The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-12-02 00:00:00

MR. CARLYLE ON THE EASTERN
QUESTION.
Mr. George Howard sends to 2Ute Times for publication a
letter on the Eistern Question which he has received from
Mr. Carlyle :
"5, Cheyne-row, Chelsea, Nov. 24.
. _ _

"Dear Howard,—lt by no means seems so evident
to me as it does to you and your friends that an
utterance of my opinion on the Eastern cribis could be
important; but since you assure me that it might be of
service to many persons ncw in doubt on that matter,
I overcome the very great reluctance I had to speak ot
the subject at all and will try to indicate summarily
what my own poor private views upen it are. 11 kfr I

" In the first place, then, for fifty years back my
clear belief about the Russians has been that they are
a good and even noble element in Europe. Con-
spicuously they possess the talent of obedience, of
silently following orders given, which in the universal
celebration of ballot-box, divine freedom, &c., will be
found an invaluable and peculiar gift. Ever since
Per the Great's appearance among them, they have
been in steady progress of development. In Clir own
time they have done signal service to God and man in
drilling into order and peace anarchic populations all
over their side of the world. The present Czar of
Russia I judge to be a strictly honest and just man.
and, in short, my belief i 3 that the Russians are called
to do great things in the world, and to be a con-
spicuous benefit, directly and indirectly, to their
,fellow men.

"To :undertake a war against Russia on behalf of
the Turk, it is evident to me would be nothing short
of insanity ; and has become, we may fondly hope, im-
possible for ally Minister, or Prime Minister, that
exists among us. Twenty years ago we already had a
mad war in defence of the Turk; a mass of the most
hideous and tragic stupidity, mismanagement, and
disaster (in spite of bravest fightine) that England
was ever eoncerned in since I knew it; a hundred
millions of money and above sixty thousand valiant
lives were spent in the enterprise. By treaties of
Paris, &c., the Turk was preserved intact, binding
h:lnself only to reform his system of Government,
which certainly of all things in the world needed
reform. And now, after twenty years of waiting, the
Turk is found to have reformed nothing nor attempted
to reform anything. Not to add that by bankrupt
finance he has swallowed a disastrous tribute of many
new millions from the widows and orphans of England.
A- finis to all which he has wound up by the horrors
of Bulgaria and such savageries as are without a
parallel. With these weiOrity aggravations, the
Turkish Question returns upon us anew and demands
a solution.
"It eeerns to me that something very different frem
war on his behalf is what the Turk now pressingly
needs from England and from all the world—namely,
to.be peremptorily informed that we can stand no more
of his attempts to govern in Europe, and that he must
quan; pm imunt turn his face to the eastward, for ever
quit this side of the Hellespont, and give up his arro-
gant ideas of governing anybody but himself.
"Such immediate and summary expulsion of the
Turk from Europe may appear to many a too drastic
remedy; but to my mind it is the only one of any real
validity under the circumstances. Improved manage-
ment of these unhappy countries might begin on the
morrow after this long-continued curse was withdrawn,
and the ground left free for wise and honest human
effort. The peaceful Mongol inhabitants would, of
course, be left in peace, and treated with perfect
equity, and even friendly consideration; but the
governing Turk, with all his Pashas and Bashi
Baz mks, should at once be ordered to disappear from
Europe and never to return.
"This result is in the long run inevitable, and it
were better to set about it now than to temporize and
hag.tle in the vain hope of doing it cheaper some other
time. t
, -
"As to tiv.) temporary or preparatory government of
the recovered Provinces, cleared of their unspeakable
Turk government for 20, or, say, any other term of
years, our own experienco in India may prove that
it is possible, and in a few faithful and skilful
hands is even ea,y. Nor in the temper of the Czar
and of the Austrian Emperor need the fair partition
of these recovered territories be a cause of
quarrel. Austria roust expect to become more and
more a Slavic and Hungarian Empire, her nine millions
of Germans more and more gravitating towards their
countrymen of the great German Empire. The Czar
whose serious tack is to protect the Christian subjects
in Turkey proper, will justly have a claim to territorial
footing in the recovered country. To England there is
one vital interest, and one only, that of securing its
road to India, which depends on Egypt and the Suez
Canal.

"The thing to be desired is concord among the three
Great Powers, and if, as we do hoperitrere is a mutual
tru.t grounded on honesty of intention on the part of
ea.:l3, none claiming more than in the nature of thirgs
belongs to him we may cinfidently expect that the
iiiilieulties of the business cannot prove insuperable.
In seems to me the advie.e of Prince Bismarck, a mag-
nanimous, noble, and deepzeeing man, who has no
national dins or inturests in the matter, might be very,
valuable; nay, were he appointed arbiter where diffi-
co!.t disidences arose, what but benefit would be likely
to result? But on this portion of the subject lam
not called to write.
"The only clear advice I have to give is, as I have
stated, that the unspeakable Turk should be imme-
diately struck out of the question, and the country left
to honest European guidance; delaying which can be
profitable or agreeable only to gamblers on the Stock
Exchange, but distressing and unprofitable to all other
men.—l remain always, dear Howard, yours truly,
"T. CARLYLE.
"G. Howard, Esq."