TOPICS OF THE DAY.
A. WEEK'S NEWS.
WHAT with the assiduity of journalists, the organization of cor- respondence abroad, the operation of the telegraph, and other ad- vantages, the British public has been enabled for several weeks past, not to say months, to read every day nearly the same state- ment of the Eastern question. The public could hardly believe its own affluence of these identical notes, without proof : it has grown so hardened to the habit of reading the same thing each day, with little more to vary it than the occasional introduction of the word not, or the omission of that important monosyllable, that it is scarcely alive to the monotony which it enjoys. A single week, however, would exemplify this fact—say last week. We began on Monday with receiving the statement that the text of the Ottoman declaration of war had been received at the Turkish Embassy in Vienna, but that hostilities were not to com- mence in case the Russians evacuated the Principalities. This statement sounds uncommonly like what we had been hearing all the preceding week; however, it is in fresh words, and is printed conspicuously as news. A little further on, we read, on the au- thority of the Journal des Debate, that "the declaration of war between Turkey and Russia is not absolutely authentic, although it is looked on as imminent and inevitable after the resolution come to in the Grand Council."
Next day the anxious reader rushes to his paper to see the news, and reads that " a declaration of war has been received at the Ot- toman Legation in Vienna, with the conditions, that hostilities shall not be commenced, except the Russian troops shall not have eva- cuated the Principalities within four weeks." Lower down, he learns through Paris, "nothing of importance is known in addition to the fact of the declaration of war"; a fact narrated thrice again by different hands, though different posts, in the same paper.
Next day, as it has been for so many months, "the Eastern question" is still the prominent subject; and the reader tears open his paper to learn, "from a trustworthy source," that "the Sultan had signed the declaration of war against Russia as agreed to by the Grand Council "; had sent off money for the troops, "with or- ders to commence hostilities should the Danubian Provinces be not evacuated within fifteen days, and not four weeks." Likewise another version. Item, confirmation by the Petrie. By Thursday, we seem to have got on ; for " Russian troops are in motion," and "Prince Gortschakoff has announced Prince lfenschikoff as in future to superintend the government of the Principalities." However, on the authority of despatches from Marseilles, we learn by way of Paris, on the 11th October, that "Omer Pasha has been instructed to summon Prince Gortschakoff to evacuate the Ottoman territory, with the delay of fifteen days, or a month," as reasonable time for seeking instructions from his Government; " but should the Principalities not then be evacu- ated, Omer Pacha is ordered to commence hostilities," though not to pass the Danube. Item, doubts by the Petrie. Friday has come ; you ;aka up the Times at your club, and you learn that " letters by the Chaptal, from Constantinople, are not supposed to contain much more than a confirmation of the intelligence with respect to the proceedings of the Divan already known by telegraph.' Then reports of material aid to Turkey from England and France ; "declaration of war" confirmed—and denied ; orders to Omer Pacha, unless the " evacuation," &c.; versions of the report about Prince Menschikoff, and one emphatic doubt thereon.
We have now come to Saturday's breakfast, and to the Times again; and here we are told, by way of Paris on the 13th of Octo- ber, that "private letters from Constantinople still speak of war between Russia and Turkey as inevitable ": whereupon there is a good deal of speculation on the strategy of war.
Saturday afternoon has arrived, the dies non of the week is ap- proaching, and the anxious reader must be provided with some
pabulum to last till Monday. He wants above all things news ; and accordingly, procuring one of the " second editions," he learns, "by a very recent letter from Paris," that "the fact has already been announced that the declaration of war against Russia has been posted in the streets of Constantinople, with an allowance of time : in the beginning a lunar month was allowed, then eleven, then fourteen, then twenty-one days" for the Russian troops to evacuate the Principalities. Two more versions, and a doubt about "difficulties."
So here, on Saturday afternoon, we read what sounds so like the statement with which we began on Monday morning—the echo of the previous Saturday—that "the declaration of war has been received at the Turkish Embassy at Vienna, and that hostilities would commence if the Russians should not evacuate the Princi- palities within four weeks."
Like news, like comment. It is so when comment is mixed with fact, the same facts and the same conclusions being repeated or inverted daily ; and when the commentator advances to the ground of pure moral or speculation, it is still the same. We read daily, that Russia is in the wrong; that it is a delusion to re- present a question of Christianity as really involved; that Turkey
has been moderate, and only issued her declaration of war on the rejection of the Vienna -note as it was intended; that Russia has lost respect and consideration by the dishonesty of her appeals to European judgment; that the question of peace or War rests with the Emperor Nicholas ; that Ragland and France, or the Allied Powers, must restore the peace they could not maintain ; that the Peace doctrine of non-intervention with Russian selfishness-is fal- lacious and dangerous. It scarcely matters what day you take up the paper, such are the doctrines which we meet with any day in the week, and to which an obvious assent might be granted once for all, but which become burdensome when they ask our
assent every day in the month. sm%
Thus the reader ends the week as he began, with a confused idea, that on the advice of his Grand Council the Sultan has de- clared war against Russia, with an allowance of fifteen days to evacuate the Principalities ; and that England must necessarily go to war with Russia, and must necessarily abstain from supporting the Ottoman empire ; but may indulge a confident expectation that peace will ensue from the renewed negotiations, the prosecution of which negotiations, if not doubtful, is categorically denied. The Turkish question, it would seem, is never to have an answer.
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