Aurgovan in China we probably take but little trouble in mastering the details of the present contest in Turkey, it can scarcely be said that the general question is one in which we are not interested. The decaying position of Turkey, and the curious effect of the mixture of the progressive civilisation of the West with the stagnating elements of Enstern culture, have too many points of resemblance to what we see going on around us, not to attract attention; while the grasping attitude of Russia, ever attentive to seize and assimilate every scrap of territory which can be touched with impunity, is apparent in the "Far East" as well as in districts in Europe vaguely de. nominated the "East." That some such conviction evidently has impressed itself on the mind of the British Government seems plain, for it is difficult to comprehend otherwise the apparent tenderness with which the Governments of the two countries are treated in spite of their manifold shortcomings and evasions of engagements, With regard to Tarkey, this tender ne evidently proceeds from a feeling of loyalty to past promises; which the peculiar position of the British Govern. ment towards Tarkey makes it feel more or less binding on its honour. Doubtless, those promises given by former Governments were the offshoots of a mistaken policy; but England has had experience before this of the ill effects of refusing to carry out engagements in their commencement equally sentimental. To defend the soil of Turkey from being taken and annexed by @ foreign power is one thing, to secure on that soil the burdensome and effete Government of the Porte, is something very different. Yet the British Government, of which Lord Palmerston was the chief, with the tacit consent if not implied approbation of the English people, confounded the two. In a mistaken feeling of universal brother: hood, we imagined the Turk as good as ves, and, forgetting the incompaies of race, tried to coax the Eastern by methods very well adapted to a Europenn race, It was forgotten that for three thousand years the Turk had hung on the flanks of civilisation, always as a destroyer, never as a builder up; and that, whether be supplanted Jemsbed in the old Iranian tradition, or chased the ancient heroes of China across the deserts of Tartary, or forced back the old Greek civilisation of Western Asia, his reign was invariably one of oppression; sometimes of short-lived splendour, but in the end, of ruinous decay. Yet it was supposed that a thin coating of what has not inaptly been called "French polish" was to undo in one generation the instincts of centuries, and to elevate into sound state a country composed of such incongruous elements as Turkey. The attempt failed, as all such attempts must fail. The Turk could indeed. learn the destructive part of civilisation,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.