SYRIA ; ITS IMPORTANCE TO GREAT BRITAIN. 297 



to preserve the integrity of the Porte, that the time for averting its 

 impending ruin has passed away. 



The question, therefore, now, for the solution of the government 

 of this country, is what course to pursue in order to repair the blun- 

 ders of their predecessors in office (for, in justice to the present ad- 

 ministration, we must admit that the fatal errors that have marked 

 our policy in the East cannot be laid at their door) what barrier 

 their diplomatic skill is prepared to oppose to the overrunning pre- 

 ponderance which Russia would acquire when mistress of Constan- 

 tinople. We will not dwell upon the prodigious and rapid develop- 

 ment which those mighty resources, which, for centuries past, have 

 slumbered beneath the shade of Turkish, sloth and ignorance, would 

 then receive from this gigantic power. This has been repeated 

 usque ad nauseum, if, indeed, a subject of such vital importance to 

 the maritime supremacy of Great Britain, nay to her existence as a 

 nation, can engender such a feeling. But we shall endeavour to 

 point out to our readers all the advantages which this central position 

 on the globe would afford her for attempting the conquest of British 

 India, that long-cherished project of Muscovite ambition, by moving 

 troops by the line of the Euphrates to the head of the Persian Gulf. 

 Although, from the gigantic length of the Jine of operations, we, as 

 tacticians, look upon an overland expedition to India as a military 

 chimera ; still we are forced to allow, that the line of the Euphrates 

 presents far less insurmountable obstacles than that from the Caspian, 

 through Bockara to Attock ; or, again, to the tracts followed by 

 Alexander and Nadir Shah, through Persia. The free navigation 

 of the Euphrates, with the command of the inexhaustible forests of 

 Mount Taurus, would enable the Russian autocrat to float down his 

 barbarian legions upon rafts (as Alexander and Trajan did before 

 him) to Bussorah, a city only eight days' sail from Bombay, and the 

 vulnerable point of our Indian empire. That the onward roll of the 

 Russian avalanche would here be effectually stopped by a British 

 squadron, we doubt not; but, while the propinquity of a large Rus- 

 sian force upon the minds of the native population of India is to be 

 dreaded, the ruinous expense of checking even a mere demonstration, 

 if often repeated, would soon render the possession of our Indian 

 empire an onerous burden to this country. If these views be correct, 

 the necessity of erecting an imposing barrier to Russian aggression 

 will be readily admitjtejd ; and this barrier, a single glance at the 

 map will convince, isTO be found in Syria. In fact, the strategic 

 importance of this country communicating, as it does, with the Me- 

 diterranean on one side, by a long line of bold coast, studded with 

 commodious harbours, and roadsteads, and consequently easily acces- 

 sible to our fleets ; and extending, on the other, parallel to the line of 

 march of the invading army will be understood by the most unmili- 

 tary reader. On debouching from Bir, on the north-eastern Syrian 

 frontier, the right wing of the Russian army would be constantly en 

 Vair ; the difficulty of preserving the line of communication to their 

 rear would increase with every march, till, cut off from their base, 

 their destruction would be as inevitable and as signal as that which 



