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our decision and our action hang the immediate | Canning has care ally abstained from implicating fate of Turkey, and it may be the prospective des- the home government directly in a foreign dispute, tinies of India and of England herself.

From the Times, Oct. 3.

he has given his opinion and his counsel in a manner which claims the entire sanction of his sovereign and of Britain. It is stated that the Turkish minister of foreign affairs addressed to the English and French ambassadors several momentous questions, after the receipt of the Russo-Austrian ultimatum. These questions were answered by a collective note, in which Sir S. Canning and Gen

Kaimarji, and of Passarowitch, do not justify the demands for the surrender of the Polish and Hungarian fugitives; that the refusal of the Porte would, therefore, not amount to a breach of these treaties, or to a lawful cause of war; that the assist

in the event of war, could not be promised without special instructions, but that these states would readily proffer their mediation to avert a rupture between the Porte and the two emperors. At this stage the matter rests. Prince Radzivil imme

followed thither by Fuad Effendi, charged to explain to the Emperor Nicholas the scruples of the Divan, so that at the very moment the British government is called upon to decide upon the course it may hereafter have to pursue in the East, the Russian cabinet is resolving the question of peace or war.

Her majesty's ministers, suddenly and specially convoked from their various pursuits or retirement in different parts of the kingdom, held a cabinet council yesterday, at the Foreign office, which was numerously attended. At this unwonted season of the year, the fact that a cabinet has been sum-eral Aupick affirmed that the treaties of Kutshokmoned by direction of Lord Palmerston for the despatch of serious business, is a sufficient indication of the importance attached by that minister to the late occurrences at Constantinople; for we believe that the threatening state of the relations between Russia and the Porte, and the last de-ance of the armed forces of France and England, spatches received from Sir Stratford Canning, are the sole cause of this deliberation of the government. The promptitude with which this call on the responsible advisers of the crown has been made and obeyed, augurs well for the spirit which ought to govern their resolutions in such an emer-diately set out for St. Petersburg, and will be gency, and we trust that the next few hours will send forth to Constantinople the fullest assurances that, if these menacing and unjust demands of Russia are to be enforced by more menacing and injurious acts on the part of the Northern power, they will have awakened in the government, as well as in the people of England, a determination to show that such pretexts are ill chosen to cover It is impossible not to be struck by the extreme an aggression on the sultan's independence. That inadequacy of the cause which has given rise to independence has been placed, by repeated acts of this turmoil. A few enthusiastic Magyar patriots, the diplomacy of Europe, under the joint protec- who have outlived a struggle which has been more tion and recognition of all the powers; and if ever fatal to their country than to themselves, and who there was a moment when it could not be assailed appear to have ended in plunder what began in without peculiar ignominy, it is when the Porte imposture, have taken refuge under the guns of invokes the rights and usages of nations for the the fortress of Widden, accompanied by certain protection of defeated fugitives, intent only on Polish soldiers of fortune, who have participated escape from the scene of an unsuccessful contest. freely in every civil broil of the last eighteen To intimidate and to degrade the sultan and his months. These men have obviously no object but ministers into the commission of a mean action, at to effect their escape through Turkey to the West the command of a Russian aide-de-camp, is an out-of Europe, where their delusions and their conrage which might have been spared by the sov-spiracies may ferment at a vast distance from their ereign of one empire to that of another; and in this instance Europe will acknowledge that the principles of honor, humanity and civilization, claim her support for Turkey against pretensions dictated either by the cruelty of revenge or the designs of a still darker policy.

native scenes of action. To intercept such fugitives would seem more embarrassing than useful even to their enemies, for we cannot credit Prince Radzivil's brutal threat of a wholesale execution of the band. Turkey may be bound not to harbor the mortal enemies of Russia or Austria on their It is most fortunate that, at such a crisis, the respective frontiers, but all that is asked for these British ambassador at Constantinople should be a persons is leave to depart; in fact, their removal man whose sedate character, unshaken firmness, from the Ottoman dominions would terminate the and long experience, command the profound re-quarrel, just as the departure of Louis Napoleon spect, not only of all parties in this country, but from a Swiss canton put an end some years ago to of all nations abroad. Sir Stratford Canning is the menacing requisition of the French for his not an envoy to be moved to rash or inconsiderate immediate expulsion. actions; he represents, with the greatest authority, the stable and dignified policy of this country, and if he is ever led to take a great resolution, it is by some positive interest and some great emergency. It becomes the country, therefore, to give its unreserved support to an ambassador who enjoys our unreserved confidence; and though Sir Stratford

