeeded by the present equivocal law . There have been verdicts and judgments declaring combinations illegal , as in the case of the Wolverhampton tin-plate workers . By greater length of purse , masters may disperse an union , as in the case of the
Amalgamated Engineers . And they may resolve , as in the case of the iron-masters , not to admit workmen to their shops save upon condition that they belong to no union . Nevertheless , unions have again sprung up ; and masters in pursuit of their own interest drop off from the combination against combination . The masters in the iron trade have done so ; and there is no reason to suppose that after conquering in the present struggle of the cotton districts , tho masters will succeed in their object of permanently putting down the combination of workpeople .
The men will not suspect us of flattering their predilections ; they will be more ready to fed anger at our not having supported their movement through thick and thin ; hut in the end , the more thoughtful among them will recognise the sincerity , and perhaps the soundness , of our advice . Briefly expressed that advice is , first , not again to commit themselves to so extensive and momentous a movemont as a general strike , without a more minute and comprehensive knovv-W 1 o- « nf fhrt fW'tfi nnnn which their demands
based , especially the facts relating to the means of complying with their demands ; and secondly * not to abandon their union . Let them road tho fablo of the Lion and tho Four Bulls ; but let thorn learn to unito well , and to direct tliou union well . . , i Two important steps have been marked m w progress of opinion on this subject . kov ? tho morning papers have been Bonding their o reporters to give accounts of the strike ; for n < ¦> are always good food for newnpaper reader " - ' Now it is romarkablo that these reporters li . » rally agree in admitting faults on the Hide ot masters—in allowing that union cannot Do I ' manently put ; down amongst tho men , » n < i » not - ¦
Hinting that the thing wanted as , c m-n either side , but more complete inforiimtion . JwithHtanding tho fact that the stnko of the Ji ^ tors appears to bo making progress , tho coi _ pendent of the Times i > iiIh Home winta * fc great , distinctness and force H « * h <>» » ^ there are combinations on both Hides . A . 1 ! \ awociation has virtually remained in acMm » ^ 1830 . He odmitH that the jwwtorfl V ^ ^ Btorn and unbending demeanour tovvui" Jr operatives , which lays the groundwoi I : Un suspicion , and occasional violent nipturofl . in the complicated details of factory bio , J ever , tho relations between vamiow « u *
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1090 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 12, 1853, page 1090, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2012/page/10/
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