THE GREEK TREATY.
EDINBURGH OBSERVER—The parties to the treaty of the 6th July are now placed in a position which requires them to proceed forthwith to make the final arrangements it embraces. They must prevail on the Greeks to recog- nize the Sultan as lord paramount ; they must settle the amount and nature of the annual tribute which they are bound by their protectors to pay him ; they must secure to him a defined right in the nomination of the authorities in whom the government of the infant state is to be invested ; they must ob- tain for the Turks who have been driven out of Greece an indemnity for the property of which they have been dispossessed ; and lastly, they must fix the limits landward and seaward of the Grecian territory ; or if they do not do all this, they do not fulfil the treaty to which they are solemnly pledged. The stern resolution of the Sultan, heightened by a keen sense of the injustice with which he has been treated—and the headlong arrogance and selfishness that have all along actuated, and still actuate, the leaders of the Greeks—leave no hope that the task will be an easy one. Even admitting that the Sultan accedes to the mediation of the Frank, will the Greeks, inflated as they are by the triumph that European interference has given them, consent to re- main tributary to a government which they abhor P—Will they consent to refund even a tithe of the value of the spoil which they hold and naturally regard as lawful plunder ?—We are satisfied that they will not. With three squadrons of observation on their coasts, and fifteen thousand French bayonets in their fortresses, something in the shape of tribute may be ex- acted from them ; but leave them to themselves, and not a sequin will they pay into the Turkish treasury. We need not point out bow fertile a subject of annoyance this may prove to the powers that have guaranteed their relief; or how impossible it will be to obviate the constant risk of the Sultan finding a legitimate reason, even in the estimation of European politicians, for re- invading the Greek territory. The treaty hangs like a millstone about the necks of our statesmen ; and it would therefore be better to get rid of it at once, which the secession of Russia enables us decently to do, and perfect the work of redemption on a new basis. On one ground or other the Turk has been openly plundered ; and it is lamentable enough that we cannot, without incurring the odium of resetting stolen goods, act with proper kites grity.
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