Had they been of one accord among themselves, nothing of this kind would have happened. If Lord Aberdeen had been sole and supreme master in his Cabinet, it is possible that Russia might have succeeded in acquiring a protectorate over Turkey. The Sultan could hardly have attempted to resist without powerful European aid; and France, had she found Britain lukewarm or indifferent, could not be expected to come forward as the defender of the balance of power without a single ally. No doubt, had this occurred, it would have given Russia a most dangerous preponderance in Europe, and probably necessitated a future struggle; but, in the mean time, there would have been no war. Had the Cabinet been under the guidance of Palmerston or Russell, the first advances of the Emperor, if made at all, would have been met by a distinct and peremptory refusal, and by a threat which would have effectually deterred him from moving a step further. But unfortunately—most unfortunately for us, and for our children, and for the general peace of Europe, this is not a united Cabinet. It is a congregation of men holding totally opposite opinions—bred up in adverse schools—adhering to antagonistical traditions—influenced by jealousy among themselves—and unable, upon any one important point, whether it relates to foreign or domestic policy, to arrive at a common conclusion. Take the case now before us. But for Palmerston and Russell, and their other adherents in the Cabinet, Lord Aberdeen might have established the principle of non-interference between Russia and Turkey—and there would have been no war. But for Lord Aberdeen and his adherents, Palmerston and Russell might have checked the designs and met the overtures of the Czar, by declaring at once that they would not suffer him to send a single soldier across the Pruth, and that if he persisted in his design, they would invite the co-operation of France, and defend Turkey to the uttermost—and in that case also there would have been no war. But the Cabinet was split into two, if not three, parties; and the adoption of a middle course, of feeble dissuasion, unaccompanied by any hint of ulterior consequences, but rather couched in terms of extreme and unworthy subserviency, deceived the Czar, encouraged him to proceed,—and now war is all but declared, and our fleet is riding in the Baltic. We have approached the subject in anything but a party spirit—we have perused the correspondence, recently published, over and over again, in the hope that we might gather from it a justification of the course which the British Ministry has pursued—but we are unable to arrive at any conclusion except this, that but for the formation of the Coalition Cabinet, the ambitious schemes of Russia would not have been developed; and that, but for its continuance and internal divisions, those schemes would have been effectually checked. In plain language, had it not been determined by a secret cabal that Lord Derby’s Government should be overthrown by the most extraordinary combination of parties ever known in this country, there would have been no war; and it is right that the country should know to whom they are indebted for the burdens which are now to be imposed upon us.
We do not object to the principle upon which the war proceeds. We think it full time that the grasping ambition, insidious progress, and inordinate arrogance of Russia should receive a check. It is to us matter of pride and congratulation to know that, in the coming struggle, the colours of Britain and France will be displayed side by side. But we detest war, for its own sake, as fervently as any member of the Peace Society can do, and we are perfectly alive to the awful consequences which it entails. What we wish is, that the public should not misapprehend the real cause of the present rupture of the peace of Europe. That it originally arose from the exorbitant ambition of the Czar, is beyond all question; but ambition can be controlled, and, fortunately, the Czar is not yet master of the universe. Nay, he is not yet master of Europe; for although, by spoliation and absorption, he has secured to himself a vast extent of territory to which he had no patrimonial claim; and although he exercises a great influence over States which, in former times, have acquired accretions by unprincipled subserviency to his house, he has yet to encounter the exerted power and civilisation of the West. Had our Cabinet been united, and true to their trust, that encounter might have been avoided. But it was not so. Some of them were Russian, and some anti-Russian in their views, principles, and antecedents; and so, in consequence of having a Coalition Ministry, which, after being warned of the designs of Russia, egregiously bungled our finance, and left us with a prospect of a deficit, we are to be forced into a war of which no man can foresee the issue.
Let those who shudder at the cost, at least know to whom the cost is due. We are now paying, and are likely to pay for a long time to come, for the privilege of having a Coalition Ministry. But we submit, that the continuance of such a form of government is not desirable. We have shown, in regard to foreign affairs, and from evidence which cannot be gainsayed, what are its results; we could show, if space allowed us, its results upon domestic legislation. But we shall not enter into the lesser topics now. We have, as yet, but touched upon a part of the expediency of coalition; and our deliberate conclusion is, that to the fact of the formation of the Coalition Ministry we must attribute the development of the schemes of Russia, and to its extraordinary vacillation and want of concert the catastrophe of a European war.
Printed by William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh.
[1]. Histoire des Marionettes en Europe depuis l’antiquité jusqu’à nos jours. Par Charles Magnin, Member de l’Institut. Paris, 1852.
[2]. These common Italian marionettes have travelled far. Daniel Clarke found them in Tartary, all the fashion amongst the Cossacks of the Don.—Vide his Travels in Various Countries, part I.; Russia, &c., p. 233.
[3]. Casperle is a comic countryman, who replaced Jack Padding on the stage of the Austrian puppet-shows, and became so popular that the principal marionette theatre of the Vienna faubourgs received the name of the Casperle Theatre, and the coin which was the price of a place in the pit was called a casperle.
[4]. “You have exactly caught his manner of clearing his throat and spitting, but as for his genius....”—Wallenstein’s Lager, Scene vi.
[5]. The accomplished and lamented author of La Chartreuse di Parme; Le Rouge et le Noir; Rome, Naples, et Florence, &c. &c., of whose complete works a new edition is now appearing at Paris, under the editorship of his friend, M. Prosper Mérimée.