We cannot help wishing, though we fear it is a
vain wish, that the real depositaries of 'power in Turkey at the moment., whom we take to be the Young Turks of the Army, would try an experiment in revolution, and make up their minds that, however great the temptation, and however good the case for punishing former political ill-doers, they will absolutely refuse to have any man shot, hanged, or otherwise put to death for political crime. We do not, of course, mean that they should hesitate to put down riot by firing on mobs, or quell mutinies by force, or resist other enemies of the State in arms, but merely that they should abstain from capital punishment in political eases. We urge this abstention, not because we are squeamish about taking human life when there is good reason, but because we believe that nothing tends more to reaction than executions for political offences. If there had been no Terror, there would have been no counter-Revolution.
