The English Government has not yet accepted Count Andrassy's Note
to the Turkish Government on the reforms to be made in Bosnia and the Herzegovina, and it is reported that the Note must first be discussed at a Cabinet Council, which will not meet till the 18th inst. The Note itself is unimportant, as it only asks Turkey to be decently humane and just, and the Turkish statesmen will promise that with the easiest good-will, but an idea has grown up that if Turkey breaks the promise it is to be enforced from without. Lord Derby naturally, therefore, hesitates to sign a Note which may, in a nearly certain con- tingency, bind us to coerce Turkey in provinces inaccessible to British fleets. His hesitation, under the new reading of the Note, is justified, but his decision will probably do Turkey no good, whichever way it goes. If he signs, the Pashas will give the promise, and in breaking it, give their enemies a new locus standi ; and if he does not sign, the Pashas will think that England still supports them, and will be emboldened to return a very curt refusal to the Austrian Note. In either case, the neighbours of Turkey will have new cause for aggravation, and for applying the kind of pressure which exhausts her few remaining resources.
