The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-10-15

DANIEL webster enlisted the sympathtes OF the
American people in behalf OF the insurrection-
ary Greeks. When Mustapha Pacha now woos
the Ievolte Cretans back to their allegiance
with strains which mildly echo the persuasive
appeals of DoctorGeneral Butler to the people
OF Louisiana, an instinct of consistency may
naturally enough restrain American statesmen
from hastily advocating the cause of Rebels
What is it to us now that the "olives
OF Attica be wasted and the vines of
Samos Iampled by the Turk Yn' It is
true that MIR. Stewards commissioner-ex-
traordinary, Mr.. Assistant Secretary of the
Navy Fox, has offered the alliance of the
United States to the Car over n battery of
champa gne corks at Moscow; and that Rus
sian, Journalists, taking the will OF Fox for the
deed of America, are loudly encouraging the
Pan Hellenst subjects of the Sultan to- rise
everywhere upon their tyrant, and are threat
ening Western Europe with a new crusade of
the Greek Cross, in which the. fleets OF the
American Union shall keep the Bosphorus
against the iron.clads of France and England
while the monitors of Alexander III perform
the less a1duous but equally honorable task OF
protecting American int ierests in the BaIt,c -
by defending Cronstadt and st. Petersburg
But so Tar are the masses OF the American
people nom responding TO these noble outcries
OF Heilenic patrlc';Sin and Of Muscovite enthu-
slasm, that not even by the news of AN Anglo
French interference to prevent the Porte from
cedlng an island in the Egean Sea as n naval
station to the United States, can we be stimu-
i iated INTO oestoWing so much attention upon
the present aspects OF the Eastern question:
IN Europe as its actual and prospective inn
porance TO all civilized Chrstendom really
deserves For when we find Count Bismark
putting II forward as an urgent reason why
the Legislature of Prussia should vote
the Government a loan of sixty millions of
thalers, that "the Eastern question threatens
Europe with new and perilous complications
ana Prlnce GortschakoH posting from st. Peters
burg to the Pyrenees to confer with the EN-
peror Napoleon over the magical waters of
BlarrltZ, we may be sure that the Russian cir
cular announcing to Europe the emancipation
OF the Gar from the treaties OF 1856 was based
upon full provision of coming contingencies
and that the Eastern question is indeed even
now bringing forth for the world a season of
storm and stress still more prodigious than the
tempest which, rising, a cloud no bigger than a
mans hand, in little schleswig- Hoistein, has
this year broken in thunder over all Central
Europe.
1t is very likely that the stories now every.
where current OF revolt and disaiTection among
the Christians of Turkey are purposely exag-
gerated. One OF the leading journals of Eng
land, indeed, does not hesitate TO tax the Rus.
slams and Mr. Reuter- with inventing between
them pretty much the whole revolution of the
children OF Jupiter in Crete. Mercury, we know,
was as sad romancer under his Greek name of
Hermes as under his Western title, and ST, Paul
quotes with approval the Cretan poet who brands
his countrymen as "evil beasts, . and always
liars" But it needs only 6gmeat of revolu-
tion to disturb 6gment of order; and the rule
vi tue luTkb III Europe mas come 10 De so entirely
matter OF political expedency and diplo-
matte skill on the part of the European
powers which have heretofore had an in
terest in keeping it up, that if France, and Aus
tra, and Russia choose 10 consider European
Turkey to be in state of insurrection, European
Turkey, to all intents and purposes, will really
be in such state. The heterogeneous character
Of the Christian populations of European Tur-
key, by making 1t certain that no new, and
preat. and orderly and respectable Christian
State could possibly emerge from the dissolution
of the Ottoman dominion, has heretofore made
it obvious that il the camp of the Turks on the
Bosphorus should be broken up, and the sue
| cessors of Mahmoud the Victorious should be
| driven from the throne which for iour centuries
| they have filled, Russia would have far better
chance than any other European power OF ad-
| ministering upon the estate of Abdul-AZiz.
But the events OF the present year, which
| have so greatly modified the position of the two
| great German powers, have put new face upon
| things in the East Prussia, advanced to the
| practical leadership of Germany, has both a
| larger interest than she ever had before, and
Wields more ample means, toIcurb the develop
ment OF the gigantic empire with which she
must hencefoTth dispute the control of the
| Baltic Sea. Austria, definitely pressed to the
eastward and Italy, converted by the acquis
tion Of Yenetia from the deadly foe into the
| probable future ally OF Austria in the Mediter
| ranean, have ow joint interest with France
and England in preventing the appearance at
| Constantinope of a flag which already flies
| from the mouths OF the Neva to the shores ol
the Pacific, and from the White Sea to the
| Black. Under these new conditions of the
| Eastern problem, it is beginning to be as deeI
| rable as it has heretofore been undesirable fol
| Western and Central Europe that the anomalous
| and provisional situation OF the Christian pro-
| vinces OF Turkey should be brought to an end.
For Russia decisive settlement OF the East
| elm question in the immediate future pref tJ
| clearly means the definite defeat of all the Rus
sian designs upon Constantinople and the Bos
phorus; but Russian statesmen OF the annexa
| ZIONIST type may very plausibly persuade
themselves that if any hope whatever ye
| remains TO Russia, it must be clutched at once
| and while the triple Transformation of Italy and
| Germany and Austria is still in the incipient
| stages. One OF the points most vital to the
success OF Russia in the game she has been SC
long waiting TO play Tor the Turkish inheritance
has already been snatched from her at the crisis
OF the recent German war by the far-sghted
French =, sovereign, when the people Q
agents to elect Prince Charles of Hohen
| zollern as their hereditary ruler or Hos
podar; and Prince Charles thus elected
was persuaded by French diplomat to taxi
his carpet-bag and galop to Bucharest betor
either the Sultan or the Kaiser or the Gar yer,
clearly knew what had actually been DONE BY
this move not only has a barrier been set up il
the face OF the Russian vanguard on the Danube
but the ambition of Austria has been turned
towards the Balkan and the Bosphorus from the
Lower Danube and the Black Sea- and the Pan
Hellenic dream OF q new Byzantine empire has
been CONFRONTED by perlls more direct than thos
OF Russian protectorate As no one of the
powers directly interested in the future of Euro
pean Turkey therefore, has anything of conse
| quence to gain by the perpetuation of the stat,
OF things established IN 1856, and as the mos
| ambitious and uneasy of these powers Prussia
has everything to lose from a protected anl
| pacific development of the new elements now n
| word in the Levant it is altogether nrobabl
poth tnat the Eastern question" will be rapid
| forced into the foreground of European noIitics
| and that the resources of dinlomocy ,ryiii n