TUPICS OF THE DAY.
SYRIA.
THE papers recently laid before Parliament with respect to the disturbances in Syria, do not furnish us with any information as to the origin of the outbreak, but the evidence contained in them confirms the opinion we have already expressed on the subject. There is no reason, whatever, to doubt that the massacres whioh have raised the indignation of civilized Europe, were the result of a wide-spread conspiracy, and that the Druses were merely in- struments employed to carry out instructions received from their superiors. It is possible that the Maronites are not altogether free from blame, and that, if they had got the upper hand, they would have shown as little mercy as their opponents. But the most important point for the consideration of the Western Powers is, that the Turkish authorities are now proved to have been worse than negligent, and that it is hopeless to expect that an insurrection, organized in defence of the Sultan, can be put down by Turkish troops. Time will show that if attention had been paid to the warning given by Prince Gort- schakoff to the diplomatists at St. Petersburg, the Great Powers might even have prevented the outbreak. It has long been known that the Sultan, however willing to protect his Christian subjects, was quite unequal to the task, and no reasonable man can now refuse to admit that an urgent necessity has arisen for European intervention. We wish well to the Porte, but we cannot, for one instant, recognize its right to be too weak to prevent the foul and horrible murders which have been done with impunity, under the very eyes of Turkish officers, even if they did not also lend a helping hand. It may be true that a peace has been concluded between the Druses and Maronites, but this would not obviate the necessity of a searching investigation into the origin of the disturbances, nor make it less imperative that the authors of them should be severely punished. The Sul- tan cannot do either of these things, and a case is clearly made out for the prompt interference of the Powers who signed the Treaty of Paris.
We hope, indeed, that no delay may take place, and we have no reason to believe that there is any real difference of opinion between the French and English Governments. The protest of the Porte against intervention by France alone would clearly not apply to the joint intervention of France and England with the assent of the Powers interested in this question. The foolish jealousy exhibited by certain politicians in this country of the active zeal displayed by the French Government is too unreason- able to last. On grounds of humanity alone, it is most desirable that measures of a very stringent kind should be taken at once, and it seems monstrous that such measures should be postponed in consequence of unfounded apprehensions and calumnious reports. Here is a war between two half-civilized tribes which threatens to assume much wider proportions, and might, if unchecked at once, spread to the most distant regions of the East. And yet the Western Powers are not to interfere, but some other calamity, we are not told what, may supervene. The objection is so ab- surd, that we feel convinced it will be overruled without delay.
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