Puget Sound Weekly Argus

PROLONGED WAR IMMINENT.

After all the peace-making—all the expense of the Berlin Congress; and all that Prince Bismarck could accomplish in the way of "pooling issues" between the Mistress of Commerce and the Colossus of the North. The Eastern question is still up, like Banquo's ghost, and grimly menacing the peace of all Europe. According to present indications this vexed question is no nearer settlement now than a year ago. Russia and England now occupy relatively about the same position to each other that they did during the fall of '77; and there appears now, more than ever, no way out of the present difficulties but through the fire and smoke of a mighty struggle, which in its course shall shake the very foundations of Europe. Beaconsfield's diplomacy, it now appears, has only served to give the two mighty antagonists a "breathing spell," which they have taken advantage of to prepare themselves for the inevitable conflict.

Russia has evidently decided that the time has come to strike, and accordingly she is leading off boldly as the aggressor.

A short time since it was announced, by telegraph, that Russia was concluding a secret treaty with Turkey, comprising to a very important extent the provisions of the San Stefano and Berlin treaties, and that this treaty would not be submitted to the powers. This set all Europe in a ferment, and aroused the jealousy of England afresh. To-day we learn, by London dispatches of the 23d inst., that Russia is determined to force this treaty on Turkey; that the most essential points in it are yet unsettled, and that she will not retreat from her present position near Constantinople, until it is settled. Her forces are, moreover, being marched rapidly southward to a point near Constantinople. The Czar has issued a ukase ordering that military furloughs shall be granted for only particularly urgent reasons, and in any case not to extend beyond February.

All this is ominous, and points directly to the conclusion that Russia has determined that the Gordian knot into which the Eastern question has been drawn, can only be separated by the sword, and that if it must come to this, the quicker the better for her. She has, it is clearly evident, as shown by a dispatch in another column, egged the Ameer on to take the stand he has, and is the direct cause of the rupture between that ruler and the English government. All this has been done for the purpose indicated.—"Tribune."