Should he really be true to his word, and try to bring Kurds and Arnauts to justice, in defence of Christians, his army would revolt, and his subjects would depose him in an hour--and deposition would mean death! It needs all his inherited craft and cunning to keep his head upon his shoulders at the best of times. And the talk of reforms in the Ottoman Empire is an idle and diplomatic fiction. The last stage is reached. The question is whether this Empire, reeking with crimes, red-handed from the blood of Christians in Armenia, a scourge in the past, and an offence to the moral sense of humanity in the present,--shall be permitted longer to exist? Shall I tell you how this question is being answered to-day? I am ashamed to write it! Six Christian Powers, after exhausting the resources of diplomacy, are bombarding Christians in Crete in defence of "the Integrity of the Ottoman Empire"! MARY PLATT PARMELE. Copyrighted 1897, By WILLIAM BEVERLEY HARISON.