Year: 1876




drawn between the world and the scene of
operations in the Morava Valley, and there
is no authentic intelligence Of what has
occurred since tho loss of the battle at
Aexinatz This is not case in which the
old saw that no news is good news will
apply. On the contrary. the absence Of
reports rather implies that all the means Of
communication are in the hands Of the
Turks, or that in the general Generalization
and discoungement tho defeated force
has gone to pieces and no longer has such
an existence as an army that its operations
can be made the subject Of any statement.
1t is in the attempt to prevent such an infer
ence that we are supplied with despatch
filled with the wonderful imagination that
the Servlan army was not at Alexinatz In
the recent battle. The report that the main
body of the army was withdrawn from that
position previous to the battle. in order to
oppose the march Of the Turks by another
line on Krusevatz and that. therefore, the
decisive battle is yet to be fought, will
scarcely impose upon the general intelli-
gence sufficiently to revive any hope in the
capacity of Servia to cope with her invaders.
The real position is that the Servinn army,
discouraged and broken, is fugitive mass
that cannot be rallied, and the Ottoman SOL
diefy have the country and tho people at
their mercy. Enough is known as
to what their mercy is; but there is reason
to believe that they are inspired with
more desperate ferocity against the Ser
vians than was vented on the wretched peo-
pie of Bulgaria. The report that wounded
Russian volunteers who have fallen into
their hands have been burned alive is not
incredible, since it is authentically estab-
lshed that many men in Bulgaria were by
these same soldiers subjected to that horri-
BILE torture. Against Russian it can be well
understood that q more malignant senti-
ment is felt than toward any other man Of
civilized country, and it will even ag-
gravate their vindictive spirit toward Servia
that she has the sympathy of the Russian
government and people.


Europe, therefore, has to contemplate face
to face the fact that there are one hundred
and fifty thousand soldiers sweeping down
the Morava Valley-soldiers of kind that
have not been seen in any European coun-
try since the first conquest of this same dis
trict by barbarians Of the same race. 1t
was probably very unwise for Servia to go
to war, but it seems incredible that the civil
lied nations Of Europe con stand still and
see the extirpation of a people inflicted as O
penalty for the error of their government.
Yet this is what is to come if they do not in
terfere. All that was done in Bulgaria will
be but little to what will be perpetrated in
State that has hitherto made itself practi-
cally independent and is a Chris
tian country. 1t will try the nerves
of some governments to see practised in Bel
grade, q European city-a city in hourly
communication by telegraph with London
and Paris--those atrocities which, reported
from the out-of-the-way villages Of q Turk
ish province, have thrilled the world with
horror. 1t will, above all, come home to
the British people that their government is
before the, world morally responsible for
this infiction upon q civilized people of all
the horrors of barbaric invasion and con-
quest. England is essentially party to
this war. The appearance of her feot in
Turkish waters-ordered there specifically
as it was-constituted on Intervention and
freed the Turk from that fear of his north
ern neighbor that would restrain him in
any other circumstances. The jealousy of
Russia-the readiness to put England in
any position to thwart Russian policy or
to prevent the growth of Russian infu-
ence-was the weakness of the Ministry
that so far outran all discretion as to put
England in the position of the supporter OF
acts that it was believed the progress of civ
ilization, even in the making of war, had
rendered forever impossible. Doubtless the
Ministry will feel the weight of public
wrath but the nation cannot purge its
record by change of Ministry, and Eng
lands relation to this crime against civiliza-
ton will remain o permanent stain upon
her history.


But what is to be done in tho emergency
Devastation and the indiscriminate butch
cry of men, women and children menace a
Christian country of million and n half
of people, every part of which country
| will be overrun in q few days by u
| soldiery more savage than the hordes
Of Sioux who have fought with Sitting Bull.
Diplomatists appeal to the Moslem to pause
in his bloody career, that the friendly nations
may suggest n basis of pacification but he
nonchalantly responds that an armistice
would be Opposed to his interests" and
urges forward his soldiery lest the sweet
morsels Of murder and massacre should vet
eyes turn toward Russia. England warns
the Porte that she cannot sustain it against
q refusal to grant proper terms, even though
this refusal should induce the movement of
Russian armies. In Berlin it is conceded
Al Ia ,,r4 h, fosa;bl.. xorAr,inal