243 IS THE CONTINENT TO BECOME TARTAR "Russ or Turk-the one's as good as t'other."-Don Juan. It certainly is a very convenient process, to discuss sub-jects by ignoring facts; but suppression is, in this discussion, only the auxiliary to perversion, contradiction, and unblushing falsehood. All this is very easy. "What is dark is deep," says Swift; "stir a puddle, and it is as deep as a well." A monkey and a toad might compose in this fashion, the articles of the Times, for the one can ravel a skein, and the other muddle a fountain. The following passage contains the drift of to-day's argument in the False Witness: "By this extraordinary infusion of barbarian blood, Turkey is rapidly acquiring the character which she possessed four hundred years since; and it is but too probable that the next mail may inform us of the actual resort to arms. Of course it is; and this was said as a warning to Austria at the period of her demand for the extradition of the Hungarian refugees. It was then told her, that with the warlike qualities and the military organisation of the Ottoman Empire, to present Austria united with Russia, would have the effect of developing in Turkey a terrible power, of which she would be ultimately the victim. What were the consequences which then ensued? Europe, of course, expected Turkey's prostration before two such empires. She was not prostrated, but on the contrary, the old Ottoman lion roused himself in his lair, and Austria and Russia, united, dared not But it was in defence of to lay their hands upon his mane. a Christian people and of public law and right that the Ottoman spirit was moved. Still, no doubt the Turks were alarmed for their fate and independence, and a project was submitted to the Porte by the then Seraskier, and brotherin-law of the Sultan, for including in the rediff, and subjecting to military instruction at their homes, the young men between eighteen and twenty-five, not drawn as conscripts, and which would have given to Turkey a disciplined force of 3,000,000, in addition to the 600,000 of mobilised, which, when completed, the Nizam will present. It is true that the plan was not accepted, but a large addition was made, especially by the incorporation of Bosnia in the standing force, and it is in consequence of the threatening attitude assumed on that occasion by these two Powers that that spirit was evoked, of which every day's post from the East brings evidence of the increasing effects. Now, let us suppose that an internecine struggle is not produced in Turkey, what are the consequences to be anticipated from the present menace? Will it not be, in the first instance, a great augmentation of the army? Will it not be a great incitation to enter into a career of military enterprise, prompted by the very apprehensions of the designs entertained against their independence, and by the consciousness of the union with Russia of the other powers of the West-in a word, will you not have unchained the lion? Are you not driving Turkey back, in the words of the Times, to "what she was four hundred years since ?" Now, it has been for a long time the habit to dwell upon the feebleness of the Turkish population in Europe. What are the facts? The Turkish Empire is Mussulman, consequently, bound up with it are the Mussulmans, to whatever race they belong. There are not more than 1,500,000 Turks in Europe. But what distinction do the Turks make between themselves and the Mussulman Albanians, Bosnians, and Bulgarians? The Slave, that is to say the population of the same race as the Muscovites, largely enter into the Mussulman ranks, and the Turkish blood flows in the veins of millions and millions of men spread between Constantinople and Vienna, who are not known under that designation. The Bulgarians, for instance, the ancient Tartars of the Volga, and the Hungarians. Join to these the 2,500,000 of Tartars in Russia, and the 10,000,000 of Cossacks and Malo-Russians, whose original affiliation is Turkish, and whose sympathies are so entirely, and you will have a Turkish mass, more or less pure, of nearly 30,000,000, and these composing the populations of Europe, which alone possess a military character and organisation. These are but the outliers of the large mass of Asia, and they have in their van Poland, more embittered against Europe than against Russia. Such is the supposed caput mortuum to which you are at present applying your galvanic shocks, quickening it into life by wrongs and perfidy. Yes, Europe may tremble. What has she to oppose to such an outburst whenever it comes ?→ nations borne down by standing armies-people who cannot trust their princes-princes who fear their subjects—a generation occupied and corrupted with political disputations, and more endangered by its own theories than any conquest. The other alternative is an internecine struggle; and, in that case, the world has no longer to apprehend a frank conquest by the Mussulman, but the damning domination of the Muscovite. Such is the choice of alternatives which you have created for yourselves-such is the argument which you have now placed in the hands of Russia, for compelling you to proceed in the fatal course upon which you have entered, knowing neither where you stood, nor whither you are led. We admit to the full the argument of the Times, but we think it was injudiciously put forward so soon; for, by revealing the game, the suggestion may be mooted, whether it be safe to play it, and whether it be not better to follow the example of Austria and to retire. What has made her retire, if even for a moment, except the perception of the consequences? She has seen that the matter could not be settled diplomatically; she has seen