MR GLADSTONE ON THE CBIMEAN WAR

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1578, 7 June 1887, Page 3

MR GLADSTONE ON THE CBIMEAN WAR

The forlhcrmiDg number of the ** EngHbh Hißtorical Fevlewr ' will contain (says the "Times) an elaborate review of the last volamc s of " CJreville'a Memoirs "by Mr GlftdßtoDO. The roost interesting paeaage is (hat In which Mr Gladstone defends the Critnoan war as " a European protest against the wrong- doing of- a single State," and "an advance In civilisation and a method of aotion favourable m iteelf to peace." To appreoia'e this argument we mast go back to the Europe that then was, Although since that period an Italy and a Germany have been effectively constituted, yet some ground has been lost a? well aa gained. There was thea m piltiiig of the great states cna agains another auoh aa thore is at the preaon' dcy ; and the post of militarism, one of the greatest that afll cts humanity, had not attained anything like its now portenuous and ever-Increasing development to which It is difficu't to tee a limit other than tho satiety and the exhaustion which war at the last may produce or a lapse of Continental States into general bankruptcy. Sinna the vision of a univeran' ruler which played upon the mind of Dante diaappeared, the la^r of nations has gro* B up; and, although indeterminate m its 01 * line, it is acknowledged to be on the wh( j| a check upon wrong and a blessing t mankind. But the opinion whfoh support 0 It m a diluted, a dieembodieJ,. opinion It has no executoiy power ai its back. It eeems impossible m our day to supply one by means of a formal confederation among elates for that purpose. But th - lißtory of the oentury had shown tha there might be combinations for good, a well as for evil, formed pro hdc vie among the Powers. By Euon a combination, though it was only partial, Greece was restored from slavery to freedom ; and Belgium obtained her emancipation from the incorporating union which the Congress of Vienna, with its utter aceptioiem as to prinolples and its unbounded faith In material meanß, had devised for her, Iv neither of these instances, how eve*, was any one of the great Powerß worse than a neutral, with malveillance, Iv 1853 the offence came from one among themselves, and vhe design was that the othera should act as a European constabulary agalnßt the transgressor. Had the four Powers whfoh jointly conducted the argument a&ainst Knuia been equally at ona m their Benae of the ulterior obligation wh!oh such arguments entail, It appears almoßt a certainty that Russia would have given way to their united authority. But when Instability of purpose of dynastio sympathies induoed the King of Prussia, though he had put his hand to the plough with the rest, to turn back and to desert them m the'r certainly arduous undertaking, the foroa of the combination was crippled. With a friendly Prussia on his frontier the Emperor Nloholaß was free, to dlreot his main attack against Austria; and It was an opinion hold by men of weight that before sffe could be suoooared by an invasion of Russia from the west, the armies of that Power might find their way to the gates of Vienna. On thia ground Lord Aberdeen always declined to complain of Austria for not joioing In tha war after she had not only aunf orted, hut doyleed. and prompted, tb.9 final summons to the Caw, whloh was Its immediate cause, So it came about that when the moment of aotion had arrived, England and France Btood alone upon the field. They agreed to sußtain m arrc<s -what they had urged m argument; and they agreed also to clear their moral poaitlon by a reoiptoca' engagement that neither would seek a aelfioh benefit from the war. Apart from a question which we cannot fathom as to the personal motives of the French Emperor, tha war may olaim this rare euloglum — U waa an unselfish war.