Volume 25 — RUSSIAN REASONS.
Reading edition
(Being the English change for Count Nesselrode's Circular Note.)
As Prince Menschikoff's mission has caused a great rumpus, And a notion prevails that the Czar's in the wrong, And as England and France may be able to stump us, These our reasons you'll state, Courts and Cabinets among. You need scarcely point out that of truth there's no particle In the monstrous report, that our threatenings of war Are meant to enforce on the Sultan an article Which puts twelve million Turks 'neath the thumb of the Czar. As no Cabinet gravely can hold such a notion, You will go on at once to impress, at your Court, The Czar's Christian care and unselfish devotion For the Russo-Greek Church in the realms of the Porte. You will say that his feelings are strictly parental Towards that Church, of which he is the father and head. That the influence he wields is all moral and mental— A fact proved by all he has done—at least, said. Describe the Czar's wish to know wherefore this heat is At demands which existing conventions allow; Cite Kainardji's and Adrianople's two treaties, And point out that they give all we're asking for now. Show how, from beginning to end of the business, All about Holy Places the question has been; That, if 'twixt us and France there was some slight uneasiness, The horizon on that side is now quite serene. That the Russo-Greek rights have been clearly admitted, And secured by a firman, and Hatti-Scheriff; So that France and the Latin Communions outwitted, Yield the pas to the Russo-Greek Church and its chief. Recapitulate then, as these rights—in the first place— Are what Russia has always enjoyed, beyond doubt; And as—secondly—France is now put in the worst place In the matter, whereon she and Russia fell out; And as—in the third place—the Sultan has granted All we asked by a Firman, which clearly maintains The rights of our Church, which was all we e'er wanted; And as—in the fourth place—my note thus explains The duplicity, weakness, and tergiversation Which the Porte through the whole of this business has shown, And proves, too, the Czar's great forbearance and patience, Guided, as he has been, by his duty alone;— We cannot conceive what he's taken to task for, If on the offensive he ventures to act, Seeing that we have always had all we now ask for, And have since got a firman confirming the fact. Submit the above, as a full demonstration, That no option we've had, 'tween disgrace and a war, And ask if the Porte had so used them, what nation But must have done just what's been done by the Czar?
The Soldier's First Step.
The chief difficulty of military science, as studied at the Camp at Chobham, has proved during the late wet weather to consist in the elements.
A CASE IN PINT.
On what model has the India Bill been formed? On that of a pale ale bottle, one would think, for it seems to be a very insufficient measure.
