Lord Stratford de Redcliffe wrote a very able letter to
last Satur- day's Times advocating the union of the Powers' to enforce terms on Turkey-, and containing some remarkable expressions of the able old diplomatist's deepest convictions:—" There is much reason to think that a chain of autonomous States, though still perhaps tributary to the Sultan, might be extended from the Black Sea to the Adriatic, with advantage to that potentate him- self. But at all events, the very idea of re-instating any amount of Turkish misgovernment, in places once cleared of it, is simply revolting." That is a strong opinion from the trusted agent of Lord Palmerston and the Great Eltehee of 185"4. In answer to the argument that it would be difficult to demand from a victorious Power the sort-of terms whieh might easily be imposed 012s defeated Power, Lord Stratford says that we ought to remind the Porte that "millions on millions extracted from the moneyed classes of Christendom since the Crimean war, have enabled it [Turkey] to form those numerous battalions which are now in the fields of slaughter ; and promises of reform proclaimed by authority and re- corded in treatylave obtained for it the countenance and friendly protection of its Christian allies, on credit of performance hitherto but faintly and partially realised ;" and that those undeniable facts "confer a right, nay, impose a duty, of mediating with a firm resolution to carry into full effect the dictates of humanity and the principles of equitable government." That is true statesmanship.
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