New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-04-25
Mr.. BrePIrr on AyGL0, u0SLruS


We are always glad TO set before the public
Mr. Elihu Buritts views on any question Of
the day. for his letters are full of thought,
and he wastes not word in expressing it.
As controversialist he is outspobcn and I'M
compromsing and the force of his cOnvic-
tions and preiudiccs sometimes carries him
further than we care to follow him. For in
stance. in the letter on the Eastern question,
which we publish this morning, we are not
preparcd to support his view that Eng
Gland is as much the head OF the Mo-
"Iammcdan religion as Russia is mt pres
:" cnt the head of the Greek Church"
No doubt Lord Dcrby's Withdrawal from the
Cabinet must have been prompted by more
AGGRESSIVE measure than the calling out o. the
reserve and the crratic Premier, with his
Eastern blood and elastic Imagination, may be
MANNING a bold stroke by which the nation
will be beguiled or dragged into position
from which it cannot honorably draw
hack: bat we cannot believe that the
British Government will marshal its Asiatc
forces and pose before Europe as the
greatest Mohammedan power in the world
and the natural defender of the Faithful.
While thc sympathies of the Mohammedans IN
India have undoubtedly gone out to the Turks
IN fine bour of defeat and humiliation, it is
scarcely credible that Englshmcn i'll their
sober senses will undertake a gigantic war
merely to crafty the religious impulses of
tbcir native subjects in the East. If they fight
ot all. they will fight as BritOns and not as
MOslems.
That British rs well as Mohammedan interests
are sacrificed and mcnaced by the conditions of
,IS -, ho
toned. TO say nothing of the diversion OF
English trade from the Balkan Peninsula,
which may follow the organization of the new
municipality on the Russian plan of a prOtcc-
tive tariff the future Of the British Empire is
menaced directly by the prostraton of
the Sultan at the feet of the Gar,
and indirectly by the growth OF Russian pres
tIge in Southeastern Europe and Asia Minor.
The revenues of the impoverished Porte under
the new order of things will be drawn mainly
from Syria, where the Turkish rule is already
abhoIred and where a revolt may break out
any day. If that rich province cuts off its finan-
cia supplies, the bankruptcy of the Govern
ment may be absolute, and the Ottoman
Empire in Asia may fall to pieces.
The Sultan on his wOrm-eaten throne
is scarcely better than puppet in the hands
of the Russian diplOmatists, and the khedive Of
Egypt is only the puppet of a puppet. Lord
Palmerston warned his cOuntrymen not to
expect much energy from people like the
Turks with no heels to their shoes" But
what can be expected Of a nation with no
shoes on its feet, no money in its purse,
no spirit in its manned and bleeding
body That popular statesman convinced
Englshmen that COnstantnOple was the geo.
graphical centre of the British Empire and
yet, under the stipuatIons of San StefanO, n
Russian army of occupation is to be encamped
for two years within few days journey of
the plain of Adrianope and the heights of the
Bosphorus. The first Alexander told Napoleon
at Tilsit that he must have the key that I'M
locked the door of his house. The second
Alexander, iuckier and shrewder than his
grandfather, lets fall the key and makes the
Sultan his doorkeeper While it is prepos-
ferrous to suppose that either the Dardanelles
can be closed or the Suez Canal seized by a
nation that cannot fight on the water, 1t is
nevertheless true that there will be grounds
for uneasiness in London so long as the Car
has tenant in ConstantinOple. Mr.
Bur1itt seems to brush aside all these