New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1876-10-19
N CASE or UiR.

The crisis in Europe has reached point
where nothing but the immediate submission
of Turkey to the demands of Russia can pre-
vent the beginning Of war on larger and
more threatening scale. Russia has shown
great shrcwdness i'll presenting virtually the
same terms, including guarantees for the re-
forms demanded as those of England, which
Turkey has already rejected. She thus rules
the former Power out Of the negotiations,
until she has received her answer. If the
Ottoman Government, recognizing at the very
latest moment the extreme gravity OF the stu
alton, should yield to her what 1t denied to
England, she will achieve a diplomatic tn
umph. If it should not yield, she will have a
plausible excuse for uniting with SeINia and
assisting the oppressed Christian subjects of
Turkey by force of arms. The vantage ground
which Russia has secured, chiefly through the
laundering policy of the English Government,
is now apparent to all Europe, and is the
cause of that general dsquictudc which has
eliminated i'll a panic. The expectation of
war which prevails points to the conviction
that Turkey will reject the Russian demands.
The crisis is so serious aud imminent that
we are once more called upon to consider the
two classes of interests which tend TO bring
on, and to prevent, u general war in the East.
On one side are Seryia, Montenegro, and the
Turkish Christians in Bosnia and Bulgaria,
who are much more likely TO lose than gain
by an immediate peace, and who are aware
that the sympatlies of all civilized races are
warmly with them; Russia, eager to repay
England for the blow dealt by the latter in
Nav last conscious that she is now as never
before the sole hope and stay of her Slavic
brethren in Turkey, and keen to perceive and
use every advantage of her present position
and Turkey, drcading q prolOngaiiOn of the
struggle, yet drcading the blind and arrogant
excitement of her Moslcm population still more.
She evidently prefers the chances of future
aid from England and other Great Powers
having for so many years heard that cher ter
rt0rial integrity Is political necessityn-tO
the present certainty of Il new internal rcvolu-
tion and she will, if forced continue the war
to satisfy the native spirit she has evoked and
cannot control. All these forces lie near to-
gcther, and act directly upon each Other The
control of the Rounanian railways will enable
Russia to plant an army of 100000 men upon
the banks of the Danube within a month; and
she has nearly that number already at Bender,
i
in BpSSarabia. Her soldiers would not shrink
from IA Winter campaign in Turkey. The base
Of supplies is near: majority of the popula-
ton are allies in advance and a single brief
campaign, if skillfully directed, could not fail
to crush Turkeys power of resistance.
We may take 1t for granted that all the rest
of Europe earnestly desires peace. But of the
Powers most concerned, France, Austria, and
Italy will as long rs possible avoid adding to
their financial burdens by active participation
in the war. Austria, indeed, knowing her own
helplcsSness in this respect, has suddenly as
sumed passive atttude-probably in cOnsid-
Grafton of some promised advantage. Ger
many, whose power, thrown into the scale,
might easily decide the question either way,
has an inyeterate enemy in France, and
almost the certainty of an enemy in Russia
when the Czarevitch succeeds to the Imperial
throne. Her interest clearly counsels her to