ENGLISH MEDIATION.

Inangahua Times, Volume IV, Issue 2, 28 November 1877, Page 2

ENGLISH MEDIATION.

In, one of his speeches at Liverpool lately, Lord Derby, 9ppaking an the question of Fnglish mediation batwoen the combatants in the ICn*r, defined om 1 position as follows .« — (1 If I <vere to describe in one sentence tho atti ude and fee ing of the Government I would say that we shall do wlmt we can to pull our neigh* bora out of tho ditch, hut in doing so we shall be very careful tlmt they dou't pull us in." One would have thought that a rule of action so obviously comfortable to common sense might have escaped tli|e censure even of the most impatient phil» antbropist. Not so, however, the Times, for one philanthropist, does not enry a statesman who onn look on at the fearful strucgle now progressing in Bulgaria and can cooly turn his eyes, away as though it were no concern of his, until some happy moment arrives when he can do a little good without the least possible risk. 1 ' A person who should behave as Ijord Derby advises " would not be deemed exactly a good Samaritan," and the Times is " confident that this is not the feeling with which England looks on the outburst, of furious passions now desolating the East ftf Kurope.'* A v warm-hearted man may ha firmly determined not to make himself responsible for his friend's errors and obligation, but he will watch them in a very different spirit from a calculating attorney."' He will, indeed — often in a fatally different spirit ; .and that, perhaps, is the reason why most men af sense prefer in their discultie& the advice of a < calculating, attorney l> to that of the M warm* b,es#tedi friend.' 1 But what after all does the. Times w.a#.t ft Not that w,e should jj-um-p in,to the ditch surely, or allow ourselves to be dragged in R Not at all. The limes, i,t seems, would act in precisely the same way as Lprd Derby, only it would tails differently. The expression of a little generous sympathy would not have miabeco.me the Foreign Minister of England ia this crisis. The Times, in abort, would have us stand on, the brink of the ditch, expressing our "• generous sympathy" witb it occupants, while declining reaolutely to stretch our hatul to help theai until we can " interpose our good j offices with due cautipn.'* Js not this exactly the cours& of conduct which renders this country so beloved by foreign nations, and* which niaUesJthe frequent charge of phiirisaism, to us. s.o i^Qx^ableP