New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-07-05

was very fierce and lasted for three hours, and, glory
to God, five of the enemy were killed" An Admiral
has To announce the loss Of an iron-clad. He says
"The steam launches approached to within a short
distance and may God preserve the remaining ships
of our fleet At this time the Imperial ron-clad called
The Sword Of the Lord received blow from tor
pedo Of the fish kind. which proceeded from the
steam launch and it exercised such an influence on
her stern that she sank; and, thanks TO the Most
High, all The officers and crew escaped. This sad
occurrence was doubtless necessity to the Great
God, and as is well known, He always gives victory
after such defeat"
fight in the Caucasus is thus reported: s. We had
10 martyrs and II wounded. and 800 of the enemy
went TO pcrdition, and many more were wounded,
which we cannot but ascrbe to the Spiritual aid Of
the Prophet and TO the favor shown by Almighty
God toward our glorious Sultan, the refuge of Uni
verse" This is not exactly Tartuflish. The com
people, at least really have faith that the God
of battles is listening to their prayer and praise IL
is only pity that they do not add to their faith
some article requiring moral life in harmony with
faith and prayer
1t is very much Of wonder to foreigners why there
should he any hesitation among the Christians #
Turkey as to which side they should sympathze
with in this fight There probably is such hesita-
ton in Servis and Roumana. but they precisely
the two provinces which have been independent OF
all Turkish control for more of years. The
Russian mode OF speaking often misieads foreigners
into tie srppostion that the Christians Of Turkey
are concentrated in Servia, Roumania and Bull
garia or, at any rate, in European Turkey. This
mistake very naturally arises from the fact that
when the Gar OF any Russian speaks of Christians,
he means Christians of the Greek Church, while
other European peoples understand the term to APP
ply TO all the varOus Christian sects of Turkey.
The Car Nicholas explained this phrase at the time
Of the Crimean War; Even should the Chris
tians" said he, mot understand this Their duty to
rebel from being under the influence Of Europe,
which IS given over TO false religions. the Gar mast
persevere in the mission which heaven has confded
to him as Chief Of the Orthodox Christiaus-that is
to say, TO withdraw forever from the Ottoman SOW
ereiguty those who profess the true Christian re-
ligion-that is the religion of the Greek Church"
l mention this simply because there are already
Signs that Russia may make peace on the basis OF
territorial ACQUISITIONS and the welfare of the
Greek Christians, without taking any steps for
the protection of the Christians of Asia Minor.
There is danger that Europe will again accept
the Russian phraseolOgy and the Russian
view as to who the Christians OF Turkey
are as was the case at the Conference. The atti-
tudc Of the Turkish Christians Is like that OF the
woman who watched her husband fighting the bear,
and GIdu care nucn winch whipped nc iuihnihc
most liberal in their application of the VOID Chris
tan All kinds and sorts are alike infdel. Yet by
singular contradiction the highest prelaes of all
the Christian sects treated with the greatest
respect are decorated with orders OF the trst-class,
are allowed guards of honor from the army when
they ride in state. and the soldiers present arms to
them Moreover, all churches in Turkey, and
church and school property have always been free
from taxation: NIL priests and teachers can bring
anything whatever into Turkey from abroad entire
ly free Of duty. In fact the certificate Of Chris
tiau Bishop that case contains goods for church,
school, or monastery, is generally sufficient to pass
the case through the Custom-hOuse without exam
nation, as well as without duty. Nor arc these
privileges confined to native Christians. The
American missionaries resident in Turkey are al
lowed by the Government to import from
abroad free of duty whatever they choose
for personal USE for their schools churches and
they have 80 imported for many years free of duty,
goods to the value of $4,000 OF 900 per an
num- The French and Italian Jesuits annually i'm
port goods to a much larger amount, and ahso-
lutely unquestiOned by the Government Hospitals
and orphanagcs established by Christians have also
generally grant of army ration per day for each
inmate from this strange MOslem Government
These curoas customs date back to the palmy days
Of Ottoman history, when the Empire was the terror
of Europe, and the mighty Sultan could gracefully
dispense favor to all who dwel beneath his protec-
ton But these privileges have never been with
drawn, and arc an anomaly of our time tho fact OF
whose existence explains much that one hears abOat
Turkish beralify and kindness to Christians
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