if Coomassie were left unharmed without a formal submission consigned to a Treaty of Peace, burns it to the ground almost at the very moment when Mr. GLADSTONE is declaring that we must make friends of the Ashantees, and that we must not for the future enter into "equivocal and entangling engagements." The freedom of Mr. GLADSTONE's criticism, the naiveté with which he afterwards declared, in reply to Mr. DISRAELI, that up to the commencement of the Crimean War, he had paid very little attention to foreign policy, show pretty clearly that not only the Privy Council but the Cabinet, and even the Prime Minister, were not consulted in the "equivocal and entangling negotiations." No matter whether it be in Turkistan, or Acheen, or Elmina, or the Black Sea, Lord GRANVILLE is always at home; he requires no counsel from his colleagues, or even from his Chief, yet he allows his own decisions to be set aside by his subordinates. In the important work, "The Four Wars of "the French Revolution," which we have translated for this Review, Mr. URQUHART shows that every one of these wars with France would have been impossible if the grounds of it had had first to be brought before the Privy Council and judicially examined by that body. The source and the remedy of the evil are thus pointed out. The war with Ashantee could never have taken place if the negotiations which caused it had had to be examined judicially before the Treaty with Holland could have been signed. When it was proposed to release the Dutch from their engagements as regards Acheen, the Privy Council must have asked why. The only possible answer was, "Because under the Declaration of Paris we are powerless to enforce "them. The Privy Council must then have asked how we were bound by the Declaration of Paris. No answer could have been given to this question. The Council must have said collectively what its most eminent members, and among them three Prime Ministers, have already said individually, "We must get rid of the Declaration of Paris. They might, indeed, have stopped short of any act to give effect to their declaration, but they could not have agreed to the Treaty of November 2, 1871. Nor could they have hurried on the acceptance of the cession of the Dutch settlements. They must have waited till matters were settled both with the Elminas and the Ashantees. Thus we come always to the same result: "Abrogate the Declaration of "Paris. Restore the Privy Council." Then you may be safe. If you will not do this you will never be free from war unexpected though not unprovoked. There are more settlements on the West Coast of Africa, which are guilty of supplying England with palm-oil. Happy, too, may we consider ourselves so long as the wars with which we are about to be plunged shall be only on the West Coast of Africa. For there are yet Mahometan States in Asia which have to be destroyed, and whose destruction will entail that of our Empire in the East Indies. An Interview with Mr. John Stuart Mill. WE are requested by the Newcastle Committee to insert the subjoined report of an interview which their Deputation on the Candian Revolt had with Mr. MILL, among other members of the two Houses. Mr. D. RULE stated the case for the deputation, showing that the disturbances in Candia, were not an insurrection against the Turkish Government, but a result of Russian intrigue; that Greece was being used by Russia as a wedge to split up Turkey; showed the lawless position of Greece; quoted the stipulations of the protectorate, which bound Greece as a condition of her existence to abstain from acts such as those in which she was then engaged; concluding that it was the duty of England as one of the protecting Powers to stop her. Mr. MILL said he fully agreed with all that had been said. There was no doubt about the lawless position of Greece, but while he admitted all that, he must still contend that the individual subjects of Greece had a right, at their own risk, to take part with the Candiotes. Mr. CRAWSHAY said, if individuals of which communities are but the aggregate can lawfully do that which is criminal if done by the community, the result must be the dissolution of all human society. Mr. MILL said he would rather not discuss that matter. He then observed that the Turks were a people having many admirable qualities, such as honesty, integrity, and sobriety, but he thought their Government oppressive. Mr. ROLLAND: Will you allow me to be a witness in this matter? I have traversed Turkey, from the shores of the Bosphorus to the Persian Gulf, and have resided in Turkey. Mr. MILL: I cannot have a better witness. Mr. ROLLAND: Then I assure you, you are entirely mistaken. So far from the Turkish Government acting oppressively, they do not act at all except when invoked, and they never act extra-judicially. Mr. MILL: I must accept your evidence, and admit that I have been misinformed on this matter. On the Deputation rising, Mr. MILL said he had been a college friend of Mr. URQUIART in their youth; he had not seen him for many years. They had had antithetical views on most matters, but that there were few subjects now in which he did not agree with him; that he was entirely at one with him and the Deputation on the Right of Search, and intended to move the matter in the House. He had been converted by the letters of a Nottingham shoemaker. On the deputation leaving, he said he would always be glad to receive any communication from them, and that any such communication should receive his best attention, for "the disciples of Mr. URQUHART are the élite of the people of England." Printed and published by C. D. COLLET, at 22, East Temple Chambers, Whitefriars-street, Fleetstreet, London; and Sold by I. A. BROOKE, 282, Strand; Birmingham: MORRIS, High-street, Digbeth: Keighley: GREGSON, Low Gate; Manchester: Heywood, Deansgate, and HIBBERT, 67, Shudehill. And all Booksellers and Newsmen in Town and Country. THE DIPLOMATIC REVIEW. "50 NATURAL IS THE UNION OF RELIGION WITH JUSTICE, THAT WE MAY BOLDLY DEEM THERE IS NEITHER WHERE BOTH ARE NOT.”—Hooker VOL. XXII., No. 4. OCTOBER, 1874. PRICE 2d. CONTENTS. PAGE THE CZAR'S CONGRESS OR THE QUEEN'S COUN- THE PRIVY COUNCIL-ITS HISTORY AND FUNCTIONS .228 THE PRIVY COUNCIL, MR. URQUHART, AND THE "TIMES". 