, 1877-08-15

hostile populations suffer at the hands Of
invaders fighting every inch Of their way.
II there are defenders, and if they choose
TO fight under cover of their own houses,
there can be only one result, deplorabIe
as it may be. No doubt. however, there
are many abominable c~ruelties done in
war, and all that can be done 10 to reduce
them to the lowest possible proportions.
As for the alleged mulilations of the
dead, there. again, the Turkish Govern.
ment should be the last to maintain that
q State is answerab]e for everything that
q miscreant or o mailman may do in pas
pion or drunkenness. The worst atroci-
lies charged on the Russians are protected
from early contradiction by their remote
ness. We do not get news early from the
seat of war in Armenia, and when il comes
it has to be sifted, harmonized, and even
discounted. In due time we shall hear
whether fifteen hundred families, or near
Eve thousand persons, have fed from
threatened destruction into the woods and
there persisted from hunger; whether the
Russians have really garotted an Armenian
Bishop +; whether they have put to death
fifty persons Of both sexes in pure malice
and bl0odthiratiness whether in n word
theirs 10 o ''programme Of murder and
devastation" Such a programme the
Turks appear to understand, and TO ex'
peet though il may be rather in their
own, forward anticipations than in the
fact.
There is no denying. however, that not
only Turkey, and Russia too, but oil nations
have something to learn in the art Of hu-
manizing war and reducing to O minimum
Ito inevitable miserieB and crimes. Wnen
it is remembered that belligerents seem not
ia the least to understand that it is as much
a duty to provide succour for their W
sick and wounded as shells aud artillery for
the destruction of the enemy, the e1tentof
their ignorance oftheir obligations may be
smagined. Russia, however, in particular,
now stands on very tender ground, for she
has constitUt ted herself the champion and
saviour of outraged humanity, and it is on
the very plea of suppressing needless
e%ruelties that she tndg herselfin the battle
field with her old foe. She is now wa
cling war in order to show how Christians
ought to wage war. When Turkey plead
ed lately that it was the extreme exigcn-
Cy of her political position that forced
upon her the use OF the Baehi Buzouks for
the maintenance Of her rule in the disturb
ed Provinces, Russia would not listen to
q defence which would have covered any
amount of cruelty. Russia will have the
same measure of justice dealt to herself.
Both CT the belIigerents will be watched,
and that by unfriendly eyes, for the world
is not yet convinced that. in the scale of
humanity, the Muscovite is so much
higher than the Turk. TO say the truth,
we shall not be surprised if both bellige-
rents have a good deal to say Of one
another before the war is over. It is for
&he lookers-on to profit by the lesson.
The Russians and Turks have been she'll
Ing and burning one another's towns
across the Danube, and whether by acct
dent or intention, Consulates and hospi-
tails have not been spared. Have these
things been necessary ? 1t may be neces.
sary that the Turks, retreating before the
Russians. should leave q desert behind
9hem /; but even this may be done with
some regard TO the lives Of the poor crea-
tures suddenly deprived of home, and
east as wanderers upon the earth. The
emergencies of war are so various and so
peremptory that it may be impossible
TO lay down rules even SO approximately
"a In the case of martina warfare . huN