The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1876-09-29
GLADSTONE ON THE BASHI
BAZOUKS.

DALOOhSs
The Ex-Premier's Latest Pamphiet-His
Opinion of the Turkish Atrocities and
Their Connection with the Eastern Cues
ton.
A pamphlet by Mr.. Gladstone, entitled
Bulgarian Horrors and the Question
of the East" has been published in
London. 1t is sixty-four pages long,
and is dedicated to Lord Stratford de
Radcliffe.
Mr.. Gladstone prefaces his remarks
by explaining how the present situation
has been brought about. In this part
he severally arraigEs the ministry. He
declares that the confidence of the Eng
lish people in this ministry has always
been great, and he hints that the pres
ent Cabinet have taken advantage of the
public faith and abused this confidence.
He charges plainly that the great and
.all-important Eastern question only re-
ceived a few hours consideration in Par
lament on one of the last nights Of the
session, and that the voice of the peo-
pies representatives was throttled. Nor
was the House better treated when it
asked for information. appeal after
appeal was met with dilatory delays"
which were, perhaps, reasonable If taken
singly, but which were excessive In the
aggregate. Thus were precious weeks
wasted, and the country had to rely on
"private and voluntary exertion" for the
knowledge which it was the bounden
duty of the administration to supply.
Now we learn, with establishment and
horror that, so far as appears, we have
been involved in some amount, Mt least,
of moral completely with the basest and
blacklist outrages on record within the
present century, if not within the MEM
DRY of man"
The first thing to do is to recognize
the magnitude of the infamy. There
have been perpetrated, "under the i'm
mediate authority of government to
which all the time we have been giving
the strongest moral, and for part OF the
time even material, support, crimes and
outrages so vast in the scale as to exceed
all modern example, and so unutterably
vile as we'll as fierce in character that it
passes the power of heart to conceive,
and of tongue and pen adequately to de-
scribe them" Further, " the authors
of the crimes are the agents, the trusted,
and, in some instances, the since-pro-
NOTED servants of the Turkish Govern
ment." Mr.. Gladstone next proceeds
to sketch what the Turkish race was and
what it is.
He reminds his readers that the Turks
are not the mild Mohammedans of India,
nor the chivalrous Saladins of Syria, nor
the cultured Moors of Spain. "They
were, upon the whole, from the black
day when they first entered Europe, the
one great anti-human specimen of hui
mainly. Wherever they went broad
line of blood marked the track behind
them and, as far as their dominion
reached, civilization disappeared from
view. They represented everywhere
government by force, as opposed to gov
eminent by law. For the guide of this
life they had relentless fatalism for
its reward hereafter sensual paradise. :"
They were, indeed, tremendous incar-
nation of military power, but they lacked
the intellectual element. Hence they
were obliged to rely on the ability of the
subject Christian peoples for the per-
formapce of political duties. The subor
dinate functions of the Government
were, in great part, intrusted to the
Bishops, and the higher work of diplo-
macy and craftsmanship fell to clever
Greeks. Occasionally the Turks them
selves had produced real statesmen, but
they have been monsters, so to speak,
of virtue or intelligence. Nay, even
the martial qualities of the race have
lamentably decayed. Although it has
borrowed 100000 in twenty years,
and spent large part OF that enormous
sum on its army and navy, it has to
strain every nerve to defeat Servla,
whose population is under 1900, 600,
whose regular army is estimated at from
5000 to 5000, and whose other forces
consist of half-drilled militia. 1t is
also fighting with few scores OF thou
sands of Montenegrins.
Upon these handfuls of our race an
empire of more than 100000 600 dis
charges all its might for this purpose
it applies all its own resources and the
whole of the property of its creditors
and, after two months of desperate ac-
tivity, it greatly plumes itself upon hav-
ing incompletely succeeded against Ser
via and less doubtfully failed against
Montenegro. Shades of Bajazets, ANU
raths and Mahmoudsl Turkey stood
upon force, and she has in the main lost
that force. She has had to go to Prus-
sian for the plan of her campaign.
{" Power is gone, and the virtues, such
MS they are, of power nothing but its
passion and its pride remain. The
Crimean war gave Turkey twenty years
of compare i've peace.