LAND A X D WATER 
uctouer it), lyib. 
^'"nnlinucd from page i6.) 
If endorsed by official and Court circles and the Govern- 
ment, that instinct finds immediate expression in action ; 
if opposed, it slowly deepens like water behind a dan\, 
and bides its time. But its presence is one of the main 
potents in this war. It constitutes, indeed, the basis of 
our strengtli. If tlie enemy build their hopes on 
elaborate preparations and mechanical efficiency, we in 
tifii build on that profound sentiment which sways all 
(li!.- peoples, Russians, French, Italians, Belgians, 
Serbians, Grcelcs, and presently Balkans, in our favour 
with a universal motion like the motion of the tide. Such 
forces may be difficult to define, but they will outlast 
anything that can be brought against them. 
\o one has placed his finger on this war's pulse 
who has not divined the depth and volume of the popular 
support which is backing up the Allies. But whence 
arises this support? From the realisation of the fact that 
(iennany, Austria, Turkey, each in their several ways 
and degrees, stand for a non-free or despotic form of 
government, whereas the .Allies are pledged (not onlv 
in regard to the present crisis, but by their national his- 
tory and abiding sympathies) to a' free and constitu- 
tional form of government. 
And if we ask further, why, then, are the people so 
enamoured of freedom as to be willing to bleed in its 
defence? the answer lies in what we have been en- 
deavouring to show— that free and constitutional forms 
of government are the only means by which growth, 
progress, and enlightenment can be' secured to tlie 
masses of the people. This is their one means of educa- 
tion (what we call culture must always be the perquisite 
of the favoured few), but it is a potent means. In the art 
of law-making, the best qualities in life, unselfishness, 
spiritual tolerance, neighbourly sympathv, and an ever- 
enlarging appreciation of tlie claims of all classes are 
trained and developed. By this instrument life itself 
teaches those who live. Not schools and colleges, not 
books and lectures and professors act so immediately 
and powerfullv on the character of a people as does 
their participation in the opportunities and respon- 
sibilities of governing. I-'rom the moment a nation sets 
about making its own laws its foot is on the ladder. 
Political liberty will lead it on to intellectual and 
spiritual liberty. Fife at every turn will be its teacher, 
will admonish it of its failures and point out their recti- 
fication. Fnlightcnment will dawn, not through much 
thinking, nor be confined to a few philosophers, but as 
it were unconsciously and to all people by the applica- 
tion of ideas to life and their test in everyday 
experience. 
In a sense England is more advanced in this 
philosophy than any otlier country, for she has built up 
an limjMre of which the very life-principle is the con- 
sciousness of the value of liberty as a source of growth 
and spiritual development. This is our contribution to 
the world's knowledge. It is new. The world has seen 
nothing like it before. But to-day the same spirit is 
abroad among the nations of Europe. Serbs, Greeks, 
Italians, and many others, little nations and great, some 
that have lately attained national identity and some 
that have but just thrown off a hostile t}-ranny, whether 
Turkish or Austrian — are all being drawn by a con- 
sciousness of the same hope. Flence it is that the present 
war has in it nothing of diplomatic or official, but is ia 
the full sense of tiie word popular — instinctive, 
springing out of the hearts of the people. The will to 
freedom of the people against tlie will to power of the 
Prussians, that is the struggle. And the will to free- 
dom will be invincible, because it opens the wav to the 
mental and spiritual progress of mankind. Whoever, 
in these stern hours, doubts or wavers, let him reflect on 
the depths of that instinct which, by all the hopes and 
aspirations of the human heart, unites our Allies in what 
Mr. Asquith has called a family of free nations. Here 
lies the secret of a strength against which Prussian 
militarism will beat in vain. 
INNER LIGHT ON TURKEY. 
By the Editor. 
AS it so often happens, an accidental conversa- 
tion decided for Sir Edwin Pears his career. 
A young barrister, giving up most of his 
leisure to voluntary social work, he was 
dining one evening at Hampstead with the 
late Mr. F'rederic Flill, a brother of Sir Rowland Hill, 
when it was mentioned that his host had been delaved 
berause he had to e.xamine some papers regarding two 
legal appointments — one in Egypt, the other in Con- 
stantinople. Mr. Pears observed that he should liice 
such an opportunity. The Constantinople appointment 
was eventually offered to him. He accepted it provision- 
ally, went to Turkey for three months, and remained 
ne-arly tliree-and-forty yeau-s, eventually leaving it last 
November only under compulsion. 
The first incident happened in 1872. Four years later 
occurred the Bulgarian atrocities. It was Sir Edwin 
Pears's letters to the Daily Neivs that were the backbone 
of Mr, Gladstone's political campaign. These letters 
have never been forgotten, or the reputation which thev 
conferred upon the writer, and when a vear ago Turkev 
declared war, the German Ambassador at Constanti- 
nople—Baron von \\'angenheim— used them as an argu- 
ment for Sir Edwin's expulsion. On it being poinFed 
out to h.m that Sir Edwin had never criticised the 
i urkish I arty in power but had always defended it 
agamst the adherents of Abdul Ilamid, the Baron re- 
1 1 rke> in \\ estern Europe bv exposing "what were 
ca led the Moslem outrages " in Bulgaria. Al f h^ s 
o Si;",.-dwinTr ""","?^ ^^"'^^^'^" °^ refollectiL 
i, r . , , f ' ''"^"<=''' ""'^^ "'^ title Fortv Yean 
He4:;;i::;r;:4- i-^ ^een published by m;^ 
la 
The worst aspect of German influence in the Near 
East is its utter callousness to human misery and suffer- 
ing. It never stirs to prevent a massacre if'by so doing 
It risks losing the faintest shadow of prestige. It has 
been openly said that Germany, if she has not en- 
couraged, has at least countenanced the present terrible 
Armenian massacres. Not only does this saving of 
Baron von ^\'angenlieim lend 'weight to it, 'but' Sir 
Edwin Pears distinctly states that it was ahvavs left to 
Britain and France to protest against Abdul ' Hamid's 
excesses. Privately Germans expressed their loathing 
at what he did, but not even Baron jNIarschall von 
Bieberstein, for whom Sir Edwin had a sincere regard, 
would ever do anything to lose the favour of the Sultan. 
As we see now, tins is entirely in keeping with German 
polity ; fnghtfulness " is an integral part of its states- 
manship, and Germans honestly believe that it is pos- 
sible at this stage of civilisation to build a world-empire 
on the foundations of slaughter, rape, and torment. Sir 
F.dwin obsen-es in one place that " the Turkish Govern- 
ment has never known how to treat its discontented 
subjects in other ways than by means of massacre." 
.Would the German Government, freed from the re- 
straint of public opinion, do better? We doubt it 
Of the Armenians, with manv of whom he was 
brought mto close contact, Sir Edwin writes : 
Travellers have recognised for ceuturie.= tliat the Armenian 
population of Turkey, numbering about two millions, ia 
a most valuable element in the country. The people. 
Ike ourselves, belong to the Indo-European race A 
large portion of them occupy a mountainous country, 
and the men are usually stalwart and industrious. Their 
CountTy was ciyiliaed and prosperous in the time of 
Christ, aad I cannot, doubt that the general avera<r« 
