NEWS OF THE WEEK.
HE war in the East is formally suspended till the 25th, and it T
is probable that the armistice will be prolonged, if the Powers which are negotiating with Turkey and the Principalities can see their way to any probable or, as they regard it, tolerably satis- factory conclusion. Lord Beaconsfield announced, in his speech on Wednesday at Aylesbury, that the merit of persuading the Porte to agree to the suspension of hostilities was due to the influence of England, as wielded by Lord Derby, and took vast credit for this energetic action on the part of the Foreign Minister who has been so often described as doing nothing and suggesting nothing. That, however, is a wrong description. Lord Derby has done nothing, and suggested nothing—as yet known in this country, —of a nature to interpose any effective obstruction between the Porte and the miserable victims who are called its Christian sub- jects, but he has done much and suggested much of a nature to save the Porte from being put under the restraint of other Powers. If he can make a peace, we fear it will be a peace of the same kind. We should greatly prefer to see the peace fall through, after all, to seeing the yoke of the Porte fastened firmly once more upon the wretched provinces from which we had hoped that either war, or a more generous policy than Lord Derby's, would set them free. The Duke of Argyll was quite right in saying that rebellion against the Turks—on condition, of course, that it promised well and was not a mere idle sacrifice of life—is a moral duty. A peace which should sacrifice every object for which war was made, without the justification of necessity, would be a grave calamity and a pitiable weakness.
