New-York tribune., 1878-04-17


IFRoM THE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT or THE TRIBUSE.I
LONDON, April 6.-Another week closes in sIIs-
pense and dOuDt. Oddly enough, the minds of men
seem less bent toward war than they were before
the publication OF Lord Salisburys beligerent man.
ifestO, which was given to the world on Tuesday.
For moment it seemed as If that dispatch were a
torch which wcud set everything in flames. 1t was
taken as confession that England had never
meant to go into Congress, and as a
proclamation that Congress was now possible.
Defiance rang in every line of it. No
such document is known to diplomatic history save
as the prelude TO n war, nor perhaps
even then. II is undipiomatc to the last degree
uadpomatic IN STYLE in tone in language, in
thought. Ii is full Of untimcly smartness and
swaCgcr. IT is net dispatch at all; il is news
paper article aid woUld not be out of place in one
OF the war organs which haiicd it with so much en-
thusisB. Lord Salisbury has been journalist in
bis time, and good one, and he has not shaken OF
the habits of his profession. lut you fancy
trained diplomatst of the Continent reading this
energetic composition with amazemcnt and gem
cra vague notion that a world in which such lber-
ties taken mus; be rapidly coming to an end.
Nor is this question Of form unimpor;ant, for the
Russians will be sure to fancy il intentional
departure from the usages of civilized intercourse
Rcsentful echoes already heard from ST. Peters
burg. the Englishman, however who cares little
for continental conventonahticS, ENJOYS Lord Sails
bury'a plain speaking ard hard hitting the Liberals
almost as much As the Torres, though the Liberals
would be slow to give any formal or public approval
oft. Ihave hardly heard any comment at all on
one of the most significant features of the mssive
the resurrection OF Lord Bcaconsicld's old doctrine
of the territorial integrity and indepcndcncc
OF the Ottoman Empire. A different formula
indeed, Is employed. The object of Her Maesys
Government at the COnstantiuOplc Conference"
SAYS Lord Salisbury. was 10 give effect to the poll
cy OF reforming Turkey under the Ottoman Govern
u.cnt, removing Wc-ioGndcd grievances, and thus
preserving the Empire until the time when it might
b. able 10 dispense with protective guarantees"
Then l.ttlc further on after Icmarhing that this
policy OF preserving the Turkish Empire frIis-
trated by Turkey itself, Lord Salisbury adds that
under the altered circumstances Of the present
time tie result cannot be attained to the same
extent By the same Means Obviously he hopes
and Lord Beacon. field, whose mou,hpiece he is
hopes, that it may be attained by different
means Aud this dispatch is one Of those means
What the English Government has now
entered upon is the gigantic task of undoing not
merely the Treaty of san Stciano but the general
results OF the war. II Lord Salisbury may be taken
~ an exponent Of the real purpose of the Govern
mcnt "as you were is their motto. II they can
not quite hone to reproduce tho old state of
things they will strive to come as near TO that as
NAV be.
Lord Salisbury crcdlar must pass between the
hands Of the abcs dispatch writer III Europe, and 1t
il needless TO attempt dissection OF il in advance.
| | will only indicate one other point where the
Russian knife will go in. lts author recltes in
the course Of his historical narrative that
ON the Goth of January England notified to
IA, Ftri. fnng p
made the subject Of formal agreement among the
parties TO the Treaty Of Paris, in far these
arrangements were calculated TO modify European
treaties aud 10 affect general and British interests
Russia agreed. But an agreement was not what
England wanted, and Russian concession is swiftly
followed by fresh demand from England. On the
9th February she told Austria that all questions
dealt with in the treaty must be considered sub.
i.cts for discussion in the Congress- and the 18th
formally communicated this new requirement TO
Russia Lord Salisbury slips over this ligltly-the
ice being very thin-but it is one Of several facts
proving how determined England was to prevent
the meeting of the Congress- The same thing is
true IN far larger sense. Who can have forgotten
the famous torpedo dispatch in which Lord Derby
indicated ito Russia with extreme precision the
British inter, sts 7 which Russia was 10 avoid
cniaugcrIngg Lord Salisbury does not allegc, he
cannot allcge, that Russia has violated the pledges
she then gave, or that any one Of the points then
reserved has been violated in the Treaty of san
Striauo. But he complains that tins Treaty is
injurious To England III other points. 1t comes to
this therefore, that at the outset of the war Eng
land said to Russia " We shall not interfere be-
tween you and Turkey provided you abstain from
doing five things which We here specify Russia
abstaincd, but England now says, "Oh, there were
other things We ought to have forbidden you to do,
. a.. t1t,
light, and is doing her bes; to force Russia into
a humiliating surrender, or war. On the whole,
that does not sccn q crcdlable position to be taken
up by Il people who are continually accusing other
people Of trickcry and bud faith The evening or
ran of the God of War remarked the other day. in
its usual amablc tone toward America that the
American press was with few exceptions, "lgno-
rantly and blatantlyr IN favor of Russia. The use
of the latter adycrb matter Oi taste bat Is II
certain that it is ignorance which makes III favor
of Russia when such llgIant blots as these stand
out on the English escutchcon
Yet as | said at the beginning of this too argu-
mentative letter, the fever in England has not
been nflamed by Lord SasbUry's militant circular
hardly know how il is that SO strong convection
has suddenly sprung up that war may yet be
avoided. In st. Petersburg very different feeling
prevails and so in Paris, Berlin aud, to some eX-
tent, Vienna. One of the Government WHIPS goes
so faras to say in public that for the first time he
feels almost sure that peace will be maintained.
The general feeling in Parliament is the same
You lear it expressed wherever you go.
suppose | have asked fifty people within the
last few DAYS and got almost invariably the same
answer More surprising still is the fact that the
tone of the Horseguards has changed The headquar-
ters staff no longer believe in immediate war.
told you III a recent letter what these people had
been saying and doing for weeks past But two days
400 Sir Garnet WoseeY said sOrrOwiuly " am