The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1878-01-26
The Conditions or Peace.

| Russia's requirements by directing its Com
missioners to conclude an armistice con-
ditional on its acceptance of those
terms. 1t need astonish no one that
these terms are looked upon as hard
I by those who deem the Moslem an angel of
light 1t is the natural privilege of the con-
quered to fill the heavens with his cry Of
complaint; so that Constantinople may fairly
go further than London in it's defamation
against the conqueror's yoke. But the
truth is the terms are magnanimously
moderate, and the Turk, whose conception
of peace is as uncompromisingly barbarous
as his conception OF war, has simply
snapped at the chance to make q treaty on
terms so unaccountably easy. Let us inn
agine what the terms would have been If
the positions were reversed. II the gov
eminent that ordered the butchery Of the
people of o hundred Bulgarian villages, be-
cause the intention to revolt had been
rightly or wrongly imputed to them,
had found itself in the position to
impose its absolute will on its arch
enemy, can any rational creature suppose
the weight of that will would have been an
easy burden? II the Russian force in the
field had been crushed by Turkish prowess;
il the Gear had lett to stand by his colors
only the fragment of wrecked and fugi-
tive army, and half his domains were
in the conquerors hands; if, finally, his
capital were the most desirable seat Of en-
pire in the Old World and coveted for
ages by the Power whose victorious armies
were at the gates, would not the terms OF
peace have ground him to powder? Would
they have left unexhausted any element Of
oppression and humiliation? 1t is only
necessary to remember what Turkey did to
her own people before the war and what she
did to the Russian wounded who fell
into her hands since the war began, to COM
prehend what she would do if Russias fate
had been as absolutely in her hands as her
fate was in Russia's BY comparison with
Turkish standards of what conqueror may
do to him whom the fate of war
has put in his power the conditions
now imposed by Russia are even generous
and it is by that standard they have been
judged in Constantinople. Once known
there they were accepted, it would seem, pre-
cipitately for England had actually taken
step that must have led to her participa-
ton in the war, and if the Sultan had waited
few hours only he would have seen good
reason to refuse this peace in the confidence
that England's aid was at last actually on
the way.
But what civilized nation like Russia
should do in any contingency may not be
fairly measured by what barbarous Power
like Turkey would assuredly do if it had
the power. Civilized nations cannot take
their standard for the conclusion Of war,
any more than for its prosecution, from peo-
pies whose barbaric indifference to the
opinions Of mankind free them from all re-
straints of moral nature. How, then, does
this peace appear by comparison with
civilized standards? Germany is not a
bad type Of the civilization Of our
age Yet she exacted from conquered France
an indemnity that was to the indemnity de-
manded by Russia as ten to one. France
paid q thousand million dollars, and Tur-
key pays only hundred million. 1t is pos
sible that the cable has somehow falsified
these figures Tor, though Turkey is by COM
parison with France mere pauper Power,
an indemnity does not only bear relation to
q governments capacity to pay, but also to
the actual expense incurred in the war, and
in this war Russia has been under heavier
expenditure than Germany was, and has
not made acquisitions in great cities nor fed
her armies Oh the country Germany tore
from France two fair provinces OF more ac-
count as regards humanity than the whole
: Turkish Empire and Russia only stipu-
lates that one Turkish province shall be put
in such condition of security as will guar
antee it against repetition of those butch
cries practised there by which the Turkish
government made conspicuous before the
world its infamous methods of dealing
with discontinued populations. These
points-the guarantee of Christian Gov
ernor in Bulgaria, as demanded by
the Powers at Constantinople, and the
payment OF small indemnity, to
be secured by the possession of a part of
Armenia, are what Turkey comedies; for
Russia's freedom in the Dardanelles, though
nominally extorted from Turkey, is a point
that Turkey alone could not have withheld
any time this century. 1t is extorted from
England, Tor it was q part of the obsolete
law of Europe that England alone was in
terested i'll maintaining. If the indemnity
is never paid Russia will thereby become
the possessor of an important part of Ar
menia. That and her right in the OAR
danelles will be the only material advan-
tages she will derive, and these are scarcely
equivalents for the sacrifices she has made.
Her moderation is, however, wise, and,
indeed, it is al adroit piece Of statecraft.
Had her conditions been really oppressive
they would not only have justified the opin-
lu.. 4 IL.