On bringing up the report of the Vote of Credit
on Monday night, a discussion arose which was chiefly remarkable for the eloquent outburst by Mr. Joseph Cowen, the Member for New- castle-on-Tyne, against Russia, and in favour of securing Turkey anew locus penitentire. He defended himself against some remarks by Mr. Gladstone on the previous Friday, declaring that, in dealing with the Eastern Question he only wished honour- able Members to forget whether they were Whigs, Radicals, or Conservatives, and to remember only that they were Englishmen. He reminded the House that the policy of defending the independence and integrity of Turkey had been one supported for generations by all English publicists. No doubt the Government of Turkey was bad, but it was no worse than that of other Asiatic States countenanced by England, and better than that of Egypt. The Christians in Turkey were exempted from the onerous obligation of bearing arms, and enjoyed the " contemptuous toleration " of the Ottoman Government. The Turkish peasantry were better, he believed, than the Slav peasantry, whatever their Government might be, and the " gallant stand the Turks had made against their relentless foe had, he thought, in the eyes of all generous people, won for the remnants of the race at least another chance." There was no excuse for "the Northern Vulture preying on the quivering carcase of Turkey." Every one knew what destruction an iceberg brought when floated into Southern seas. This iceberg would freeze, wither, and destroy the young shoots of liberty on the shores of the Mediterranean. As for the Russians, they had the ferocity of barbarism with the avarice of civilisa- tion. Their first word was "gold," their second the "sword," their third " Siberia." It was not the duty of English Radicals to encourage the sanguinary apostles of Orthodoxy. And so forth indefinitely. The speech, instead of encouraging the Govern- ment, only embarrassed it. Whatever crumbs of comfort the Government might have had in store for Turkey, such a caricatured picture painted by Mr. Cowen of their own private dispositions, was just the very thing which would make them throw those crumbs away.
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