Lord Derby, in the course of a debate raised on
Thursday night by Lord Stratheden and Campbell, stated that he had long ago informed Turkey she had no material assistance to expect from Great Britain, and that he did not regard the Treaties of 1856 as compelling us to act alone. " We do not desire to intervene in this unhappy war." But he added, " We hold ourselves bound to protect British interests, if we see those in- terests threatened." That means, of course, that the Govern- ment will fight Russia if it thinks it expedient ; and in the mean- time, it is getting up all the anti-Russian feeling it can. Its organs incessantly denounce Russia—which unlucky Power is insolent if it makes war, and treacherous if it makes peace—and it has itself published a description of the Russian oppression of the Uniat Church. It is very bad, nearly as bad as was our own oppression of the Irish Church in Ireland, but the story does not prove that in breaking up the Osmanli caste Russia is doing a bad work. A policeman may be a violent brute, and yet be doing only his duty when he arrests a murderer. It is not Czar Alexander who is attacking Turkey, but the Russian nation, which has not oppressed the Uniats.
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