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THE TURKISH QUESTION.
Do nations possess a conscience, or is the
amoral faculty in individuals lost in com
munities P We have heard from utilitarian
philosophers the doctrine that expediency
under the* guise of statecraft is the only
sufficient director of national actions ; but
even if tie eloquence of Paleyaudthe subr
tlety of Bentham have failed to commend
such philosophy to the English mind,
what shall we do with these villainous.
liujusr ass -wur jzapuiin. policy w) oe Ou- *
livious of 'all the rights of humanity in '
order that we might preserve a balance of,
power ? Because Mr. Disraeli — we beg his
pardon, the Earl of Beaconsfield — is very .
much afraid of Russia, are we to suffer the
most infamous despotism that for 15
centuries has had standing in Europe, to
work its will among the' Christian popu
lations of the Eastern Peninsula ?
The Slavonic ^people, over whom the
Turk for so many centuries has wielded;
his fatal power, a race occupying both
aides of the Danube as its chief
habitat, lias been, pronounced by eminent
ethnologists as r the most intellectual pro
bably of all the races of Europe. They
are not gifted with great elegance of form.
Their stature is 'shorty they have dark hair,
and a somewhat dark 'complexion. In J
architecture, music, and fine arts they are j
superior to the Saxon and the Celtic races, i
^ and they .are said to have minds of the
highest order for seeing the abstract
principles that lie concealed beneath
nature's lavra. . This noble race, penetrating
into Boheinia^and Poland and Lithuania,
mingling inclose and intimate relation with
the Saxon r^ces of Germany, is believed to
Jjftve furnished4 the chief intellectual
'i3ein£nV»f modern Bnrope.^ The geniue of
iQtaethe , Ae gseneralfedtion- of Oken, the ,
r £MtS$6nt Iffiia'1 ot Strjiiasfe,; Jaw said .. Jo He '''
l^ayon c^t^^^^,$ax9n; If in wander
-^ng-sou th^a^s'tbward? ^^ece they have
.-Become1 fomewhai [degraded by 'enforced
- contact! with the once vigorous but now
^ejffeimiiate Osmanlis,'they are to be pitied
more than -bltoied. But even under cir
cnmstahces thai would have crushed out
the life of most na^ons, they have pre
served their feeling of jiational indepen
dence and their ownnpeculiar character.
They haw-«i5n0ed -mm the Turks, but ,
never tainted:/ 7At; the 'dawn' of history
rthey vwere diefinct from, all the races
jajfpund thenij and in ^reat degree they are
'^distinct now. ',?/-?, . ? : ?
: These Slavonians, Sclaves, Slavs, or what
ever the philologist may; choose to call
them^forin the chief element in that Chris- .
tianjopulation of Etirbpean Turkey against
which the .hellhounds of Islam have besn ;
iatelv let' loose. ?.. We can searcelv trust
/ourselves to give expression to the feelings
which rise 'within us after perusing the
sickening f details of the atrocities perpe- ..,
trated in: Bulgaria. The reports and tele
grams which have before reached us we
hardly trusted. -War,always gives birth to
stories of «ruelty and license beyond its own
actual horrors.' But in this case the half
had not been told us. Trustworthy gentle
men, under the shield of the British and
American name, have visited the localities
where the diabolism reached its height,
and they have given Europe, as eyewit
nesses, such a story of brutal, bestial crime
as has not reached' its ears for gene
rations. We need to go back to a remote
past for anything like an analogy. When
the Huns burst upon Europe f rom the
same quarter as the Turks in the early
centuries of our era, they carried into the
Danubian Provinces of the iioman Empn*e
the same hellish cruelty and lust. But
even Attfla had more excuse than the in
stigators and perpetrators of the Bulgarian
atrocities. He smote his enemies with
the edge of the sword, and utterly de
stroyed their land. But these modern
warriors, these demons in the shape of
soldiers, these Bashi-bazouks, of the ill
omened name, were suffered to work their
will in deeds that pen cannot write, that
paper would blush to receive, on their
own fellow-subjects living near them in
peace. Some excuse may be found for
wickedness perpetrated when the blood of
soldiers has risen to boiling point in siege
and battle. At Magdeburg in the S«Y°^ty
Years' War, £„ ^y 0{^ yfidloons of
Pappenlieim, and the Croats of Tilly, could
not be controlled. At Badajoz, the
humanity of Wellington could; not for
awhile subdue the fierce passions of the
Saxon and the Celt. But these recent
crimes were committed in cold blood. The
Turkish irregulars surrounded towns and
villages, where the inhabitants were trou
bled only by the tidings of distant war.
Unarmed, defenceless, submissive, they
were served by hundreds of thousands —
little children, youths and. maidens, men
and women, up to the hoary-headed — as
those who have been exposed to the brutal
license of the soldiery at the sack of
conquered cities. Indeed, the very worst
of such cases could searcelv furnish a cata
logue of diabolic wickedness like that
which has come first hand from Bulgaria.
. - We do not intend to shock the sensi
bilities of our readers by any reference to
the sickening details which probably they
have read from other sources. But we
cannot help wondering what England is
going to do. Something is on foot, as our
most recent telegrams have told us. The ?
agitation is fast spreading throughout
Jtfritaiu. aright nas spoiren, declaring tnat
the honor of the country has already been
seriously compromised; Gladstone has
spoken, urging very strongly that Parliament
be summoned. Lord Derby does not see fit
to call Parliament together. The debates
would be stormy in. the present excited
state of public feeling, and might evel
prove dangerous to the Tory Ministry. He
has indicated what would be likely to be
the best course to settle Eastern affairs.
Herzegovina and Bosnia are to be autono
mised. Servia is to be as she was. Bul
garia is to be left to its fate, with guaran
tees. But Europe has had enough of
guarantees, and England has heard enough
of the sufferings of Bulgaria. Russia will
not be content for Servia, even if Servia
would submit to it, to be in st-ttu quo.
But Servia will not submit. The telegrams ?
we publish to-dav are enougrh to convince
the most sceptical that Prince Milan is not
yet disheartened by defeat. Indeed vic
tory appears to be inclining to the Servian
side. We adhere to our repeatedly ex
pressed opinion, that the autonomy of all
the Northern Provinces will be secured by
European convention. A little more — the
cup is nearly to the brim, and the outraged
conscience of Europe will rise in such
wrath and such vengeance that the infa
mous Turk will be driven from the sera
jrlios of Constantinople. His presence in
the West is an affront to virtue and civiliza
tion.
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