Considerable feeling has been excited in England among the friends
of Greece by this action of the British Government ; but it is not quite reasonable. In view of the condition of Mace- donia and Epirus, Greece has always cause of war with Turkey ; but her new pretext, the aggrandisement of Bulgaria, is unjust, am! Europe, which defends her from Turkey, has always a right of intervention ; while, if she intervenes, she must make her intervention effectual, which can only be done by the despatch of a fleet or by occupation. Lord Salisbury's idea appears to have been that, if Greece declared war, Servia would follow suit, and that Russia would seize her opportunity to occupy Bulgaria in order to prevent war. That is an intelligible view, and though we wish it were possible to allow Greece to fight out her own secular quarrel, and rescue provinces which belong to her, we are not prepared to say it is inaccurate. It is not, however, pleasant to see the Government SO very energetic when it is needful to restrain Greece,
and so exceedingly apathetic when the rights of Epirus and Macedonia under the Treaty of Berlin are brought forward to the light. It may be the business of collective civilisation to prevent a war at any especial moment, but it is not its business to defend Turkey, which is the common foe of civilised Christendom.
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