27 APRIL 1878, Page 2

the Treaty of San Stefano. It would have Bosnia, the

Herze- govina, Bulgaria north of the Balkans, Epirus, Thessaly, and Macedonia, and we presume the Islands, taken away from the direct government of Turkey, and, raised to the status of the Lebanon,—that is, with Governors under the Sultan, but irremovable except with the consent of the Powers. It would then replace Roumelia from the Rhodope and the Balkans to Constantinople under the direct rule of the Porte, which of course could reappoint Chevket Pasha Governor of Philippopolis. The surplus revenues of all these provinces would go to Constantinople, and the Turks would retain the fortresses on the Danube, and we presume, the general right of garrison. Russia would receive nothing in Europe, but ample compensation for her sacrifices in Asia. The immediate effect of that scheme would be that Russia would be all-powerful in Bulgaria, Austria in Bosnia, and Greece in Epirus, Thessaly, and Macedonia ; that oppression would go on in Roumelia, and that within five years a new and more general war would be caused by the Eastern Question. Place a federal head in Constantinople, with civilised ideas and purposes, and the scheme would work ; but under the Ottoman it would produce nothing, fear of the soldiery killing all true civilisation. Be it noted, however, that even the Journal des Debats gives up direct Ottoman rule in Europe as impossible.