Mr. Disraeli stated in the House of Commons last summer
that it was not necessary to bring pressure to bear on the Sultan, since no Power could be more anxious to be guided by English advice than was the Government of Turkey. We have had a remarkable illus- tration of this supposed ardour of Turkey to be guided by English advice within the last week. Lord Derby's very strong despatch de- manding the infliction of exemplary punishment on the chief agents in the Bulgarian atrocities has now been published in England some two months, and is of still older date. On the second Wednesday in November, General Klapka received in Con- stantinople a complimentary address from the Turks, pre- sented by Shefket Pasha, General of Division, who in the name of the deputation delivered to General Klapka all sorts of flowery compliments on Magyar valour, accompanied by all kinds of intimations that the Turkish Empire was about to be regenerated, and that "awakened, erect, and free," the Turks would fight side by side with the Magyars in the war of civilisation and freedom. General Klapka quite entered into the situation, and especially complimented the Turks in reply on the "humanitarian- ism" with which Islam had at length reconciled itself. The Shefket Pasha thus complimented, who is well aware of the sincerity of the reconciliation between Islam and humanitarianism, is the Shefket Pasha denounced by Mr. Baring as one of the chief authors of the Bulgarian horrors. He—no doubt also Achmet Aga—whose "exemplary" punishment had been demanded by Lord Derby, is now the distinguished and admired representative of the new alliance between Islam and that humanitarianism which they have illustrated by their Bulgarian exploits.
Previous page