But when we consider how paltry and unreal the cause is for which so much wrath has been put on; when we observe that, instead of having recourse to the more subtle influences of Russia, which are not unknown at Constantinople, Prince Radzivil delivered his message in the tone of a bully and the terms of a challenge, and thereby

rendered it impossible for the Porte to comply with | case England would coöperate with France. This such demands without grievous humiliation, we feeling did not arise, at least in the eyes of rational cannot entirely divest ourselves of the apprehension and fair men, out of any belief of insincerity on that the Russian government has taken this oppor- the part of England; but it was doubted whether tunity and these means to fasten a quarrel on the the English government would be supported by Turkish empire for its own purposes. The nature public opinion in England in any measures showing of the assistance given by Russia to Austria in the a determination to resist to the last the pretensions Hungarian war, has effectually paralyzed the op- of the czar. The French government naturally position she would heretofore have encountered in hesitated at the chance of being drawn into a quarthat quarter. France is too much engrossed at rel with Russia, being then left alone to sustain home and in Italy to embark on a very bold and it, and acting single-handed. These fears, conenergetic course of foreign policy; and Mr. Cob-sidering what is to be done at home, can scarcely den's late absurdities, added to many fruitless and be blamed. It is necessary to observe that the feeble passages in our own foreign policy, have proceedings of the Peace Congress in England raised doubts abroad as to the efficacy and sincerity of Britain. These temptations to reënter upon the favorite scene of Russian aggression had long ago been pointed out; we know not even now to what extent the Emperor of Russia is disposed to follow them; but certainly the tenor of Prince Radzivil's commission, and the subsequent ultimatum, lead to no other conclusion than that a course of policy adverse and insulting to Turkey may be pursued to actual hostility.

If these intentions have been entertained at St. Petersburg, and if this quarrel has been sought for a more sinister purpose than even the sacrifice of a few poor refugees, the moment is come when the vigorous and united action of England and France is the best chance of averting war. On a less striking occasion, Lord Palmerston proposed that the combined fleets should take up their position within the Dardanelles; and the rejection of that scheme by France was held to be the source of her subsequent miscarriage in 1840. Louis Napoleon is bound in an especial manner to let no such opportunity slip again. He has lived the life of an exile under the protection of those very usages which are now violated by despotism on the track of revenge; and Switzerland did for him what Turkey is still proud enough and strong enough to do for other victims of political agitation. Whatever, then, the mature resolutions of the court of St. Petersburg may be on the receipt of the refusal of the Porte, the resolutions of the faithful allies of the sultan will not, we hope, be less firm or less effective. To abandon the Turkish Divan, would be to abandon our own principles, our own envoy, and the future integrity of the Ottoman empire; but if this cause be maintained with the spirit and dignity which it requires, there is great reason to believe that the pretensions of the Emperor of Russia will subside, and an affair which has had a formidable commencement, may still be brought to a pacific termination.

From the Times, Oct. 5. Paris, Oct. 4, P. M. I believe I can assure you, on the best authority, that the French and English governments are decided in acting together to the last in the affairs of Constantinople. I noticed a day or two ago the existence of a feeling here, not exactly of mistast, but of doubt, as to whether in the extreme

and in Paris, led parties here to suppose that, on no account, and in no cause, would the English people approve of their government having recourse to extreme measures. The unanimous opinion of the press in England, however, and particularly that portion of it which is known to give faithful expression to public opinion, has removed all hesitation on that score. It is now believed that though John Bull may have little objection to occupy his leisure hours, or to vary the monotony of commercial pursuits, by a little harmless theory, yet the old spirit of the Saxon is still alive as ever, and that it wants only some act of outrageous and manifest wrong, on the part of a powerful despot against a weak and inoffensive neighbor, to call forth the ancient energy of his character and his love of fair play. The French government seem now convinced that England will be true to herself and to France, to the last, in this quarrel of injustice; and the instructions addressed to the French minister at St. Petersburg are, I am told, not a whit less energetic than those which, I presume, have been addressed to the English ambassador. There is reason, however, to hope that the affair will terminate otherwise than in a hostile manner, and that the Emperor of Russia will be convinced not only of the injustice of his pretensions in the present instance, but that it is his interest at this moment, as much as that of any other sovereign, not to do anything that would again throw Europe into confusion or war. The decided attitude of the two governments of France and England will convince the emperor that his pretensions will not be tolerated with impunity. The divided state of parties in France renders her action more difficult; why, it is superfluous to say. But the existence of these difficulties will not, I believe, deter her in such a cause, or prevent her from joining frankly with a friendly government in resistance to injustice.

