ENGLAND IN DANGER.
[TO TEE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—The "holy work" of Mr. Gladstone and the proprietors of the Daily .News is beginning to bear its fruit. After making ourselves the laughing-stock of Europe, we are now about to pay the penalty of our virtue. The Russian diplomatists are of opinion that it is safe to show their hand, and the "occupation "of Bulgaria is " suggested." Some of us know what Russian " occupation " means. The Daily News' pet "commissioner," Mr. MacGahan, could tell us something about what it means in Central Asia, if his. employers would let him. Mr. Schuyler has himself not been un- communicative on the point in his recent book ; and I believe Mr. Lewis Farley, if he were a Turkish consul, instead of a Russian agent, could also supply his fellow-countrymen with some interest- ing information. Russian occupation of Bulgaria is so ugly an out- look, that even the Russian official organ in this country, the Times, denounces it. But it is a question whether the matter has not got beyond the reach of denunciation—feigned or sincere—and for myself, I fear the die is cast. We have had our whistle, and now' we are going to pay for it.
The barbarous and inhuman character of Russian rule, at home, in Poland, in Circassia, and in Central Asia, is not un- known to the English people. For the moment, its memory has been obscured by florid accounts of the almost equally barbarous- and inhuman conduct of Turkey. There is this difference in the two cases,—inhumanity and barbarism are the bases of Russian policy ; their recent manifestation in Turkey was a pro- voked and temporary outbreak. The statements I make I am. prepared to prove, but you cannot afford me space for that pur- pose to-day. At the workmen's meeting in Hyde Park on Sunday afternoon, however, I hope to have an opportunity of showing the English people that the greatest danger of the hour, both to Englanfi and to these revolted "Christians," lies in the insidious designs and vaulting ambition of the Muscovite Empire.—I am, Sir, dm.,
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