The Madness of Fighting for Turkey.

Bruce Herald, Volume IX, Issue 891, 23 March 1877, Page 3

The Madness of Fighting for Turkey.

■ . — » The Committee of the Peace Society, in an address just issued, state that the Crimean War caused the death of a million of human beingp, many of fwhom perished in every conceivable form of horror and agony. It inflicted an amount of misery of every kind upon the nations that was appalling and indescribable. It coßt in direct expenditure £349,000,000, while the indirect cost in the suspension of industry, the ruin of commerce, the unsettlement of all financial prospects, the bankruptcies, the enforced idleness, «fee, was such as to defy all calculation. And which of all the objects which the statesmen who made the war hoped to accomplish have been attained ? It did not settle the Eastern question, which at this moment is more than ever threatening the peace of Europe. It did not give to Turkey the permanent material guarantees which were thought necessary against Russian agressioo, since the provisions introduced into the treaty of peace for that parpose have been given up, with Ibe common consent of all the signatory Powers, including Turkey herself. .It did not diminish the influence of Russia in the east of Europe, but has, on the contrary, largely added to it, by enabling that state to appear as the protector and champion of the oppressed Christian races, while England appears as the friend of the oppressor. It did not regenerate Turkey, seeing that since the war it has been hastening more rapidly than ever to dissolution, as bankrupt finances, a decaying population, official corruption aud incapacity, and chronic disaffection and anarchy throughout the whole country abundantly testify. It did not secure the independence of the Ottoman Empire, as during the last twenty years the other Powers have been more than ever meddling incessantly in its internal affairs, sometimes by bombarding a town, sometimes by occupying a province with armed forces, sometimes by appointing Commissioners to regulate its finances, or to look after the administration of justice, and constantly by diplomatic dictations, remonstrances, and threats. It did not secure freedom and safety to the Christian subjects of the Porte, because the oppressions they endure, every now and then breaking forth into wholesale massacres), as at Jeddah and Damascus, have been growing more and more intolerable until they have culminated in the unutterable atrocities which have recently filled the world with horror and indignation. It did not conduce to the security of our Indian Empire, for it is at least a moot point whether the Russian War was not one of the proximate causes of the Indian Mutiny. What then have we to show for all the sacrifices and sufferings of that murderous conflict ? This and no other — That we helped to consolidate and perpetuate the Turkish dominion in Europe, and to rivet the yoke of Mahommedan oppression on the necks of the groaning millions of the Christian subjects of the Porte. "We refer to these things now, not for the sake of vaunting ourselves or upbraiding others, but because tb6y have a close practical bearing upon actual events ; for the question seems about to be put before long to the British people — are you willing to repeat the policy of 1853-4 ? At that time a large number of countrymen were not fully informed as to the real condition of Turkey. They were misled by representations made on high authority as to the progress which that country was making in civilization and liberty. They cannot plead ignorance any longer. And the point they may have to decide is this — Will they consent that English blood and treasure shall be again poured forth without stint to uphold the most execrable system of government under the sun — a system doomed, as all incurably wicked and corrupt things are doomed, alike by the laws of nature and the decrees of Providence, to perish from the face of the earth. Our course at any rate is clear, and that is to use our influence to the utmost to prevent our country from being dragged, or driven or drifted, into another Eastern war.