From the London Chronicle, 5 Oct. The feelings of the French towards Russia form a curious anomaly amongst popular tendencies, and a remarkable illustration of national character. The colossal power of the czar dazzles them; their imagination is irresistibly captivated by the notion of a sovereign ruling over thirty degrees of latitude by the simple declaration of his will; and many think they see in him a chosen instrument

of vengeance against la perfide Albion-a coadju- | perfectly conscious all along that they stood comtor who will infallibly aid them, sooner or later, mitted as deeply as ourselves; the French and to wipe out the mortifying recollections of Water- English ambassadors having pledged their respecloo. Thus, M. de Lamartine, in his "History of tive nations to back the Sublime Porte in every the Revolutions of 1848," maintains that only two way short of an armed intervention, for which, as modes of forming "a French system" were open they said, it was of course impossible for them to either to the government of the restoration, or to engage without special instructions for the purpose. his own. France might unite with Austria against Russia and England, or with Russia against England and Austria.

We note this seeming indifference as a phenomenon well deserving the grave attention of Lord Palmerston. We by no means infer from that, on In the first case, France would have obtained the present occasion, the cause of justice and developments in Savoy, in Switzerland, and in the humanity will be abandoned by the French governRhenish provinces of Prussia, by concessions to ment, which, it is understood, has approved the Austria in Italy, and on the Lower Danube, and on line taken by General Aupick, and intimated its the shores of the Adriatic. In the second case, readiness to cooperate with England for the proFrance would have stifled Austria between herself tection of the Porte. We retain, however, our and Russia. She could have spread freely in Italy, retaken Belgium and the frontiers of the Rhine, original opinion, that there is but little cause to and gained influence in Spain. Constantinople, the apprehend an actual rupture. It is very seldom, Black Sea, the Dardanelles, the Adriatic, conceded indeed, that a declaration of war follows a delibto Russian ambition, would have insured her these erate conference of ambassadors, or a timely refaugmentations of territory. The Russian alli-erence to courts; and the judicious course followed ance-it is the cry of nature; it is the revolution by the sultan, in throwing the chief responsibility of geography; it is the war alliance for the eventu- of his refusal on Sir Stratford Canning and Genalities of the future of two great races; it is the equilibrium of peace by two great weights at the extremities of the continent, comprising the middle, and exiling England, like a satellite power, to the ocean and Asia.

eral Aupick, is his security. We must give them credit for requiring the fullest information as to facts and documents before answering the question; and it is, therefore, most important to observe that,

in their opinion, "the treaties of Kutschah-Kaynardi and Passarowitch do not confer on Austria and Russia the right of demanding the extradition of the Hungarian refugees." We assume, for the sake of argument, that each emperor, in point of form, demanded only his own subjects; and we say that the utmost they can demand, jointly or severally, under the treaties, or under any recognized doctrine of international law, is, that the fugitives shall not be harbored in Turkey.

