The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1878-07-12
Bcaeon snsld's Diplo@aey-who Il the
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and not without reason. In fact, this treaty
and the portion of the San Stefano Treaty
which has been accepted by the Congress
at Berlin constitute together precisely such
| an adjustment of the Oriental relations Of
Russia and England as was proposed by the
| Car Nicholas in 1853 and then rejected by
England with great flourish OF trumpeis
and even with specific declaration
against it from Lord John Russell
based on the ground that 1t would
not be fair for England to make ''secret
treaty" with one Of the Powers to negotia-
ton in which several others had an equal
interest. In January, 1853, the Gar Mich
olas had with the British Ambassador, Sir
| George Hamilton Seymour, several personal
conferences, which became somewhat ia
nous, as reported in Seymour's dispatches
and laid before Parliament. In those con-
ferences the Emperor stated clearly his own
opinions of the condition Of the Ottoman
Empire aud of the necessity the great Pow
ers were under of providing against the
event of its actual collapse He spoke Of it
as moribund. and the designation Of the
Sultan as ''the sick man" originated with
him in those conferences He believed the
political and social condition of Turkey to
be beyond remedy; said so plainly, and
proposed THAT Russia and England-a great
continental and great maritime Power
should come to an understanding as to the
attitudes they would respectively hold. He
desired to be dominant toward Constanti-
nople as against Austria, and agreed to give
England Egypt and stand by her as against
France.
Nicholas proposed all this before the
Crimean war. and England denounced it as
infamous; and now after having made that
war, and, after having seen another far
more bloody waged on the same issue, after
twenty-five years Of ineffective struggle
AGAINST the inevitable, England accedes at
last to the policy of the Car and
even seizes upon it with cry Of triumph.
For the settlement as made is substantially
what Nicholas acknowledgement takes
hand with Russia in stripping the dying
Sultan of his dominions. Nicholas offered
her Egypt. and the principal significance
of the possession Of Cyprus is that it is q
guarantee for Egypt and the Egyptian
canal On the other hand what the Treaty
of Berlin accords is Russian ascendancy in
the Balkan countries and the entering
wedge Of Russian advance in Armenia. But
England scorned this. when she might have
had it by fair agreement between domi-
nant Powers only to glory over it when
gained by trickery.
London newspapers hold that the terms
secretly made with Turkey do not
necessarily, nor even properly, come
before the Congress OF Berlin for
deliberation, approval or restriction, be-
cause they do not modify the Treaty of
Paris. 1t is hardly possible that London
journalists can be so ignorant Of the Treaty
of Paris as to suppose this statement Of its
| scope to be accurate. But whether they
believe the statement to be accurate or
whether, knowing it not to be 80, they reck-
lessly falsify the case in order to deceive
the public--as they assuredly have done
very lately under ministerial inspira-
| tion-the truth is the same that
every atom of the positive provision of this
agreement and of it's implied purport is
within the mischief that the Treaty Of
Paris was intended to prevent, and is what
is specifically and expressly forbidden by
the document which the Congress at Berlin
is assembled to revise. Unless, therefore,
that Congress revises it in view Of the re-
quirements Of this compact the compact will
stand Us fagrantly opposed to the rules
laid down by the great Powers for the con-
troll of the relations ofTurkey to European
States rules which England herself has
declared from all the housetops must be
held as valid unless changed by the author
ity that made them.
Upon what theory it is argued that this
compact is altogether aside from the Treaty
of Paris we cannot see, unless 1t is because
it relates strictly TO Asiatic countries. So
much has been said of the Balkan PENN
sula and of Turkey in Europe, the Danube
countries, Greece, Montenegro, Bessarnbia
and the rest, that it might have mistily
grown into some peoples fancies that the
great agreement which admitted Turkey to
European conceit" and extended to her
the operation of European public laws re-
stricted itself to the determination Of her re-
| lations with other States in Europe. But
that is not true, for the Treaty of Paris
makes no distinction between the European
and Asiatic dominions of the Sultan.
It defends all parts of his territory alike.
In that treaty the term used is
not Turkey, nor Asia Minor, but 'the Otto
man Empire" In fact, that is recognized
by all the proceedings Of the Congress.
Nobody regards Batoum as outside the
Treaty of Paris, yet it is just as much out
side it MS Cyprus. BY that treaty the whole
Ottoman Empire-every inch of soil subject
to the Sultan--is guaranteed against inva-
sion and against agreements made between
| tho Sultan and any other ono Power as to