The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-12-17
THE NEW MORALITY or MA TT0Es.

From the Pail Mall Gazette.
1t would be wasting words to show at length
that the criminality of Russia consists not SO
much in her breaking the, international en-
gagementS OF 1856 as the reasons she gives
for breaking them. Nations occasionally
break treaties, just as men commit breaches
Of morality, upon sudden impulse, or what
they wish to be considered assudden impulse;
but the man who sins past pardon, and who
infiicts deep injury on society, is he who in
cold blood declares that there is no such thing
as morality, or that if there is, he does
not intend to be bound by it.
If Russia. has found pretext, how
ever trivial, for declaring war against
Turkey, and proclaiming herself free from
her engagements as the consequence of war,
she would have injured the permanent inte-
rests of mankind far less than she has done
by the astounding doctrine that so much of
international law as is founded on treaties no
longer involves the moral obligations attached
to it in former times, If such principle is
to obtain, the prospects of Europe are gloomy
indeed. The sky was already black with the
pent-up passions of nations or lurid with
their furious explosion; and now the very
earth opens under our feet through the per-
fidy of Russia.
Next to the action of the British Govern
ment the policy of the Prussian Government
is the most interesting subject of spscula-
ton. 1t is too busy for material but not for
moral influence. We have stated in detail
what are the indications of completely with
Russia oD the part Of the Prussian Court and
Foreign Office; and oven if these indica-
tions are deceptive, there are plenty of rea-
sons for suspecting that there will be at
least German federation of the Russian breach
of treaty. The Germans have made many
pretensions since they put forth the military
xlyhin hod Cn af,tlIx
banded, but there is nothing to show that
they have ceased to be absolutely in the
hands OF the Prussian reigning house, which
has lately shown a singular avidity for the
honors and decorations showered
upon it by its Russian kinsmen. The
class which supplies the officers who have
done such good service In the war with
France processes an hereditary devotion to
the Government of the Czsr; and both among
the people and the public men of Germany
there is plenty of dislike to Austria, the
power materially injured, and of spitefulness
to England, the power morally outraged, by
this great act of bad faith. Yet, on the other
hand, If Germany can replace petty motives
by large ones, and rise to the level of the
elevation to which her successes have raised
her, there are many reasons why she should
regard the blow as aimed more directly at
herself than at any other power. The great
bribe offered to Germany is probably pre-
ponderance, and specially maritime prepon-
deranoe, in the West, for which the
return is to be the concession of
unlimited opportunities to Russia
in the East. But the opportunities for an
aggressive power in Eastern Europe are int
nitely greater than for power whose sphere
is the West. II the nations of Western
Europe arm themselves after the German
fashion, as it seems certain that they will,
the effort demanded by warfare will be too
great for anything but the greatest exigen-
cies. Russia will be the only power adapted
for the sort of war which will lead to the
gradual diBmemberment of the Turkish en-
pire; and this process she proposes to put in
operation unfettersd by the disapprobation
of Western countries, and even unshackled
by her own express promises 10 take, or not
to take, particular course. The great power
thus cOiled round Europe will have room for
movement and expansion altogether denied
to the most eminent and active Of Western
nations. For Russia, il must be remem-
bered, will advance, if not now checked,
with new resource which may
help her more effectually even
than her own armies than the weakness of
Turkey, or than the sympathies OF the Chris
tian populations of the East. She has called
to her aid an Oriental morality. The varnish
placed over her doctrines through the French
In which they are conveyed cannot conceal
the fact that they belong essentially to the
same moral code which was followed by the
Mahratta Sivagee when he drove his iron
tiger-claw into the vitals of the enesny whom
he had lured into friendly conference No
power whose civilization is of the really
NnT a