has he connected by roads, what desert coasts planted with commerce, what naked backs supplied with new products of manufacture? None! His ceaseless and entire activity has been that of war. He has hated and despised industry with a perfect hatred. He has not only remained without improvement, but he has retrograded. The arts and manufactures,― the edifices and public works,-" precious donations of former Christian generations," which he found at the conquest of the Eastern Empire, he has neglected or destroyed, the jets of trade, which from time to time have sprung up, under the attraction of foreign example or the pressure of local and domestic want,he has suppressed, and none but the most desultory, precarious, and rude species of industry have been suffered to live under his hands. His government, a fierce and unmitigated military despotism.--his religion, a fanatical and brutal fatalism, disdaining every impulse of tolerance and every weapon of propagation but the sword, he has degenerated, under a mingled tyranny and self-corruption until he has become the poorest, the least vital, and the most unpromising race in Europe. Struggling all his life to introduce a baneful superstition into the West, resisting with determined bigotry all the better influences of the West, there is surely nothing in his history or character to conciliate our good will or maintain our respect. We do not deny, that he has the virtues of a semi-barbarous people; we do not forget that his hospitality was nobly extended to the exiled Hungarians; but we cannot find in his rare and single instances of greatness, an apology for his long-protracted career of carnage and oppression. We strive to recall the good that he may have done to the world, but, in the midst of the effort, and before we are aware, images rise before us, of bloody cimeters flashing terror through the darkness of unhappy Greece, and of armed horsemen scouring the plains of Egypt like a hot wind from the desert. Turkey may have suffered wrong at the hands of Russia, and God forbid us from wishing her evil on account of her past transgressions, but do not, 'an' you love us,' do not call upon us for any special admiration of the Turks. Let them fight their own battles, if they will-but ask no Christian man to lend them a finger of help! No! the wails of Scio still ring in our ears, and the manes of Bozzaris are yet unappeased!

You will, perhaps, reply that Turks are as good as the Russians any day, as wise,

as pure, as tolerant, as industrious, and as agreeable to their fellow-men; but, we rejoin emphatically that they are not. The government of Russia is an abominable absolutism, we admit, atrociously inhuman in its principles and its effects; and the people of Russia are very much imbruted and shrivelled by the practical workings of that absolutism; yet, as a race, the Russians are alive, vigorous, hearty, progressive. Next to the Americans they are the most "go-ahead" nation on the face of the earth. They are growing faster in population, in commerce, in manufactures and art, in all the elements of civilization, despite the obstacles raised by tyranny, than any other people on the continent. While other nations are retrograding, or remain stationary, or increase only by imperceptible degrees, the Russian race discovers a vitality like that of the old Norman or AngloSaxon races. It is perpetually doing something for itself or for others; it does not rot in its hole; but it is pushing forward innumerable works of internal or selfamelioration, and for the external redemption of warlike tribes. A vast, almost chaotic mass of savages, one century since, unheard of in the politics of Europe,-contending against a niggardly soil, a rigorous climate, anarchical government and enemies on all sides,-the Muscovites have made themselves, not only a most formidable military power, but what is better, they have worked out a gigantic and growing civilization. They have built cities, founded fleets, developed agriculture, fostered manufactures, introduced the sciences, the fine arts and belleslettres, and, in short, appropriated to themselves, in large measures, whatever was good and great in the civil and social life of Europe. It is true, that they have done much of this by means of an imperious domination; that, in their march to the goal they have set themselves, they have rudely trampled on many a noble and generous, many a gentle spirit; that they have crushed to the earth the Tartars, the Poles, and the Georgians who stood in their way; that they have peopled the distant frozen zones of Siberia with the victims of their statecraft and policy, our hearts loathe them utterly for it, but our reason tells us, at the same time, that this trenchant crushing despotism is but an incident in their course-an ugly and venomous but necessary feature of their transitional development, out of Oriental wildness into European culture; and that they will themselves, sooner or later, throw it off, and then stand before

mankind as a regenerated and grand people, prepared to take part in the great work of redeeming and infusing new life into the stagnant, filthy, and debased realms of Asia and Europe.

