"Tae Sublime Porte undertakes to city out, without further delay, the improvements and reforms demanded by local requirements in the provinces inhabited. by the Armenians, and to -guarantee their security. against the Circassians and. Kurds. [twill periodically: make known the steps taken to this effect tothe Powers, who will superintend their application."
THE ANGLO-TURKISH CONVENTION, "Th. retarn, his Imperial Majesty promises to England.to introduce _Becessary reforms, to be agreed upon later between the two Powers, into the government and for the protection of the Christians and other subjects of the Porte in these territories; and, moreover, to enable England to make "necessary provision for executing her engagements, his Imperial Majesty the Sultan further consents to assign the island of Gyprus to be occupied and administered by England."
By. the former document quoted above: the Porte bound itself to all the, Powers who signed the Berlin 'Treaty to reform at once the government of{ the' Armenians; by. the, latter the Porte bound itself specially to England to-do -the same. thing, England. having Fogland took Cyprus to enable her to revented: Russia from doing it; and.
the: better {carry out this duty of hunianity... Lords Beaconsfield. /; and "Salisbuty made this..convention and brought it-home: and. called. it ". Pedce with' bon dur." - And now, in: the words of'an Englishman quoted by: the New York ation, a journal. which is quite free-from-Anglophobia: " We have got the. island: of. Cyprus, but: the Armenians -iyare, mostly. dead."
Tt..is impossible that.there is any "Englishman. who. does not feel the! humiliation: that is involved in this position; that any one can realise without a blush that. such a man as} the Sultan of Turkey. is allowed toj defy the Mistress of the Sens, because the latter is afraid to interfere with him. It is yo wonder that Mr. Gladstone has been induced to leave his; retirement to utter a gallant protest against those who fold their hands while thousands of Armenians are! being killed, Armenians whom we solemnly bound ourselves to protect, at the bidding., of Russia and Germany. The. Powers of Christian! Europe, which have five million, men under arms, and, as the Wation says, could crush Turkey like an eggshell, refuse to do more than telegraph a mild protest while tens of thousands. of Armenian Christians are being slaughtered with every circumstance atrocity.
And, England,. the; protector of the oppressed, the champion of the per-secured in the days of Cromwell and Pitt, is afraid to lift-a hand, because Lord Salisbury thinks that if he were to tell Europe that we could stand these atrocities no longer, that we must depose their author, but would take nothing for ourselves out of the ruin that. might follow,.the. Continental Powers would stop us by force. 'I'here was a time when we were not afraid of the shadow of such threats; when we should have said that we see our duty, and are going for it, and we shall not turn-aside for.menaces. - What Power would dare to. incur lasting shame as well as.the danger of thwarting us if we went on a mission of mercy? If the Powers of Europe are all really bent on attacking us, they will do it on! some other pretext and not on this one, and if they want to fight, we should at least now have a good cause, In 1878 Disraeli and Salisbury were ready -to'go to war with the first comer on behalf of the ''urk, believing that England saved Tarkey from Russia, the Porte would reform. We have found now that the 'lurk is incorrigible we have the best cause in the world, and are afraid to champion it. The fact is that Lord Salisbury is now, as ever, not a man of action, while he can always give good reasons why he should not act. Even if all Europe went against us, it would not be the first time in our history; let _us-go back to a former laureate, as Mr. Austin is mute:—J "What if our number barely could defy The arithmetic. of babes, must foreign hordes, Slaves, vile.as ever tore befooled by words, Striking through English breasts the anarchy Of "error, bear us to the ground, and tie Our hands behind our back with felon cords Yields everything to discipline of Is man as good as man, none low, none high Nor discipline nor valour can withstand The shock, uor quell the inevitable rout, When in some great extremity breaks out A people, on their own beloved Land Risen, like one man, to combat in the sight Of a just Ged for liberty and right."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.