The Express.
London, England, 1866-09-17 00:00:00

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

(THIS DAY.)

TURKEY AND OREM.
Observing that the revolt of the Greek popula-
tion in the largest of the islands and in some of the con-
tinental provinces of the Ottoman empire begins to bear
all the appearance of a preconcei:ecl national movement,
the Times connects it with the final success of the struggle
for independence in Italy and the rapid development of
the principle of nationality in Germany. The peace of
Prague cut short the diversion in the Levant by which the
attack of Italy upon Austria was to have been aided, and
seems to have launched the Greeks into an ente.,nise of
which they have neither well defined the object nor calcu-
lated the issue. Having noticed the appearance of
America in the East as a cordial ally of
Russia the Times proceeds to remark that how-
ever soon the ruling Ottoman race may be driven
from its European possessions, it is difficult to conceive
how its place can be filled by a nation numerically so weak
as the Greeks, and by its restless and discordant instincts
so little intended to rule itself or others. That Turkey
should be compelled to conjure the present storm by
giving up Candle, if its subjugation were to cost her too
vast an amount of bloodshed, may not be altogether
impossible ; but if out of the Cretan insurrection, or out
of the movements in Epirus or Thessaly, anything like a
general European complication were to arise, we shall con-
clude that there are under those apparently local attempts
secret agencies at work, of which we as yet know nothing,
but which have far other objects in view than the further-
ance of the interests of Greek nationality, and from
which Greece in the end will gain but little of what
Turkey may forfeit.
That the sick man at Constantinople should have
survived the sick man at Vienna is a fact, says the Daily
News, which no one a few years back would have foreseen.
But the fate of the Kaiser only prefigures that of the
Sultan. None but those who believe that diplomacy is

stronger than the ties of blood and religion can have
fancied that the Themaliens, the Epirota, and the Can-
diens, who bore their full share in the war of indepen-
dence in 1821, would consent permanently to be excluded

from its benefits. The appeal of the Candians to the
President of the United States betrays a singular igno-
rance of the policy and of the influence in Europe of the
American republic, but it may be explained by the recent
demonstrations of friendship between Russia and America
and by the despair which the Candians feel in the sym-
pathy of the three protecting powers. In Candle, at the
present moment, the Christians are more than twice the
number of the Mahousetans. The land is pas►ing entirely
into their hands, and the monde of the population exhibits
a corresponding improvement. The condition of the Grecian
monarchy with which they seek to be united is not satis-
factory ; but nations, like individuals, must get into many
scrapes and undergo no little suffering in passing from
childhood to manhood. Distracted by troubles in the
Lebanon, the Sultan is believed to be on the point of
handing over Candice to Egypt, but a general revolt of the
Christian subjects of Turkey is too likely to follow the
adoption of this course. Already the King of Greece has
declared that be is king not of Greece only hut of all the
Greeks ; and that he cannot and will not prevent his sub-
jects from aiding their suffering brethren. Lord Stanley
may presently have an excellent opportunity of justifying
his appointment to the Foreign-office, and of showing what
he means by non-intervention.
The Star thinks a struggle between the conflicting ele-
ments of the Turkish empire must come sooner or later,
and if the Turks are defeated, and the Christian popula-
tions attain their just rights, the result must be beneficial
to the world. All we can wish for is that the struggle,
when it does come, may at once assume such proportions
as to make the war as brief and as bloodless as its nature
will permit. One di.ty only is ours in such an emergency,
to cease to afford by advice or otherwise the smallest en-
. mairagement to the Turkish rule.