A new difficulty—or rather, one of the old difficulties going
on —again calls the existence of Turkey in question. No sooner has
the Austrian Ambassador accomplished his mission of dictating to the Sublime Porte how it shall govern its pnovince of Montenegro, and departed, than a Russian diplomatist arrives, to dictate to the Sublime Porte for the fiftieth time how it shall regulate the Chris- tian monuments in its province of Syria. The awkward fact for the Sublime Porte is, that it had already pledged itself to incompatible pretensions of France as "Protector of the Holy Places." But in- deed, for more than a century it has acquiesed in the incompatible pretensions, Greek and Latin, which have been alternately forced upon it by Russia and France ; ceding to either as the amount of bullying preponderated. England having moderated France, Russia is left to have her will alone. And, seeing that Turkey grows manifestly weaker, writers in this country have argued that it could not be helped if Turkey were despatched for partition be- tween the two neighbouring empires, Russia and Austria—her "heirs," as they are called in Vienna. Predestination is a Mussul- man doctrine, and it has gained ground considerably in England.
