RUSSIA AND TURKEY. 21 



when the reasonable moment for seizing Constantinople shall have 

 arrived., the Emperor Nicholas will not hesitate to unsheath the 

 sword, and tempt the untried chance of war, the object of which will 

 be to secure a position that will put it out of the power of this or 

 any other country to trouble the internal tranquillity of his empire by 

 damming up the outlets of its commerce. It will be needless here to 

 review the past, and to point out by what means Russia has, during 

 the course of the last half century, been advancing towards the con- 

 summation of her darling projects. When the victorious Potemkin, to 

 flatter his imperial mistress, placed over the western gate of Cherson 

 the inscription, " This is the road to Constantinople," it sufficiently 

 indicated those ulterior views which the blind fatuity of the other 

 powers of Europe, and a concatenation of favourable circumstances, 

 have so accelerated in their development, that they have constantly 

 advanced even when appearing to recede. The once formidable Ot- 

 toman now lies prostrate at the feet of her crafty rival, like a lion in 

 the toils of the hunter. In his hour of need the unfortunate sultan 

 applied to this country for assistance ; for, without ever having 

 studied Montesquieu, it required no great effort of intellect to per- 

 ceive the interest England has in the preservation of his empire. 

 His application was refused, and what was the consequence ? Why, 

 surrounded by ignorant and corrupt councillors, deprived of the ad- 

 vice of a single man of honesty or talent, exposed to the deadly hatred 

 of a people with whose prejudices and customs he has so wantonly 

 sported, troubled by unceasing revolts, with a disorganized army, 

 without a single principle of reorganization in its ranks, with a navy 

 undeserving the name, with a victorious Egyptian army within sixty 

 leagues of his capital, the Sultan Mahmoud, to preserve at once his 

 throne and his life, had but one alternative left that of throwing him- 

 self into the arms of his hereditary foes, the Russians. When the fu- 

 ture historian shall review our policy towards Turkey from the " un- 

 toward event" of Navarino down to the present moment when, in a 

 nation so proverbially alive to her own interests, he beholds such a 

 blind fatuity, such monstrous disregard of the simplest suggestions of 

 prudence, well may he exclaim, 



" Quam Jupiter vult perdere priusquam dementat ;" 



for never was there an occasion for so appropriate an application of 

 of the adage. How miserably, in fact, does it contrast with that of 

 Russia, which, with consummate skill and sagacity, has availed itself 

 of every circumstance that could accelerate her gigantic views of politi- 

 cal aggrandizement ! 



When the elder branch of the Bourbons were hurled from the 

 throne of France by the political earthquake in 1830, the cabinet of 

 St Petersburg!! immediately perceived the favourable opportunity that 

 event would afford her for consummating those designs of grasping 

 ambition which have become her hereditary policy. Hence her ap- 

 parent eagerness to rush into a crusade against the liberals of the age. 

 Not that it would matter a whit to Russia for what principles the 

 sword were unsheathed, provided only that the flames of war were 

 once kindled. But a war of principles, above all others, would, just 



