THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1878.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2807, 12 February 1878, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1878.

The " confirmatory dispatches " do not bear out the assertions contained in previous messages, that the Russians had entered Stamboul. It is quite clear, however, that while Great Britain has been deterred from active measures to prevent such a contingency, by tho fair promises of Russia, the latter power has been taking every advantage of its recent successes to exact the hardest terms of peace from Turkey, even to consent to the entry of a portion of her army into Constantinople as conquerors. This, too, to satisfy the " honor" of Russia. It will be but an empty honor, however, if the occupation is to be under the surveillance of a portion of England's fleet, and the fleets of other Powers, and the period of occupation is dictated by the signatories to the Treaty of Paris. There is one significant fact in the news: it is the enthusiasm which has pervaded the people of England at the prospect of coming to blows with Eussia. The Ministry have carried the war vote in the House of Commons by an overwhelming majority; their policy has been approved with acclamation and noisy demonstration by the mob, who have further shown their hereditary antipathy to Eussia by snjashing the windows of Mr Gladstone's town residence and the office of the Daily News for their leaning towards Kussia. It may be that this prompt action of England will have the effect of inducing Eussia to pause, instead of driving the Porte into a corner. The occupation of Constantinople can only be intended for the purpose of gaining vantage ground for exacting hard terms, and those terms would most probably mean acquirement of territory, which could be more forcibly urged in the capital than from a distanceThere is just a possibility that with the moral support of a portion of the British fleet opposite Constantinople, the Turks may decline to satisfy Russian honor by admitting them into the city. This would involve further hostilities, and the position of the Eussian army would bo one of extreme peril. A writer in The Times, so far back as November, after the fall of Plevna, and in view of the possibility of Adrianople falling into the hands of the Russians, said, "If they (the Turks) have only tho fortitude to wait until the Eussians aro near Constantinople they will have an opportunity of giving their foe a lesson which hitherto, in all his wars of aggression and invasion, he has been wise enough to avoid, and Europe, if she is wise, will leave the troublesome ' Question' for the reflection of another generation."