This last suggestion, however, is aside, and we mean simply to say, that so far as the interests of other nations are concerned, of ourselves among the rest, we ought to look with favor rather upon the progress of Russia, than upon the corrupting immobility and decay of Turkey. A huge hullaballoo is raised by the unenterprising and drowsy nations of Europe, laggards and drones who are willing to see the earth revert to primitive rocks and barren sands,-about the territorial aggressions of Russia. They represent her as the very demon of devouring conquest. They point to Crim-Tartary, to Finland, to Poland, to Sweden, to Persia, to Bessarabia, to the Crimea, to the Baltic provinces, in proof of her omnivorous ambition, and they shout "Beware of the tremendous beast which is swallowing up the globe." But we Americans know something of this subject of aggression: we have been roundly abused for it the world over ourselves; and we are not easily frightened, in consequence, by the cry of wolf." We are willing that other nations should acquire as much land as they please; we are willing that they should absorb as many weak and half-formed neighbors as they please; but we will tell them that they do not make themselves any stronger thereby. They bloat themselves, they make a great show in statistics and on paper: they get a terrible name among smaller states; but in reality, they only multiply their embarrassments and sow the seeds of a speedier and more disastrous dissolution. Russia, for instance, when we reckon the number of acres, and count over the multitudes of people over which she exercises a sway, strikes us as a Colossus, a monster, horrendum, ingens, cui lumen ademptum; but when we reflect upon the utter want of homogeneity among her people-their extreme diversity of intereststheir bitter traditional animosities-the radical impossibility of holding them together when the mass once begins to crumble, we see that the alleged encroachments of Russia have been the sources of her weaknesses, while the secret of her strength, the reason why she is terrible if at all in power, is to be found in her incessant and availing efforts to build up her internal resources, to develope her industry, fertilize her fields, enrich her towns, connect her distant provinces by canals and

railroads, and secure the services of science and art. Her stupendous military organization, originated at a time when the fervor of war had eaten into all brains, has been for the most part a burden and curse, whilst the same energy which it has cost for its support, devoted to peaceful pursuits, would have lifted her to an altitude, in power as well as dignity, vastly superior to what she has yet attained. No; the Americans are not frightened by the military advances of Russia, which consternate parts of Europe; they know precisely what they are worth; yet they have a genuine respect for the vigor and persistency displayed in other directions. Their radical antipathy to Russian principles must ever prevent them from entering into any close alliances with Russia-such opposites could not work together-but, if they are forced to take sides, as between Russia and certain contemptible nations by which she is surrounded, they will not hesitate in the choice. A living lion, arbitrary and carnivorous as he might be, is much more respectable, either as a friend or an enemy, than a dying or half-putrid jackass. The earth is a much better earth. too, in the hands of an active, though a despotic ruler, than in the hands of a lazy and corrupt, and equally despotic people. Have not the Black Sea, and the Marmora, been useless for centuries in the hands of Turks-useless save as imaginary barriers to this power and that, whilst it is probable that in the hands of Russia, by whom they were first forced open, they could contribute something to the life-giving circulation of the world's commerce? Having, therefore, no great admiration or love for Russia, detesting indeed her scheme of government, let us, Americans, not be blinded by the jealousies and fears of Europe, to the true bearing and the probable issue of events. The idea that Russia could overrun and subject the whole continent is too absurd to be entertained for a moment.

There is nothing in the origin of the existing disputes, as we have seen, and nothing in the character of the chief parties to it, to extort any strong likings from us; and now let us add, that there is nothing in the objects of the Turkish allies to excite our sympathies. As the offshoot mainly of England, speaking the same language, and intimately connected by trade,and as the ancient debtor of France, for timely revolutionary assistance,—it is natural that we should be drawn into the same channel of movement with them

selves. They are our nearest neighbors, they are our largest customers, they share with us the glories of the most advanced civilization, they pretend to act in the name of humanity and religion-all ties calculated to grapple us to them with "hooks of steel." And if we could be persuaded that the people of England and France were profoundly interested in the movement, we should be irresistibly led to cast in our lot with theirs; but the present European movement is not a popular movement.

It has

grown out of no respect to popular rights; it looks to no popular emancipations; it is purely and simply a squabble of rival dynasties for power. All the combatants unite in the declaration that their object is only the status quo. They all want to bring back the condition of 1850, when the despots were universally contented. Louis Napoleon announces, in so many words, that the allies are pledged to suppress every symptom of revolt in Italy, Hungary, Spain, Greece, or Germany. Their troops are ready booted and spurred to ride to any part of the refractory continent. The infamous surveillance at Roine is still enforced-the noble leaders of Hungary are still discountenanced-the same watchful eye is kept on Spain-the slightest movings of Greece are put down-a numerous army patrols the provinces of Austria, and every breath of revolutionary agitation is allowed to cool itself in prison. Is it not then ridiculous to talk of popular feeling in connection with this war? There is an excitement about it in the newspapers, in the vicinity of dockyards, on the Bourse, along the quays where ships lie idle,-but the great mass of Englishmen and Frenchmen, if they reflect at all, can have no other feeling but one of extreme aversion to the course their leaders have pursued. They must know that their brutal passions, their false vanity, their John Bullism and their sensitiveness to "la gloire," have been inflamed, by wily conspirators, for no great national objects, but out of a dynastic jealousy of Russia, and for the sake of a wretched political swindle called "the Balance of Power." The Balance of Power? Aye, for the balance of Despotism! for the right of a few potentates to control two hundred millions of subjects; the right of a close corporation of officeholders to extinguish free speech, the press, and all association of the people for trade or any other purpose, and to

grant monopolies of trade to their favorites, and to extort luxurious fortunes by arbitrary taxes. It is for these paltry ends that France and England are banded together, but to these ends they will never attract the sympathies of the American people. Our hearts are knit to the cause of the people in Europe, and not to the cause of their oppressors.

