Year: 1876

England and Turkey.


Turkey will not grant an armistice, but
will make .peace-only, of course. in case
the terms are satisfactory to her. An armis-
tice could be made in a day and would ar
rest hostilities precisely where they are at
this moment; but peace cannot possibly be
made in short time, and in SO difficult
case as the present it would take many days
even to determine the preliminaries, and in
the meantime, as the Turks understand IL,
they would be at liberty to overrun Servia
and perhaps deal with it as they have al
ready dealt with Bulgaria. Their declara-
ton, therefore, that they will make peace
but will not grant an armistice, though the
armistice proposed is understood only as q
preliminary to peace. is o defiance of Europe
1t is declaration that they will not permit
any interruption of their proceedings just
now, but will consent to an interruption
after Servia shall be thoroughly crushed
by Turkish military occupation. This
presents remarkable difference in the
attitude of Turkey toward Europe from
that she held short time since. She
declares her own will and dictates
terms, and apparently with impunity. She
no longer asks permission of the diplomatic
representatives at Constantinople She no
longer trembles in q balance. held now at
Vienna now at Berlin and now at st. Peters
burg This change is a. natural consequence
of events Encouraged by the presence of
q British feet she has fought well, against
weaker Power, it is true; but in the presence
of Europe she has beaten a Power affiliated
with Russia, sustained, encouraged and ma
terially supported by the subjects of the
Gear, and she now shas faith in her military
power" In other words, the old fanatical
fury controls once more and overcomes in
her councils the discretion that was bred of
defeat and calamity.


But now the Power that sustained Turkey
is compelled to declare that it will not sup
port her in designated contingencies
contingency that must inevitably arise.
The British Ministry has been suddenly
forced to remember that there is Q British
people, and that the whole of British poll
tics is not contained in q supple readiness
to pander to the mad hostility provoked by
Russian progress in the East The Minister
who apologized to Germany for on express
sion used at q dinner in London, and
who explained to Russia one Of his
own speeches in the House Of Commons, led
his government, before he lost all capacity
to do harm, into an indiscretion far graver
than either of those-an indiscretion for
which it would be q mockery to apologize
and from the effects Of which explana-
tions will not save the Ministry. In their
that there WAS any other element Of interest
to the English people than the desire to op-
pose and defeat Russian policy, and now
they discover that the English people do
not want even to defeat Russian policy at
the expense Of encouraging the Moslems to
stamp out of existence the Christian people
of whole country and Of themselves be-
coming morally responsible before the world
for these barbarities. Humanity, Christian
sympathy and mercy are at least as strong
in the English mind as that jealousy of
Russia which the Ministry depended upon
to justify its politics. Mr.. Gladstone's
pamphlet is one evidence of many that Eng





the British government to the Turks. The
vigorous words of John Bright, the spirit of
the public meetings, all show storm brew
ing that will end in stripping the Moslem of |
his last and only support


The warning to the Porte, therefore, that it
would not be sustained in refusal to make
peace was not given too early; and the result
of the Turkish victories will practically be
to leave the Sultan at the mercy of the three
imperial Powers. 1t may yet prove that
these Ottoman successes will be the source of
Ottoman ruin for tho Powers will be COM
PEELED to make the peace on behalf of Servia,
and they must make it in way to provide
against Power which has shown military
vigor and exhibited all its original barbar-
ism ; and the provisions will necessarily be
moro severe than they would have been
when only the decrepit Turkey that figured
in popular imagination few months since
was in question. And as England disappears
from the case the shadow of the great north
ern Power, that has watched its opportunity
patiently, falls over the Turkish viotors II
is the common opinion that England's atti-
tude has finally made necessary and inevi-
table the interference Of Russia


Is the Country Rich.


Mr.. Edward Atkinson yesterday read ON
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