, 1877-01-27
THE ANGLO.RUSSIAN DEMAND.
From the Spcctator.)

Those who believe or affect to believe that
Russia has gradually withdrawn from her first
position as protector of tbs Turkish Christians
have one argument at least to plead in favour
of their opinion. In her eagerneSS to conclliate
England, Russia has whitfield away many Of
the hopes of the Christian Provinces. She has
suffered the reform she demanded to be reduc'
ed to a minimum below which it would be
inappreciable. The scheme finally accepted
by General I~gnatieff and Lord Salisbury differs
widely from. the infinitely better scheme
demanded by the Liberal opinion of Europe
when the Porte rejected the Andrassy
Note, and again when the crimes commit"
ted in Bulgaria had shocked every states.
mans conscience except Lord Beaconsf 4ld's.
The idea of autonomy for the suffering Pro
vinceS has been abandoned. The authority
Of the Sultan, the Ultimate source Of all
evils to the Christians under his dominion, is
maintained. The Turkish garrisons, which
may at any moment repeat The massacre Of
Batak, and must keep up am ing the Christians
q permanent sense Of terror, are to be retained.
No new code is to be established. The very
idea of securing to the Provinces anything like
true national life, or even S ate life, as under.
stood Ia Switzerland CT America, has been Civ.
en- up, and the dip!omatists, leaving the future
10 take care of Itself. have endeAv0red to dis
cover the very smallest amount Of reform
which would make existence tolerable to the
population Of Bosnia, the Herzegovina, and
Bulgaria. After various chsnges-every one
OF which diminished the strength of the re
forms they proposed that S-rvia should be eX-
tended on the West to the Drina, as a more
satisfactory boundary that Bosnia and Here's.
govina should be united into one province
that Montenegro should receive a port and
some accession of territory and that Bulgaria
should be divided into two provinces, separat-
ed roughly by the mountains, Philipopolis be.
coming the capital Of the southern one. To each
of the three provinces of New Bosnia, North
Bulgaria, aud South Bulgaria, q Christian Gov.
ernor-General would be appointed. who would
bold an authority not yet deined-but, We
presume, nearly absolute. for administrative pur-
poses-who would be irremovable for a term of
years, and who might be, but need not be, a
foreigner. The whole executive power would
be In his hands, and he would BE- aided by 8
foreign "~gsndarmerie," not exceeding 1900
men, who may be regular soldiers Of some
neutral State, and by a National Guard Of all
classes. not exceeding in number one per cent.
OF the population, or say, $4,000 men ia the
three Provinces. The officers of this guard
are to be appointed by the Turks at COnstan.
tinople, instead of by the Governor-G General j;
but the men are to be taken from tn entire
population, Christian as we'll as MusslIm1n.
The local Mayors are to be elected by the
communes. and will thus correspond in creed
with the local majority of the population. The
existing Courts of Justice are to be superseded
by Courts appointed by an International Com.
mission, on which il is said Mr.. Barring will sit;
and to this body will be intrusted a general
supervision of the working Of the scheme, both
Turkey and the Christians, as We understand,
referring all complaints to the Commission.
before any action is taken. Finally, the Inter.
national Commission will lay down a scheme
OF taxation, and one.third Of the total revenues
raised will be forwarded to Constautiuople,
which is deprived of the power to demand more.
The remaining two.thirds will be spent in the
Provinces themselves, the first charge upon
them being the maintenance Of the foreign
gendarmerie.
This scheme, 1t will be perceived. is in es-
ssnce the one suggested at first by Prince
Gortschakof and indicated by Austria. and it
seems to US totally inadequate, while it involves
ct least as much humiliation to Turkey as a
broader and more decisive measure. The
Pashas are told quite plainly that they are not
At to govern. Jet the ultimate power of govern.