The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-10-14 00:00:00

'tottrtitibte 0115ertnr.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1876.

THE QUESTION OF THE EAST.

It is just three-and-twenty years ago—the
declining months of 1853—that the dispute
known as the Eastern Question began to force
itself npon the minds of the people of this
country ia a substantial form. Before that it
had been merely a study for statesmen and
diplomatists, had been dealt with in protocols
despatches, and had made up many a volume
in the archives of the Foreign Office. But
when the old difficulty, about which the people
hitherto had troubled themselves but little,
threatened to involve the country in a war, the
nation thought it might be just as well to know
what it was about, and the result was the
diffusing of a mass of information respecting
the dispute between Turkey and Russia in the
matter of the Holy Places, the claim of the
Emperor Nicholas to the protectorate of the
Sultan's Christian subjects, the lands watered
by the Danube, the boundary line of the Pruth,
the interest which Great Britain had in keeping
the Muscovite out of Constantinople, the im-
portance, to the Emperor Napoleon of feeding
the French nation with political glory, and the
necessity of preventing Russia from becoming
an all-absorbing, all-conquering Power in
Europe. It is less than a quarter of a century
ago—a period which, although a considerable
addition to the age of a man, is but a speck in
the history of a State. Yet in that time
mighty changes have been wrought both at
home and abroad. At home Ministry has suc-
ceeded Ministry ; and such has been the havoc
wrought by death in the ranks of our public
men, that of all the members of the Aberdeen
Administration under whose auspices the
Russian war was declared, Mr. Gladstone is the
only one left with a seat in the House of Com-
mons. The Earl of Aberdeen, Lord Cram.
worth, Viscount Palmerston, the Earl of Claren-
don, the Duke of Newcastle, Sir James
Graham Mr. Sidney Herbert, Sir William
Moleworlh, the Marquis of Lansdowne, Viscount
Canning,and Lord Stanley of Alderley are all
dead. Earl Russel, the Duke of Argyll, Earl
Granville, Viscount Halifax, Viscount Cardwell
and Lord Belper are in the House of Lords ;
and Sir George Grey has retired from Parlia-
mentary life. Abroad the Emperor Napoleon,
who had beest upon the throne of France such a
short time in 1853, gradually became the most
Influential sovereign upon the Continent. In
1859, after having beaten Austria out of
Lombardy, he was at the height of hi a power.
Then with the gradual development of the
ambition of Prussia, his influence began slowly
but surely to decline, until in 1870 it collapsed
altogether, and having been driven from his
throne, he died an exile upon the shores of the
country which had armed itself as a protection
from a possible invasion by the monarch who at
last sought its shelter. The controversy over
the Eastern question of to-day, is therefore car-
ried on under conditions widely varying from
those of three-and-twenty years ago. France
is not now ruled by a sovereign anxious to go to
war for an idea, that idea being the consolida-
tion of his throne upon the substantial basis of
military renown. Germany is no longer a
heterogenotia collection of divided states, but a
colossal empire in the heart of Europe. Italy,
too, is no longer a phantom, nor is it a mere
geographical expression. In the last Crimean
War Sardinia fought by the side of England,
France, . and Turkey, the prescient statesmen
by whom she was ruled seeing enough that the
vast resources of the Western Powers must
prevail, and that when the time came to make a
struggle for Italian independence, the cause
would have the support of both England and
France. The time did come, and to-day we
find Italy enrolled amongst the great Powers of
Europe.
Seeing, therefore, that France is now neither
ableznor willing to stand by the side of England
in fighting Russia, that Sardinia, having
blossomed into the Italian kingdom, would now
have no object in going to war with ulterior
motives of assistance, and that popular feeling
in this country is no longer on the side of the
Moslem, it is obvious that Great Britain, in her
efforts to settle the Eastern question, must look
rather to a general concurrence of the Great
Powers than to the help of particular allies,
such as was vouchsafed to her in 1851. At the
same time it requires no great degree of political
perception to be aware that such concurrence
must be a matter of extreme difficulty, so
varied and conflicting are the interests of the
nations. The British people are demanding
what is called the autonomy of the Turkish
insurgent provinces, and their formation into
self-governing States such as Rouniania. But
of this the Hungarians would be jealous, and
therefore Austria finds it dangerous if not
impossible to accede to it. Russia would like
freedom of access for her ships of war to the
Bosphorous. but this would not suit the views
of Great Britain. And it is plainly enough seen
that the Turkish Government is disposed to
resent what it looks upon as an attempt at
dictation on the part of the Powers as to how it
should deal with its revolted subjects. The
Sultau'a Ministers say in eff. ct to the British
Ambassador at Constantinople " You demand
certain concessions to our Christian subjects.
In
1857 your Mahoundan subjects in India
revolted against British rule. How would you
have liked us then to have gone to your
Ministers and told them how in future
is
were
the followers of the faithful ?i This s more
specious than convincing, for Turkey never
went to war to secure a.ny. rights for the
Mahotnedans of Ind.•
la, and 18 under no treaty
to see that they are properly governed. Be
sides, lz.. kit rule in Itt:tiA is very dill'
from the Turkish yoke in lulgari,,
.Atositon tt. tt an't is ti uecidedly ugl
customer to deal with even at the best of times):
Yet toe t ot a.ljustiug tho present difficulty
ought not to I.e beyond the capacities of the
statesmen in Enrc,po to-day. Tee greater the
ditli ii:v to an caft:tp.:tn., ;ill- niore is the triumph
when t nas been surmounted ; ant if this be so
in the domains of materialism, the principle
should apply in a al uch greater degree in a case
where the question at issue is not the construc-
tion of a bridge, but the contentment and happi-
nese of millions of human beings.

THE IRON TRADE.

‘VOLVERITAMPTON, WEDNESDAY.
QUARTERLY 1111-4:ETING OF IRON-
MASTERS.

WOLVERHAMPTON, Wecluesday.—The first
quarterl,y meeting cf the enrrent seiies WeS
litht this afternoon, at the Exchange in this
town, and there was is large and influential
Attendance. No alteration ILI prim was do.