General Taylor has scanned with correct eye the | Sparta, and in the Dorian colonies parties friendly prospective dangers of enlarging the territory of to Athens. It would be visionary to suggest the the states beyond the legitimate boundary of the motives which inspire the American faction in ocean, and that his apprehensions are shared by the Cuba. Whether the Cuban planters think that most sagacious of the American statesmen. But they would get more slaves, and thus cultivate this, unfortunately, gives no assurance to the world their soil more cheaply; or that the African slavethat the central government at Washington will trade would be suppressed, and that thus they continue to maintain a pacific tone, and repudiate would sell their slaves more dearly under the the prize of conquest. The government of the government of the States, it is idle to ask. Suffice United States is a weak government. It is often it to say, that there does exist in the Spanish forced to follow where it wished to lead; to obey colony a party friendly to American rule; and where it ought to command. Wherever the min- that American patriotism is not likely to reject the istry are not the willing and avowed servants of advantages of such an alliance. How far the popular passions and popular ignorance, they ulti- desire of such aggrandizement has spread through mately become their reluctant instruments. The the republic we know not; but the history of policy of the cabinet is oftener decided by the rapid recent invasions tells us that when the idea of conmovements of a resolute faction, and the clever quest has once been bruited about by rumorschemes of unprincipled adventurers, than by the when it has been seconded by the public press of counsels of statesmen and the advice of legislators. America-and when the politics of the obnoxious There is always in the states a large body of loose, state are favorable to interference-that the period reckless, and daring men, to whom all peaceful of aggression is not remote. Any or no pretext occupation is dull, the amusement of home politics for a rupture will suffice; and the abduction of vapid, and the wide plains of the Missouri and Juan Rey, together with the subsequent trial of Michigan narrow and confined. They cast their the Spanish consul at New Orleans, supplies ameyes about the surrounding regions for novelty ple materials for discord, which American cupidand excitement. Texas, Mexico, California, Mos- ity will clutch, and American diplomacy may quito, or Cuba-it is all the same to them. Nei- recognize. ther land nor ocean bounds their desires or their curiosity. They are troubled with no unnecessary scruples; they have a philosophical indifference to treaties; they have a comprehensive ardor of acquisitiveness. If an opportunity offer itself for extending their travels and improving their fortunes in another land, they willingly seize it. They care little for proclamations from Washington and notifications from the White House. They have a shorter and readier way of solving state problems than is known to diplomatists and jurists. They put themselves into communication with the democratic or constitutional or some other party of a neighboring or friendly state-they send over detachments of sympathizers-they organize a conspiracy among such troops as the degenerate colonies of Spain or the unsettled republics of the New World boast of—then, when all is ripe, a fresh detachment of invaders, open and avowed, bursts across the border, unites itself to the former bands of sympathizers, corrupts, divides, or masters the native soldiery; and, taking one of the native commanders for its head, proclaims a new constitution, or, at once, annexation. The cabinet at Washington has no option but to acquiesce in this abrupt policy, or else to endure a "Young America" on its frontiers, with all the insolence and all the licentiousness of youth. Having objected, discouraged, and forbidden, as long as it could, it is obliged, at the last hour, to sanction by its authority, and solemnize by its ceremonies, the victory which it denounced, and the acquisitions which it deprecated. Such bids fair to be the course of action in Cuba. For some time past there has been in Cuba a party friendly to America, as there used to be in the Ionian colonies parties friendly to How far the interests of civilization would be promoted by the substitution of American for Spanish rule, is hard to determine. It would replace the despotism of a monarchy by more than the usual laxity of a republic; and it would introduce a new energy into the political and industrial conditions of Cuba. It would weaken if not destroy the influence of its present religion, and perhaps engraft no other upon it. It would, however, sooner or later, strike a fatal blow at slavery, because it would at once destroy the slave-trade with Africa. This is a good which would countervail many evils. But no excuse can justify the contemplated annexation. Whatever might be its fruits, it would still be a foul and monstrous wrong. It would be a violation of the law and equity of nations. It would be a bold and insolent triumph of might over right. It would involve the whole American people in the same general condemnation which the spirit of repudiation drew upon individual states. It would, however, be a seasonable comment upon the very confident orations and essays of the peace propagandists, who have been kindly informing us for the last twelve months that wars and aggressions are the amusements only of kings and emperors-the loathing and abomination of the people. CANADA. From the Independent. WHAT is now taking place in Canada may turn out to be the most remarkable revolution of the age. The change in the colonial and commercial system of the British empire has led the people of Canada to the discovery that they have