On- Monday night, Lord Stratheden took Lord Derby to task
for not having more efficiently snubbed the three empires of Germany, Austria, and Russia, when they recently backed up Roumania in maintaining her right to sign a particular semi- commercial treaty with Austro-Hungary, which Roumania con- tends she has a right to sign under the firman of 1866, a firman giving her that power in relation to commercial treaties only. This treaty Turkey,—with France and England,—thinks she had not a right to sign without the sanction of the Porte, on the ground that it is not solely a commercial treaty. Lord Stratheden was for strong but vaguely-indi- cated measures in the matter. Lord Derby ridiculed this view. What, he asked, could we reasonably have done, beyond expressing our opinion on the Turkish side ? In the first place, no one cared at all about the treaty itself. If Turkey had been asked to sanction it, she would have sanctioned it. In the next place, the insubordination of Roumania to Turkey means nothing. Turkey is a weak Power, and her suzerainty is feebly -enforced. So much the better for Roumania. The independence of th'e Principalities is guaranteed for Turkey's sake while they form parts of the Turkish Empire, but no longer. So much the better again for Roumania. England could do nothing to enforce the obedience of Roumania to Turkey, and Roumania herself would be very unwilling to become part of a more powerful empire in which she would probably lose much of her self-governing power. Such was Lord Derby's reply, which from his point of view is just. But we ourselves should add, that the sooner the subor- dinate States of Turkey are lost to Turkey, the sooner will a new order begin to crystallise for which it will be not impossible to indulge something like reasonable hope. May it be sooner rather than later !
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