, 1877-08-15
ATROCITIES IN WAR.

labours under the disadvantage that all
kuew it would be made, whatever the
justification in the facts of tae case. The
original case against the Turkish Govern
meat was the charge of enormou atroci'
ties and the further allegation that lnhu-
mainly was an essential park Of their sys-
tem-in fact, their peculiar m 'de OF gov
erning races whom they regarded as utter
ly below themselves in religion, in gene
rosity Of sentiment, and above all, ID
military proves. The normal disaffeetion
and occasional revolt, which were natural
il tha circumstances, they met with tho
ancient methods of terrible examples and
sweeping desoIati0n. They hardly pre-
tended that these outrages, as they seem
to civilized eyes, were in excess Of orders
given they obstinately refused to punish
the agents, who, no doubt, were IN q
condition to shift the blame upwards and
they would give no assurances against the
repetition Of these crimes. Yet they
could not but feel that Europe regarded
the matter in q different light for they
found their best friend aud oldest ally
positively ashamed OF having anything
to do with them, and driven to renounce
all completely in their doings. What,
then, was to be done, when they were on
one side of a great question Gnd the world
on another, themselves meanwhile too
stubborn to mend and too proud to apo
logize2 Ole resource was left it was to
fling back the charge, aud declare the
accusers no better, and even worse, than
themselves. That the opportunity would
soon come there could be no doubt. The
Russians would be on Turkish soil, among
the nOn-combatant population. and fire.
quently in circumstances when 1t would
not be easy to distinguish between the
peasant and the soldier, the non resisting
aud still resisting waytarers or fugitives.
In the practice Of war itself there are
always irregularities which cannot be
wholly guarded against, inaSmuch as no
vigilance can prevent exceptional acts, by
exceptional persons, In exceptional Cir.
cumstances. In one way or another there
would be the materials for q cross indict-
ment, and there was no doubt the Turk
ish Government, tardy as it has been 10
more practical matters, would lose no
time ia recrimination. While the present
charges, therefore, may be true, they
require evidence other than mere official
Turkish assertions. II one is certain of
an echo, and it comes it is not a new
fact, but q phase Of an old one.
The Turkish Government charges the
Russian forces with massacre, pillage, and
inceudiarism +; but it botrays Immediately
the consciousness that such charges are
easily made, and are not likely to be cree
d'ted witboutspecifc truth. They certainly
ought not to have been made in this instance
without more proof than the Turkish Gov
eminent has produced. That in the opera
tons ofmodern warfare the non-combatant
population often suffers even more than the
combatant /; that she'll and shot cannot
discriminate that soldiers on the march,
or after the assault, may have small regard
for properly, or even life and that the
track is often marked with wanton OF
wicked destruction, are facts that Turkey
pretends now to ignore. Humanity, it is
true, was much shocked a short time ago
to hear that all these things had been done
deliberately and systematically, by order
of the authorities, in order to strike terror
into some unarmed civic populations.
Humanity was shocked because, as there
was no war, there was no occasion to in-
troduce all the horrors of war. But the
world is painfully awa7 that war cannot
ha oarriad on now without voru sod ;noi.