London, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 1854 

The charge against Mr. Szemere of having revealed the place 
where the Hungarian crown*” was concealed, was first brought 
forward by the Vienna Soldatenfreund, the avowed organ of the 
Austrian police, and this single fact should have sufficed to prove 
the falsehood. of the accusation. 

The police is not used to gratuitously denounce its own 
accomplices, while it is one of its habitual tricks to throw suspicion 
on the innocent, in order to cover the culpable. A man of 
the standing and the influence of Mr. Szemere would be the 
very last to be spontaneously sacrificed by the Austrian police, 
had they been able to secure his cooperation. If the secret was not 
betrayed by the indiscretion of one of the agents of Mr. 
Kossuth—a case by no means improbable—I cannot but suspect 
the Count K. Batthyany, now resident at Paris, of having beén the 
traitor. He was one of the very few persons initiated into the 
secret of the place where the regalia were hidden, and he is the 
only man among them who has applied to the Vienna Court for 
an amnesty. This last fact I have reason to suppose, he will not 
deny. 

Lord Hardinge, the British Commander-in-Chief, has been 
prevailed upon to withdraw his resignation. As to the Duke of 
Norfolk, we are informed by the correspondent of The Dublin 
Evening Mail, that 

“a bit of Palace gossip has got wind. [...] A certain noble Duke, who holds an 
office at Court, in commendam, with the highest hereditary feudal dignity in the 
State, made a little too free, it is said, with the champagne at the Royal table, the 

result of which was the loss of his most noble equilibrium in the dining-room, and 
the involvement of Majesty itself in the catastrophe. [...] The consequence of this 

annoying contretemps has been the resignation of the noble Duke and the 
appointment of Ear! Spencer as Lord High Steward of her Majesty’s Household.” * 

Mr. Sadleir, the broker of the Irish brigade, has again tendered 
his resignation of his ministerial post, which has this time been 
accepted by Lord Aberdeen. His position had become untenable 
after the public disclosures made before an Irish court of law as to 
the scandalous means by which he had contrived to get into 
Parliament. The control of the Cabinet of all the Talents over the 
Irish brigade will not be strengthened by this untoward event. 

The bread-riots which occurred on Friday and Saturday at 
Crediton, Devonshire,?”? were a sort of popular answer to the 
glowing descriptions of prosperity which the ministerial and free 
trade papers thought fit to amuse their readers with at the 
obsequies of the year 1853. 

The Patrie states from Trebizond that the Russian Chargé 
d’Affaires at Teheran, having demanded the dismissal of two of 
the most popular Ministers of the Shah of Persia, the people . 
became excited, and the Commander of the Guard said he would 
not answer for public tranquillity if this demand were complied 
with. According to this account, it was the dread of an explosion 
from the dislike of the people for Russia that induced the Shah to 
renew his relations with the Chargé d’Affaires of England. 

To the huge mass of diplomatic papers, communicated to the 
public, are now added a Note of the four Powers dated the 12th of 
December and jointly addressed by their respective Ambassadors 
at Constantinople to the Porte, and a new circular of Mr. Drouyn 
de Lhuys to the French diplomatic agents, dated Paris, Dec. 30. 
On perusing the Note of the four Powers, we understand the 
extreme agitation which prevailed at Constantinople after the 
acceptance of the Note by the Porte became known, the 
insurrectionary movement occurring on the 21st, and the necessity 
the Turkish Ministry was placed in, solemnly to proclaim that the 
operations of the war would not be interrupted nor interfered 
with by the renewed peace negotiations. Just nine days after the 
intelligence of the treacherous and cowardly butchery at Sinope 
had reached Constantinople and aroused throughout the Ottoman 
Empire one tremendous cry for revenge, the four Powers coolly 
invite, and the Ambassadors of Great Britain and France force,the 
Porte to enter into negotiations with the Czar, the base of which is 

Mail, No. 5466, January 2, 1854.— kd. 

