RUSSIA, GREECE, AND THE AIL IFS. • I Adorn Street,
Adelphi, 27th Ategust 1866. Sin—After the perusal of the last letter of your correspondent "E. A. F." I come to the conclusion that he "to party giveinsperhat was meant for man- kind "; that he pleads no general issue, but only special points. In this wide world all that his Philhellenity can see is the boundary of ancient Hellas, with a dim vista of heroic beauty which he hopes may arise again and give birth to some Christian Pericles ; and in this hope, nursed by classic dreaming, be would fain -uphold a Russian despotism, for the distant contin- gency that the modern to3thology of Greece and Russia, being on a par, will induce the Northern barbarian to make Greece alone an exception to his lust of universal conquest. Not thus, but far otherwise, reasons the great heart of humanity through the many brains it quickens with its gushing tides. The logic of sehoolmen is not the logic of our nation, demonstrate they never so acutely ; and the whole fabric of nicely-poised words falls down before the heroic instinct that is as strong in England as ever it was in the palmiest days of Greece,—days whose heroes, came they again on earth, would denounce as barbarians the degenerate race ready to prostrate them- selves before a Northern Darius.
Greece may or may not rise again, just as the instincts of her people may be good or evil ; but better is it that she should sink into the earth, with no- thing left of her but ha- storied glories, than that she should rise as a satrapy of the power, not of a people but of a dynasty of autocrats, recog- nizing humanity only as their footstool, piling in heaps the corpses of their subjects for the gratification of their fancies as remorselessly as any Jenghiz or Tumour. If Greece has arrived at the condition of desiring to pass under this yoke—more hopeless than ever was the yoke of the Moslem—she will. yet have to pass through the fire for her purgation. There was a grand spectacle once when the Parguinotes dug up the bones of their ancestcrre ruid went forth from their homes to avoid the Moslem 3 eke. That spectacle touched all noble men's hearts. To behold such ,men under the stick and knout of a Ruffian drill-sergeant, by their own 'elation sinking to the rank of voluntary slaves; would excite our indignation rather than our pity.
The English nation does not enter into small questions or discussions. It sees clearly Enough that there are two antagonistic principles at work in the
world i'the one, sacrificing multitudinous humanity to gratify-the arrogance of the individual, making a world of slaves for the pleasure of a tyrant ; the other, cultivating all the higher and nobler attributes of humanity in every phase and-race,-and tending to elevate all mankind to their -extreme possi- ble standard and condition. The English nation beholds in Russia the in- carnation of the evil principle, the type and fountain-bead—the Satan—on which the lesser Molochs fashion their conduct. And therefore do they sympathize with all people, whether-Poles, Hungarians, or Italians, striving to break forth from the deadly meshes of despotism. They do not, believe that their own is the best of all possible governments either here or in the United States; but they believe that their Government is based on the elements of progress, permitting most individuals to rise in the scale of humanity according to their several faculties. And therefore do they take their stand by the side of their Government, in deadly opposition, not to the people, but to the Government of Russia, and all Government& %empathizing with her; and I believe that nine-tenths of the English na- tion are firmly bent, at whatever cost, on the destruction of the Russian em- pire as at present constituted—on utterly disabling it from aggression, and making it a scoff and a byword amongst the barbaroub nations it has tram- pled an for purposes more barbarous still. And only thus, by striking at their head and leader, and hurling down his front of braes to the level of Ida feet of clay, can the Continental despotisms be made, to bow to their peoples' real welfare.
Our ally France is not—emphatically not—a despotism. She has elected a Dictator, as we have done ere now ; but if the aim of that Dictator were ever to become mere personal aggrandizement agart from the general wel- fare of the community, his would not be a sitting in permanence. Wrongs he may have committed, and wrongs he may Continue to commit, but lie must not wrong the nation generally. In our own Government, do we not hear of private wrongs done continually ? but when a great wrong is.per- petrated touching on the national sense—when. martyrs are made—then comes the day of redress. We will not complain of the endurance of a war which has alliedlo us France and Piedmont—which stretches a federal alliance from Orkney to Sardinia, the precursor of more stars to range under the same banner. We shall have ere we finish a federation of free nations, to dictate to the despots how their peoples shall be let loose as they grow to possess the qualities d.t freemen. Such a federation will ultimately put down war, will abolish ens= tomhouses and passports,* and bring to pees the social and domestic as welt as the political alliance of the foremost nations of Europe.
• By the abolition of "customhouses" I mean that of the dens in which travellers are imprisoned, till their persons are, not very decently," examined, on both aides the Channel, to discover if they have any lace, jewellery, Or other small wares, about them. Taming about this change, Henry Cole is wisely woi king at_the Paris Ea. hibition ; showing the French people how cheaply they can obtain useful commodi- ties if not impeded by the customhouse. The' purpose of the cusiomhouse is to -obtain revenue. There-are objects from which it .can be obtained ninth people cannot smuggle, others from which it cannot be obtained because people can smuggle. There needs no customhouse, only a bureau, at 'which merchants can make a declaration of ships, cargoes, or railway goods-trains, containing bulky articles on which duty is leviable at a moderate percentage. Take the merchant's§ word and manifest as that of a gentleman; and if he be base enough to-lieor cheat, confiscate his property, and there an end. It would rarely be -needed. -If Louis Napoleon be wise enough to knock down the demon, .and pension off the passport- oflicemen,and put a moderate duty on iron, he wilt surround his government with a host of English guarantees more powerful than armies.
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