that diplomacy was bringing war for her ruin; she has seen that the case involved was not the mere pitting of words against words, nor actual strength against strength, but the opening of a new and terrible power in the Ottoman empire, or its destruction; she has seen Vienna again besieged either by Baskir Pulks, or by the Tartar hordes. Recent intelligence reached this country of the breaking up by Austria of the Conference. We are to-night in possession of a telegraphic despatch announcing the resumption of the Conference. There has clearly, therefore, been a moment of suspense in the mind of the Austrian Government; and when we consider of what materials that Government is composed, the dependence in which it is placed, and the course to which it has been already so fatally committed, it is impossible not to see in this moment of hesitation, evidence of a sense of alarm. The fact has, indeed, been represented as her disinclination to adopt "propositions of the two Western Powers respecting a guarantee against any interference on the part of Russia between the Porte and its subjects." But this explanation would imply an opposition of the Western Powers to Russia, consequently we must fall back upon the conclusion that Austria, for the moment, perceived more imminent ruin impending from the prosecution of the labours of the Conference, than even from the terrible revolutionary elements which Russia can at any hour let loose upon her devoted head. The anxiety of Russia to force the resumption of the labours of the Conference, may be inferred from the following passage in Count Nesselrode's despatch of the 7th of this month, and addressed to the Russian representative at Vienna, in which Austria is pointed to as the obstacle in the way "We see only one single means of putting an end to delays. It is for Austria and the Powers to declare to the Porte frankly and firmly that they, after having in vain opened up to it the only road that could lead to an immediate restoration of its relations with us, henceforth leave the task to herself alone." Up to July last, Turkey was the mildest, meekest, the most debonnaire of states; calm, resigned, patient, confiding, hospitable, courteous, not self-seeking, faithful of its engagements to other Powers, and tolerant of its dissidents at home. You have mistaken mildness for cowardice, and reliance for weakness; you have weighed upon the springs until they have acquired a terribly impulsive power; you have laid on a mighty weight-they may crack, but they may rebound! You see the effects; you are warned of the consequences; God send you timely repentance! Recollect that Turkey has, any more than Russia, no association whatever with your internal broils and factious politics; neither the one nor the other suffers from that internal gangrene that gnaws the vitals of our state, and sets every man against his brother; no dark broodings of classes; no perverting reasonings of theories, and therefore the one and the other are destined long to survive your ephemeral display of material science and physical power. Their antagonism dates from 3000 years, and things that have lasted long promise in like manner a long futurity. Such is the mighty contest to which the people of England now ventures to address itself. May it do so worthily no less than effectively. For that end it must lay aside all speculative matter, addressing itself to facts, relying on eternal principles. which every human being must acknowledge; which no circumstances can alter. Above all things let it never speak of revolution when dealing with rights; may it never confound conspirators and patriots; may it never generalise places, nor dream that there is a common cause for Poland and Italy, for Hungary and for Turkey. The Pole, or Hungarian, that identifies his cause with that of any European abstraction, is a traitor to his own land and a firebrand for others. The Englishman who fails to observe the distinction must be insane. He who fights for, or demands, justice for wrongs in a country that is oppressed-he who resists an invader, is supported by his own conscience, a just cause, and the sympathy of every just man; but he who, by perversion of intellect, or weakness of character, associates himself with schemes and theories, degrades the name of freedom, and in present circumstances will fail of success. The array and might of evil is too great to be opposed by anything less than perfect truth and perfect justice. CHARLES JAMES FOX AS A DIPLOMATIST. September 24th. In certain quarters, we perceive a tendency to sneer though an inability to reply, to our statements regarding the flimsy hoax of British Diplomacy. In one place it is said that Russia has no diplomatists equal to those of England. This is the flattering defence which no Englishman could make, but a Russian correspondent suggests. In another it is said, you refute yourself, because in the same breath you assert Diplomacy to be useless, and all-powerful. True, stupid Englishmen, we assert both, yet without contradiction, just as we should say to a thimblerig, "thimblerig is no profitable speculation," and "thimblerigging is a very profitable craft :" as thimblerigging becomes profitable to the swindler only because it is practised by the dupe, so are the profits of Russian Diplomacy made out of the English practice. We believe we have exhausted the argument, but this is a case in which argument is of no avail; things that are utterly absurd defy arguments, but things that defy argument are only endured because people are unfamiliar with them. Our task, therefore, must be to increase that familiarity by travelling backwards and forwards over the ground, selecting |