that all the ancient treaties shall be renewed; that the firmans relative 
to the spiritual privileges octroyed by the Sultan to his Christian 
subjects, shall be accompanied by new assurances given to each of 
these Powers, consequently to the Czar; that the Porte shall name 
a plenipotentiary to establish an armistice; that it shall allow Russia 
to erect a church and a hospital at Jerusalem and pledge itself to 
the Powers, consequently to the Czar, to ameliorate its internal 
administrative system. The Porte shall not only not receive any 
indemnity at all for the heavy losses it has undergone consequent 
on the piratical acts of the Muscovite; all the chains in which 
Russia has made Turkey dance for a quarter of a century, shall 
not only be forged anew, but the prisoner shall be kept closer than 
before; the Porte shall lay itself at the mercy of the Autocrat by 
giving him humble assurances with regard to the firmans relative 
to the spiritual privileges of its Christian subjects, and pledging 
itself to him with regard to its internal administrative system; thus 
surrendering at once the religious protectorate and the dictation 
over its civil government to the Czar. In compensation for such a 
surrender the Porte receives the promise of “the most speedy 
evacuation possible of the Principalities,’ the invasion of which 
Lord Clanricarde declared to be “an act of piracy,”* and the 
assurance that the preamble of the treaty of July 13, 1841°°°— 
which has proved so trustworthy a safeguard against Russia— shall 
be formally confirmed. 

Although the unfathomable abjectness of these pitiful “Powers” 
reached its highest possible pitch in frightening, some days after 
the event of Sinope, the Porte into a negotiation on such bases, 
they will not get rid of their embarrassment in this sneaking way. 
The Czar has gone too far to suffer even the appearance of his 
pretended exclusive protectorate over the Christian subjects of 
Turkey to be supplanted by a European one, and already we are 
informed by the Vienna correspondent of The Times? that 

“Austria has demanded whether the Russian Court would object to a European 
protectorate over the Christians in Turkey. The reply, in most positive language, 
was that Russia would permit no other power to meddle in the matter of the 
Greek Church. Russia had treaties with the Porte, and would settle the question 
with her alone.” 

We are also informed by The Standard that 

published by The Times,No. 21502, August 9, 1853.— Ed. 
> “Vienna, Sunday afternoon”, The Times, No. 21633, January 9, 1854.—Ed. 

“Nicholas will not accept any proposition not proceeding directly from the 
Turkish sovereign individually, thus rejecting any right of mediation or interfer- 
ence on the part of the European Powers—an insult to those Powers which none 
can regard as unmerited.” 

The only important passage of the circular of Monsieur Drouyn 
de Lhuys is that announcing the entrance of the united squadrons 
into the Black Sea, with a view to 

“combine their movements in such a manner as to prevent the territory or the 
flag of Turkey from being the object of any fresh attack on the part of the naval 
forces of Russia.” 

Non bis in idem. La moutarde aprés la viande.* The Morning 
Chronicle of yesterday published a telegraphic dispatch from its 
correspondent at Constantinople, dated the 30th, stating that the 
combined fleets had entered the Black Sea. 

“The fleets may enter the Black Sea,” says The Daily News, “only to do what 
they have been doing in the Bosphorus—nothing.” 

According to The Press, 

“Orders have already been sent out for one ship from the English and one 
from the French fleet to enter the Black Sea, and under flag of truce to enter 
Sebastopol. When there they are to inform the Russian Admiral that if he leaves 
the port of Sebastopol he will be immediately fired into.” 

Although the Russian fleet, at this not very propitious season, 
and after their glorious exploit at Sinope, have nothing whatever 
to call them out into the Black Sea, the Czar will not allow 
England and France to exclude him, even temporarily, from 
waters from which he has succeeded in excluding them ever since 
1833.°8! His prestige would be gone were he not to answer this 
communication by a declaration of war. 

“A declaration of war of Russia against France and England,” says the Neue 
Preussische Zeitung, “‘is more probable than a speedy peace between Russia and 
Turkey.” 

At Newry (Ulster), a great meeting was held for the purpose of 
taking into consideration the unprovoked aggression of Russia 
against Turkey. I am glad to be enabled, through the friendly 
communication from Mr. Urquhart of the Newry report, to give 
your readers the most remarkable passages of that gentleman’s 
speech. Having explained, on several occasions, my own views of 
the Oriental question, I need not point out those topics on which I 

must disagree from Mr. Urquhart. Let me only remark that his 
views are confirmed by the intelligence that 

“the peasants of Lesser Wallachia, assisted by the Wallachian soldiery, have risen 
against the Russians. The whole country in the environs of Kalafat and along the left 
shore of the Danube, is in motion. The Russian functionaries have evacuated 
Turmal.” 

