New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-04-28
CAUSES or THE EASTERN FAR.

We have received several reQuests-whch
we may assume as representing the desire of
a large number of rcaders--that THE TRIBUNE
should rccapitulate the circumstances which
have brought OH the present war between
Russia and Turkey. Although we have en-
deavored to present the true character and
significance of each preliminary stage of the
conflict as il arose. aud have prepared our
readers to anticipate the final catastrophe, it
is not likely that many of them have been able
to retain all the particulars iii their memory,
during period which has been filled with
so many absorbing home interests. The large
features of our Centennial Year, the excite
ment of Presidential contest of very excep
tiOnal character, and the disturbing tiuctua-
tons of financial interests, have naturally
drawn away the attention of most Americans
from the various phases of civil war and in
efficient diplomacy which have eliminated Ill
an important historical crisis We shall en-
deavor, therefore, to repeat the leading facts
as briefly as is consistent with a clear under
standing Of the subject.
1t would be easy to follow the example of
some old historians and begin with the creation
of man for the deepest base upon which all
national antagOusms are built is the ancient
difference of blood and faith. But it is enough
to say that since the fall of the Eastern En-
pire, Russia, whose sovereign assumes its title
of Caesar (Czar) has considered herself It's
legitimate heir Through her, the Greek Church
lives and includes one-fOurth of Christendom;
and it is the Greek Church which has been
called upon to endure the barbarities and the
indgnities heaped upon it by the triumph of
Rus nv sri
subjects of Turkey is thus inevitable. No doubt
she has always sought to tuIn it to her political
advantage but, if thi were not possible, the
sympathy would none the less exist, for it is
grounded in the deepest faith of her people
"he Crimean War failed, because it was DELHI
erately forced upon Russia by the solitary will
of ihe Emperor Nicholas The care of the holy
places in Palestine was too shallow pretext,
and aroused no national feeling. There was
no response TO the movement in the provinces
of European Turkey,-nOthing which, as now,
| appeals to the common Russian heart. Yet,
when the war came to an end, with results
which caused its authors death, the whole
people gradually learned the extent of the
national humiliation, and they have not yet
| forgotten it.
The most popular prOverb in Russia is: AZ
:" sit upon the shore and wait for the wind"
Nothing could better express the slOwness, the
patience, the tenacity, which have always
marked the policy of the Government. When
Russia seems to forget, she remembers most
keenly: when she assumes an air of indiffer-
ence, IT is TIM for other nations to be on their
guard. She accepted the conditions of the
Treaty of Paris, in 1856, which took away
that corner of her territory reaching down to
the Danube, and denied her naval force in
the Black Sea- but it was acceptance with a
silent determination to recOnquer, at the first
favorable moment, all she had lost The war
between Germany and France. in 1870, gave