The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1876-08-30

ScTVl1 ana IuTkcys
In the difficulties that surround tho en-
deavor to make peace there is presented a
case that will almost necessarily involve the
Intervention of the Powers which signed at
Berlin that memorandum the rejection of
which by England as the friend Of the Porte
brought about the present war. Interven-
ton seemed then necessary, and the three
Powers were prepared to make it in spirit
of Cancellation. and apparently Of mutual
forbearance which promised to tranquillize
that part of Europe by guaranteeing the
recognition of the Christian subjects of the
Porte at their full worth. But England,
which claims sometimes to be the
advance guard of Christian civilization,
was the one Power that stood in
the way of such settlement as
would have protected those Christian
peoples from the Moslem oppressors. It
was not because the British people or the
British Premier hated Christianity that this
was done. 1t was simply because the
Premier and the whole government were
profoundly Indifferent to Christianity and
everything else in the world except the
nightmare of Russian influence. They were
in kind of panic on that subject. and, lest
some advantage might come to Russia out
of settlement that was likely to cooperate
with the progress of civilization in moving
the Turks out of Europe. they resolved to
prevent that settlement at any cost. In that
blind resolve they went ahead, and their
agent at Constantinople was the right man
in the right place It seems to be the
destiny of Sir Henry Elliott to represent
his country at the courts of sovereigns
who, either in their persons or their
governments, are at the verge Of dissolution.
He may be called the coroner of British
diplomacy; and any sovereign to whom he
is accredited may justly scan the horizon to
know from what side his danger approaches.
Sir Henry was at Naples when the melan-
choly days came to King Bomba; he was at
Athens when Ohio left; he was ct CONSTANT
nople when the scissors of Damocles fell on
the arm of Abdul-Aziz; and he is likely to
preside at the dethronement, if not the
death, of Mourad, the present Sultan. Be
tween the Earl Of Beaconsfield aud Sir
Henry Elliott the Turk was sustained osten-
sibly against Russia, really against the
endeavors Of the Christian subjects Of
the Sultan to secure some amelioration
of their condition; an attempt to secure
not freedom, but justice; not good gov
eminent, but recognition Of their humanity.
Finally point has been reached in the war
beyond which the other Powers cannot per-
nit it to continue. and beyond which even
England cannot sustain her barbarous allies;
and when it is proposed at this point to make
peace the only obstacle is found to be Tur-
key herself-Turkey, inflated, vain, domi-
neering, spoiled by the triumph that has slim
ulated all her notions of her own greatness
and all her evil impulses. England thought
to sustain Turkey without encouraging
Moslemism, and did not know that they were
one and the same. Now the fanatical spirit
that some time since asserted itself fiercely
in Constantinople is at the Servian frontier,
with hundred thousand victorious soldiers,
and British diplomacy cannot exercise it.
Only an army Of one Of the great Powers in
the way of the Turks will secure the discon-
tinuance Of their march, and thus that armed
Intervention which all deprecated as the
first step in an unknown series is likely to
come about at last as the consequence Of the
war that was made by England's encourage
ment Of the Porte.