After some introductory remarks Mr. Urquhart said: 

... In those matters which affect our gravest interests and intercourse with 
foreign States, there is neither restraint of law, nor guidance of system, there is no 
responsibility to the nation, no penalties for the omission of any duty, or for the 
perpetration of any crime; you are entirely destitute of all Constitutional means of 
restraint, because you are either kept in ignorance or you are misinformed. This 
system is, therefore, one calculated to pervert the nation, to corrupt the 
Government and to endanger the State. Meanwhile, you are opposed to a 
Government, the most crafty and systematic, the most hostile and unscrupulous, 
and which has worked its way to that preeminence of power by which it threatens 
the world, through the use which it has been enabled to make of the very 
Governments which it labors to overthrow—and there is this peculiarity in our 
condition, as there was formerly in that of Athens—that Russia has found or 
formed the chief instruments of her greatness in the breast of that State, whose 
public councils most opposed her policy. There is for this a substantive reason that 
England in such matters is the black spot of ignorance. The United States has a 
President, and he exercises the due prerogatives of royalty; there is a Senate which 
controls the executive, and has prior knowledge of its acts. [Hear, hear and cheers. ] 
In France, there have been repeatedly Committees of Parliament, to investigate the 
national transactions, calling for documents, and bringing before them the Foreign 
Minister for examination. There, too, the nation is alert, according, at least, to its 
knowledge, and so is the Government; for on such matters hinge the existence of 
ministries and of dynasties. In Austria, there is at least a monarch, and he has 
knowledge of the acts of his servants. In Turkey and in Russia, you see that in one 
country the feeling of the people constrains the Government, and in the other the 
Government represents the will of the nation. England alone remains with a crown 
without authority, with a Government without system, with a Parliament without 
control, and a nation without knowledge. [Hear, hear.] Reverting now to the 
application of this state of things, to the facts before us, I have first to tell 
you—and it is the salient matter—that Russia has no force to effect her threats, 
and that she has calculated merely upon the facility of terrifying you by groundless 
fears, that she has had no purpose whatever of making war on Turkey, that she 
has no means for doing so, that she has not even made disposition for such an 
object, that she has calculated upon you restraining Turkey, so that she might 
occupy her provinces, and calculates further upon you for forcing from that State 
such compliance with insolent demands as shall break up the Ottoman Empire. 
[Hear, hear.] It is by your Ambassador in Constantinople” and by your squadron 
in the Bosphorus that she is about to achieve her ends. And here I must advert to 
a statement made by my gallant friend Colonel Chesney, and at the same time 
supply an omission which he has made. He stated, that as matters stood before the 
Pruth was crossed, Turkey was more than a match for Russia, but he did not give 
you the high estimate he entertains and has expressed of the military qualities of 
the Turks. He stated, even at the present moment, and with all the immense 
advantages which you have enabled Russia to acquire, he was still in doubt whether 

