The Press.
London, England, 1858-05-29 00:00:00

THE PRESS, MAY 29, 1858.

pression of the Russian protectorate has been to
render the power of their Mussulman governors
more absolute. As a necessary result, Russia is
rapidly recovering that position in the eyes of the
Oriental Christians which she occupied before
the war. They regard her as their staunchest
and sincerest protectress against the Turks.
They desired nothing better than to obtain
patrons who they believed would be at once more
powerful and more disinterested than the Rus-
sians, and they accordingly hailed with eager
gratitude the promises that were made to them
by the Allies. But now that they find that these
promises are vain—that the war which was
undertaken to check the ambition of Russia has
merely ended in rendering Turkey more powerful
to oppress them—they are returning to their old
belief, that, as Turkey is their nearest and most
serious danger, so Russia is their nearest and
most reliable defence.

The Cabinet of St. Petersburg is naturally dis-
posed to encourage and profit by this feeling. A
dignitary of the Austrian Church, Mgr. MisuN,
who travelled through these provinces during
the last year, thus sums up his observations on
the subject :
It is a great delusion to imagine that Russia
has lost her influence in the East in consequence
of the late war. Her armies merely took the road
to Constantinople too soon and too suddenly, and
were repulsed by a coalition which until then no
one had deemed possible. But Russia will never
desist from her pretensions upon the East. Re-
ligion is the instrument of her ambition, and she
uses it skilfully—holding herself out as the pro-
tectress of the Cross against the Crescent
The Greek Christians, scattered in small numbers
over this vast empire, accustomed during centu-
ries to regard the Turks as their oppressors, see-
ing real aid arrive from no other quarter, are
naturally disposed to lend a ready ear to those
emissaries, laden with gifts and promises, who
point out to them the Czar as the avenger of all
their wrongs, and bid them rely in all things on
Holy Russia."

Such is, unquestionably, the general policy of
the Cabinet of St. Petersburg in reference to
Turkish affairs. Let us now see what has been
its course in respect to the late insurrections. It
has issued a circular despatch, ascribing the dis-
turbances in Bosnia and Herzegovina to the
non-fulfilment of the provisions of the Hatti-
Humayoun, and demanding that the question of
the condition of the Christian subjects of the Porte
shall be brought before a European Conference.
So far we entirely agree with the Russian Minis-
ters ; but when they go on to protest against an
isolated intervention of Austria in the matter, and
to suggest that, in consideration of the analogy
of religion, an intervention of Russia would be
better justified, our suspicions are aroused. The
settlement of this question—so necessary to the
regeneration of the Ottoman empire, so impor-
tant to the progress of civilization in Europe—
must be left neither to Russia nor to Austria. It
is the duty as well as the interest of the Western
Powers who signed the Treaty of Paris, to fulfil
the obligations into which they entered, and to
pursue, in spite of all difficulties, the gradual but
decisive amelioration of the miserable position in
which these Christian populations of the East
have hitherto been placed. Unless they will do
this, they must be content to sacrifice all the
dear-bought results of the Crimean campaign,
and to prepare for another Russian war at no
distant period.