The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1877-05-06
England and the War I'm tho East.

England uhu INC WAr IN THO 1<"sss
II was not to be supposed that England's
great and somewhat DESTINATIONS activity in
naval and military preparations would pass
altogether without observation in other
countries, and it is not surprising, there
fore, to hear that distrust of Englands in
tentions prevails in st. Petersburg and that
measures for the better fertilization of the
Baltic are on foot. Political complication
in the solution of q drama so intricate as the
one now on the stage is to be apprehended
as eventually inevitable, and one Of
the certaintes of such complication
is the relation of England to the quarrel.
That she should prepare, therefore, is
natural enough, and that preparations which
contemplate British interference should be
set on foot in Russia are also natural; yet
there is just hint of the Bombastes element
in the two great nations fighting one another
on paper in the magnitude of preparation
and counter preparation. Buster of that
sort is sometimes indulged in literally by
great governments, especially when they are
in the hands Of little men. Very lately we
spent four millions Of dollars ourselves in q
tremendous make-believe that we intended
to fight Spain if she should fail to do what
in fact she eventually did fail to do. The
objurgations of Mr.. Carlyle give this subject
of Englands arming immediate prominence.
England is in false position with regard
to the war, and it would be strange il she
felt Mt ease. 1t is her war. The Turk is
England's proxy. If it were merely war
to save Christian people from the contin-
ued dominion of semi-savage conquerors
not voice in Europe would be raised in
favor of the Ottoman Empire, save, perhaps.
the few voices of the natural lovers Of con-
tradiction, who sometimes parade the rash
dexterity of wit to prove that ice is hot and
fire cold. But there ore other facts in
volved in the war; facts of o COM
mercial and military balance of power
in the Eastern world; facts of naval
supremacy in the Black Sea and the Medi-
terranean; of the command Of routes to In
dia; of the possession Of Constantinople and
the control Of the Bosphorus; and precisely
as the moral triumphs in the case are to be
gained at the expense Of the Turk these
material triumphs, if gained at NIL, are to be
gained at the expense Of England. To these
the Turk has no real relation. His part of
the game is the barbarism, the butchery,
the ignorance, outrage and oppression.
These have always been his stock in trade.
England's part is all the rcSt. All this is
known in England, and is instinctively
felt more widely even than it is
go IL
sentiment of unrest-unrest, first, because
it is not the nature of John Bull to quietly
look on while others are fighting what he
feels is his battle; and, second, because he
has notion that if he does leave his battle
to be fought out by another he would prefer
it should be some one more likely than his
present representative to do his cause ample
justice.
In this sentiment lies the strength of the
Ministry in the case that is before the coun-
try and before Parliament. There are on
the other side men of great capacity and
many sound reasons to be urged, but they are
mostly in the moral relations of the
case There are capable economists who
are of the opinion that even Englands ma
terial interests would be bettered by the
substitution of the Muscovite for the Otto
man in all the European possessions of the
latter but it would be too much to expect
that people should readily accept view so
at variance with the conceptions in which
they have been drilled. The conflict in
England will be strictly between the moral
sentiment of the nation that revolts at the
Moslem alliance and the material concep-
ton Of the great interests that will be i'm
perilled by Moslem defeat. In this conflict
the moral sentiment will 60 to the wall.
Clerical Agitation I'm France.
Recently the Bishop of Nevers, in France,
addressed to the President Of the Republic