ITO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."'
Sra,—From his courteous and graphic letter in the Spectator of January 10th Mr. G. F. Abbott seems to be under the im- pression that I endorse in full the opinions of Count Ignatiev and Dr. Michalowski which were published in my letter of January 3rd. May I remark that I expressly claimed to " reserve " my judgment on their "intrinsic value " ? From Count Ignatiev's significant appeal to European sympathy I draw what I venture to think is the unquestionable inference, that "Panslavism " is a failure, a failure due no doubt to the counteracting influence of Austria and Germany, and that there is urgent necessity for the intervention of the Western Powers, not on sentimental but on material grounds. Dr. Michalowski's arguments in this particular connection I cer- tainly do regard as very logically stated, although I think him unduly optimistic in regard to the scheme for a Balkan Con- federation, owing to the presence of the Latin population of Roumania among the young Slays. But I do not believe that the experience which the Macedonians have had of absolutism would incline them to cast in their lot with Russia in its present legislative state. Mr. Abbott's admittedly weighty indictment of Maced4filan atrocities does not invalidate the fact that the unrest wtich exists, and is most unprofitable to all but one nation, can be traced from the beginning to what he himself characterises as the " unspeakable " rule of the Moslem. That the termination of this unrest by the estab- lishment of a Macedonian principality paying tribute to the Sultan, as suggested by the Spectator, would not only relieve the native population of Turkish, or, if Mr. Abbott prefers, of Turkish and Macedonian, oppression, but also remove from Europe an ever-smouldering crater of international complica- tions, is, I believe, hardly open to doubt.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Minincit A. GEROTHWORL.
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