The Manchester _Guardian recently published accounts of two outrages in
Bosnia from a correspondent unusually acquainted with the affairs of the province, and Mr. Jenkins asked in the House if they were true. Mr. Bourke said he would inquire, and on Friday read despatches from Consul Holmes denying that any serious outrages had occurred, and complaining that Christian outrages on Mahommedans were never mentioned, "because Tunics, for the most part, think it more dignified to avenge than to complain,"—kill their enemies, that is, without trial, silently. Mr. Bourke thought this answer quite complete, but on a question from Mr. Forster it appeared that he had never mentioned the specific outrages to Consul Holmes at all, because of the expense of telegrams, and had relied on general orders to the Consuls to report all outrages,— orders which the Consuls are a great deal too shrewd not to understand. Has Mr. Bourke forgotten the two reports in the Blue-book on the same subject, the one written after the Consul understood what was wished, and the other before? Perhaps he thinks they were both true.
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