little our "western orientalism" of rhetoric begin to expatiate about the "star-spangled banner" floating in hyperborean skies, and our republic stretching from the tropic to the arctic circle-let meetings begin to be held, committees appointed, and funds raised, for promoting the annexation of Canada-above all, let there begin to be any, even the least, demonstration of that sort of " sympathy" which wrought so much mischief in 1837 66 Happily, there are, as yet, no indications of a disposition, on this side of the line, to hasten the progress of events. The calmness-we had almost said the indifference-with which the people of the United States are observing the great change of opinion amongst their neighbors, and are waiting to see the result, is not the least remarkable among the phenomena of this revolution. to gain, and may have much to suffer, by a con- begin to utter itself in our newspapers, and in tinuance of their political dependence on Great the harangues of our political party orators—let Britain. The people of Great Britain, on the other hand, are beginning to understand that the possession of Canada is of no advantage to them, while the expense of governing and defending it adds greatly to the burthen of their taxes. In these circumstances, the Canadians are beginning, very seriously, to agitate the question of the annexation of " their country"-for so they have learned to call it-to the United States. Persons of the most opposite political opinions heretofore, let there be any appearance of that piratical, find themselves strangely united in the desire to crusading propagandism which lately made such be rid of their provincial or colonial dependence, a figure at Round Island, and the revolution will and to be placed on a footing of complete self- be at an end. Neither the just self-respect of the government. Tory and whig, Roman Catholic Canadians, nor the imperial pride of Great Britain, and Protestant, Church-of-England-man and Dis- will tolerate any interference in this matter on our senter, seem to be coming to an unaffected agree-part. ment on this point. Even that old antipathy of languages and of blood-the hereditary feud between the conquering race and the conquered which at times has been ready to break forth into a war of races-British against French-seems to be overcome by a new and common passion for the transfer of their allegiance from the imperial crown of Great Britain to the government of the American Union. The proposal-which was originally made, if we mistake not, by a disappointed faction, for a temporary party purpose, without any honest expectation or desire of its being realized—has been taken up in earnest; and views and arguments have been presented which the people of Canada will never be able to forget, and which, in the end, will work out great results. In other words, a revolution is in progress—a peaceful revolution. We need not inquire whether the end of it will certainly be the absorption of Canada into our Federal Union; we need not say whether such a result, if it come to pass, will be beneficial, either to that country or to this. Indeed, the time has not yet come for Americans to meddle with the movement. It is enough for us, at present, to observe the significant fact, that a revolution is in progress to which no parallel can be found in history-a revolution without war, without insurrection, without violence—a revolution working only by discussion, and proposing to work only by peaceful negotiation for the separation of Canada, and virtually of all the other provinces of what is called British America, from the British empire. Taken altogether, this is a new thing under the sun. The people of one of the greatest and most British of all the British colonial provinces are deliberately discussing and planning-what? Nothing less than an entire political revolution, the separation of that province from the empire, the dissolution of their allegiance to their sovereign. They are doing this not in secret clubs, and in midnight meetings of conspirators, but openly, in the use of free speech and a free press, and of an unlimited right of consultation on public affairs. They do this, not as if they were planning treason -not with any fear of the scaffold, or even of confiscation and exile, but as safely and calmly as the inhabitants of Minnesota might discuss the question of establishing a state government. Surely there is such a thing as progress. Could such proceedings have taken place two centuries ago? Was such a method of adjusting great political changes possible to our fathers, in 1775 ? There is more significance in the opening and progress of this Canadian revolution, than there could be in half a dozen peace congresses. Conventions for the promotion of universal peace are well enough. Far be it from us to speak of them otherwise than with There is one way in which this advancing rev- respect and gratitude. But in the peaceful disolution may be, and perhaps will be, suddenly cussion of so great a question as the dismemberturned back, and the result postponed indefinitely. ment of the world's greatest empire-in the fact Let the people on this side of the St. Lawrence that men can plan so great a revolution, and labor and the lakes attempt to aid the agitation in any to achieve it, and not seem to feel the pressure of way-let the American people, or any considerable the halter on their throats, there is more hope for party or portion of them, begin to act as if the the world than in the speeches of Monsieur Hugo business in hand were some of their business-and Mr. Cobden. Facts are greater than speeches let the vain-glorious spirit of universal annexation or conventions. From the Examiner. RUSSIA AND TURKEY. In the insolence vice a cloak for something worse. of the proceedings with the Porte, and all the circumstances, may