the two countries, we can render him services, offering a compensation far more solid and flattering to his dignity than the value of all he would yield.

Our sole complaint against Achmet Pacha is in his character of a high officer of the Porte-that he is defended as the protegé of a foreign power. We might be inclined to show the more lenity towards him, out of regard for the personal feelings of the Sultan, of whom he has long been a favourite, and is by many considered a devoted servant, according to his own sincere opinions. The exercise of this courtesy is now restrained by its liability to be held up as a tardy and reluctant concession, wrung from our Cabinet, at the instance of Russia. The Ministry may despise such intrigues, and trust to the real dignity of the country. But the use which Russia can make of her familiar weapons is not a matter of such indifference, nor the impression which would be produced on the public mind, by any circumstances tending to weaken the high consideration enjoyed by our Ambassador, and render his position untenable.

The prestige of power is power itself-above all

in Eastern countries; once destroyed, it can only be restored by the display of physical means in action. The eyes of Europe are upon us, and the agents of Russia ready to avail themselves with haste and exultation of the slightest advantage presented to them in the course which our Government may pursue. Her constant game is to intimidate and usurp, when others are likely to be content with looking on. Resolutely met and resisted, she is never ashamed to recede. Witness her recent abandonment of the toll on the Danube, and her quarantine regulations in jeopardy, by which she had the effrontery to appropriate to herself illegally the sovereign control over the navigation of that river. Should her sinister counsels prevail over the Sultan to induce him to reject our terms-for matters must surely come to an open and determinate issue-it may, perhaps, be the result most to be desired. Any recourse to the violent employment of force as an alter. native would, I think, be a groundless apprehension. We should only have to overcome the resistance of a court party flattered and encouraged by Russia, but whose aid it cannot invoke to enter into a contest with England, against the

universal sentiments of the people. And would Russia, uncalled, venture to violate the Ottoman territory, in presence of a British force, ready to back that people in their defence, and by whom it would be welcomed as sent, not to impose, but to deliver the country and Sovereign from a foreign yoke? Our triumph in every way entails only the trouble of exchanging our protection for that of Russia, to work out the effectual regeneration of Turkey under our fostering auspices.

The opportunity may be allowed to pass without achieving such a splendid consummation of our utmost aims. The attitude and conflicting views of other Powers may deter us from the attempt; the prevention of foreign collision by every expedient may be regarded as the perfection of our policy, the ne plus ultra of ability in our external relations. Party schisms and factions may continue to engross the attention of our rulers, impede their action, and paralyze the energies of the country, in regard to our station and interests abroad. There is a point, however, at which war is inevitable, or peace impossible, without degradation and irreparable loss; and to which the affairs of Turkey, abandoned to herself a few years more,

must infallibly lead. When will the maxim, so fatal to nations as in private life, be thrown aside, that we are always in time?

Turkey possesses life, adhesiveness, and resources, but not immutability. She is struggling, not with decay and anarchy, but with a renovated flow in her veins, against evils originating from without. She is cheered on in her task by England, without any certainty of final repose, or of rising to independence through her exertions. The master of Egypt and Syria, formidable by our errors, drains, plunders, and depopulates these unhappy countries, to do the work of the common foe. While extensive salutary reforms open to the rest of the empire prospects of order and increased security of property, the exigencies of the day lead to impolitic and vexatious taxes. The evil genius of Russia thwarts every development of the products of the soil, which interferes with her own. Abuses are tolerated which the Sultan can scarcely venture to probe, so long as he knows not in what quarter to look for support. Germs of discontent are perpetuated between him and the people, from the absence of all grounds of confidence in the ultimate destinies of the country, or

consolation for past disgraces. The military conscription for the regular army, which falls exclusively on the Mussulman youth, presses heavily, amidst other burdens, on many provinces of Asia Minor. Disappointed, as Turkey has been, in every instance when her hopes of assistance were wound to the highest pitch; bound down to keep the peace against a rebel within her bosom; unable alone to escape from her difficulties; exposed to the demoralizing action of Russia on her administration and her raya subjects, and the Government urged to greater efforts to concentrate all its strength, exhaustion must follow the protracted struggle. The remedy lies in one word-SECURITY. Grant Turkey this, and her afflictions cease. There are weeds to be eradicated-but no institutions are subverted which require to be replanted. No parties, no classes, or privileged interests, stand in the way of the general good.

The subjects may combine and successfully resist the errors or abuses of power; they cannot control the march of the Government in the career of amelioration. Strangers to European forms of liberty, or the jealousies of their rulers, no abstract theories of rights distract the population into fac