As to Louis Napoleon, we should as soon think of joining hands with a footpad as with him, and how the British nation, so lately apprehensive of an invasion from that quarter, can put the least faith in a fellow who violated the most solemn oath before it was cold upon his lips, and imbrued his hands in the blood of his innocent countrymen, is one of the marvels of the age. And though England is our mother-country, deserving our veneration, through her literature and laws, and justly winning our affections by the manly characteristics of her hardworking people, her restless eagerness to interfere in the affairs of mankind is a trait that we ought not to admire ; which, on the contrary, we ought to rebuke on every offered occasion. An exquisite esssayist humorously describes John Bull as "a busy-minded personage, who thinks not merely for himself and family, but for all the country round. He is continually volunteering his services to settle his neighbors' affairs, and takes it in great dudgeon if they engage in any matter of consequence without asking his advice; though he seldom engages in any friendly office of the kind, without getting into a squabble with all parties, and then railing bitterly at their ingratitude. Couched in his little domain, with filaments (of finely spun rights and dignities) stretching forth in every direction, he is like some choleric bottle-bellied old spider, who has woven his web over a whole chamber, so that a fly cannot buzz nor a breeze blow, without startling his repose, and causing him to sally forth wrathfully from his den." There is as much truth as humor in this sketch of a peculiarity which Brother Jonathan, we trust, will never imitate.

Least of all, should we be misled by it at this time, when the very grounds on which the allies propose to resist Russia are grounds that could be used, with equal effect, against the United States. What is the cry against the Czar? Why are armies and fleets mustered, and prejudices aroused, and the "God of Battles"

solemnly invoked? Nicholas meditates the subversion of Turkey! That is, he would build a great maritime capital at Constantinople; he would cover the shores of the Mediterranean, now given over to devastation and the Crescent, with thriving villages and an active people; he would convert the forests of Bosnia into ships, and open new and immense marts for trading and manufacture in the provinces of the Baltic. Well; this might interfere with the access of England to her East Indian possessions, it might put a naval power on the Mediterranean capable of holding the French Navy in check,-it might increase vastly the wealth and splendor of the Muscovites,—but we do not see that the United States are especially concerned in helping England and France, in either emergency. We do see, on the other hand, that they are directly concerned in the speediest and largest development of civilization and trade, whether it be done by Mongol or Caucasian; and we do see, that the ambition of Russia, to acquire an outlet for her immense territories to the South, is a nattural ambition, while the efforts to defeat it are justified by precisely the same considerations which might be and are used to thwart our inevitable extension over Cuba and Mexico. If we suppose England and France to succeed in arresting the march of the Emperor,-which they likely will do for a time,-what is to prevent their interposition in Central America and the Antilles? The Republic here is quite as much to be dreaded, by the Balance-of-Power nations, as the Despotism yonder; it has quite as much territory,—half as many people,-far more commerce and more wealth,—an equal ambition, and more decided progressive tendencies. Is it not therefore just as dangerous and formidable to the allies as Russia? Will it not be soon considered just as necessary to snub its growing prosperity? Shall we not be taken in hand when Russia shall have been disciplined? May not the policies of the Old World be transplanted to the New? Perhaps those who are so eager to involve us in the Anglo-French alliance can answer these questions! Our answer to them would be a recommendation against any over-hasty commitments in hostility to Russia.

These solemn warnings against Russian aggression, moreover, these indignant and

objugatory denunciations of Russian encroachment, come in the worst grace from England, which, as Mr. Cobden has shown by the statistics, has, "during the last hundred years, for every square league of territory annexed to Russia, by force, violence or fraud, appropriated to herself three square leagues, and by the same reprehensible means!"* Only downright effrontery, only the most brazen arrogance and egotism, as the same authority observes, could induce one nation to bring an accusation against another nation, which recoils with threefold criminality upon itself. It is the greatest rogue of the pack crying out "Stop thief!" It is Captain Macheath assuming a virtuous repugnance towards a brother, it is Robert Macaire belaboring the shoulders of poor Jacques Strop! And what gives the hypocrisy a more magnificent coolness is the remarkable fact, that, whatever may have been the rapacity of Russia, during the last half-century, when her most unblushing enormities are alleged to have been committed, she has been, directly or indirectly sustained, in nearly all of them, by the cabinets of Great Britain. When Russia demanded the removal of the Hospodars of Wallachia and Moldavia in 1806, England despatched a fleet to the Dardanelles to menace the Sultan into compliance; when the treaty of Bucharest in 1812 ceded the mouths of the Danube to the Czar, it was England that forced the bitter pill down the throat of the Turk; during the infamous conspiracies of the sovereigns at Vienna in 1815, Lord Castlereagh was the obsequious tool of Alexander, approving the sacrifice of Poland, and the forced subjection of Norway to Sweden, and suggesting open violations of the treaty for the protection of the King of Naples, and of the treaty with Napoleon at Fontainbleau, while Alexander, less perfidous, rejected both plans as dishonorable; England joined the cause of the dynasties throughout, as we know, against that of Napoleon when Napoleon was still "the soldier of democracy;" in 1848-49, when she might have saved Hungary by a word, her connivance, tergiversation and duplicity made an easy path for the invading hosts of the Emperor, while all the more recent troubles about Turkey, could have been prevented by a determined course at the outset. With what face, then, does England raise her hands to

