attended only to protest against any sympathy for Turkey, saving in so far as it was manifested in arresting that fatal course of the English Government to which for a time the Sultan has put a stop.*

WHY DOES THE ENGLISH CABINET

PERSEVERE?

October 24th.

On the 21st May, the representatives of the four Powers at Constantinople answered an appeal of the Turkish Government in these terms:-" We are of opinion, that in a question which touches so nearly the liberty of action and sovereignty of his Majesty the Sultan, his Excellency Reschid Pacha is the best judge of the course to be adopted, and they do not consider themselves authorised in present circumstances to give any advice on the subject."

In the discussions with reference to the Vienna Note, Reschid Pacha returned to this declaration, and claimed thereupon liberty of action. The Vienna Note is now explained as having been written under misapprehension of the value of its terms. Russia and Turkey concurred in finding in it the same meaning, and a meaning exactly the reverse of that of the Four Powers. So unparalleled a discomfiture must have disgusted any reasonable being with negotiation, even if that being had not made the declaration of the 21st May.

The efforts to preserve peace have accumulated the forces

*This letter was published by all the papers. The Times appended a note denying its accuracy. A few days later the editor of the Morning Advertiser inserted the following paragraph.

"MR. URQUHART AND TURKEY.-So it appears, from an admission in a Ministerial morning contemporary of yesterday, that Mr. Urquhart was substantially right after all, when he stated that he had received intelligence from Constantinople to the effect, that the Sultan had refused to receive the aid of the Western Powers. * * * It was when the Sultan received an assurance from the two Ambassadors that the sole object which the Western Powers had in view in proposing the entrance of the fleet into the Dardanelles, was to enable him to resist the aggressions of Russia, that he resolved on calling on them to quit Besika Bay and take up their station in the neighbourhood of the Golden Horn."

of both parties-enabled the one to commit an unparalleled violence, and driven the other to a declaration of war. Such a result must have disgusted any rational being with his own interposition, even if that being had not signed the declaration of the 21st May.

Step by step as they have advanced, the pretences for moving have been exploded, namely, inability of Turkey to defend herself. Step by step as they advanced, was the support deemed necessary for a constitutional government, that of opinion, withdrawn: step by step contempt and indignation aroused. Now, again, they recommence negotiations for preservation of peace. What can the motive be for such persistency? There is none in the subject matter, none to be found in their position. There is everything against it in the subject matter-everything against it in their position -their ostensible position-as servants of the British Crown, and Ministers of the British people. They must, therefore, occupy another position which is not ostensible. Nothing can explain the perseverance of the British Government, save the ties which unite certain individuals of that Government with the Russian Cabinet.

THE USES OF IMPEACHMENT.

October 24th.

"We must guard this precious deposit-rare in its use, but powerful in its effects—with a religious vigilance, and never suffer it to be either discredited or antiquated.”—BURKE.

"Ministers would do well to recollect that for any Englishman to betray the cause of Turkey is to betray the Queen."

Such are the concluding words, in the Morning Herald of Saturday, of an article in which it dwells with truth, force, and point on the consequences of the declaration of war by the Ottoman Empire. It asserts that the penalties of high treason impend over those who, by intention or in fact, compromise the interests or invalidate the position of the Queen's ally.

This view of the case we conceive it to be of the utmost importance to place before the eyes of men; for, in fact, malversation in external affairs, whether in this or in any

other case, springs solely from the sense of impunity which environs office in consequence of the modern dictum-"The days of impeachment are gone by"—and also of the habit of ruling through a secret club, which is called Constitutional Government.

No man, who will seriously look at the matter, can shut out the apprehension that the events passing in the East may before long touch him, and seriously, at home. It was

a small cloud that gathered over Bethlehem: it then rolled westward, and manifested itself in legions of armed men upon the soil of Europe, though at its eastern extremity. Who shall deny another migration, and another transformation-who shall deny that the manifestation on the Danube was not planned when the alarm was given at Bethlehem— who shall deny that then, too, was planned the future thunder-storm that is to burst upon the sources of the Danube, no less than upon its aftercourse-upon the sources and course of the Rhine-the sources and course of the Po? If such a catastrophe does occur to obscure in our time the fate of mankind, to what will it be referable save the admitted irresponsibility of English Ministers ?

