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Wellington Independent, Volume XVIII, Issue 1966, 6 October 1863, Page 4

PEACE OB WAR IN EUROPE. The. great barometer of public confidence is in a very unsettled state. From Fair to Change, from .Change to Stormy, and back again, it defies all attempts to follow its fluctuations. The market heaves, aßd we cannot but know tbat there has been a submarine disturbance of some kind or other. Tbe indication is the Stock and Share List. The Nilometer is not more important to tbe Fellahs, whose land and seed wait tbe precious overflow. Our Nilometer for some time past has recovered but to fall again.. .With ups. and downs, the tendency is to heaviness. Ask "Why?" Tbe answer is "Poland." The people of whom you inquire, if tbey are not dumb altogether and dark as everlasting night, tell you tbey do not like " tbat Poland." They are not friends of Poland nor of Russia either ; but tbey know how deep the Polish stratum lies in this our European system. It is the igneous stratum, where you may expect volcanoes and earthquakes, and in the political creation these outbreaks spread wider than tbey do among the granites and limestones. These silent, selfish, aud uncorrurft augurers know well that Poland has been mixed up with every European war for this century. They soar as high as that little speck scarcely discernible in tbe blue vault which descends in time and rests on tbe fallen camel in the desert. If we want to know where the carcass is we must ask the vulture. Be it scent or sight or some abstruser instinct, tbey yet know more than we do. Fortunately, these sublime personages cannot make a time bargain withoutbetraying their knowledge. Every time they buy and sell they teach and preach, and it is our interest to listen. Tbey bave told us several times lately tbat we were moving in tbe direction of war. They would leave us in happy ignorance if they could ; but they cannot help themselves. All that we are concerned with just now is to point at tbe fact and draw tbe inference. Even our statesmen may con suit the money market with advantage. They may write [the best possible English without always, knowing what their language really means.. It is interpreted in the City with infallible correctness, and acquires there not only a political, but even a pecuniary value ; for money, the common measure of earthly things, can test even the composition of a despatch.-— Times, July 27.

Union is peace. If three great Powers join to ask from a fourth what is both just and moderate, .it is bard to see how war can result from tlreir, demands. Ruesia does not yield at once because she does not believe in tbe alliance. < Hei first step bas been to tempt Austria from it, an overture instantly and peremptorily rejected* As before the Crimean war,

Russia. will not allow that Englaud and France can go hand in hand, and, as before the Crimean war, the voice of the false prophet 13 heard luring her on in the fatal belief. Ten years > ago the 'Times' wrote dowu Turkey and the French alliance, and wrote up Russia and AberI deen, and thus mateiially aided the huge deceit of which Nicholas was the victim. To-day the 'Times' writes down Poland and the French alliance, and again becomes a pattizan of Russia. We are told that the treaty of 1815 is a dead letter, because in 1831 and in 1846 w« did notinvokeit; and because we did not refer to it in 1856, and that we have no right at the present time to appeal to its stipulations. The answer to this is the most conclusive possible ; it is, that Prince Gortschakoff and tbe Russian Government admit the vitality and force of tbe treaty, and concede our right to invoke its authority and to interfere according to its provisions. This being the case, our contemporary bas recourse to the old stock-in-trade of the " boundary of the Rhine," and " the obliteration of tbe memory of the latter days ofthe empire," bugbears once more held up to our view in the endeavour to undermine confidence and to destroy the alliance. What have these things to do with the matter in hand ? Does the Emperor push us on ? Is France moving, and trying to drag us into movement ? On tbe contrary, it is well known that the Emperor's wishes are eminently peaceful, and that he has declined to take one single step on behalf of Poland unlets in strict conjunction with Eng land. As Russia forced the Poles iuto insurr ection, so she forces us with other powers into ' a hostile attitude. The police of nations must I be carried out. Treaties must be referred to, ' and the laws of humanity must be enforced. \ It is evident that we can only do so by strong ' and uniform pressure. Russia does not believe yet tbat the three Powers are one in earnest. ' But we have the firm conviction that the question of war is not only far distant, but will not I be raised. Tbe three Powers are one in their 1 aspirations and their endeavours, and so pro- ' digious a force is thus in motion tbat its weight [ must tell irresistibly on the councils of Russia. ' Our business is to concentrate our efforts towards ' conveying to the Russian government the full import and urgency of the representations we ' are making. When they are understood and ' appreciated we may look for a speedy and sa- [ tisfactory settlement. — Morning Post, 27th July