The accounts of what is going on in Macedonia would
produce a ghastly effect if only we could be absolutely sure that they are true. They amount to this, that the Sultan is pursuing in Macedonia the policy of slaughter, ravage, and torture which he pursued in Bulgaria, and afterwards in Armenia. That is a priori probable, but proof of the facts, proof from impartial witnesses, is needed before Europe can act. Apparently the stories are partly believed both in St. Petersburg and Vienna, for the Austrian and Russian Govern- ments have seriously remonstrated with the Sultan, so seriously that he has issued a whole series of promises of reform. There are to be new Valls, Christians and Mahommedans are to be equal, new and just Courts are to be established, and there is to be anew and civilised police. We all know these promises of reform, which are only intended to gain time till cries of dis- content are suppressed by the slaughter of those who cry. It is just possible that a decent Governor-General may be appointed, but he will be powerless against the soldiers, who are neither paid nor fed, and who, therefore, in their eager. ness for plunder and their certainty that they cannot be punished, act as French soldiers acted in the old Dragonnades.
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