New-York tribune., 1876-12-29
ENGLAND AND TURKEY.

FERENcE-THE CHURCH AND THE UNIVERSITIES
.saoc1ATED WITH THE MovEMENT-oNE THOU
sAND DEIkGATEs PREsENT-MR GLADsToNE's
sPEEcH-THE PRO-TURKIsH PRESS ALARMED.
IrRoM THE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRIBUSE'l
LONDON. Dec 0.-Great efforts have been made by
the Turkish partyto throw rdicue on the conference
which met Yesterday in London TO discuss the East
ern question. They are not wholly abandoned, DuV
they are themselves ridiculous. There was perhaps
some excuse for them when the first partial list OF
names was published--cOmpOsed mainly OF what our
friend MFR Cameron would call "dam literary
feIlersD / fear / was myself guilty of speaking
lightly about that first list, so lnadequately ana IL
represent even the literary class. But thcfe is no
such excuse now You may say what you ike Oh
Yesterdays conference but you cannot say that lts
members do not fairly represent most powerful ana
important sections of English society; that they
NAV not fairly claim to speak with some authority
in the name of England itself What are the intlu-
ences most powerful in Englandi What goes to
make ND England as a nationi Putting royalty and
purely political powers aside, there are the nobility
the Church, the Land, the Universities, the Bar
Society the Dissenting Bodies, Trade, Manufactures,
Agriculture Literature, Science, Art, perhaps the
Press and some other things. Every one OF THESE
has associated itself with this movement A meet
ing over which the Duke of Westminster and the
Earl of Shaftesbury successively preside, to which
the Duke of Argyll addresses letter of hearty SYM
pathy which receives the support of the Tory Mar
ouis of Bath and the Wing Marquis of Ailcsbury,
and which ia addressed by representatives OF the
great families of which the Duke of Sutherland and
the Duke of Bedford are the heads, must be admit
ted 70 sneak for not the least considerable half of the
English nobility, English society, and the land
owning classes. For the Church, usually most re-
lnctant 10 make itself felt in any sec
Mar controversy which docs not touch
fIa RiqhO n X
ford and the Rev. Canon Liddon spoke. From
the same platform was heard the Rev. DIR. Allon.
one of the half.dOzen most eminent DisSenters IN
England The Universities might claim almost
every speaker; but not to go beyond those strictly
connected with them, there were Mr.. Bryce, Pro-
fessor of Civil Law at Oxford, and Mr.. Fawcett
Professor of Political Economy at Cambridge. An
eminent barrister Mr.. Sergeant Simon, expressed
what are believed to be the views of an unusually
large proportion of the profession of the Law, COM
monty most conservative and most opposed to popu
larinterference For Trade, Manufactures and Com
merce. such men as Sir Thomas Bailey, Mr.. Mum
della Mr. Samuel Morley, Mr.. Lehman, and many
men of great local importance were there to answer
And l have in former letters enumerated the men
famous in Literature Science and Art who gave their
adhesion to this great Protest. may, nevertheless
again mention such names as those OF the historians
Mr. Froude, Mr. Lecky, and Mr. Freeman; OF the
poets, Mr.. Browning and William Morris; OF MI
Herbert Spencer Mr.. Thomas Hughes, Mr.. Rossett
Mr. Ruskin, Mr. Trollope, and, greatest of all, Mr.
Carlyle BY the side of these stand the delegate OF the
agricultural laborers of England, Mr.. Joseph Arch
whose remarkable declaration against war you will
not have forgotten, and two men who may perhaps
be said to be the official spokesmen of the artisans
of England, Mr.. George Howell and Mr.. BrOadhurst
the late and present secretaries to the Trades Par
liamentary Committee. Among all these scarcely
more than one two are men ordinarily heard
Of in political life. 1t is nothing short of a
great crisis which calls them forth The Duke
of Westminster, who may be supposed to
know, spoke of the assembly as composed OF
the most influential and distinguished persOnages in
the country. Lord ShaftesbuTy, judge, II any
body is of public meetings. described this as con
sistingof every form and shade of opinion, repre-
sentinp every rank and condition and calling in the
country, differing among themselves in many ways,
vet all of one heart in the grand purpose for which
we are assembled" | have not included the ~ or
so members of the House of Commons, who were
among the cOnveners nor the great journals of
England, the ablest and most independent Of
which, with two or three conspicuous exceptions,
advocated the calling of this conference and sup
port its objects and have still to add one name of
greater weight with all classes of the English
people than any other that can be mentOned-Mr.
Gladstoue. No longer the leader of the Liberal
party nd has led this question since last August
what it is rash to call the great majority of the
people of England in their Iesolute opposition to
the Turkish policy of the Government OF England.
1t was lately the fashion to assert that the policy
which moved the whole country last August has
died out. Expressed my belief lately that it had
not died out belief which has the sanction of
the Duke of Westminster, and-mOre remarkable
still-1he Times. which declares this morning that:
To all but the willfully blind, it must now be clear
that the agitation of August and September last was
no transient fash of emotion, but that it expressed
profound and fixed determination" Lord Shaftes-
bury, with equal decision spoke of the very object
of the conference being to affirm before England
and the world that indignation has not abated, and
that it will not abate until justice be done and pre-
cautions taken, far as human policy can go to
prevent recurrence of these scandals to humanity.
1t not often that cares to seek for the evidence
of what the English people are thinking in the Lon
don daily jOumals-at least not till some days have
passed, but it is difficult not to perceive sgnif-
cance this morning in the manifest hedging of one
of the Mohammedan organs and the manifest fury
of the other. The conference has half convinced
both of them chat their game IS up.
The conference met in st. Jamess Hall, held two
sessions, heard speeches, passed resolutions, ana
adjourned. About a thousand delegates from all
parts of Great Britain were present; they and the
rest Of the audience which crowded the hall being
admitted by tickets. Certain topics assigned
for discussion to certain speakers, and most OF the
speeches were limited to 10 or Is minutes All the
machinery of public meeting called for specific
purpose was provided, and worked well But the
meeting itself was the essential thing, far more
essential and significant than the formal resolutions
hat vvoa 1tfe Nnt