Turkey was not a match for Russia. On this point I have not the shadow of a 
doubt, if you grant me two conditions—the first, that your Ambassador and your 
squadron are withdrawn, the second, that Turkey recovers its emasculating reliance 
on foreigners. But after that came another statement, doubtingly indeed made, but 
which from his high authority, and there is no higher authority in these 
matters—-may carry an undue weight or bear an unjustifiable interpretation. He 
said that the moment might be at present favorable for Russia, because the Danube 
was frozen, and she might push her forces across into Bulgaria. But what forces 
has she got to push into Bulgaria? Europe has for many months given heed to 
exaggerated statements; we have been industriously informed of the vast 
accumulations of her forces prepared to come in action. They were currently rated 
at 150,000 men, and the people were ready to believe that 150,000 men sufficed 
for the conquest of Turkey. I received some time ago an official statement which 
reduced to 80,000 men the whole number that had crossed the Pruth, of which 
between 20,000 or 30,000 had already perished by disease or were in hospital. The 
statement was sent by me to one of the newspapers, but was not inserted, being 
considered incredible. Russia has now published her own statement, reducing the 
entire number to 70,000 men. [Cheers.] Putting aside then the relative strength of 
both Empires, if all their forces were brought up, it must be clear that Russia had 
no intention of making war with such an amount of force as this. Now what was 
the force which Turkey had to oppose? No less than, at the time referred to, 
180,000 men between the Balkan and the Danube, now increased to 200,000 men 
in strong, fortified positions, with a Russian force reduced to 50,000 men at the 
outside, and these demoralized by defeat and infected by desertion. As to the 
qualities of the Turkish troops and their superiority to the Russians, you have 
heard the testimony of General Bem; you have the living testimony of Colonel 
Chesney—confirmed by the events which have filled Europe with astonishment 
and admiration. Observe we are not now upon the point of the relative power of 
the two Empires but of that of the intention and mode of proceeding of the 
one— Russia. My argument is that she did not propose making war; because, on 
the one hand, she had not upon the spot the requisite force, and, on the other, 
that she could reckon on the Cabinet of England. Russia had no intention of 
making war—she has no intention now. This is what I have stated before the 
war-——that she would enter and occupy the Principalities by the aid of England. 
How have I been able to prognosticate? Not, certainly, by the knowledge of Russia’s 
designs, which thousands know as weil or better than me, but by the knowledge of 
England's character. But let us reconsider the case—it is too important to pass it 
over. Colonel Chesney said that the real question was the reserve which Russia had 
behind the Pruth. Of that reserve he had heard lately a great deal. Osten-Sacken, 
with his 50,000 men, was on full march on the Danube to retrieve the disaster of 
Oltenitza. Now, the 50,000 men dwindled to 18,000, and the best of all is, that even 
they have not arrived. [Laughter and cheering.] Taking then Colonel Chesney’s 
number, 75,000. reduced by deaths and sickness to 50,000, and throwing into these 
the 18,000 of ubiquitous reserve, we shall only have, after all, 70,000 men to 
operate against 200,000 strongly entrenched and in a mountainous region, and at a 
season of the year when hitherto the Russians have invariably retired from the 
field. 

“Now let me recall the events of the late war in 1828 and ’29. Turkey was then 
in convulsions. Then Mussulman’s sword was turned against Mussulmans; the 
provinces were in revolt, Greece in insurrection, the old military force annihilated, 
the new conscripts scarcely disciplined, and amounting only to 33,000 men. The 
command of the Black Sea wrenched fr mn) Turkey by British broadsides, delivered 
in full force in the harbor of Navarino, and then it was that Russia, backed by 
England and France, made a spring upon Turkey and reached the center of her 
provinces before she knew that war was declared. And how many men do you 
think she then judged it prudent to employ? Two hundred and sixteen thousand. 
[Cheers.] And yet it was only by deception and through the influence of the 

English Ambassador, who unfortunately had returned, that she was seduced to sign 
that treaty of Adrianople that was surprised from her. [Hear, hear.] Look at 
Turkey now, united in heart and feeling, with a heroism inspired at once by the 
love of country and detestation of outrages—with united authority, ample 
resources, able to dispose of 300,000 volunteers, of the most martial character to be 
found on the face of the earth—of 250,000 disciplined troops—victorious in 
Asia—with the command of the Black Sea—not lost, be it observed, as I shall 
presently show, at Sinope—with steam to convey, without loss of men or time, her 
contingents to the scene of action from the remotest provinces of the Empire, from 
the snowy heights of the Caucasus to the arid deserts of Arabia, from the wastes of 
Africa to the Persian Gulf—one spirit of indignation prevails—of manhood has 
been aroused. [Hear and cheers.] Yes, but as in the former war, a Navarino 
brought the Cossacks across the Balkan; so now may the screw propellers of 
Britain, even without war, bring Russian hulks to the Dardanelles. But I am 
speaking of Russian intentions. That is the point. It is in Downing-st. that this 
victory is to be achieved, and not in the East. Meanwhile, are you unscathed? Is 
there a man before me who does not suffer in substance? s there one the price of 
whose bread is not enhanced, whose employment, or the employment of his capital 
is not curtailed? [Hear, hear. Whose taxes are not increased? Is not Change-alley * 

