The New York herald., 1876-08-18
Turkey and Serxia.


The news of the war in the East has in it
to-day grain of comfort.for those who SYM
pathize with the efforts of the Christian
populations to resist the force of the domi-
nant Moslem. On the Montenegrin frontier
force of five thousand Turks has been
beaten In the attempt to storm fortified
position. Reports of this kind might have
been far more frequent in the history of this
war if the Servians had been we'll handled.
AS it is the Montenegrins score all the sue
cesses 1t is true that this may be due to
the fact that the Turks assail with their
choicer forces that resistance which they
deem the most likely to be Of Importance
and regard the operations on the Monte
negrin line as of less immediate moment !;
but from whatever point of view it may be
regarded the resistance to Islamism in the
disturbed districts has been q disappoint-
ment to all who were prepared to welcome
the end of Turkish supremacy in Europe.
The crisis of the Servian war cannot be
delayed great while, and but that it is
war in extraordinary circumstances it's inev-
liable result would be already clearly ap-
parent 1t did not seem possible in the
commencement of this struggle that Prince
Milan could plunge into an offensive war
against the Porte without the certainty of
support from great neighbor to supplement
at the proper moment his own evidently
insufficient resources. Therefore it did not
seem to the world at large that he had taken
a desperate step. On the contrary, for
Servia to wage war on Turkey, with q great
nation Like Russia looking on benevolently
while Servia was successful and ready to
interfere il the tide should turn against
her, seemed to Europe generally an un-
dertaking SO safe that the success of
Servia was regarded as foregone con-
clusion. But it must be judged from the
event that the Servian prince could have had
no reason whatever to anticipate from Russia
any other than the moral support of SYM
pathy and good will, and that therefore, his
course was in the highest degree rash and
extravagant. His own army has been shown
to practically worthless, and uninterrupted
success has enabled the soldiers of the Sui
tan to reach such position that the war
cannot be continued, in the military sense,
as q series Of operations of army against
army. though it may be as the desperate
struggle Of o people who see before
them no alternative but the desolation
Of their country and the butchery of their
families or savage warfare of the guerilla
sort. 1t is too late to look for any such
efficient aid from st. Petersburg as it was
thought would certainly come when needed,
and the point of next importance now is to
know how far the great Powers will go in
preventing Turkey from exercising the pre-
negatives of q conqueror over her PROSTATE
enemy. Europe never thought of giving the
Porte any guarantees against Servia there
fore, under the public law of Europe, Servia
did not forfeit any rights in her as
sault on the Porte; but a number
Of treaties guarantee the position of
Servia against the hostility of the Porte, and
that, it will presently be seen, will greatly
limit the vengeance Of the victor. In fact,
inasmuch as Servia is a tributary Power, her
war on Turkey is really rebellion, while
the attempt of Turkey to do more than sup
press Servian resistance would be an act in
defiance of the Treaty of Paris and the other
public acts which guarantee Servian au-
tonomy. Therefore no serious change can
result from the Turkish triumph unless the
Porte is prepared to force an intervention
against itself from which it has hitherto been
saved, probably, by British diplomacy.
The Foul Croton Water.