RUSSIA AND TURKEY. 23 



strongly reinforced, notwithstanding the dreadful famine by which 

 they have been devastated. Since that period, the greatest activity 

 has prevailed in the ports of the Black Sea. Since that period, she 

 has haughtily refused to modify that article, in her recent treaty with 

 the Porte, which closes the Dardanelles to ships of war of every power 

 but her own ; and now we hear of a mighty armament on the point 

 of sailing from Sebastopol, on the object of which there cannot be 

 two opinions. 



But blinded as Austria is to her true interests, we are happy to 

 perceive that the governments of England and of France are at length 

 aroused to a sense of the impending danger. 



The preparations now making at our outports, and likewise at 

 Toulon, plainly indicate that the best understanding subsists between 

 the cabinets of the two countries. In fact, from the magnitude of the 

 expedition now fitting out at Toulon, and the number of the land 

 forces, it is ridiculous to suppose it intended for the conquest of the 

 beyship of Constantine its real destination is the East its object, to 

 preserve the present political system of Europe from being com- 

 pletely reorganized to the sole profit of the Emperor Nicholas. 



What direction affairs may ultimately take it is difficult to predict, 

 but that the combined squadrons will find the forts of the Darda- 

 nelles in the possession of the Russians is an event for which we are 

 prepared. If the Sultan Mahmoud, blind to the history of the past, 

 forgetful of the fate of Poland, should still obstinately persist in 

 clinging to his treacherous ally, there will then only remain one 

 course of policy for England and France to pursue, viz. to support 

 the Pacha of Egypt. This was the course of policy we advocated 

 months ago; to maintain the Sultan any longer on the throne, 

 creature as he now is of Russia, would only be to hasten the dissolu- 

 tion of the empire. Such was our prophecy, and one which the 

 course of events has too fatally confirmed : the time has now gone by 

 for saving both the Sultan and the empire. In the event of a 

 struggle, and such a contingency appears to us inevitable, the 

 Egyptian Viceroy will be a powerful element, to neglect which 

 would be to court destruction. If regeneration be possible in Turkey 

 if an effectual barrier is to be opposed to the designs of Russia it 

 is to Mehemet Ali and his son Ibrahim that we must look for one 

 and the other. There is also another point which ought not to be 

 overlooked in their political combinations, and this is Greece that 

 Greece, delivered over by our blundering policy to the despotic 

 powers of the Continent, and which in the present state of the Otto- 

 man empire assumes a new aspect. Connected as she now is with 

 the great interests of the balance of power, and at a moment when 

 we behold Russia assuming the protectorate, and defying Europe, 

 the importance of Greece as a point d'appui, is of the first magnitude, 

 and one that we trust will not be lost sight of by the two powers. In 

 fact, if the governments of England and France be only inspired 

 with a straight- for ward and manly confidence in each other's good 

 faith, and do but skilfully use the means, both military and political, 

 they have at their disposal, let the storm burst when it may, we have 

 no fears for the result. Never, we admit, was the nation less pre- 



