LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR:1
am not very sanguine that any Conference on the Eastern Question will take place, at any rate for the present. Indeed, I think it would be quite as well that time should be allowed for the belligerent temper of Europe, and especially of England and Russia, to cool. Both countries have done their best to irritate each other, and the result is that feelings have been en- gendered which certainly are not likely to conduce to a calm interchange of ideas. The interval might also be advantageously employed in ventilating some of the subjects to be discussed, and
with this object I am tempted to draw the attention of your -readers to the position in which Austria stands to the provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina. I am quite as anxious as any other lover of freedom and good government to deliver these provinces -from the oppression under which they have so long suffered, but I confess that in view of the paramount necessity of freeing Bulgaria from the yoke of Turkey, I do not see my way to putting them for the future on the same footing as the larger province. It seems to me we must either sacri- fice the idea of giving an autonomy to Bulgaria, for the sake of giving some measure of freedom and local self-government to Bosnia and the neighbouring province, or we must make another -arrangement as regards them, for the sake of finally settling the Eastern Question and ensuring peace to Europe. Now, whether we like it or not, we must consider, and consider fairly, the posi- tion of Austria. I am no admirer of the Austrian Government, and still less of the line of policy which it has pertinaciously followed out during this century, and which may be fairly characterised—not to use too harsh a term—as intensely selfish, playing one country against another, coquetting first with one and then with another, with the simple object of getting other countries to fight Austrian battles and secure Austrian interests, in order to avoid both the trouble and the cost.
The principal Slav provinces of Austria border on Bosnia and Herzegovina ; the population is a difficult one to govern, espe- cially that portion which possesses a quasi-Italian element, and it must be admitted that Austria has been fairly successful. To give an autonomical form of government to the two Turkish provinces, to make them practically independent, with an amount of freedom such as it is politic as well as necessary to give to Bulgaria, would no doubt result in an unmixed benefit to the populations ; but it would unquestionably raise a very strong feeling in Croatia and Dalmatia, which would no doubt spread into the adjacent provinces, and put a strong disturbing force into the hands of Italy. From my knowledge of the peoples of these countries, loyal as they are now to the Austrian Crown, I do not believe they would long remain so ; and constituted as the Empire of Austria is, occasion would never be wanting for the creation of disturbances which would shake the monarchy itself, if, indeed, any lengthened continuance of them did not dissolve it. We should, in fact, be only closing the Eastern Question to open an Austrian-Slavonic Question. Germany has certainly no interest to serve in aiding this result, and the other nations of Europe could not, to use a diplomatic phrase now in vogue, view it with indifference. Nor do I see that we have any right, in providing for the better government of two provinces, to risk unsettling the government of other provinces which have no sufficient cause of complaint, and still less to imperil the integrity of an empire which, as empires go, is fairly well governed.
On the other hand, we must not incur the risk of losing all the advantages which the late war has gained for humanity and civilisation ; we have no right to sacrifice the proposed autonomy of Bulgaria for the sake of Bosnia and Herzegovina. That autonomy will not work any evil to Austria. It is sufficiently distant froth her territories, and separated from her by an inde- pendent State, and the more complete the freedom of the form of government that may be settled for it, the better for Austria. A free Bulgaria, with democratic institutions, will never seek too intimate an alliance with such States as Servia or Roumania ; for free as the latter may be, their freedom is essentially aristo- cratic in its character,—that is, practically, the masses have only a nominal voice in the Government which rules them. The Government is one of high families, their relations and retainers, with whom the labouring and producing classes have little in common, except so far as they have an hereditary attachment to one family or to another. The object which the statesmen of Europe ought, in my judgment, to keep steadily in view, when devising a Government for Bulgaria, is to make it as purely demo- cratic as possible. The province—thanks to the Turks—possesses absolutely no "aristocracy "—no families which by pandering alternately to Grand Viziers or to Fanariote Primates have raised themselves, as in Roumania, to wealth, power, and influence— and it would be the height of folly to create them, or to foster any system by which Greeks or Roumanians may seize on the government, secure the high posts, and keep the native Bulgarian element, which is well worthy of a better future, in subjection. This will be the object of the Turkish Suzerain Power, if it is allowed to have any voice in the matter ; and it may become also an object with the Russian Government, for of all time-serving, intriguing, unscrupulous, and contemptible beings, the Fanariote Christian of Constantinople is about the worst. The best guarantee that Austria can have against the growth of a united Slav Power antagonistic to her on her borders consists in giving the Bulgarians as free and democratic a form of pure Bulgarian Government as possible, and the best security against Russian ambition which England and other Powers can desire lies in the same direction.
