27th May. Hisrorrans of a later time will be puzzled to account for the singular consideration displayed by all the nations of the present day for the one potentate whose title to leniency has been thrice cancelled by atrocious crime. For King Theebaw, or the petty despot of Bevin, no apologist is found; and the world congratulates itself upon their overthrow. But for him of the Yildiz Kiosk, on whom murder sits so lightly that not Theebaw himself was haunted by the shades of so many slaughtered subjects, there have been found as yet from the Great Powers, East and West, only courteous remonstrance, delicately worded protests, and diffident expressions of pained surprise. Not only as regards the Ar-menials. For the deep damnation of their taking off no shadow of retribution has yet appeared, nor prospect—Jarge as a man's hand upon the horizon—of redress for injuries past telling. But even in the case of those who have yet a protector to invoke, there is the same palsied inability to exact redress, or to depart from the beaten road of tender thoughtfulness for the feelings of the Great Assassin, No harsh word must be spoken; curses, if irrepressible, must be uttered aside and in Jess than 1a stage whisper; 0 coercive measures, such as might agitate august nerves, must be suggested; all allusions in bad taste, as to ironclads, must be studiously avoided. Other Powers may be dealt with in a more robust and hearty fashion, but in the presence of the Sick Man the thoughtful gentleness befitting a sick-room must be observed, even if the "sickness" be that of homicidal insanity.
It is not necessary to allude now to what most Englishwen would fain forget, our own record in this matter for half a century past, nor even to the tone of the last billet-deux sent by the Powers to the Porte, apropos of the trouble in Crete. Ihe note to Greece, on the one hand, bristling with impatience and full of peremptory menace; and that to Turkey sympathetic and kindly, venturing half shyly to suggest what must be said, but even so doing it apologetically and with the utmost possible consideration for delicate susceptibilities. This is of course Diplomacy,—the diplomacy spelled not only with a capital letter, but with a large illuminated capital, done cunningly in gold and purple as befits the councils of an Imperial Concert. But with the youngest of the Great Powers, across the sea, it might be presumed to be otherwise, Possibly she has sometimes been a little truculent in her foreign relations, A trifle per-emptor in the matter of Venezuela, inclined occasionally to indulge in a bit of audacity regarding Cuba, giving its nationals substantial backing and demanding for them their uttermost rights whether in Irish prisons or in the grip of disaffected Chinese officials. And if its navy has been small, it has at least been used to good purpose in securing respectful treatment for Americans, whether a century ago in the harbour of tripoli, or most recently in troubled republics in South America. Yet so soon as the American Eagle comes within screaming distance of the Turkish Vulture, its scream dies away to a feeble twitter, its raffled plumage subsides, its head droops, its boldness and pride fade out together, until not even were ita member of a European Concert could its submissiveness be more abject. In what lies this baleful fascination of the modern Nero, who stalks, a bloody and fearsome presence, across the closing days of this boasted nineteenth century, it will be for the future historians to decide. And few problems will be for them more intricate. A little over a year ago, a force of Turkish soldiers, in uniform and acting under superior orders, attacked the American College in Harpoopoot with dynamite bombs, and destroyed it utterly, driving the resident Americans to seek refuge elsewhere in peril of their lives. And this not only in violation of treaty rights, but of the specific sanction and avowed protection of the Turkish government accorded to the College. It amounted to a deliberate act of war against the United States. Had the offender been avy other Power in the world, instant and decisive action would doubtless have been taken to secure redress. But as it was the unspeakable 'lurk, and as he had butchered some thousands of unresisting men, women and children at the same time, the nervous excitement attending the latter act of discipline was apparently regarded as an excuse for the trifling outrage on Americans. The State Department made a formal demand for indemnity, which was met by the polite assurance that the Porte had no knowledge either of the outrage or of any consequent liability. It would have been ungracious further to annoy a Power evidently in domestic affliction, and having roared as gently as any sucking dove, the injured government allowed itself to be appeased.
From that time outrage followed outrage in quick succession. The violation of treaties, the burning and blowing up of buildings, the kidnapping and secret imprisonment of an American clergyman, the tearing to pieces and trampling upon of the erstwhile proud "stars and stripes," these and other injuries and insults have been apparently accepted with quiet thankfulness by the same Foreign Office that has shown itself so stern in dealing with all other real or fancied impugners of its rights. So far as the American Press has been able to learn, the Porte has not yet been put to the slightest inconvenience for all this cumulative series of ignominious affronts.
England has suffered many things of recent months, from the indignation of orators and poets, for her seeming indifference to atrocities that would have roused the Old England of the Protectorate to strenuous activity. It would seem that she is not alone in her supineness. In this at least, the States are her loyal supporter. But how will future historians explain the inexplicable immunity of this Ashantes of modern Europe?
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.