New-York tribune., 1879-11-10
cision. no verdict would reach the moral
heart of the matter
ENGLANn,S EORCE POLICr.

ENGLAND'S FORCE POLiCf.
The menacing attitude of the British Gov
ernment toward the Porte and the flourish
made over the orders tn the fleet have as
little force as pistol shots in the air. There
are sharp reports and sudden pulls OF smoke,
but the Turk is not hit, nor even frightened,
and Europe is not deceived. So long as the
Sultan is allowed to reform in his own way,
the regeneration of Asia Minor is a sham and
the moment foreign Cabinet, which has
strenuously resisted every effort made to en-
force the righteous demands of Europe,
threatens to compel him to fulfil his engage
ments. the display of force is likewise sham
If an English fleet had anchored off Constan-
tinople when the Russian army was awaiting
marching orders in Bessarabia, and demanded
immediate acquiescence in the reform meas
ures proposed by the Conference, the cam
paigns in Armenia and Bulgaria might have
been indefinitely postponed. Lord Beaconsfeld
would not force the Sultan to do anything
that he did not want to do. He contended
that, as a member Of the European State sys-
tenn whose rights had been defined in the
Treaty of Paris, the Porte must not be sub
jected to physical pressure. In this spirit he
broke up the accord of the Powers as eX-
pressed in the Berlin memorandum, and IN
the subsequent negotiations brought the di-
pomacy of the Continent into disrcputc. HIS
policy has shifted with the times, and to-day
he menaces the Porte with coercion.
1t Is now eighteen months since the Sultan
promised in the Anglo Turkish convention
4" TO introduce necessary reforms, to he agreed
"upon later between the two Powers, into
t1,,, -.f. ti,,t.s s.i
." the Christian and other subjects of the
" Porte" There have been diplomatic rcmon-
strances from London and changes of Ministry
in StambOul. The British Ambassador has
urged the appointment OF financial inspectors
and outlined various schemes Of administTH-
tive reform. Midhat, the " enlightened Turk
rs lie was once called. has undertaken to up
root abuses in single province, and Sir lchy
Layard has made Il tour at observation IN
Syria. But III the face of declarations and
treaties, diplomacy and intrigue. tie Ottoman
Empire has remained an Asatic State, I'M
poverished. pOwerless mlSgovcrned, doomed
10 stagnati0n and decadcnce. The COnsIiIu-
tion and Parliamentary system which the
Turkish Liberal sought 10 introduce when he
set Europe at defiance, have been brushed
aside. The revenues from Syria have fallen
oil and the remaining provinces are
squeezed dry, so that the financial collapse
of the Empire is irrctrievablc. This is the
testimony of every blue-book on the Eastern
Question which the British Foreign Office has
issued. Like Il time-wOrn ruin overgrown
with poisonous vines, the power OF ancient
Stam5oul-the Stamboul of MahOmet the
Conaueror and Soliman the Magnfcent-is
wasting away. Turkey cannot be reformed
from within. The leading London journal
insists that with nations as with sinners 1t Is
never too late to mend. This may be so, but
certainly no progress has yet been made III
reforming Asiatic Turkey from without.
The reproach of this failure falls To the lot
of England. 1t may, indeed. be urged that
the British Cabinet simply took the Sultan at
his word when he promised TO mend bis ways.
and is not responsible for the misgovernment
of that benighted land. According to this
view all that England undertook to
do was to protect the Porte against
further inroads from the Russian frontier, and
she did not bind herself TO rebuild the cities
of Asia Minor, construct Il transcOntincntal
railroad to the Persian Gulf, restore the in
duStrial energies of downtrOdden and OPP
pressed population, Introduce the principles of
modern civil service and shape the destnics
OF another India But the English conscience
will not be satisfied with logic such as this.
The nation cannot swerve from the moral re-
Cyprus and concluded defensive alliance with
the Porte on the condition that misgoyernment
in Asiatic Turkey should be brought to an end.