RETSOSPECT OF 1877.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2813, 19 February 1878, Page 2

RETSOSPECT OF 1877.

(FUG!! THE HOME KKWS, JANUARY 3.)

(Continued from our last.)

ASIATIC CAMPAIGN.

The struggle in Asia Minor has been marked with the strangest vicissitudes, and fortune, capriciously, has in turn favoured either side. The easy advance of the Russians looked little less than a victorious promenade. Three columns moved forward in May; the right on Batoum, the centre on Ardahan, the left on Bayazid. Batoum successful ly repelled attack, but Arhahan was captured, and Buy azid also fell. Kara was next besieged, and being thus masked no obstacle stood in the way of a march upon Erzeroum. An against these victories the Turks could only count the taking of Soukhouui Kale, and the rising in the Caucasus ; and it seemed not improbable that the Riusians would carry all before them. Tl-e first cheek came at Zewin, where Loris Melikoff attacked a strong Turkish position and was repulsed with heavy loss; almost at the same moment Ter^ukasolf, advancing on the left, wai defeated at Delibaba, and the whole of the Russian forces retreated in hot haste. Mukhtar Pasha followed fait, relieved Kars, aud revictuslled it.

THE FOBTUNIS OF WAB. These Turkish successes had been due rather lo the errors of their enemy thin their own good generalship and superiority in the field. The Russian advHcV had been rash and reckless, the troops available too few to execute the wide plan of operations propounded by the Grand Duke Michael, hence its complete collapse. They now strained every nerve to retrieve their misfortunes, and bring up forces more commensurate with the difficulties of the campaign. But fortune was not to be won back all at once. An attack on the Turkish position at Kisil i Tepe in the latter days of August entirely failed. Again, early in October, recom« mencing operations with the dqsign of catting off Mukhtar Pasha from Ifors, the first day's fighting went all against them. This seemed to close the campaign, as the Armenian winter was close at hand, but within a fortnight they renewed their attack, and now with supreme success. Mukhtar Pasha occupied a position of undue length on the western slopes of the Aladja Dagh, and his centre gave way before the determined attack of General Heinmann. while a wide out flanking movement by General Lazaroff turned his right. His army was cut in two, one-half laid down their arms, the other fled in disorder. Mukhtar Pasha fell back rapidly and endeavored to show a new front, bat position after position was turned by the direction of the Bussian advance, and Krzeroum alone remained. Next came the startling surprise of the capture of Kara by a coup de main which completed the discomfiture of the Turks. Ghazi Mukhtar still holds out in fine* roum, but the Armenian winter proves less inclement than usual, and Loris Melikoff found it possible to move towards 7 rebizond, thus cutting off the capital's communication with that post. Another llussian force at Old severs the Turkish line with Batoum, and the complete isolation and investment of Erzeroum appear to have been secured. xahifxstationb or policy.

It remains briefly to notice manifestations of Ministerial policy and popular feeling which hare accompanied the progress of these events in Europe and in Asia. In a letter to our Ambassador at St. Petersburg. Lord Augustus Loft us, Lord Derby, under date May 1, took grave exception to Prince GortschakofTs Circular, setting forth the circumstances which had preceded the outbreak of the war, and defining the part played by Russia before Europe. Lord Derby declined to admit that the action of the Czar was justified by facts, disputed and denied tbe pretensions of Russia to act as the mandatory of Europe, and informed the Czar that he had separated himself from the European concord. Shortly after this both Houses of Parliament ware informed by Her Majesty's Ministen that the attitude which England would adopt would be one of neutrality, and that no attempt would be made to interfere between the two combatants until the opportunity for mediation arrired, or until British interests should be threatened. Subsequently different members of the Cabinet, notably Lord Derby, Mr Cross, and Sir S. Northoote, defined in what British interests consisted. The freedom of the route to India, via the Sue* Canal, was a paramount British interest, and the interest would be inadequately protected unless the Persian Golf were also kept free. For the rest, England was not prepared to allow the occupation of Constantinople by a foreign force, nor to suffer any menace to be made to Egypt with impunity, nor to regard favourably any attempt to alter the existing laws which govern the navigation of the Turkish Straits. There has been an entire absence of any formidable agitation against their policy, and even the rumour, which in July obtained some credence, that the garrisons at Gibraltar and Malta were to be raised to a war footing—the fleet haying been again despatched to Besika —produced no very considerable sentiment of alarm. The recent | utterances of the Foreign Secretary, the ! Home Secretary, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer have tended in the same reassuring direction. But concurrently with these, alarmist runpurs hare been circulated by Ministerial journals as to the duties and intentions of the Cabinet. The result of this apparent conflict of riews and intentions has been most lamentable, and there reigns at the present moment a distressing uncertainty as to whether the Russian advance in Europe or Asia does, or can, threaten apy "British interest" It is an ambiguity of that expression which is the cause of all our anxiety, and it will be the duty of Ministers when Parliament meets to define it more precisely than they hare as yet attempted. THE OBEAT POWERS INTJKMTJtD.