The last advices from New York state that Bem

It never appears to have so much as suggested itself to this apostle of liberty, equality, and fraternity, that alliances or combinations of this kind take rank, in morals, with the partition of Poland; nor, we believe, would they be repudiated for that reason by his countrymen. The spirit in which he writes is emphatically their spirit. It explains General Lamoriciere's late abortive mission to St. Petersburg, which would otherwise seem made for the express purpose of inviting the marked insult to the president and the republic which it brought down upon them. It also explains the otherwise and Dembinsky were expected in the United States; unaccountable calmness or tameness with which and the gordian knot will probably be untied, by the news from Turkey has been received in Paris suffering them and their companions to leave Widbeyond the immediate precincts of the Bourse. din without beat of drum, and quietly embark on Where are the friends of the oppressed races of board some French, English, or American vessel the great European family? What has become in the Bosphorus. There is no necessity for bringof the philanthropic democrats, who so lately ing matters to extremities, nor for driving the rivalled Anacharsic Clootz in the extravagance czar to throw, Brennus-like, his sword into the and cosmopolitan character of their demonstrations? scale. The sultan has done no more than duty Surely, all cannot have followed the fortunes of and honor required of him in saving these unhappy M. Ledru Rollin! Are they reluctant to uphold men from death, or (worse than death) Siberian the sultan, because they have assailed the pres-exile; and if (which remains to be proved) the ident for restoring the Pope! And do the legitimists, on their side, shrink from the antithesis of contemporaneously defending both the Cross and the Crescent? Not a single interpellation has been addressed to M. de Tocqueville; nor, with rare exception, has the affair formed the prominent subject of discussion in any of the journals which are regarded as the organs of the leading parties. This looks very much as if no party—republican, From the Daily News, Oct. 5. legitimist, Orleanist, Bonapartist, or socialist- The Emperor of Russia has evidently been was particularly eager to commit itself against misled into his outrageous and impolitic challenge Russia, even in a cause appealing to the warm-to the Porte by the vile flatterers who, in his own est sympathies of an impulsive and excitable peo- court, and in our press, belauded his magnanimity, ple. At the same time, they must have been extolled his military prowess and skill, and gave

imperial demand is only the first step in a scheme of aggression, which is to end in reducing him to the condition of a viceroy, his firm and chivalrous resistance, backed by the universal sense of justice in mankind, can hardly fail to cause the indefinite postponement, or, most probably, the eventual abandonment, of the scheme.

their fullest support and approbation to the cause the principalities, send his agents to excite disof imperial tyranny against Hungarian freedom turbances in Bulgaria and in Bosnia, and sow in and independence. During that memorable strug- Turkey that same insurrectionary spirit, which he gle the press of London and of Paris deserted its declares to be heresy north of the Danube. But duty, and instead of representing the sentiments war the czar will not make. and sympathies of the people, led, on the contrary, With oppressed nations writhing beneath the to a belief that the English and French condemned fangs of despotism from the Baltic to the Danube, all kinds of popular resistance even on behalf of these military tyrants durst not venture on war the most prescriptive freedom. And the czar was with Western Europe, which would be felt not induced to suppose that in the crushing of Hun- only by the resuscitation of Poles and Hungarians, gary and the immolation of its champions he was but by the destruction of that export trade which doing that which the respectable and influential alone brings the Russian landed proprietors their classes of England and France approved. One revenues. Were the flax, the hemp, the tallow, presumption led to another. If Bem and Dem- and the corn, shut up to rot in the ports of St. binski were but ambulating revolutionists, if Kos- | Petersburg, Riga and Odessa, as they would soon be suth was a mere rioter and plunderer, as the Times in case of war, Russia would find that imaginative to this day does not blush to call him, Russia certainly was warranted in claiming the extradition of men so branded.

The silence of the French public, the malignity of our press, the known dissensions of our own government, and the boasts of foreign diplomatists in London, (that they could get up an émeute at any time either in the press or in Parliament against Palmerston,) misled the czar to believe that he might bully the Porte with the most complete impunity and success. Marvellous will be his rage when he discovers his mistake; and most natural his fury against those vile partisans that backed him through every act of invasion, oppression, cruelty, and military tyranny, in order to desert him at the last moment, and expose him to a rebuff from the sultan and his constitutional allies. The most galling circumstance to Russia is, however, not so much the escape of Kossuth, and the presence in Western Europe of a statesman well acquainted with the weakness and insecurity of eastern despotism-its mortification is to find France and England once more drawn up in one line of defence before Constantinople against Russian aggression. What blunders the czar must have made to have produced this sentiment and demonstration of resistance on the part of two powers, grown so indifferent to foreign policy and

to each other!

