lent character, and have no regard for cleanliness.
We must make great allowance for the acts of people brought to death's door by starvation; and it is scarcely to be wondered at, that, under such circumstances, they should conceal the bodies of those who had died, for the purpose of continuing to draw the scanty rations allowed to each individual a few days longer. For this, disgusting and dangerous as it was when the corpse was kept concealed in the tent among the living for days and days after it ought to have been underground, we can find some excuse; but there is a total absence of every feeling of decency and respect for the dead shown in the fact, that they rooted out the bodies of those who were buried for the sake of getting possession of the piece of calico which served as their shroud. They did not even take the trouble to put the bodies back into the holes from whence they had taken them, but left them exposed in the open fields. That fathers and mothers should have endeavoured to mitigate their own sufferings by the sale of their children, is only what might have been expected, considering that we have always been led to believe that it is from this source that the markets of the East are chiefly supplied; but if ever there was an excuse to be found for such conduct, it is in the present instance. Moreover, it was an act of mercy to the children, who were thereby saved from the privations to which their parents were subjected. To feed such an immense multitude as this day after day would exceed the resources of almost any nation. The Sultan has acted with great liberality, for out of his private purse he is said to have contributed 60,000l. Our Government sent them 600 tons of biscuit; and no doubt if this act were repeated again and again, public opinion would sanction this irregular appropriation of our stores; though, considering the sympathy expressed for the victims of Russian policy, the British public has not displayed its usual liberality.
On the 27th of May it was announced that a committee had been formed, consisting of Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, Lord Shaftesbury, the Marquis Clanricarde, Mr. Oliphant, and several others, for the purpose of receiving subscriptions in aid of the Circassian exiles, and 2000l. have been sent already.
The disposal of such a vast number must necessarily be a work of time and extreme difficulty. A small number have been sent to serve with the Turkish troops in Syria; and a report was prevalent on the Continent that a convention had been signed between France and Turkey, according to which from 25,000 to 30,000 men were to be sent off straight to Algeria.
This statement has not been confirmed, and is indeed a very improbable one. It is not to be supposed that Turkey would enter into an engagement which would burden her with a multitude of helpless paupers; unless, indeed, the agreement provided that these men should be accompanied by their families; on this point, however, the continental journals are silent. A portion of the emigrants were billeted upon Turkish families, in the proportion of one Circassian family to four Turkish families.
This is naturally regarded by Sir Henry Bulwer as a most unsatisfactory arrangement; it is cheap, and that is all that can be said in favour of it; to the poor Turks it is intolerably oppressive. Forty thousand were sent to the shores of the Danube; but of these not less than six thousand are said to have died within three weeks, and the survivors are many of them absolutely destitute of covering, and almost starved to death.
The plan which Sir Henry Bulwer proposes is to settle the Circassians in the country which extends from the Black Sea towards Erzeroom; to hold it by a kind of military tenure. This plan he considers would be doubly beneficial—it would relieve the native agricultural population from a great part of the drain made upon them by the demands of the army, and would furnish the means of carrying out a work of great importance to the future prosperity of Turkey.
The work to which Sir Henry here refers is the construction of a road from Trebizond to Erzeroom. It is by this route that the commerce between the port of Trebizond and Central Asia, Armenia, and Persia is carried on; and anything more detestable can hardly be imagined. Supposing a good road to be made in accordance with our ambassador's suggestion, the increase of traffic would be prodigious; and no doubt would greatly increase our imports of manufactured goods into the countries it would traverse. Of course this proposition has been received by a portion of the foreign press as another instance of the far-sighted selfish policy of England, which not only looks forward to an increase of her trade which would result from its adoption, but to increased employment for her shipping, most of the commerce of the port with foreign countries being carried on in British ships. It is however constrained to admit that British selfishness is on this occasion in accordance with the interests of a very large number of people.
There is another consideration in connection