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protecting powers in the ruin of her commerce and finances. After much for bearance and much advice, abused and rejected, French and English troops now occupy the Piræus, and the neutrality Greece refused to observe she is now forced to maintain; and the brigandage she has encouraged by sea has been checked by our cruisers and those of France. In that part of Europe, then, Russia has no further chance of a useful diversion in her favour; and we may be pretty sure that, with agitation paralysed in Greece, and the Hellenic government bound to its good behaviour, the insurrection of their co-religionists in the states of the Sultan will not be of long continuance. The withdrawal of the aliment which fed it will have the effect of soon tranquillising the country; and the vigilance of our own agents, and those of France, will prevent the excesses of the Turkish authorities, which have too often occasioned and justified insurrection. What we have said with respect to Switzerland, applies with equal, and even with greater, force to Belgium. The King of the Belgians has given too many proofs of sound judgment, not to understand that the independence secured to his kingdom by France and England can only be maintained on the condition of accepting the responsibility, and frankly executing the duties, of his position. King Leopold had the good sense to abstain, at the critical moment, from entering into the coalition against France which, more than two years ago, the Emperor of Russia was forming, and into which, with the aid of his " excellent" and accommodating friend, England was expected to enter. This combination, which had a twofold object-first, the absolute predominance of Russia in Europe; and second, the restoration of the Bourbon family to the throne from which they have been driven-failed, as we have seen, notwithstanding the favourable circumstance of Lord Aberdeen's presence in the Cabinet. King Leopold must have fully comprehended the danger that would menace his dynasty by participation in such an intrigue. But his Belgian Majesty must now feel that one of his first duties is to co

operate in his own defence. It is true that treaties exist which stipulate the neutrality of Belgium in case of war. These treaties, however, are well known to have been drawn up with a view to France, in order to detach from her an ally lying so temptingly in her way; but such as they are, no one believes that they would stand a week after the first cannon-shot was fired near her frontier. If Belgium desire to be really independent, she must prove that, when the occasion comes, she is worthy of it. "If Belgium conduct herself like a woman," observed a foreign diplomatist on a recent occasion, "she must be married to some one who shall be willing and able to protect her." That marriage, we hope and believe, will not be necessary; and we are sure that, should the necessity arise, Belgium will not be found wanting.

When we come to Sweden and Denmark, the question assumes greater importance. Sweden has wrongs to avenge, and rights to recover. She has not entirely abandoned, even after a lapse of forty-six years, the hope of again possessing Finland, which was torn from her by her gi gantic neighbour. Such, however, is not the only motive which would induce the Swedish people to join the alliance against Russia; for the dangers to their existence as an independent nation in the success of that Power, afford us a better security than even the recollection of the past, and the desires and hopes which it may call forth. Sweden stands in a position similar to that of Turkey; and it is certain that, if Russia were once mistress of the Dardanelles, she would before long be supreme in the Sound. That strait also is a key to her empire, and the possession of Sweden and Denmark is quite as desirable for Northern, as that of Turkey for Southern Russia. have no doubt that the absorption of these States forms part of the vast plan of Russia, who finds in them elements for the extension of her empire by means of her maritime power. The sort of armed neutrality at first adopted by Sweden was perfectly intelligible. Until the allied fleets were completely established in

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the Baltic, it was difficult to make any movement indicative of hostility; whilst the presence of our fleet, and of a considerable force ready to act simultaneously on various points of the Russian coast, would remove all motive for hesitation, and enable Sweden to throw herself heartily into the contest against an enemy from whom she has quite as much to dread as the Sublime Porte has. But let her remember-and we have no doubt she well knows the fact that perseverance in such neutrality would not be the means of conciliating Russia, while she would hardly meet with sympathy or respect from the rest of Europe. To us, the co-operation of Sweden and Denmark would be of the greatest advantage. Their ports are admirably adapted as a base for our naval operations. Their troops would be in the theatre of operations the moment hostilities were declared; in four-and-twenty hours they would be in Finland, or in the Gulf of Bothnia. Of the active co-operation of Sweden with us, we have little doubt. The peculiarity of her position, the deep injury she has already sustained at the hands of Russia, and the annihilation of Swedish independence that would follow from the triumphant progress of that Power, appear to us a fair guarantee for her complete and active adhesion.

