The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1876-09-19 00:00:00

THE BARBARITIES OF THE TURK.

With an almost singular coincidence in the
exprewdon of ideas, the Rev. T. Neave and "
Inhabitant" called attention in our columns fast
week to the desirability of the county town for mice
awakening. from its Beggars' Knap to give utterance
to an opinion upon • question now agitating civilised
Europe. Mr. M. Deveniah, with charscterlj readi-
ness to do • useful act, readily obtained signatures
(headed by the name of the Rev. E. Everett) to •
requisiton to the Mayor asking him to call • meeting.
Ras Worship immediately complied, and on Friday
evening last a meeting to "enable the inhabitants to
express their opinion on the recent Turkish barbarities
in Bulgaria" was held at the Town-hall. The
extremely short notice given, the bills convening the
meeting only appearing the morning of the same day,
accounted for the ~mall attendance somewhere about
two or three hundred only being present. The
audience was, however, • most appreciative one, very
unanimous in the expression of its opinions the
gentlemen on the platform were influential resbients,
and the addresses, as will be seen, were effective.
Mr. E. Pearce, J.P., presided, in the absence of the
Mayor, who had been called to attend the sufferers by
the Portland accident_ and he was supported by the Bev.
H. Monis, Rev. T. Nears, Bev. H. P. Bailie; Mr. G.
Symonds, Mr. M. Devenish. Rev. W. C. Osborn, and
others.
Mr. Punci, in opening the proceeding; said since he
bad come into the hall he had been requested to take
the chair. and he very readily did so, for be felt it
was strongly incumbent upon England to speak 9tt upon
that question. (Hear, hear.) We were involved
indirectly in the affairs of Eastern Europe, and, sur-
rounded as they were by ooniPlic.stions and difficulties,
and considering the reticence of the Government, it was
the duty of every En4liahman to come forward and give
utterance to his opinions. The meeting had been
called by the chief magistrate ; be regretted his absence,
and also the fact that the room was not so full as it
probably would have been had the notice of it been given
earlier; but at the same time he hoped there would he no
party feeling, and that the same respect would be paid to
the chair as if it had been occupied by the chief magis-
trate. (Applause.) It might be asked, Was this meeting
necessary I His reply was—and he gave it with the
greatest respect to their Foreign Secretary—that not two
months ago their Foreign Secretary told them that one of
the great difficulties of being in office MY upon critical
occasions, and particularly when scenes were rapidly
changing, to know the feelings and the opinions of the
nation. War ministers might make • false step, and
therefore it was their wish to know the mind and.slusprr to
irt
w/ ich they would receive from the nation in r
the action they might take upon any subject. t was,
'he considered, simply to show our ministers what
was the mind and what would be the support given
LE.gland upon the question of the Bulgarian atrocities
Rev. tilr Slegamvmsett there that
nade a most energetic ) said
he had been entrusted with the following resolution

- ------- •
" That this meeting records its horror at the
atrocities committed in Bulgaria under the sanction of
Ottoman Government, and whilst urging the British
Government to take steps in concert with the other great
powers of Europe for the speedy suppression and pre-
vention of such atrocities, expresses its conviction that
no settlement of the question can be deemed satisfactory
which does not provide for the self-government of the
Christian states, including Bulgaria; and it further
expresses the hope that the Government will see its way
to give full effect to this, which has been shown to be
the policy of the English people"

