The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1878-07-27

preponderance of English sentiment at his back.
When the ultimatum Of England was first an
nounced the European press affected TO sheer at
it. 1t was theatrical. 1t was a mere bTutun
tuhnen. The Car would treat 1T as he had the
Treaty of Paris. 1t would be the signal for a
war in which English prestige would be de-
stroyed. Disraeli was mad. lie wasa political
iuggler. He could find no allies. 80 the cries
went, but for the first time Russia came TOT dead
standstill, and the two rivals faced one another
sterniy. We all remember how impossible 1t
seemed for several days that war could be aVerted'
For England would not recede an inch, and how
could Russia, flushed with victory, submit to the
dictation of an isolated Power? There seemed
no escape from the conflict towards which the
two Powers were drifting so rapidly. But
throughout this critical period the English Prem
Ter betrayed neither doubt nor anxiety. The
whole nation had been swept by one of those
waves of Berserker passion which the Northern
race even yet experience when the lust of battle
is upon them. There was no longer any talk OF
the cost of war. The shop had been dropped,
and the ancestral warrior-spirit dominated the
situation. There can be no question that during
those days the desire of the English people was
for anything but peace. They would have re-
sponded to a declaration Of war with enthusiasm.
1t would have been a popular contest. But Rus
STA at last realized the gravity of the crisis, and
was forced to ask herself whether indeed she was
prepared for a war with the richest nation IN the
nation whose steer was stlII as
heavy as its gold. The answer to that momen-
tous question has been given by Prince Gort-
schakoff before the Berlin Congress. Russia
dares not encounter that tremendous risk. De-
spite her present advantages, despite her victories
over the Turks, she is forced to accept humilia-
ton, and to make concessions which extract from
her veteran Chancellor groans Of anguish and
notification. The diplomacy of I~gnatieff, of
SchOuvalof, of GOrtchakOtf; the bluff arrogance
of Bismarck; the astuteness of Andrassy; are all
alike useless when pitted against the cold, hard,
iron will and piercing intellect of the much
abused - Juggler of Europe" He has won a
greater victory than any Of Napoleon, without
firing a shot. lie has brought Russia to her
knees from her towering pride of conquest. He
has said to her, 81 thus far and no further and
she has had to bow her head and accept the fat.
ton. She is a vanquished bully, a marauding
barbarian masquerading under Christian dis
guise, arrested and stripped of her concealments.
There can be no doubt that she intended to de-
stroy the Ottoman Empire root and branch; to
assume control of the road to India; to convert
the Black Sea into a Russian lake; to open a sea-
board which would give her the mastery of the
Mediterranean; to plant the Cossack in the heart
of Europe, in short, and advance the menacing
cause of Absolutism, to the peril OF Free Govern
ment and human progress. England, through
Lord BeacOnsfeld, has stopped her. 1t was nee
essary that she should be stopped, and no con-
sIderatiOns must stand in the way when 1T is a
question of curtailing the dangerous progress of
such a Power. She has earned her humiliation
by her Unsuitable greed, and the world will do
we'll to let her digest the bitter experience at
leisure.