Aurnoucn there has been no distinct avowal of the fact by any political party in England, the opinion seems to grow that the attempt to bolster up weak governments is a fatal error in policy. Of course the most glaring instance of this break-down of a well intentioned Tine of conduct, has been Turkey.
Great Britain has been free from any ideas of territorial aggrandisement at the expense of the Porte, and her desire to see effectual reforms in the Turkish dominions has been as disinterested as was possible in the rela" tions between two independent powers. We have felt 2 natural sympathy for power which seemed about to fall a prey to the encroaching tendencies of the rising power of Russia, but we have never attempted to deny that that interest was more or less prompted by ideas of our own convenience and wellbeing. Ifit were an unwelcome thought fifty years ago, that Constantinople would fall into the hands of Russia, the march of events has not taught ws to consider the possibility of that event now happening, as one demanding less anxious care. On the contrary, the possession of Constantinople by a possibly hostile power would, in the altered position of European' and Eastern politics, be in the present day a matter of still more serious anxiety. Still we fail now-n-days to feel the same sym. pathy for Turkey which even a fow years ago was a genuine impulse. Wo were taught then to believe in the coming regeneration of Turkey, and we pictured to ourselves what the Empire might become under an honest and skilfully administered government. Un. fortunately, events have not turned out as was predicted. Wo forgot the im. pulse of race and tradition, and thought that a little sage advice would readily be accepted by the Osmanli, and that we should soon see an orderly and powerful Ottoman empire rising on the ruins of the old Turkish power. In doing so, however, we reckoned without our host. The Turk can no more change his nature than the leopard can his spots, Individuals may arise with aspirations and abilities for better things, but they are borne down by the dead weight of custom and the stagnation of intellect; their strivings after a little time are given up as hopeless, and they relapse to the dead level of their neighbours. We might in the case of Turkey even go further, and say that the facilities which were offered have had a directly opposite result from what we had caleulated, and that we have given to the Ottoman Government the means of debasing to a still lower grade a policy already corrupt beyond belief. Certainly, we have no reason to be proud of our foster child. No one acquaint. ed with Turkey is now prepared to say that in any one respect the Government has become ameliorated. We may hear less of its wholesale oppression, but there is good reason to believe that this simply proceeds from want of power, not from want of will. In every particular of good Government, that of to-day is certainly not in advance of that which prevailed twenty odd years ago. The consequence is that, in the natural recurrence of events, the "Eastern question" has once more cropped up, and it is no impossible result that we may be
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.