Should that storm not burst; should heart and nerve in some other region of the earth, or chance, deflect the explosion-shall we be safe, even because we have been saved? Shall we not be from day to day exposed to the like infirmity are we not now in possession of the fact that we are so? For ourselves, we had omitted to call attention to the matter, so ably expounded by our contemporary, because of our firm conviction and perfect knowledge of the absence of all restraint from law in the minds of those who rule-of the absence of all capacity of self-preservation in the minds of those who are ruled. There is no fear to restrain the one, no sense to guide the other—a traitorous ministry to an idiot nation. But when we see an organ of public opinion recalling at length to a ministry the penalties of law, and appealing to the people to consider the causes from which it suffers, we may indulge in the hope that the circumstances into which we have fallen will not be as a mere wall against which a blind man shall beat his skull.

This is not our only ground of hope. The temper of the nation, as exhibited in the recent public meetings, combines the brightness of a new conception with the gravity of

an historic event. Everywhere the sense of disgust and incredulity at the mystery of foreign proceedings has come forth with explosive force. Fortunately no popular agitation is afloat; fortunately, there is neither Chartist scheme nor Whig perversion; and, instead of looking to some new casting of the House of Commons-itself the source of England's present ills-the mind of the nation has been directed to the re-invigorating of those functions which had been created by the wisdom of our forefathers for the prevention of malversation, error, caprice, and treason, in the conduct of the gravest affairs of the State. The people, not losing themselves in theory, are turning towards investigation; they are inquiring what the conditions are upon which Ministers of State are empowered to act; and they are beginning to perceive that, independently of any consequences resulting from their acts, they are totally destitute of authority for performing them. Their assumption to govern the world is beginning to be understood, not as an usurpation by England over the rights of foreign states, but an usurpation of the Ministers of England, alike of the power of the British Crown and the rights of the British people.

The Emperor of Russia, confident in the long facilities of deception-presuming on the subservient habits of his vicarious commissions called the Cabinets of Europe-has yielded to the temptations of a rapid fruition: he has attempted to force the seasons, and in a few short months to gather in the harvest of a hundred and fifty patient years. But if success sometimes endangers its own results, so also does endurance, when pressed too far, compromise its own docility. The Continent of Europe he has indeed at his mercy, for there he has placed such hatred between Crown and nation, that no concert is possible-no restoration practicable. The people can see no chance of safety, even from foreign aggression, save in domestic resolution, and that danger leaves no escape for the princes from Russian tutelage.

But there are two points in the world where these conditions have not been realized-England and Turkey. In both an uncontaminated mass still constitutes the basis of society, and over both is placed the superintending care of monarchs gifted with authority, discrimination, benevolence, and courage. Unexpectedly has the martial spirit of the Turks risen under

insult and pressure; still more unexpectedly has the sense of the British people been invoked by contumely and shame. The power of Russia in England exists solely over the administrative class, and the chain upon Turkey exists wholly in its respect for us. The people of England may now cooperate with the people of Turkey. Let it but shake its Cabinet, and the Turks will do the rest.

The question was first between Priests of the Holy Land -not between Turks and Christians, but between Latins and Greeks. Next it was between France and Russia. Then at length between Russia and Turkey-still religious. Finally, it became invasion in Europe. Upon this we were told to discuss the beauty of peace and to abhor the guilt of war. We interpose to preserve peace in this fashion, that our efforts have accumulated four hundred thousand combatants. We now must persevere, because revolution and convulsion would otherwise ensue throughout the globe. That convulsion which is pointed out as a consequence of Turkey defending herself, may it not be also assumed to be the consequence of preventing Turkey from defending herself? Mark the perfect appreciation of your minds by those who have led you step by step through these devious courses mark that practised use of infatuation when the very consequences can be bound as a handkerchief on your eyes, and inflicted as a lash upon your back to hasten your lagging steps to destruction.

;

But a final monstrosity reveals itself at Manchester. The pretence of resisting wrong by defending the oppressed is swept away, and an English Minister shrinks not from avowing as a maxim the practice of malefactors. "We must prevent," says Mr. Gladstone, "the absorption of power." People of England, weigh these words-people of Turkey, learn, in time, your fate! People of England, mark the gulf, opened for your honour-people of Turkey, mark the consequence of listening to counsels which have never yet been given but to betray, and now no longer are wrapped in mystery.

Were housebreakers to enter and take possession, what would be said of the magistrates who should declare from the bench, "We must prevent the absorption of property ? "

Nor is this all. The Chancellor of the Exchequer not one of the four Ministers who took the step of the 13th Sep