army on her frontiers—and we shall at once
see that at the very first intimation that England
was about to take up arms with France for the independence
of Poland, the three armies would have fallen on the
Poles, the insurrection would have been crushed, the
spark of Polish independence extinguished; and all
this having been done, the three Powers would have
marched their armies to the Rhine, and said: ’We
shall now make France and England answer for their
conduct.’ This course would have been sure
to involve the country in a Continental war, for a
purpose which would be defeated before the war could
be terminated. But, says the hon. member, you
have very powerful allies, who would have assisted
you. France is a large military power, capable
of great efforts. Then you have Sweden, too, burning
with desire to break a lance with Russia, on the question
of Polish independence. What man in his sober
senses, even if Sweden made such a proposition, and
were ready to join us against Russia, would not have
said, ’For God’s sake, remain quiet and
do nothing?’ [Mr. Anstey: I said, that
Sweden was arming her fleet, with the intention of
making a demonstration against the Russian provinces
in the Baltic; but the noble Lord remonstrated with
Sweden for doing so, and induced her to disarm.] Well,
there is not much difference between us. I do
not think a demonstration by a Swedish fleet on the
shores of the Baltic would have been long maintained
without a corresponding demonstration of the Russian
fleet in Cronstadt, and it is pretty clear which of
them would go to the wall; and then we should have
had to defend Sweden against Russian attack; and unless
we had been prepared to send a large army to her aid,
we should have sacrificed her to no purpose. I
say, Sir, the man with the interests of Russia most
dearly at his heart, could have done nothing better
for Russia than stimulate Sweden into a dispute with
Russia, by inducing her to make an armed demonstration
on her shores, and thus to draw down upon her the vengeance
and overwhelming power of that empire. If Sweden
had been ready to make such a demonstration with her
gunboats on the coast of Russia, and had asked us
for our advice, the best thing we could have said would
have been, ’Don’t do anything half so
foolish; we are not prepared to send an army and a
fleet to defend you, and don’t give Russia a
cause to attack you.’ But there was another
empire burning with desire to join us against Russia.
Turkey, we were told by the hon. and learned member,
with 200,000 cavalry, was ready to carry demonstration
to the very walls of St. Petersburg—perhaps
to carry off the Emperor himself from his throne.
What was the state of Turkey then? In 1831 she
had engaged in a war with Russia, in which, after
two campaigns, her arms were repulsed and driven back
into their own empire, so that she was compelled at
Adrianople to accept conditions of peace, hard in
their nature, and demanding a sacrifice of an important