The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1876-05-21

but because several Powers were prepared to
deny themselves small advantage in order
that they might all agree in denying to Rus
STA such an opportunity for ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
as would give her an overwhelming impor-
lance at certain critical points of the earth's
surface. They had done then as they are
likely to do now. and as nations will per-
hsps always do in the same circumstances,
they had quarrelled over the division of that
which would become their plumber at any
moment that they could agree how to divide
it. There were other difficulties beside the
control of Russia in the case, for every
Power wished the daintier morsels of the
meal. and agreement was impossible. They
therefore guaranteed the integrity" OF the
property in the hands Of the Sultan. In other
words, they signed a mutual obligation not to
divide this property between themselves and
not to permit any one of the number to vio-
lently help himself to any one or more of the
valuable corner lots or water fronts. Russia's
Republication of this obligation brought about
the Crimean war. tho result of which proved
that the Emperor Nicholas did net judge
happily of the propitious moment for freeing
himself from international obligations, and
that no was not SO well advised in that par
ticular as was tho Emperor who tore up the
Treaty of Paris.
For thirty-five years, therefore tho Sultan's
house has admittedly stood upon that very
trcacherous quicksand, the balance of power
in Europe. His guarantee was the appre-
hension that each Power had of every other.
In SO far as certain governments saw their
own safety in his safety. and feared for
themselves that others would attain dan
gerous greatness which could only be at
tanned at his expense, 80 far, no doubt, tho
guarantee thus given to the Ottoman SOW
ereignty was substantial one and was
vigiantly guarded. But the balance of
power in Europe is subject to many acct
dents, and the Power whose continued ex-
istence depends only upon the preservation
Of that balance in the condition in which it
stood at any given date in the century is pre-
cariously placed. AS matter OF fact the
balance of power in Europe is now so widely
different from what it was at the time Of the
Crimean war that if Russia should repeat the
provocation to that conflict she would find
herself confronted by different adversaries
from those that opposed her then, or by
none capable of arresting her advance.
France cannot be counted as on the scene
for any warlike contingency SO remote from
her own frontiers and England, much the
wiser for her experience in that struggle,
cannot be launched into another war like it,
either as q financial speculation for the res
cue Of Turkey or through the Russophobia
of Oriental traders. How much the balance
of power must be changed when England
and France are taken out of tho scale on one
side let the history of those countries tell.
Has the Ottoman government any more
hope to stand by its own strength now than
it had when it was only guaranteed as
condition to the balance of 1871? On the
contrary, it is in every respect more helpless.
1t was the penetration of the barbarous
Asiatic system by European ideas that first
impaired its vigor, and this operation has
not only been continuous but far more
effective within the years since 1841 than for
centuries before. In some of the great rivers
of Siberia which run toward the Polar seas
but which are rather glaciers than rivers
there are found, as the ice breaks up at the
sea, the gigantic remains of species Of
elephant that once fourished on the upper
waters of those rivers, but which has been
extinct for ages Those carcasses have been
kept in the ice indefinitely, and ivory hunt
ers now utilize the product And the
Turkish Power, founded on superstition and
tho sword-the product of the Asiatic wilder
ness-could only persist in circumstances as
remote from every inimical influence as
those that thus preserved tho ancient deni-
zens of the Asiatic forests. Brought into
Europe, exposed to the blaze of a constantly
advancing civilization, put side by side and
face to face with nations in which all actions
are under the influence of contemporary
thought, tho Turkish Power is in much the
Same position that one Of those elephant car.
casses would be in if exposed to the rays of
tropical sun. 1t promises to disappear with
much offence to the nostrils Of humanity.
From the tables of the Turkish Malae or
Minister of Finance, which are only approx
nations to satisfactory statistics, there are
forty-one million Turkish subjects, which
count includes the twelve millions Of popu-
lation in the countries that are tributary to
the Padishah, but cannot be called integral
parts Of his dominion. Twenty-nine mill
ions is, therefore, properly tho population
Of tho Empire. Twelve millions Of these
inhabit Turkey in Europe. Taken on the
whole count for all the countries called
Turkish there are only three Mussulmans
to two Christians-the number of Mussul-
mans of all races, Ottomans, Slavs, Kurds,
Tartars, &c, being twenty-four millions and
the number of Christians of the Eastern
Church being fifteen and half millions,
with about one million of Roman Catholics.
But this proportion, in which the Christians