ENEMY Turkey, is extremely dangerous for Russia, and she ought not to submit to it an instant longer. Russia ought to take possession of these passages, these are to her of vital importance. These passages constitute the sole issue for the products of the Southern provinces, they are the great gates of the commerce of the Mediterranean and of the outer world The closing of the Bosphorus kills Russian commerce. If Russia takes possession of these passages, she will menace no one. The reason of this has been discussed by Mr. Cobden in his pamphlet published in 1836, passing in review the whole question of Russia's relations with the other European Powers and saying that, if she occupied the geographic position to which she has such just rights, her military force would not be augmented thereby. SHE MUST POSSESS CONSTANTINOPLE."*

Russia does not possess Constantinople. It is only because she is too weak to take possession of it.

II.

POSITION OF THE EUROPEAN POWERS IN RESPECT TO TURKEY.

If Russia dared and could make a descent upon Constantinople and take possession of it, without a quarrel or a declaration of war, we are convinced that Europe would submit to it. It is true that no one of the Powers of Europe has at every moment of time assisted Russia, but it is equally true that since 1806 when England resumed her war with France because she wanted to force France to allow Russia to possess the Danubian Principalities, not one of them has really supported Turkey or has given her any advice except to yield to Russia. We will take only the four occasions to which we have already referred.

1. At Navarino England and France joined Russia. Austria held aloof but did not actively resist them.

When Russia and Austria demanded the surrender of the Hungarian refugees, England, then under Lord PALMERSTON, not only gave Turkey no support, but, by a fraudulent naval demonstration after the refusal of the Sultan, prevented Europe and England from seeing that he had stood entirely alone.

In 1853 the Russians would not have dared to cross the Pruth had not England been ready to persuade Turkey not to consider this invasion as a casus belli. When the Sultan had declared war, and the Turks had driven the Russians out of the Principalities, the Austrians allowed themselves to be persuaded to enter them, and the English and French, after having prepared the Massacre of Sinope, and forbidden the Turks (who were at war) to attack Russia on the Coast of the Black Sea, entered Turkey, held down the Turks, betrayed Kars to the Russians, and occupied themselves with the useless operations at Sebastopol till Turkey was ready to grant nearly all that the Allies had demanded in favour of Russia, but under the pretex of being friends of Turkey. Even then the Sultan ABDUL MEDJID refused to give up to the Christian Powers the Government of his own subjects, and the Treaty of Paris, which bound him down in so many particulars, failed to do so in this. With all this help from the Western Powers Russia was not able to reach Constantinople. But if the Western Powers had not been allowed to interfere, Turkey would have stopped all navigation of Russian vessels through the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, and then the Emperor NICHOLAS would have again had to exclaim, but this time in despair, "Our Commerce is annihilated." But the English and French forbade, throughout the war, the seizure of Russian property and produce in neutral vessels, and carried on their trade with Russia, so that they were really at peace with her. At the peace the English Plenipoten

Russia and the Treaty of 1856 by De H. Berlin, 1870. Mittler and Son, 69, Kirchstrasse, quoted by Ali Suavi in his, "A propos de l'Herzegovine," page 589.

tiaries, though without the sanction of our QUEEN, signed the Declaration of Paris, which, so long as it is observed, must prostrate the Maritime before the Military Powers. France has already paid the penalty in a disastrous war, and the loss of two of her provinces. England's time must come, unless she have the sense to announce to the world that, the Declaration of Paris being illegal in itself and utterly destitute even of the formalities of a Treaty, she will for the future hold it to be null and void.

All this time, from 1831 to 1875, though France and Austria have been dismembered, Turkey, with all Europe against her, has not lost territory. We need not recite the particulars of the calling to account of Greece. It was the first time that the Porte has shown any sense of the power which she has of humbling her Enemy, without any military operation, by the mere operation of the state of war. But Russia, as we have shown, is fully aware of this power which belongs to the possession of Constantinople. Tremblingly alive to the danger for herself if the Porte should employ against her this economic warfare, she informed Greece that she was not in a position to give her aid if she went to war.

This portion of the subject would not be complete if we did not refer to the Austrian Circular of 1867, which proposed that the stipulation which the Sultan ABDUL MEDJID refused to insert in the Treaty of Paris, namely, the protection by the Powers of his Christian subjects, should be consigned in a protocol to be agreed on at a Conference at which the Porte should not be represented, and that the aid of the Powers should then be offered to the Sultan to enforce these stipulations against his Mussulman subjects. But Austria was then in the hands of Count BEUST. He is now at any rate no longer the master of Austria.

