THE SKELETON IN EVERY HOUSE

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume III, Issue 141, 25 September 1863, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE SKELETON IN EVERY HOUSE

, [From ihe Londoa J “The world is out of joint,” and no one born to set it right. Survey mankind from China to Peru, and nothing is seen but troubles. In the far East and West the view is equally black. North and South the same. The Western Powers are comparatively tranquil, but France in Mexico has the wolf by the ears which she can neither hold nor let go, aud also in common with ourselves, a share in the distress arising from the stoppage of the cotton supply. A fig is not more full of seed than Turkey'big with subjects of discord. One Eastern question used to be enough to trouble Europe, there are now several rising threateningly. Italy is tortured with the calculus of the Pope in Rome. Prussia panders to Russia’s lust of tyranny and cruelty. With all so black around, Austria looks comparatively fair and easy. In all these troubles the two people who are and ought to be most sympathetic are the great Northern Powers of America and Europe, Russia and the Federal States, the two extremes of boaste i liberty and despotism. Strange to say, between these two nations there has always been affinity, and something more. There has been a conceit of the same great destiny, both having an immense territory to people, and the prospect of a power enabling them to give law to their respective continents. Russia and America were in their dreams of ambition modestly content to divide the empire of the world between them. To the free it was no objection that the other was despotic, to the despotic that the other was free. That was the affair of those who might fall under their sway. The bond of real sympathy was that they were both big, growing, and bullying, “ the top-loftiest nations in the world who could in time, and no distant time, larrup all the others.” AnyJ differences might be reserved till the division of the world should, have been made, and no law known but the law of the Muscovite one or of the American many* On the other side of the Atlantic the beginning of the war with Russia was thought the end of the glory ol England. The old country could never stand against the power of Russia. What could thirty millions do against sixty, what could these specks of islands do against a territory of eight million square miles ? The mistake there was in the measure of strength, the weakness of Russia lying in her extent of territory and scant and poor population for it, and the strength of England in her compact, wealthy and energetic population. To compare the two Powers territorially, erroneous as such a mode would be, the possessions of the British Crown should be summed up in an aggregate, and the amount •would exceed that of the Russian Empire, and with much more of the life of Government in it, for the Czar’s authority does not circulate in the extremes of his territory, as that of-our Sovereign does in her most distant dependencies. It was a great surprise to the Americans to find that the Goliah was not invincible, but they extracted consolations from our first mismanagement of the Crimean war, rejoicing in and exaggerating all our disasters. When the issue, however, could not be denied all the glory was given to France, and Russia was admired for having made the head she did against .three Powers combined. The Russian Emperor was not ungrateful for the good wishes of the Americans and their high estimate of his power, and we all remember the proof he gave of his friendship, shortly after the breaking out of the Civil War, in a letter of advice excellent in all respects but this, that it would not, and could not be taken. He might as well have sent them a copy of Watts’s Hymns, with the beautiful moral lesson, “ Let dogs delight to bark and bite.” - And now these two loving nations are in closely parallel circumstances and troubles, Russia endeavouring to suppress the revolt of Poland as the Federal Government is striving to quell the rebellion of the South. Here, then, is another bond of sympathy, if there be any truth in the saying that a fellowfeeling makes us wondrous kind, Alexander and Lincoln have the same task before them, and much the same spirit in the execution of it. All -means are accounted good to put down revolt, “Let it be done in nine days,” says the Czar. It shall be done in ninety, asserts the American. Yet both wars drag on, and in Poland, moreover, extend. What indeed must have been the amount of oppression that has thrown into revolt a whole population, which has. been carefully kept stripped of arms, aud which nevertheless encounters with success the robbers and cutthroats who disgrace the name of soldiers. Their master has not heeded the lesson,

Curam ne magna injuria fiat fortihuo et miseris—spoliatis arma supesrunt. The Russian Government had troubles enough on its hands without the addition of the insurrection it has provoked, the suppression of which in the mode attempted must end in the utter demoralisation of the army, the only instrument of order in the land. The affair of our countryman, Mr. Finkenstein, is a specimen of the insubordination which the opportunities of rapine and cruelty have brought about in the Russian soldiery. Between the malcontent, emancipated peasantry, and the unruly savages with arms in their hands, the prospect of the Czar looks black enough to satisfy even Polish enmity.

Surely if ever there was an occasion for the friend in need it is the present, and we are somewhat surprised that there is no movement in America to offer sympathy, if not succour, to the Emperor engaged like the bederal Government in the suppression of revolt, and subjugation of a people. Considering that America has always loved Russia, aud not the less for the despotism, the claim upon her will not be diminished by the cause ol the present struggle, aud some help might be expected, something beyond mere good wishes for the re-establishment of a grinding tyranny. Greenbacks would not be worth much, abundant as they are, and cost nothing but printing aud paper, hut out of the large conscription proposed, which is, as they say, so much more than sufficient to stamp out the rebellion in ninety days, could not a contingent be spared to assist the Czar to put oovvu tile Poles ? Surely it would be handsome to offer him some aid for so legitimate and congenial a purpose, and it might be most appropriately lent in the shape of 50,000 emancipated negroes, only a third of the black force which a leading philanthropist proposes to arm against the Southerners. Be the mode what it may, in common gratitude and consistency with all past professions of love aud admiration, America is bound to do something for Russia in her present difficulty, her inability to butcher enough. With smaller claims Prussia does what she can, giving up fugitives, holding as it were, the helpless victim’s throat to the knife ; but the Czar may not unreasonably expect more from a nation which held him, his government, and people in such honour, aud counted upon their growing power to overshadow and control the fortunes of the vile, effete old country.