God, and with ejaculations of holy horror, imprecate His vengeance upon her old accomplice ? Can she suppose that the world is to be deluded by such transparent humbuggery?

Besides, the success of the allies, according to their own confessions, will be as complete a subversion of Turkey, as any conquest contemplated by the Czarfor when pressed by the objection that they are going to war for the Crescent and against the Cross, they announce it as one of their chief ends, to meliorate the condition of the Christian subjects of the Porte. But how can they meliorate the condition of these Christians, except by placing them upon a level with the Mussulmans? Must they not establish both religions on a footing of equal privileges and rights? Must they not separate Church and State, or in other words, take the control of ecclesiastical affairs out of the hands of the Sultan and his politicians, and give it into the hands of each independent denomination? Yet, if they do this, and nothing short of this can be satisfactory, they will revolutionize radically the entire nation! Turkey would not be Turkey-would not be a Mohammedan State, unless the Koran remained the supreme law, and unless the Sultan continued the irresponsible head of both Church and State. Destroy the supremacy of the Koran, substitute a just and equal civil code for the arbitrary rule of the Sultan, and you inflict the coup de grace upon the Ottoman Empire. Whether, then, it is better for Russia, or for England and France to apply this finishing stroke, is not a subject about which Americans need cherish any intense solicitude. As impartial onlookers, however, they will probably observe, that the Greek Catholics themselves are more likely to prefer receiving favors from the Russians, who are of the same religion, than from France, which is Romanist, or England, which is Protestant.

We conclude, then, from every view of the case, that the duty of this country is to maintain a strict neutrality-a strict, but not a negative one; because, keep aloof as we may from active participation, we shall yet be indirectly drawn into some controversy by our widely extended commerce. It is impossible for Europe to go to war, without sending a shiver of it to the ends of the earth, or in other words, without raising questions of international law, for the civilized world to settle. During the extraordinary foray of Napoleon, as we all remember, and the counter motions of his adversaries, remote VOL. III.-33

America was speedily sucked into the vortex of agitation. Her rights as a neutral were invaded, on all sides, compelling her to protest and menace with a perpetual vigilance, and ever-renewed vigor. It was then, too, that she asserted for herself and for all nations, great principles of justice, which she cannot now desert. Proclaiming the freedom of the seas, the inviolability of flags, against the enormous and haughty pretensions of belligerents, at a time when her navy was little more than a cipher, and her government just begun, she cannot abandon the stand, when her fleets have become famous and her government a power. Her own vital interests, as well as the interests of civilization and humanity, and the progress of that melioration which is gradually working out a more Christian system of international relations, demand no less than this at her hands. Let the trespasser beware! Privateering, that wholesale species of freebooting, she will not sanction, even in cases where treaty stipulations have not provided against it; nor will she, on the other hand, suffer her commerce to be run down and harried by those pretended "rights of search" and those "paper-blockades" which find their only warrant in an old and inhuman code, drawn from the usages of the most barbarous times! It is allowable for belligerents to molest each other as much as they please, for they are the judges of their own duties in that respect; but they must not be permitted to inflict wide, useless, lasting, often irreparable evils upon their innocent neighbors. No divine nor human law justifies them in making mankind parties to their quarrels; and, if we understand the temper of the people of the United States, they will rebuke with prompt and telling resentment, every attempt to revive, at their expense, the odious "continental system," as it was called; when mere spurts of the imperial pen transfixed the navigation of the world with paralysis-and retaliating "orders in council," banished even Neptune from his ocean. The day for such brutal interference is past. It was a system, whose audacity was only equalled by its cruelty, which converted the politicians of France and England into so many Popes dealing excommunications and interdicts around the earth, and causing nations every where to tremble at their frowns. Let them tremble no more,-let the charter for such excesses be blotted from the books, or if they should be resorted to again, let the young Republic, which thus far in its intercourse with nations has set an exam