Year: 1876

pears 10 be turkeys turn to go TO the wall.
But little while ago the Sultan could have
secured peace with Servia. if not on his
own terms, at least on terms that would have
recognized the substantial facts of his tri-
umph. and the Osmanli would have pre-
sented himself to the eyes of nstonished
Europe in the unaccustomed character of
victor in defence Of the peace of his frontiers.
Neither would his victory have been belit-
tied by the consideration that it was only
gained over one of his own tributaries strut
tingin the character of belligerent sovereign,
for he engaged in war that it was sought to
prevent by pact of the three great En-
perors who are his neghbors, and no human
creature could say at what hour the stand
ard of one of those Emperors would be mr.
rayed against him. Yet, with some modera-
humanity in his composition, and with only
the successes he has gained, he might have
come out of that perilous venture with fly
ing colors and re-established some de-
gree in the respect of mankind for his exhi-
bition of vitality. But his position is so





prospects appear to have faded like picture
in the clouds, when the blooming bastions
fringed with fire" become suddenly dull
wastes of vapor drifting before the wind.
Humanity protests against his excesses
Russia is contemplated rs necessary rem
edy against him England is disposed to
leave him foundering in the slough into
which she encouraged him to enter; his
financial dishonesty rises in judgment
against him, and his success in the field,
that substantial triumph over the enemy
on which he based his arrogant refusal to
treat, to have either an armistice or peace,
is not yet safely his, and even threatens to
slip phantom-like from his grasp.


Six points are laid down as constituting
the terms on which the Sultan will make
peace. Servia's sovereign must renounce
the half-gained independence that he hoped
to fully realize in this war, and must accept
his throne as the vassnl of the Sultan, and,
as guarantee that his recognition of the
Sultan's supremacy over him shall not be
mere formality to be forgotten the moment
he leaves the Moslem capital, he must re-
duce his armaments so as to make any re-
newal of o struggle on his part utterly hope
less, and must accept Turkish garrisons
as further warrant for his good con-
duct. Servia must pay the expenses
Of the war, and finally she must
construct railway, of course to fac
ilitate the invasion of her territory by
Turkish troops in case she should prove
refractory or in case it should please the au-
thorities at Constantinople to imagine that
she looked ut some time as if she meant to
be refractory. 1t is declared by the London
Times, which evidently is better acquainted
with British opinion than the Ministry is,
that the only one of these conditions which
is "safe'-that is, we suppose, acceptable
is the one in regard to the railways for our
cousin in the midst of his fervor of human
ity has always one eye open for commercial
chances and can see the advantages of q new
line of rail anywhere. But if England,
which certainly has substantial reasons for
taking the view of Turkeys relations to her
neighbors that is most favorable to Turkey
if England, thus predisposed, rejects these
propositions with a sneer over her ally's
new found zeal for railways, it may be
imagined how they will be regarded in
other capitals They would simply hand
Servia over, bound hand and foot. They
would go behind the Treaty of Paris, which
so far removed Servia from dependence on
Turkish suzerainty rs to place her directly
under the protection of the signatory Pow
ers. 1t will hardly be assented by the par
ties to that instrument that the con-
tempt with which the northern Colossus
treated it at critical moment may
be repeated at his convenience by
the Sultan. In Russia these terms
will not only be rejected, but regarded as
an insolence, and if the Russian government
were only as much under the influence Of
the national sentiment as is every other gov
eminent in Europe their presentation to
Russian ambassador might be treated rs
cdsuS belR


Before even conqueror proposes terms to
his adversary so extreme rs these laid down
as the conditions of peace with Servia, he
must be confident that he stands on firm
ground; but the Sultan's position is not
such as to Justify an arrogant demeanor on
his part. His successes in the field, which
are the assumed basis of his extreme de-
mands, have not yet reached o point at
which they may be regarded as beyond the
reach of fortune, and in view of the latest
news there is an eminent probability that
they never will reach such point. Indeed,
q Turkish retreat and the failure of the cam
paign is now so far likely that the principal
concern of the commander Of the Moslem
forces is certainly not Immediately to sweep
the Scrvians from his path, but to maintain
against many difficulties the position he has
already reached in his operations against
them. Within even the short pc