Assuming that the Powers recognise the truth of this position, and act upon it, it is obvious that nothing would be more incon- venient than that the Porte should have to traverse free Bulgaria to get at two provinces which might still, out of deference to Austrian recognised and fairly natural susceptibilities, remain more completely under her control than enfranchised Bul- garia. The constant passage of troops and of employes through the latter State would prove a fertile source of trouble. It would, therefore, be far better that Turkish rule over Bosnia and Herzegovina should cease, and these provinces be- come part of the Austrian Empire ; and as there can be no ques- tion that the population would gain by the exchange, they could not properly complain, and if even they did complain, the peace of Europe and the compromise thus effected to secure the acquiescence of Austria, are of far more importance than any senti- mental dissatisfaction on the part of a population whose position has, at any rate, been an object of solicitude, resulting in material improvement. Objection indeed might be raised by Austria on the score of the additional responsibility imposed on her, and her Hungarian element might be loud in its outcry, but the German element could but see that by the increase of the Slav States a valuable counterpoise to Hungarian influence would be obtained. It is true that these provinces contain a largd Mussul- man population, notably of the higher and wealthier classes ; but these Mussulmans, like their confreres of Candia, are of Christian descent,—men and families who, to preserve their lands and estates, became converts to Mahommedanism; and it is more than probable that with tact and patience, care being taken not to lower their social position, they would shortly return to the faith of their fathers. So long as the Turkish rule survives in these provinces, so long will these Dore-beys and their families remain Mussulman, because of the loaves and fishes which the followers of the Prophet alone partake ; but if Austria convinces them that she is not going immediately to deprive them either of their rank or position, and that a fair portion of the loaves and fishes will continue to fall to their lot, the Prophet will have but a poor chance, against the blandishments which an Austrian Court knows so well how to lavish upon those whose loyalty it is worth while to win. For these reasons, I trust that the Powers will not allow their sym- pathy with Austrian objections to the autonomy of Herzegovina and Bosnia to induce them to cut and pare down the freedom which it is all-important to European peace should be accorded to Bulgaria, for a free State of such magnitude and of such a people forms the bestguarantee of the future peace of South-Eastern Europe. To do so for the sake of putting it on the same footing as the two pro- vinces to which I am alluding would be a terrible mistake. We do not, it is true, secure all we want or all we could wish for these two Provinces, but in banding them over to Austria we are trans- ferring them from the rule of an uncivilised Power, which knows no other government than that of the sword and bowstring, to a Power which is at least civilised, and which holds its own on a foot- ing of equality, as regards solicitude for the interests of its peoples, with other civilised governing Powers ; while to continue them under Turkish rule with an autonomy such alone as Austria would suffer, and for the mere sake of uniformity reducing the State of Bulgaria to the same dull level, would be doing them no good, while it would sow the seeds of disputes and difficulties in the future, because the Government of Bulgaria and the Provinces would assuredly fall into the hands either of the creatures of the Porte or into those of the emissaries of Russia, in either of which cases we might in vain look for the regeneration of the millions of human beings which now inhabit a country that, fairly governed, would become the garden of Europe.—I am, Sir, &c., E. H.
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