The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-10-07


the consequences" The traveller whose
words we have cited learned enough to
prompt him to exclaim :-"May the freedom
Of speech and liberty enjoyed in Turkey never
be supplanted by Cossack violence! Flrmans
declaring all men equal before the law, though
imperfectly executed, are infinitely preferable
&c aa..snotic ukases asserting the divine right
of absoution, and wrissssc, if naada be. in hui
man blood" Our traveller might have been
still more emphatic in his expressions had he
not moderated the Turkish reforms and failed
to anticipate the development which they have
since attained, thanks to the system of public
instruction entirely remodeled in l847, to the
education Of many sons Of rich Osmanlis in
Paris and other western capitals, and to the
partial introduction of those mighty agents Of
modern civilization-the printing press, steam
power and the telegraph. Who shall predict
what the common schools, colleges and
newspapers in Turkey may yet effect in modi-
flying its internal political and social condi-
ton! Notwithstanding the startling rumor
which the ocean cable brought yesterday, that
conspiracy had been discovered to dethrone
Abdul Axis, the reigning Sultan-a conspiracy
doubtless instigated by stubborn and fanatical
opponents of the party Of progress-it is GER
tain that the reforms initiated in Turkey can
not be permanently obstructed.
Meanwhile the external relations of Turkey
will doubtless be changed by causes which
have been but very recently set in active opera
ton, and which, together with the causes at
work on the European Continent as manifested,
for instance, in the late Spanish revolution,
must ultimately affect all international relations
throughout the world. We allude particularly
to suoh events as the approaching completion
of tho Pacific Railroad across our Continent,
the opening of steamship and telegraphic com-
munication between San Francisco and the
ports Of China and Japan, and the
Inauguration of intimate diplomatic and
commercial Intercourse between the lifted
States and the East. These causes, which
wi eventually make the United States the
grand central Power among the nations, will
necessarily tend to change the traditional
policy OF Russia so completely as to divert the
eye of the Cars from Constantinople, that
long-coveted prize lying at the union of two
seas and two continents, ''like diamond
between two sapphires," and to fix it upon
those remote Asiatic possessions which are
either to be retained or won. The Russians,
''those flaxen-haired children of the North"
have long hoped one day, from Achalzik, on
the southern slope OF the Caucasus, to descend
in one direction to the mouths Of the Tigris
and the Euphrates and in another to the
Mediterranean and the Bosphorus. They have
been ambitious both s'to water their horses
along the Hellespont and to sbakcthe rupee
trees Of India" But in view of the great
changes which must be wrought
by the new Chinese American policy, the Rus
slams will be constrained to sacrifice one of
these ambitions In order to satisfy the other.
Thus Turkey will cease to be bone of con-
tention for the Powers of Western Europe, and
the much vexed Eastern question will sink and
disappear beneath the flood Of changes which
is destined to sweep over the nations of the
globe.