As with England so with the other Great Powers on the Continent, the war has been the point to which national anxieties and national interests hare oonterged. It has been also the cause, direct and direct, of internal difficulties with more than one peoplo of the world, and has acted as an attractive or repellant force in the case of neighboring nation* alities. At the beginning of the present year there existed, as lias been already intimated, a disposition to doubt thd validity of what is known as the Triple Alliance between Kusaia, Germany,'knd^ Austro-Uun'gary. A' remarkably iuadeauato degree ot importance was given at le time to a declaration that fell from th«

lips of the Gorman Emperor at the opening of the German Parliament, Feb. 22, to tho effect that, though European dangers might arise, and war might break out between Russia and Turkey, yet tho actual difficulty between tho European States ought not to bo considerable, seeing that the " Conference had given Europe an universally recognised expression of its views." This indicated that there was a pretty clear and practical consensus between tho three Empires, and everything that has occurred subsequently has confirmed this view. Before the war broke out, and even after it had been some months in progress, the idea was cherished in this country that an understanding which ini/jlit result in an offensive and defensive alliance was in force between" England and Austria, and that in deference to tho Anti-Russian sentiments of the Magyars the Austro-Hun-garian Empire was ready to unite with Great Britain in protecting and fighting for the Turk. Events have completely falsified this view. It had its origin in speculation from the first, and it was conclusively disposed of by Count Andrassy in the recent speech, in which he declared that while ifc was the policy of AustroHungary to look first to her own interests, nothing could be further from her mind than to advocate the maintenance ot tho status quo in Turkey, and that the redis- j tribution^of territory which would follow the war would probably be advantageous to Austria. So far, therefore, as it is possible to estimnte the results of the year 1877 to the relations exisiting between tho three Empires, there is no reaBon to believe that tho bonds uniting them have been-loosened, or that the programme decided on between tho Austrian and German Emperors, and Prince Bismarck and Count Andrassy, when they met last September, is likely to become waste paper. The Austro-Hungarian Bank difficulty, as well as the difficulty of j the renewal of the Commercial Treaty with Germany, have each of them been affected by the antagonism of Slav and Magyar which has been roused into new life by the strife between Russia and Turkey. THE GEKHAN EMPIBE.

The bistory of Germany during the past twelve months is an instructive and interesting study. On March 22 the German [Emperor celebrated the eightieth anniversary of his birth; on April L the German Chancellor was sixty-four. The Kaiser William cannot, in all human probability, much longer rule over the nation of whose accomplished unity his empire is the symbol and the guarantee. When the Prince Imperial comes to the throne, what will the policy of Germany be P "Will Prince Bismarck continue to possess his' power of shaping it to his will, or will not rather the accession of the Prince Imperial necessitate the retirement of the Chancellor P In Germany itself there are signs that the opposition to the Chancellor is becoming more formidable. Though the elections of Jan. 18 still gave him a majority, they very considerably increased the minority hostile to him. The chief features in these elections were the triumph of the Social Democrats, and the collapse of the Progressists. Throughout the year the Particularsts, in addition to the Social Democrats, have continued to vex his path, and on more than one issue have inflicted on him discomfiture and actual defeat. The opposition to the Budget, whose principle was to meet the Imperial Deficit by increased taxation - from separate States—an opposition raised by the combined forces of Democrats and Progressists—was the prelude to events more seriously unwelcome to the Chancellor. In the face of his most emphatic protests, and all the efforts which his energy could put forth, Leipsic, instead of Berlin, was nominated the seat of the Imperial Supreme Court of Justice. Then came his untoward difference with the Naval Minister, Genemi Stosch; and then his resignation followed. Subsequently, however, the resignation was withdrawn, and Prince Bismarck, abdicating his strictly Parliamentary functions, has contented himself with an unlimited leave of absence. The strife between the civil and ecclesiastical power, which has been dormant in Germany, has been active in Germany's ally and prote*ge*, Italy. Before these lines are in print the news may have come that Pius IX. is no more. It cannot at least be said that he has moderated his attitude of hostility to the "usurpation of ...Victor Emanuel in the concluding years of his life. On the first of the year the faithful rallied round him, and throughout the year which has been that of his jubilee— the year which is the fiftieth that has elapsed since his episcopal consecrationpilgrims laden with presents have continued to pour in upon him from all quarters of the world. On the very day of this public festival, Sunday, June 3, Victor Emmanuel was reviewing his troops in Campus Martius. No collision of popular feeling need have been anticipated, and it passed off in perfect tranquility. Those who took part in the demonstrations were troubled with no sort of interference. But the Holy Father has not been without one substantial grievance. Out of Italy the policy embodied in the Clerical Abuses Bill has found new supporters, and if ita tendency lias not generally been discovered to be that which the English Eoman Catholics imputed to it in their protest against the measure—to " make the Italian religion impossible in Italty" as well as "to destroy the liberty of the Church "—its expediency has been generally questioned, and mß\Senate, it is almost agreed, did the best thing it could when it reversed the decision of the Chamber of Deputies and threw the Bill out. For the rest, the two great questions which at the present moment confront Italy are the future of the Papacy, and the settlement of the pastern Question. Undoubtedly, the successor of Pio Nono will enter upon his august office with an advantage that Pio Nono himself lacked. He will not be a dethroned king j he will have no memory of a lost temporal sovereignty ; he will not think it necessary to pose beforo all Europe as the Prisoner of the Vactican. To §c continued.