Mr. Grant Duff has repeated, in a speech at Inverurie,
his dislike Of Mr. Gladstone's proposals for the settlement of the East, and his own alternative proposition that the Duke of Edinburgh should be made Emperor of European Turkey. The new Sovereign would not be a catspaw of any Power, and with a certain number of Anglo-Indian officials would be able to establish a good organi- sation in his dominions. We have no objection whatever, if Mr. Grant Duff will only tell us how the Sultan is to be banished, and by what army the new Sovereign is to be supported until the con- scription has been organised and his soldiers can be trusted. There will be a good deal of hard work to do in the way of disarming Turks, expelling or reducing Circassians, and suppressing religious feuds, and the point not settled is where the force is to come from. Is it to be Russian ? In that case, the Duke might possibly be the catspaw which Mr. Grant Duff wishes him not to be. Or is it to be English ? In that case, is Mr. Grant Duff prepared with the fifteen or twenty thousand private soldiers required ? We may, however, we suppose, welcome the Member for Elgin, in spite of his contempt for Mr. Gladstone's ideas, as one more enemy of the Pashas in Europe.
Previous page