be traced the settled plan to pick THERE is, there can be, but one opinion as to a quarrel. The demands appear to have been so the demands of the Russian Autocrat upon the conveyed as to make submission as difficult as posPorte, and the conduct of the sultan in refusing sible. The mouth-piece of the emperor intimated compliance. The czar insolently and domineer- that the fate of the refugees delivered up would be ingly requires the Turkish government to give up death, as if to pin the Porte to the duty of humanHungarian and Polish refugees, that he may wreak ity, forcing upon its conscience a foreknowledge his vengeance upon them; the Mahometan prince of the worst for which concession would make it answers that it is a duty of his religion to grant answerable. What the autocrat wants is clear hospitality to strangers and fugitives, and that he enough. It is a quarrel by hook or by crook with cannot refuse them an asylum. The Russian envoy intimated that the refusal would draw down on the Porte the immediate hostility of his master; but the sultan, notwithstanding the vast disproportion of forces between the two empires, took his stand calmly on the duties of his religion and the rights of humanity, and diplomatic relations were forthwith broken off, the Russian ambassador quit-port of her against the arms of Russia, if to arms ting Constantinople. Turkey, just as he has got his hand in, in Hungary; but never before was an unjust quarrel sought in so flagrantly wrongful a way. The indignation of the whole world must rise against it. That Turkey will be defended against aggression it is impossible to doubt. Common prudence as well as justice enlists France and England in sup the czar should dare to have recourse for the ostenA quarrel more unrighteous than this on the sible punishment of humanity, for the real perpeone hand, and more righteous on the other, has tration of robbery. We have always deprecated not occurred in the long history of Europe. In war; we have been reproached with being the the days of barbarism, the czar's demand would pusillanimous advocates of peace at any price; but have been accounted barbarous; in an age of ad great as, in our view, would be the calamity of a vanced civilization, it is the rudest and most jarring general war in Europe, it would be preferable to outrage against the established customs of comity | the infamy and the long train of perilous conseand humanity. The czar's demands for vengeance quences which would follow the abandonment of surpass even the papal amnesty in vindictiveness; Turkey to the gripe of Russia, in this most inbut the ruthless spirit, common to many a butcher, iquitous quarrel. is not the matter of marvel and alarm, but the endeavor to give effect to it by rudely trampling on the customs of Europe, which have long ceased to league state with state against political offenders; but, on the contrary, have opened asylums in foreign lands to those who have forfeited the shelter of their own by acts against their governments, not against the common laws of society, such as the blacker crimes of felony, for which extradition is usual. Knowing the great power the czar holds in his hands, it is an ugly question what can be in his head, when he thinks thus to trample at will and pleasure on established usages of Europe. Is That France and England combined would so far overmatch the power of Russia as to bring a war to a successful close, there can be no reasonable doubt. Austria would probably be the unwilling ally of Russia, but Austria would have enough to do, and more than she could do, with Hungary again in arms, and Italy again in revolt. Russia, too, would have work on her hands at home; and her nobles, already malcontent, would have their discontents bitterly aggravated by the injury their estates would suffer from the loss of the English markets for their produce. Still, though the inability of Russia to cope with such a combination as justice and European policy would form against her may be considered as certain, yet no one can pretend to assign distinct and definite bounds to war once rekindled in the present state of Europe. Fervently do we trust to be spared the experiment. And the prevalent opinion is that the emperor will give way, or enter into some compromise, when he finds that France and England will not permit of any violence to Turkey. It may be so; but the posture in which he has placed himself, and forced the Porte, will not allow of a retreat on either side without sore shame and humiliation. The sultan is avowedly committed to resistance, not only as a point of honor, but paraIt is impossible to believe that the mere thirst mountly as a religious obligation. The autocrat, for blood can have led the czar to the proceeding on the other hand, must either act in fulfilment of to which he has committed himself. He has con- his insolent threats, or virtually confess those sented to play the part of the sanguinary, that second thoughts to be best which spring from first under and through it he may play another. To fears. He has, it is affirmed, estopped one solution borrow the words of Burke, he makes his abhorred of the difficulty, by proclaiming that he would he so infatuated as to suppose that he can kick the world as his football before him? Has his Hungarian campaign so turned his head as to make him believe himself irresistible, and that the breath of his nostrils is to be the new law of Europe? What can be his notion of the feelings of the European family, and of their resources against the example of aggression, if he can affront and dare both, as he must do, to carry his point against the Porte? The ignorance of opinion, and powers in support of opinion, which such conduct argues, would stamp the Emperor Nicholas as not less dangerous than a madman, whose conduct does not allow of