CLIPPINGS FROM HISTORY.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XX, Issue 3919, 30 May 1877, Page 3

CLIPPINGS FROM HISTORY.

(Condensed from Kinglake.) The earlier volumes of Kinglake's history of the Crimean war team, with passages in the highest degree interesting and suggestive in connection with the circumstances of the present contest. We subjoin a few of the most striking. .-£he action of the western powers. Of all the Great Powers Austria was the chief sufferer by the invasion of Turkey. Austria was upon the spot. Austria was the one power which instantly and in a summary way could force the Czar to quit his hold ; aud yet the charge of undertaking a duty which pressed upon her more than upon any other State in Europe, was voluntarily taken upon themselves by two States, whose dominions were vastly distant from the scene of the evil deed. It was much as though the forces of the United States ancl of Brazil were to come across the Atlantic to defend Antwerp from fhe French, whilst the English looked on and thanked their enterprising friends for relieving them of their duty. THE POSITION OF AUSTRIA. Austria, it has been already said, was so placed that, whatever clangers she might draw upon her frontiers, she coidd act°with irresistible pressure on the invader of the Principalities. In February (1854) she reinforced her army on the frontier of Wallachia by 50,000 men, and thus placed the Russian army of occupation completely at her mercy. We know what the result was. Austria, in concert with Prussia and the minor States of the German Confederation, summoned Russia to evacuate the Principalities (Roumania). This she did in August, 1854. As soon as the Principalities were relinquished by the Czar they were occupied by Austrian troops, ancl were held by them tdl the close of the war. THE SITUATION OF CONSTANTINOPLE. The conquest of European Turkey has always been obstructed by the verysplendour of the prize. To have the dominion of the summer Idosks, and the the shady gardens looking down on the straits between Europe and Asia, is to have a command winch carries with it nothing less than an empire. No one among the nations of Europe could be seen going in quest of dominion on the , Bosphorus without awakening alarm ancl **• resistance on the part of the other Great A Powers. . THE DIFFICULTIES OF A BUSSIA-* INVASION OF TURKEY. Neither the warlike qualities of the Ottoman people nor the physical difficulties of the invasion were well understood in Europe, and it Avas commonly believed that Turkey, if unsupported, would be completely at the mercy of the Czar. This, however, was an error. Except in the possible event of their being overwhelmed by some panic, the Turks were not liable to be speedily crushed by an army forcing the line of the Danube and advancing through the passes of the Balkan. THE INVASION OF IS2B. It is true that Russia, seizing a moment when the Sultan was without an ally— the accustomed policy of England having been deranged by a sentiment in favor of Greece — and almost without an army— he had destroyed the Janisaries, and was beginning the formation of an army upon the European plan — had invaded Bulgaria in 1828, ancl, passing the Balkans in the following year, had brought the campaign to an issue which seemed like a triumph. Yet men versed in the affairs of Eastern Europe always knew that the Treaty of Adrianople had not been won by the real strength of the invaders, but rather by a daring stratagem in the nature of a surprise and by a skilful feat in diplomacy. A RUSSIAN AMBITION*. Almost every gifted and accomplished ' Russian, who might be travelling in foreign countries, used to receive instructions of some land from his Government, and was enabled to believe that either by collecting information or in some still more important way he was performing a duty towards the State. Men thus entrusted became large partakers of a policy rather more enterprising than the policy avowed by their Government, and tlie result was that the natural ambition of the country was always being nurtured and sub-served by a great aristocracy.

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