The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) SATURDAY, APRIL 37, 1878.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5330, 27 April 1878, Page 2

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) SATURDAY, APRIL 37, 1878.

The latest news from the seat of war may be regarded on the whole as satisfactory. Although it cannot be said with certainty that the crisis has altogether passed over, the probabilities appear strongly in favor of peace, so far as England is concerned, being preserved, at all events for the present. The spirit of the people at Home is decidedly against going to war if it can be avoided; consistently with national honor. But if that be threatened there can be no doubt that the same pluck and spirit which our forefathers possessed has not departed from the present generation of Britons, and that if recourse must be had to arms her soldiers and sailors will give a good account of themselves. There is another point which should not be forgotten in reference to this subject. England is richer to-day than she has ever been before, and if we remember what she accomplished with less money and a scantier population, we cannot doubt that she Would do as much or more were she called upon to put forth her strength once more in support of “ her altars and hearths.” A portion of the British and American Press, we have observed lately, have dealt with the subject as if the power of England were a thing of the past, and she had lost her place amidst the leading nations of the world ; whilst it appears to us, who certainly view the situation at a distance, but perhaps see it not the less clearly on that account, that there never was a time when she stood higher. That prudence and wisdom, have guided the counsels of her statesmen during the recent terrible war between the Russians and Turks, is beyond dispute, otherwise she would have been dragged into the strife.' Some say that she ought to have drawn the sword for Turkey, in order “to preserve the balance of power in Europeothers contend that she should have rather taken part with Christian Russia against a barbarous nation ; whilst common sense would seem to say that so long as England’s interests were not directly menaced it would be worse than folly to rush into' war. The hereditary policy of Russia is said to be, and there is no doubt ground for the statement, to seize Constantinople and make a way to India. If once British interests in India were threatened, it would undoubtedly be the duty and policy of England to resist her; but up to the present time, so far as we can judge of the question from all we have read on the subject, there has been no such menace made by the Czar. It is reported that the feeling of the Russian people is adverse to England, but there seems no very reliable data for the statement so far as we know, and in a despotic country like Russia, the popular voice, even if it did actually set in that direction, would be a considerable time making itself heard in the councils of the Czar so long as that potentate entertained a different opinion. On the whole, therefore, the present situation, if critical, seems to be tending towards a peaceful solution. Apart from all questions of humanity it is ardently to be desired that a firm and lasting peace may prevail. ' To us in the cplomos it means cheap money and iextenqVd com- : merce. Nothing oould bo more disastrous to the material interests of those new and rising portions of Great Britain’s colonial empire than war with a foreign power. These colonies are almost wholly unprotected, and so far as New Zealand is concerned the policy of the present Ministry—at all events of the Premier—is against taking any such steps as have been adopted in the sister colonies for coast defences. There are few, if any, portions of the globe whose population at the present moment is more prosperous and happy than are the people of Australia and New Zealand, and there is every prospect that with the continuance of peace at Home this prosperity in the colonies will not only be continued but will be largely increased. For all reasons, therefore, it is to bo hoped that the next European intelligence received will be confirmatory of that previously to hand, which indicates that hostilities between the belligerents are drawing to a close, and that in any case England and her colonial empire will steer clear of the contest without any loss of national honor or prestige.