calculation. God and their consciences, nations to God and the world. What is wanted is a great minister, unembarrassed by external agitation, uncriticized by regard the escape of any of the refugees as consti- | personal feeling; for it is a national, not an indituting in itself a casus belli; thus, in effect, making vidual question, and individuals are responsible to the sultan the jailer of the objects of his wrath. Some expedient may be hit upon to arrange the dispute, for when all parties have an interest against war, adjustment can never be hopeless; well-meaning but half-informed zeal, but calmly but, as the matter stands, it is as difficult of accommodation as insolence and barbarism could make it. At present it is no pleasing reflection that the peace of Europe depends on the passions of one man; and that, a man who has shown so little comprehension of the feelings of the world which put the veto on injustice, and who has evinced so brutal a prop nsity to cruelty and oppression-his power to perpetrate which, vast as it is, is yet happily far short of his evil will. [To the Editor of the Examiner.] WHAT IS ENGLAND TO DO?-We have only one alternative-silence or war. Now war is a serious to this case. and steadily supported by the quiet confidence of the English people, who trust him for his past services, but who are able to judge him for his future acts, who rationally give and rationally withhold their esteem. We have the minister, let the nation do the rest. Above all, let us not be led to neglect our duty by any dreams of perfect peace. AN ULTRA-TORY OPINION ON THE QUESTION. -The "Standard," much to its honor, thus writes on the contemplated possibility of war. The pretext for the threatened outrage upon the Our minister at Constantinople, whose proceedings give the first warning of the impending calamthing. No mere burst of indignation should ever ity, is a man of high talents, of immovable temper, be allowed to hurry England into war. Calmly and of great experience-one who may well take should the claims of Turkey be weighed, ration-his place at the head of the diplomacy of Europe. ally the cost be counted; and if that calm consideration lead to the inevitable conclusion that only by war can the known law of nations be sustained, the independence of Turkey supported, and the English power in the East be preserved from inevitable danger, then, and not until then, should war be declared. It must be well kept in mind that the Hungarian question is altogether foreign The casus belli is, not that Kossuth and his colleagues are threatened with death, but that certain men who have taken refuge in Tur- Magyars never owed any allegiance to Russia, key are peremptorily demanded by Russia. Turnever offered any injury to the autocrat or his subkey alone cannot, without almost culpable rashness, jects; on the other hand, he has been the aggressor resist this demand. Turkey, supported by Eng-in the war against them from first to last; and if land and France, can. Shall we give this support? That is the question. Let us not, with Mr. Cobden, disguise the fact that Russia is strong -is the great brute-force of the world; but let us understand as well that if we do not act now, she but adds strength to strength. Let us not deny that war is a curse, but let us clearly see that a short war and victory is better than a long war and defeat ;-that to scotch the boa before he can crush, is somewhat wiser than to wait until he crushes. The question still remains-what are we, the people of England, to do? Were it not well tobide a wee," and trust our minister? All questions of foreign politics must of necessity be entrusted more implicitly to the minister than any department of home affairs. The nation at large has not at the moment of action the same power of acquiring information that the minister possesses. Our duty is to choose our minister, steadily support him, and then judge him by the results of his acts. We have a minister in whom we can place entire confidence; let us then strengthen his hands to the utmost. The present question seems to me far too grave to be treated of in public meetings, far too momentous for mere expressions of sympathy. It demands far more solemn consideration than any mere utterance of the Poles have been entrapped into a de facto subjection to the Russian despot, in gross violation of Widdin have committed no offence whatever against the treaty of Vienna, those of the nation escaped to the prince who clamors for their blood, no offence which, were they de jure his subjects, as they are de facto, would, according to public law, justify him in touching a hair of their heads. It is impossible to show that the Poles, in alliance with the Magyars, whose case is perfectly pure, have committed any offence against Russia. Upon what pretence, then, can the czar call upon the Turkish government to become accessary to the murder of these unhappy men by delivering them into his hand? The truth is, that it is a quarrel with Turkey, not the blood of a few hundred fugitives, of which the Russian government is in pursuit. Europe is distracted and poor; Russia is free from and the time anxiously contemplated by Peter and disorder, and, as we have lately seen, purse-proud; Katharine-the time for realizing their scheme of annexing Turkey-appears to have arrived. Ought the free states of Europe to submit to this? Ought they to wait until the peremptory demand shall come to London or Paris to deliver up individuals obnoxious to Russian vengeance? They ought not, and we trust they will not, even though war should be the alternative. Sir Stratford Canning plainly knows how the Russian cabinet is to be encountered, and so far we are safe in his hands. Sir Stratford's communication doubtless formed the subject of de liberation at the cabinet council suddenly assembled on Tuesday; and