New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1876-06-10

STEP the certainty that the Porte would not take 1t
unless forced to- and the deliberate omission from
the Andrassy Note of all means OF compelling the
Porte to do anything whatever, were among the
direct and most urgent reasons which led 10 the Der
lin Conference. 1t is almost comic to be told after
this that the English Government thinks the original
Andrassy Note went far enough, and that it would
be an infringement on the sovereignty of the Porte
to 60 further No doubt it would and the fact that
it would constitutes of the strongest possible
arguments in favor of going further No settlement
of the Eastern question is possible which does not
involve an infringement" of the sovereignty of the
Porte Infringement, moreover, is very mild
word Lord Derby knows, Mr.. Disraeli knows, all
England knows quite as well as Prince Gortchakoh,
that the European sovereignty of the Porte is to be
not merely infringed but destroyed. That was the
conviction uppermost in the English mind when the
Suez Canal shares were purchased. and when the
Andrassy remOnstrance was supported by England.
The peril of it, the doubts to when the work should
be DONE and what would follow its completion, were
just as pressing six months ago as now But SIX
months ago the Government of Mr. Disraeli was in
sore distress about home affairs. Every member OF
il was casting about for some means of restoring
that credit and prestige with the country which,
during the Parliamentary recess, had been so sell-
ously impaired. A spirited foreign policy was IN
favor. The country accepted the Suez Canal shares
as pledge that the Government had made up its
mind to secure and TO keep at all hazards right Of
way to India. Then Turkish reputation, as If
to prove the superhuman sagacity which had ena-
bled Lord Derby to adopt his line on the East
ern question enough to reap all the benefit OF
abandoning an ancient ally, and not so soon as TO
seem palpably actuated by purely selfish motives
There was something like a unanimous oplniol IN
England that the Sick Man had forfeited his right to
support and his right to existence beyond the period
when il might prove convenient to Europe that he
should die England committed herself publicly
and-one would have thought-beyOnd recall TO the
modern European view of the Turkish question
Those who understood Lord Derby's cautious nature
wondered that any stress of domestic politics should
have induced him to assent to the change-to embark
on voyage with port in sight, no doubt but port
the entrance to which sown with torpedoes.
Those who then said that the exgencics of home
affairs were guiding the Foreign Office were reviled
as partsans; if they were English critics who said
it, they were sterny told they un-English.
To-day the conditions of home politics are
changed and the Downlng-st. weathercock points
to another quarter Of the heavens. Do not suppose
mean Lord Derby when / speak of the Downing
st. weatherco"k Tho metaphor is impersonal, ana
| should be sdeved indeed if mentioned the ac-
comphshed chief Of the Foreign Office with less re-
spect than his unrivaed knowledge of blue books
deserves But it is near the<end of the Parliament
airy sesslon-a session which has been prolific of
some astonishing victories for the Government No
peril hardly a serious conflict, looms on the horizon
IL has once more become safe to do nothing, and
Lord Derby may follow the bent of his incnations.
Let Russia and Germany and Austria shift for them
selves and take the responsibility. England washes
her hands of the Eastern question.
II you think this too cynical view, know OF
but other that you can take. VIZ: that England
really believes it possible TO arrest the decay of the
Turkish Empire. and that Turkey with English sup
port might safely defy the combined power Of the
three Northern Empires. A proposition of that Kind
need not be- argued at length. / speak OF the three
Northern Empires combined for the purposes OF
the moment; not of course. as combined or able to
combine ut present, for partition OF the Turkish
Empire or IN any agreement at all looking TO an i'm
mediate PARTITION or an immediate settlement of
any kind France, it is said, on hearing of the En-
glish abstention regards her own acquiescence in |
the Berlin programme as needessly precptate, and
REGRETS IT, IL would have been sweet TO do little
safe hectoring OF the German had she but Thought |
of it soon enough. But it would have been less |
sweet to hector Russia whom every Frenchman still
looks 10 rs a possible ally in the next war against |
Germany; and the feeling, whatever il be, that |
cracklcs IN the French press OF the last lew days |
cannot be shared by so prudent man as the /
Due Decazes. Meantime, conferences are busily |
going on at two or three places at Pesh at Berlin, |
at Eais, and elsewhere; ambassadors now doing |
their proper work which had been in manner taken
ont of their hands by the Conference The reports of
iusurrectonsjn Bulgaria grow daily more alarming,
and it Is ever to be borne IN mind that let dipo- |
macy do what It may. the key of the situation may |
any day be found in some mountain fastness or
Christian hamlet of Turkey or that some explosion
of Mussulman fanaticism and cruelty may shame |
even Lord Derby out of his indifference to the long
oppression of Christian majority by that minority
of Turks whose orgInzed brigandage is the scandal
of Christendom