Britain's Triumph

The Chicago Times, commcntiüg upon Beaconefield's great diplomatic vietory in the Berlín congrega, saya; Confidently as those who liave duly studied Anglo-Saxon growth and character may have believed that in tho outcome of the Russo-Turkish conflict Great Britain would suffer no loss of national prestige or advantüge, nevertheless it may be truly said that the British triuraph which concludes the long and fierce controversy is amazing. The caricature picture-makers might graphically represent this latest contest on tbe " Easteru question" nnder the siniilitude of the liussian bear fighting the Moslein tnrkey at enormous cost of life and treasure, while at a distance the British lion qnietly watches the furious coinbat. For a time victory inclines to tho side oí the feebier combatíint, and the lion manifests a lazy and indifferent sort of satisfaction. But the tule of battle auddenly turas. The bear seizes the turkey and is proceediug to dimember it. The lion wakes up and begins to roar veheniently. The bear growls savngely. The animáis show their teeth and make ready for combat. In the situations presentedby the succeeding diplomatic maneuvers, the artist will find the subject for a series of graphic illustrations, showing the bear rampant, the lion "isolated," with his teeth out and his tail gone, etc., concluding with a congress of nafcional quadrupeds, in ■which the lion appears wiíh the turkey inside of him, magnanimously tendering to the bear a small fragment of one of the tail-featheis. At a cost of $1,000,000,000 Russia has played the glorious part of the mockey that drew from tho coals the finest lot o: cheetnuts Great Britain has ever gained What Kussia has gained is defeat, humi.iation, and a loss of prestige. The recarving of Turkey in Europe advan tages Austria without cobí, but not Rus sia. The acquisition of a narrow slice o Bessarabia is of no practical valué, po litical or military, while the newcompac between Turkoy and Britain briugs the lion and the bear face to face ia Asia and puta a terminus to the advance o the latter in that direction. In effect that compact makes Grea Britain henceforth the predominating power in Asia. In effect, if not in terms it is the erection of a British protector ate over Asia Minor, caxrying British in fluence and control from the Dardanelles to Persia. In the probable reality of the future, it is the extensión of British In dia westward and northward through the valley of the Euphratestothe Meiüterra nean and to Constantinople. Airead; an English navigation company occupiei the Euphrates and monopolizcs the com merce of that great Oriental highway Already the project of an Euglish rail way from the Enphrates to the Mediter ranean is announeed, and the construc tion of another line, hitherto proposed connectüig the eastern extremities of the Mediterranean and the Black seas, if now virtually assured. The process o Anglicising Asia Minor, pofitically as well as commercially, is begun. Moreover, the astorishing outcome o the Berlín congress has given again an emphatic answer to the question whether the Almighty made the Mediterranean sea for an English lake. At any rate, i the Almighty did not make the Mediter ranean for English use, events prove that He has had very poor success in carrring forth the purpose of its crea tion. For more than acentury Englam has commanded it at the middle and one end. And now England commands in the middle and at both ends. The ees sion of the island of Cyprus to the British renders their control of the Mediter ranean, in its whole length and breadth complete and absolute. The possession of Cyprus is to En gland hnrdly less important than that o Gibraltar. Within a fcw hours' sail to Port Said, and to Adriatio ports on the east and north, it is admirably situatet by nature for a great military and nava rendezvous from which can be com manded the whole Asiatic península anc all the routes, both land and water, to India. It is the rea] key to the Oriënt and as such will unquestionably be helt and used bj the British power. In fine, the outcome of the Berlin congress is the greatest triumph for Britain that this century has witnessed It is not surprising that in Ruesia grea indignation should be manifested on ac count of an outcome which is for Rnssia worse than her defeat by the Turkish arms would have been. Nor is it sur prising that even the English nation should be amazed at this unexpectec success of the most audacious programme of national aggrandizement a another nation's cost which an Englisl Premier has ever undertaken.