On Monday, Mr. Forster made a political speech, on the
occa- sion of receiving a present of the freedom of the City of Aber- deen, almost the whole of which was devoted to the Eastern Question. Its tone was decidedly stronger in relation to the necessity of enforcing reforms on Turkey at any cost than the previous speech at Bradford, but as Mr. Forster very truly said, the whole essence of the question is now the nature of the guarantees to be demanded from Turkey for the reforms we propose, and as to the nature of these guarantees he was silent. This was a great defect, and we have commented on it elsewhere. For our own part we hold with Russia, that but one guarantee is worth the paper it could be protocolled upon, and that guarantee is military occupation of the Christian pro- vinces till self-government be secured. Engagements given to Europe may be of ultimate use, because Europe may some day interfere and enforce a military occupation until these engage- ments are fulfilled ; but until the military occupation takes place, these engagements will not be fulfilled, and when it takes place the engagements will no longer be necessary. On so critical a point as this Mr. Forster should not reserve his opinion.
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