RUSSIAN INTERVENTION. 337 



Katherine conceived the plan of the destruction of the Mahomedan 

 empire in Europe. It has since been enshrined in the portfeuille of 

 the Minister of Foreign Affairs, as the dicta of unerring wisdom, and 

 has become the patent policy of the state. In order to realize this 

 gigantic project, Russian diplomacy examined, with a skilful eye, the 

 position of Turkey. She discovered that the European portion 

 (Roumelia) contained only three millions of Musselmen, disseminated 

 among nine millions of Christians of different races, but belonging 

 all of them to the Russian Church. She therefore conceived the 

 plan of attacking Turkey on her European side, and to leave provi- 

 sionally untouched Anatolia, or the Asiatic provinces, as a point of 

 retreat to the Roumeliate Turks. 



Thus, if we give but a glance at the history of the last half cen- 

 tury, we behold Turkey gradually losing ground on the European side, 

 by either entire cessions of provinces, or by placing them under the 

 protectorate of Russia, until such time as she found some specious 

 pretext for incorporating them to her empire. Such has been the 

 fate of the Krimea, of Bessarabia, of Servia, and now ofWallachia 

 and Moldavia. For it is futile to suppose that it is ever the intention 

 of the Autocrat to restore these fine provinces to the Porte, the pos- 

 session of which gives him, moreover, the whole line of the Danube, 

 from Bredin to Mangolia. 



In the north, Russia has created three governments, as devoted to 

 her as they are hostile to the Porte. Wallachia, Moldavia, and Ser- 

 via, are attached to Russia by the double ties of gratitude and reli- 

 gion ; while the orthodox Bulgarians and Bosnians will find in her a 

 sure asylum against the persecutions of the Mahometans. 



In the south, Greece is slowly rising from her ruins, and opens her 

 fertile and free territory to the Greek Raiahs of the Sultan, while her 

 gallant navy has once already threatened Constantinople itself. 



In the east, again, Mount Athos, covered with Greek monasteries, 

 sends forth to all parts of the Turkish empire, her monks to beg, and 

 to spread among her fanaticized population the prophecies invented 

 by Russian diplomacy, and skilfully attributed to the prophet Aga- 

 tangelos. They announce that a yellow-haired race will drive the 

 Turks into Asia. The Greeks firmly believe these predictions ; the 

 more so, as some old Mahomedan traditions confirm these prophecies; 

 and the gate at Constantinople, through which the victorious Russian 

 army will enter the Ottoman capital, has been already pointed out by 

 Turkish predestination. 



On the west there is a wide field for Russian machinations, in case 

 of need. The land of Scander-beg, the warlike Albania, that Turk- 

 ish terra incognita, embarrasses the Grand Seignior, by the continual 

 insurrections of its warlike population, and who are ready at any time 

 to sell their services to Russia. In short, the whole Turkish popu- 

 lation, from Lyctria to Salonica, and from Gallipoli unto Prevessa, 

 is demoralizing. So convinced are they, by fatal experience, of the 

 disastrous consequences of a war with Russia, that they would offer 

 no resistance, were even a Russian army to present itself on their 

 frontiers ; while the reforming projects of the Sultan, by violating 

 the fanatical prejudices of his people, and, in some instances, the fun- 



M. M. No. 87. 2 N 



