when a Pan-Islam movement began. The results of this revival were
far-reaching, being felt even among the hill tribes on the Afghan-Punjab
border (see Chapter XIV.). Throughout the Ottoman Empire the Mohammedans
began to assert their superiority over Christians; and, as Professor
Ramsay has observed, "the means whereby Turkish power is restored is
always the same--massacre[183]."

[Footnote 183: _Impressions of Turkey_, by W.M. Ramsay, p. 139.]

It would be premature to inquire which of the European Powers must be
held chiefly responsible for the toleration of the hideous massacres of
the Armenians in 1896-97, and the atrocious misgovernment of Macedonia,
by the Turks. All the Great Powers who signed the Berlin Treaty are
guilty; and, as has been stated above, the State which framed the Cyprus
Convention is doubly guilty, so far as concerns the events in Armenia. A
grave share of responsibility also rests with those who succeeded in
handing back a large part of Macedonia to the Turks. But the writer who
in the future undertakes to tell the story of the decline of European
morality at the close of the nineteenth century, and the growth of
cynicism and selfishness, will probably pass still severer censures on
the Emperors of Germany and Russia, who, with the unequalled influence
which they wielded over the Porte, might have intervened with effect to
screen their co-religionists from unutterable wrongs, and yet, as far as
is known, raised not a finger on their behalf. The Treaty of Berlin,
which might have inaugurated an era of good government throughout the
whole of Turkey if the Powers had been true to their trust, will be
cited as damning evidence in the account of the greatest betrayal of a
trust which Modern History records.

* * * * *

NOTE.--For the efforts made by the British Government on behalf of the
Armenians, the reader should consult the last chapter of Mr. James
Bryce's book, _Transcaucasia and Mount Ararat_ (new edition, 1896).
Further information may be expected in the _Life of Earl Granville_,
soon to appear, from the pen of Lord Edmund Fitzmaurice.

CHAPTER X

THE MAKING OF BULGARIA

"If you can help to build up these peoples into a bulwark of
independent States and thus screen the 'sick man' from the
fury of the northern blast, for God's sake do it."--SIR R.
MORIER to SIR W. WHITE, _December 27, 1885_.

The failure which attended the