The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-06-29 00:00:00

THE CONGRESS.
(From Monday's Times.)

Our news this morning of the course of negotiations
at Berlin is definite and satisfactory. The most diffi-
cult point at issue between the English and the Rus-
sian Governments has; been settled in the way we have
insisted upon. The boundary line of Northern Bul-
garia is drawn at the Balkans, and the mountain
passes are to be held and garrisoned by the Porte. In
other words, Turkey is to have an impregnable fron-
tier for the defence of her northern provinces,
and Russia renounces all hope of pushing on
the zEsean seaboard. This is the first great
question on which the Congress has pro-
nounced, and we may hope that it will carry every-
thing else with it. As long as it remained undecided
nothing could be done effectually. If Russia had [re-
fused to yield on this, the Congress, as far as we are
concerned, would have been at an end. It would have
been mere trifling, therefore, to have spent time over
the arrangement of other details while ail that was
done was liable to be upset afterwards. But if the
Bulgarian question could once be got out of the
way, there was not much left on which a break-
up could be feared. It is with good judgment,
therefore, that oar representatives at Berlin
have gone straight to this. There was not much
room for discussion in the matter. The Eng-
lish programme was laid down in clear and explicit
terms, and it was for Russia to meet it with a simple
" Yes "or ".No." It appeared for some time
doubtful what her final reply would be. Her
Plenipotentiaries did their beet to stave it off, and
at least to postpone the very large concession de-
manded from the. It was nothing less than an
abandonment of the policy that has guided Russia
in her relations to Turkey during the last hundred
years. The process of piecemeal nibbling at the out-
lying provinces of Turkey would have been favoured
by an extension southwards of the new State which
Russia inieht have hoped to keep under her own in-
fluence, and to use as the opportunity presented
itself. If the northern front-rep of Turkey had
been left strategically weak, Europe would have had
no security that the Eastern Question would not have
been opened up again, on some new excuse or other,
when circumstances favoured the aggressor. The
fialkans will now lie between Turkey and her formid-
able northern foe, and it could only be by her own
neglect that she would fail in holding them. The
sitting of the Congress on Saturday was a long one.
At two in the afternoon the Plenipotentiaries met.
When they broke up, at five o'clock, the Bulgarian
Question had been settled, and the way for future
negotiations had been left smooth by the removal of
the great obstacle to the agreement of the Powers.
Almost to the last moment the course of the Russian
Government had been uncertain. It was late last
Friday when the news neached Berlin that the great
concession was to be made, and it was in the sitting
on Saturday that, in obedience to instructions from
St. Petersburg, the final plunge was taken. There is
an abundance of other business to be got through
before the work of the Congress will be over, but we
may now hope that it will all be settled peace-
ably. The discussions which are to follow will
be over comparatively minor issues, nor does
there seem reason for apprehending that there will
be serious disagreement as to these. We have no
wish to triumph over Russia. Rather we would
seek to do justice to her good sense and moderation,
though they have been somewhat late in displaying
themselves. Of the attitude of our own representa-
tives we can speak with leas reserve. It is to their
firmness that we owe what we may venture to look
upon as a solution of the Eastern Question. It was
for this that unlimited powers were confided to them
by both Houses of Parliament, and they have shown
good proof that they were not undeserving of the
trust.

