The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-10-07 00:00:00

1112 STOTIEBR

Prussia vanquished the armies of France. In 1854-6 France
and England had garotted Russia, and having Russia down
they forced upon her that particular clause with regard to
the Black-sea Fleet. But the moment Prussia had
France down and England was left alone, then
Russia rose up and said she would no longer submit
to a clause so unfair as the thought it to her and so
humiliating, She announced to Europe that the clause was
at an end to far as she was bound to regard it, and the
Government of England, finding it inevitable, consented
to the abrogation of the clause. Then, with regard to the
transfer or removal of the protectorate of the Cleristlane
from Russia to the Great Powers of Europe, Russia is on
the tpot. Her territories are adjacent to those of Turkey.
Her people are of the same religious belief or profession as
the Christiana of Turkey. They have had for a generation
great sympathy with them, and, of course, they were
more Lkely to keep a watchful eye over the aggrer-
Fiona and insults and oppressions of the Turkish
G )vernment, and to be more capable friends of the
Christians than any nation at a great distance from
them. But when you put a matter of this kind into
the hands of Si Powers, what becomes of it? Whereas
the Russian protection was a reality, the protection of the
conjoint Powers has been from that day to this only a sham,
There has been no protection. Russia has been kept out of
the field by the treaty. None of the six Powers were to
meddle except they meddled together and thought the time
had come to do something. They never would have thought
the time was come to do anything. The object of the Go-
vernment of this country was to keep everything quiet. The
Turk there on his throne, the Sultan in his palace, the whole
system as it has been for ages. The suffering not regarded, the
cry not heard, and the concerted power of three great Go-
vernments of Europe has been of no influence whatever. You
have destroyed the only real protection and have not esta-
blished anything valid or real in its place. Eminent men who
have discussed the question lately have spoken of that point,
but not one of them hes asserted that the Powers have
supplied really the protection which was afforded by Russia
before the Crimean War. The people of Eogland, however,
since that time have learnt a good deal. They have learnt a
great deal very lately, but they have learnt a good deal slowly
during the last 20 years. They have learnt what nearly every
people !earns after a war, that they have been befo ,led by
their passions and by their rulers; and during these 20 years
we have gradually come to the opinion that that war, after
all, was not worth fighting, that it was not necessary tor this
country, and that there has been nothing gained by it. But
now we have had an insurrection in a remote province in
Turkey. Daring the last 12 months we have had, as I say,
the announcement that this insolvent firm on the Bosphorus
not only could not, but did not intend to my, apparently,
to pay any of its debts. And the Eeglish people have
now come to a contrary opinion to that which they
held 20 years ago, and they not only now are
willing to condemn the war of that time, but
are willing to pronounce emphatically against following the
example of that time. (Applause.) In fact, they have dis-
covered that our old ideas upon the subject were foolish,
and that some of our own assumptions at that time were
foolish, and unjust, and wicked. Now they have found out
that the dread that Russia was going with her great military
disposition to overshadow all Europe and destroy Constitu
tional government and freedom over the whole Continent was
a lolly that no child ever should have liatened to. They have
found out that the idea that Russia is likely by some mode,
it she got possession of Constantinople, to be able to make
her way to India and dethrone the English power in that
country was a phantom that really had nothing in it, and I
think they have found out, also, that the dread of the posses-
sion ef a free passage through the .13osphorous and the Dar-
danelles was a terror which England really need not be
afraid of. Probably the people of this country are not
aware that for 300 years after the possession of Constanti-
nople bedthe Turks no vessel of trade ever was allowed to
pass from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea. Turkey for
three centuries kept those passages closed, and it was only
by pressure of the Russian poaer about a hundred years ago
that the Bosphorus and Dardanelles were opened to ships
from the Mediterranean. I should like to know on what
ground it is that we, who are, as I said, 3,000 miles away,
should insist that Tarkey and ourselves combined should
close that passage to ships of war? What has this very
Government been doing a year ago? Going into a foreign
country, into Egypt, endeavouring to purchase a great part
of not a natural highway which Nature or God made, but at
artificial highway, which Frenchmen and French money, for
the most part, have made in order that we might run,
not ships of trade only, but ships of war, between the
Mediterranean and the Red Sea. If we thought it necessary
and right for us to take such a course, is it not just that the
Russians, if they think proper, should have a passage for
their ships from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, and
that ships from the Mediterranean should pass to the Black
Sea? We have found that all this was a delusion of a
mmt pestilent kind. It was only extraordinary we should
not have stripped it of its outside long ago, and have come
to the kernel of it, and found it was a delusion imposing
upon the intelligence, or rather, I should say, the ienorauce
and simplicity of the people. (Cheers) But what are we
to do now ?—(hear, hear)—because that is the question.
