If the Czar is not bent upon threatening Europe, he
is cer- tainly bent upon alarming it. Last week he declared in a General Order that circumstances might require him to defend the "dignity" of his Empire by arms, and this week (May 25th) he has allowed the Mayor of Moscow to address him in the
following extraordinary terms The representatives of the old capital of the Empire most humbly request you, Autocrat and Emperor, to accept our bread and salt and the expression of our love, and to be assured of our joy in seeing you, the Czarina, and the Czarewitch. You come to us from that blest South, where you have restored life to the Black Sea. Our hope gains wings, and strength is imparted to our belief that the Cross of Christ will shine upon St. Sophia. So thinks Moscow, and in this hope remains steadfast." No address of the kind could have been presented unless it had been previously submitted, and in accepting, the Czar virtually endorses it. It contains a direct menace to Turkey, and, like the increase to the fleet, the march of troops southward, and the recent General Order, must be intended to warn the Sultan that his favour to the Prince of Bulgaria has brought Russian patience nearly to an end. Foiled at Sophia, the Russian Government endeavours to achieve its ends in Bulgaria by alarming Constantinople, and so inducing the Sultan to prohibit the final union of Bulgaria with East Roumelia, to which the joint Parliament of the Provinces is inclined.
