Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1885-05-14
MICH
England's Breakdown.

II the telegraph has represented the
condition of affairs upon the Afghan
frontier with even tolerable fidelity,
the iaunty air with which Mr.. Glad
stone informed the commons that the
difficulty with Russia has been adj
justed should have given place TO
shamefacedness. 1t is settlement
that does not settle, q humiliation
without compensation, complete sur
render at the expense OF national
pride and in the face of formal pledges.
1t means. in word, that, after warm
ing Russia off from premises that are
not hers, and telling her bluntly that
to remain meant war, England will
drop the quarrel if Russia will prom
Use not to. advance any further. There
is no doubt but that temporary peace
can be bought at that price; It costs
Russia nothing; she has not advanced
her Cossacks as far as she meant, per-
haps, but they, at least. have been
pushed forward, while England has
maintained neither her dignity nor
her safety. She has won the friend
ship of Abdur Rahman by promising
to defend him against Russian agrees
sion. viii he still trust British arms and
refuse to listen to the batteries Russia
has long been whispering in his ear?
Will the Afghans of Herat and the
neignboring country, whose fidelity
has always been suspected, still be-
lieve in England's capacity to main
tain her authority against all interlop-
ersp VIII the inhabitants of India,
who have been urgent in their demands
that the Russians be pushed back, still
believe IN English valor? Or will
they think that England has not kept
her word because she fears the issue?
Mr.. Gladstone will doubtless con-
tinue TO accept the assurances of Rus
STA that her intentions are peaceful
and the end of her journey now finally
reached, as he has for years, with
strange fatuity, believed every solemn
promise of Russia, though it has been
regularly broken. The rest of the
world. however, will not believe that
Paropamisus range any more than they
meant last year to remain, rs they
promised, between Sarakhs and the
Oxus. The Russians have not been
pushing their way through Central
Asia step bp step for years out of pure
philanthropy; they ale not building
railway system, at enormous cost,
for the sake of doing missionary work
among barbarous tribes; they have
not now challenged a great war with
a European Power for the sake of
preserving n bit of Turcoman pasture
land; they have not been laboriously
extending. their sway southwark for
years to end it at last within sight of
the spot which would give them both
security and wealth. Commercially,
Russa's latest outlay goes for little
until Herat is reached; politically, that
own terms to England for the south
ern outlet to the sea from which Eng
land has for thirty years shut her out.
What will Mr.. Gladstone do nowp
The Russians have at length come
within hundred miles of Herat, and
they are to be allowed to stay there.
VIII England still go backward rs
Russia advances? is Sir Peter Lum-
den s little farce over. and will he be re-
called without even seeing his Russian
confrere? Will the British remain at
Quettah and at Peshawar while the
Russians quietly prepare for their
next forward movements Or will
Herat be occupied at once and forti-
fed? And since the Russians promise
to remain quiet at Sari-yarz, will they
be kindly helped to keep their word
for once, because the closing of the
doors of Penj-deh will make any fur
Their advance along the Murghab inn
possible for them? This is the only
safe course left for England, but if
Gladstone takes it he will show bold
ness of which he now gives little indi.
cation. st. Louis Globe s1n0crni.