ere to be no bar to employment in any public
capacity, and all persons were to "be admitted, without distinction of
religion, to give evidence before the tribunals."

Such was the Treaty of Berlin (July 13, 1878). Viewed in its broad
outlines, it aimed at piecing together again the Turkish districts which
had been severed at San Stefano; the Bulgars and Serbs who there gained
the hope of effecting a real union of those races were now sundered once
more, the former in three divisions; while the Serbs of Servia, Bosnia,
and Montenegro were wedged apart by the intrusion of the Hapsburg Power.
Yet, imperfect though it was in several points, that treaty promised
substantial gains for the Christians of Turkey. The collapse of the
Sultan's power had been so complete, so notorious, that few persons
believed he would ever dare to disregard the mandate of the Great Powers
and his own solemn promises stated above. But no one could then foresee
the exhibition of weakness and cynicism in the policy of those Powers
towards Turkey, which disgraced the polity of Europe in the last decades
of the century. The causes that brought about that state of mental
torpor in the face of hideous massacres, and of moral weakness displayed
by sovereigns and statesmen in the midst of their millions of armed men,
will be to some extent set forth in the following chapters.

As regards the welfare of the Christians in Asia Minor, the Treaty of
Berlin assigned equal responsibilities to all the signatory Powers. But
the British Government had already laid itself under a special charge on
their behalf by the terms of the Cyprus Convention quoted above. Five
days before that treaty was signed the world heard with a gasp of
surprise that England had become practically mistress of Cyprus and
assumed some measure of responsibility for the good government of the
Christians of Asiatic Turkey. No limit of time was assigned for the
duration of the Convention, and apparently it still holds good so far as
relates to the material advantages accruing from the possession of
that island.

It is needless to say that the Cypriotes have benefited greatly by the
British administration; the value of the imports and exports nearly
doubled between 1878 and 1888. But this fact does not and cannot dispose
of the larger questions opened up as to the methods of acquisition and
of the moral responsibilities which it entailed. These at once aroused
sharp differences of opinion. Ad