RUSSIANS, TURKS, GREEKS, SLAVES, AND DANES.

Stn—The first leading article in your last number makes one almost ashamed to utter the words "Eastern question" and the like, till one hears authentic and uncontradicted information, either that the Grand Turk has taken refuge in the ancestral deserts of Tartary, or that the Cross has yielded to the Crescent upon the domes of the Kremlin as well as upon that of St. Sophia. Nevertheless, the habit of communicating to you the result of my cogitations upon all public matters has grown upon me to such an extent, that even at this time of day I cannot help asking permission to discuss in your pages what an old Worcestershire ballad, of which I have unluckily forgotten the rest, used to speak of as

"The Russians and the Turks, With their Babylonish works."

The fact is, that I have been pondering upon the matter duriog the whole summer, and it is only lately that I have arrived at any definite conclusion : perhaps, when you hear it, you will say that it is not a very definite conclu- sion after all. I sat down to the question with an impartial, though I will not say an unprejudiced, frame of mind ; that is to say, I sat down with a very strong prejudice against both parties. In the Turk I am oldfashioned enough to see the ancient enemy of the religion and civilization of Europe ; I am still haunted by dreams of the barbarian on the throne of the Ctesars, and the in- fidel within the most glorious of Christian temples. But in the Russian I can recognize with the rest of the world the embodiment of modern central- ized despotism, the foe alike of political and civil liberty, the despoiler of Poland and Sweden, the abettor of Austria, the general enemy of all which my political notions teach me most warmly to reverence. I am willing to say Amen to the old prayer which craves for deliverance alike "from Pope and Turk," and would, if the metre would allow, willingly add the Czar as the third in the same worshipful company. The actual conclusion to which I have gradually come is much the same as that of other people,—namely, that in the present struggle the Porte ought to be supported against Russia but I can hardly say that the process by which I have come to it is the same as that of Lord Dudley Stuart, or even of writers for whom I have a greater reaped. I cannot get up any enthu-

