Mr. .Aarderson, by an apparently useless question, on Monday probably
stopped a great crime. He asked Mr. Bourke if a petition to the British Government, signed by a great many in- habitants of Bulgaria, had been forwarded to the British Chargd d'Affaires at Constantinople. Mr. Bourke replied that it had, and when further asked if the names had also been sent, and whether the petition was marked confidential, declined to reply till he had had time to inquire. On the following day, however, he announced that the petition had not been despatched, the Queen's messenger not having started, and that it would be sent without the names. Clearly, it had never occurred to the Foreign Office that in sending on such a petition in the regular way they were, in all probability, dooming nnoffending persons who had trusted England to death by torture, or at all events to all the persecu- tion which Pashas and Bashi-Bazouka can inflict shed of death. A. Christian who petitions a foreign Power is inTurkish 437961
rebel,—and a rebel is an insect to be stamped out.
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