convulsed? Have we not seen by this movement of Russian troops a disturbance of 
the money market produced equal to two-thirds of that experienced in 1847-—and 
yet Russia has never intended war. Have we not seen the Governments of Europe 
degraded and the ground-work laid of insurrections and convulsions—and yet 
Russia never intended war. Have we not seen the Ottoman Empire exhausting 
itself by an enormous military establishment of half a million of men, because 
Russia has displaced 70,000 troops to feed at her expense and at the expense of 
the operatives of Great Britain? And all this because you have believed people easy 
of belief that Russia was so strong that she could not be resisted —Turkey so weak 
that she could not be supported. Really we live in an age of dreams and of fables; 
we are men not to believe this only, we are men to believe that Russia is more 
powerful than all the powers of the world banded against her. The Times makes 
light of the army of Moslems, makes equally light of the armies of France and the 
navies of England, and gravely tells us that all Europe and Turkey to boot may as 
soon attempt to keep the Russians out of Constantinople, as to keep the north 
winds from blowing across the Sarmatian Plains. And the argument as regards 
Europe is just as good as respecting Turkey; yet Turkey will fall, if you persevere. 
Russia has displaced 70,000 men, and in consequence Turkey is moved with terror 
and indignation— England convulsed with fear and panic— Russia, too, convulsed 
with shouts of laughter. [Laughter and prolonged cheering.] I have said I would 
revert to the affair of Sinope, or as it has been justly termed, the little Navarino. I 
don’t refer to that ungraceful event in reference to our conduct——for we have 
done in this nothing more disgraceful than in the rest—but I refer to it as bearing 
upon the relative strength of the two parties. So considered, it has added nothing 
to Russia’s power, and taken nothing from that of Turkey, but the reverse. It has 
placed in the most unmistakable light the justifiable fears of the Russians of 
Turkish prowess. Here we have seen a fact without parallel even in our own naval 
annals—frigates laying themselves alongside line-of-battle ships, and commanders 
casting the torch into the powder magazine, and offering themselves up for 
holocaust on their country’s shrine. What may not be achieved against a 
Government which in every act, and especially in this, is the object of abhorrence 
and disgust to every human being. Observe that the maritime force of Turkey is 
untouched; not a line-of-battle ship, not a steamer has been sacrificed. Now she is 
doubly insured in the command of the Black Sea if the diplomatists are withdrawn; 