Mum for the Turks ; I cannot believe in" the integrity and independence of the Ottoman empire " as something desirable for its own sake ; but I-Will freely confess that, weighing together the Sultan and the Czar, the former seems to me the lesser evil of the two. The first aspect, and I think essentially the true one, of the presence of the Turks in Europe, is this. East and West have now for 'twenty-four cen- turies been irreconcileably Opposed to each other: if we believe the early chapters of iferodotus, we must extend the period somewhat longer. Greek and Persian, -Roman and Parthian, Frank and Saracen, Goth and Moor, Venetian and Ottoman, have in successive ages been the foremost champions of this great strife. Miltiades, Alexander Heraclius, Ximisces, Godfrey, Roy Diaz, and Don John on the one side, Alexander, Mithridates, Soper, Omar, Tank, Saladin, and Mahomet, on the other, have successively extended the limits of the East to the shores of the Atlantic or made the Hydaspes the boundary of the civilization of the West. The political life and development of the West have continued their gradually advancing course from Theseus to Gladstone ; the relation of Eastern slave and Eastern despot is as un- touched under Abdul-bledjid as it was under Nabuchodonosor. Each has received vigour and unity from the teaching of a new religion : Christianity binds together, in theory at least, the various members of the Western com- monwealth; Islam has given a truer life and a greater moral dignity to the old colossus of Eastern despotism. The two systems can never be recon- ciled; each must perpetually win at the expense of the other. The Captain- General of Greece once occupied the throne of the Great King ; the repre- sentative of the Prophet is now installed on the seat of Constantine and Jus- tinian. Prima facie, whoever can expel him thence is but carrying out the old battle for civilization and Christianity. The only question is as to the time, the way, and the person. I will here bring in a parallel, which, to those who do not look upon history as an old almanack„ must, I think, appear a tolerably striking one. As the accusation of "friendship for the Turk" was formerly brought against Queen Elizabeth, and is, doubtless, in the courtly circles of St. Petersburg, now brought equally against Queen Victoria, so that of "friendship for the Persian" was brought of old against the greatest statesman of ancient or modern times. In the days of Demosthenes, the time seemed come for Greece to revenge her old quarrel against the barbarian, and to rescue her Asiatic fellow countrymen from his yoke. Idacedotha had just been recog- nized as a Grecian state, and stood forth to demonstrate its newly-acquired Hellenic character by acting as the leader of the crusade. Her king was a youthful prince of the line of Hercules and Achilles ; soon to prove himself the ideal hero, the greatest of watriors, the noblest of conquerors. Sparta was called on to avenge the slaughter of Thermopyla3, Athens to wreak on the altars of Ormuzd a tardy vengeance for insults offered to-the temples of Athena. So now the parallel is complete, except that Nicholas is hardly to be set against the immortal Macedonian. The newest, and at the same time the most formidable member of the European system, appears as the champion of Christianity against its old enemy, to avenge the old wrongs of Europe, and to deliver our brethren from itfidel and barbarian bondage. If Nicholas be less sincere than Alexander, the'mass of the Russian peoplenre doubtless far more so than the faintly Hellenized soldiers who followed his standard. But the clear-seeing statesman discerns the blind in both eases. Demosthenes had no love for the sway of the Great King ; he had no theory about the "integrity and independence of the Persian empire "; he had no wish to retain Miletue and Ephesus in bondage : but he saw that to substi- tute Macedonian for Persian supremacy wouldbe to endanger the liberty of Greeks in Europe, while offering a very doubtful benefit to the Greeks of Asia. So in our own ease we see Mr. Gladstone, not professing that abstract love for Mahometan supremacy which really seems to actuate no small amount of our writers and talkers just at present,Tecognizing, the' anomaly of supporting an infidel sovereignty over our fellow Christians, yet recognizing also that, under existing circumstances, the infidel must be supported against his Christian invader. The parallel is exact : the Greeks of Asia in the one case, the Greeks of Europe in the other, should be rescued from their barbarian rulers, if it can be done consistently with the faith of treaties and the general interests of the world. But to force the growth of freedom by the sword of Macedon or Muscovy, is only to overshadow it by a stronger and a more enduring despotism. The foe of Macedonian encroachment is acci- dentally the friend of Persian domination ; the foe of Russian encroachment is no less accidentally the supporter of the dominion of the Creseent over six millions of our Eastern brethren.

I said that I could not share the pro-Turkish enthusiasm which seems just now to be fashionable. Mr. Cobden, with all his nonsense, has here hit a blot. It is very strange that declaimers against despots and aristocrats should be so deeply enamoured of the sway of a despot and a caste. The Grand Turk may not be so bad a despot as the Grand Muscovite, but he is but a despot after all ; the "oppressed nationality" of the Greek or the Bulgarian makes surely as good a cry as that of the Pole, the Italian, or the Magyar. The Turkish conquest of Romania differs from any territorial conquest in Western Europe in this—that, so to speak, the process of con- quest exists still. In other cases conquest becomes legitimated at a com- paratively early period by the fusion of the two races. A century and a half after the Norman conquest of England, the Norman baron had become the champion of English liberty; half a century later, a Prince whose name recalled the old Saxon dynasty was carrying out the policy of the old Saxon Kings. So in earlier times, Rome brought within the pale or her laws and language alike the nations whom she conquered and those who outwardly conquered her. But five hundred years since the Ottoman first set foot in Europe, four hundred since be has possessed the metropolis of Christendom, have not made the Turk a Greek, or the Greek a Turk. The Ottomans are still only " encamped " in Europe ; they still remain, as Sir Gardiner Wil- kinson Bays, "a horde." This cannot be merely from difference in lan- guage, or from the mere insolence of conquerors. It is because they be- long to a wholly different system ; the East cannot coalesce with the West, the follower of Mehemet with the disciple of Christ. But we are told that the Turkish government is improved ; that it ie tolerant in religion, and holds out equal justice to all creeds and nations. I am far from undervaluing the good intentions of the Sultan or his ad- visers; I will willingly give them credit for conscientiously striving to es- tablish a regular government instead of the old brigandage, and to make their country worthy of meeting on equal terms with the other powers of Europe. But can they do this ? Have the able iffitesmen and diplomatists whom Turkey has produced done more than thrl3w-kethin veil of European civilization over a nation still martially Oriental And barbarous ? Do the Christian and Mahometan inhabitants of Romania regard one another as fel- low countryman ? When we speak of a Greek Christian as a "Turkish subject," do we mean that he is simply under the allegiance of the Sultan, or that his race and religion still remain under an alien bondage ? Can the Christian And Mahometan meet together, as the Anglican, the Romanist, the Dissenter, soon we must add the Jcw, can in this land, to discuss the poli- tical necessities of their common country ? Do Greek councillors ill the Divan, or non-renegade Slaves command the armies of the Sultan ? Has

