THE EASTERN QUESTION : ENGLAND AND HER POSITION.

Bruce Herald, Volume IX, Issue 984, 3 April 1877, Page 6

THE EASTERN QUESTION : ENGLAND AND HER POSITION.

(To the Editor.) Siß,— The power most interested in tht aolu'ion of the Eaatern Question and tht final settlement of the affairs of the Balkati Peninsula— in such a way that they shal 1 uevp.r be revived again — after Russia, certainly that power is England. Apart fron. personal interest, which would dictate to tin English Government the necessity of protecting that Peninsula from the invasion of any other power, unless with the view of establishing an independent kingdom in it — quite *Bpart from this consideration, h«r position in the political world, the almost unbounded influence she has upon al historical events — an influence which does not spring so much from material power as from her moral standing — all these reasons call upon her at the present moment, t interfere one way or the other. The very idea of any power in the world carrying on a war with England with a view of final success, or even the very semblance of it, is totally absurd, as she possesses in her inexhaustible pecuniary resources the gigantic moving powei* that in our days decidesthe fate of the battlefield ; — may the war be ever so sanguinary or ita duration ever so long, England will ever finally come out of it as a victor. Her position as the undispuied Ocean Queen makes it imperative to her to guard Constantinople against the encroachments of Russia; but would it be utterly impossible to improve the condition of the Balkan Peninsula, without exposing it to the melancholy faie of falling from the hands of the one tyrant into those of another ? As the great and glorious protectress of true liberty, as the dispenser of unbiased justice, England is called upon loudly and emphatically by the deserted villages of Bulgaria ; by the rippling stream* now coloured with the blood of innocent Mlow- Christians ; by the continued atrocities even now perpetrated in that unfor unate country in the very face of the member*of the Conference of Constantinople ; and if not by the distinct orders gtill under the authority of that very Sultan, who aoftsoaps the Christian ambassadors at his court with the fairest promises of coining reform. Shall it be said in future ages that England — the power which punished King Theodore of Abyssinia for his cruelty to Christians — allowed a handful of degenerate Mahometans cnld'bioodely to murder a whole nation of fellow rChristians ? And why? Because she feared that a rival power might step in and occupy the country she desired to liberate ? Let selfish interest for once be banished from the diplomatic circles, and let Kn gland show the world by her exampl< that it is not impossible to comb n. the duty we as Christians owe to ou I brethren iv religion with the duty we owe to

ourselves as a political power. Without any. further parleying with the Turks, let her step in ftnd pay *he debt of retributive justice Christianity owes them. Let her then (na 1 have hinted in a previous letter) -'establish an Empire, with a constitution after the pa' tern of her own, on the Balkan Peninsula ; and s^e will then have f"lfilltd her raiseion, and the glorious title?-"! her Majesty the Queen. FideiDefensatrix will never become an empty ohrase. Thus the Eastern Question would not only be finally settled, but the pet idea of the politicians of our century would als.' be realised, the idea of ihe p >litical Equilibrium. The three peni»sula& in the south <>f the Continent would then exist as separat kingdoms — Russia iv the east j the German Empire in the middle ; France in the weat ; Sweden and Norway, joined with Denmark in the north ; and England overruling th« whole from her ms jejtic Ocean Throne, guarding the rights <-t man against the encroachments of all lyranta — the all respected guardian of true liberty, of p^ace, and of religion.— l am, &c, A Russian.