NEWS OF THE WEEK IA N Thursday, London was startled to
hear that Sir Henry Layard had broken off diplomatic relations with the Turks- He has, it appears, taken that extreme step in order to compel -the Turkish Government to restore a manuscript translation -of the Scriptures, taken away from Dr. Koller, a clergy- man of the Church of England, employed as a Missionary for thirty years by the Church Missionary Society; and -to release Ahmed Tewfik, a Mussulman schoolmaster, who assisted in the translation. This Ahmed Tewfik was seized by the Minister of Police, and handed over to the ecclesiastical authorities, who declared him a traitor to Islam, and deserving death. He would have been sentenced and executed, but for the interference of the Ambassador, who, after four months of negotiation, gave the Foreign Office three days for surrender, and then broke off relations. It is supposed that some sort of a compromise will be made, and that the real object of Sir Henry Layard is to startle the Sultan.,out of his confidence in the " fanatical " or anti-English party by whom he is sur- rounded. The result must still be awaited, and it is difficult, amid the vapour which always rises from the Constantinople cesspool, to be certain that Sir H. Layard is in the right. He appears, however, in this instance to be insisting on justice,— repeatedly promised in the Imperial Hafts, and even in Treaties.
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