With respect to England, we doubt if Russia could have quarrelled with the Porte for any other cause that would have enlisted English sympathies so strongly for it. Had Russia annexed the principalities, closed the Danube, renewed the treaty of Unkiar Skelessi, it is to be doubted if it could have stirred either our diplomacy or our public opinion to interfere. But the outrageous demands of the Russian Envoy, inspired apparently by a mere carniverous and sanguinary appetite, together with the spontaneous resistance of the sultan, on the principles of humanity and just pride, have so rallied England and France, both government and public opinion, to the side of Turkey, that the czar must recoil. He may indeed higgle about

wealth, which scribes are so fond of exaggerating fail her altogether. Holland would scarcely venture her annual loans. While Russian proprietors, as well as Russian serfs, would begin to ask why they were to be mulcted or sacrificed, in order to set up again the shadow of an Austrian empire, or to avenge upon brave Hungarians the imbecility and treachery of the house of Hapsburg.

We see it reported that Gen. Lamoriciere is returning to France. We should not be surprised. The conduct and the language of the czar to that envoy was known to be a capricious alternation of cajolery and menace, one day calling Louis Napoleon his friend, the next hinting that he might find it convenient to set up the Duke of Bordeaux, or some more pliant pretender. Notwithstanding the leaning of more than one French statesman to a Russian alliance, we do not see the possibility of either the French government condescending to the required meanness, or the French public resigning themselves to the required indifference. In both countries, indeed— of England and France-whether governments go too fast or too slow, the people will be found to go right at the critical and serious moment. And the present is one of these.

States ship Savannah, dated San Francisco, Aug. A LETTER from Com. Voorhees, of the United 31, says There are about two hundred and fifty vessels in harbor, many of them large ships, and mostly abandoned and going to ruin. They will all be wrecked in the course of the coming winter if they be not taken care of in time. It is a most ruin of so much valuable property. The owners Iwoful pity to look upon the shameful waste and and underwriters of New York and the other cities of the Union ought to petition the president for a man-of-war, whose special duty it should be to take care of the abandoned vessels by taking down some of their yards and spars, and moor them safely, so as to prevent them from going on shore or dragging against each other. Such is the position of these vessels, crowded together, that, if the windward one were to take fire, the whole fleet would be burned, without the possibility of saving any of them."

2. What Becomes of Discharged Prisoners?

3. German Travellers on North America,
4. Nature's Ice Caves,

5. Language of the Tombs,

6. Water in London,

7. The Modern Vassal, Chap. v.,

8. Story of a Family, Chap. xvIII.,

9. Maiden and Married Life of Mary Powell,

10. Turkey and Russia,

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ILLUSTRATION.-The Great Sea Serpent of 1848, from Punch, 273.

POETRY.-Three Days of Christopher Columbus, 251.- Peace, 261.-The Fountain in
Winter; Blessing, 272.-The Red Flag, 278.-A Few Short Years, 282.
NEW BOOKS, 282.

PROSPECTUS.-This work is conducted in the spirit of Littell's Museum of Foreign Literature, (which was favorably received by the public for twenty years,) but as it is twice as large, and appears so often, we not only give spirit and freshness to it by many things which were excluded by a month's delay, but while thus extending our scope and gathering a greater and more attractive variety, are able so to increase the solid and substantial part of our literary, historical, and political harvest, as fully to satisfy the wants of the American reader.

The elaborate and stately Essays of the Edinburgh, Quarterly, and other Reviews; and Blackwood's noble criticisms on Poetry, his keen political Commentaries, highly wrought Tales, and vivid descriptions of rural and mountain Scenery; and the contributions to Literature, History, and Common Life, by the sagacious Spectator, the sparkling Examiner, the judicious Athenæum, the busy and industrious Literary Gazette, the sensible and comprehensive Britannia, the sober and respectable Christian Observer; these are intermixed with the Military and Naval reminiscences of the United Service, and with the best articles of the Dublin University, New Monthly, Fraser's, Tait's, Ainsworth's, Hood's, and Sporting Mag azines, and of Chambers' admirable Journal. consider it beneath our dignity to borrow wit and wisdom from Punch; and, when we think it good enough, make We do not ase of the thunder of The Times. We shall increase our variety by importations from the continent of Europe, and from the new growth of the British colonies.

The steamship has brought Europe, Asia and Africa, into our neighborhood; and will greatly multiply our connections, as Merchants, Traveliers, and Politicians, with all parts of the world; so that much more than ever it

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