"ENGLAND WINS !"
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.") Sin,—I feel moved to send you a letter made up chiefly of quotations. I am not a partisan of Lord Beaconsfield's, but I wish for once to confine myself to the language of his admirers :-- " The success of Lord Beaconsfield, in carrying before the Congress, his determination respecting the boundaries of European Turkey, upon which be insisted with such remarkable firmness as to extort the admiration of even critics not particularly friendly to him, has pro- duced three distinct results,—it has given the Ottoman Empire a fresh lease of life ; it has at length drawn England and Austria into common action in the East ; finally, it has broken up the Triple Alliance which was founded with so much ostentation in this city [Berlin] in the month of September, 1872."
This is from the Standard; but the Times is still more devoted to the Government, and may be regarded as almost "officious.' How else could it have given us that remarkable forecast of the- Memorandum as far back as May 25th?
I will, then, confine myself to that paper, and to one number of it, viz., the number for last Monday (June 24th). There we have an account of a great speech of Lord Beaconsfield's against
curtailing the sovereign rights of the Sultan. The Times, of course, glories in his success. Its correspondent writes :—" It is in consequence of the firmness of the English Plenipotentiaries that these questions have been settled in a way so honourable, I had almost said, so glorious, for England." The first leading article is in the same strain. Our Plenipotentiaries (" represents- tires" is the word used, but this is evidently an oversight), our Plenipotentiaries "have shown good proof that they were not-
unworthy of the trust confided to them."
The very next " leader " proceeds to give an account of the Government of which our Plenipotentiary, Lord Beaconsfield, has been the champion, and to which he has given a new lease of power. The whole of this article is well worth studying. I must content myself with an extract, which is much weakened by being separated from its context :—
"Misrule and no rule at all, official corruption, the bigoted sway of one class, rebellion, massacre, war, ruin,—such, have been the incidents of Ottoman sovereignty in Europe. But for the wonderful riches of
the soil, the Empire would long ago have fallen to pieces. The Asiatic
provinces are, in many respects, in a still worse plight. A Traveller' shrinka from reciting the worn and 'sad tale of abuse, over-taxation, and misgovernment of every form,' 'A decreasing revenue, a dwindling population, not one, but hundreds of deserted villages, broken bridges, fallen caravanserais, relics untold of bygone prosperity and wealth, are sufficient witnesses,' he adds, to the greatness, the universality of the evil.' It would not be easy to give a more terrible list. All the tales of the bad government and the misery of European States in bygone times seem like high-flown eulogies in comparison with the pictures of the destruction and the waste of Asia Minor."—( Times, June 24th.) I fear some readers of the Times may have been a little startled by this second "leader," and certainly the motive of the juxta- position of the two articles is so very subtle, that it will escape the careless. But to those who have eyes to see, it is plain enough. This is not the first time the power of this country has prevailed, but in almost every other case a detractor might have said that the victory was not so much the triumph of England, as of justice or humanity. But as the Times has shown, with such admirable
clearness, no such abatement is possible on the present occasion, for we have gained the day, although justice and humanity were
dead against us.—I am, Sir, &c., SIMPLEX.
[Fortunately for Europe, we have not gained the day in the Times' sense.—En. Spectator.]
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