"LIVING GREECE" ONCE MORE!'
11th October 1863.
Sen—Out of the shells and husks of the Turco-Russ question there has at length fallen .a kernel. The perception, has arisen, and gains ground in the public mind, that while it is a good. thing to impede the barbarous will of a Russian despot, it is also important to prevent the barbarous element from increasing in Turkey itself. In short, the intelligent and liberal mind of Europe, while it inwardly exclaims, "A plague of both your houses!" holds to Turkey chiefly because it is the least mischievous, and the least likely to be permanent, of the two despotisms. In many quarters there is a call fora Greek empire, without any clear perception how it is to be brought about, in order to restore the "balance of power." But power cannot exist without union, and it is hardly likely that the European Powers would permit the Greeks to elect an emperor; nor is it likely that the Greeks would be very unanimous in their choice, if the power were given them to choose. Whoever reigned would have to be maintained in power by the nations of Eu- rope banded against Russia, so long as Russia shall last,—for it does not fol- low that Russia will last for everts gigantic empire to be wielded by a despot. Even in Russia there are indications of a desire for freedom of opinion and action; and the empire, grown unwieldy, may break in pieces like that of Alexander of Macedon, by quarrels amongst the aftercoming of Nicholas.
If some power must be maintained in Turkey by external aid, why not
the existing ruler, changing his Eastern title of Sultan into the Western one of Emperor ? It would not be a difficult thing to prove, if desirable, (more hereldice) that the present Sultan is descended in a right line from one of the daughters of the last Palseologus; and possibly he might be willing to conform to the Christianity, even though idolatrous, of eleven millions of his subjects, coupled with an European throne, in preference to the barba- rous pnvileges of the mosque and a multitudinous hareem, as the leader of tented Turcomans in Asiatic wilds, and with a rabble of four millions of
Mahomedan outcasts to provide for. It will not do for Europe to maintain Turkey in Europe as an Eastern Al-
Retie for the broken followers of Mohammed to come gipsying in. The Paradise of the West is too precious a land to be left in the Wilderness, after rescuing it from the Northern ogre ; and it' is full time to show that it is a possible thing for the best regions of earth to produce a growth of men equal to the soil and climate on and in which they dwell.
If the Sultan be willing to conform to the feelings and opinions of the eleven millions—the large majority of his subjects—this would have the ef- fect at one blow of checkmating the Russian Emperor. A Christian empire of Greece, backed by all Europe, would be more than a match for a Christian Emperor of Russia backed by 'barbarians. The only question then remaining would be, how to deal with the four millions of Mahomedan subjects who might be unruly. This does not seem very difficult. A Turkish Sultan alone dealt with the Janissaries, who would not be at peace and would not submit to pardon; and a Christian Emperor, backed by Europe's power, might quietly say, " Go in peace, or remain in peace, and the unruly shall be driven out amongst the hordes from which they sprang." But there must not be double-dealing. The Turks must not be conquered,
like the Moriscoes of Spain, to be plundered and driven out after capitula- tion. No ill-usage of prostrate Turks by revengeful Greeks. Europe must look to that. The modern Greeks must be left in the track of their in- stincts, buying and selling, with all possible chances of rising to the con- dition of the Greeks who lived in the time of Pericles, with Christianity superadded ; a real Christianity, gradually outgrowing its superstitious name-
It would be well to make of Constantinople - a city of refuge for the op- pressed of many lands. Poles, Hungarians, Austrians, Italians, and French- men, might there congregate, and join their differing elements in a new cos- mopolitan city ; a stronghold of progress on the very edge of barbarism, gradually colonizing the seats of ancient power, and reducing them to civil- ization. A phalanx of modern Yarangians might grow up, not to guard an imbecile emperor, but a fresh-springing empire. The keels of the far North, again swarming as of old between Calpe and Abyla, might bring fresh hordes of colonists—but this time colonists of peace ; and the fair skins of Norway and Denmark and Sweden, mingling with the darker races of modern Greece, would produce again those marvellous types of human beauty that have been recorded and handed down in books of stone.
We have in California an example of what a mere confluence of men of all ranks, classes' and nations can do, in making law and order grow out of chaos in the distant wilderness. It would be a greater marvel to behold what would grow upon the site of old Byzantium, with the best and most energetic blood of Europe garnered together, with the commerce of the Old World gathered around them, and with Europe standing by, that none might do them harm while springing up in their phcenix growth. All the arts of Europe would take root and flourish as by magic ; swamps and marshes would be drained ; huts of wood would disappear, and dwellings of stone would take their places. Certainty in the usufruct would make sure the planting. The tide of civilization would be rolled back on Russia, and her power for mischief withered, and ber power for good called forth. The transit up the Rhine and down the Danube would become a safe and healthy pleasure-trip, and the European world might gradually cease to be a battle- ground for opposing interests. The antagonisms of nations may help to bring about this desirable "con- clusion ; but it can only be by the determination to overpower brute force by more intelligent human force. The powers of nature, nursed and trained to human uses in the grasp of those who have grown great by freedom, will for ever forbid, the retrogression of humanity. England, the Atlantic Union, Canada and the other Provinces, Australia and the Ocean Islands, India, the Cape, Sweden, Denmark and Norway, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Switzer- land, and France, possess the instincts of freedom too strongly to fail to range themselves in battle line whenever the necessity shall come ; a necessity that will not come, by reason of those very attributes. And they who speak only with an English tongue are even now more than a match for all the
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