, 1877-03-03

UeCOHe necessary TO supplement- their Oil
plomatic action by the sanction of an
agreement with a view to such eficacious
measures as might appear to be demand
ed in the interest Of general peace to
check the evil and prevent its develop
ment. France aud Italy agreed to sup
port the Note, and urged our Government
to follow the same course. On the 10th
Of May, however, Lord Derby intimated
to Lord Odo Russell that the Government
declined to accept a plan in the prepare
ton OF which it had not been consulted
and which it did not believe would sue
coed. Lord Derby refused to press the
Porte to grant even a two months ARMS
tice. Thus ended the second chapter Of
European diplomacy.
The Berlin Note had scarcely been laid
aside when Europe, and especially Eng
land, began to hear vague rumours of
some terrible events, which were to force
the h tnds of all the Powers, and bring the
Continent to the brink Of war. A slight
rebellion had broken out In Bulgaria to-
wards the end of April. Sir Henry
Elliot reported the fact to the Foreign
Office on the 4th of May. One theory is
that foreign emisSaries and native agita.
tors had planned a general rising another
is that the danger was trivial. Even
among credible observers there 10 also q
hopeless difference OF opinion respecting
the extent to which the small body of in
surgents were guilty of outrages. But the
chief incidents of the disturbance have
unhappily been put beyond the reach Of
doubt. The burning of Christian villages,
the massacres Of old and young, the out
RACES and, above all, the horrors of Batak
constitute the moSt appalling crime of
this generation. The Porte tried to
soothe the feelings of the English people
by Edib Efsndi's Report. which Musurus
Pasha sent to Lord Derby in the hope
that " the sincere and truthful statement "
would " enllghten all the world repect-
ing the true character Of those events so
strangely misrepre sented 3" by the detrac-
tors Of the Porte. Unfortunately such q
hope had been made impossible by q
crowd Of independent witnesses. Mr..
Barring, who had been sent to Adrianople
on the 10th of July to ascertain the truth,
wrote q preliminary Report, which con-
frmed the worst of these statements, and
his final Report gives perhaps the darkest
of all the pictures of Bulgaria. The tenn
pest of anger which broke over Englaud
was heightened by the pamphlet which Mr..
Gladstone published on the 9th OF Sep
TENDER. Nor was the public feeling calm.
ed by a speech at Aylesbury in which the
Prime Minister compared the leaders of
the agitation to the authors of the massa-
ores. The pressure of public feeling
speedily brought the Government more
nearly into harmony with those powers
which sought to put a strong pressure on
the Porte to procure essential reforms. On
the 21st of September Lord Derby ex-
pressed the indignation of the country in
q fervid despatch, and called on the Porte
to punish the chief authors of the atroci'
ties. They have not been punished.
Servia had in the meantime increased
the danger of the 81 tuation. A note OF
warning bad been sounded SO far back as
the end of May, when General Tcherna-
yeff went into the service of Prince Milan.
On tho 22nd Of June the Prince had ad-
dressed what may be called a threatening
letter to the Grand Vizier. On the 30th
he formally proclaimed that he intended to
Join his arms to those Of Herzegovina aud
Bosnia to secure the liberation of the Sla-
vonic Christians from the yoke of the
nA IL