The Globe. MONDAY, JULY 2, 1877.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 942, 2 July 1877, Page 2

The Globe. MONDAY, JULY 2, 1877.

The news from the seat of war begins day hy day to get more exciting. At last the passage of the Danube has been forced. Apparently as a matter of policy Dobrudscha has been abandoned by the Turks, but not before the entire peninsula has been laid waste to embarrass the advance of the Russians. Of course the two contending armies will no doubt meet in earnest before Trajan’s wall. That the conflict will be a deadly one, no one can doubt, when it is remembered that the battle is between those who announce their object to be the defence of the “ oppressed for Christ’s sake,” and the disciples of Islam. Although the passage of the Danube is partly effected, Turkey is far from conquered yet, and though Russia may be on the high road to Constantinople, she has a long journey to perform. The difficulties in her way are clearly put, in the English papers to hand by the mail. It is pointed out that “ the Russians have no longer an arsenal at Sebastopol, a powerful fleet in the Black Sea, or any other of the most effective weapons which they could have used against the Turkish capital before the Crimean war. Their flag has been driven from the Black Sea and the Turkish fleet holds the Bosphorus.” It is urged that in those circumstances the public need not be at all afraid of Russian supremacy in the east. Neither Gfermany nor Austria could permit the gates of the Bosphorus to be in the hands of Russia. The Times, whose anti-Turkish sentiments have been so marked during the last few months, ridicules the cry that British interests are at stake, or that Constantinople is in danger. “ The land side of Constantinople,” our contemporary says, “ would be barred by earthworks long before the Russians could reach Adrianople, and the Turks must have strangely degenerated since they defended JSilistria if, aided by their ships, they could not hold one of the strongest positions in the world against any force that Russia could mass in front of its walls. But of course they would not defend it alone. Grermany could not permit the gates of the Bosphorus, and thus the freedom of the Danube, to be at the mercy of Russia. Austria would forbid such a conquest for reasons at least as peremptory as the motives that would guide this country. It could not be permitted by Bowers which, like Italy and France, have a great naval stake in the Mediterranean. Ambitious as Russia may be, we cannot suppose that she would absolutely invite a disaster. Let the public only give Russia credit for sanity, and the cries of alarm for the safety of Constantinople will seem ludicrous. Even if the present war should end in the destruction of the Porte, it would not be difficult for the Powers to place Constantinople under at least as secure guardianship as that of the Pashas.”