Many of us in the course of our lives can review the
folly we have committed when we find ourselves in a
tight place and tcarcely know how to get out of it. At
this moment we are entangled with the Treaty of 18t6.
It is not easy, I admit—l make the admission to the
Government and their friends—to back clean out of it, and
it is not easy to state exactly what to do in it. Ode way is
this—we might tear the Treaty into a thousand pieces, and
say we were fools, and as far as that goes, we will be fools
no longer. (Gear) We might in that case leave Turkey to
her fate. But then we have the negotiations of the last few
months, in which the Government hes been concerned,
which Parliament has not condemned, and which the people
probably would not.wholly and absolutely condemn. If we
cannot tear the Treaty to pieces, the question is, can we
negotiate on new lines? That appears to me the only alterna-
tive. If the Treaty remains, and if we are to take some
action with the other powers of Eutope, and if the people
of England have changed their mind with regard to the
policy of their country twenty years ago, then we ask our-
selves is it not possible for the English Government
to negotiate on new lines, on fresh principles, and with a
fresh and a better policy? (Hear, hear) But then, un-
fortunately, during the whole of these transactions this
year the Government has been going upon the old lines.
They eid not perceive that there was a great change
in public opinion, nor did they perceive that they
had made a great error twenty years ago. They have
been pro-Turk during the whole of the correspondence
which has been published in the Blue-books, and they
seem almost to have forgotten everything that they ought
to have remembered, and to have learnt nothing of that
to which they ought to have given special attention. They
have gone upon We theory—Preserve Turkey as she is if
you can ; suppress every rising, not by force of arms, but
every rising shall be suppressed as quickly as possible
by the Turk. Make peace somehow. Put an end to these
things, which threaten to trouble the peace of Europe,
without much consideration to the condition and the
interests of the populations that are most nearly affected."
But while this was going on there was another rising, and a
steeveinenottant one—a rising of the people of leggland,
and but a very small portion of which have been reported to
us—these cruelties haue opened eur ears and have touched
our hearts: but while this rising was going on, and while
these events were being reported to us, the Government
teemed to hear nothing, and to know nothing. Their agents
appeared to know very little and to say very little. The
fact is every Minister of England in Constantinople
and every Consul knows perfectly well that unpleasant
things from those parts were not pleasant reading
for the Foreien Office. (Sear, hear.) It was the tame 22
years ago. We then pointed out what was the state of things
in the Christian Provinces et Turkey, and I know we used to
quota from the Blue-books and from the reports of our
Agents and Consuls how dreadful Was the condition of these
Provinces and of the interior of Turkey. That was very
unpleasant matter for Lord Palmerston and his colleagues at
the time when the Russian war was being discussed and
when it was being fought. Bat though the Government did
not hear and did not speak, others heard and others spoke,
and when they spoke—and I say it with shame and sorrow—
the Government through its Chief almost ridiculed what was
said. (Hear, hear.) Wnen English hearts beat quicker there
was a sense in the Howie of Commons that the question was
not treated by the Head of the Government with that
seriousness and solemnity which became so grave and so sad
a question. (Sear, hear.) There has not been, to far as I have
heard from him, one word of hearty condemnation of those
things which the nation universally condemned. There has
not been, so far as I have heard from his lips, in Parliament
or on a recent occasion, any sympathy with the sufferers, any
more than there would have been if he had heard that there
had been a sudden massacre of those multituded of dogs
which prowl about the streets of Constantinople. (Hear,
hear.) Perhaps ambition, the greatest ambition, may at
length be sated, and a man from a certain eminence may look
down with utter contempt on guilt and on wrongs that even
he dare no longer to deny. But, now, what is the exact
re sl eon in which we stand, and what action should we take?
