New Zealand Tablet Fiat Justitia. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1876. SYMPATHY WITH BULGARIA.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 191, 24 November 1876, Page 11

New Zealand Tablet Fiat Justitia. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1876. SYMPATHY WITH BULGARIA.

• The meeting held on Monday evening last in Dunedin to express sympathy with, and to devise means of assisting, the Bulgarian sufferers, was convened for a most worthy purpose, and deserved to be, as it proved, successful. We can, however, conceive that there might have been circumstances under which it would have been better to have abstained from the demonstration that has now most fitly been made. In England, for instance, certain of those who are ever foremost in promoting all good works refused to give the aid of their influence to assemblies brought together for a like end ; and they did so, not because they felt no sympathy with the people, who indeed are almost beyond the range of what we commonly know as pity, so terribly have they been afflicted, and so bitterly must every heart that can boast a claim to human feelings deplore their condition, but because they felt that while popular indignation expressed by mass-meetings could now be of no avail to retrieve the past, it might but lead to the adoption of measures that instead of proving beneficial would result in extending evil far and wide.

It is but natural that civilised men on hearing of atrocities should feel it difficult to restrain their anger but prudence frequently counsels the adoption of repressive policy, and, like King Aethub, we recognise the wisdom of letting the first flush of our wrath pass by before taking action that may result in some " fierce doom," even though it may have been well deserved. Acting upon this principle then certain of those we have been accustomed to see leaders in benevolence held back from the popular movement in England, for they felt that a barren revenge wreaked on the murderers of the Bulgarians would be but a sorry end to gain at the price of pernicious consequences whose limits it would have been impossible to foresee. Ihe effects of the country rising up as one man, and wildly crying shame upon the Government might have been to compromise the nation by enforcing some rash course of proceeding on the part of the objects of their ire that would have had the most unhappy results, and therefore they who refrained from coming forward, to add excitement to the popular mind, already excited beyond prudent measure or consideration, acted with wisdom. But here it is otherwise ; the dangerous outburst has passed away ere now, and Englishmen can reflect in calmness on the steps that it is best for them to pursue, that they may no longer bear the reproach of supporting hordes that have proved themselves once more unworthy of the name of human beings, and that they may insure the rational punishment of the malefactors, and the impossibility of a recurrence of such horrors, while at the same time it is sought to avoid the alternative of allowing the advance of a power whose increase is prejudicial to the best interests of mankind. Therefore no harm can possibly result from the meeting held in Dunedin ; on the contrary, it will probably have a good effect, and with its object, in any case, we thoroughly sympathise. But while we do so we cannot refrain from taking exception to certain of the sentiments expressed by some of the speakers on the occasion referred to. We trust, for example, that Mr. Macahdbew was not giving utterance to his genuine convictions when he spoke as follows : " One cannot help looking back with pride and regret upon the days of the great Cbomwell, when England was foremost in vindicating the great rights of humanity, and of civil and religious liberty all over the world. At that time c short, sharp, and decisive ' was the inaxin, and I only wish that were the motto now." To pretend to sympathise with the victims of cruelty, and, at the same time, to profess a retrospective view filled with pride and regret towards the days of one of the most blood-thirsty monsters whose deeds blot the page of history, is somewhat inconsistent. Perhaps, however, the passage quoted may be looked upon as a mere rhetorical flourish ; we sincerely hope so, for if it be not, and if also Mr. Macajsdeew possesses a thorough acquaintance with the events of Cromwell's life, we should say that, though it may not be thought quite fitting to relegate him to the councils of the Sultan, his right place is certainly not upon a philanthropical platform.