Let us look now at the state of affairs as they are
likely to be left when the Congress has done sitting.
Russia and Turkey, as the principals in the late war,
demand the first notice. The result may very well be
looked upon as a great gain to both of them. Turkey
will lose territory, but she will be left more compact,
more easily defensible, more cohesive. If she is placed
in some degree under European tutelage, it will be for
her advantage that it will be exercised. She will have
no reason to regret being deprived of the right of
doing wrong. She has tempted aggression by her mis-
government in the past. Let her learn to govern
well in the regions that will remain to her and she
will be safe for the future. But what, it will be
asksd, is Russia to receive as the reward of her vast
sacrifices? She has waged a successful war, has
brought her enemy to his knees, and has wrung a
treaty from him, which opened out for her a scheme ef
almost limitless ambition. This she has consented to
renounce, but she need not renounce with it the more
unselfish objects at which she professed to be aiming.
She may bear a part in the amelioration in the state of
the Christian subjects of Turkey which tnay be expected
to follow the arrangements of the Congress. Europe
can take up the Eastern Question at the point where
it was left by the abortive Conference at Constanti-
nople, and this with better information and with more
experience than were then forthcoming. That Russia
should be restrained from schemes of ambition that
would be almost equally disturbing to herself
and to those against whom they were directed is a
clear and distinct benefit. The rest of the Great
Powers have less direct concern with the settlement
we are now looking for. England asks for nothing
for herself She demands only that she shall not be
endal,ered by the aggression of any other Power.
When this point is secured to her, she has no other
care than to employ her influence for the common
benefit. To widen the sphere within which good
government and national prosperity can prevail is the
object which she can now set before her. The
attainment of this is the first condition of the
permanent settlement of the Eastern Question,
and, as far as this is reached, it will make
it impossihe for any other Power to re-open
the old quarrel and again to put in peril
the common weal of Europe. That Austria will
receive some acession of territory in the general
scheme of settlement has been foreseen long ago.
Bosnia and Herzegovina are, so toisay, the solid bodies
which fill up and complete her border line on the
Adriatic. They will be some compensation to her for
the loss of her Italian provinces' and may enable her
to develope and extend her trade in a way she has
been unable to do hitherto from her ports.
But what all Europe is looking for most eagerly is
the final settlement of the Eastern Question. Com-
pared with this, all else is of very secondary conse-
quence. It is not to be borne that we should be for
ever pestered and drawn off from attention to our own
affairs by the recurring nevessity of looking after the
affairs of other people. The South-East of Europe
has occupied us long enough. Our wish now is to get
rid of the subject, and it is a wish which the rest of
Europe shares with us. The arrangements under
whi;li Greece may be satisfied and Montenegro
may remain tranquil, and the Christians of the East
may be free from oppression at the hands of their
Turkish rulers, are amonw those which the Congress
has still to deal with. They are most important, but
when they are once made we shall be justly intolerant
of any attempt to overturn them. Some changes we
must expect as time passes, and as young nations grow
up to maturity. But what we shall not suffer will
be the forcible and mischievous endeavour to upset
the conclusions at which the Berlin Congress
will arrive. Whatever it may say will be for
us the last wold on the Eastern Qlestion. We
shall have our own share in the utterance, and it will
be firmly and unmistakeably pronounced. When the
substantial grievances have been taken away that
have been at the root of the trouble in South-Eastern
Europe the Eastern Question ought to disappear with
them. The xcuse will be wanting for any attempt to
revive it, and to revive it without excuse and with
added difficulties in the way of approaching it is more
than the thost restlessly ambitious Power is likely soon
to venture upon.

Monday's telegrams from Berlin report a consider-
able improvement in the prospect of a successful issue
to the Congress. After a crisis which began at the
meeting of the Plenipotentiaries on Wednesday in last
week, and was not brought to an end until the receipt
of telegraphic &deices from Russia late on Friday night,
it is now stated that the prospect of a substantial and
durable peace has greatly improved, and the firm
front presented by the English representatives has en-
sured for them a triumph. Several da7s ago two rival
schemes for the disposal of Turkey in Europe were pro-
pounded by Lord Salisbury, and Count Schouvaloff.
Russia has at length decided, subject to certain con-
ditions respecting Itcrumelia, to adopt the English
plan, by which the new Bulgaria will be bounded by
the Balkans, and will include Varna. There is much
excitement in St. Petersburg on account of this con-
cession, for which Count Schouvaloff is held personally
responsible. It is thought likely that the Congress
will last three or four weeks longer, and to corroborate
this idea one telegram mentions that the Prime
Minister has called to Berlin several English officials
wit)? whom he desires to consult regarding domestic
affairs.

, the Correspondent
Writing from Berlin on the 23rd
. of The Times says :
" At last the Congress has come to an important decision,
and one of the rocks on which the negotiations seemed likely
to he shipwrecked has been passed in safety..
" yesterday's sittine the southern frontier of Bulgaria
was determined. The I,ne runs from a point in the Black
Sea a little to the south a Varna, along the main Balkan