THE SITUATION IN THE BALKANS.
WE take the situation in the Balkans to be this. The reunion of the two Bulgarias is complete. The Powers have accepted the decision of the people. Turkey will move no troops; and while Prince Alexander will be told that he is a rash young man, and the Sultan will be soothed with some meaning- less promise of tribute—such as England pays for Cyprus— Bulgaria will become a free and united State, and the Bulgarians will, we trust, commence that career of peaceful civilisation for which they are, among all the races of the Balkans, perhaps the most eminently fitted. The proposal of Russia to depose the Prince will be rejected, partly because he has done nothing which has not repeatedly been done before—by Victor Emanuel, for example—partly because Germany and England wish to protect him, and partly because the deposition could not be carried out except by a senseless and dangerous war of invasion. So far, all is well, and the crisis is past ; but a new one has suddenly arisen. The Greeks, the Servians, and the Montenegrins think it most unfair that Bulgaria should be aggrandised at the expense of Turkey, or rather, out of the Turkish estate now being slowly disposed of by the European Court of Equity, unless they also are aggrandised. They also have reversionary interests ; and seeing that the Court inclines to favour those who take possession, they threaten to imitate Bulgaria. The Servians in particular are ready and eager for war, and declare with no bated breath that if their reversion is not conceded instantly, and without more legal delays, they will take it by force. As they have sixty thousand fighting men under arms, or four times the whole Turkish force in Macedonia—where, it would seem, the Pashas have been keeping paper regiments on foot in order to draw their pay—and as they are secretly favoured by Austria, and as King Milan is an adventurous person, this menace is formidable, and the Powers must give Servia her " compensation,"—that is, must restore her own property taken away by Turks. If they do this, however, Greece will want Macedonia and the islands ; and as Turkey will not give them, each island, to begin with, being an estate for a Pasha, the Eastern Question may once more be reopened in its entirety. That question is nothing else than the distribution of Turkey in, Europe among its rightful heirs ; and is only (difficult because the heirs are not quite agreed as to their shares—though they are rapidly agreeing — and Are not quite strong enough to take their own by force. Still, it is difficult ; and, great as is the pressure of Germany towards peace, the diplomatists may fail BO to recou- oile claims as to stave off the ultimately inevitable war till Europe has decided who shall have the one uninherited bit of the eatate, Constantinople. They must be quick and they must be decided ; and diplomatists are very rarely either the ona or the other. Fortunately, they are able to warn the Turk that the Treaty of Berlin provided for the autonomy ci Macedpaia and of Armenia, and that it may yet be enforced.
So far the Tory Government has behaved in this matter with both dignity and prudence. Sir Michael Hicks-Beach tells us, in clear language, that, in Lord Salisbury's judgment, England has no more reason to prevent the union of the Bulgarias than any other signatory Power, and that the Premier will only endeavour, in concert with Europe,—which, bait observed, is now allowed in Tory speeches to exist,—to limit the area .of disturbance. He feels no wounded pride at the overthrow of his handiwork, and, is not intent on aiding the 'Park to regain the rich countries he has destroyed. That is excellent as far as it goes, and most creditable to Lord Salisbury bath as statesman and as philanthropist, and we have little fear but that he will do justice to Servia. Servia is Austria's protege', and Lord Salisbury looks to Austria as ultimate protector of all the Balkan States, perhaps as reversionary heir to the Byzantine throne. But Englishmen desire to see justice done to Greece also ; and Conservatives have an inner re- luotanee to do justice to Greece, akin to their old reluctance to ha friendly to Italy. They cannot get it out of their heads that the feeling for Greece is a sentimental one, fostered by Liberals like Lord Byron and Mr. Gladstone, and. that Greece ought to fight before she receives any more territory. It will be necessary for politicians to watch the action of the Gcvernment about Greece, and to insist that so far as British influence extends she shall have her share, which belongs to her by a better title than any State in the world can show. Epirus is part of Greece ; and although, if Macedonia is to be autonomous, her dein:may be postponed, if Macedonia is to be divided, it belongs, up to the Rhodope, to Greece. Unless English diplometists are instructed to press this view, we shall find when the distribution is finished, that WO shall have earned the deadly dislike of a race which, let the distribution go as it may, will furnish the rulers of the entire Peninsula. The Slays are brave and industrious, and capable of organisation ; but intellectual power is the highest quality of all ; and when a Greek is iu a room full of Slays, it is to the Greek they turn for counsel. We wish the Greeks were as rash as their rivals ; but the Greek amenability to diplomatists' advice is no sound reason for deserting the Greeks. If the Skipetars join them, as Mr. Evans in his able letters seems to believe will be the case, the Greeks will be rash enough.
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