LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
HELP FOR STAMBOUL.
[TO THE EDITOR OF TER " SPECTATOR.")
Sin,—I believe cases have occurred in which Parliamentary grants have been made for the alleviation of great national calamities, in countries with which we were not particularly concerned, and whose only claim to our national sympathy was that inter- national bond of common humanity which has never been more talked about or less acted upon than at the present day. The Lisbon earthquake and, if I remember right, the great fire at Hamburg in 1842 are cases of the kind I refer to.
Could not the precedent be applied, and a vote, say of 1100,000, be granted in alleviation of the appalling misery of those rolling waves of suffering humanity, recoiling day by day before con- quering Russians and conquered Turks, upon the doomed city of Constantine the Great and Mahommed the Great? Such help would come in aid of Christian and Turk alike, and might fairly claim the votes of Russophils and Turkophils, and last, not least, of Anglophils.
I venture to make the suggestion, because I believe that there are in the present case valid reasons why Englishmen should make some slight pecuniary sacrifice which did not exist in the precedents referred to. I will consign to the limbo of international ethics the nice question as to whether a great and powerful nation, having peculiarly favourable opportunities for benefiting mankind, and neglecting to use them, incurs moral penalties for such omis- sion, nor will I suggest the splendid diplomatic situations which during the last two years have repeatedly been at our disposal, and which, used by a "heaven-born " Minister, might have placed England on a pinnacle of glory capable of warming even Quaker blood ; all I venture to affirm is that history will ratify the verdict universally pronounced by all foreign bystanders whose sight has remained unbleared by any special national chauvinisrnes, to the effect that had not England been a house divided against itself, this bloodiest and most horrorful war of the nineteenth century would have been avoided.
Had either of the two great tendencies of public opinion, whose intershock and blind internecine struggle have paralysed the arm and the brain of Great Britain during this all important crisis in European history, had full and undisputed sway, carrying with it the great heart of the British people, is it not certain that neither Cossack nor Bashi-Bozuk would have had the opportunity of furnishing our tables with those " bloody suppers" of " bragging horrors," on which, whether we would or not, we have been compelled to feed during the last few months ?
Had the Liberal tendency (I use the terms " Liberal" and " Conservative " for want of better) had its own way, and in- sisted on arming the Conference with compulsory powers, can any one in his senses now doubt that Turkey would have submitted, and allowed Europe to enforce the Lebanon precedent against her? Had the Conservative tendency, on the other hand, prevailed, and England stood doggedly by Turkey, as on the morrow of the Crimean war, who that knows anything of the political dynamics of Europe will venture to deny that Russia would have found a mode of retreat from a situation into which she had only been tempted to adventure herself by the absence of a strong opposing will?
I am not now breaking a lance for either the one policy or the other. All I desire to point out is that there is a strong feeling amongst the lookers-on, and how far greater must it be amongst the dwellers on the Bosphorus, that we had it in our power to have prevented the war ; that but for the war, the frightful scenes now daily occurring at Stamboul would not be taking place, and that in affording some slight alleviation to this misery out of the national exchequer, we shall at least, as a nation, pour one drop of oil on the wounds which we have hitherto taken such pains, as political parties, to dress with vinegar.—I am, Sir, &c., ONE WRO CARES DEARLY FOR TILE FAIR FAME OF ENGLAND.
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