Turkhh toleration—I ask this question in ignorance—extended so far that a Mahometan may embrace Christianity without his head being the forfeit ? Do Oren such reforms as are said to be accomplished extend through the whole region from the Danube to the Tigris, -or Welber conthieelktow,few■

great cities ? In short, has the Greek Of Romania anything that bij-

a national governmenç or a national sovereign ? Is ho not +still, under the domination of aliens in his own 'land ?. In the -wOrtis mY friend Bowen, " The dominion however just' and temperate, aliens enspiine;blotohdauag religion, will ever be distasteful to the great majority the Rayiih has more reason to hate the ruling caste' ?Or dim they have been than for what they now are." The yoke may have been lightened, but it

still is a yoke; the loins of Abdul-Medjid may be thinner than- the little

finger of Amurath, but the despot is still a despot, the " ruling coatis " Still a ruling caste. Mr. Bowen, Mr. Lyde, Sir 1..G. 'Wilkinson, Cluing the same report from different quarters of the Turkish empire ; even 'Dr. Layer(' in his work on Nineveh tells a very different story from Dr. ibayardr in the House of Commons.

In fact, I look with rather a jealous eye upon Turkish reformation. -I am not sure that Turkish barbariem may not be-the lesser evil of the two. g. barbarous government leaves its subjects-of another race, language, and re- ligion, pretty much to themselves; subject implies tribute, perhaps -military conscription, perhaps an occasional nazis to extort more 'than the settled contribution of men and money. But within these limits, the subjects of the Great King or the Grand Signormav liveefter their own own fashion, unde.r theirown laws and magistrates, and thusmaintain a rude sort of civil liberty, which in happier times may develop into municipality or federalism. Again, a certain toleration is essential to a true Mahometan government : the Giaour is offered " Koran, tribute, or-sword " ; if-he is. ready with the tribute, the Mos- lem violates his own law by enforcing either of the other.two, A regular cen- tralized despotism, Turkish orRussian, might put an,end to the excesses of individual Pachas or Ages, might better protect life and property, but it would stifie'the precious-sparks of freedom which still contrive to exist-under the other system. 'Make the Greek and the Tnrk 'fellow subjects, and the former may be called on to conform to the established religion of the united nation, which he cannot be in reason constrained to while he remains-essentially one of another people. Now, Russia would do all this much more surely than any Turkish go- vernment could ; consequently, I hold Russia, the pretended deliverer, to be really a worse enemy than the Mahometan oppressor. The time 'for the formation of a Christian state or states Smith of the Danube is advancing, but it has not yet'arrived ; once admit the Muscovite, and it is poetponed for ever. Thus the batbarian and infidel despot becomes accidentally the bul- wark of-civil liberty, the pathway to Christian supremacy. 'Instead of "the independence and integrity," &c., our-real watchword should be "no Rus- sian West of the Pruth '—the Dnieper would'be better -still. 'Within that limit, let us recognize whatever Government internal events may produce, but keep out all external influence. If the Grand-Turk can maintainhiniself as he is, let us continue to recognize him as he is; if Mr. Bridges Mama can transform him into an orthodox believer, let us-recognize-him the more wil- lingly in that character ; if failing that, some baptized Onirt should succeed in supplanting the circumcised Tibni, his 'rights will-be at least as ge6d-as those of Napoleon the Third - if a new Aratus or Washington can establish a great Greco-Slavic federation, I do not say of -republics, but of princes holding of an Emperor of Romania, let us recognize and defend that most of all. But be it Greek, Turk, or Slave, Sultan, E'mperor, or Republic, that we have to support, let us at all events keep out the great enemy of fteedom hi every form. Let us meddle no further; trusting to see liberty and Christi- anity some day emerge, but remembering, that, in the words of an saute eye- witness, "an attempt to precipitate" such an event "would be more ruinous to none than the Greeks themselves."*