it is well to let our rulers and to let strangers know, that the persons in this country most opposed to revolutionary changes are not behind their fellow-citizens in resisting everywhere the aggressions of despotism. From the Spectator, 6 Oct. RUSSIA and Turkey-the Wolf and the Lamb these few words almost suffice to describe the spectacle which is before the world this week; for the mere pretext or occasion signifies little. Russia is threatening Turkey, and Austria is helping the Muscovite. The pretext is furnished by the refuge which the vanquished Hungarian leaders and their Polish brothers in arms sought in the Turkish territory. At the first receipt of the news it was disbelieved, the demand was represented as being so insolently made. Prince Radzivil, the special envoy from St. Petersburg to Constantinople, was said to have demanded the surrender of the fugitives, avowing that they should be put to death, and threatening the Porte with the consequences of refusal. Although the demeanor of Russia to Turkey had traditionally been overbearing, anything so flagrantly indecorous seemed to be incompatible equally with the usages of the present day and the notorious tact of Russian diplomatists. in making the demand, and did not bind Turkey to comply; that armed succors could not be promised without special instructions to that effect from Paris and London; but that the English and French gov ernments would offer their mediation. How far the English cabinet has resolved to support this position, is not yet known; but it is reported that the English fleet has been ordered to sail from Malta for the Dardanelles. THE TURKISH WAR. Is there to be a war in Turkey, or not? That is the question of the day, and much may be said on both sides of it; the unknown event, however, is marching on without much mercy for the wishes of those who anticipate war with most dislike. If there be war, will England be bound to help Turkey; and whether bound in honor or not, will she do it? Those are questions still more eagerly put, not altogether in the boldest spirit. "I don't think our ministers will have the pluck!" cries the statesman of the " shopocracy," with a sickly sneer, to hide his fears lest they should. that statesman is precisely the object of alarm to the ministers; whom he despises for fearing himself, internally conscious as he is that there is nothing about him to be really afraid of. And Circumstances, however, soon lent corroboration One enormous impediment stands in the way of to the report in its substantials. Our own govern- England's taking part in any war-the financial ment is evidently moved by some urgent claim on demands for such a purpose. It is a double diffiits attention. The ministerial Globe, and quasi-culty-difficult in itself, and difficult through what ministerial Times, treat the intelligence as grave, opponents may make of it. However ministers and prepare the public mind for some "spirited" may feel nationally and chivalrously bound to supprocedure; the leading journal, however, having a special eye also to splicing its new anti-absolute policy on to its recent apologies for Austria and Russia. A cabinet council was suddenly summoned by Lord Palmerston. In short, something was seriously the matter, and Turkey the object of solicitude. port Turkey, they may naturally shrink from the immediate consequence at home-war on the Danube is more income-tar on the Thames. And however Notting Hill and Camberwell may have “come forward" to follow up Lord Palmerston's “spirited protests," it is to be doubted how far they would come forward with the subsidies needful to put those protests into action. It is not impossible that politicians of very dishonest or limited mind might trade on this dilemma-that, while instigating protests and denunciations, they may raise a great outcry against unpopular taxation, and strive to force "financial reform" by threatening to oust a ministry that is so audacious as to contemplate an increase of the income-tax. Such sort of intrigue, however transparent, is one by ne means impossible to the smaller class of politicians with whom opportunity is right and personal suc cess better than sacrifice for the welfare of nations The later reports wear every appearance of probability, and state the affair in a manner quite comprehensible. It seems that Russia had demanded the surrender of certain persons, her own subjects, namely, natives of Poland; and Austria had made a similar demand as to her subjects, Hungarians. Russia relied on the treaty of Kainarji of 1774, by which Russia and Turkey reciprocally bound themselves to surrender or expel each other's fugitive subjects; Austria, on the treaty of Passarowicz, by which she and Turkey were reciprocally bound to withhold a refuge from rebels and malecontents. The sultan and his government were unanimous in refus- We need not dwell on the other great and glar ing; and the foreign minister addressed a string of ing impediment-the natural and cultivated repug questions to the French and English ambassadors, nance to war, which must make every statesman in effect asking whether they considered the Porte pause in resorting to it, and resort to it only when bound by the treaties to deliver the fugitives, and fortified by the firm conclusion that bloodshed, and whether, if war should be the consequence of re- even the worse calamities of war, are not so bad fusal, France and England would support the Turk- as the evils entailed upon mankind by default of ish sovereign with armed succors? The reply of resistance to gigantic wrong. These considerations the French and English ambassadors, Sir Stratford would make any statesman pause-would make Canning and General Aupick, was, substantially, any nation hold the advocate of war sternly to that the treaties did not warrant Austria and Russia account. |