LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
THE CONCERT OF EUROPE.
[To THE EDITOR 07 THE " SPECTAT010] SIR, —It is to be hoped that the bombardment by British warships of the Cretans, who, whatever their faults, are fighting against an intolerable tyranny, may stir our peof( to reflect whether the " Concert of Europe " is so essential t■,. the cause of peace that we should sacrifice to it our traditional character as the champions of liberty, the refuge and stay of the oppressed, and the implacable foes of unrighteous government, and thus forfeit the sympathy and good wishes of all our real friends. True to our traditional character, we are at the present time waging war in Egypt against a barbarous and merciless despotism. Is there not a .,danger that in Eastern Europe we may be drawn against our will into an opposite course, and play false to our character, through air connection with Powers who openly proclaim their determination to uphold in its territorial integrity an Empire as barbarous and merciless as that which we are endeavouring to annihilate in Africa ? What real fellowship can there be between a country like our own, which, free herself, desires others to be free, and countries which are under the rule of great military despots ? Hitherto it has been our policy to abstain from special alliances with foreign Powers, however closely united to us in aims and sympathies, from a reluctance to part with our liberty of action, and from a wise dread of entanglements. But now we find ourselves tied to Powers whose aims and sympathies are in many vital ques- tions antagonistic to our own, and employing our ships in the humiliating task of coercing the one people which, headed by a chivalrous King, has played the man. It would be difficult to name one positive good which tbis new weapon of diplomacy, called the " Concert of EuropP," has effected. It certainly has done not a little harm. We owe to it that our country was prevented from succouring or avenging our Armenian fellow-Christians. We owe to it that nothing as yet has been devised for their protection against further massacres, or for the good government of other oppressed subjects of the Sultan, beyond paper constitutions, which they who devised them must have felt would prove failures. We owe to it that the legitimate aspirations of both Cretans and Hellenes have been thwarted. If in past years states- men had waited for the approval of all the Great Powers or " the Concert of Europe," Italy would never have been free, and Greece and Bulgaria would still be lying prostrate under the hoof of Turkey. If, as many affirm, this Concert be necessary for the peace of Europe, we must no doubt be content to make great sacrifices to maintain it ; but after present dangers are over the sooner we are set free from its trammels the better will it be for our own honour and for the cause of liberty and righteous government.—I am, Sir, &c., Bishopsbourne, Cannes, March 2nd. C. W. GIBRALTAR.
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