Whatever be the faults that have been committed with respect to second and third rate States, this is not the moment to remember them. With an aggregate population of not less than fifty millions, they do not deserve the indifference with which they have in great part been treated, nor the oblivion in which they have been left. Their weight thrown into the scale at so momentous a period as the present, must be considerable, whether we regard their territorial extent, their numerical strength, or their geographical position. It has been remarked that Cardinal Richelieu and Napoleon, no mean authorities in such matters, sedulously cultivated the alliance of secondary States; they did not neglect or despise any alliance, or any contingent, however small. At the Congress of Vienna, owing principally to the peculiarity of

the situation, a partition was made, to which the belligerents gave their assent, but in which the first-rate Powers dictated the law. That law was unfortunate for Germany, as it created rivalries which were chiefly to the advantage of Russia. The Holy Alliance, too, in which Russia played the principal part, reduced the secondary governments to a condition of tutelage, and, in fact, excluded them altogether from the European combination. The evil was, it is true, somewhat mitigated by the Quadruple Treaty, which, as we have said, was conceived in opposition to the Holy Alliance-the constitutionalism of the south against the absolutism of the north. It now becomes the duty, as it is the interest, of the great Powers to make an appeal to the secondary States, to furnish their respective contingents for the defence of the cause--a cause not of private interest, of aggrandisement, or of conquest, but of general defence. There is not a powerful sovereign or a petty prince, who values his honour, or cares to preserve his dominions-there is not a people that loves its independence, but is bound to assist in repelling the invasion of the barbarians; for the present war against Russia is a crusade of civilisation and liberty, from which none can draw back without a stigma being affixed to them for ever. He who yields to the seductions of Russia, will have sealed his fate as surely as if he were conquered by her arms; and wherever the Russian cross is planted, there servitude must be. The term of the mighty struggle in which we are engaged, we do not venture to predict; nor, should our enemy be aided by any of the governments of Europe to carry it to a successful issue, can we say for what people is reserved the gracious indulgence granted by the Cyclops to Ulysses of being devoured the last; but we are certain that we are all marked as the prey, sooner or later. The conquest of the Ottoman Empire, and the annihilation of Islamism, is not the only object of the Czar. The creeds of Western Europe are as obnoxious to him as is the Koran; and in both cases religious zeal is but the pretext for territorial

aggrandisement. The orthodox ritual is the prelude to conquest, and the mission which the Emperor of Russia believes to have received from Heaven is its propagation, without respect to any other creed or sect. Lutheranism, Calvinism, Catholicism, are equally the objects of that mission; and, unless now arrested, he will follow on in his career, until the Russian cross is planted on the dome of every Cathedral in Europe, and the entire West acknowledge his temporal and spiritnal supremacy. Panslavism with its double device, the tiara and the sceptre, is the banner unfurled to the Slavonic nations and tribes of Europe, who are summoned to rally round it, and beneath its folds is a policy the most faithless, and an ambition the most unbounded and unscrupulous, that the world has ever known. The orthodox Church of Russia, of whose powers, rights, purity of doctrine, and infallibility, the Czar is the personification, claims to be considered as the sole depository of the religious and moral truth from which all other churches have strayed, and which must one day be absorbed by her. She alone is orthodox; all others are heretical. Rome she considers as preserving the Christian principle, among those who acknowledge her spiritual supremacy, merely for the ultimate triumph of orthodoxy; and she believes that the time is fast approaching when the last of the Pontiffs shall hand over his longusurped authority to the Czar, shall avow his errors, and ask to be received into the faith from which the Latin Church has deviated. "The orthodox Church has never despaired of such a result," writes a Russian of high diplomatic rank, in a Mémoire which appeared in the Revue de Deux Mondes of January 1850. "That church waits and counts upon it, not merely with confidence, but with certainty. And why should not that which is one in principle, which is one in eternity, triumph over the disunion that has crept in by time? In spite of the separation of many ages, and in spite of human prejudices, she has not ceased to recognise that the Christian principle has not died in the Church of Rome, that it

has always been stronger in it than the errors and the passions of men; and she has the intimate conviction that it will be stronger than all its enemies. She knows, moreover, that at this moment, as for ages past, the Christian destinies of the West are still in the hands of Rome; and she confidently hopes that, in the day of the grand reconciliation, Rome will restore to her the sacred deposit intact."

Towards the close of the year 1845, the cities of Naples and Palermo were visited by the Empress of Russia, who sought in the soft and genial climate of the south the restoration of her health, which had been seriously affected at St Petersburg. Such at least was the reason assigned for the presence of the Czarina. It afforded a favourable pretext to the Emperor himself to visit Italy, and soon Europe was surprised at learning that the Emperor Nicholas, the head of the Orthodox Church, had gone to salute the Prince who claimed to be Christ's vicar on earth, and the head of the Latin Church. The event occurred not long after the story of the tortured nuns of Poland had rung all over Europe. The cause at first assigned for the journey was not credited. Compensation for past misdeeds, pardon implored at the tombs of the saints, reconciliation and union between the Eastern and Western Churches, which had been separated for centuries, were the explanations that accorded better with the popular feeling, and were more readily believed. Great were the hopes, and high the exultation, in the Eternal City. Rome put on her festal robes. The Cupola of St Peter's, encircled with its illuminated diadem, rose in light and glory to the heavens. The old castle of St Angelo, that had witnessed many high festivities, spoke out its welcome in thunder, and the bells of every tower and church in that proud city hailed the imperial stranger. Such visits had not often occurred before. When, in 452, Attila, the "Scourge of God," appeared before the walls of Rome, the Pontiff Leo presented himself alone, unprotected, and bearing aloft, as his only weapon, the cross, and summoned