238 THE FOUR WARS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, BY DAVID URQUHART, ESQ.-(Concluded from the April Number) 241 245 Maritime Law and the Right of Search-Address of 285 299 The Russian Articles of War-Memoir by the St. England Menaced with Danger-Report of a Meeting An Unexpected Opportunity for Abrogating the De- Identity of the Interests of France and England Position of England and France before the Military Position of Turkey as a Maritime Power Westlake versus Vattel . PAGE 338 . 346 NOTICES. WE are obliged to postpone very important matter connected with the reaction which is now taking place in Turkey against the manners of the West, and only now call attention to two circumstances apparently disconnected therewith, but which must have a most beneficial influence on Turkey. The first is the conjoint refusal, as distinct from the other Powers, of Turkey and England to append any signature to the acts of the Brussels Conference. The second, the construction by England of other vessels than ironclads, which may arrest the Turkish Government in its insane infatuation respecting these latter. Would that England were now to complete this commencement of beneficial action not only by recalling her present Ambassador, but by appointing no other one, even if himself unobjectionable, in his place. The subject of Privateering is beginning to attract attention in Turkey. We postpone for the present the translation of a very important article which has appeared on this subject in a Turkish journal. We postpone till our next number a reprint of Lord STANLEY of ALDERLEY'S speech on the Commons' amendments to the Malay Straits Settlements Courts Bill. The Succession to the Throne of Turkey. (THROUGH REUTER'S AGENCY.) Vienna, Oct. 6. THE Presse of to-day learns, on good authority, from Constantinople that, through the good offices of the Sheikh-ul-Islam and Sir HENRY ELLIOTT, the English Ambassador, the Sultan has been reconciled to his nephew, Prince MURAD EFFENDI, the legal heir to the throne. The Sultan swore solemnly on the Koran to respect the legal rights of his nephew, and Prince MURAD also promised that Prince YOUSSEF-IZZEDIN, the eldest son of the Sultan, should retain his rank as generalissimo, and that the other sons of the Sultan should keep their appanages, the high offices of State they hold, and their own palaces. The mother of the Sultan opposed this arrangement, but her opposition was unavailing. The Sultan is said to be ill, and to require complete rest. This important change of resolution is attributed to the state of His Majesty's health. Next Session. We have received a letter from one of the most energetic secretaries of a Foreign Affairs Committee, proposing that these Committees should be urged to address themselves at once to the task of acting upon Members of Parliament, with the object of getting them to make or support a Motion on the opening of the forthcoming Session for the abrogation of the Declaration of Paris. It is not too soon to commence this work. Nor should it be confined to the subject of the Declaration of Paris. Petitions should be at once prepared, and signatures obtained, for the restoration, not only of our maritime rights, but of the con stitutional securities, which should have prevented these rights from being surrendered. These are: 1. Restoration of the Privy Council. 2. Appointment in each House of Parliament of a permanent Committee on Foreign Relations. This last guarantee was enjoyed by France under the Monarchy of July. It is still enjoyed by the United States of America. A DISTINGUISHED French diplomatist, on reading in the Times the conversation which took place on the third of July between Lord DENBIGH and the Earl of DERBY, in reference to the Brussels Conference, thus expressed himself: "The snare has been exposed. Prince GORTCHAKOFF can have "no doubt as to the hand which has given the death blow to his dark "scheme. This conversation, and above all the reply of Lord "DERBY, have produced a very good effect in Paris, and have forti"fied the Government in its intentions. Mr. URQUHART has dealt a "terrible blow to this coalition against the public law of Europe." This is only, however, partially true. Mr. URQUHART's part herein has been only indirect and remote. It is to Mr. DISRAELI that the merit has to be attributed. We have repeated, over and over again, the aphorism of Sir JOHN MCNEILL: "The Cabinets and Statesmen of Europe are the tools with which Russia works ;" and, the commentary of KOSSUTH, that there was not a Cabinet or a Club that did not contain a Russian agent. These words no longer apply; there is one Cabinet, and that the most important of all, which does not now contain either an agent or a tool. Only those who live among the official class, and who thus witness or even feel the paralysis created by Russian influence, can tell how much courage was necessary to make it possible to put conditions upon the sending of a Delegate to any Congress to which Russia herself sent an invitation. The refusal to sign the Protocols was a still more courageous act. No such refusal has been given since the Duke of WELLINGTON refused to sign the Protocols of the Congress of Verona. But the cases are not parallel. Russia was not so well understood by the Duke of WELLINGTON as she must be by Mr. DISRAELI, nor had. she the same power then that she has now. She had not then had the appointment of the Foreign Minister of England. It may be said that it would have been better to have refused to recognise the Congress at all. It would doubtless have been safer. Russia's failure for the time would have been complete, but her false pretences would not have been exposed. This exposure, rendered galling by the presence of Delegates who refuse to sign the Protocols, must make Mr. DISRAELI a mark for Russia's vengeance. But the mode of action which Mr. DISRAELI has adopted is, in its nature, preparatory. The exposure of Russia's aggressive designs can be useful only if measures are taken to counteract them. It can only be considered as part of a plan. |