=Source.=--_The Times_, April 25.
We have not a word to say in defence of the Porte. We admit that it
was guilty, as Lord Salisbury has confessed, of infatuation when
it defied the Conference, and that it would have accepted even the
Protocol, if it had possessed a tithe of the sagacity which was
once a better protection of its weakness than ironclads are to-day.
We may even admit that the Protocol was, what Prince Gortchakoff
styles it, the last expression of the united will of Europe. But
his story is fatally incomplete. It would have been desirable to
know whether Russia has done her best to make it easy for Turkey
to accept the undisguised tutelage of the European Powers. That
question calls to mind how much the fanaticism of the Turks was
inflamed by the covert aid which Russia gave to Servia. The Czar
refers to the famous words which he spoke in the Kremlin. They were
indeed the real declaration of war, for they prevented Russia from
accepting anything less than the complete submission of Turkey.
Russia might plead, no doubt, that as war was certain to be found
an absolute necessity in the end, it mattered little how rudely
she ruffled the Osmanli pride. But in that case the negotiations
of the past two years have been a series of hypocrisies. As it
is, the general judgment is expressed by what Lord Derby said
last night. While he found it hopeless to bend the will of Turkey
towards submission, he equally found on the part of her Government
"a deeply seated conviction that, do what they would, sooner or
later war would be forced upon them." He believed that he and
his colleagues have throughout been "engaged in the solution of
a hopeless problem." Such, we fear, is the prosaic truth, and,
whatever be the measure of Turkish obstinacy, Russia cannot escape
condemnation. She has sometimes acted as if she wished to cut off
a way of retreat both from herself and her foe.... Russia has
hastened to stop all further negotiations, and to act as if she
and she alone had an interest in the tranquillity of the Turkish
Empire. Thus she has forfeited any right to speak in the name
of Europe. Nor has she given the Powers assurances which they
had a right to expect. Nothing is said in the same strain as the
declarations at Livadia, that Russia had no objects of territorial
ambition.... The Czar has committed a grave error by neglecting to
proclaim that in no event would he seize Turkish territory.