the savage cohorts to retire. Six centuries later, the Emperor of the West bowed before the anger of Gregory, and expiated, in the court of the Pontifical Palace, the oppression of his Saxon subjects. But it was for no expiation, it was to make no confession of past crimes, nor was it to demand forgiveness or reconciliation, that the Emperor Nicholas now knelt beneath the dome of St Peter's. The head of the Orthodox Faith had no idea of asking pardon from any one on earth, for he deemed all on earth beneath him. He did not visit Rome to seek the spiritual or moral consecration of his power; his mission was rather to consecrate, and to receive the repentance of the Papacy. Charlemagne had been the servant and the protector of the Papacy; he bestowed much upon it, but he received more. But the orthodox Emperor of our day, who entered Rome in 1845, brought all to the Pope, without asking anything in return. He was ready to restore to him all the force which the Papacy had lost since its unhappy connection with the schis

matic West;-the holiness of Eastern tradition, uncorrupted and unaltered. His mission was to close the schism of centuries, and to bestow, out of the plenitude of his bounty, pardon and protection to the West. When the Czar prostrated himself on the cold marble before the shrines of the Apostles, in presence of a silent and astonished multitude, he was not alone in that act of humiliation; all Russia bent with him. After centuries of absence, Russia, represented by the Czar, the future head of universal Christianity, took possession of the Papacy, as the prelude of what was to follow.

The total absorption in his own person of spiritual and temporal authority all over Europe, is the fixed idea of the Czar, and for that object the fanaticism of his people has been roused to frenzy. It is for those States who value religion and political independence, and who are not prepared to see civilisation and liberty recede before the barbarians of the North, to make a united and determined stand against the enemy of all.

Printed by William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh.

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WE certainly owe an apology to our Greek ambassador. The nine hundred and ninety-ninth edition of a declamatory old play of Euripides, cut and slashed into the most newfangled propriety by some J. A. Hartung, or other critical German, with a tomahawk, is a phenomenon in the literary world that can excite no attention; but when a regularly built living Greek comes forward in the middle of this nineteenth century, exactly four hundred years after the last Byzantine chronicler had been blown into the air by our brave allies the Turks-and within the precincts of the Red Lion Court, Londonτῇ ἀυλῇ του ἐρυθρου λέοντος—puts forth a regularly built history of the Greek Revolution of 1821, thereby claiming -not without impudence, as some think-a place on our classical shelves alongside of Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon, and a great way above Diodorus Siculus, and other such retailers of venerable hearsay: this truly is an event in the Greek world that claims notice from the general reviewer even more than from the professed classical scholar. At the present mo

ment, particularly, one likes to see what a living Greek, with a pen in his hand, has to say for himself; his language and his power of utterance is an element in the great Turko-Russian question that cannot be lost sight of. Doubly welcome, therefore, is this first instalment of Mr Tricoupi's long-expected history; and as it happens opportunely that the most interesting portion of Sir A. Alison's third volume is occupied with the same theme, we eagerly seize the present opportunity at once to acquit ourselves of an old debt to our Hellenic ambassador, and to thank Sir A. Alison for the spirited, graphic, and thoroughly sympathetic style in which he has presented to the general English reader the history of a bright period of Greek history, which recent events have somewhat tended to becloud. It is not our intention on the present occasion to attempt a sketch of the strategetical movements of the Greek war, 1821-6. A criticism of these will be more opportune when Mr Tricoupi shall have finished his great work. We shall rather confine ourselves to bringing out a few salient

(1.) Σπυριδωνος Τρικουπη ἱστορία τῆς Ελληνικῆς ἐπαναστάσεως. Τόμος Α. London, 1853. (History of the Greek Revolution. By Spiridion Tricoupi, Greek Minister, London. Vol. i.)

(2.) History of Europe from the Fall of Napoleon in 1815, to the Accession of Louis Napoleon in 1852. By Sir ARCHIBALD ALISON, Bart. Vol. iii.

* The work, when completed, will, we understand, consist of four volumes octavo ; the second volume is expected to appear in a few weeks.

VOL. LXXVI.-NO. CCCCLXVI.

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