The New York herald., 1876-09-22
Europ. and tn. Eastern Question.

Belgrade, md at another Europe seems
likely to be shaken by the tramp of Russian
armies. English correspondents allege that
the Servian army is Russianized and the
Servians retort that the Turkish army is
Anglicized and that the Turkish staff is
mainly English-which, Of the Turkish staff
seems to be good one, is probably true.
All the reports differ as to the source from
which they come, and the only one that is
especially grave is the one which indicates
q possible violation of the truce. There is a
great deal of passion on either side, and to
maintain a truce in such circumstances is
not easy; while if the Russian people are
really filling the Servian army they would
perhaps be happy to have the Turks furnish
pretext for an immediate renewal of hos
tilities, inasmuch as the truce now benefits
them less than it does the Turks.
1t is now little more than fourteen
months since we had the first intimation of
trouble in the Herzegovina country. What
was then simply local irritation has
become one of the important Issues OF
the time. 1t is not surprising, consid-
ering the antagonism of race and religion
in the Turkish principalities for generations
past, that we should have at any time an
issue involving the peace of Europe and
more or less, the prosperity of the whole
world. Ever since the time of Peter the
Great the policy of Russia has been the
aggrandizement of its Empire by the oc-
cupation of Constantinople. This was
the bribe offered to Napoleon at Tilsit
by the Russian Gear Alexander as the
price of an imperial alliance. 1t was this
ambition, as alleged, that led to the Crimean
war. Whatever may be said by ministers
representing the Russian Emperor or the
British Queen the living issue under all
tons is whether Russian or English power
shall gain the mastery of the East.
The policy Of England in dealing with
Turkey represents that slavish dependence
upon the traditions of Lord Palmerston
which truculent English statesmen are apt
to mistake for ''vigor." Whenever England
has done just thing, as in dealing with
America on the Alabama question; whenever
this justice has initiated against English
interests or English pride, the cry has risen
that England had fallen upon an age of
pedlers and not of statesmen, and that such
things never would have been permitted in
Lord Palmerston's day. When Mr.. Disraeh
challenged the supremacy Of Gladstone at
the close of the last session of Parliament
the most effective point in his campaign was
the charge that the liberals had degraded
England by unworthy concessions to foreign
Powers. Ever since he has been in the
Premiership it has been his aim to win that
reputation for ''vigor" which was the high
est claim of Lord Pnlmerston's memory to
the esteem of Englishmen. This attitude
of "vigor" is shown in the dealings
of England with Russia on the Turk
ish question. It has forced England
into position very much like what it occu-
pied during our own civil war. In the
course of that war England, which had been
ostentatiously the champion Of freedom, be-
came the apologist and ally of the slave
holder Awar for the perpetuation of slavery
found support in the money and sympathies
of Englishmen. BY singular faulty tho
English government is now supporting the
cause of the Turkish banditti, the desolators
of Christian towns and the murderers of
Christian communities in Turkey.
But power has arisen in England which
even Lord Palmerston could scarcely have
withstood-the power of public opinion
represented by the independent press. Eng
land has awakened to consciousness of
Al, ~ hat <ba ssv,r rcO Of ho~
administration is really degrading policy;
that the Turk in Europe is an anomaly
in civilization; that, to use the rude and
homely figure of speech which has become
prominent in the present discussion, the
Turk is a hog who destroys what he cannot
eat by lying down upon it. From all Eng
land protests rise against the policy of Lord
Derby. The liberals are gaining new
strength by appealing to this sentiment.
Mr.. Gladstone's pamphlet promises to exer-
else as potent an influence in shaping pub
lie opinion as his letter against Bomba did
in establishing Italian unity and indepen-
dence.
The British government suffers more and
more as its policy finds expression, and we
are convinced that nothing but the proroga-
ton of Parliament saves the Ministry from
overthrow. 1t is hard to make an impress
sion upon a tory majority, but even that
majority cannot always be insensible to the
rising tides of public opinion.
The effect of this revolution in English
opinions SO far as Turkey is concerned,
will be felt in Russia, where we have
another phenomenon in the general devel-
opment of Slavic sympathy. Those who
remember the sudden changes of pub
lie opinion which took place in this
country on the slavery question in
1860 and 1861 will realize what is now taking
place in Russia. Then the North was swept