THE MEANING OF THE EASTERN QUESTION FOR THE BRITISH EMPIRE AND THE WORLD.

West Coast Times, Issue 2325, 9 September 1876, Page 2

THE MEANING OF THE EASTERN QUESTION FOR THE BRITISH EMPIRE AND THE WORLD.

(from 'the colonieß.') London. The great Eastern question is at this hour occupying the keenest attention, it may be truly said, of the whole civilised world. Eyefy thoughtful man is filled with the strongest sense of its extreme gravity. The financial exchanges of every country are agitated by it with stormy tumult. Private persons and wide communities find their fortunes profoundly affected by. the telegraphic tempest? \yhjch roll over them from hour to hour. Individual men and great States are compelled "t© reckon with the possibility (ba( at any moment a sudden turn in jjasterri events may force them to look ruia and insolvency in the face. Powerful Governments are the prey of anxiety ; for there is a sense pf vague, terrii'ying, boundless danger involved in the fearful issues raised by insurrectionary movements of apparently trifling significance. There is no part of the world which may not be caught up by this storm ere the passing year ahall have reached its completion. And if ever there was a colonial question of paramount importance, most assuredly this is one. The future of the mighty colonial States jn the Eastern regions, as well as the vast Indian dependency of the British Empire, ia brooding, for great good or great evil, in. the issues which time ia developing in its womb. There is not an Englishman in the whole Empire whom it does not directly and personally concern to watch and think over the events which are now going forward and their consequences. To what is this surpassing, this momentous interest, tp be ascribed ? The conviction that radical changes in the constitution of the Turkish Empire are at hand beyond doubt lies at the bottom of every man's thought at this supreme hour. Hence it is in the highest degree necessary to search out the real nature and meaning of these possible revolutions. Turkey i 3 a land of immense extent. It touches Europe oh vital points on one side; it reaches wellnigh to India on the other. Such a country cannot experience alterations in its organisation without coming into vivid contact with the interests of the highest order all round. Then, again, Turkey presents a peculiarity which is capable of developing results of the widest range. It ia the centre of one of the greatest religions amongst mankind. That religion is singularly susceptible or the wildest and most intense fanaticism, and human nature has shown. on many terrible occasions how much fanaticism may seize upon the most widespread communities and generate the most destructive violence and fury. It is not outside the range of possible contingencies that the Mussulman element of the population of India might feel the convulsions of such wild madness. This one fact, by itself alone, invests the Turkish question with great gravity tor all Englishmen. Nevertheless these' considerations still fall short of exhausting the full significance of the overwhelming crisis which is going on under our eyes. Large perturbations have swept over the world, military struggles of sharp and enduring violence have raged ere now, trembling men's minds with intensity of the anxiety which now besets all thinking men. The contest between France and Germany begat fear* and feelings in England of a very stirring kind ;yet the Turkish question is far graver still. It is dimly seen that more serious jnterestts are involved in it for all mankind. There is something absolutely special in its very nature. Everyone will [ think of the aggrandisement which the I ultimate issue may bring to one single Power ; yet even the fact that Russia may I come forth from' the commotion with a broad expansion of fresh territory does not exhaust the problem. What, then, is the I hidden but formidable disaster which the ■ Eastern question may bring forth in its i course on the whole world, and not least f on the British Empire, on England and her I Colonies? It is a matter of the deepest concern — we add, emphatically, of the strongest duty for every Englishman, who has any capacity for thinking, thoroughly to study and understand this most serious pf questions ; to make himself master of What it really means, of what lies at the bottom of it. A dim sense of the possibilities involved rises up in niost minds ; but a jeal investigation of their true nature and a clear perception of what they mean, as realities, are lamentably rare, The key pf the whole situation lies in the geography pf Constantinople, in the narrow stream pf water which divides Europe from Asia, and the broad expanse of the Black Sea beyond. The secret of the problem lies $here. What influence may these seemingly insignificant portions of the earth's surface bring to bear on the future of the world, or the independence and happiness of mankind ? This is the point to learn and master. That Russia at Constantinople would be inconveniently strong ; that the balance of power amongst the sations ot Enrope would be seriously disturbed; and her voice in the councils of the world would be intolerably mighty ; that her power to interfere with the maternal government ot other nations might be mischievously exercised, as it manifestly was by the Emperor Nicholas ; that Kussia would be painfully felt and heeded at Paris and Berlin and Vienna and Kome ; that holy alliances might reappear tp war down liberty and free thought and national independence; that Egypt might be endangered, and the biiez Canal compromised — all these are ideas which are swarming on every side in the journals of every Euro* pean country. But that is not the whole matter. These are perils of a kind which the human race, as it goes along down the age?, must encounter ; that there will arise a feeling— a sound feeling, and a just one, we fully admit, that the difficulties and dangers of the day will be met,-suc-cessfully met, as in the past, by the energy and intelligence of tree nations. To our judgment, the danger of the present Lour lies embedded in the prevalence of these generally just feelings ; they blind the mind to peculiarities in the case which, i not taken, into full account, may work out mischief which hereafter will be irretriev-> able.