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

1.-THE following article, from the editorial col
umns of the Sacramento (Cal.) Record Union
presents the European situation from a point of
view not usually taken by the American press.
The d" Juggler of Europe is credited with the
praise of averting a general war, which the
world was ready to award to Bismarck as the
only statesman who had the power or wisdom to
accomplish so desirable an end. 1t is, perhaps,
fortunate for Turkey, as well as England, that
Derby retired from the Cabinet, and that Disraeli
was appointed his successor.
That must have been a strange scene in the
Berlin Congress when Prince Gortchakoff felt
himself called upon to at once protest against and
acquiesce in the concessions made by the Russian
plenipotentiaries, and when Lord Beaconsfield
fastened to assure the Prince, in the lame of
the Congress, that that august ~assemblage was
satisfied of Russia's peaceful intentions. No
doubt the Autocrat of the North has bowed his
crest and changed his tone during the past
month, but no man knows better than BeacOns-
field that this new anxiety for peace is the effect
of a growing conviction that war could not be
waged successfully. IF Russia makes concessions
now it is because she finds herself overmatched
by her great rival. She first exhausted finesse,
strategy, duplicity and arrogance. At the be-
ginning she boldly declared her intention of
crushing Turkey, no matter what Powers sup
ported the Ottoman The Gar, in his famous
Moscow speech, flung the gage Of battle down to
England. At that time the English people were
blinded by the Bulgarian atrocities and the SEN
timental rhetoric of Gladstone and Freeman, and
Beaconsfield was compelled to proceed very eau
tiously. The loud clamor raised by the RUSSO
philes and T~urkophobists pursuaded the Gar
that he had nothing to fear from England. When
the Porte had been subjugated, and Constantine
pie lay at the mercy of the cOnquerors, he st3l
believed that he would encounter no serious os-
position. Even when the British fleet was dis
patched to the Dardanelles he thought that :.
show of buster would be sufficient to serve HIS
turn. He talked of entering COnstantinoply.
Beaconsfeld answered him by ordering two hug.
dred thousand Sepoy troops from India, arG
doubling the force in the dockyards and arsenal8
Then the lying ~Ignatieff and the astute Schouvs
lotf were dispatched to smooth over the breaG.:
with diplomatic inventions, but the warlit.
preparations OF England were not relaxed for n
instant. The din of arming went on night az
DAY. Enormous supplies of ammunition, If
rlhed cannon, of provisions, Of all the multitu-
dInous requirements of an army in the field and
a powerful navy aloat, We're gathered together.
Beaconsheld was perfectly willing to negotiate, |
but he was nevertheless determined to be ready
Tor the worst. As the glamor of the Gladstone
reaction passed away, moreover, public sentiment
began to change. The policy of Russia was ex-
amined with more care and calmness. The evil
dence OF her turpltude, of her completely in the
Bulgarian insurrection, of her crafty conspiracies
against the integrity of the Ottoman empire, ac-
cumulated. 1t was slowly recognized that the
northern Power had been for a century pursuing
one steBdy and undertaking course of aggrandise.
ment; that it had never turned back, though
it had halted; that when ostensibly at
peace with Its destined victim its secret agents
had been sowing the seeds and creating the ex-
cuses for another war; that it never kept it's treaty
save when forced to do SO; that i
held no faith with Europe; that it was a danger
GUS, menacing, treacherous, greedy Power; an.
that if not checked az this point it might becoms
imnnasihin over again RI check r BeaconsfelT~
.ai5 -a7 public pulse. Ee bideL dis time. ana
a Them length he E.yad che occasion ripe, he
,9s thai l==cicte Stand which ne mas ever since
maintained md be- took jt with sU overwhelming