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Title: The War, April 21, 1854 (1854)
Description: Leading article of the New-York Daily Tribune on the news brought by the Asia: the rumored failure of the Turkish loan, the neutrality pact of the German powers, the war in the Baltic and Earl Grey's speech on the British army.
Author: Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels
Date: 1854-04-21
URL: https://marxismo.school/archivo/marx-engels/originales/1854%20The%20War%2C%20April%2021%2C%201854
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*Published unsigned as a leading article, under the headline “The War”, in the* New-York Daily Tribune*, No. 4059, April 21, 1854, p. 4, cols. 2-3; MEGA² (I/13) prints it among the writings of doubtful authorship (Dubiosa), without deciding between Marx and Engels; it is not in the MEW. The date is added to the title to tell it apart from other articles with the same headline. Text from the original newspaper (Library of Congress, Chronicling America). [Traducción al español](https://marxismo.school/archivo/marx-engels/1854%20La%20guerra%2C%2021%20de%20abril%20de%201854).*

The most interesting feature of the news brought by the Asia yesterday is the announcement made in the City article of *The London Times* of April 8, that the Turkish loan had failed after all, and that Namik Pasha had gone home without any money. This is stated by the City writer of *The Times* with positiveness and circumstantiality, but we cannot give it perfect credence. In the first place our own correspondent at London, who is almost certain to be exactly informed on whatever relates to the transactions of Turkey, there and at Paris, states the contrary with equal minuteness. In the second place, Namik Pasha had brought his negotiations to a conclusion, whatever it was, and started for home on Monday, and it is not till Friday, after he had been gone four days, that the writer in *The Times* learns that he has failed, and that the loan is withdrawn from the market. Certainly, if he had gone home in disappointment, this fact would hardly have remained unknown, and the loan would hardly have been kept for sale four days longer. Such are the circumstances which militate against this important statement; still there is an evident possibility of its truth, as well as of the inference of *The Times*, that the French Government has *not* advanced to Turkey the sum of $2,000,000, as stated in the journals of Paris. Should all this prove true, and should what is suggested by the same writer also prove true, namely, that the allies will not come forward to guarantee the proposed loan, it would go far to confirm the suspicion that they do not mean honestly by the Sultan. The only alternative to this inference is to be found in the fact that the Ottoman Government have taken possession of the mosques of the Empire and of their funds, which are believed to be considerable, undertaking on the other hand hereafter to support the priesthood and the other expenses of worship from the imperial treasury, just as is done in France and other countries of Western Europe. This measure, whose execution, as we learn from Constantinople, is being energetically pushed forward, may possibly put the Porte at ease, financially, for the time being; otherwise it has no resource but in a loan, and if defeated in obtaining it, must be terribly embarrassed in prosecuting the war, at the same time that it is exposed to the danger of serious outbreaks on the part of the most zealous and trustworthy portion of its Mussulman subjects.

Our correspondent at Vienna announces the conclusion of an alliance between the German powers, by which the entire Confederation, including Austria and Prussia of course, undertakes to maintain neutrality through the war. Whether they can succeed in keeping out of the quarrel for so long a time is a question on which a positive opinion cannot be formed at present. The new complications which may arise, and the new interests which may be developed in the course of the struggle, may very easily render nugatory the most exact calculations that can now be made. Certain it is that but for dread of revolution, against which Russia is supposed to offer a protection, the German powers, and especially the German people, must all desire the humiliation of the Czar, whose preponderant influence they hate, and whose aggrandizement they spontaneously incline to resist. But on the other side, such is their pecuniary weakness, and so entire is their doubt of the loyalty of their subjects, that they must regard the risk of permanent Russian supremacy as far less formidable than that of engaging in a universal war with the revolution lying in ambush behind the eventualities of the contest. So they will remain neutral as long as they can, and will hold themselves ready, when they finally decide to go into the fight, to embrace whichever side offers them the greater advantages. We do not believe they will be led either way by any other motives than regard for their own interest. All the gratitude Austria owes Russia will indeed only prove a reason for her to attack the Czar should other causes seem to render it the more profitable course; and the same is true of all Germany as well.

From the seat of war on the Danube there is no intelligence of great importance; we must, however, soon hear of fighting in that quarter. The allied fleets are in the Black Sea, and Sir Charles Napier is advancing in the Baltic. The Russians are said to have abandoned the island of Aland, and he can occupy it without difficulty. We shall not have to wait long for him to begin; his fashion is to strike rapidly and powerfully, and he will not now change. The steamers now about to arrive can scarcely fail to bring bloody intelligence.

In England the opinion is being adopted that the war must be a long and hard one. They are looking carefully into their state of preparation to carry it on. In the House of Lords on the 7th inst. Earl Grey made a speech showing that the administration of the British army is now and long has been in the highest degree faulty, extravagant, and opposed to efficiency, rapidity and unity in the service. The care and provision of the troops he proved to be of so very defective a description as to leave room to expect injurious consequences in the army now sent to Turkey; and he held up a radical reform in the administration of the whole military establishment as absolutely essential to success in the present war. His speech justly made a deep impression on the House, and we doubt not will carry with it the opinion of the public. *The London Times* gives it a powerful indorsement.