and it is they, and they alone, who have produced the so-called disaster of Sinope. 
But that disaster was prepared for another end; it was as a rod and a goad to urge 
the lagging beasts of burden in Paris and in London, and to drive them into 
enforcing the terms of settlement upon the belligerents. Before I entered this 
meeting, I heard it stated by a gentleman of the Committee, that it was perfectly 
competent for England and France to interpose between them if they expected by 
so doing to secure peace. I know that what he has stated is the general impression 
throughout this land, but I did not the less on that account listen to him with 
horror. Who gave you the right to go about the world enforcing peace by arms? It 
is one thing to resist aggression, it is another thing to commit it. {Hear, hear!] You 
cannot interpose even to save Turkey, save by declaring war against Russia. Your 
interposition, however, will be for Russia's behoof, and at her dictation, and with 
the effect of imposing conditions on Turkey which must bring her fall.... In your 
negotiations you will propose to Turkey to relieve her from her past treaties with 
Russia in consideration of an European settlement. This has, indeed, been already 
put forward, and has been received with acclamation by a nation which has 
acclaims ready for every perversion. Good Heavens! a European scitlement! That is 
what Turkey has to rely upon. Surely your treaty of Vienna was a European 
settlement, and what was the result? That settlement was important by its 
establishment of Poland; and what befell Poland? When Poland had fallen, what 
did your Minister tell you respecting that treaty? Why, it was this: “That it had 
given to England the right to express an opinion regarding the events in Poland.’ 
After going on to state that he had remonstrated on the subject before the event, 
he says: ‘But Russia took another view of the case.’ And so it will be with your 
present settlement; she will take another view of the case. [Loud cheers.] These 
words were stated in the House of Commons; they were uttered by the very 
Minister” (Lord Palmerston) “who has now in his hands the fate of Turkey, as he 
had of Poland. But now you are warned; then you were unconscious.... Let me 
refer to a piece of intelligence recently published in The Times newspaper. It is 
there stated that our Minister in Persia had had a difference with the Government 
of the Shah, who was on the point of yielding, when the Minister of Russia 
interposed to exasperate the quarrel. Thus there you have at the one and at the 
same moment Russia driving England out of Persia, and England imposing Russia 
on Turkey. This same letter mentions that an embassy had reached Teheran; that 
the Afghans were in the greatest state of ferment, and that Dost Mohammed, the 
implacable enemy of Russia, had much at heart the success of his embassy which 
was to move Persia to support Turkey. Now, you will recollect that sixteen years 
ago, England made war against the Afghans, with the purpose of dethroning Dost 
Mohammed, because he was the enemy of England and the firm ally of Russia. 
Now, perhaps your Government believed this. If it did, it is very strange that it was 
not upon Russia they made war, but upon the Afghans, which was exactly the 
course to throw them into the arms of Russia. But your Government entertained 
no such belief; it then perfectly knew that Dost Mohammed, as now appears, was 
the implacable foe of Russia, and it was on that very account that it had attacked 
him. The fact has been established, and in the House of Commons it has been 
proved, that documents had been absolutely forged representing Dost Mohammed 
falsely as the ally of Russia. The Envoy of England himself sent home the original 
for publication. [Shame.] This is but the legitimate result of the secrecy in the 
Government and that ignorance in the nation to which I already referred. There is 
not a man in this assembly upon whom my eyes can rest, who is not by sufferance a 
participator in this crime, and who by this indifference to his country’s acts and 
honor is not degraded to the position of a slave, while under the delusion that he is 
a freeman. [Hear, hear.] May I tell you something of what is thought of you by 
strangers? You have heard recently much of German influences at Court. Perhaps 
you would like to hear something of the opinions of German cousins of the Queen; 

and let me tell you, if Germany is Russian, it is England that has made her so. 
Listen now to these words: 

“If Turkey is not interfered with by England and France she will conquer. If, on 
the contrary, the Western Powers, in their infatuated subservience cannot refrain 
from “mediating,” or from meddling with the affairs of the East, Turkey is doomed, 
and universal dominion of the Muscovy Cossacks will soon sway the destinies of this 
world! Yet how noble has hitherto been the position and attitude of poor Turkey, 
in spite of all diplomatic embezzlement, and though she mistook a band of assassins 
for her friends. Matters look, indeed, gloomy! and I have hourly been expecting a 
bombardment by the allied fleets of her capital in order to bend her moral heroism 
to disgraceful submission. The Turks may truly say: “Longa est injuria, longae 
ambages, sed summa sequor fatigia rerum!”* What a contrast in their present behavior 
as compared with that of England on similar occasions! they “make war’—-England 
carries on piracy. Recollect only the “Declaration of Lima” and the invasion of 
Afghanistan, the bombardment of Copenhagen 383 and the battle of Navarino and 
then think of Turkey as it stands there at present—abased and threatened, even 
invaded and provoked by the “civilized world;” she remains amid all her trials, calm 
and judicious, firm and resolute, but serene.’” 

“You may judge by this that there are those in the loftiest station who may sigh 
in vain for the privilege which your indulgence affords to me of finding a vent for 
my indignation, and the opportunity of warning of coming events. Suffer me then 
to tell you the position in which you stand. Britain presents two features, she is an 
idiot at home, she is a maniac abroad, an armed maniac, endangering her own life 
and the lives of others. You are not so individually though you are so collectively. 
Awaken then your individual intelligence and restrain the corporate maniac until 
you have time to treat the disordered brain—this system from which all the evil 
proceeds.” [Loud and long continued cheering.] 

I may add to Mr. Urquhart’s speech that Lord Palmerston’s last 
coup d’éclat*** and the favor of the people bestowed upon him, 
have made him Prime Minister in reality, if not in name. 

Written on January 10, 1854 Reproduced from the New-York 
Tribune, No. 3988, January 28, 1854;