THE EUROPEAN SITUATION.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1227, 8 February 1878, Page 3

THE EUROPEAN SITUATION.

The following description of the political situation in Europe is contained in the short telegraphic summary of news transmitted from Adelaide to Melbourne on the arrival of the Suez mail, and dated London, December 21st:—

To give you the rational as well as the sensational surmises, I believe that Musurus Pasha, the Turkish Minister hero, has handed to Lord Derby a memorandum, sketching the concessions which the Turkish Qovernment are prepared to recommend to the Qrand Council. This has been the subject of daily deliberation since Monday ; but as yet no action has followed upon it. Should Lord Derby be able to bring the Porte to what he he considers a practicable basis of negotiation, the other neutral powers would be informally consulted upon it. Prince Bismarck, it is expected, will decline to take any part in mediation without the consent of Russia. Count Andrassy has already expressed himself unfavorably to it under present circumstances. Italy will follow the lead of Prince Bismarck, and France, being only just out of her domestic crisis, will be more than ever reserved. Mediation has consequently a very poor prospect as yet, though the Q-overnment consider themselves bound by their moral engagements to the country and to the Porte to make the attempt. But the Porte has not as yet come down half far enough in the way of concessions. It began last week with an appeal to the great powers against the oppressive and ruinous war which had been forced upon it by Russia. At the same time the Foreign Minister (Server Pasha) communicated to the English and Austrian Ministers his own idea of entertainable preliminaries, embracing political and territorial integrity of the empire, and a guarantee for the constitutional privileges to be conferred on Bulgaria, Bosnia, and Herzegovina. The dissensions in the Cabinet would be very premature indeed if they have arisen out of any proposals made by Turkey, for they are all of the most nebulous kind. The Queen is a Russophobist, and whatever may happen either in or out of the Cabinet, Lord Beaconsfield appears to be on the best of terms with the head of the state. The Queen paid him a visit at Hughendon on Saturday, and on her return to Windsor she countermanded all her orders for the Christmas journey to Osborne. She remains at Windsor all the winter. Her display of confidence in the Prime Minister may be needed to strengthen him in the Cabinet, but it is much more probably intended to take effect abroad. There is a very widespread suspicion coming to the front that Germany and Austria will use their influence to force Turkey into a separate peace with Russia, and that while nothing will be done against England which she can absolutely object to, there will be the least possible complications. But others are incredulous about Austria being so shortsighted as not to appreciate the fact that England’s interests in the East are also hers, while Russia’s are something quite different. After her weakness in yielding with respect to Servia, anything, however, may bo feared from Austria.