It us obvious that the Government, so far, is at variance with
the nation. (Hear, hear.) The Government is pro-Turk still
(hear), and would, if it could, act upon the lines of
the past, which the nation has condemned. Observe the
language of the Prime Minister in speaking the other
day of the Ssrvian War' it was not regret; it was condem-
nation of the most offensive character (hear)— a con-
demnation which evidently sprang from his sympathy
with the Turkish Power. (Hear.) Take the speeches
of Lord Derby, more moderate, more argumentative, more
according to his character; but still in those speeches there
was none of that hearty sympathy with the sufferers and
condemnation for the Power that inflicted the sufferings
which I think would have been powerful to the ears and to
the hearts of the English people. (Hear, hear.) And if you
want to know what is believed to be the feeling of the
Government from the feeling of their supporters you have
to look at the writings of the Government Press. I won't
run over the list of their papers, for I am not acquainted
wi'h a great many of them; but if any man has read
the columns of the Standard for many weeks past, or if
he has real the columns of their organ in this city,
he will find what they believe to be the feelings
and wishes of their patrons, the Mhilstry of the
day, thoroughly Turkish. (Hear, hear) I am not sur-
prised, because, in point of fact, it would be a matter
of wonder if we found them on any occasion advocating
freedom and justice to those populations. (Hear, hear.)
On the contrtre, they heap ridicule and contempt on the
proclamation of change of opinion and policy which more
than one hundred public meetings have announced to
the whole world. The fact is that the nation looks
one way and the Government look another. Tnere
has been nothing like it, I believe, in this country
since the time of the Reform Bill, when the Duke of
'Wellington was endeavouring to form an anti-Reform
movement. There has been no such demonstration against
the policy of the Government as there has been within the
last two months. (Hear, bear.) It is a curious thing that
under a Government which came into office with such
great pretentious that nothing was to be disturbed and
everybody was to be gratified that a year ago there
were scores of public meetings condemning their coliduct
with regard to fugitive slaves (hear, hear)—far more meet-
ings to denounce them than there were during the whole
time of Mr. Gladstone's Government—and finding fault with
all the matters which the Government had done. (Gear,
heir) And now, twelve months later, we find ourselves
In a perfect hurricane of condemnation of this Government
which was to put everything right (laughter), and was
to throw the preceding Government into oblivion, covered
with contempt and forgetfulness. (Laughter) Even
a great many ref our friends of the Established Church who
do not generally go with us—Archbishops and Bishops—
dignitaries of the Church—have been as loud and as strong
in. the ir language as the most hearty Nonconformist
speechfauedaumrd tirpeaerbfrsrl
perhaps,
:pd. At:
htmeh(
ix
Ent
(Rear.)
Marquis
hrtge. h)uye mswFtoiwfuo
lamßrat
minister. (Hear.) There is not a class that I know any-
where that has not spoken out upon this question. The
speeches which have been made on this question have been
Bax Baxter ra at
t.
Montrose, and the speech f sot hon. relative of mine at
expecttthheamapoenecehwoofulMdr.
mirable speeches on a question of this kind, and one might
littleho
ptinged r
everybody
with y whathere
would be called party views, but I found in the same paper a
Bath, a
read it. It is an admirable speech. I have masked one or
two paragraphs; and if you would allow me I would like to
read them, because, coming from a Peer of his high rank
not c3nnected with our Party, connected with the Govern-
ment Party, anxious, no doubt, to see, little that could
be offensive to his leaders-1 say that speech was re-
markable and the passages strike me as doing honour
to his head and his heart. He says:—" The voice of
England had declared that so far as she had the power
to prevent them it should be impossible for such enormities
to occur again. Palates of all shades of opinion and clergy
of alt denominations had especially distinguished themselves
in the movement, and had by resolutions and memorials
urged the Governmeet to make a clear and ex-
plicit demand that Turkey should surrender all execu-
tive power in the disturbed Province', and that freedom
and self-government be secured to the Christians."
(Applauee.) Well, then he says, " They had also a special
duty—that is, England and the English people—from the
liabilities they take upon themselves, to protect the native
Christians when they deprived them of Russian pro-
tection in 1856. Besides, it was not interference, but
non-interference that wets really required. The English
Government had but to withdraw its countenance and its
support from the Turks and Russia would deal with the
question and free its kindred races from Turkish despotism."
(Applause.) Then, he says, "as to openiug the way to Rus-
sian aggression he had such confidence in the st,ength of his
country that he believed that if Russia were three times
more powerful she could do England no harm. It the
alternative lay between le..ving the provinces of Bosnia,
Herzegovina, and Bulgaria at the mercy of the Turk, or y
letting Russia take them, let Russia have them, and Gni be
With her." (Cheers.) One other extract. Speaking of the
necessity of maintaining the integrity of the Turkish Empire,
he says :—lf by that was meant the sovereignty of the Sultan
and the exclusion of any other European Power, all would be
well; but it by the integrity of the Turkish Empire the power ,
of taxation, of spoliation, of oppression of the Christians in
those three Provinces be maintained to the Turks, and It
the English Government could be made responsible for it