During the Candian Insurrection as well as during the present one, excited in the Herzegovina, Lord DERBY was the Foreign Minister in England. He did not join in the Collective Note respecting Candia. He is not disposed to join in a collective note now. On the other hand, he has advised Your Majesty to overlook the violation of the Treaty of Paris by Russia, Prussia, and Austria in their attempt to make Conventions with the Danubian Principalities; Conventions which, even if within the competency of the Principalities, are not within that of their Hospodar, who reigns at Bucharest in spite of the Treaty by a firman from Your Majesty which forbids him to make conventions with foreign States. Besides, again, if these Conventions could be made with other States, they are specially forbidden to those Powers who have signed the Treaty of Paris. Article IX. of that Treaty, after recording the granting of the firman by the late Sultan, concludes as follows:

"The Contracting Powers recognise the high value of this communication. It is clearly understood that it cannot, in any case, give to the said Powers the right to interfere, either collectively or separately, in the relations of His Majesty the Sultan with his subjects, nor in the internal administration of his Empire."

The insurrection in the Herzegovina is, like the insurrection in Dalmatia in 1869, supported from without. When the Emperor of AUSTRIA personally asked Your Majesty to restrain the Montenegrins, who were then doing against Austria what they are now doing against Turkey, Your Majesty's consent put a sudden end to the insurrection.

Having within our reach the secret Russian despatches which were found during the Polish Insurrection of 1830, we have referred to one by Count Pozzo DI BORGO, in which he reviews the position of all the Powers of Europe with reference to Russia. One passage which it contains is so significant in reference to the manner in which Russia uses the other

European Powers against Turkey, besides being a special warning to Austria, that we venture to place it under the eyes of Your Majesty.

"Not being disposed to precipitate himself into this sea of incalculable events, Prince METTERNICH Will, I am convinced, desire to reunite himself to a system which he will not be able to combat. He will either declare to the Turks that they ought to listen to the propositions for an arrangement, and he will present our entry into the two Principalities as a resolution which they themselves have provoked, or he will throw himself upon such other Provinces of the Ottoman Empire as he chooses. In the first contingency we shall be united, in the second we shall become so. The only chance, therefore, which we would have to fear, would be an open declaration against us.'

Your Imperial Majesty has in these words the power to convince the Emperor of AUSTRIA that in not imitating Your Majesty's loyal conduct towards him in 1869; but, on the contrary, in allowing his servants actively to aid the insurrection in the Herzegovina under the pretence of humanity by feeding the fugitives, and in not restraining his own subjects as Your Majesty did then restrain the Montenegrins, he is signing the death warrant of his own Empire: that Empire which lacks all that forms the strength of the Empire over which Your Majesty rules; having no one predominating and homogeneous race capable of holding the others in respect, no centre of power, no means of control over the destinies of Russia, such as is possessed by Your Majesty.

For the defence of the Ottoman Empire Your Majesty requires only to act as before without consulting the European Powers. The Treaty of Paris has been violated by Russia for twenty years, and is now disowned by her. No State but Turkey regards it as anything but waste paper, its provisions are never appealed to except when they are against her.

Your Majesty is no longer bound by it, and you have only to say so to the world. Your Majesty's vassal at Bucharest must be reduced to obedience or dismissed. Russia will not thereupon cross the Pruth. If she did, the Porte should rejoice at it, for Turkey cannot be invaded from the Pruth, and the act would create that state of war which is enough to annihilate the commerce and menace the existence of Russia. But in doing this Your Majesty would have to denounce the illegal and fraudulent Declaration of Paris which forbids the attack on an enemy's trade. Thus will Your Majesty return good for evil, and save England from the destruction which awaits her if ever she should be engaged in a war under the Declaration of Paris.

III.

RESULTS OF HAVING BORROWED MONEY FROM FOREIGNERS.

Of all the operations that have been attempted against the Ottoman Empire the most successful is that which has burdened her with a national debt. This is an imitation of Europe, in which Europe, after all, is not imitated. We do not here in England borrow money from foreigners but from our own countrymen, so that if we were bankrupt no foreign State would acquire a hold over us.

We desire to express to Your Imperial Majesty, the great concern with which we have beheld Turkey borrowing money and increasing her debt from year to year. None but the enemies of Your Majesty's Empire and people could have advised Your Majesty's Government to enter upon such a course. When attacked by Russia in 1853, and when the European Powers meddled in the matter, calling themselves the friends of Turkey, but being really the friends of her enemy, Turkey could boast that she was without a debt; and she was the only Power that could do so.

Her Enemy had once tried to impose a debt on her and had not succeeded.

E

We refer to the Indemnity imposed upon Turkey by the Treaty of Adrianople, on which occasion we are aware that the Ministers of the Sultan refused to accept money as a loan from English capitalists, declaring it to be contrary to the Mussulman religion to put a debt upon their posterity. Instead of doing so the Mussulmans taxed themselves and paid the Indemnity.

