THE RUSSIAN POLICY.

Dunstan Times, Issue 788, 25 May 1877, Page 3

THE RUSSIAN POLICY.

(Times, Feb. 25.) It would not be surprising if the Russian Government should have at last come to believe that the time has not arrived for beginning an attack upon the Ottoman Empire. No doubt the temptations to push on are many, and the influence is great. The oppression of the Christians in Turkey, the crusading fervor among the fanatical masses of the Russian people, the excitement of the army, pledge of the Czar himself at Moscow, and Turkey’s unceremonious disregard of the Conference, make the position of Russia very difficult. The inducement to act are such that many rulers, if in the place of the Czar, might shut their eyes and strike. The suspense must be so painful that it would be a positive relief to end it even by a blind disdain for consequences, as Napoleon HI did when he cut short a conflict of motives by a word which cost him his throne, and his country two splendid provinces. But on the other hand the Gear is emphatically a man of peace. His mind is supposed to have been saddened by- the memory of the immense disasters which the Crimean War inflicted on his country, and amid which he began his reign. He has about him a powerful party in favor of peace, and the history of Russian wars with Turkey, must have filled his mind with many forebodings. The conquest of Central Asia has made a heavy drain on the Russian Treasury, and the finances have been crippled by tho re-organization of a gigantic array. Trade, which has never yet had a fair start, is paralysed by tire fear that if war break out, it may lose as much in a few months as it has gained in twenty years. All these facts will have been stated by the Minister in Finance, and the Emperor’s kindly nature may be still more powerfully impressed by the thought of the bloodshed for which a declaration of war would be the signal Terrible as the loss of life was in IS2S and 1529, it would in all probability be far exceeded by the havoc of a contest which the Turks would regard as a fight for the very existence of their power. Russian peasants would have perished by tons of thousands before the Czar could stop it. It would ho no wonder if such a prospect should revive terrible memories of the disasters which broke his father’s heart. The force of these considerations would be greatly lessened if Russia could count on a single powerful ally, hut she stands absolutely alone. They would also bo lessened if Turkey could, by escaping immediate chastisement, consolidate her power for evil. But Russia at least does not believe that, tho Porto has a long lease of existence. It is a maxim at St Petersburg!) that tho Ottoman Power is swiftly perishing from internal causes which it has passed the power of statesmanship to remove, and that Russia has only to wait in order to profit by tho inevitable ruin. That she would wait would scarcely have been doubtful if the Czar had not delivered his Moscow speech, hut Russian diplomacy has lost much of its skill if it cannot show that events will fulfil tho rash pledge or that in the divided and critical state of Europe he must choose his own time to keep his word.