I have thus far been arguing from the point of view of gain or loss to the

Eastetn Christians themselves. hat the balance of peter andahegeneral policy of Europe require that Russia should-advance no-further, ,and,-arbovo all things, be kept out of Constantinople Ineed not go about:to show. Mer- cantile men tell us that .Turkey is a Constantinople, -customer, andKussie a bad one. Diplomatists tell us that the Sultan is our ally, and that some treaty or other binds us to defend him. I am no diplomatist, but I can see that, having— wrongly, I hold, in the first instance—recognized the barbarian infidel as a member of the European commonwealth, we nanst keep filith aeith.hitn, bar- barian and infidel though he be. I can also see that the-religiouirprOtector- ate claimed by 'Russia over nearlyt three-fourths of the -inhabitants of European Turkey is inconsistent with the independence- of the Torte, -and widely different from that exercised by France or England •over their few scattered coreligionists.

I am therefore intellectually convinced that it is both our-interest and our duty to back up the Turk against the -Muscovite. But-I cannot love the former ; I cannot altogether hate the latter. I cannot help sympathizing, not with the Russian Czar, but with the Russian people, who must be ad- vancing in the very spirit of Godfrey and St. Lewis. I could not weep over the " reconciliation " of St. Sophia, even though the rite transferred it-to the jurisdiction of the Most Holy Governing Synod. Ode word more as to treaties. Is not our whole system Of secret techniell diplomacy a vestige of that statecraft Of a past generation which we have pretty well got rid of in internal matters ? It strikes-me that treaties are like the cobwebs Of law, which only catch the little flies. I admit that we ought to aid Turkey, but I could not do BO without a blush after having be- trayed Denmark. We cry out at the Bandana crossing the Pruth and occupy- ing Wallaehia ; we sat-still while the Prussians crossed the Ryder, and while Von Wrangel carried his brigandage not only through Schleswig but•into the heart of Jutland. It is right to defend even the-infidel and the barbarian against the faithless despot of Muscovy but we cannot forget that we tamel surrendered a kindred people, 'among the nobleet in Europe, into thobanda of the no less faithless despot of Brandenburg. Is it because-we Inive'no Russian influence At work in our court; While we ratliertvant another God wine to clear away the tribes of Saxes and Hewes which ilutteraround it? The Russian host is only commanded by Prince somebody with-an unpronounce- able name ; the sympathizers of "Echleswig-Holstein" numbered his-Serene Highness of Saxe Coburg in their ranks, and the -honour and policy Of Eng- land might be held a light matter compared with the sad necessity of bearing arms against the brother-in-law of the Sovereign. Still, to have done one wrong is no excuse for doing another; and.just now we can do no more effectual service to Denmark than by checking the ad- vance of Russia in any quarter. Support Turkeywe must, and that, ifneed be, with arms in our hands; but I wish the cause were one in 'which We might love our allies as well as hate our-enemies. If a war-do- come, it will be better that the "British grenadier" -should net share My' feelings. I could not fight with the same zealunderthe banner of the Prophet-against men proclaiming vengeance for the blood-of Constantine and the desecration of St. Sophia, as I could if I were called on to support our Northern brethren against Prussian rapacity and Coburgite impertinence or to drive batik the two-headed bird of-prey from-the cities of Zeno and SOderini. Excuse my exorbitant length : I-trust I may occupy your letterbag alone. But I feel rather like a University preather, who las to let outthe.accumu- lated wisdom or folly of years, and-must have hie full say, now or -never.

• "Ionian Islands undqr British Protection," 133-5. -1 Mr. Bowen reckons the population orEtiropein'Turkly at 6,330,000 Chrfetiana of the Greek'Church, t60,000 of the Isittin.40NOittniebitals, 400,000 TeWe, 100,000

Franks, MAO Turks, 92too0 mabomesemetatbernapee. .• = _1, ik:„1