Mr. Bell on the growing power of Russia. 337 
the bulwark of the Balkan scaled by her conquering legions, can 
we hesitate one moment in believing that Russia will avail herself 
of the advantage, and seize the City of the Seven Hills ? And what 
power can interpose now to prevent the final catastrophe of the 
Othman power, and the consummation of Russian triumph? The 
provinces north of the Danube are now in her possession, and will 
remain so. Servia is now but in name subject to the Porte ; and 
the new republic, or whatever we may choose to denominate it, of 
Greece, is now established, and we may be sure will extend its in- 
fluence and its boundaries northward, in spite of the sultan, protect- 
ed as it is, and will be, by Great Britain, France, and Russia. A 
tribute no doubt to the sultan is established in the protocol ; but 
We are sure that in present circumstances the Greeks cannot pay 
it, and we are as sure that Russia will take. special care that not 
one shilling of it shall ever be paid, and that the sultan, with Rus- 
sia in his frunt, will never dare to enforce it. 
The successful issue of the Greek contest, will stimulate the re- 
maining Greek population of Northern Thessaly and Macedonia, 
in like manner, to assert their independence, and hoist the standard 
of rebellion against their Mussulman lords ; and if we may judge 
from the past, there can be no reasonable doubt as to the issue. 
Russia has now completely gained her point in the independence 
of Greece. As far back as 1737, agents were dispatched by Mar- 
shal Munich, that bold and vigorous Russian general, to stir up the 
Greeks to rebel, and thus weaken the Turks, by producing a di- 
version in favour of Russia. ‘The same scheme was attempted by 
the presence of a Russian fleet off the Morea in 1770 ; and though 
it finally proved disastrous to the unhappy Moriots, it was of vast 
advantage to Russia in that contest. We are perfectly certain that 
the late revolt, which has now ended in Greek independence, was 
effected by Russian agency ; and no where can the Machiavelian 
‘maxim, which, by the way, is much older than Machiavel, of Di- 
vide et impera, be more successfully applied than to the heteroge- 
neous, discordant mass which constitutes the population of the Ot- 
‘toman empire. Whilst the contest lingered, Russia cunningly and 
cautiously stood aloof, surveying with pleasure the work of her own 
‘hands, whilst the unfortunate sultan was wasting his strength and 
‘resources in the struggle. Never was the imbecility of Turkey so 
clearly manifested as in that contest of six years ; and when the 
die was cast by the decisive battle of Navarin, Greek independence 
secured, and the whole Turkish marine destroyed, Russia seized 
‘the felicitous moment, marched her armies to the Pruth, and de- 
elared war against a baffled, worn out, and completely disabled foe, 
-—a foe whom, to oblige the Russians, we had shorn of his strength, 
and prepared as a victim to be offered up at the shrine of Russian 
ambition. We have of late viewed with a jealous eye the progress of 
“Russian power, and anxiously hoped that Turkey would for once 
“be successful in the contest with its mighty rival. That the Rus- 
> VOL. I. 2u 