We are also aware that Russian statesmen in secret despatches among themselves (which despatches were afterwards brought to light) expressed a belief that because of that money owing to Russia, the Ottoman Empire would come at length under the dominion of Russia; for that it never would be paid off.

Your Majesty's illustrious brother and predecessor did not agree with his Ministers as we are informed, when they first thought of borrowing money in the European market, but expressed his great satisfaction when the first attempt to do so failed.

With the knowledge of these circumstances in our minds, and moved by a strong conviction that the Ottoman Empire is more endangered by the debt which it has incurred to foreigners than by any other circumstance, and can only acquire strength and be in a position of safety by freeing itself from that debt, we venture earnestly to implore Your Majesty to give such orders to your servants as may be necessary to that end. We can assure Your Majesty that nothing would so effectually put a stop to the plots that are now being formed against Your Majesty's Empire, encouraged by the belief that it cannot endure, as the determination expressed and begun to be executed, of paying off the principal of the debt.

With this belief it is with great joy that we see what are the steps taken by the Bondholders in England which was submitted to one of our bodies, in the first instance, and by it unanimously approved of.

This proposal will be submitted to Your Majesty's Governmeut by Mr. BUTLER JOHNSTONE, who has consented to be the bearer of this our humble address to Your Majesty; charged by the Bondholders for that purpose, together with the gentleman, Mr. HAMOND, who originated the proposal.

Your Majesty cannot fail to see in the cffer voluntarily to relinquish such a large part of the nominal amount on which the Bondholders have hitherto heen receiving interest, a strong proof of the interest which the English people take in the welfare of the Ottoman Empire, and as such it will be understood throughout Europe.

We have, indeed, had on former occasions as well as now, to speak with sorrow and shame of the conduct of England towards that Empire. But it has been the Government of England only, and not either the Sovereign or the people who have desired to injure Turkey, and even in the Government ouly some members acted with conscious bad faith.

Finally we beseech Your Majesty to restore your Empire to happiness and prosperity by following those maxims of the Koran which, while they protect the Christian rayah, do not permit the abuses and follies of Europe, but which enjoin liberty of commerce and simplicity of taxation. And we further entreat that Your Majesty will declare yourself liberated from all the obligations which have been fraudulently imposed on Turkey by a compact which has never been observed when in her favour, the so-called Treaty of Paris.

We have the honour be, Sire,

Your Majesty's most obedient and very humble servants,
The Foreign Affairs Committees of England.

(The signatures follow from eighteen Committees.)

The Ponsonby Correspondence.

(CONTINUED FROM VOL. XXIII., PAGE 245 )

I HAD imagined the slight sketch I had given of my intercourse with WILLIAM IV. under the title of "Reminiscences" to have been sufficient. But I yield to the representations and entreaties I have received to extend those reminiscences and perhaps also to carry events down to the reign of his successor, as also to record my intercourse with MAHMOUD II. and his two successors, with the principal events of whose reign I have had to do, and of which I alone can give the key.

This seems much to say, and yet no less can be said by one who has anything to say. The universality of error in respect to all public transactions is the only inducement which I can have for writing; it is also the point of departure for all useful study, as it is also the reason why no man desires to know, and therefore will not study.

I have shown and proved by documentary evidence in reference to the four wars of the Revolution against France, that the English Government was itself in ignorance respecting those wars until it was involved; having been on two of those occasions committed by the uninstructed act of its representative, and having on the two others been committed by decisions taken without its knowledge by Foreign Powers. I have thence concluded that the Foreign Office contained

no archives.

It is a lamentable but inevitable consequence that false archives do exist; since, acting in matters where no prior decision had been taken, and entertaining and expressing opinions in reference to what is done, the existing knowledge becomes false knowledge, to the total obscuration of true knowledge, and thus, the sources of history being falsified, every conclusion is in error and every act a mistake.

In the mean time, however, I have an explanation to offer in reference to the publication of the letters of Lord PONSONBY and others. The statement made in the Greville Memoirs put me again upon my trial in regard to matters respecting which I had been held to be at the time judged, condemned, and punished.

To reopen them was nothing less than a judicial proceeding, at least in so far as the presentation of testimony on my part went. I therefore at once determined to make the selection of a friend, on whose knowledge and judgment I could rely, to undertake the task of editing that Correspondence which I myself had not seen since the only time and occasion when it had been referred to, i. e. 1848, in preparation for the speech of Mr. ANSTEY. The only conditions which I placed to guide the editor was that the Correspondence, if judged available for the end, should be published in extenso without the exception of a single line, except in so far as related to the names of individuals still alive, and to whom such mention might be disagreeable. That Correspondence has therefore gone out of my hands, and with its further course I have nothing to do; so that it may be extended to persons, times, and events, far beyond the limits of the original design.

D. U.