Lord Salisbury's speech was full of weight and of the
sense of high responsibility. After the announcement that the decision in regard to Chitral arrived at by the Govern- ment would be found to be supported by the papers which would be laid before the House on the subject, Lord Salisbury turned to Armenia. Here be used language of admonition to the Sultan stronger than we ever remember to have seen addressed by an English Prime Minister to any foreign Power. Mr. Gladstone never employed terms so menacing to the authority of the Sultan. The Sultan was afraid of having his independence impaired; but he must remember that his independence was of a very special kind, and rested on the agreement of the Powers. But the Powers felt that there was a danger lest, in giving this artificial stability to Turkey, "they should be upholding a mechanism which did not work for human happiness and progress." "How long," continued Lord Salisbury, "the present state of things will go on, I confess appears to me more doubtful than it did twenty years ago If generation after genera- tion cries of misery come up from various parts of the Turkish Empire, 1 am sure the Sultan cannot blind himself to the probability that Europe will at some time or other become weary of the appeals that are made to it and the factitious strength that is given to his Empire will fail it." As if this were not enough, the Prime Minister concluded, "the Sultan will make a grave and calamitous mistake if, for the sake of maintaining a mere formal independence, for the sake of resisting a possible encroachment on his nominal prerogatives, he refuses to accept the assistance and to listen to the advice of the European Powers in extirpating from his dominions an anarchy and a weakness which no treaties and no sympathy will prevent from being fatal in the long run to the Empire over which he rules." We cannot exaggerate our satisfaction with Lord Salisbury's words. They are worthy of the English Government, and unless the Sultan is absolutely determined on working his own ruin, they should produce the desired effect.