- -
That resolution he felt lutist appeal to the kindly
sympathies m
thies id the audience in the first place, and omit.
e other hand, comend itself to the sense. the
ore enee, and the political wisdom by which they
believed the &Wish nation to be acenated. There Ws.
no need few him to add to the appreciation which all must
feel for the disclosure of these depravities by the De,4
Sew and the Times They had raised& deep and Profound
indignation in every English heart. (Cheers) He would
state at the outset that he had not the slightest wish to
give any political tone to the meeting. This was not a
question of party politics. It did not concern the country in
that respect in the least, but the grand object was that
the nation should express its opinion upon the
Eastern Question as it at present stood before
the world. For himself he agreed with the conviction
which bad been expressed by one who stood perhaps the
highest in the opinion of the country—the Right Hon.
W. E. Gladstone, when lie said in his pamphlet that this
was not • question of a change of men, but of a change of
measures. The policy carried out by the Ooverniment during
the last few weeks had not been sanctioned by the assent of
the nation, and further he would say, if Mr. Gladstone had
been in office he would neither have had occasion to make
the speech he did at Greenwich. or to have written the
pamphlet he did, nor would such q Policy of
cowardice and of folly ever have been accepted.
Still, with him (the speaker) it was not • matter of
politics. It was one of justice and humanity" and as such
the people of England should regard it, lie believed they
did so. The marvellous expression of feeling which had
arisen throughout Ei4buid could not he explained away.
It had not been created by politicians, or by men thirsting
for the sweets of office—if it had been he sincerely trusted
such men, who may have attacked the Ministry for their
own selfish ends, would be disappointed. It happened
the leading politicians were out of the country, /101130
shooting on Scottish moors and others fishing on
her ham. while others were on the Continent,
so that to their honour, may it be said, this
movement, as Mr. Gladstone had admitted, had
originated with the working elegies of England. Upon
them it reflected profound credit, and it was one of which
they ought to be sincerely proud, on the ground of
eounnon humanity such atrocities as had been com-
mitted by the Turks must hale excited the indiges-
tion of every Englishman who read that mothers and
daughters ears outraged and little children unpaled on
bayonets. He almost felt as if it were morally
If not materially implicated in these atrocities, by uphold-
ing the power which sanctioned them, and which are such
as Mr. Gladstone says " Hell itself might blush at." That
was the feeling which gives such force to the present
excitement of the country, and which will not be allayed
until ministers honestly tell out their policy and put
themselves in accordance with the feelings of the nation.
(Loud cheers.) The course that England had taken
must be left to those in office to explain if they could do
so. It would be • matter for satisfaction if the country
could acquit thew. If they could not give a reasonable
explanation they must stand the consequence; for English
people had long come to this conviction, and the English
nation had deliberately said that Turkey was no longer
to depend upon its material support until they would give
guarantees that such atrocities should never again be
committed. They could not allow the honour of • great.
historic and glorious nation, a nation that had, above all
others, proved itself the friend of liberty and the foe to
the oppressor, to be tarnished by a tacit recognition of
cruelties, perpetrated by • nation that all past events had
proved to be incapable of governing with humanity or
righteousness. (Cheers.) Lord Derby had said that
neither he nor his brother Ministers considered it incom-
patible with their position to listen to public opinion, and
therefore meetings must be held throughout the country
until thine Ministers upon this question coincided with
the voice of the people. (Applause.)
Rev. limier Moulds, Vicar of Fordingten cordially
seconded the resolution. At once he would tell them
that no person could feel more deeply than he did,
horror at the atrocities which bad been, and still were
being, committed upon their fellow Christians; but what
he especially wished them to remember was that those
atrocities had not commenced within the last few months,
but that for 40.1 years the Christians in those countries had
been subjected to such a rule, and that not under the
excitement of war, and not one whit better than it was
that day. Perhaps some of them were prepared to
receive the statement which was supported by the
Scriptures, that this Mahoinedan power had been the
scourge of God upon the fallen nations of the Eastern
Empire. That scourge had continued for 420 years, and
if people would look a little inure to what was missing
around them, instead of spending their time in reading
the frivolous literature of the day, they would have seen
that cruelties of that nature were a matter of history, and
there would have been no such protestes as the present
waded in behalf of • downbrodden people under the rule of a
barbarous Turk. England had been sadly indifferent to
this ; and, more than that, that Government had been for
rears supported by this country, and very few had raised
their voice against it. What was the object of the Crimean
war—but to support the Turk against the Russian,
when Russia was Professing the very objects we have
now in view, to liberate our Selavonian brethren
from the tYranlY of the Mehoinedaus Our Govern-
ment had become entangled in an enormous difficulty,
and not only the Government, but the country.
Who had given support to the Turks without any
guarantee whatever, but the men who had furnished
them with the millions on the Turkish loan?
But for that, a great deal of this never could have
happened, and what he wished them to remember was
that by the furnishing of supplies we as • country were
sharers in these wretched What the Governmegt
had to deal with was not merely these atrocities but the
conductof a governing power which they hadvirtuallytakeu
under their protection. From his inmost soul (emphati-
cally said the weaker) he would rather see the Ituaelans
in Constantinople than Turkey in its present position.
, (Cheers.) He lhad no wish to drive them out of Europe,
I but let whet haPPen Puy it was for this country to with.
draw their suPPort from them. He thought
,at the seine time the utmost consideration
' should bus shown for Lord Derby's Position. Whet
could the Minister for Foreign Affairs 4o? He was deal-
! bag with a country in a state of anarchy and therefore
he had no power to COUTZOI the action of ihe Turks. Re
(the speaker) felt cmdident neither would there be any
repressiou of such attOditiois as long as that Goverment