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

Etc 43tourbage

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1870

LORD SALISBURY'S MISSION.

No more forcible illustration of the intensity 1
with which the minds of the English people are
now fixed upon foreign politics, could be found
than in the great interest concentrated upon
Lord Salisbury's mission to Constantinople.
Indeed the journey of the Secretary of State for
India, as he has gone from one European capital
to another, has assumed all the dimensions of
an international character. A brief stay in
Paris was followed by a sojourn in Berlin; then
our Ambassador Extraordinary went on to
Vienna, next to Rome, having had interviews in
each place with the Foreign Minister and the
ruler of the country. It is remakable that while
every other government which has despatched
representatives to the Constantinople Con-
ference, has sent them quietly to their place of
meeting without calling attention to the magni-
tude of their errand, Lord Salisbury has
travelled, with a large suite, by special train
through Europe, and has had every state of his
journey reported by telegraph. In fact sins°
Prince Menschikoff made his memorable entry J
into Constantinople on the eve of the Crimean
Wl,r, no envoy has come to the city of the Sultan 1
with so much pomp as the Secretary of State for '
India. Yet, so far as the Conference itself is I
, concerned, it may readily be understood that
its best chance of success lies in the readiness of
j all its members to accept a compromise of con-
flicting claims. For the present, at all events,
, we are not parties to—still less principals in—
the dispute between Russia and Turkey. Our
, attitude is rather that of a mutual friend, well
disposed towards Turkey as well as towards her
colossal antagonist, and anxious to facilitate any
arrangement by which peace may be preserved
between them. Until we know the course which
events may take after the assembling of the
Conference such an attitude seems to be the one
most consonant alike with our interest and our
honour. For the moment however, we must be
content with the knowledge that a Conference
is about to mast, the avowed purpose of which
is to devise a pacific solution of the Eastern
Question. Assuming the existence of good faith
on both sides, the attainment of such a solution
is by no means an impossibility.
During the past few months a great deal has
been heard of the importance of gaining Bulgaria,
Bosnia, and Herzegovina, what has been des-
cribed as administrative autonomy, or a system
of local self-government. Yet in the judgment
of many reasonable men, neither of these
provinces, to say nothing of all of them, is ripe
for complete independence or for absolute self.
government. Such being the case, the only
plan appears to be to place the provinces under
a Protectorate. Of what character such a
Protectorate shall be is the point upon which the
main interest of the Conference will centre.
Russia would not consent to their passing under
Austrian rule, and neither Great Britain nor
Austria could acquiesce willingly in their virtual
annexation to Russia. Assuming that the public
opinion of Europe has declared that the Chris-
tian subjects of the Porte shall no longer be
subjected to such oppression as that under which
they have hitherto groaned, Turkey, while con-
tinuing to exercise nominal sovereignty over
her Sclavonic provinces, must consent to see
some of her actual power pass into other hands
much in the same way as though Great Britain,
under stress of adverse circumstances, were
compelled to see a foreign Protectorate estab-
lished over her Roman Catholic subjects in
Ireland, who would then be virtually governed
from Paris, from Vienna, and from Rome.
It would be idle to deny that the calling into ex-
istence of such a Protectorate must be very gal-
ling to a state which has for centuries called
herself one of the great European Powers. She
has her Ambassadors in all the first class capitals
of Europe; and Ambassadors are in their turn
accredited to her. These higher functionaries
are the possession only of great Powers. There
is no Ambassador of Spain, or of Portugal, or of
Greece; these countries are represented only
by Ministers Plenipotentiary, and even the
United States knows nothing of ambassadors.
They are content with envoys, and there is no
each thing as an American Legation in London.
Paris, or elsewhere, is the correct description of
the diplomatic establishments sent forth from
Washington to represent the Trans-atlantic Re-
public. We should never dream of lecturing
the United States upon the way in which the
citizens of that country are to be governed. If
we attempted such an interference, we should
certainly be told to mind our own business. But
the Porte, although nominally one of the great
Powers of Europe, is notoriously a centre of
misgovernment, a hotbed of disaffection, a source
of perpetual peril to the peace of Europe. In
the cause of justice and humanity, no le-ss than
for the interests of the general peace, the other
Powers find it essential to use very strong lan-
guage to that which calls itself the Sublime
Porte. It has manifestly proved itself incapable
ruling over many millions of its subjects, and it
is now for its neighbours to take council together
and endeavour to ascertain whether such pre-
cautionary measures shall be taken as shall have
the double effect of lightening the rod of iron so
long held over an oppressed people, and of pre-
serving to Europe the blessings of peace.