THE WAR IN EUROPE. [The following remarks on the present war in Europe, from the "Presbyterian Banner," contain much truth. So far as our own observation extends, public sentiment in this country is favourable to the cause of the Allies.-ED.] OUR readers who have meditated on the intelligence which we have communicated to them from week to week, relative to the war in the East, and the past procedure of the powers engaged in the great struggle, and the position which they at present occupy, must, we think, be convinced that even the first act in the bloody tragedy is not yet passed over. For several years past there were contemplative minds in England that looked with apprehension on the progress that Russia was making in several directions. It was known that in the Black Sea, for instance, where there was no prospect of the Russian power being assailed, the Czar had constructed and was enlarging an enormous navy, which was maintained at great expense. The exigencies of the Empire required no such agency for protection in that quarter, as the Black Sea was a mare clausum. The construction and augmentation of such a fleet could only be intended for aggression on weaker and neighbouring powers. Then again, the unceasing efforts which were made to carry the Russian frontier southward over the Caucasian range, so as to embrace the whole of the Caspian Sea, and by degrees annex the provinces of Persia, were seen to indicate what no reflecting Englishman doubted, that a position on the southern coast of Asia, was a prominent object of Russian ambition. At the same time, the civil and military officers of the East India Company were well aware, for many years past, that Russian officers were continually at Bokhara, Cabool, Afghanistan, Kokan, and all the regions lying between the northwestern frontier of India and the southern range of Russian territory, engaged in fomenting disturbances, gaining information and influence, and thus gradually pushing the dominion of the Czar to the south, on the east, as well as on the west of the Caspian Sea. Thus every practical demonstration of Russian policy served but to confirm the belief in the fact, that the mastery of the Black Sea was but a step to the conquest of Constantinople, at a season when the nations of Europe were either so embroiled or so weakened that the attempt might be made with safety; and that the acquisition of Persia was but the gaining of a foothold, in order to advance with irresistible power on India, while the gaining of Turkey and India were but two regions secured in the march to the sovereignty of the world. Englishmen who reflected on the past in the East, knew that Turkey in Asia, and Turkey in Europe have always followed the same destiny. The Greek or the Moslem that has reigned on the one side of the Dardanelles, has held sway on the other. And hence it is obvious that the fall of Constantinople before the power of Russia involves such tremendous consequences. Seated on the Bosphorus, the sceptre of the Czar would stretch over the southern portion of Europe. The Black Sea would become a training naval station, whence his fleets of any number and magnitude might descend as through a canal which his power had guarded, so that no hostile vessel should ever reach even the Sea of Marmora ; and then the Mediterranean Sea and all the countries which are laved by its waters would lie at the mercy of his arms. Egypt, Algiers, Naples, Trieste, Toulon, Marseilles, Cadiz-in fact, every place worth assaulting, would lie open to his blows. Thus, the navigation of the Nile, the commercial freedom of the Isthmus of Suez, the streams of the Tigris and Euphrates, would all fall under his control, and an enormous step would thus be gained by the acquisition of the Turkish capital, towards the realization of the grand traditional object of Russian policy. Now, if the history of Russian progress was a record of such blessings as civilization, freedom, and the Gospel are always found to bring along with them, if the supplanting of English rule and English institutions either in Britain, in India, or elsewhere, by Czarism, were a removal of slavery and superstition in order to the introduction of a higher form of civilization and a greater amount of civil and religious freedom, then, beyond all doubt, it would be the duty of every lover of the family of man, to desire the decline of British sovereignty, and the supremacy of Russian sway. Not otherwise. In Britain, as we have said, the advent of a great controversy in the East, which would involve the issues we have here mentioned, has long been foreseen. Indeed, it was well known that the late Emperor Nicholas attached as much importance to Russian supremacy in India as a key to the Asiatic continent, as he did to the possession of Constantinople in relation to Southern Europe. It was observed on the occasion of his celebrated visit to England, when present at a review in Hyde Park, and when his attention was drawn to the magnificent appearance of the different regiments of Guards, he replied: "Oh, yes, they are splendid, but all household troops are fine. I want, however, to see your troops from India. Show me the men who have done your work in the East." He was seen afterwards to spend all his time in examining the physical appearance, the arms and equipment of the Indian veterans. At the time the incident was felt to be significant. The fleets of Russia and the extension of Russian territory were the two dangers that England had to dread. Now that the war has broken out, the destruction of the Black Sea fleet is all but accomplished, although its hidingplace, Sebastopol, has not yet been destroyed. The Baltic fleet of the Czar is unable during half the year, to issue from its stronghold, and it will be a length of time now, ere Great Britain shall dread, at least in the Atlantic Ocean, the ships of war which may be constructed in the northern stronghold. In the course of our observations, we have indicated the reasons why France should also dread the presence of the Russian power on the Bosphorus, or in the Levant. And, therefore, so far as the African colony of France, and the trade of that power in the Mediterranean are concerned, the prospect of an assault from the East has passed away. The war, however, cannot speedily come to an end, even if every Russian vessel in the Baltic and Black Seas were destroyed. The questions which have been raised by the diplomatists who, for the last two years and upwards, have been struggling towards an adjustment which seems altogether unattainable, have yet to be settled; and while, as we have said, the approach of this contest was foreseen in England, and actually brought on by the shameful blindness and disgraceful incompetency of the Aberdeen administration, it has been and will be prolonged, because of the incapacity of the men now in power, and in whose hands the conduct of the war has been placed. Evidently, the British Ministry do not see their way through the contest in which they are engaged. The fall of Sebastopol, and the conquest of the Crimea would of themselves secure no permanent safeguards on behalf of Turkey. The policy which overwhelmed the Tartar rule in the Crimea would speedily withdraw that province from Turkey, and add it to the dominions of the Czar again. England is, we believe, engaged in a bloody and costly war without a definite aim; and the want of an aim and a decided object will cause her policy to waver, and clog her movements with incertitude and weakness. We know that in England we should be told that the object of the war is well known; it is simply to curb the power of Russia, and to raise a barrier against the aggressions of barbarism. This sounds well; but what does it mean? Does it mean the excision of the southern provinces which Russia has gained by duplicity and blood, and annexing them to Turkey? Does it mean the resurrection of Poland and fostering it, until it has become a powerful bulwark interposing between Germany, already three-fourths Russianized, and the dominions of the Czar? Does it mean that England should pander to the diplomatic lying of Austria, and while shedding the blood and the treasure of her people, to drive the Russian bear from the Principalities to his frozen home in the north, do all this to hand these very Principalities to Austria, to be made a hunting-ground for her nobles, a scene of outrages, in rivetting the chains of her tyranny on their people, who, under her rule, are to be saved from the ecclesiastical abominations of Russo-Grecism, in order to be handed over to the bondage and superstition of Rome? We do not believe that, as yet, English statesmen are acting from fixed principles, and we are fully satisfied that this indecision will be overruled to protract the war; a war into which Austria will yet be absorbed, and during which the oppressed nationalities of Europe shall at least have a season given for asserting their freedom.-Presbyterian Banner. |