New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 1877.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5020, 26 April 1877, Page 2

New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 1877.

A telegram which appears in another column is evidently the declaration of war between Russia arid Turkey. The fact that the Russian Embassy has left Stamboul, of the likelihood of which a previous telegram had warned us, shows that nothing now is left but open hostility between the Slav and the Turk. We are inclined to think that the telegram announcing the declaration of war has, in consequence of the duplication of telegraph lines, been delayed en route, and that the news we find this morning, which tells of the Emperor of Russia having reviewed his army and having urged bravery, should have been anticipated by one informing us of an actual declaration of war. It is noticeable that the last great European war was entered upon by those who were subsequently vanquished much in the same spirit as that evinced by the Russians now. M. Ollivibr declared in the French Assembly that his Ministers and his Emperor entered upon war with Germany “with a light heart.” His Ministry fallen, his Emperor a prisoner, and the fairest city of France at the feet of the conquerors, soon showed how idle was his boast. It is possible that the Emperor of Russia may find in the followers of Mahomet more stubborn foes than he anticipates. It is to be hoped he may. Should he experience no difficulty in marching upon Constantinople, it has been shadowed forth by Lord Derby that England reserves to herself the right of defending the Crescent city and the keys of the Bosphorus in the of the world. This might mean a general conflict in Europe, before the magnitude of which the questionable anxiety of Russia for the Christians in Turkey would fade into insignificance.