Litchfield enquirer., 1878-04-18
RUSSIA IN 5,rlsuttRl TURKEY:

S't ~ 1'If - ieitiou sui oA eliinS Attftt Pii
 inces of Turkey affected by it; ers.f,4es ,.d
 In every treaty, eEep after an exchange of signatures there are certain points whose
 vagueness is remedied later 'by international commissions, and the treaty of San Stefano is 3 definite instrument, of which only some few
 unfinished details will, be left to Europe, or, rather, to Austria, in c6hcert with Russia and the. Porte. .Is3 faGi7re5} 3 ~1 aHE71 ,, The first of these is in relation to the iron tiers of Montenegro. A, European, cemmis- sion IS to put into exception the boundary lines established by the treaty, but as it is easy to foresee that; sooner OF later, some new con
 hicts may arise between this turbulent nation
 ality and its hereditary enemy, Russia and
 Austria are designated as the official mediators
 in every quarrel. The agreement of the West. ern powers is also necessary to sanction the choice of the future Prince of Bulgaria, who is
 to be elected by the people and confirmed by
 the Sultan. But a Russian Commissioner is to aid the Prince in his labors of administers tion and military organization during twelve month and only after the reforms have been
 completed, and their happy effects experience ed by the grateful population, can the other
 powers demand that their delegates also shall
 be admitted as coadjutors to the Imperial Com missioner to discuss the figure of the annual tribute which Bulgaria is to pay to her suzer- ain. Finally, Austria in invited to confer with
 Russia and. Turkey on the question of the fu- ture autonomy and organization of Bosnia and the Herzegovina. This seems to be the enumeration of all the details which Russia is disposed to submit to the appreciation of out siders, and as chasing them as relatively un- important there is no misnomer. Concerning the retrocession of Bessarabia, Prince Gortsch- akoH declares categorically that it would be . personal insult to the Czar to permit any dis cussion whatever, and the strategic importance of this province is too great to leave any hope that the Chancellor will abate his preten- sions. .st -
 The question of the Dardanelles is incon- testibly European one, yet the text of article "A of the treaty disposes of the matter summa- rily, and without the slightest reference to Eu- rope, by saying ''that the Straits shall be free to neutral merchant ships, both in peace and during war, and that the Porte shall not be permitted to establish fictitious blockade in the Black Sea-" The omissions of any ref erence to vessels of war evidently means that. as heretofore, they will be excluded, but the maintainance of the StGtus quo Gnte on this point has no longer the same importance, and it is doubtful whether Eugland will consent to the arrangement for the Montenegrin ports on the Adriatic, and the Bulgarian harborr of SdFdltt, OH Ullc Will US cilGlT0ly at Guc service of Russia, whose fleets can now winter in the Mediterranean instead of passing six months of the year in the Baltic. Without a doubt this article, at least, might have been formally reserved for the discussions of the congress, but the Russian and Turkish pleni- potentiaries seemed to have definitely decided otherwise, and the latter by the last article of the treaty have been interdicted by their Gov- ernment all right to make any objections or complaint whatever on any and every clause. The territorial notifications are curious Mon tenegro, Russia's especial favorite, gets about double as much as she ecould reasonably expect either on the basis of the uItt possidetis or the principle of nationalties, as her annexed prov inces are inhabited exclusively by Catholic or Mussulman Albanians without, as they take much pride in declaring, the. slightest admix- ture of Sclavonic blood. Servia has not been so generously treated, and her aspirations are by no means satisfied; but she has a good slice of the Turkish cake, and will extend south ward nearly to the Montenegrin boundary, where narrow strip of territory will just ad- init of the construction of amilitary road lead ing into Bosnia.
 THE MAP OF EUROPE.
 Petermanns ethnographical chart seems to have been selected as basis for the delimita- tion Of Bulgaria, whose frontiers are as rregu- lar as the zigzags described by that spiritual lst machine, planchette, when in the hands of a medium. On the south of the new princi- pality, however, ethnography has given way to considerations of a more practical nature and the plenipotentiaries were evidently una ble to resist the attractions of the sea. SalOni- ca has been graciously left to Turkey, but Bull garia reaches to within five miles of the town, which will thus lose it's suburbs, and Cavala will become a Bulgarian port. The Athenian press walls in anguish over this absorption of 100000 of Hellenes by the descendants of the ''hideous ravagers of the fifth century, ," and, although there is an immense deal of pat riotic exaggeration in this estimate, the Bull garization of even half that number of Greeks will be very wholesale measure. And what can be said of the Ottoman Empire after it's manipulation at San Stefano? Three disioint- ed fragments remain, without any possible CO., hesion between them. The first of these is Constantinople entirely cut off from all com munication with the others. The second will comprise Thessaly, Epirus, and part of Alba nia; and the third is to take in Bosnia and the Herzegovina, only connected with the rest by military road" always subject to be inter- cepted. All the center of the empire, every spot of fertile ground, has been taken, leaving simply the parings of it's ancient dominion, derisive fiction to which the sanction of Eu- rope will be demanded, under the pompous ti tie of guarantees for the preservation of the integrity of the Ottoman Empire"
 Meanwhile the Russians are closing in on Constaninople. The treaty allows them three months delay after the conclusion of the off, cial peace before they need evacuate the con- quered territory, and we may be assured that they will not willingly forego one of their ad- vantages. It is still possible that the congress may meet, but that it will accomplish anything satisfactory or durable is altogether another question. The only point at issue now is whether the treaty in it's entirety shall be sub mitted for discussion; but, admitting that the diplomatists do come together, each power re- or England be dissatisfied with the result of the deliberations, what is there except the sword to decide the matter? England still harps upon the introduction of Greece to tie European concert and trusts to Hellenic an- to dyke the SClavonic flood. But, master stroke of policy as this is considered to be by British statesmen has the idea been sui ficiently matured toallow of it's immediate ap- plcation? Fifty years ago, Liberty in Greece!" was the rallying cry of all the l1ber- als throughout Christendom, but the results of that Crusade which first shattered the power of Turkey atNavarino, are not of nature to inspire much confidence in the setf-gOverning capacities of Hellenes, and have provoked the well-merited sheer and censure of the very press which now advocates the re-establish- ment of Byzantine Empire, entirely losing sight of the steady, methodical preparations made by Russia during nearly century to as- sure her own supremacy. The long-declared protectress of all the Christians of the East ev- en solate as the Cretan instruction of 1S67 her influence was felt in everything touching their interests. But gradually her system changed, and judging that it would be good policy to concentrate her action upon some special point, she presented heraelf as the champion of the Sclavs, among whom, with her usual oleverness, she selected as her partic- ular proteges, the Bulgarians, the only people, perhaps, throughout all the East without tra- dition, without literature, and, I may add, without patriotism. Devoid of imagination and of character, they offered fine field for Russian administrative and civilizing opera tions, and, besides occupied good central position in the Balkan Peninsula, whose limits might be extended indefinitely in all direc- tions.
 ~ Official Bulgaria only exists north of the H@mus, but there are B llgarians everywhere ,L1 s--